Working on arms, shoulders and pecks...

C

Clotty

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I want to start a training program for my arms, shoulders and pecks. At the moment I've been doing cardio work, trying to improve my abs, but now I want to start working on my upper-upper body, too. I hope I'm not going to get in trouble by posting this link, but would the following package be suitable for me to start off with?



Also, are there any routines people might suggest start with?

Thanks in advance.

Clotty.
 
Well if you are looking to build muscle, I would never ONLY do an upper body routine. Actually, in no situation would I no train all the major muscles of your body unless you were rehabbing a specific area from injury.

You need to work all of your major muscle groups including back, chest, core, legs, shoulders.

Yes, you were doing cardio, but that is not building muscle in your legs.

Have you ever lifted weights before?
 
No, I have never lifted weights before and I'm reluctant to start lifting anything too heavy yet as I'm in my final teen years and still have some growing to do. I was born, naturally with muscular and am happy with the definition I have at the moment. In comparison, my arms and chest are small, however, and this is why I was more keen to focus on the upper body.

I understand that to get the muscles larger, I need to work with high weights and low reps, but could this be dangerous with me only 16 years old?

The other muscles group I was looking at toning were my abs. Currently, they are visible, but only just. From what I understand, by doing crunches, I am only making my abs harder and not larger. Could I make them slightly bigger by performing sit-ups and the like with a weight on my stomach and then focus on toning them, once I've focused on making them larger for a few weeks?

What can you suggest I do?

I know there are quite a lot of questions there, but thanks for any feedback I recieve.

Clotty.
 
Three things...

Clotty said:
I understand that to get the muscles larger, I need to work with high weights and low reps, but could this be dangerous with me only 16 years old?
Click to expand...

High Weight low reps generally goes for strength and power. Low weight high reps for stamina. You want something like heavy weight with 8-12 reps per set for growth.

You also need to refine a diet. I swear since I started eating properly about 20% of my growth is relative to gym time, 80% to eating the right thing at the right time. In other words, plenty of protein.

What Strout was getting at is that by working just isolated parts you will imbalance your body, not least your core. If your building your abs, its wise to also build your lower back to keep your posture.

By your abs being visible I'd imagine you don't eat enough to put any meaningful mass on your chest nor shoulders anyhow.

At 16 your fine.

Oh, and leave York plastic concrete dumbells well alone.

Invest your money in something a little better but of much greater quality, such as olympic weights or at least metal weights. You'll bench 35kgs in no time, then have to buy more weight anyway. Plus if you drop the plastic ones they have a habit of cracking at some point and spewing forth concrete dust everywhere!
 
Agree with everything Fly states.

Don't spot train your body. Put together a decent full body routine and start with that a few days per week.

Your abs are exposed but only slightly, sounds like you have a small layer of fat covering them. If you are not too concerned with gaining muscle mass right now, I would try cutting some fat with proper nutrition. You state you have a decent build, so I bet you would be completely pleased if you shed a few percentage points of fat.

Doing situps to make your abs bigger is possible. However, it does not mean you are going to make your abs more "exposed." The only way to expose your abs more is by shedding that fat I mentioned above. You can make your abs enormous, but as long as the fat is covering them, that is what you will see.

The fat in your belly is subcutaneous, which means the fat is located directly under your skin....and therefore on top of your abdominals!

If you seek a better body, there is really no short cut to achievement naturally. It takes a great nutrition plan, a great exercise regiment, and proper rest.
 
Thanks for all that feedback, it's much appreciated. It seems like the main suggestion is that I should adopt a full body workout, as opposed to working only on a few muscles. I understand what was said about losing a few more pounds to eliminate the fat that that is making my abs only slightly visible and am running about 5km 4 times a week to try and do that.

It also seems that the equipment I was thinking of buying isn't going to be good enough. So, a couple of questions I'm still not sure about are ... to be able to complete a full-body workout at home, do I need anything other than than a few weights? Also, is there a full-body routine someone might be able to suggest I look at?

Cheers.
 
A bench is nigh on essential. If it has supports for barbells great. If those supports are telescopic you can then use them as a kind of squat rack.

Something like this will do the job ->

Althogh those damn leg extensions tend to get in the way. A lot of benches allow you to slot them in and out accordingly anyhow.

Also I would look at seeing if anyones selling weights on eBay in your general area you could collect (posting is a bitch on 60kgs of weight :cool: ).

As for a whole body routine, here's my four day split I'm switching to as of next week. Should give you a good whole body workout.

Tuesday - Chest & Tris

DB Bench - 12, 10, 10
One Arm DB Bench - 10, 10, 10
Inc. DB Bench - 10, 10, 10
Military DB Press - 10, 10, 10
Overhead Tri Ext. - 10, 10, 10
Skullcrusher - 10, 10, 10


Wednesday - Abdominals

Ball Crunches - 15, 15, 15
Leg Raises - 15, 15, 15
Inc. Leg Raises - 10, 10, 10
Inc. Crunch - 10, 10, 10
Inc. Twist Crunch - 10, 10, 10


Thursday - Shoulders, Lower & Upper Back

Conventional DL - 12, 10, 10, 8
Shrugs - 10, 10, 10, 10
Lateral Raises - 10, 10, 10
Close Grip Upright Rows - 12, 10, 10
Seated Close Grip Rows - 12, 10, 10
Bentover B.Bell Row - 10, 10, 10
B. Bell Lying Row - 10, 10, 10


Saturday - Legs & Butt

Full Squat - 12, 10, 10, 8
Straight Leg DL - 12, 10, 10
DB Calf Raises - 10, 10, 10
BB Side Lunge - 10, 10, 10
Machine (Yuck!) Leg Extensions - 10, 10, 10
Click to expand...

You'll be able to do all that except the Ball Crunces (replace with regular crunches or situps) with a bench, barbell and dumbells. If you get a bench with barbell supports just replace the dumbell Benches for Barbell benches.

Oh, and did we mention to eat right (eg lots of protein)? :D

I'll be doing that for the next 12 weeks, then taking two weeks total rest, then diving into the fun part. 8 weeks of cutting. For Winter. What the **** is that about? :rolleyes:
 
stroutman81 said:
Well if you are looking to build muscle, I would never ONLY do an upper body routine. Actually, in no situation would I no train all the major muscles of your body unless you were rehabbing a specific area from injury.

You need to work all of your major muscle groups including back, chest, core, legs, shoulders.

Yes, you were doing cardio, but that is not building muscle in your legs.

Have you ever lifted weights before?
Click to expand...

*Agrees*....

16 is deffinately not too young. It's not really your age but what stage of development you're at to determine whether you should start weight training. The sports administrator at my school said that you shouldn't start weight training until you've at least started to have your adolescent growth spurt and i'm guessing at 16 you'd be fine with that.

I started at 16 and there's been people that say i looked 15 when i was 16 so yeah i you'd be fine to start.
 
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