help with a plan

[tmonell80]

I hope this is in the right place as I'm new here. I've been reading all the stickies but there is so much information it's a bit overwhelming. So bear with me and if you can help offer any advice that would be great.

I'm not a big guy. I'm 27 years old and 5'7 and have a very high metabolism. It is very difficult to keep any weight on. I average between 130-150 tops usually. I did weight train once before and got up to 160 but I couldn't maintain it. What I want is just to gain a few pounds of muscle and look more defined. Not totally worried about how strong I am, mostly just want to improve appearance. I don't want to be a huge bodybuilder or anything. Just look better to improve my own confidence and self esteem.

Currently I have a crossbow (or weider max). I know most endorse free weights and I'm willing to go that route also but I've never been a member of a gym so I don't know what to expect. I don't have a work out buddy to spot me. Do gyms typically have staff to do that? I thought maybe I could start off with the crossbow just to get things rolling and then move over to a gym when I felt a little more confident.

I need help determining how I should be working out. What I should be eating with my high metabolism. Should I take any weight gainer type products or some sort of supplement? Are there specific vitamins I should try? I'd like to keep the budget low if I could. So cheap is good.

I know it's a lot of questions. I have determined from what I've read that I should do some sort of full body routine no longer than an hour something like mon/wed/fri and eat a smallish meal every 2-3 hours. I've been eating a whole can of beans for my meal currently, is that enough? But I don't really have a set routine that I've been doing. Should I just drink water or something with protein like milk? Should I worry about carbs or fat? Sorry, more questions.

Well I'll leave it at that for now and continue my research. I hope someone will be willing to help out.

Thanks,
-Tim

 

[evan]

Free weights will give you better results, but its not like the crossbow would not give you any results. However, you would want to move on to free weights as they will develop stabilizing muscles and will help to develop a solid body that is less injury prone.

If you join a gym, the staff should help you out and give you a spot when you need one. I typically use dumbbells for the very reason that I hate asking for a spot.

As a tall skinny guy with what most people call a high metabolism, I've come to believe that as long as you eat enough, you'll put on weight. I grew up hearing that I have a high metabolism and can't gain weight. But, once I started lifting routinely and eating enough, I gained weight right away. The only supplement I really find necessary is whey protein. So, as long as you eat enough of a proper diet, you'll gain weight. As far as I understand it, eating small meals every 2-3 hours helps in loosing weight. When I bulk, I eat larger meals at normal meal times with a few small snacks thoughout the day if I feel hungry. However, I'm no expert when it comes to diet.

As far as a workout routine goes, the 6 basic exercises that you need to do are: Squat, Deadlift, Bench press, Row, Shoulder press, and Pullups. You can do all of those 3 times a week or split them up, whichever works best for you.

 

[serkol]

- Crossbow looks OK to me. You already spent money on it. I would use it for now (unless you are OK with selling it). Fixed-type lever machines are not as good as free weights, because they limit your movements too much. I see that when you use the crossbow, you pull cable handles - this produce almost the same movements as free weights. Can you use cable handles to work your legs? If you cannot, buy yourself 2 heavy dumbbells for dumbbell squats and deadlifts.

- Eating every 3 hours just is more efficient than eating less often. If you eat 3 times a day, more food is waisted than if you eat more often. Eat every 3 hours.

- You can ask the gym staff to spar you, but they are not around you all the time. It's absolutely normal to ask a more experinced guy to spar you. I spar often and I ask to spar me often, even despite the fact that my English is far from perfect

- The above 6 exercises are absolutely great, if you sell your crossbow and use free weights. If you decide to keep the crossbow, you can do:
* squats - can you do them by pulling the cable handles? If you cannot, buy dumbbells and do dumbbell squats. The leg attachment of the crossbow is pretty useless, because leg extensions is not very effective exercise.
* deadlifts - same as squat, either find a way to pull the cable handles, or buy dumbbells or a barbell.
* rows - you can do them on the crossbow
* flat bench press - you can do it on the crossbow
* shoulder press - you can do it on the crossbow
* wide grip front pulldowns

 

[tmonell80]

awesome, thanks for the tips. I have a small amount of free weights I will try to use those for as much as possible. I will look into something for dumbbell squats as suggested as the crossbow is pretty useless for anything legs. I've been eating regularly around every 3 hours and now I'm starting to notice I am getting hungry much faster. I hope to pick up some whey protein soon to supplement my intake as I still feel like I don't get enough.

 

[evan]

Good. Increasing the amount of food you eat can be tough for a lot of people. Just make sure you are eating clean, that is you don't want to eat a ton of bad food that will make you put on a lot of fat.

The rule of thumb is to get about 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight everyday. So, if you weigh about 150, each 150 grams of protein a day. Protein shakes are very helpful in reaching these numbers.

 

[tmonell80]

Right, I've never really been one for junk food so I think I'm doing ok. But yea, I doubt I'm anywhere near that many grams of protein so I'm definitely going to go for the protein shakes.