# Can someone recommend a workout routine



## anxiousdude (Dec 7, 2008)

I don't want huge muscles or anything, but I want to build my scrony arms and chest a bit and get some abs lol I'm willing to workout ah hour and half a day, but I need some plan to follow. What's a good website that could guide me to start doing this?


----------



## deltan144 (Mar 11, 2009)

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/ =)


----------



## Thomas Paine (Mar 29, 2008)

I like http://clutchfitness.com/ . It's not as huge and commercialized as some of the others.


----------



## irvanm87 (May 7, 2009)

those are very good sites but ima share my very first routine, a very good beginner routine, to build mass that worked well for me...and great thing is..its only 1 hour a day for 3 days..and im assuming ur going to or already have a gym membership.

DAY 1 - legs/abs

warmups - squats 1x10 @ 50% of normal weight

squats 2x10
leg press 1x10
stiff-legged deadlifts 2x10
leg curls 1x10
standing machine calf raises 2x10
seated machine calf raises 1x10
rope crunches 2x12
crunches 1x12

DAY 2 - REST

DAY 3 - chest/shoulders/triceps

warmups - bench press 1x10 @ 50% of normal weight

bench press 2x10
incline dumbell press 2x10
wide grip dips 2x10
seated overhead dumbbell press 2x10
standing side laterals 1x12
tricep pushdowns 2x10
ez bar skull crushers 1x10

DAY 4 - REST

DAY 5 - back/biceps/forearms

warmups - deadlifts 1x10 @ 50% of normal weight

deadlifts 2x10
lat pulldowns 2x10 (do chin ups instead if u can)
dumbell rows 2x10
barbell shrugs 2x12
barbell curls 2x10
dumbbell curls 1x10
dumbbell wrist curls 1x12

DAY 6 - REST
DAY 7 - REST

DONT SKIP WARM UPS!
DONT SKIP REST DAYS!

look up how to do these exercises properly because lifts like the deadlifts can be VERY dangerous if you do not focus on proper form. u can look up how to do them correctly on www.bodybuilding.com

u should do this routine for 8 weeks. after that, take 1 week break and look for a new routine or just switch things up with this one..

one last thing...
make sure you EAT, EAT, and EAT...i assume you want to gain mass ...i suggest u look into the proper nutrition to do so...3 large meals(bfast, lunch, dinner) and 2 small meals in between with a protein shake is ideal...just remember the more u eat the better esp for us skinny guys. the hardest part of it isnt actually the workout instead the nutrition side of it. bodybuilding.com also has great articles on nutrition, plz look them up

anyway i hope u try this routine out because i got satisfying results from it, enough to convince me to keep working out...i know it might be kinda confusing so if u have any questions, ill try my best to help


----------



## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

an hour and a half a day is too much. just do an hour a day at most 4 times a week.

Never work the same muscle on consecutive days.
Go near failure on your sets. Failure means you stop because you are incapable of doing more. It helps to have a person to help you with the weight when this happens. 

You have to get near the failure point because that is what causes muscle growth. It is the 2-3 reps at the end of a set getting close to the failure point that make the muscles grow.

No one knows why, but setting the weight so failure happens around 8-12 reps is the best. Going lower than 8 won't help you, even if you read that. The lower you go the greater the chance for injury. So in the beginning go higher than 12. I usually go higher than 12 on leg muscles because a leg injury would hurt my life more than an arm injury. One bad leg and you can't walk, one bad arm means a lot less.

Compound Movements are better than isolation. In the 80s the fad was isolation, trust me, CM is much better. And free weights always beat machines. No one really knows why, but they do.


----------



## Brightpaperwarewolf (Oct 16, 2008)

LALoner said:


> an hour and a half a day is too much. just do an hour a day at most 4 times a week.
> 
> Never work the same muscle on consecutive days.
> Go near failure on your sets. Failure means you stop because you are incapable of doing more. It helps to have a person to help you with the weight when this happens.
> ...


I'm from a similar school of thought in terms of my personal workout philosophy except I disagree with the notion that less than 8 reps won't help you. If your focus is on acquiring strength, it's more efficient to do less reps and do a 5x3 or 5x5 sets at a slightly heavier weight. Some people at the gym do a couple of sets of 3 reps at 90% of their maximum rep after some warm-up sets. The number of reps simply hits the different components of fitness, it's not like one is wrong over the other, in fact it helps to switch up how many reps you do. But it's not like if you can do 10 rep at 145, you'll do 5 at 290. At 10 reps, you should be lifting 75% of your maximum lift, 5 reps 85% RM, and 3 reps at 90% RM.

