need some advice

[ragez]

Hi friends,

Me and my best friend are 17 and we have been doing deadlifts and squats. I read that these two are the best (compound?) exercises you can do to get big.

Are we doing this right? We have been doing this for like 13 months and all we do is feel tired and like shit all the time.

We havent got no gym so we do it in the backgarden. We havent got no squat rack so we just lift it off the ground and onto our back neck and rest it.

We would do pull ups but we havent got no bar these are the exercises we do on our pumping sessions

deadlifts
squats
bent over rows
flat bench(some incline sometimes)
military press
bicep curls(with curling bar or straight barbell)
and then some triceps(lying on the bench with the barbel using close grip)


We know guys that have been weight training for like 3 months and they dont even do any compound moves apart from bench and they look more detailed and toned than us.


We normally do it 3 days a week and try and eat as much protein as we can and with vegetables but to be honest we do eat some junk food here and there but we eat as much lean protein as we can get our hands on.

We are not afraid to do some serious eating when it comes to the dinner table. (Eating the meat left overs from friends' dinner plate)

We are gonna start doing some cardio though. Are we on the right tracks to looking wide muscular (big)?

thanks all

 

[Built]

Are you gaining weight?

Are you gaining strength?

 

[ragez]

hi. yes we are gaining strength and weight

 

[vanness]

gaining strength

Are you gaining strength?

 

[Gazhole]

How many days a week are you doing this workout? Have you been doing this for 13 straight months without any time off?

 

[ragez]

Hi. yeah we do this 3 times a week and havent really had any time off. I thought if you had time off then we would lose strength and lose progress

We normally have a days rest inbetween sessions
We fit it in at like 6 at night then and it takes us around 2 hours

 

[ragez]

and i have some sort of pain in my left shoulder. and it hurts. its like some sort of shockwave pain going down the top half of my arm each time i push up on the barbel in an exercise. but i just fight through the pain

 

[Gazhole]

Hi. yeah we do this 3 times a week and havent really had any time off. I thought if you had time off then we would lose strength and lose progress

We normally have a days rest inbetween sessions
We fit it in at like 6 at night then and it takes us around 2 hours

I would bank on this being the main reason you're starting to get tired all the time. To put this in context i take a full week off for every 4-6 weeks of training!

You need to give your bodies a break! Theres absolutely no reason why the strength you've built up over thirteen months will disappear in a week. It takes time to build up and it takes time to lose it.

Training is incredibly stressful on your body, and the longer you train without rest it gets harder and harder for you to recover. Often times after a week off i come back stronger, this is because i've had a chance to fully recover and repair.

Take a week off right now. Maybe even two. I would bet money on you coming back better that you are now.

Take the time off to design a new workout program, after over a year its probably time to change things a bit. We can help you with that.

 

[ragez]

Hi Gazhole. cheers very much for helping

do you think we should do some cardio in this week off? Will we lose anything if we do cardio? We eat as much protein as we can and normally eat what we want.

We are not so much bothered about abs as long as we dont get a pot belly or just a gut.

What new exercises would you fellers recommend for size. But all in all guys are we on the right tracks here if we want to build size. Will doing cardio affect it.

Thanks again

EDIT- Also is drinking lots of milk good. cheers

 

[Gazhole]

Don't worry about getting fat. If you get fat you can cut it off again later. Getting a little soft around the edges is the best way to bulk. In fact its the only way to bulk properly. Putting on weight means eating more calories than you need, this is true for muscle and fat because both are byproducts of that calorie surplus. If you want appreciable muscle gain, get ready to put on some fat as well.

And no to the cardio - a week off is a week off. If you were taking a regular week off every 4-6 weeks i'd say yeah, one or two sessions of cardio might be a good idea. The fact of the matter, though, is that you're probably overtrained to shit and need a full 100% week of rest.

Your workout is okay, you're focusing on big compound movements which is great, but i think a change would be in your best interests. My advice would be create two workouts and alternate them back and forth. Something like:


Workout A (Lower Push, Upper Pull): Squats, Bent Over Rows, Lunges, Chinups, Curls.

Workout B (Lower Pull, Upper Push): Deadlifts, Bench Press, Good Mornings, Military Press, Tricep Extensions.


Then you can do something really simple and assign a different rep-range to each day of the week you train (Monday, Wednesday, Friday?). This ends up being a two week split because the first week you'll do A/B/A and the second week youll do B/A/B. So with a different rep range on each day of the week, you'll cover pretty much everything in those two weeks and will add a little variation to your training.

I cover something similar to this on my site so take a look. I've also written an article on simple bulking:

getlifting.info » The Texas Method

getlifting.info » Bulking for Idiots and Lazy People: Part I (Diet)

You're pretty much doing all the exercises you need, but adding in a little more and splitting it into two workouts is gonna promote new growth. After a year you're probably reaching the point where you need to be varying your training more aswell. Doing the same thing three times a week will start to stop working.

I think you'd see great growth on a program like this, but only after a good solid week off.

 

[bentoverrows]

Hi friends,

Me and my best friend are 17 and we have been doing deadlifts and squats. I read that these two are the best (compound?) exercises you can do to get big.

Are we doing this right? We have been doing this for like 13 months and all we do is feel tired and like shit all the time.

We havent got no gym so we do it in the backgarden. We havent got no squat rack so we just lift it off the ground and onto our back neck and rest it.

We would do pull ups but we havent got no bar these are the exercises we do on our pumping sessions

deadlifts
squats
bent over rows
flat bench(some incline sometimes)
military press
bicep curls(with curling bar or straight barbell)
and then some triceps(lying on the bench with the barbel using close grip)


We know guys that have been weight training for like 3 months and they dont even do any compound moves apart from bench and they look more detailed and toned than us.


We normally do it 3 days a week and try and eat as much protein as we can and with vegetables but to be honest we do eat some junk food here and there but we eat as much lean protein as we can get our hands on.

We are not afraid to do some serious eating when it comes to the dinner table. (Eating the meat left overs from friends' dinner plate)

We are gonna start doing some cardio though. Are we on the right tracks to looking wide muscular (big)?

thanks all

Great work taking into account that you guys are still 17 and still devoting so much time.
Cheers guys you should be proud!

Some tips:-
1> Complete your workout in 1 hr (Do only 3-4 movements every session)
2> Have post-workout as quickly as possible after you drop wts and pre-workout atleast 45 mins before you train.