I have spent the last 2 years going to the gym trying to gain mass and strength and mass while lifting weights. In my first year of lifting I was going and doing what I had always done with no real knowledge on what I'm doing. I first started lifting in high school almost 20 years ago and was just told to lift heavy and do as many as you can, with nothing more being said outside of that. Since then I lifted on and off over the years and I didn't get serious about it until 2 years ago.
When I first started lifting again 2 years ago I started doing what I always had done and then I finally was tired of not getting anywhere and started looking to YouTube to see what I might need to be doing different from what I'm doing now. I looked to Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of his lifting videos that he has and there was another guy by the name of Rich PIana and his bigger by the day video series that he had done.
By the time I was starting year 2 of going into the gym I had started to implement some of the advice from Arnold and using the bigger by the day program from Rich. and in roughly 6 months I was getting results. People were starting to notice I was getting bigger and I was actually seeing that I was able to add more weight to my bench quicker and was able to get more of a pump on any given day of lifting. I was having a hard time on getting a pump when I was on my back days and was rarely sore the next day. So I looked into it a little for some advice and whether by luck or chance I was watching one of Rich Piana's video's for one of his back days, he said that he almost never gets sore when doing back and when he did, it was barely noticeable.
To make a longer story shorter What advice I was able to get from Rich Piana and Arnold, that made me rethink my aproach on how I lifted was that I needed to go lighter on the weight. Some advice I got from Arnold's video's is that while I went lighter I needed to squeeze or flex the muscle group that I'm working out so I can get a better pump from lifting. I noticed that when I started doing this It will feel like my muscles are getting pumped so much it feels like my muscles were going to rip and tear right through my skin. Ever since I was able to get this kind of pump I was able to look forward to being sore all the time and was like a drug for me ever since then.
Now what advice I got from Rich was do 5 sets of 12 reps. If you needed to go down on reps for the last 2 sets, try and shoot for 12 reps just the same, but do a minimum of 10 on set 4 and 8 on set 5. But still try to shoot for 12 on sets 4 and 5. And for the advice that I got from Arnold was, instead of doing the 5 sets of 12 reps start off at 4 sets of 12 reps. And if you notice any muscle group that is not developing as well or as fast, add on a fifth set of 12 reps for that particular group of muscles so they can catch up to the rest of you so things can get evened out and not look so small compared to everything else.
When I took this advice and went with it in the gym, I have exploded in my gains both on size and strength. It is my hope that someone out there will benefit from this info and give it a try and see what you think of it. I will do another article on what kind of workout I do on what days and why I have rest days and what supplements I take.
Great workout advice for gaining size. Sorry about Rich Piana, such a loss. I remember seeing him at Golds in Hollywood even before the tats back in 1998.
Yeah I was surprised and a little bummed out about it when he died. I never met the guy but he seemed like he was a good guy. That's pretty cool you was working out in the same gym as Rich back then. Kinda makes me jealous. ;)
The advice about lifting less weight is a good one. You don't want to reach 'muscle failure' if you will. Lift a weight that you can lift about 8-12 reps, without feeling like you could not do any more sets because it was so heavy. OR that you can't come back tomorrow or the next day to the gym because it was so difficult.
The other thing I'd mention is to stay away from sugar..added sugar but also natural. Our body prefers sugar as fuel..so if we have it in our system, we burn sugar before fat. If we don't have sugar, our body turns to burning more fat.
I think you hit the nail on the head with lifting too heavy and sugar. It does you no good to have muscle failure before your done with your sets. And along with sugar it's the same with certain carbs. I try and stay away from certain carbs like bread and potatoes. But when I do carb cycle on the workout days on oats and sweet potatoes I still try to go easy on it so I don't go overboard and kick myself out of ketosis too much.
Absolutely right with some carbs also not being good..and that is because the body treats carbs like sugar!
