Hey. I'm a new member and a freshman in college. GO GATORS! With gyms scattered across campus I'm hoping to build some muscles. Luckily I'm not overweight so I imagine there isn't a lot of fat I need to break through. The problem is I'm not athletic or physical in that sense. I'm a scrawny guy with no muscles. I want to build abs , pecs, and my arms . I just don't know where to start or how much to do each workout and how often to workout, or what to eat. I NEED HELP! Any tips or a sort of workout plan would be great. But I must stress that I'm scrawny so start as the low level thnx a lot guys.
Getting Fit (Abs, Pecs and Arms)
- Thread starter geneg
- Start date
Here's a good start for initial conditioning (Hugo Rivera gave this one to me after I was out of the game for awhile):
"Set up a 3 day a week routine that alternates between days 1 & 2. For example:
Day 1: chest/back/bis/tris
Day 2: delts/thighs/hams/calves
Week 1
Mon-day 1
Wed-day 2
Fri-day 1
Week 2
Mon-day 2
Wed-day 1
Fri-day 2
Just pick a couple of exercises per body part and do 2 sets of each for 13-15 reps. Concentrate on feeling the movement and stopping perhaps 2-3 reps away from failure. This will help your body get conditioned again without over taxing it. If you only rest 1 minute in between sets, the routine will be finished pretty quickly thus allowing time for core work and such."
You may want to start with just one set for your 1st week or two, then go to 2 sets. Once conditioned, 3 sets of 8-to-12 reps is common for most upper-body exercises, & higher reps are often used with abdominal & lower-body exercises. After awhile many trainers will add more sets or use various pumping methods for even more work (as their bodies adjust to increasing work loads)... this conditioning program is good when comming back from a long &/or severe sickness (start easy & work up from there).
Hope this helps... & remember that you benefit from having a back which is tighter/stronger than your chest, so counter chest-work with plenty of antagonistic back-work & rear-delt work as well.
Have Fun
P.S.: Mr Rivera & many others feel that some muscles don't need any direct focus, such as traps, forearms & hips (outer & inner thighs); if using free-weights mostly or exclusively, then forearms usually get a good workout; traps are often called into play if & when you do upright delt exercises which bring the elbows over shoulder-level & are called in for support on dead-lifts; glutes are worked with dead-lifts as well; varing one's stance-width will affect inner & outer thighs... BUT, if using mostly machines, then some of these "auxillary muscles" may require more direct attention/focus to bring them up to speed (yet even when using free weights it doesn't hurt to tinker with auxillary exercises when time & energy allow... also they may be good for rehab purposes when making a come-back from an injury)
"Set up a 3 day a week routine that alternates between days 1 & 2. For example:
Day 1: chest/back/bis/tris
Day 2: delts/thighs/hams/calves
Week 1
Mon-day 1
Wed-day 2
Fri-day 1
Week 2
Mon-day 2
Wed-day 1
Fri-day 2
Just pick a couple of exercises per body part and do 2 sets of each for 13-15 reps. Concentrate on feeling the movement and stopping perhaps 2-3 reps away from failure. This will help your body get conditioned again without over taxing it. If you only rest 1 minute in between sets, the routine will be finished pretty quickly thus allowing time for core work and such."
You may want to start with just one set for your 1st week or two, then go to 2 sets. Once conditioned, 3 sets of 8-to-12 reps is common for most upper-body exercises, & higher reps are often used with abdominal & lower-body exercises. After awhile many trainers will add more sets or use various pumping methods for even more work (as their bodies adjust to increasing work loads)... this conditioning program is good when comming back from a long &/or severe sickness (start easy & work up from there).
Hope this helps... & remember that you benefit from having a back which is tighter/stronger than your chest, so counter chest-work with plenty of antagonistic back-work & rear-delt work as well.
Have Fun
P.S.: Mr Rivera & many others feel that some muscles don't need any direct focus, such as traps, forearms & hips (outer & inner thighs); if using free-weights mostly or exclusively, then forearms usually get a good workout; traps are often called into play if & when you do upright delt exercises which bring the elbows over shoulder-level & are called in for support on dead-lifts; glutes are worked with dead-lifts as well; varing one's stance-width will affect inner & outer thighs... BUT, if using mostly machines, then some of these "auxillary muscles" may require more direct attention/focus to bring them up to speed (yet even when using free weights it doesn't hurt to tinker with auxillary exercises when time & energy allow... also they may be good for rehab purposes when making a come-back from an injury)
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In general I think the split you suggest is mediocre and typical of the programs recommended in Muscle and Fiction, but you are partly right with this statement. Not comletely though. It's not a simple matter of doing as much pulling as you are pushing.
Make sure that the lower traps get worked (major scap stabalizers, and easy to miss doing rowing motions unless you squeeze down and back with a completely neutral spine), and the serratus anterior (spap push-ups, push-ups plus, side to side pushups). Bench press (and variations) require a contracted rhomboid and retracted shoulder blade, same as low row. Says Hartman and Robertson:
So who is Mr. Rivera?
jpfitness,
Interesting... you've got my attention indeed...