The best measure is calculate your maximum rep with this formula:

({number of reps} / 30 + 1) X (weight)

As an example, if you bench press 145 10 times:

({10 / 30 +1) X 145 = 193.34 RM (Maximum Lift for 1 time)

So if you wanted to bench a 5x5 set you should do it at this weight assuming all the variables above are true: 165.


----------



## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

I like exrx.net.


----------



## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

Brightpaperwarewolf said:


> I'm from a similar school of thought in terms of my personal workout philosophy except I disagree with the notion that less than 8 reps won't help you. If your focus is on acquiring strength, it's more efficient to do less reps and do a 5x3 or 5x5 sets at a slightly heavier weight. Some people at the gym do a couple of sets of 3 reps at 90% of their maximum rep after some warm-up sets. The number of reps simply hits the different components of fitness, it's not like one is wrong over the other, in fact it helps to switch up how many reps you do. But it's not like if you can do 10 rep at 145, you'll do 5 at 290. At 10 reps, you should be lifting 75% of your maximum lift, 5 reps 85% RM, and 3 reps at 90% RM.
> 
> The best measure is calculate your maximum rep with this formula:
> 
> ...


I have tried doing less than 8 rep sets and it never helped me. I believe the reason power lifters do short rep sets is to get ready for competition. But everyone's body is different. I tried short rep sets and it didn't work for _me_, but everyone is different. I do think its important for people to try and see what happens with compound movements over isolation, I think once you try CM you won't go back.


----------



## Prodigal Son (Dec 11, 2005)

Yeah, repetition continuum.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3287/repetitioncontinuum.jpg

Mark Rippletoe's SS is a great generalized approach for beginners. Gives you a great foundation. You will get both stronger and bigger. (yes, you get bigger via your diet) The starting routine can't get much simpler, especially as opposed to high volume bbing splits.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-2nd-Mark-Rippetoe/dp/0976805421


----------



## Brightpaperwarewolf (Oct 16, 2008)

^^

I personally center my workout around the Rippetoe system, it's easy to program and hits all the basics. 

Thanks for sharing the rep continium btw.


----------



## thepostman (Feb 26, 2009)

I've seen good results with the Stronglifts 5x5 program. Like Rippetoe's SS program SL focuses on compound exercises (exercises that work out multiple body parts). Great for a beginner, and there aren't too many exercises to learn the form on - all you do are barbell squats, bench press, barbell rows, overhead press, pullups, deadlifts, and dips. You have an A workout and a B workout, and you alternate them every other day, 3 days a week. Each workout takes me about an hour, and I'm usually pretty wiped out by the end of it. 

It's a good program if you're a skinny guy looking to bulk up. And don't worry about getting all super huge, the guys you see like that have been training for YEARS. It's not like you do some squats for a few months and wake up one day looking like Ronnie Coleman


----------



## jaayhou (Jun 20, 2007)

*Supplement protein*. Lifting weights is secondary, although necessary. Shoot for 0.75-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day (more is recommended, but harder to attain/maintain). I hovered around 134lb for a while, but shot up to 180 after altering essentially nothing else but protein intake.

There's a lot more, but the information in this thread thus far should get you started.


----------



## hiimnotcool (Apr 28, 2009)

I just started P90X yesterday. I'm SO sore right now. It's pretty intense. You workout for an hour straight and do ALOT of different exercises. 

I'm 6'0 and 168 when I started.

It's a 90 day program so I'll come back with results/pictures most likely.


----------



## CircularThinking (May 9, 2009)

Can't stress the eating part enough, it sounds like you're fairly thin which would imply you're probably not used to eating a lot.

You have to eat a ton of food to build any muscle mass. Eating the same amount but exercising a lot will probably only make you even more scrawny.


----------



## socially inept (Mar 6, 2009)

anxiousdude said:


> I don't want huge muscles or anything, but I want to build my scrony arms and chest a bit and get some abs lol I'm willing to workout ah hour and half a day, but I need some plan to follow. What's a good website that could guide me to start doing this?


body for lie by bill phillips. its the perfect routine for beginners. only takes 6 days per week, 45 mins 3 times a week and 20 mins 3 times a week

if you wan to follow the routine proerly then you need the book ''body for life by bill phillips''. or if you just want a general guideline then go ont he website www.bodyforlife.com


----------



## xboxfreak (Jul 22, 2008)

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843 This is what I am currently following. It includes a lot of compound lifts which are what you need to gain overall mass.


----------



## mnrandomguy (Jun 15, 2009)

Join a health club. Do Yoga one day and then swimming intervals the next. Take at least one day off per week for recovery.

If you have a set routine at the club try to make conversation with someone you see on a regular basis. You can talk about your exercise and progress. Hit SA from two sides.