OMG....SUGAR IS CANCER and everything in between. I've just weaned myself off sugar having reached pre-diabetes blood sugar levels. I've been on the Keto Diet three months and just blew my hematologists mind with my new, good numbers....she was looking for cancer. And talk about energy...plus finally getting enough uninterrupted sleep. I am a new woman...albeit an old one. I'm here because I need a different routine for leg strength and overall body tone, having realized I cannot persist with my strenuous Stairmaster, daily, workouts. (EMF's to my shins) So, sorry to jump into this guy thing, but Steemit is for everyone, right?
Feel free to jump in often :) Weightlifting is for the ladies too. I agree with you on the whole suger thing. It's steroids and food for cancer all in one. Congrats on turning things around and giving your doctor a mind blowing experience. Hopefully she will be a convert to the keto diet for her future patients. If you do go lift weights just remember to go light enough so it will be something you can handle, even if you end up doing just the bar. You shouldn't have to go to the gym and feel like you need to show off by trying to outdo the next person. We all had to start at some kind of weight no matter how light it was.
Thank you for your encouragement. Bar...lol, no, just my 5, 10 and 20 pounders. Going to the gym eats up too much time. I think for us older dames the important thing is consistency and common sense. Slow, persistent buildup, just as you imply.
Just want to thank you for some of your ideas, Gunner12 you really gave me the impetus to get started...it was the reps that provided the structure to my workouts. Now I have some direction! It matters not what weights we ladies use, it's the consistency. So I make time for legs and arms, then work on stretching and getting limber...using reps for everything and a timer set to my energy level. BTW, re Keto...do you use only the ratio for carbs? Do you happen to know the max net carbs per day based on body weight? If not, I'll look it up sooner or later. Thanks for your inspiration, gunner!
Your welcome :) Its a good thing you brought up stretching. That's something I have failed to bring up in the beginning. Stretching is important with lifting bcuz it helps with getting more blood flow to the areas that your working at the time. And more blood flow means your getting all of what you need to your muscles for the rebuilding process after you tear the muscle from lifting. I'll have to mention that in my next post for leg day. As far as ratio's on carbs to body weight, it's something I need to look into. So far I'm just kinda guessing for myself. Which isn't much help to someone that asks me about that kind of stuff. Sorry. When I start out in going into ketosis I keep track of my carbs and keep it as close to zero but no more than 10 grams when I can help it. After 2 weeks of that everybody is going to be different with how much carbs they can handle before they are kicked out of ketosis, even when they are at the same body weight. So it's kind of a guessing journey to find out how many grams you can handle in a day. I generally like to use those keto strips you pee on to keep track of where Im at and to find out where I'm at with how much carbs I can handle before I have to start over again. I figured Im around 20 to 25 grams of carbs a day before Im almost out of ketosis and having to completely start over again.
Stretching...I guess I should start with stretching instead of ending with it...haha.
I'm rather lax about Keto myself. I read that when in ketosis we pee a lot. I try to drink 2 liters/day so I am never sure where I am. I've wondered about the various testing tools. Maybe I'll try those keto strips. Mostly I use the ratios - and I've lately tried to cut ALL carbs so I can add veggies to my evening meal and still have good ratios.
I found a Keto guy that has really good keto info...check him out.
Google '5 foods that will spike your insulin level' kenDBerry MD
He's usually short and swift...many fast topics. Later
Thanks I'll go check him out
This seems like good, basic info for anyone that has spent any time in a gym/ But here's the deal; I'm a lot older than you AND FEMALE.. I can modify the sets and weights to what I can handle, therefore I'm interested in more of your tips and routines. My biggest question is 'how old is too old. I'm not interested in bulk, just tone. I do get hit on by men half my age ...so having a sense of humor goes a long ways coupled with common intellectual thinking...but what happens when I take off my clothes? YIKES!! OK, I'll follow and resteem you just to see what kind of commitment you're willing to make here...the more the merrier, right?
