• IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here.

    The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.

Getting to the Gym? Here's a guide and some info

MirageX

Alfrescian
Loyal
Wanting to hit the gym but have no idea how to start and where to start? Diet problems?
Can't get big no matter how you train?

Okay, here's a guide for those who are frequenting the gym and hope these helps. I have been hitting the gym for 2 years and met failures and successes during my 'journey'. I'm currently taking up a CPT license with ISSA and hopefully move on from there. Here are some guidelines for those who are looking to bulk/cut.

Training Routines

There is no 'perfect routine' in this world. The best you can get out of a training session is maximising the intensity and avoid overtraining. For those who are beginners and still doing some research and googling on routines, PLEASE DO NOT PUT TOGETHER YOUR OWN ROUTINE.

It would be best to stick to some routines designed by professionals so as to avoid overtraining.

Here are some routines that are commonly used and highly recommended:

Bill Star 5x5

Mark Rippletoe

HST

For those who are looking at splits e.g. push pull push etc.

http://www.weightliftingdiscussion.com/routines.html#5

I have personally came up with a training routine as well, which merges the concept of lifting heavy and light together, encouraging strength and hypertrophy.

You can download the template here
 

MirageX

Alfrescian
Loyal
Diet Guidelines

Fats
Fats are not good for you but don't avoid all the fats! Avoid animal fats and consume foods with healthy fats such as nuts, almonds and peanut butter. Try to consume organic ones instead of the regular salted or reduced fat, because organic is much healthier.. but more expensive as well!

Protein
You need lots and lots of protein. Proteins are used to repair your muscles after an intense workout and speeds up recovery. Therefore, it must be a majority in your diet consumption or in every meal. Good Protein sources can be Fish (I Love Salmon), Chicken, Beef, Eggs, Milk and your regular protein powder!

Carbohydrates
Carbos are the main muscle builders! If you are looking to gain mass and get big, you must take carbohydrates. Carbo sources include Rice, Pasta, Noodles, Potatoes. Well, vegetables are not carbo if you are wondering about this because vegetables provides fibres instead.

Daily Macros: For most gym go-ers, they tend to consume 40% Protein, 40% Carbo, 20% Fats for optimal growth. It would be great if you could measure your calorie intake per day and for builking, eat above your maintainance calories while cutting eat below the maintainence calories. Don't know your maintainence calories? Calculate it here

Pre, During and Post Workout Nutrition

Your diet before, during and after workout is the most important. Its the deciding factor whether you are getting your muscles repaired, giving them energy and letting it grow.

Here's a guideline, with courtesy from bodybuilding.com

60-90 minutes preworkout, have a solid, balanced meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.25g/lb TBW
Adding fat at this point is fine, use your discretion as long as it fits into your macro goals. Note that this meal is skipped if you train 1st thing in the morning.

[OR]

30-0 minutes preworkout - (and/or sipped throughout the workout), have a liquid or easily digested meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.25g/lb TBW
If you were going to train for close to or more than 2 hours continuously, it would definitely benefit you to have this extra preworkout meal either immediately prior to, or sipped during training. Keep the fats here incidental, not added.

Sooner the better postworkout - within 30 minutes, but optimally ASAP, have either a liquid or solid meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.5g/lb TBW
Fats here should be kept minimal to moderate.

Post-postworkout is simply your next sheduled meal, whether it's 1, 2, or 3 hrs later simply doesn't matter - especially if your immediate postworkout meal (which may be split up into 2 halves) was designed as above.

I'm currently following the guidelines mentioned above and everything seems great, my strength goes up and mass as well. Cheers!
 

MirageX

Alfrescian
Loyal
Supplement Consumption

Gym Go-ers have some tendencies. Either they like to buy lots of supplements or they make do with none. For those who are getting supplements, it would be advisable to get them online as it is much cheaper. Here are some sites:

Nutrifirst

Nutrition Park

The Supplement Warehouse

Choice of Supplements

There is no need to get an arsenal of supplements for your gym workouts. Seriously, you just need a good protein, a creatine, a multi-vitamin and probably a nitric oxide supp if you got the money to spare.

Protein Supps are important as most people do not consume enough protein in a regular meal. Most asian meals are filled with purely carbos e.g. hokkien mee, fried rice etc. That's when the Protein Supp comes in.

Personally, I use the "Optimum Nutrition: 100% Gold Whey Protein" which is good for me thus far. I always order the 10lb Chocolate flavour one as other flavours are not appealing to me :P But the price is slightly more expensive. For those who are on a budget and looking for cheap sources, you can try the allthewheysg protein (find them in NUTRITIONPARK website) which is good as well.

Creatine is necessary, in my opinion, as it speeds up muscle recovery and strength gains. There are many types of protein in the market - pills, monohydrate, micronized etc. For those on budget, just get the regular monohydrate version, it works well for most people. But for me, I personally like the Green Magnitude from Controlled Labs (Find it @ NUTRIFIRST website) which is good and the most effective one I've taken so far.

