I suck at the gym.

[brothers all]

Stay with it. Get ready to post before and after pictures. good for you.

[Gato Rojo]

Purple, AirborneCA and Recondo82, your guys are my gym role-models, but I'm afraid that my days of gaining are history due to factors beyond my control. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be going to the gym 3 or 4 days a week just to challenge myself, and believe me, I do that.

I don't see the future portending any beneficial change, but neither do I see me slacking off.

This, by the way, is an Excellent thread Danger. Rep for starting it!

[recondo82]

Purple, AirborneCA and Recondo82, your guys are my gym role-models, but I'm afraid that my days of gaining are history due to factors beyond my control. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be going to the gym 3 or 4 days a week just to challenge myself, and believe me, I do that.

I don't see the future portending any beneficial change, but neither do I see me slacking off.

This, by the way, is an Excellent thread Danger. Rep for starting it!

Brother, at your age you don't need to be getting bigger and stronger, anyway. Everything you do in the gym is beneficial, both physically and to help you remain young at heart. Drive on!

[AirborneCA]

Brother, at your age you don't need to be getting bigger and stronger, anyway. Everything you do in the gym is beneficial, both physically and to help you remain young at heart. Drive on!

X2
You should have your nanobots here shortly. I wouldnt fret!

[danger]

I was the exact same. I kick boxed for 12 years and was never a weight lifter. I couldnt gain mass and size and in turn I had limited strength. However.com this year I started a great program and packed on tons of muscle. Ask some of the guys on here about my before and after.
Start lifting anything to get a ground base laid for about 3 months.
Then on month four starting lifting two muscle groups at day that coincide i.e. triceps and chest or biceps and fore arms, back neck,(A leg day was just that, all muscle groups) etc... 5-6 sets and ALWAYS shoot for 6-10 reps. The ground rule is if you can lift it 12 or more times it too light and if you cant lift is at least 6 times its too heavy. PERIOD!
Then on the 6th day do a cross fit day. Do this for 3-4 months. On month 4 or 5 start lifting ONLY ONE muscle a day. i.e. just tris, just chest etc... Now that the ground work has been laid you will need more time to build/recover. Keeping the cross fit day on the 6th day of the week and 7th day off.

SUPPS: I was taking 10 G of creatine in the a.m. with a protein shake (VERY IMPORTANT) and 10-20 after the workouts daily. To build muscle multiply your body weight by 1.5 to get your protein intake per day. AND DONT MISS THE PROTEIN!
Im serious, I have tried everything (just like you) and I am 6'5 and WAS 247 of soft gooey deliciousness. And after 11 months of that program I am now 207 and in the best shape of my life. Watch what you eat. I didnt eat shit food and have stuck with it through my MOB. Good luck and lemme know if you try it out.

Pic is myself and the Team Leader.

Attachment 16739.

Also, if youre spending that amount of time in the gym then you are not maximizing your time. Keep it to about an hour with rest between 1:30 to 2:00 minutes in between sets.

Lookin good, bro.

The routine you listed is pretty much exactly what I've been doing. I'm drowning in protein already though and I'm nowhere near 1.5x body weight of grams for intake...but I am about to switch it up to mass gainer shake in the morning with breakfast (includes 48g protein), 48g of whey before working out, another mass gainer shake with 48g protein after working out, and another 50g of cassein protein before going to sleep.

It's already a chore eating as much as I do, so many shakes is gunna drive me crazy.

[danger]

I was the exact same. I kick boxed for 12 years and was never a weight lifter. I couldnt gain mass and size and in turn I had limited strength. However.com this year I started a great program and packed on tons of muscle. Ask some of the guys on here about my before and after.

Start lifting anything to get a ground base laid for about 3 months.
Then on month four starting lifting two muscle groups at day that coincide i.e. triceps and chest or biceps and fore arms, back neck,(A leg day was just that, all muscle groups) etc... 5-6 sets and ALWAYS shoot for 6-10 reps. The ground rule is if you can lift it 12 or more times it too light and if you cant lift is at least 6 times its too heavy. PERIOD!
Then on the 6th day do a cross fit day. Do this for 3-4 months. On month 4 or 5 start lifting ONLY ONE muscle a day. i.e. just tris, just chest etc... Now that the ground work has been laid you will need more time to build/recover. Keeping the cross fit day on the 6th day of the week and 7th day off.

SUPPS: I was taking 10 G of creatine in the a.m. with a protein shake (VERY IMPORTANT) and 10-20 after the workouts daily. To build muscle multiply your body weight by 1.5 to get your protein intake per day. AND DONT MISS THE PROTEIN!
Im serious, I have tried everything (just like you) and I am 6'5 and WAS 247 of soft gooey deliciousness. And after 11 months of that program I am now 207 and in the best shape of my life. Watch what you eat. I didnt eat shit food and have stuck with it through my MOB. Good luck and lemme know if you try it out.

Pic is myself and the Team Leader.

Attachment 16739.

Also, if youre spending that amount of time in the gym then you are not maximizing your time. Keep it to about an hour with rest between 1:30 to 2:00 minutes in between sets.

I've reached the point where I'm working one muscle group per day. Well this is what I'm doing- 1- Chest 2-back 3-bicep/tricep/forearms 4-shoulders 5- legs. I don't feel as productive but I am probably just still adjusting (this is week 2 of this routine.) I take Serious Mass or True Mass in the morning, between lunch and dinner, immediately after working out, and sometimes before I sleep depending on how late I'm up after the gym. I think I need to get Cassein. Taking C4 and Amino Energy pre-workout.

