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**darkhorsecustoms** · 05-05-2009, 04:56 PM

I am, by no means an expert on this, but this is what I did. A lot of the excercise that work bi's also work your back. Same thing with chest and tris. I've heard that it's not a good idea to work the same muscle group in consecutive days. My schedule was:

Monday: Chest/Tris
Tuesday: Back/Bis/Shoulders
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Chest/Tris
Friday: Back/Bis/Shoulders
Saturday: Legs
Sunday: Day Off

Abs everyday at the end.

There are tons of routines out there, this is the one that worked the best for me.

**SeanC** · 05-05-2009, 05:38 PM

Thanks for the reply! That actually seems like a really good routine (seems like it gives pretty adequate time to recover too). I was initially doing the back/bis and chest/tris split, but I wasn't sure if it allowed me to work each muscle hard enough...Anybody have any opinions on this? Are there any benefits to working a single muscle group per day compared to working two groups?

**Joe 1320** · 05-05-2009, 06:39 PM

When a muscle is worked hard, it literally gets micro tears thoughout the muscle. It takes between 34-40 hours for the muscle to adequately repair and then grow slightly, that's why you don't work the same muscle groups daily. Now if you aren't working them hard enough to cause the micro tears, then the repair isn't necessary and you can work them every day.

How much you work the muscles depends on nutrition, water intake and rest. If you consume enough calories, you can work more muscle groups. Everything is related..... lots of water, proper calories and hard work followed by adequate rest.

My routine was cardio warmup every day, upper body one day and lower body the next. After every 6 days of workout, I would rest two days. That means that you will not have a regular weekly routine, it becomes an 8 day cycle. The reason for a two day layoff was due to the technique called stripping. The last two workouts involved doing each exercise to momentary muscular failure, immediatly dropping some weight and continue the reps until failure. Drop a little more weight and continue...... until you can't even lift light weight. This serious workout needs extra recovery time and is designed to shock your system into more growth. I don't do stripping anymore, but I will do negatives. That a technique that usually requires a workout partner. They help you lift a heavier weight than what you can normally do, then you resist the weight going down. you can sucessfully do negatives with 25% more weight than you can do in a positive lift.

Also, work from the largest muscle groups to the smallest. That means in your lower body workout, do the glutes first and work to smaller groups. I'm also a huge fan of Nautilus machines developed by Arthur Jones. Variable resistance to work the muscle groups thoughout a full range of motion will do wonders for overall core strangth.

At my peak, I was 5'10" and 248 lbs with a 4% body fat. I'm a far

from that now being 20 years later, but I'm still at a fit 210 lbs with a 33" waist. I don't feel the need now to be quite so bulky, it's easier getting clothes and I don't have to eat as much. I don't advocate doing that unless you are really dedicated.....

**Jeff_in_Atl** · 05-05-2009, 08:57 PM

Back when I had time my workout was a 1 hour aerobics class then 1.5 hours doing weights. I alternated days. day 1 above the belt, day 2 below the belt. Then back to day 1. It was easier to keep up with. I did abs and lower back every day but it was for tone not muscle. I did 3 sets of 50 reps. I was up to the whole rack on both machines.

I hurt myself with dumbbells one time and I refuse to ever use them again. Free weights may be macho but they are not safe. I'm sure that will get a lot of comments.

**Joshu** · 05-05-2009, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by Joe 1320

When a muscle is worked hard, it literally gets micro tears thoughout the muscle. It takes between 34-40 hours for the muscle to adequately repair and then grow slightly, that's why you don't work the same muscle groups daily. Now if you aren't working them hard enough to cause the micro tears, then the repair isn't necessary and you can work them every day.

How much you work the muscles depends on nutrition, water intake and rest. If you consume enough calories, you can work more muscle groups. Everything is related..... lots of water, proper calories and hard work followed by adequate rest.

My routine was cardio warmup every day, upper body one day and lower body the next. After every 6 days of workout, I would rest two days. That means that you will not have a regular weekly routine, it becomes an 8 day cycle. The reason for a two day layoff was due to the technique called stripping. The last two workouts involved doing each exercise to momentary muscular failure, immediatly dropping some weight and continue the reps until failure. Drop a little more weight and continue...... until you can't even lift light weight. This serious workout needs extra recovery time and is designed to shock your system into more growth. I don't do stripping anymore, but I will do negatives. That a technique that usually requires a workout partner. They help you lift a heavier weight than what you can normally do, then you resist the weight going down. you can sucessfully do negatives with 25% more weight than you can do in a positive lift.

Also, work from the largest muscle groups to the smallest. That means in your lower body workout, do the glutes first and work to smaller groups. I'm also a huge fan of Nautilus machines developed by Arthur Jones. Variable resistance to work the muscle groups thoughout a full range of motion will do wonders for overall core strangth.

