Bodybuilding Tips

[Guest The Electrifyer]

I just purchased myself a set of dumbells totalling 60 pounds. I want to use them and get buff, but I don't really know what excersises to do and of how many. I know it'll take hard work and I'm prepared to do what it takes, but I really don't know how to start off. What excersises should I do and how many times???? I'd appreciate all the help I can get, thanks.

 

Oh and by the way, I don't want any diet tips, cuz I'm eat8ing whatever the hell I want!

[Guest Shaved Bear]

best bet is to either buy a workout book, or check something out online, they have visuals for ya, thatll prob help out alot

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I don't want to bust your bubble man, but you might need to factor in what you eat into the equation. You need protein to build the muscle, carbohydrates to feul the body and unless you have an extremely fast metabolism, you won't get the ripped appearance that most people want.  I can help you out up to a point, but there are some things that are unavoidable. You won't get the best results possible if you don't get proper rest or eat the right things, lifting the weights usually isn't enough unless you are genetically blessed. I don't know how old you are or how big you are, but you might want to consider getting some more weights. I can't see you getting buffed with 60 pounds of dumbells. You can get into better shape, but it isn't likely that you will be buff.

 

Some questions to ask you first.

 

Do you have a place where you can workout?

 

How many dumbells do you have and how much do each of them weigh?

 

Are you involved in any extracurricular activities at school such as sports?

 

How old are you?

 

How tall are you and how much do you weigh?

 

What muscles are you looking to develop?

 

What do you know about anatomy?

 

How much time are you looking to spend doing this stuff?

 

I'm not a physical trainer, so I'm not licensed to give exercise advice, but I do know a great deal about this stuff. I am asking you these questions so that I can get an idea of what you should start out doing. Some good magazines to look at are Men's Health and Muscle & Fitness.

[Guest EI Cubano]

I agree that you are going to need more than 60lbs of weights to get "buff" but if you have never really lifted that religiously before it is a decent enough start. While protein is important, it is more something that your Gary Strydom's of the world should be worrying about. Most people get more than enough protein to build muscles just through their daily diet and high protein shakes and bars are said to be kind of overestimated in terms of building muscle. Unless you are a vegetarian, drinking 2 glasses of milk a day and eating meat for at least one meal should be more than sufficient for getting started.

Recommended Excercises for building muscle...

1) Basic Curls: Use as much weight as you can do a set of 10-12 without straining yourself too much. Far and away the most important thing to consider is control and focus of your muscle. Keep your elbow stationary, DON'T swing your body to get the weight up and control the motion ALL THE WAY down and back up slowly. The two biggest mistakes to avoid are speed curling and curling too much, both perennial favorites of meatheads at the gym who you see working out for two years and who never get any bigger. If you can't do a 7th rep with a given weight without using your back, lower the weight, and do the reps slowly for maximum effect. 3 sets of 12.

Tricep Curl: Hold two weights (general rule is about 60% of what you can curl) as though you are holding a steering wheel at the 3:00/9:00 position. Hold the weights directly in front of you, lower them to your knees and bring them back up WITHOUT moving your elbows.

Dumbell Press: Lay in the bench press position with a dumb bell in each hand. Grib each weight like you are gripping a bench press bar with your hands being straight to your arms and not turned. Bring the weights up SLOWLY, touch them and bring them back down to your sides (perpendicular to your chest), repeat the motion ten to twelve times for three sets.

Thats how I got started back in high school and it did the trick for me, of course you will need to either get more weights or join a gym to get really defined and specialize certain muscle groups but for now it should be fine. Don't get frustrated if you don't see any results right away as it should take at least 4 weeks to see any results and about 4 months to be noticeable bigger. Work out no more than every other day as working out every day simply gives your muscles no time to rebuild and grow. Hope that helped.

[Guest WWF4Life]

Check out Lance Storm's or Rob Van Dam's websites. They've both got excellent workout techniques on how to build yourself up. I've been trying Storm's guide, and it really helps. I'm exhausted though. =)

[Guest Brian]

Best bet is to start out with reps of 12-15 to build endurance in your muscles before finding a weight that you can do 8-10 times for strength. Lift weights slowly, and pause at lifting point to incorporate the most muscle fibers into your workout. Work on form before you even start to lift seriously. Generally you're going to need fort-eight hours when you first take on lifting to allow muscles to recover properly. Always, and I mean always, start out with stretching, some form of cardio to get the muscles warm, and work from the larger muscle groups to the smaller muscle groups. And because blood will travel to the muscle you are working, work the upper body and lower body seperate. Another typical tip is to pair opposing muscles, like back and chest, hamstrings and quadriceps, triceps and biceps.

 

Here's a bunch of good dumbbell exercises I recommend:

 

Lunge (legs): Grip equal weight in each arm. Start up standing straight and take a stride with one leg, then come back to position. Try not to let your knee touch the ground. Also try not to have your lead knee pass your toe. Try it with out weight first, than decide. We use to do this as a stretching drill in baseball, but it works equaling to work all the muscles in the leg with weight.

 

Chest press (chest): Like the bench press with dumbbells.

 

Fly (chest): Start with arms out-stretched while laying on the bench on the bench, and bring them together over your body.

 

Back fly: This is a reverse fly for your back. You lay chest down on the stomach. Grip weights at the bottom and bring outward. Should look like a bird. Keep your arms a little bent.

 

One-arm row (back): On a bench, put one hand down. Grip weight from bottom and bring it up. Like pulling soemthing. Keep elbow and arm in while doing this.

 

Shoulder Press: Start with arms up so that the weight almost rests on your shoulders. Bring weights up until outstretched over your head. Try to get them to touch but not hard. Keep hands parralel with body while doing it.

