Another newbie

[Downfall20]

Hey all. This post might be kind of long, so I'm sorry. But I think I've been lifting wrong.

I'm 18 years old, still in high school, I weigh 180-185 pounds. My goal is to get bigger. Me and a buddy got a year membership at Gold's Gym about 2 months ago, and we try to go Monday through Friday. We always go at about 7pm after school. His workout is different than mine, but my usual workout is:

Monday: 3x5 Bench, 3x5 straight bar curls, 3x5 triceps extensions, 3x5 Lat pulldowns, 3x5 low row

Tuesday: 3x10 Squat, 3x5 power cleans, 4x25 calf, 3x10 Leg Press

Wed: Same as Monday
Thurs: Same as Tuesday
Friday: Same as Monday

After every arms day, I'll drink 52g of a protein shake with milk. I don't drink any on legs, because I don't want to build any mass down there. My legs are huge, and I don't know why, maybe it's just a genetics thing,

But after reading countless FAQs from this site and others, I'm just confused and obviously something must be wrong with my workout because it feels as if I haven't gotten stronger at all.

A couple questions:

1.) Am I correct in doing more weight, less reps since I want to bulk up on my arms?
2.) Is my routine bad? I've read I shouldn't bench press more than once a week, so I dunno.
3.) I mix free weights with some of the nautilus machines they have in there. Do machines still workout muscles okay?
4.) I don't have access to most of the food that is recommended with weight training, so I can only eat what the school is serving, and what gets cooked for dinner. Is this a big problem? Or does the protein shake make up for it?
5.) I have awful sleeping habits, so I only get about 6 1/2- 71/2 hours of sleep. I know it's crucial, but how crucial is sleep?

I thank you ahead of time. I love working out, and I understand that it takes alot of time to get results, but I want to correct myself before I end up wasting time.

-Thanks!

 

[Gawd]

Hey all. This post might be kind of long, so I'm sorry. But I think I've been lifting wrong.

I'm 18 years old, still in high school, I weigh 180-185 pounds. My goal is to get bigger. Me and a buddy got a year membership at Gold's Gym about 2 months ago, and we try to go Monday through Friday. We always go at about 7pm after school. His workout is different than mine, but my usual workout is:

Monday: 3x5 Bench, 3x5 straight bar curls, 3x5 triceps extensions, 3x5 Lat pulldowns, 3x5 low row

Tuesday: 3x10 Squat, 3x5 power cleans, 4x25 calf, 3x10 Leg Press

Wed: Same as Monday
Thurs: Same as Tuesday
Friday: Same as Monday

After every arms day, I'll drink 52g of a protein shake with milk. I don't drink any on legs, because I don't want to build any mass down there. My legs are huge, and I don't know why, maybe it's just a genetics thing,

But after reading countless FAQs from this site and others, I'm just confused and obviously something must be wrong with my workout because it feels as if I haven't gotten stronger at all.

A couple questions:

1.) Am I correct in doing more weight, less reps since I want to bulk up on my arms?
2.) Is my routine bad? I've read I shouldn't bench press more than once a week, so I dunno.
3.) I mix free weights with some of the nautilus machines they have in there. Do machines still workout muscles okay?
4.) I don't have access to most of the food that is recommended with weight training, so I can only eat what the school is serving, and what gets cooked for dinner. Is this a big problem? Or does the protein shake make up for it?
5.) I have awful sleeping habits, so I only get about 6 1/2- 71/2 hours of sleep. I know it's crucial, but how crucial is sleep?

I thank you ahead of time. I love working out, and I understand that it takes alot of time to get results, but I want to correct myself before I end up wasting time.

-Thanks!

I'm no expert but this is my thoughts:
1) If your main focus is your arms I believe the "21" would be a good exercise, as well as there are some other good threads for bicep / tricep exercises on here. All around I think your current routine is pretty decent.

2) You might be over exhausting your muscles. Might want to spread your workout over 3 days, throw a rest day in between... Or just drop weds and make that a rest day.

4) Protein shake will help but won't make up for it. Diet plays a huge role. Maybe consider creating some easy healthy meals in advance that you could take to school *hint hint* Anabolic Cookbook *hint hint*

Also, you want to make sure you get all your protein on your leg days also, it will help your whole body grow.. not just your legs.

My 2 Cents.

 

[crxdog]

Post up some pics and tell us what you eat day to day.

 

[keasbey]

get your parents to buy some extra bread/peanut butter/milk and nuts/jerky and take that with you to school as well. have a pb&j between classes, munch on some nuts/jerky between as well. drink milk with your food when you can and you should be able to load up on good amounts of protein/calories that way. id do the curls last in your routine on the days you do it. i do a drop set of 21's at the end of the day and my arms are dead the next day

 

[ExtraMile]

Im no expert either, but if you wana build your arms, you have to build your whole body. You need to incorperate Deadlifts, Squats, Benchpress, Rows and Military into your routines. You could either opt for a split that was like
Monday - Upperbody push
Wednesday - Lowerbody
Friday - Upperbody pull

A good example would look somthing like the following:

Monday-
Flat BB Bench 5 sets
Military Press 5 sets
Dips 3 sets
Decline Cable Crunch 3 sets

Wednesday-
Squats 5 sets
Romanian Deadlift 3 sets
Calf Raises 3 sets
Hanging Leg/Knee Raises 3 sets

Friday-
Deadlifts 5 sets
BB Rows 3 sets
Pullups 3 sets
EZ Bar 21's 1 set
Oblique Crunch on GHR Board 3 sets

That would be the bare bones of a beginner's workout, reps would be decided by your goals and as you got more and more experienced you would be able to change things around and know what your body responds best to. Of course their are many other types or routines and splits you could do.

A very good routine for beginners is this:
5x5 Calculator

That will give you a good base to build on as you get older and alot of bro's will tell you getting stronger on the core lifts will help you out in the future. Dont rush into it though wait for some other older and more experienced bro's to come along and give you some proper advice.