Questions & Answers

Guys, I'm thinking about buying one of these

http://www.amazon.com/Doorway-Workout-Builder-Strength-Training/dp/B004FH9VPY

Thinking about growing my muscles since I have no freaking muscles to speak of and I really need to start getting work out for my energry.

Would you guys recommend that?

Hurricane United States. March 01 2012 14:35. Posts 3125

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No.

If you want muscles get to a gym and do a proper novice routine. Starting Strength or Strong Lifts are good.

If you want to do bodyweight stuff go buy eshlow's book. I don't have the link but it's in his sig.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with that product. It is just a glorified chin up bar, which almost every gym will have, and if not I'm sure you can be creative and find something that you can hold on to that is above your head so you can do chinups/pullups.

Last edit: 2012-03-01 14:36:16

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TehPrime United States. March 01 2012 14:40. Posts 180

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But I don't have anything in my house that can be used as some kind of pullup/chinup.

And I rather not go to gym. Gas price is crazy here and the nearest gym from my house is at least 6 miles away. I rather work out in my house...

phyre112 United States. March 01 2012 15:29. Posts 2314

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On March 01 2012 14:40 TehPrime wrote:
But I don't have anything in my house that can be used as some kind of pullup/chinup.

And I rather not go to gym. Gas price is crazy here and the nearest gym from my house is at least 6 miles away. I rather work out in my house...

6 miles? What? I drive eleven miles when I'm home, and I consider that close. Wouldn't have a problem driving twice that for a good gym. Damn city people.

Terrible workout today, but then I haven't eaten or slept well in a week... plus just getting over being sick, had to do a double course of antibiotics... I guess it makes sense. I'll be back at it in the next couple days.

Last edit: 2012-03-01 15:30:11

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NeedsmoreCELLTECH Netherlands. March 01 2012 17:46. Posts 605

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You could put on some muscle with that, but it's highly inefficient compared to something like Starting Strength/gym in general, and it doesn't scale well into the lategame. It's like a seven rax that hits at fifteen minutes; it stops working at silver league.

Question: Is it okay to pretty much 5 rep max out once every week on Deadlifts, or should I deload two weeks after a particularly brutal session?

Last edit: 2012-03-01 17:50:15

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Zafrumi Switzerland. March 01 2012 18:38. Posts 1256

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On March 01 2012 17:46 NeedsmoreCELLTECH wrote:

Show nested quote +

Question: Is it okay to pretty much 5 rep max out once every week on Deadlifts, or should I deload two weeks after a particularly brutal session?

yes. no need to reset if the weight still goes up.

On February 28 2012 12:46 Risen wrote:
Ok awesome. Turns out my apt gym has everything I'll need I just didn't realize it. Having said that! I'm finding it hard to eat as much as I've been reading I should be. I'm probably going to end today around 4k calories. Is this ok? Also, can I continue my running mon/weds/fri? Or should I drop it to tues/thurs only lift mon/weds/fri sort of thing (or drop it altogether)?

Edit: How do I go about finding what I should be lifting? Since I'm just getting back to it should I just start off with the minimums and add the 5/10 lbs every workout?

dont think anyone has answered your question yet, so here goes:

read this: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Basic_novice_program#What_weight_should_I_start_with_during_the_first_week.3F

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Daigomi South Africa. March 01 2012 19:03. Posts 4301

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On March 01 2012 14:33 TehPrime wrote:
Guys, I'm thinking about buying one of these

http://www.amazon.com/Doorway-Workout-Builder-Strength-Training/dp/B004FH9VPY

Thinking about growing my muscles since I have no freaking muscles to speak of and I really need to start getting work out for my energry.

Would you guys recommend that?

As has been mentioned, doing something like Starting Strength is much much more effective at muscle building that just randomly working out with a pull-up bar. Depending on what your strength is like, there's a fair chance you won't even be able to do one chin-up/pull-up, which makes the bar pretty useless.

From my personal experience, I'd definitely suggest you try out the gym. Six miles isn't much, and going to the gym with a proper plan is really rewarding and fun. If you really don't want to or can't do that, have a look at the bodyweight exercise thread that is stickied in this forum. It should give you some good ideas on a systematic way to start exercising.

4thHatchery Finland. March 01 2012 19:25. Posts 119

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Your goals seems so vague it's hard to say what you should do. Obviously if you want gain significantly more mass SS/SL is the way to go. On the other hand you said you'd rather train at home so bodyweight strength training could also be good, but this is more straight up strength work rather than building mass. If you decide on bodyweight, check the thread for that. You wont get SS stuffed down your throat there

. Saying stuff like the work you can do on a pullup bar doesn't scale well into the late game, when the person hasn't provided more specific info about their goals makes you seem ignorant.

