Posted: 11/20/2004 4:38:32 PM EDT
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OK first off I do not want to hear about your personal workout. "Teach a man to fish" kind of thing. My trouble is that I am tired of my current workout routine I have been doing it for too long. I would like a book that covers the different major muscle groups and exercises to get the different muscles? For instance, my current workout was designed by one of the employees at the gym I go to. He has me do probably 4 or 5 different types of curls--isocurls, preacher curls with bent grip, straight bar curls, hammer curls... This is the same for other exercises. I do 3 different types of bench press, 4 or so different kinds of tricep exercises and so on. Supposedly these all concentrate on different muscles that make up the bicep. Which ones and why are they important I don't know. If I did know I would be able to come up with my own workouts and change my routine more often. This is what I'd like to do--design my own workouts to stave off boredome. I have been to and love the exrx.net site, but it is not organized in a way that I can really easily use that info to do what I want to do and that's learn enough to design my own workouts. -Nick Viejo. |
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yeah, we need more info. It sounds to me that your gym friend had you doing lifts that give you more definition. If you want to get bigger first then you should do core muscle lifts. These core lifts are maybe 2-3 different lifts for the whole muscle group that you are working. FLEX magazine had a 13 week program that was all core lifts and it works great. I think it is on the FLEX website as well. |
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OK More Info... I have basically been lifting for a little over a year. Up to now, all I did was what they told me to do at the gym. As for goals, I want to be bigger and stronger in general. Stronger to be better at ju-jitsu, and bigger just because I like the way it looks. I currently weigh about 190# and I dunno, just guessing, 10% bodyfat? I'd like to get my weight up around 200-210 or so without adding any fat. And to further clarify my question--there are a million different exercises to work out your back muscles. Even with something as simple as chin ups, are you palms facing you or facing away? How wide apart are your hands? How high up do you pull your body? Then let's take pull downs. Do you use a close grip or wide grip? How about seated rows? Close grip or wide grip? Do you pull into your midsection, into your chest, or row it above your head? I could go on but i hope you get the idea. So each of those is going to work a different muscle group. I imagine some of those muscle groups are more important than others. So what I need is a resource that will show different exercises for different muscles and say, "If you are only going to do 3 exercises be sure to hit these specific muscles. And here are some optional ones that are also part of your back." Hopefully this clarifies. I looked on the Flex website and didn't find anything about 13 week core muscle programs, but did see some other decent articles on there. |
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OK, here we go: I am going to outline a program for you that will work your whole body, since you said that you are doing ju-jitsu, and it basically uses all the muscles in the body. If you want to either add anything or delete it, go right ahead. I will give you an exercise, and tell you what muscle groups that it works. I will tell you how many sets to do, I am leaving the reps and weights up to you, since I don't have a clue what your strength level is. Here goes: Dips: These work the upper arms, shoulder, and upper back. Get on a set of dip bars and lower yourself down till your upper arms are parallel to the bars. Do 5 sets. Work toward a goal of 5 sets of 10 Pullups: These work the arms, shoulders, lats, abs, generally everything from your hands down to your waist. Do the pullups with the hands shoulder width apart. Do both kinds (with the knuckles facing you and also facing away from you). Do 4 sets. 2 each way. Shrugs: These work the trapezius muscles of the shoulder. Do them by holding dumbells at your side, in both hands and raising your shoulders up, trying to touch your ears. Hold at the top for a count of 3. Lower slowly. Do 4 sets. Try working up using more weight and less reps, or straight sets of the same weight. Mix it up. Keep your body guessing. Benchpress: Use a normal shoulder width grip. You can use either a long bar or dumbells. I prefer dumbells because they develop independant strength in the arms and shoulders. I am assuming you know how to do this. Do 4 - 5 sets. Deadlift: You are going to have to get someone to show you how to do this correctly. It works everything from the waist down, along with the shoulders and arms. Do 4 sets Squat: Again, you are going to have to get someone to show you how to do this correctly. It works the front of the legs and the back. I would suggest in the beginning to use a lighter weight and concentrate on a higher reps. 4-5 sets Abs: This is pretty self explanatory. It works your guts. I like incline situps. Incline the board until you can only do 25. Work up from there. If you get too bored doing these, add in some leg lifts. Do 4-5 sets Now, you can work these exercises in several different ways. You could do this workout as a circuit. It looks to me like it would be a killer done that way. If it were me, I would divide it up. You can divide it up as upper body for a couple of days a week, and then one day of deadlift and one day of squats. Put the abs where you feel like it. You can do them every day if you feel like it. Just play around with it. If you want to add more sets, go for it. Listen to your body. Watch what other people are doing in the gym. Try new things. Ask questions. One last thing: If your gym doesn't allow deadlifting or tries to discourage you from doing squats, you need to find another gym. The last thing you need to be training in is a fluffer gym. Find one with a name like the iron pit or something like that. Good luck, John |
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338 has a good workout for ya. I would add some forarm exercises, upright row and lunges to this program. Forarm for better grip, upright row to further work your shoulders-back-traps and lunges for your legs Just a note, if you want to get bigger you should buy some protien powder and fix yourself some high protien meals. |
I figured the pullups would work the forearms. As I told him this is a good start. I didn't address diet, because he didn't ask about it. As far as I am concerned, it is almost as important as the workout. A shitty diet will hamper your growth almost as much as a shitty workout. |
This might be what you are looking for! www.changingshape.com/exercise/directory/musclesused.asp |