The rehab doc at the VA told me to exercise my Rhombs & Rear-Delts well (more-so than my Pecs) because my Pecs were pulling on my shoulders so that they easily popped out-of-joint. Note that it wouldn't be the 1st time that a VA doc was less-than-complete with a perscription (although they're much better with diagnostics).
Rhombs retract during Bench-Press & contract during Row... & I think you just told me that the shoulder-blades go downward on both & therefore shrugs done up, then back, then down are needed to counterbalance this...
OR AM I OFF-BASE/CONFUSED/STILL-IGNORANT?
Also, I'm not familiar with the names "spap push-ups & push-ups plus" -- please enlighten me.
Having developed muscle-imballances from past activities I'm interested in correcting them rather than adding more of them (or adding to those already existing).
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I'm sure Mr. Hugo Rivera can easily be searched via the internet... he's a body-builder associated with Dave Draper: both are "volume-trainers" & Mr Rivera is into periodization...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mr Rivera's advice to me was due to his knowing that I'm a disabled vet who was getting over a somewhat-severe/long-lasting cold & that I needed something easy to get me back into the swing of things.
I've not done too much planned split-training in my life, but I'm interested in seeing various approaches & their explanations as I'm finding I'm not fit enough anymore (at this point) for long full-body routines & short routines tend to ignore areas that I could use help in (including injured areas such as hips, glutes, delts, neck, nerve-damaged left side, etc., etc., etc. -- I've got nagging injuries from head to toe)... rehab has been slow with some progress & some set-backs on-&-off over the years.
I'll entertain different ideas.
Sincerely,
Marooned (Trying to Improve) Mike
P.S.: I just read another post of yours & I want to be certain that I understand it: are you saying that rather than splitting a routine over two or more days by body-parts (Weider-like), that doing an entire full-body routine -- but in small increments throughout a training-day -- is more desireable?
Interesting... you've got my attention indeed...
The rehab doc at the VA told me to exercise my Rhombs & Rear-Delts well (more-so than my Pecs) because my Pecs were pulling on my shoulders so that they easily popped out-of-joint. Note that it wouldn't be the 1st time that a VA doc was less-than-complete with a perscription (although they're much better with diagnostics).
Rhombs retract during Bench-Press & contract during Row... & I think you just told me that the shoulder-blades go downward on both & therefore shrugs done up, then back, then down are needed to counterbalance this...
OR AM I OFF-BASE/CONFUSED/STILL-IGNORANT?
Also, I'm not familiar with the names "spap push-ups & push-ups plus" -- please enlighten me.
Having developed muscle-imballances from past activities I'm interested in correcting them rather than adding more of them (or adding to those already existing).
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I'm sure Mr. Hugo Rivera can easily be searched via the internet... he's a body-builder associated with Dave Draper: both are "volume-trainers" & Mr Rivera is into periodization...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mr Rivera's advice to me was due to his knowing that I'm a disabled vet who was getting over a somewhat-severe/long-lasting cold & that I needed something easy to get me back into the swing of things.
I've not done too much planned split-training in my life, but I'm interested in seeing various approaches & their explanations as I'm finding I'm not fit enough anymore (at this point) for long full-body routines & short routines tend to ignore areas that I could use help in (including injured areas such as hips, glutes, delts, neck, nerve-damaged left side, etc., etc., etc. -- I've got nagging injuries from head to toe)... rehab has been slow with some progress & some set-backs on-&-off over the years.
I'll entertain different ideas.
Sincerely,
Marooned (Trying to Improve) Mike
P.S.: I just read another post of yours & I want to be certain that I understand it: are you saying that rather than splitting a routine over two or more days by body-parts (Weider-like), that doing an entire full-body routine -- but in small increments throughout a training-day -- is more desireable?
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Testosterone Nation - Push-Ups, Face Pulls, and Shrugs
That is a very good article, its not just about the back muscles vs the chest muscles that makes imbalances.
That is a very good article, its not just about the back muscles vs the chest muscles that makes imbalances.
Geneg,
looks like you're getting pretty much the same advice! If you've never worked out, and it sounds like you haven't, don't try to work out just certain body parts. Go for a whole body workout (split out amongst days, because it just seems impossible, to me at least, to get in a great full body workout in one session). I would stick to "big movements", i.e. flat bench press, squats, deadlifts, straight bar bicep curls, etc. Do a little research here and on the web, because one of the absolute facts about lifting is "what works great for him, may not work so great for you."
Make your workouts part of your day. They can't be missed. If it's miss the workout or miss a favorite TV show or be late with the lady, then it's do the workout and let the others slide. Seriously, once you get into a phase of working out regularly, you will not want to miss one.
Good luck man!
looks like you're getting pretty much the same advice! If you've never worked out, and it sounds like you haven't, don't try to work out just certain body parts. Go for a whole body workout (split out amongst days, because it just seems impossible, to me at least, to get in a great full body workout in one session). I would stick to "big movements", i.e. flat bench press, squats, deadlifts, straight bar bicep curls, etc. Do a little research here and on the web, because one of the absolute facts about lifting is "what works great for him, may not work so great for you."
Make your workouts part of your day. They can't be missed. If it's miss the workout or miss a favorite TV show or be late with the lady, then it's do the workout and let the others slide. Seriously, once you get into a phase of working out regularly, you will not want to miss one.
Good luck man!