Struggling to break 185 lbs. Pretty extreme gains in strength seeing as how I hadn't lifted weights before.

[Hendo]

I know what you're going through right now as many moons ago I was stuck in the 190-196 zone for about four years. You gotta keep going to the gym and hitting the weights. The mass will come and you'll freak people out with how strong you can get. The thing is don't try for the mass gains just concentrate on getting stronger. Forrest through the trees...........

[recondo82]

I know what you're going through right now as many moons ago I was stuck in the 190-196 zone for about four years. You gotta keep going to the gym and hitting the weights. The mass will come and you'll freak people out with how strong you can get. The thing is don't try for the mass gains just concentrate on getting stronger. Forrest through the trees...........

I'm with Hendo on this. Fuck mass. Train for strength and the mas will come...to an extent. If you want to get huge, be prepared to sacrifice speed and agility. I put on 30 lbs to get stronger, then lost 35 lbs and I am stronger than I was at the heavier weight. I've always been lanky at 6'3", but it's funny to watch the bulky guys look at me out of the corner of their eye while I shrug 405 for reps, do sets of dead hang pullups with a 45lb plate strapped to my waist and do sets of 30 dips with two 45lb plates. It's not about mass, it's about strength. And the chicks at the gym don't look at the guys with the Incredible Hulk arms and legs, they look at the guy with the six-pack lifting crazy weights.

In the end, figure out how you want to look and train appropriately to reach that goal. Just be prepared that you might revise your goal numerous times along the way. I've been training hard since I hit 40 and I'm still not satisfied with myself. It's a never-ending battle, but it's also a great battle to fight.

[Jaren]

WOW, AirborneCA you sir are a beast. I actually have a year till i go to basic with an option 40 and was wondering if yall's weight training interferes with the amount of pushups you do on pt, Cause for me the more i was in the gym my push ups went way down but i felt so much stronger. i'm currently 6'2 176lbs but i'm 17

[IEDmagnet]

WOW, AirborneCA you sir are a beast. I actually have a year till i go to basic with an option 40 and was wondering if yall's weight training interferes with the amount of pushups you do on pt, Cause for me the more i was in the gym my push ups went way down but i felt so much stronger. i'm currently 6'2 176lbs but i'm 17

I think most would agree with me that muscle strength is great and necessary, but endurance is the key to and really what the APFT is testing for. You can be strong enough to lift a car once, or strong enough with endurance to carry your buddy from a fight to safety...or all your stuff to an objective that needs taking. See my point?

A balance of both would be great, but weight lifting would be a low priority for me if I was in your shoes. Everything I do now is body weight, minus one day a week with dumbbells. I'm 5'7" and 167, I'm strong but lean and my endurance is my strongest attribute in that arena.

[danger]

WOW, AirborneCA you sir are a beast. I actually have a year till i go to basic with an option 40 and was wondering if yall's weight training interferes with the amount of pushups you do on pt, Cause for me the more i was in the gym my push ups went way down but i felt so much stronger. i'm currently 6'2 176lbs but i'm 17

I took a PT test right before deploying and haven't done much conventional PT since then (5ish months ago) and my PT score went up just from weight training. But if you aren't great at pushups/situps/conventional PT then you should start with that if you haven't been to basic.

But if you're like me with the wiry body type and have endurance for conventional PT already then gaining strength might help you as it has me.


Rog, recondo...I stopped checking the scale and started focusing on strength. Scale doesn't always reflect gains.

3-4 more weeks and I should hit my goal of joining the 1000 pound club for bench+deadlift+squat. I've had lower back pain for the last several years and the extra strength has taken care of that, the only back pain I have now is the good kind, pretty happy about that.

[Ricardus]

Hard gainer, tall and lean, crazy fast metabolism, never used a gym for weights. Been puttzing around the gym for about 3 weeks lifting, and changed diet- taking True-Mass mass gainer, protein snacks, etc. Lifting 5ish times a week. I hit muscle failure on a muscle group but am not extremely sore the next day like I usually am from normal PT...so I started lifting for maxing out instead of reps a few days ago, seems to make me more sore..

I'm stronger and faster than I've ever been, PT tests, run times, ruck times, but trying to gain mass. Prefer to work out alone, no spotter so I don't bench etc...wondering if anyone has some suggestions for me?

Rest more, less reps, more weight, large body groups, Squats, Dead-lifts, bench press, and fewer days. You will gain mass but not by spending hours in the gym - 5 days may be over training. Why are you working out to muscle failure at this point? - no need. It sounds like you are tearing down, not building up. Check out T-Nation.

[Ricardus]

I took a PT test right before deploying and haven't done much conventional PT since then (5ish months ago) and my PT score went up just from weight training. But if you aren't great at pushups/situps/conventional PT then you should start with that if you haven't been to basic.

But if you're like me with the wiry body type and have endurance for conventional PT already then gaining strength might help you as it has me.


Rog, recondo...I stopped checking the scale and started focusing on strength. Scale doesn't always reflect gains.

3-4 more weeks and I should hit my goal of joining the 1000 pound club for bench+deadlift+squat. I've had lower back pain for the last several years and the extra strength has taken care of that, the only back pain I have now is the good kind, pretty happy about that.

Sorry, I did not see the last sentence of your post #41 which pretty much shows you know what you are doing and so my observations and suggestions were not necessary. The lower back pain may be symptomatic of something else though. I would have a doctor check you for kidney function.