The more IS merrier :) I will work on another post of what I do as a routine for the gym time I have and I might include a bit of my diet in the same post or a seperate one, depending on how long it ends up being. The routine I have is mostly like what Rich Piana has on YouTube with some modifications I made from Arnolds advice. Right now I do the modified program,mostly to lose weight. And once I get down to where I want to be, then I'll hit the weights harder to bulk up. But in the meantime I lost 10 pounds of fat and replaced some of that weight with muscle. But I couldn't have done as well if it wasn't for the keto diet. The answer to your question is you can never be too old for lifting. Remember there are two kinds of pain when lifting weights. One kind is your body saying I don't like this and you need to stop RIGHT NOW. That's when injuries can happen. The other kind of pain is the good kind, when you get that sore feeling in your muscles either after the workout or sometime the next day. That's from tearing muscle fiber and making room for new muscle fiber to grow. And remember to eat enough proteins and certain carbs (like oats and sweet potato) so you can feed your body the needed building blocks it needs to make the new muscle you worked so hard to get toned up and for the what new muscle you might get. Thanks Bella for the comments and the follow and I will do the same for you my friend.
Gunner do you use the Cronometer to input and track your foods, etc/. not to mention calculation of percentages. I'm not sure I could keep up daily keto diet without that free app. Ten pounds is great...what is your loss goal? I take lots of supplements but I just got Creatine HCL for workouts; thus far my workouts haven't been stressful enough to justify its use...just wondering how popular it is. I'll look at the Rich Piana vid for ideas....many thanks.
I dont use anything to keep track of what i eat really. All I really keep track of is my carb, fat and protein intake. I really should try to figure out how much protein is too much so I wont end up turning the excess protein into stored fat and carbs. I'm at 163 lbs. and just under 35% body fat when I checked last a few weeks ago and Im trying to get down to about 15 percent body fat. But I'm not sure what my goal weight will be because I will eventually try to get some muscle mass on too and the extra muscle will keep my weight up even though Im losing fat. I could end up being in the 140's to the 150's I guess. Im a shorter guy so that weight area would be ok and be happy with what Im trying to do. Creatine is popular with bodybuilders. Back in the 60's and 70's when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno was starting to compete and lifting, they didnt have creatine and protein in a bottle along with most any supplements like we have now so they had to rely on eating steaks and all kinds of meat and other food often. The only real source for the building blocks of making all that muscle they had, had to come from the food they ate. So supplements are really meant to help you get what you already are not able to get from food alone, and not meant to replace food itself. You would be surprised at how many people dont realize that. Creatine as far as I know is mostly used for helping muscle build when you are creating new muscle fiber and it retains water and whatever extra creatine you have inside of you in the muscle as a reserve for when you go to work the muscle again and build more of it, it has something there readily available to use right away. I hope this helps you out some.
I copied the following from one of Dr. Mercola's pages and I use these percentages as a daily guide. His Cronometer does the calculations automatically. All I do is weigh my food and enter it. It's a bit tedious, but satisfying. A girl friend or anyone could do it for you in their spare time.
Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD)
SKD is the type I typically recommend for most people, because it is very effective. It focuses on high consumption of healthy fats (70 percent of your diet), moderate protein (25 percent) and very little carbohydrates (5 percent).5
Keep in mind that there’s no set limit to the fat, because energy requirements vary from person to person, depending on their daily physical activities.
However, majority of your calories still need to come from fats, and you still need to limit your consumption of carbohydrates and protein for it to become a standard ketogenic diet.
I use 15 -25% protein as daily target
65- 85% fat
5-15% carbs
I think I'm just under 20% body fat 5'9"
I looked up Rich...ee gads; not very attractive RIP.
SEEMS HE REALLY ABUSED his body!!
Thanks for info on Creatine...interesting.
I think he didnt look as good as some lifter but better than others. But I think what killed him was from all the prescription enhancements and other stuff like HGH, and then going to steroids, and then to who knows what else over the years and then all the side effects finally caught up to him. And thank you for the keto stuff in your other comments here :)
Thanks for the resteem