# greetings..



## blake7

Hi guys!

Not sure where to post this - but just wanted to introduce myself.

Im an Aussie chick whose been travelling for the last year or so and am now based in London.

I wanted to join this board cos Im suffering from a lack of drive in the gym lately. I love training and the high I get when Ive trained, and have been committed to fitness for about 12 or so years..but Im not sure what to do. Ive been training 5 days a week for about 3 months but Im disappointed with my results. - for the life of me I cannot build a set of decent Delts- or Bi's for that matter...

(9 and a half stone - size 10).I love weights, Love cardio and too complicate things slightly I am a committed vegetarian..

Im also looking for a good gym to join in London...Is there a chain that is good but no too exy?

HELP! :boohoo:


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## Captain Hero

blake7 said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> Not sure where to post this - but just wanted to introduce myself.
> 
> Im an Aussie chick whose been travelling for the last year or so and am now based in London.
> 
> I wanted to join this board cos Im suffering from a lack of drive in the gym lately. I love training and the high I get when Ive trained, and have been committed to fitness for about 12 or so years..but Im not sure what to do. Ive been training 5 days a week for about 3 months but Im disappointed with my results. - for the life of me I cannot build a set of decent Delts- or Bi's for that matter...
> 
> (9 and a half stone - size 10).I love weights, Love cardio and too complicate things slightly I am a committed vegetarian..
> 
> Im also looking for a good gym to join in London...Is there a chain that is good but no too exy?
> 
> HELP! :boohoo:


hey there welcome to the board  not too exy? do you mean sexy? Do you mean like a posh gym or a "fitness" centre that doesnt have a squat rack or more than one bench and has loads of cardio equipment?


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## samurai691436114498

Hi and welcome, fitness first used to be good and there are loads throuout uk.

post up the routine you are doing, and i am sure you will get plenty of replys LOL


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## samurai691436114498

blimey cap , that was quick typing there


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## Captain Hero

samurai69 said:


> blimey cap , that was quick typing there


aye i have fast hands


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## big

blake7 said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> Not sure where to post this - but just wanted to introduce myself.
> 
> Im an Aussie chick whose been travelling for the last year or so and am now based in London.
> 
> I wanted to join this board cos Im suffering from a lack of drive in the gym lately. I love training and the high I get when Ive trained, and have been committed to fitness for about 12 or so years..but Im not sure what to do. Ive been training 5 days a week for about 3 months but Im disappointed with my results. - for the life of me I cannot build a set of decent Delts- or Bi's for that matter...
> 
> (9 and a half stone - size 10).I love weights, Love cardio and too complicate things slightly I am a committed vegetarian..
> 
> Im also looking for a good gym to join in London...Is there a chain that is good but no too exy?
> 
> HELP! :boohoo:


Welcome to the board.

We all suffer from lack of drive in the gym from time to time. The best thing IMO is to take a week off, and then start a new fresh routine. The week off will let you recover, and will allow you to build up more enthusiasm - once you're halfway through the week off, you'll be DESPERATE to get back in the gym and lift.

For many people 5 days/week of lifting is about twice as much as you should do, which may account for your lack of results so far. Like everyone else, you should be concentrating on compounds like deads and squats. Your biceps WILL grow as you get bigger and stronger all over.


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## Truewarrior1

i agree with big, a week off is needed , you'll be begging to get back into the gym. welcome.


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## Captain Hero

out of interest what exercises are you doing for your biceps chick?


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## blake7

So Big, you say Im lifting too much - If i lift less days does that mean my sessions are gonna be longer?

This is the program Ive been doing for about a year...

What d'you think?

Im doing Bak n Bis - mon

chest n Tris - Tues

Legs - Weds

Calves n Shoulders - Thurs

Fri - straight cardio

I do some form of cardio every day. although sometimes its only 20 mins.

btw Cap - by exy I meant expensive..i want a good mix of free weight and mach. in my gym.


