Some newb questions about working out

[Snowbat]

Hi all, new hard-gaining, hyperkinetic, ectomorphic skinny dude here
I recently started working out to bulk up a little. I work out at home since the gym is not nearby and usually crowded on saturdays (which is the only day I can go)
Now I asked my physiotherapist for a workout programme and she gave me one including dips, pull ups, cardio, calf raises and squats.
I've been following it for about 2 months now and I do feel stronger.
However, I got a few questions concerning this:

- I do parallel bar pull ups. Do these give a good workout to my forearms? They look kinda scrawny right now and they're so hard to decently hammer...
- Are dips+pull ups good excercices for overall upper body strength and mass building?
- I kinda suck at pull ups right now. I can do 3 sets, 5-4-3 which is not much. And I can barely finish each set. I do them the "right way" though: pull up, chin over bar, go down very slowly till I deadhang, wait a second to prevent swinging and pull back up. Is it normal I have such a hard time doing these? Will it improve?
- I currently do the dips also the right way: push up swiftly, go down slowly. I do 3 sets of 15 reps and the last 4-5 reps are usually tough to finish properly. Should I add weight and do less reps?
- I read in an article once that doing high reps with less weight builds mass as well. True or rubbish?
- I work out on wednesdays and saturdays. Is that enough?

Sorry for the newbie questions but I'd be very grateful if you could help me with those.
Thanks!

 

[miked8c]

Don't worry about questions, its good your doing pull ups. Those are great, squats are also great for adding overall body mass.

What is your weight and height?

Here are some of the cornerstones for a successful program:

1. Eat, seriously. I am assuming your skinny if your trying to bulk. I used to think I could just lift and get big. No! Eating is just as important in the equation as lifting. Eat

2. Stick with compound lifts as the first exercise in your workout. Then follow those up with smaller muscle groups, these are called assistance exercise.

Compound Exercises: Assistance:
Squats Curls
Bench Dips
Deadlift Pull ups
Military Press Ab work
Calf Raises
(theres alot more of these, also called isolation exercises)


Right now your only using one compoung lift, however pull ups and dips could also be compound since they incolve alot of muscles.

What I am getting at is you should lift three times a week. Monday Wednesday and Friday(if that works). On these days you should start you workout with 1 of the compounds I listed above and then follow that up with some assistance exercises involving the same muscles used in the compound exercise.

Right now you can add some muscle doing what your doing, but if you want to really bulk and get some muscle mass you really should be working with heavy weight compund exercises such as those I listed.

For Dips/Pullups heres my opinion:

Do them at a normal speed that feels right. Don't try to slow down or speed up at different parts. Pull yourself up as quickly as you can and then let yourself down normally, not slow. Just slow enough so that you do not mess up your shoulder.

Same for dips, do both the up portion and the down(negative) portion at similar speeds.

 

[Snowbat]

Hey,
thanks for your answer. yeah I figured compound was the way to go for a beginner. The problem is I don't have any weights. I just have one dumbell with 5kg weight which is, even for a skinny guy like me, not enough. I practiced martial arts for years so I have SOME strength (but i'm still skinny )
I guess I should buy some weight plates. There are no stores around here that sell that but I can find it online I guess.

And yeah I failed to mention my diet... In a nutshell:
- I eat lotsa fish (codfish, tuna, salmon, etc) usually 200-250gr per meal (that's about 0.45-0.55lbs, sorry, I'm from mainland Europe, we use the metric system)
- I eat rice mostly with my meals
- I never eat a meal without veggies.
- A banana every day
- A steak once a week, usually 150-200gr (0.33 - 0.45lbs)
- I never skip breakfast, lunch or evening supper. And I usually eat 4 loafs of bread for breakfast and 4 for lunch.
- I barely eat junk food. I haven't sent a foot in a McDonalds in years and I eat perhaps one pizza per months maybe. I eat a bag of chips sometimes, but that's limited to 1 or 2 per month... I easily have acid reflux so I have to watch what I eat anyways. Junk= pain for me.

I should probably eat more. The problem with a hypoerkinetic ectomorph like me is that I have a fast metabolism and I basically burn everything very quickly. I had a blood test done a few days ago and my bad cholesterol levels were aparently very low.

