could someone help a newbie?

[mitya]

Hi there - new here.

I've recently begun training with my dumbells/barbell and would greatly appreciate a few tips and answers to the following questions. A bit of background info: 27 years old; not a total newbie to training; former tennis coach; stocky build, not huge but pretty strongly built; interested in building arms above all.

1) What's better after warming up - 15 lifts/curls/iterations with heavy but a manageable weight or 3/4 really tough lifts with a very heavy weight? Many and heavy, or few and very heavy?

2) How many lifts per exercise should one do? I tend to do 15 or so for warm-up, then up the weights incrementally and do another 2 or 3 lots of 8-15.

3) How is it best to organise my week's training: today muscle x, tomorrow muscle y, day after muscle z etc, or should sessions work several muscles using different exercises? If the latter, how many days should I wait before working those muscles again? In essense: how often per week should you work a muscle?

4) I'm a vegetarian so I work a bit harder than most to keep a strong figure. I do this with copious amounts of pasta, milk and bread. Does this sound sensible? Anything that would help the mix?

THANKS in advance.
Andy

 

[XFatMan]

I know it might sound awfully stupid, so please excuse me if I say:

1) read the stickies.
2) read the stickies.
3) read the stickies.
4) read the stickies.

You'll get all information you're asking for there - and a ton or two more.

 

[lucifuge]

I know it might sound awfully stupid, so please excuse me if I say:

1) read the stickies.
2) read the stickies.
3) read the stickies.
4) read the stickies.

You'll get all information you're asking for there - and a ton or two more.

amen

 

[mitya]

While I would agree that I should have done that first (I used to run a huge forum and would have probably said the same to someone who didn't read the stickies) I'm not sure the sarcasm was called for. That and the fact that the stickies haven't answered every single point I mentioned in my initial post invite me to draw at least some vindiciation for my initial posting.

 

[XFatMan]

I didn???t mean to be sarcastic at all, but have you seen how often people ask the same questions although they have been answered thoroughly in the stickies? It???s okay to come up with follow-up questions if there are remaining doubts, but first you should read through the material so we don???t have to start at Adam and Eve. I know it???s a heckload of reading, but at least for me it was well worth the effort. And really, I didn't mean to be sarcastic - this time.

 

[Gazhole]

First three questions are answered in the training stickies in a large amount of detail.

As for the diet question, there may be a lot of good info in the nutrition section of the forum that can help you.

Just eating as balanced a diet as possible is a great start. Any gaps you have because of your vegetarianism (i suspect protein is one of them, sadly a critical nutrient, especially in weight training) fill in with one or two supplements.

Really though you should be hitting most of the bases with your diet of actual food. Read up on the stickies in Nutrition, and youll also find a massive list of recipies in the subforum there too.

 

[Tatyana]

Hi there - new here.

I've recently begun training with my dumbells/barbell and would greatly appreciate a few tips and answers to the following questions. A bit of background info: 27 years old; not a total newbie to training; former tennis coach; stocky build, not huge but pretty strongly built; interested in building arms above all. Is this for tennis? There is a school of thought that you will never reach your max potential with your upper body unless you train your lower body. I would recommend you consider a full body workout to keep your physique balanced, avoid injuries
1) What's better after warming up - 15 lifts/curls/iterations with heavy but a manageable weight or 3/4 really tough lifts with a very heavy weight? Many and heavy, or few and very heavy?

Light weight, good form. I often do my first set of my first exercise with an empty Olympic bar, empty equipment (it is Hammerstrength plate loading so sometimes it weighs quite a bit) and at least 25 reps.

2) How many lifts per exercise should one do? I tend to do 15 or so for warm-up, then up the weights incrementally and do another 2 or 3 lots of 8-15.

It does depend on your goals, and I vary the reps for upper and lower body.
I would also suggest that after a period of time training in a certain rep range, you alter it, as our bodies do adapt to the same work-out. 8-12 reps is a good range for upper body, 8-15 for lower body to start out.

3) How is it best to organise my week's training: today muscle x, tomorrow muscle y, day after muscle z etc, or should sessions work several muscles using different exercises? If the latter, how many days should I wait before working those muscles again? In essense: how often per week should you work a muscle?



The exact physiological/molecular/biochemical mechanism that muscle grows is only just being figured out, however, it is thought that micro tears in the muscle create an inflammatory response, and the muscle is then 'repaired' bigger and stronger. If you train before you have recovered, then there is no chance to grow.

With this there are many ways to skin a cat, and not everyone is going to respond the exact same way to training. Arnie's encylopedia of BBing is fantastic, and his method of training really works for me, especially pre-comp, but it would be total overtraining for others.

Three day splits working your whole body with back to basic compounds, a three day split doing upper body, lower body, upper body, a four day split dividing the body parts, a five day split even further dividing the body parts..........

Try out one, take measurements, go for it for two to three months, see how you get on.


4) I'm a vegetarian so I work a bit harder than most to keep a strong figure. I do this with copious amounts of pasta, milk and bread. Does this sound sensible? Anything that would help the mix?

Whole grain pastas and bread, make sure you are taking in lean protein in every meal. Diet can make or break your efforts with training, you may want to post up your diet and have people critique that as well......................
THANKS in advance.
Andy

T

 

[mitya]

Gazhole, Tatyana, thanks a lot for your help. I'm currently putting together a diet plan so I'll post that in the appropriate section when I've done it.

One thing I'm still unsure about, though, is this word 'split'. Tatyana said: "a three day split doing upper body, lower body, upper body" - i.e. do upper body on monday, lower on wednesday and upper on Friday, yes?

XFatMan - no worries.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Tatyana]

Gazhole, Tatyana, thanks a lot for your help. I'm currently putting together a diet plan so I'll post that in the appropriate section when I've done it.

One thing I'm still unsure about, though, is this word 'split'. Tatyana said: "a three day split doing upper body, lower body, upper body" - i.e. do upper body on monday, lower on wednesday and upper on Friday, yes?

XFatMan - no worries.

Cheers
Andy

Yes exactly. Split refers to how you split your body parts up.

LOL, forget that some of this terminology is new to some, I often refer to days of the weeks as bodypart days

x
x
x

T

 

[mitya]

I often refer to days of the weeks as bodypart days

LOL, now that's die-hard.

I forgot to answer your earlier question: no this isn't for tennis, it's just for me. I'm not a tennis coach anymore.

I'm about to go and post my new routine in the relevent section. Perhaps you could see what you reckon

Thanks again.