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## big

blake7 said:


> So Big, you say Im lifting too much - If i lift less days does that mean my sessions are gonna be longer?
> 
> This is the program Ive been doing for about a year...
> 
> What d'you think?
> 
> Im doing Bak n Bis - mon
> 
> chest n Tris - Tues
> 
> Legs - Weds
> 
> Calves n Shoulders - Thurs
> 
> Fri - straight cardio
> 
> I do some form of cardio every day. although sometimes its only 20 mins.


It doesn't mean your sessions need to be longer - they maybe need to be more intense, and certainly need to be more based around compound power movements. Squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, flat bench press, chins, military press are all big heavy movements that have a proven reputation for building muscle and strength.

You might want to do a full body workout every 4-5 days, or maybe do an upper/lower split every 3 days. Or split the body up 3 ways in a week (Mon/Wed/Fri for instance) and do push/pull/legs. You can then do the cardio work or GPP work on your other days.

The main things are: compound lifts, perfect form, progressive resistance (putting the weight up by a SMALL amount EVERY session) and beating plateaus by changing your workouts regularly.

Also, especially being a veggie (are you veggie or vegan?), you want to do everything you can to get in as much protein as possible, as this could be another potential problem area.


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## Captain Hero

blake7 said:


> So Big, you say Im lifting too much - If i lift less days does that mean my sessions are gonna be longer?
> 
> This is the program Ive been doing for about a year...
> 
> What d'you think?
> 
> Im doing Bak n Bis - mon
> 
> chest n Tris - Tues
> 
> Legs - Weds
> 
> Calves n Shoulders - Thurs
> 
> Fri - straight cardio
> 
> I do some form of cardio every day. although sometimes its only 20 mins.
> 
> btw Cap - by exy I meant expensive..i want a good mix of free weight and mach. in my gym.


aaaaah right well Generally Fitness first/ Virgin/ Esporta chains are expensive. A lot of people work out for about an hour or any hour and a half tops, how long are you training for?


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## blake7

Cap, now that I think about it maybe i havent been as committed to my bi's as i could've been....

I usually do 2 of these excersises ,3 sets 10 -12 reps

Barbell 21's

Incline d.b.

Hammer curls


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## Captain Hero

blake7 said:


> Cap, now that I think about it maybe i havent been as committed to my bi's as i could've been....
> 
> I usually do 2 of these excersises ,3 sets 10 -12 reps
> 
> Barbell 21's
> 
> Incline d.b.
> 
> Hammer curls


you dont need to do like loads to get muscle growth, ive read that doing bicep curls on an incline bench is really good for them, ive tried it before and its quite hard so it could be true. Hows your diet? that might also be one of the reasons your not growing, also are you getting enough sleep?


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## big

blake7 said:


> Cap, now that I think about it maybe i havent been as committed to my bi's as i could've been....
> 
> I usually do 2 of these excersises ,3 sets 10 -12 reps
> 
> Barbell 21's
> 
> Incline d.b.
> 
> Hammer curls


You might be overtraining them to be honest.

If you're doing back exercises first, your biceps are getting hit hard anyway. You then do the bicep isolation work, and you're just annihilating the muscle, and between workouts all of your body's resources are going into just recovering from the workout with nothing left to grow from. Stimulate, don't annihilate.

Biceps are a small muscle group remember, and overtrain easily.

Many people find their biceps grow best when they leave them alone.


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## blake7

Im interested in what you were saying about compound movements. And that is essentially how Ive been training legs/glutes and I am really happy with the results.

If I go with compound movements for my upper body would you follow up with an muscle isolating excersise anyway?

As far as an full body workout every 3 - 4 days are you talking weights? How would that fit in with the triple split?

Also what is GPP?

Thanks so much btw.


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## big

blake7 said:


> Im interested in what you were saying about compound movements. And that is essentially how Ive been training legs/glutes and I am really happy with the results.
> 
> If I go with compound movements for my upper body would you follow up with an muscle isolating excersise anyway?
> 
> As far as an full body workout every 3 - 4 days are you talking weights? How would that fit in with the triple split?
> 
> Also what is GPP?
> 
> Thanks so much btw.