As for my height/weight: I'm 190cm and 80kg. If I'm calculating well, that's 6'3" and 175lbs approx. Not really uberskinny I guess but I'd like to look a little bulkier anyways. I don't really need to look like Arnold in his peak days (wouldn't MIND looking like that though but it's not my goal right now) I just want to see an above average muscular guy when I look at myself in the mirror.

I'm gonna try to workout 3x per week, but the problem is that right now, I need approx two to three days for the soreness to go away and as far as I understood, training when you're sore is not good. I guess my body will adapt in time though.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I'm feeling home here already

 

[cuthroat]

You need to train at least three days a week if you want to see any significant results long term. Ideally, it wouldn't be at home.

Your diet needs work in terms of quantity. You need to be eating a great deal more of food. You did not post any caloric values up but from what I can see your only consuming around 2k calories a day.

What sort of rice are you eating? if its white its crap cut it out of your diet or switch to a brown rice or something else. Do you consume any dairy products?

Your body will adapt to the soreness. Its fine to work out when your sore but you will want to hit certain areas of your body with certain compound lifts on one day and not the others. Google Riptoe's 3x5 routine or go here http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/w...xercises-articles-more-start-here-655389.html.

And 6'3" and 175lbs is Uber skinny.

 

[miked8c]

Anyone can gain weight man. I used to skate 4 days a week and could not add so much of a lbs.

Check out GOMAD(gallon of milk a day) genius right? Seriously you have a gift in terms of you can eat whatever you want and if you do gain weight chances are it will mainly be LBM.

 

[reef411]

Pullups are great compound exercise for your back and its good that your doing them. When I first started them I couldn't even do one. However I did one set to failure everyday at work and I slowly got better at them. I started from nothing to 15+ reps. Still not great but its a big improvement for me. What Im getting at is that pullups are one of those exercises that start off hard but as you progress reps get easier and your back will show cause of it.

 

[stevesmi]

several tips that can help you

1. eat good food.. if you don't know what is good food then let me explain. mcdonalds, ice cream, cookies = bad food.. sweet potato, brown rice, grassfed beef, eggs = good food
2. do 10-15 sets attacking one muscle group per session and go each set to failure
3. workout 4X per week, alternate muscle groups. if its sore then work out another muscle group

 

[ExtraMile]

post up the whole routine you have been given

post up a typical day's eating

 

[zedhed]

Hey snow, I love hardgainers.
You have a lot of suggestions here and Im gonna give mine as well.
You have a fast metab so DO NOT DO CARDIO. If you do you are robbing your body of potential muscle building.
You pretty much dont need to be concerned with what you eat WITHIN REASON. And dont be afraid to eat pizza.
Because you have a fast metabolism you should not eat more then 5/6x per day. If you do your will speed up your metabolism even more.
So you need to eat really really big meals and you should also drink all the whole milk that you can.
Natty penutbutter and jelly sandwiches are gr8 stuff for you as a hard gainer.
If you can only work out 2x per week then make that work for you, but 3x/week is better.
With your metabolism I would do workouts only of these excersized as you are a beginner;
Deadlift
Squats (alternate from workout to workout)
Bench
Dips
Pull Ups
Overhead press
Bent over Rows

You will want to start off with what feels comfortable to you. This is because you need to get your body used to lifting the weights.
After 3 weeks or so you will want to start looking at sets and reps. But until then work toward 3 sets of 12 reps. Again this is to get your joints, tendons and ligs used to the stress of lifting weight.
Also if you can, make yourself take naps.
Best regards and good luck.

 

[Snowbat]

Thanks for your replies all. I haven't been working out this week because I got myself an angina (or whatever the name in English is... basically: throat infection with fever)
But I'm gonna start doing things more seriously this weekend. I'm planning to do Saturday-Tueday-Thursday.
I'll post my entire routine as soon as I got one figured out.
I also bought a weight belt and some weights to make my dips and squats harder because they're becoming too easy. Pull ups are still a pain though, but I guess it'll go better.

I'm also gonna review my diet. I have a thin layer of fat on my belly. Not a beer gut at all, but still a layer that conceals the abs and that pisses me off, so I'm gonna try and get that away. Just not sure what I shuld do for that? Just let it be for the time being, or do cardio, or watch my diet better?
I got some work to do this weekend don't I?
I would like to thank you all for the tips and the welcomes. I think I'll be staying here for a while and ask advice to the veterans here.