 

Upward row (trapezius): I've never done this with dumbbells, but I'm sure it will work. Standing up with arms down, bring the weights up until the arms, weights, and shoulders are parralel.

 

Shrugs (trapezius): Another trapezius exercise I've never done with out a bar before. Slowly shrug the shoulder lifting the weights.

 

Bicep and Trice curls are good as already detailed.

 

Rotator Cuff: This is a small weight exercise. Lay down on the bench on your side, with arm on your side and elbow bent at ninety degree angle. Raise the forearm (rotating your arm about the rotator cuff) keeping it at that angle to where it reaches a stretching point above your body. Do without weights first to see how much range of motion you have in your rotator cuff so you can choose an appropriate weight. Fifteen reps is recommended.

 

Core: Always finish your workouts working the core muscles, the lower back and abs. These muscles, like the rotator cuff, help keep your other muscles stabilized. Recommended are an array of crunchers, roman chair leg raises, back extension, or reverse crunchers. All are free weights; in fact, I recommend not using any weight working this area of the body. Addition of weight can screw you in so many of the wrong places.

 

 

Also, if you don't want to use weights, dips (chest) and pull-ups (back) work very well.

[Guest One Bad Apple]

Recommended are an array of crunchers, roman chair leg raises, back extension, or reverse crunchers.

If you felt you had to explain what shrugs were, why in heck would you assume he knew what "roman chair leg raises" were? Quite frankly, those sound perverted!

[Guest Brian]

Sorry. Here's all the core workouts that I do as part of my workout an recommend:

 

Crunchers (abs): There are varying degrees of difficulty while doing crunchers. The first is the run-of-the-mill, sit up style. All you need to do is bring yourshoulder blades off the ground. The second and more difficult one is one I picked up in judo. Basically take the basic crunch, elevate your upper body as if crunching. Hold that position, than follow through as if you were doing a sit-up. When coming back you don't bring your body down all the way, but rather to the crunch point. Hold for a few seconds and continue with the sit-up, and back to crunch position. Much more difficult.

 

Leg raises (lower abs): Basically the point of this exercise is to bring your legs up and curl them to your body. If you have a pull-up bar that you can hang from, that will work. Similarly, a roman chair works. From the hanging position, bring you legs up and curl them towards your upper-body. If you have neither, my alternative is a baseball drill for pitcher. Lay down on your back with your body stretched out and straight. Raise both your legs together about six inches above the ground, pause, then move the legs apart, pause, then back together, pause, and down. Repeat.

 

Back Extension (and other lower back exercises): Back extension is hard to explain, but basically your in a back extension and your body is at a ninety degree angle, then come up straight. The non-gym version is a little lighter, but you basically have your stomach on the ground then raise your upperbody off the ground using your back (have hands on head).

 

 

Hope that helps.

[Guest HANSgerman]

I'll just add this:

 

Perfect form helps build a more perfect body.  I get so damn mad when I see idiots put 35 pounds on each side of the curl bar and think they are getting the most boss bicep workout ever.  Most of them use their whole body to move the weight meaning they are building a better back then they are bicep....or hurting their back.  So my one tip is GO WITH LIGHTER WEIGHT AND GET PERFECT TECHNIQUE because this truly does build better muscle.  I built my bench up moreso this year using proper form instead of bouncing the bar off of my chest like I used to about 4 years ago.  Also I changed my eating habits eating more protein than ever but that's a different topic.  

 

Good luck fellow lifter.

[Guest Brian]

I'll add a little commentary:

 

Try to  add different exercises to you routine. The more you continue to do one exercise, the more your muscles get complacent with one motion. Challenge them.

 

On core exercises, you may want to find a health professional that can get you a ball to do work on. Crunchers aren't going to help your abs as much, because your abs aren't just there for the crunching motion, they're there for balance, support, and motion among other things. Like the lower back. So cruncher are good to an extent, but couple that with other exercises to work the abs as it's really montonous for the muscles.

[Guest The Electrifyer]

Thats for the help guys, but I just have 1 more question, when you guys say stuff like, do 10-12 sets, and so-and-so amount of reps, how long should I be waiting between each rep???

[Guest HANSgerman]

The normal amount of time spent between sets should be around 90 seconds and two minutes.

[Guest Brian]

I'd stick to one set of each exercise, since the amount of improvement between one set and a second are actually lower, and one set and three are miniscule (like half a percent). I'll give you an example of what you can do in about an hour and a half with one-set reps (which is what I do):

 

Warm-up:

Treadmill - 30:00 (4-5 miles)

Rowing machine (5 minutes)

 

Legs:

Leg Press (20-25 reps)

Squat (18-20 reps)

Lunge (15-18)

One-legged hammersquat (10-15 reps)

Hip abduction (12-15 reps)

Hip adduction (15-18 reps)

Toe Raises (12-15)

 

Chest:

Bench Press (8-10)

Lateral Press (8-10)

Slanted Bench, mainly upper chest (12-15)

Fly (8-10)

 

Back:

Up-right Row (8-10)

T-Bar Row (8-10)

One-arm row (8-10)

 

Shoulder/trapezes:

Shoulder Press (8-10)

Military Press (8-10)

Pull Down (8-10)

 

Bicep:

Curl Bar (8-10)

Dumbbells (8-10)

 

Tricep:

Curl Bar

Dumbbells

 

 

Not a whole lot of description this time but basically you can chose one exercise for each muscle group (you'll have to divide the leg muscles up, a simple squat or leg press works all muscles fine). One exercise for each muscle, cardio at the start, and core at the end (see my other post) will take about an hour and probably even less. Basically follow this pattern: stick to the legs when you're working them and same as the upper. Bigger to smaller muscles.