First of all, thank you all for looking at this.
I am 16 and live in a small town where gym equipment is limited. I'm 5'8 and weigh about 120 lbs. (Yeah, can you imagine?) I could really use some help with creating a decent workout program that I can do at home. If you haven't figured this out already...I want to increase weight and size by bulking up. I am open to all suggestions. Feel free to ask any questions, because I'm not sure what I needed to include in this post.
Thanks everyone
Can I get some help bulking up?
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
You need to start at the basics.
1. Work all your muscle groups, 3x a week.
2. Work each muscle group with 2 sets per group, using around 8-10 reps as a starting range.
3. Don't do a session the day after another, allow a day to recover.
4. Start light, and at the beginning of each week, increase weight lisghtly, until you're more or less doing a max for reps after 4-6 weeks.
5. By then, you should be starting to see some visable changes in muscle appearance.
This is a basic kind of system you could try.
Legs
Chest
Back
Shoulders
Biceps
Triceps
1. Work all your muscle groups, 3x a week.
2. Work each muscle group with 2 sets per group, using around 8-10 reps as a starting range.
3. Don't do a session the day after another, allow a day to recover.
4. Start light, and at the beginning of each week, increase weight lisghtly, until you're more or less doing a max for reps after 4-6 weeks.
5. By then, you should be starting to see some visable changes in muscle appearance.
This is a basic kind of system you could try.
Legs
Chest
Back
Shoulders
Biceps
Triceps
Alright...problem.
Thanks for your help Boss Man...but I didn't really mention that I have pretty much no gym equipment. Are there workouts that I can do with a couple of 10 lb dumbells or something involving no equipment? Am I screwed?
I can get into the school's weight room only once a week on Monday, but will this do me any good? Any suggestions?
Swanso5, I couldn't find Bad Boy Basics that you were talking about.
Thanks for your help Boss Man...but I didn't really mention that I have pretty much no gym equipment. Are there workouts that I can do with a couple of 10 lb dumbells or something involving no equipment? Am I screwed?
I can get into the school's weight room only once a week on Monday, but will this do me any good? Any suggestions?Swanso5, I couldn't find Bad Boy Basics that you were talking about.
oops, big boy basics!! anyway epuipments required for that one...
well we'll need to do something like this:
wt room workout:
Hang Cleans 6 x 3...focus on speed rather than load here...if speed slows by set 4 than the wt is too heavy...learn these 1st though...very important...i've basically put these here for you to learn them more than anything so use as part of warm up...search www.exx.net for this
Deadlifts 4 x 6 as heavy as you can..again learn these 1st before going too silly with wt...exrx again
Chin Ups alternated with Bench Press 3 x as many as you can / 8...if you can't do chin ups than do Flying Chin Ups where you jump to the bar and pull up at the same time but as you go along limit your jump so you need to pull more of your own bodyweight up...i don't think there's a link for these so hopefully that makes sense
this should take about 40mins...how much time do you have for this workout??
what day would you do this?
other 2 workouts for 3/week can be done at home...
1
pistol progression...there's a picture of it here (single leg unsupported picture but start with higher bench and no wts decreasing bench until your not using one at all than add wt...3 x 10 each leg...can rest bte legs if you need to
http://www.michaelboyle.biz/joomla/dmdo ... 9_2006.pdf
inverted rows if you can (search google), no rest push ups finding a version that's hard for you no rest 1 leg and 1 arm dumbbell rows (use opposite hand to stance leg..search contralateral row..if too hard stand on both legs but still use 1 hand to row doing both arms) 3 x as many as you can of each with perfect form
best case scnario is to have this schedule:
mon - home 1
wed - school wts
fri - home again
search your arse off to fond these exercise shouldn't be too hard
well we'll need to do something like this:
wt room workout:
Hang Cleans 6 x 3...focus on speed rather than load here...if speed slows by set 4 than the wt is too heavy...learn these 1st though...very important...i've basically put these here for you to learn them more than anything so use as part of warm up...search www.exx.net for this
Deadlifts 4 x 6 as heavy as you can..again learn these 1st before going too silly with wt...exrx again
Chin Ups alternated with Bench Press 3 x as many as you can / 8...if you can't do chin ups than do Flying Chin Ups where you jump to the bar and pull up at the same time but as you go along limit your jump so you need to pull more of your own bodyweight up...i don't think there's a link for these so hopefully that makes sense
this should take about 40mins...how much time do you have for this workout??
what day would you do this?
other 2 workouts for 3/week can be done at home...
