Q&A for: 16-Mar-10
2935. Q:
Mike i know you are bussy but i want to ask you something again :S Look, im really confused now ... First: the owner of the gym told me that if i for example train the chest, i must do the first 3 sets on bench cos its basic exercise. Second i do is the incline DB press or flat DB press, thats 6 sets of exercises. And now he told me that if i want to build some more muscle mass its enough to have only 9 sets of exercises, so the first 6 and now i need to do only 3 more sets of exercises. Than i go on the cable cross and do some exercises there, but i think it isnt enough ... can u tell me some workouts for training the chest pls ? And as i said, i will bulk myself first a bit, than i will start with fithness burning exercises, so if u find time gief programe for chest first. thanks in advance
A:
You got good advice from the gym owner. Most of the time you should be focusing on the big compound exercises like the bench press (for chest) or squat (for lower body) and most workouts should start with them. And 9 sets per muscle group is definitely enough to stimulate muscle growth. Bulking up and building muscle is ALL about the diet. You can do 50 sets of exercises, but if you don't eat enough calories to gain weight or enough protein to support muscle growth, all those sets will not get you any new muscle. If you want to bulk up you HAVE to eat enough to gain weight. Read my Nutrition article and use one of the diets suggested there or use the Fitness Guide to get a starter diet for yourself. Then monitor your weight and try to stay on a steady slow weight gain pace. About 1 pound of weight gain every 2 weeks is a good pace for most guys. If you gain weight faster than that, then you want to reduce your calories slightly -- otherwise you'll just end up with a lot of extra fat. If you don't gain weight fast enough, then you want to add calories to stay on that 1 pound every 2 weeks pace. The most important message about bulking up is that it's done in the kitchen, not in the gym! Those 9 sets of chest exercises are more than enough. You just need to eat right to give your body energy to build muscle.
2936. Q:
what was should be the ideal weight of a 19 years old, 5 feet lady?
A:
Anywhere between 100 and 125 pounds is considered healthy weight for you.
2937. Q:
is that people above 40 we cant grow muscle, am vegetrian plz pescribe some veg diet.
A:
It definitely becomes much much harder to build muscle as we get older. Our bodies are designed to 'peak' sometime in our twenties as far as physical performance. That doesn't mean however that 40- and 50-year olds can't be in good shape or can't build muscle at all, especially if they start out from not so good shape. For vegetarians, there's an additional challenge of getting enough protein in the diet. But again, it's certainly not impossible, especially if you can eat dairy and/or eggs and egg whites.
Start by reading my Nutrition article -- the guidelines listed there apply to vegetarians just as they do to everyone else. But you will need, of course, to find good non-meat sources of protein. Getting 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily should be the minimum target if you are trying to bulk up and most people can benefit from more. If you weigh 180 pounds that means at least 180 grams of protein daily with some in each meal.
If you can eat dairy, cottage cheese and whey protein powder are terrific protein sources and I would try to get close to half or even more of daily protein from them. Milk, other cheese, as well as eggs and egg whites could also play a big part in your diet. The rest of the protein will have to come from plant sources -- usually mainly from legumes like beans, lentils, and peas. Legumes have about 50% of their calories come from protein, which is very high for plant-based foods and are the easiest way to get a lot of protein for vegans. Tofu and tofu-based meat substitutes are excellent legume-source of protein and can replace meat in many recipes. The rest of protein will need to come from whole grains like oats, brown rice, and quinoa as well as nuts and seeds and a bit from green leafy veggies like spinach.
So again, read through Nutrition article and then use the Fitness Guide plan out how many calories and grams of protein/carbs/fats you need daily to gain muscle, Then take the diet suggested by the Fitness Guide and replace non-vegetarian foods in it with roughly similar amounts of vegetarian protein-rich foods that I outlined above. If you'd like you can post back here with your new diet plan and I'll tell you if it needs more work. Good luck!
2938. Q:
Mike, on medium volume when do you go to failure? Since low volume is usually high intensity , I thought I shops only go to failure on some sets, such as the last sets of every excersice.
A:
I prefer going to failure on most or even all sets if the goal is to build muscle or lose fat, but it's more of a preference than a rule. There is no single right answer here. It's OK to go to failure on every set, even on medium and high volume, and it's OK to never go to failure or only on the last set -- you can make good progress either way. The best option is to change up your program every two months to present different challenges to your body and to prevent overtraining. For example, you may spend two months doing high volume, high reps, and rarely going to failure, and then spend the next 2 month doing high intensity low reps to failure.
So don't worry too much about which sets to go to failure on in any one program, but instead make sure that you change your programs every few months and with each change present a different challenge to your body.
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