The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Finally decided to give in and buy Pre Jym preworkout just out of curiosity...hopefully it lives up to the hype today

 

I've noticed you guys discuss supplements. For someone like myself who is just starting out is there any real advantage/gain to them?

Right now I'm doing a mini routine, just starting out.

Leg curls..4 sets of 10, 10 pounds
Leg lifts..4 sets of 10, 10 pounds
Bench press..4-5 sets of 10, 15 pounds
Shoulder shrub..4-5 sets of 10, 15 pounds
Curls..4-5 sets of 10, 15 pounds
I forget the name of it..rowing?..kneel on bench, dumbell on floor, lift till upper arm is parallel with back..4 sets of 10 each arm, 5 pounds.

I'm doing 1-2 miles on the treadmill most every day, usually closer to 2 if not 2.

 

Get a good routine going first, then decide if you need them.

Personally, these are the only supplements I see worth it:

Multivitamin
Fish Oil
Preworkout
Protein powder...only if you have trouble getting enough protein everyday
Test booster...MAYBE and thats if you're 30+ years old
Creatine (don't expect a magic effect)
BCAAs...some use em some don't, personally they help me recover much quicker

 

oral test boosters wont do anything, the acids in your stomach will prevent them from being absorbed properly, if you need a test boost, creams or injections are your best options IMO. Fish oil and Multi vitamin are good, Pre is good if you need some energy, if BCAA's work for you keep at it

 

I shoulda mentioned that first, oops..here's what I've been on for a while now before I started working out:

Super B complex
Multivitamin
Fish oil
D3

40 years old if that matters.

 

You would know about oral test....

 

Yes i have studied it lol

 

You don't need a single supplement to succeed. If you have trouble getting enough protein through whole foods you can get a simple whey powder to help you out there. A supplement is called a "supplement" because it is used to fill in the gaps of your diet. They are not magic, they will not give you 20 lbs of lean mass overnight, they are simply an aide to get your diet on point.

Whole, nutritious foods will get you much farther than any supplement will.

 

^ couldnt have said it better myself!

 

Posted this yesterday; I think it's applicable here:

People use supplements when their diet isn't adequate. For instance, I need 200+ g protein per day, so I use whey protein as a supplement to keep from spending all my money on tons of meat. Fish oil is good if you've got crappy joints. BCAA's are good if you're trying to lose fat and preserve muscle. Pre-workouts are good if you need a caffeine boost to get your workout in. Creatine is only beneficial if your diet is good. Everything else isn't worth it, IMO.

My advice is to get a good diet lined up b/c that's 80% of getting results. A good diet won't need any supplementation.

Also, it looks like your workout plan is missing out on some key body parts. I always recommend this to people b/c it's what works best for me; it was the workout I did when I first started out years ago and the workout I'm currently doing now:


http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dougs-4-day-split-workout.html

^^^ this

 

So far:

Breakfast..Cheerios
Lunch..plain turkey or roast beef sandwich
Dinner..depends. Usually something good like baked chicken or steak and a good amount of veggies.
No regular soda or chocolate/candy. I was drinking 2 2liter bottles of regular Mt Dew a day and eating 2-3 candy bars a day prior. I rarely snack but if I do I eat Cheerios at my desk at work.


Primary goals are drop weight and get more leg strength to help with the bad knee. Hence the fish oil for the knee, it's down to bone on bone.

What are BCAA's?

I'll check that link you posted. Right now that routine takes me 20-25 min or so. I try to use the treadmill most every day so if possible I don't want to scrap that and do weights instead as the treadmill is helping to knock off the pounds.

 

Sounds like you have much to learn young grasshopper. I suggest immersing yourself in bodybuilding.com and specifically the nutrition area, but do read up on the workouts as well, you will find that weight lifting burns more cals (ie more fat) than steady state cardio.

 

That is so very true, Sensei.

Right now I'm doing weights every other day, would it probably be better to change to every day even if I scale back on the treadmill?

 

Yeah, your diet needs work lol, but you gotta start somewhere! Check out IIFYM.com and go to their calculator and it'll estimate your TDEE (how many calories you need to eat per day to neither gain or lose weight), then you go from there. You don't want your caloric intake to be too far below your TDEE because then you're burning muscle, which is bad! I usually eat 500 calories below my TDEE to lose around 1 lb per week. IIFYM has another great calculator that will estimate how many grams of protein, fat and carbs your diet should make up. This is important be cause, when losing weight, too many grams of carbs or fat can hinder your progress; you've got to get the numbers right in order to get results.

BCAA's are Branch Chain Amino Acids, which are found in meats, but a lot of people supplement them when losing weight because your muscles need more fuel to stay big when you're eating at a caloric deficit, otherwise you risk burning hard-earned muscle along with that fat you're trying to lose. People supplement with BCAA powder or capsules right before or during their workout to send the BCAA's straight to the muscles to work, rather than having to digest a piece of meat, which takes hours; basically, BCAA supplements streamline amino acids to your muscles to keep them big when they naturally want to deteriorate.

Lastly, that link I posted is 4 days a week, and around 45-50 mins per day. You'll get better results from weight training vs cardio anyway.

Just remember, muscles grow when they're resting. I wouldn't do the same body part more than once or twice a week and keep them spaced apart from each other. I.e., don't do legs on Monday and then again on Wednesday. I only do 1 body part per week and it works fine...also, I do virtually no cardio lol

 

It depends on everyone, you really have to find out for yourself. I know people that work muscle groups 1 time a week and get results, while others have to twice a week.

I found out personally that when starting lifting, 5-6 days a week worked best for me, and now I do 3 days on 1 day off.

 

This is where you will hear everything under the sun and nobody is really "right" per se... It's kinda what works best for you. I tend to spend about 45 minutes 3 to 4 times a week working on heavy compound excercises, think squats, bench press, dead lift, and rows/pulldowns/pullups. Then will do 10 to 15 minutes of cardio after that. When it comes to burning fat and putting on muscle, your diet is about 70% of the equation, the rest is your workout routine/rest periods.

 

Right now my first 2 meals are totalling 600 calories. Dinner can be a wildcard. I try to behave and for the most part do, once in a while I indulge. Last Friday I had buffalo wings and a small glass of soda.

So far on the treadmill and diet for 6 weeks, weights for 2 weeks. I started at 240 and just weighed in this AM at 213.

 

I'll have to look into that triple stack. I do sometimes run a course of glcosamine in the winter, as the cold will play havoc with it sometimes. I'm guessing you can find that at a GNC or similar type of place..