1
pistol progression...there's a picture of it here (single leg unsupported picture but start with higher bench and no wts decreasing bench until your not using one at all than add wt...3 x 10 each leg...can rest bte legs if you need to
http://www.michaelboyle.biz/joomla/dmdo ... 9_2006.pdf
inverted rows if you can (search google), no rest push ups finding a version that's hard for you no rest 1 leg and 1 arm dumbbell rows (use opposite hand to stance leg..search contralateral row..if too hard stand on both legs but still use 1 hand to row doing both arms) 3 x as many as you can of each with perfect form
best case scnario is to have this schedule:
mon - home 1
wed - school wts
fri - home again
search your arse off to fond these exercise shouldn't be too hard
Hmm...
Thanks swanso
Chin ups are definately not a problem...I think I am fairly strong for weight
Hangcleans and deadlifts are something I would have to try...I don't think school supervision would be great so I'd need to be very careful. I watched demonstrations on youtube for these and they looked dangerous.
The weight room is supposed to be open for basketball players on Mondays and I should have about an hour. I can work out on virtually any night at home, just not really during the day unless on weekends.
I don't have anything I can do inverted or dumbbell rows on at home. I am definately not opposed to push ups and stuff like that if they will do any good
This is going to be tough to arrange, isn't it?
Chin ups are definately not a problem...I think I am fairly strong for weight
Hangcleans and deadlifts are something I would have to try...I don't think school supervision would be great so I'd need to be very careful. I watched demonstrations on youtube for these and they looked dangerous.
The weight room is supposed to be open for basketball players on Mondays and I should have about an hour. I can work out on virtually any night at home, just not really during the day unless on weekends.
I don't have anything I can do inverted or dumbbell rows on at home. I am definately not opposed to push ups and stuff like that if they will do any good
This is going to be tough to arrange, isn't it?
no exercise is dangerous, only exercises done incorrectly are...just work up slowly in wt...a slow and progressive 4 - 6 weeks learning these types of exercises will do you wonders long term
back exercises are what we want to focus on as that's where you'll be weakest so potential is greatest there...are your db's fixed meaning we can't change the wt on them?? if so a very wise investment would be some adjustable one's....
back exercises are what we want to focus on as that's where you'll be weakest so potential is greatest there...are your db's fixed meaning we can't change the wt on them?? if so a very wise investment would be some adjustable one's....
Yes, the dumbbells are fixed. I bought them when I was 10 haha.
I was dinking around and I looked at the Big Boy Basics. I was surprised by this because I always thought you had to target each specific muscle to get ripped. I am glad to be proven wrong. Anyways, if I'm going to do workouts at the school I think I'm going to try and go full out. After the fair here, when I'm done showing lambs, I will talk to our athletic director and see what he has to say.
A dumb question...
If I get a lot bigger in the next couple months and then basketball season starts and I have virtually no time to train, will I lose muscle and gain fat? Normally I hardly gain any fat at all, I could eat plenty of junk food if I wanted...but I'm concerned about that.
Thanks,
bulk_up
I was dinking around and I looked at the Big Boy Basics. I was surprised by this because I always thought you had to target each specific muscle to get ripped. I am glad to be proven wrong. Anyways, if I'm going to do workouts at the school I think I'm going to try and go full out. After the fair here, when I'm done showing lambs, I will talk to our athletic director and see what he has to say.
A dumb question...
If I get a lot bigger in the next couple months and then basketball season starts and I have virtually no time to train, will I lose muscle and gain fat? Normally I hardly gain any fat at all, I could eat plenty of junk food if I wanted...but I'm concerned about that.
Thanks,
bulk_up
- no you defiantley do and should not...what's makes you more puffed? heavy deadlifts or heavy curls?? how do you burn more calories?? by working intensely....
- you might ose muscle but you shoundn't get fat...all you need is 2 20 - 30min sessions a week to maintain strength and muscle which should be the only goal of wt training suring the season...if your not lean enough by than, you've probably waited too long and will have to wait until games get you lean
- you could eat a lor of shit without getting fat but you won't build muscle and have the required energy for your sport so your choice there...
- you might ose muscle but you shoundn't get fat...all you need is 2 20 - 30min sessions a week to maintain strength and muscle which should be the only goal of wt training suring the season...if your not lean enough by than, you've probably waited too long and will have to wait until games get you lean
- you could eat a lor of shit without getting fat but you won't build muscle and have the required energy for your sport so your choice there...