Multi-vitamins are absolutely necessary. Its cheap and covers most of your nutrient uptake for a day. For those who have more money to spare, get the ANIMAL PAK from Nutrifirst website, its nutritional content and list of vitamins is superb! But the negative part is that you have to swallow 11 pills at a time. I'm currently taking a budget version which is the NOW Daily Vits from NUTRITION PARK. Its cheap and last me for a month or so :smile:

Nitric Oxide is optional but its great to get the pumps and veins :biggrin: I personally recommend Glycergrow for those wanting more veins on their arms and forearms or even thighs lol :P And for those who are richer, get Nitrix from BSN, the effects are awesome but price is steep.

Cheers!
Next issue I'm going to discuss is losing fats :biggrin:
 
T

timarcher99

Guest
i think many of us can't wait for the part on losing fats, mate! :p
 

MirageX

Alfrescian
Loyal
Losing Fats

The most common health related issue amongst people - tummy, fat thighs, love handles etc..

Most people tend to resort to slimming programmes in beauty salons or even more eccentric methods like wrapping those paper foils on their arms or body. I'm not saying that they are not effective as many reputable salons are doing that, however, the most effective and natural method is still exercising.

Gym or Run or Sports?

Any exercise is good but the main aim here is to achieve increased metabolism for your body to burn fats.

For guys, it would be great if you could go GYM and RUN as well but of course, not on the same day, especially those who are trying to gain some muscles and losing fats at the same time.

If you go to most bodybuilding websites, they would say that gaining muscles and losing fats can't occur concurrently. WRONG! It can be done but just that the process is longer for effects to be visible.

Many people think that they can just reduce tummy fats or just reduce the fats on their legs. WRONG! You cannot SPOT REDUCE. You can only lose fats on the whole, you can't choose where to lose them.

After clearing some wrong ideas and concepts, its time to go down to the practical - getting the fats off!

Gym - Good for both males and females. Try to lift heavy compound movements instead of going for like 20 - 30 reps on the bicep curls. Bicep Curls are like isolations, they produce very little growth hormones, but of course this doesn't mean that you should totally not do them at all. The FOCUS should be on compound lifts.

Compound movements are exercises like SQUATS, BENCH PRESS, PULL UP, DIPS, SHOULDER PRESS or any other exercises that involves more than one muscle group. You can find a list of gym exercises here. Of course, try not to put together your own routine. I have a list of routines listed above so pick one that interests you.

Run - Jogging is good. Sprinting is good. But combining them together is even better! Those in army would have heard of the 30-60 interval training where you sprint for 30 seconds and then jog for 60 seconds. Why go through this trouble and not jog for 5km?

Jogging for 5km burns lots of fats and it will take you around 20+mins to 1 hr depending on your ability. However, the fat burning process for such a run only happens during the run itself and the after-effect is much less. In addition, it takes up more time as well. By utilising HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), the 30-60 that I mentioned above, you spend less than 10 mins meaning you just do 5 sets and you can achieve the effect of running 5km. How is this possible? This is because the fat burning effect sets in after the HIIT session. The main pt of running is to raise your Heart Rate to the level for fat burning, and it is scientifically proven that doing HIIT can acheive the same heart rate compared to long distance running and saves time!

Sports - Sports are good and most people do these e.g. soccer, basketball. Yeah its fun but still the true blue way of losing fats is still running and gym. That's life :smile:

Diet Guidelines

Choice of food

The food sources are listed above in my previous posts. Those are the better choices.

Calorie Intake

For those looking to lose fats, eat 500 below your maintainence calories. Don't know your maintainence calories? There's one calculator in my previous post :smile:

Avoid

Avoid all Ice Cream, Chocolates, and most importantly SOFT DRINKS. Soft drinks contain lots of sugars and will raise your insulin levels. Increased insulin levels will cause your body to store fats and there goes all your effort in gym and running.

Losing fats and gaining muscles?

Possible and I've personally tried and proven. How to do it? You need a good planning for the calorie intake. Here's my plan and you can try your variants too.

Monday - Gym - 500 above maintainence cals
Tuesday - Rest - 500 below maintainence cals
Wednesday - Gym - 500 above maintainence cals
Thursday - Rest - 500 below maintainence cals
Friday - Gym - 500 above maintainence cals
Saturday - Rest - 500 below maintainence cals
Sunday - Rest - 500 below maintainence cals

The idea is eating more on workout days and less on non-workout days.

Supplements e.g. FAT BURNER

Its a good addition to your arsenal. Most fat burners contain caffeine and gives you extra energy. This is because when you are on a calorie deficit, lethargy will set in. Thus, they will be giving you the extra surge of energy. However, you can still do without that :smile:

End of losing fats article! Cheers!
Next up would be advices to avoid overtraining :O)
 

shrek2

Alfrescian
Loyal
I think I want to add one point of caution. Although high intensity interval training (HIIT) is seems to burn more calories, it is also extremely fatiguing. Not advisable for those who have been sedentary a long time. Your metabolism may not be suited to that without some base gentle training first. Plus the HIIT places a lot more stress on your joints. For those whose muscles are not well conditioned, the risk of injury is heck of a lot higher. So start slow and gently.
 
Top