----------



## STKinTHEmud (Jun 21, 2009)

Diet is 75% of a workout routine. You sound like a naturally skinny guy like I was before I gained 35 lbs of mostly muscle in the past 6 months (I'm 27 yrs old, regardless of how old you are, you can gain mass). NOTE: SKINNY GUYS CANNOT EAT LIKE MOST GUYS DO (low calories/high protein) AND EXPECT TO GAIN MUSCLE QUICKLY. I followed a pretty simple (and free!) guide to building muscle mass (highly recommended):

http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/

Basically, to gain muscle mass, you have to produce a calorie excess which is stored as muscle and a little fat by eating 5-6 meals and 3000+ calories a day (depending on how heavy/tall you are). After you build up to a sufficient mass, you cut your calorie intake to shed the fat and keep as much muscle as you can.

My story:
When I first started working out, I was 17 yrs old, 6'0", and weighed approximately 135 lbs, which as you might be able to tell, is paper thin. I learned everything I knew about weightlifting from my brother, who was naturally a fat guy and trained as such. After working out for a year, I peaked at 160 lbs, still wiry, but with a clear muscle tone. But I reached a plateau. I couldn't get over 160 lbs and couldn't increase my lifts for one simple reason: I was exercising, but not eating.

Over the next 8 yrs or so, I worked out off and on, and stopped almost altogether about 2 years ago. I lost what little muscle I had, and developed a mini-belly. This January, I decided I needed a girlfriend, so I decided to get back into it, and to revamp my routine (which was hard to part with, since I liked my routine) using online resources designed to build muscle, and found the website above. It took a bit to get used to it, but I stuck to the advice on that website.

Now, I'm 6'1 and 189 lbs, with a little belly that is going down quickly now that I've lowered my calorie intake. I'm lifting more than I ever had and actually look all right in a collared shirt. Even my face filled out a bit so I don't have the Skeletor look going anymore. Those among my friends and family that haven't seen me since I started working out could hardly recognize me and very frequently compliment me on how good I look. I think random women look at me more than they used to (but I inevitably look away when they do). I'm feeling pretty good about myself, and after summer, I plan to get back to mass gaining to hopefully get a body that looks like those guys in Abercrombie and Fitch ads.

Be sure to keep a notebook and record your gains, and take a before and after picture without your shirt so that you can brag to your friends about your awesome progress.


----------



## 2Talkative (Nov 1, 2007)

pita said:


> I like exrx.net.


Good ol harry chest shows you how to do everything lol.......


----------



## socially inept (Mar 6, 2009)

STKinTHEmud said:


> Diet is 75% of a workout routine. You sound like a naturally skinny guy like I was before I gained 35 lbs of mostly muscle in the past 6 months (I'm 27 yrs old, regardless of how old you are, you can gain mass). NOTE: SKINNY GUYS CANNOT EAT LIKE MOST GUYS DO (low calories/high protein) AND EXPECT TO GAIN MUSCLE QUICKLY. I followed a pretty simple (and free!) guide to building muscle mass (highly recommended):
> 
> http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/
> 
> ...


35lb of muscle in 6 months !! LOL :no i hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds


----------



## TheGMan (Jun 10, 2004)

Doesn't sound ridiculous at all depending on where he was when he started and other factors. Especially if someone has worked out before and recently had a long layoff.

I think a pound of muscle is like 600 calories.


----------



## socially inept (Mar 6, 2009)

TheGMan said:


> Doesn't sound ridiculous at all depending on where he was when he started and other factors. Especially if someone has worked out before and recently had a long layoff.
> 
> I think a pound of muscle is like 600 calories.


well put it this way its physiologically impossible to gain more than 1 pound of muscle per week so in 6 months the best you could hope for is 24lb of muscle buts only if you are EXTREMELY lucky, and everything would have to go perfectly .

usually after gaining 12pound of muscle your gains slodown a bit. notmany people can even continously gain 1 pound. most are happy with 1/4 or 1/2 a pound a week per week

put it this way sports nutrition companys are a business, they are there to make money they tell their customers anything so that they can sell their products . a few example are ''use this fat burning supplement and you will burn twice as mcuh fat '' o ''use ths new all in one formula and you can lose fat and build muscle at the same time ''. both of those are a load of BS by the way but the company doesnt care co it just wants to sell products .

i was reading a maximuscle magazine the other week were they put together an 8 week muscle gain programme consisting of a good diet and using their supplements and training with weihts also. the whole thing was designed to get people to use their weight gain products.

now in weeksthis is what maximuscle promised '' gain 4lb of muscle in just 8 weeks ''

if they really wanted to sell their products then why didnt they say '' 8lb of muscle in weeks '' or ''16 lb in 8 weeks '' ? cos they know how unrealistic it is

ven people who are trying to rip you off and tell you lies won even go as far as to say ''use this product and gain 35lb of lean muscle in just 6 months '' so what does that tell you about this guys post ?

its utter BS


----------



## juineaux (Jul 4, 2009)

I've had great success with using bas rutten's mma workout CD's. It is a very face paced shadow boxing routine, I mix it up with a rowing machine and some yoga. Great full body workout if you hate lifting weights.