Last edit: 2012-03-01 19:27:10

rEiGN~ March 01 2012 20:47. Posts 360

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Growing muscle doesn't sound like a vague goal at all. He wants to be bigger, and that's completely reasonable.

Like other people said, Starting Strength is the way to go.

If the idea of going to gym is scary, then that's a problem you have to work through. I know how people come up with lame excuses for not going to gym when the underlying issue is fear of being judged as a clueless newbie.

Last edit: 2012-03-01 20:51:01

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4thHatchery Finland. March 01 2012 21:41. Posts 119

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1. Ok now that I think about it, if you are just starting out building muscle isn't that bad of a goal.
2. He said he'd prefer to work out in his house. (easy with BW stuff except maybe lower body once you're past novice)
3. I don't give a shit about his reasons for not wanting to go to a gym and I certainly won't make bold assumptions about them.
4. I have no problem with SS.

Sneakyz Sweden. March 01 2012 21:46. Posts 2323

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You should be happy you live in the US and don't have swedish gas prices

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Tyrran France. March 01 2012 22:08. Posts 582

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On March 01 2012 19:25 4thHatchery wrote:

Show nested quote +

. Saying stuff like the work you can do on a pullup bar doesn't scale well into the late game, when the person hasn't provided more specific info about their goals makes you seem ignorant.

Agreed. You need to set up your goals.

If you really want to be serious and be able to lift 150+kg in a few years, you'll need to hit the gym, start SS sooner or later.

If you are just starting fitness, with " no muscle whatsoever" and you'd rather bulk up a little before hitting the gym, i'll recommend Simplefit.org. It is a very beginner oriented program, with only basic exercice ( pull ups, pushups, airsquat), and i've gained ~15pounds as I went throug the 5 first level. ( weigthed 143 when I started, for 5.9"). It really helped for my confidence to see that I was able to improve. Now, I'm getting a bit more serious about my goal, so i bought SS and will be hitting the gym

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Gryffindor_us United States. March 01 2012 23:44. Posts 5522

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How do you fix muscular imbalances? I searched but couldn't find something concrete. My right side is lifting more in every lift essentially but it's really showing in my bench, OHP and squat. I assume I'd use dumbells for OHP and Bench for a while, but squat?

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lyAsakura United States. March 02 2012 00:12. Posts 1412

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On March 01 2012 23:44 Gryffindor_us wrote:
How do you fix muscular imbalances? I searched but couldn't find something concrete. My right side is lifting more in every lift essentially but it's really showing in my bench, OHP and squat. I assume I'd use dumbells for OHP and Bench for a while, but squat?

I'm guessing split squats?

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eshlow United States. March 02 2012 01:28. Posts 5004

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Squat you can do pistols/single leg squat or single leg leg press.... just until you correct the imbalance. Then go back to squatting

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NeedsmoreCELLTECH Netherlands. March 04 2012 00:34. Posts 605

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I just got about 360~ tabs of a Zinc, Magnesium and Calcium supplement. So each tab contains all three. Does this have any use whatsoever? I thought they cancelled eachother out.

Last edit: 2012-03-04 01:48:09

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coolcrimefighter United States. March 04 2012 17:24. Posts 323

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Hi I just started doing curls and I'm wondering if I'm doing the right amount.
I did 10 sets of 10 reps with 10lbs dumbells and I've been sore for 2 days. How much should I be doing?

Kamais Ookin Canada. March 04 2012 18:11. Posts 490

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Eshlow, what's your opinion on weighted push-ups? I read that closed-chain movements are better then open-chain movements so would weighted push-up be superior to bench press? The goal in mind being getting more strength and more size on my chest/triceps, I don't care about endurance!

Last edit: 2012-03-04 18:41:57

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jjhchsc2 Korea (South). March 04 2012 18:48. Posts 2390

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@coolcrimefighter- tbh there is no need to be curls at all. do a compound exercise that uses the biceps as well such as chinups/pullups which uses alot more muscles than just the biceps (back/forarms, etc )
If you really want to do curls do around 3-4 sets not 10 and do 8-10reps

@kamais ookin- Weighted push ups get tough to weight after a certain point and thats the main reaason why people dont do it. even with 2 people its hard to do.
But i have read that they are equivalent or even better than the bench because of stabilization or something. Read the Starting Strength PDF on TLHF and search it.

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Daigomi South Africa. March 04 2012 19:13. Posts 4301

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On March 04 2012 17:24 coolcrimefighter wrote:
Hi I just started doing curls and I'm wondering if I'm doing the right amount.
I did 10 sets of 10 reps with 10lbs dumbells and I've been sore for 2 days. How much should I be doing?

As has been mentioned, dumbbell curls aren't that great an exercise. Just to add to what jjh said, when he says do 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps, that implies that you should increase the weight so that you have difficulty finishing the sets. Doing fewer sets with heavier weights is considerably more effective (at building strength and muscle) than doing lots of sets at low weights.