TL Health and Fitness Initiative 2013 - Page 26

On February 01 2013 07:07 Juice! wrote:
i have a problem with my liver, so i basicly am "forced" to eat healthy =)
I don't know the exact name of the problem, never really thought about naming it (or looking for it) until now ..
But i basicly can't eat any fastfood/spicy food/chemical food (candy)/BBQ/...
and no alcohol and caffeine.


So for that an average week would be:
lots of paste, rice and potatoes with dry steak(no sauce), tuna, vegetables (all sorts) and bread with chicken

On February 01 2013 08:33 autoexec wrote:
@dannystarcraft Thats a killer upper body workout! Why no lower body though?

On February 01 2013 09:40 dannystarcraft wrote:


Thanks man.

I am trying to figure out when I can lift. I have classes on MW that are all day and there isn't a clear gym time. Maybe I will start Sunday Friday or something!

Any recommendations for what I should do there.

On January 31 2013 23:48 Deadeight wrote:
Dump decline imo, it's pretty useless and doesn't give you anything flat bench and dips aren't already doing better. Replacing it with incline wouldn't be a bad idea.

On February 01 2013 10:24 sc4k wrote:


All the stuff I have seen in terms of which exercise is more useful for the body says the decline bench beats the horizontal. Technically if you are looking to improve muscle mass levels then incline and decline bench are the best. Horizontal is really for the powerlifter inside us all who wants to post a number.

Also, Dannystarcraft, it's really nice to see someone who's obviously new to the gym put together a workout that's chock full of the important compound exercises. Bench and pullups are awesome. On to the criticism- if you are doing that workout 3 times a week you are really unbalanced and selling your body short. You are missing shoulders, lower back and legs entirely.

My advice is to learn how to squat and deadlift. You should start with building your strength in every area when you have first started, so...

10 mins run
5 x squats
3 x bench press
3 x dips
3 x press (a shoulder movement)
3 x pullups
5 minutes abs work

You can just do the rep ranges you are already doing if you want but what I personally would aim for is:
For the squats the first two sets should warm you up (10 reps), then go for 5-8 reps in the third set, then aim for 5 reps in the fourth and fifth. Bench should be 10, 8, 6 in terms of reps. Getting heavier of course. Dips it's okay to really just push your rep numbers as high as you can get towards 20, but you can also start hanging a weight off yourself to be able to aim for 10 reps or less. Pullups should be all about getting to 10 reps each time. If it's too easy hang a weight off yourself or do wide grip. Shoulder press go for 10, 10, 8. It's all about recording the weight that you need to be able to hit those rep ranges. When you first are hitting the gym, keeping a diary of lift amounts is invaluable.

Do that 3 times a week, and every alternating week for one of the workouts replace the squats with 3 x deadlifts. You can also squeeze in some cheeky shoulder shrugs if you are looking to start the traps on their way to growth. The squat is the daddy of gym exercises, if done correctly it works the quads, the lower back, the abs, the glutes, and a certain amount of hamstrings. When you develop your body you will want to quickly start adding supporting exercises (like calf work and hamstring stuff). Once you get confident with everything you can start taking the pullups out of one day and replacing them with more chest...or pulling out the chest and replacing it with rows.

If you want to learn how to squat then my advice is to buy Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength and read about the exercise, then look at youtube videos to see it done in action.

The goal should be to get your weights moving upwards and 'establish' your rhythm and routine in the gym. Go for 10 reps in the first and second set, 8 in the final. Once you have been doing this for two to six months (It's really a judgment call depending on how your body and weight numbers are developing) you should be ready to start splitting your gym workouts into sections of the body. You can just go to T Nation.com or bodybuilding.com and look for '3 day split' or '4 day split' and work out which you enjoy and get the best results from. Some people enjoy back and bi's, chest and tri's, legs and shoulders. Or pushing on one day (squat, press) and pulling on another day (hamstring curls, pullups, rows).

Most important thing you do is eat correctly. If you are 6 1 and 207 you probably have some excess body fat, unless it's all muscle. If you want to take things seriously and improve your body you'll need to get good nutrition, that means not too many or too few calories in the day, not too many processed foods and sugar, and enough protein for your body to grow (150-210 grams a day). The good thing about starting out is that you are really doing a lot of these exercises to get some strength and get used to them. You aren't going to be hardcore building immediately. So you can afford to modulate your calorie intake to lose weight if that's your goal and this gym routine will still be completely useful. To lose weight aim for around 2500-2700 calories a day (no less). To gain weight head up to 3.5k-3.7k. Eat veggies and fruit too.