Following up with an isolating movement depends on your ability to recover. Always, always, if in doubt do less, not more. Most people make this mistake and do more, and as a result don't progress.

I always advise people to start on low volume with compounds, a progressive resistance schema (including deloading) and no isolation work at all. As long as you can grow on that type of routine, you can then start adding things. I am very pro-low-volume as it works well for most people, but I definitely advocate increasing the volume as long as you can recover. But if you can't grow on x amount of work, you definitely won't grow on x+y amount of work.

Isolation exercises are fine for 260lb pro bodybuilders who are lacking in a single bodypart or two - but for the rest of us, they're just eating into our recovery time from the compounds IMO.

For the full body workout every few days, I was talking about doing only that for weights. This works nicely for some people, and you can go based on how you feel (if you feel you've recovered in 4 days, that's fine, do it again on day 5, but if you need 7 days, take 7 days). But starting off on a 2 (upper/lower) or 3 (push/pull/legs) day routine is usually most appropriate for most people though, assuming you can recover from that level of volume (most people can as long as they're not doing too many sets each workout).

GPP is general physical preparation. This is active recovery (which will help you recover from your workouts), and is GREAT for your conditioning. GPP has no eccentric loading (that's the negative part of the movement - like lower the bar in bench press). Eccentric loading is GREAT for muscle building, but wreaks havoc on your recovery. So while you do eccentric loading on your lifting days, you can still work out with GPP on non-lifting days without burning out your CNS and muscles. GPP examples are sled-dragging (the classic WSB example), turkish get-ups, or even cardio-based GPP work - like SHORT bursts of sprinting uphill (on grass for your joints), or supersetting circuit training (like 1 min of jumping jacks followed by 1 min of skipping followed by 1 min of burpees).


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## blake7

Brilliant.

I have a few questions though..

Does your low volume recommendation apply to the amount of compound excercises you do for a muscle or refer to the sets and reps?

ie

lunges/squats/deadlifts are all compound moves right? Say im supersetting these together...what sort of set numbers dyou think?

Also what is CNS?


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## big

blake7 said:


> Brilliant.
> 
> I have a few questions though..
> 
> Does your low volume recommendation apply to the amount of compound excercises you do for a muscle or refer to the sets and reps?
> 
> ie
> 
> lunges/squats/deadlifts are all compound moves right? Say im supersetting these together...what sort of set numbers dyou think?
> 
> Also what is CNS?


It applies to everything. 8 intense sets in a workout is more than enough for most people (plus a whole bunch of warm-ups in addition to this of course). This allows you to REALLY push yourself, and be out of the gym within 45 mins or less on a lifting day.

I wouldn't superset exercises personally, apart from very occasionally to increase intensity. Supersets IMO really shouldn't be a main component of your workouts.

It's probably easiest if I show you a sample routine. This would be a 2 day split:

Monday (upper body push and abs)

---------

DB Bench 2x6

Military Press 2x6

Weighted Dips 2x6

Weighted abs (hold a dumbell or plate on your chest) 2x10

Thurs (legs and upper body pull)

------

Squats 1x20

Leg Press 1x15

SLDL 1x8

Chins 2x6

BB Row 2x6

BB Curls 1x8 <--- only necessary if you want to add the isolation stuff

Calf raise 1x15 <-- as above

Of course these exclude warm-up sets. You'd typically do plenty of these.

You could split the second session in two (one for legs and one for pulling) of course.

The main thing is to start with weights you KNOW you will get the target reps and sets for, and to increase the load progressively each week. The small increases each week add up to MAJOR increases over the course of months/years. As SOON as you stall with an exercise, change it up for a while, and then come back to it later.

CNS is central nervous system - that gets hit every time you go to the gym. CNS-fatigue is a prime reason why many people don't do so well in the gym.


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## Timmy Smooth

Agree with Big: compunds are the way to go. Big, in terms of a isolation movement what about a negative set to finish off instead of a fully performed set? EG, single arm preacher curl using the free hand to raise the dumbell to the start position. Just thinking that this may provide the final peak Blake7 might be after for her arms in the session, but without spending too long on the exercise.