At my peak, I was 5'10" and 248 lbs with a 4% body fat. I'm a far

from that now being 20 years later, but I'm still at a fit 210 lbs with a 33" waist. I don't feel the need now to be quite so bulky, it's easier getting clothes and I don't have to eat as much. I don't advocate doing that unless you are really dedicated.....

Joe nailed it on the head. Start out with large muscle groups than specialize. The micro tears are why our muscles turn red and get bigger while we work out. Its actually why they get bigger when we work out, they swell. Get a positive diet with no fast food, lots of protein, lots of veggies. Best workout out there. I have a degree in this and I recommend this simple diet for mass muscle gain to anyone who can benefit from it. On a side note, don't go until muscle failure because that can cause the muscle to take too long to recover. Go for just fatigue. I usually work 2 days on fatigue and one day on toning (low weight high rep).

**Rhode Island Red** · 05-06-2009, 07:02 AM

Just a warning on the No-explode stuff.

I was on that when I was in the gym intensely. One day my my heart started overracing at the tail end of my workout, like 1 too many cups of coffee. I thought maybe it was the stimulants in the No-explode. First thing I noticed is was full of caffeine, so I figured maybe I was taking too much in for my body, so I reduced the amount and yet still they symtoms still occurred. Eventually I cut out the stuff outright and the symptoms vanished.

I was drinking tea before I could walk, so I was used to caffeine, but for some reason to the best of my guess and the guesses of some of the top Neurologists on the east coast, the stuff affected my adenosine receptors in my body making me allergic to caffeine

X 100 (or initiated another unknown disease of the nerves)

Today 1 cup of Decaf coffee, or tea will cause me to have random skeletal muscle spasms all throughout my body FOR A MONTH,and even heart pain, irregular heartbeat!

in short stick with the tried and true supplements that have beenused for the past 40 years and not some word-of-mouth product with no medical history behind it. It may be slower but you'll be healthier in the long run

**ConElite** · 05-06-2009, 08:24 AM

I used to be about 155-160, and Im the same height as you. I worked out like a monkey and increased my food intake to min. 5 meals a day. Yes it was mostly junk food, but I did so much cardio and upper body. I for some weird reason have freakishly fit legs so no real need to work them out. Im about 200lbs right now, A bit over weight but its solid. I can easily go run a mile under 8 minutes and am still very active. You just need to continue that workout, and Boost your calerie intake and the weight will pack on. Try things like Muscle milk to help you pack on a couple Lbs. I say with about 15 more pounds you should be good.

**Joe 1320** · 05-06-2009, 09:16 AM

Generally speaking, for active people it takes 12 calories to maintain one lb of weight. That means if you plan on growing to 200 lbs, you'll need to consume 2400 calories per day in order to reach that level. That's also means the right calories....... not junk. That's more than people realize, what makes it hard is the way the calories are made up. You could consume that with a simple trip to pizza hut, but it will be all the wrong nutrition.

If you do your own shopping, stay around the outer edges of the store. that's where the healthiest and freshest foods are found.

Stay away from anything processed and that means you'll need to do frequent shopping as fresh food has a short shelf life. Nutrition has so much to do with the results of excersize. Both in stamina and in body recovery / growth.

**SeanC** · 05-06-2009, 09:27 AM

Thanks for all the responses! You guys definitely gave me a lot to think about.

I think my workout plan is definitely shaping up with everyone's help, but i'm still a little unclear on proper eating. I've been trying to eat like 5 small meals throughout the day (fruits, veggies, wheat bread, etc), and i've been trying to drink as much water as I can. At the same time I know that eating healthy and not taking in a ton of calories is hurting my ability to build muscle fast. I guess I just have to try to find a happy medium, because the last thing I want to do is eat a ton and make negative progress in muscle tone.

Rhode Island, as far as the NO-xplode goes, I really appreciate the information. I know its not really the safest stuff in the world, as you have shown by your experience with it. Obviously its not very natural (lol...probably the farthest thing from it), but it did seem to help. If I do decide to take it again, I will most definitely be careful.

Again, thanks to everyone for all your help and support. I cant tell you how much it is appreciated!

**SeanC** · 05-06-2009, 09:34 AM

I guess we posted at the same time Joe haha. Thanks for your help; it definitely makes sense. I've been trying to eat as good as I can, while not reducing the amount of calories I intake by a lot. I would estimate i'm eating about 2,000-2,400 calories a day.

I just get really confused because I constantly see different ways of building muscle. I've seen where people eat as much as possible (sometimes even junk food) to build quick, which I can't see any sense in. It seems like i'm going in the right direction

**sneitzel** · 05-06-2009, 10:36 AM

Originally posted by SeanC

I just get really confused because I constantly see different ways of building muscle.

That's because each person is different. What works for you, might not do anything for me. This is why you may have to try a few different combos of things until you find a mix that works for you.

You are going about it right. Asking questions and getting advice from others is the way to go. What you do with that information is the key.

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