----------



## TheGMan (Jun 10, 2004)

socially inept said:


> well put it this way its physiologically impossible to gain more than 1 pound of muscle per week so in 6 months the best you could hope for is 24lb of muscle buts only if you are EXTREMELY lucky, and everything would have to go perfectly .
> 
> usually after gaining 12pound of muscle your gains slodown a bit. notmany people can even continously gain 1 pound. most are happy with 1/4 or 1/2 a pound a week per week
> 
> ...


What I think is possible is the guy gained 35 lbs and he considers it "mostly muscle" because it looks good, but he also gained fat.


----------



## flapjacker (Nov 30, 2008)

A good routine would include weight training followed by cardio workout. Start with intensive exercise like pushups and reverse crunches. You want to feel the burn and get your heart pumping and blood flowing. Then you should jump on a treadmill or go for a jog/run.


----------



## STKinTHEmud (Jun 21, 2009)

socially inept said:


> 35lb of muscle in 6 months !! LOL :no i hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds


It's not 35 lbs of muscle, it's 35 lbs of muscle and fat. Probably about 20-22 lbs muscle and 13-15 lbs fat. The fat, from what I hear, is not nearly as noticeable as the muscle. I started at 160 lbs at 6'1, which is the heaviest I've ever been and went up to 195. I did have a 1-2 year lay-off since the last time I seriously worked out.

I'm in my cutting phase right now, which means I'm burning the fat while attempting to retain as much muscle as possible (which is the real trick). I took a two week break after gaining all that weight, eating whatever I wanted and not going to the gym and I lost about 4 lbs. Then I started a new diet and exercise program. I'm down to about 2100 calories, 35% protein, 45% carbs, and 20% fat. I've been on this diet for 3 weeks now and how come down another 5 lbs, and the belly fat is going fast.

You're right, I put on fat, but if you're looking to make a serious change in your muscle mass and quickly, you have to expect it. Then you go on a cutting diet and the fat (and a little muscle) melts like butter. From what I understand, this is how the pro body builders do it, and if you started where I was, I don't think it would be too hard to do the same.

I'm planning on going back to mass building after summer to hopefully put on ANOTHER 35 lbs of muscle and fat, then cut the fat again.


----------



## socially inept (Mar 6, 2009)

STKinTHEmud said:


> It's not 35 lbs of muscle, it's 35 lbs of muscle and fat. Probably about 20-22 lbs muscle and 13-15 lbs fat. The fat, from what I hear, is not nearly as noticeable as the muscle. I started at 160 lbs at 6'1, which is the heaviest I've ever been and went up to 195. I did have a 1-2 year lay-off since the last time I seriously worked out.
> 
> I'm in my cutting phase right now, which means I'm burning the fat while attempting to retain as much muscle as possible (which is the real trick). I took a two week break after gaining all that weight, eating whatever I wanted and not going to the gym and I lost about 4 lbs. Then I started a new diet and exercise program. I'm down to about 2100 calories, 35% protein, 45% carbs, and 20% fat. I've been on this diet for 3 weeks now and how come down another 5 lbs, and the belly fat is going fast.
> 
> ...


i have to say you are luckyto even gain 22lb of muscle in 6 months. thebest you could hope for is 24 lb and thats if everything goes perfect.

13lb of fat in 6 months is an awful of gain. its unnessecary to gian than much fat

if you consume 15% more calories than you burn and you eat clean foods onlythen there i no reason why you would even gain a pound of fat


----------



## STKinTHEmud (Jun 21, 2009)

socially inept said:


> i have to say you are luckyto even gain 22lb of muscle in 6 months. thebest you could hope for is 24 lb and thats if everything goes perfect.
> 
> 13lb of fat in 6 months is an awful of gain. its unnessecary to gian than much fat
> 
> if you consume 15% more calories than you burn and you eat clean foods onlythen there i no reason why you would even gain a pound of fat


Yeah, I agree. I ate a bit of junk (mmm... frozen pizzas), but regardless of what you eat, if you're eating more calories than you need, you're probably going to gain a bit of fat. Maybe not 13 lbs of fat, but the point is not to worry too much about it because you're going to lose it anyway pretty easily (if you're naturally skinny, like me).

But I think you could gain more than that in 6 months if you do it with more protein than I did.


----------