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## big

Timmy Smooth said:


> Agree with Big: compunds are the way to go. Big, in terms of a isolation movement what about a negative set to finish off instead of a fully performed set? EG, single arm preacher curl using the free hand to raise the dumbell to the start position. Just thinking that this may provide the final peak Blake7 might be after for her arms in the session, but without spending too long on the exercise.


Something like that works great occasionally for upping the intensity. But it will take a LOT out of you. Negative failure is as far as you can possibly go, which is punishing to your CNS, and VERY difficult to recover from.

Intensity techniques such as dropsets, supersets, forced sets, negatives are all fine when used occasionally, but I wouldn't have them as a staple in my workouts personally due to the reasons above.


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## Timmy Smooth

Good points.


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## samurai691436114498

blake7 said:


> Brilliant.
> 
> I have a few questions though..
> 
> Does your low volume recommendation apply to the amount of compound excercises you do for a muscle or refer to the sets and reps?
> 
> ie
> 
> lunges/squats/deadlifts are all compound moves right? Say im supersetting these together...what sort of set numbers dyou think?
> 
> Also what is CNS?


Dont you ever get the feling the people that post the first time know more than their first actual post. No offense ment, but it does seem to mer that people say" i do 3 sets of eight" and then go on to agree/disagree with far more in depthe explanations than they first would admit too.


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## blake7

Thanks Big -

Yes, I see. The reps are quite low.

I think what I'll do is, nick your 2 day split and follow up with the full body workout on maybe the 4/5th day, depending on my recovery..

With the full body workout - what percentage would you train at?


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## Captain Hero

samurai69 said:


> Dont you ever get the feling the people that post the first time know more than their first actual post. No offense ment, but it does seem to mer that people say" i do 3 sets of eight" and then go on to agree/disagree with far more in depthe explanations than they first would admit too.


Samurai it might be a case that they know of training methods, not that they know fo sho' if you follow. In other words they arent totally sure about how to, but they know how


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## big

blake7 said:


> Thanks Big -
> 
> Yes, I see. The reps are quite low.
> 
> I think what I'll do is, nick your 2 day split and follow up with the full body workout on maybe the 4/5th day, depending on my recovery..
> 
> With the full body workout - what percentage would you train at?


Do you mean doing the 2 day split plus a 3rd workout which is full body each week? If so that might be a bit much... but if you went by recovery rather than calender, that could work pretty nicely. It might also work nicely if the full body workout was lighter, allowing you to work on your form and developing explosive power.


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## DB

Welcome blake7


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## blake7

Hey Big!

Wanted you to know that Ive been doing that 2 day split workout and I cant believe how sore I am! Im doing less- and I feel as though Im hitting my muscles more. :bounce:

Mentally I feel stronger - Like I can push myself harder cos Im doing less. :lift:

Its never occurred to me to do Less before....

Thanks.


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## hackskii

It took 10 years of overtraining for me to figure out what you did in just a nite

I guess I am a slow learner.

I do some similar to what Big suggested and to be honest, i dont like spending more time in the gym than necessary.


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## blake7

Yknow, as a conservative estimate , I think Ive been overtraining for about 5 years...

:boohoo:

I just thought my attitude was wrong.


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## Timmy Smooth

I think overtraining is something everyone's been guilty of at some point. And then there will be some who never ever get it right. I'm very confident with my training, but still learning every day...


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## big

blake7 said:


> Hey Big!
> 
> Wanted you to know that Ive been doing that 2 day split workout and I cant believe how sore I am! Im doing less- and I feel as though Im hitting my muscles more. :bounce:
> 
> Mentally I feel stronger - Like I can push myself harder cos Im doing less. :lift:
> 
> Its never occurred to me to do Less before....
> 
> Thanks.


Glad to hear that


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## Lauren

Well done Big - what a great thread.

Worth a read. Might have to look at my training now...................ooopppssss.:confused:


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## hackskii

Yes Big, that was a great post, one of many....


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