It seems that everyone knows how to bulk up but nobody is talking about losing fat.
Alternating your days is important but if you want a lean build your MUST have cardio. Cardio can be done at 1 hour strait or sectional as long as you get your heart rate up and work it that means don’t think that your going to take a nice stroll on the tread mill and see a result. You should max you attempt at about 80% of what your able to do.
Also eat right, I don’t like to say “go on a diet” because that means that you plan on changing back to your original diet (the one that made you all fat) so changing your diet is important. If you take in a 2000 cal diet a day you need to work off 2000 cals a day to maintain your weight. If you are more a 3000 cal person try cutting it back by 500 or 100 what ever you feel comfortable with. use that information in the gym on how much you need to WORK!!!
You also need to be careful not to break down muscle tissue if your body does not have fat to fuel or to burn your body will feed off of muscle tissue. To prevent this be sure to take in high amounts of protein: tuna, meats, chicken, eggs, you can also get protein shake at your local GMC
OH I forgot with all the cardio your going to be doing remember the muscle group that you are working out example running is a major work on legs so the next day when you are working out on weights you don’t need to worry about your lower body as much.
And HAVE fun get creative search the net for different exercises try them out everybody is different and you have to find out what will work for you
Some great advise here.... but im bored and feel like adding some from my own personal experience and understanding 🙂
I'm currently trying to gain weight through training (I'm a rugby player) and have successfuly started to put weight on, so I'l mention a few things which helped me.
Its good to understand first how you build muscle (I'l keep it simple), as someone has already mentioned the number of muscle fibers you have do not increase with training - but when you train they become damaged and torn and then repear themselves to become stronger and larger. Also, there are two main types of muscle fibers, fast twitch mucle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers, fast twitch have a low oxygen supply, are larger than slow twitch but used up quickly - where as slow twitch have a better oxygen supply and can work for longer. For example, a marathon runner will have more slow twitch muscle fibers allowing them to use their muscles for longer but not requiring them to work against too much resistance - and a sprinter would have more fast twitch fibres allowing stronger movement against resistance for bursts of power and speed, but would not have the same endurance.
It's all good knowing this, but it is infact relevant to training. If you want to increase mass, and build muscle to gain weight and become generally larger you will want to train the fast twitch fibers. If you wish to maintain weight and size and increase endurance aspects of fitness you will want to train slow twitch fibers. A general rule is many sets of high weight + low reps for fast twitch fibers to build, and lower weight + high reps for toning and increasing muscular endurance.
I wont tell you what specific exercises to do, but I would always recommend you have a programme written for you by someone who works at your gym or someone who definately knows what they are doing... dont just do exercises your mates said were good! Also it is important to train all muscles, as they build in proportion to the rest of your body. For example, if you want a large chest and biceps its no good going to the gym to do hours on a bench press or butterfly press then dumbell curls or hammer curls and nothing else - you will see better and faster benefit if you trained chest and biceps as part of a whole programme.
I personally use a 3 day split for a training programme (3 days a week, Mon Wed Fri) for weight training, then i usually have rugby training in between. Some friends of mine go to the gym every day, some only once a week it all depends on time and how much you want out of it. Generally though, a 3 day split is enough to build, with each day concentrating on two different muscle groups. For example, for me Mon - Chest + Biceps, Wed - Back + Triceps, Fri - Legs + Shoulders. (by the way - YES DO TRAIN YOUR LEGS, not only does it help your body grow in proportion, but your legs don't need too much training to improve and you look stupid anyway if you have skinny legs with a large upper body). If you are training seriously I would consider 3 days a week the minimum, but it is enough. If you wish to train every day make sure your programme is worked out so for example, if you train shoulders one day, you can not train back the next, as muscles will be tired and you will not see as much benefit. Even if I had the time I don't think I'd do more than 3 days as it allows a day for rest between (also age matters here, as you get older you can not train as often).
Finally, the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do when training is eat. You build muscles in the 48 Hours after you have trained. Supplements are just that - supplements and can not replace a good diet. Eat within an hour after training, aim to eat 5 meals a day and make a conscious effort to be eating protein with every meal if you are seriously weight training. In general proteins come from meat, fish (tuna is good and easy), baked beans and nuts (unsalted nuts are best) and are all good for snacks for after training.
I have to go - if anyone has anything to add (i might have got something wrong, please tell me - I may still add to it myself) and i hope the English isn't too bad but I've written this quickly and havn't really checked it.
Hope it helps, and if you have any questions I will try to answer to the best of my abaility.
