I haven't been to the gym for 2 years +
I was playing soccer last year for fitness, however I tore ligaments in my knee while skiing, and have been out since October last year.
I'm back, and need to strengthen my knee, and I want to get RIPPED
The aim of me going to the gym is to:
A- LOSE BODY FAT
B- GAIN MUSCLE MASS
C- STRENGTHEN MY KNEE
I need help though! I'm looking for well guided diets regarding muscle building, along with gym routines to follow so that I can build muscle.
I'm not aiming to focus just on my knee, I'm aiming to build up my ENTIRE body. I eat just about anything, so the diet doesn't have to be limited to anything.
All help is considered valuable, and is greatly appreciated.
This is by far the most helpful post I have gotten with regards to my lifting - EVER. Thank you so much for that. Also, I generally have trouble following a strict diet, and I seem to be increasingly hungry despite eating 6 meals a day. Should I just eat more at each sitting? For instance, my breakfast was made up of 2 apples, half a rockmelon and a handful or so of grapes. I feel as though that is too much, however as I said I still feel hungry afterwards. My next meal generally leaves me in the same situation, and I'm unsure how to go about it, as I do not want to screw up the nutritional side of it and have trouble gaining muscle.
Personally, I think a mass gainer would better suit me, but again, I'm not exactly certain.
I've been to the physio, who suggested strengthening. I've been playing soccer again and my knee is flaring up again, causing me to limp. I may go back in the near future to see if I have done something to it again.
Finally, what body type would you suggest I have? I'm thinking mesomorph?
Now worries man. ^_^ seen too many people **** it up and waste time to not drop a few knowledge bombs.
Thanks to bloodmyst about the body types, i am an ectomorph.
if you are feeling hungry try switch it up a bit by eating more carbs, when i was doing my diet i found i ate too many carbs and was getting sick and bloated. but carbs are what will get you feeling full - they are a complex sugar which have a low GI (Glycemic index) and slowly release energy over the day.
For breakfast try steel cut oats or porrage (try not to get the instant stuff because it has sugars added to it, but its still a pretty good option) with either yogurt or just part of the fruit you have been having. ]\
As for your knee they way i worked on my shoulder to help get the tendons back to form was to do super light weight, I am talking like 2.5kg and doing presses flys raises and shoulder exercises but doing about 25 reps so it feels more like a deep burn than flexing of the muscle. so i was doing about 4 sets of 18-25 reps to help tighten the tendons around the AC joint.
However i stretched and tor the muscles around my AC joint, i don't know what you did to your knee but be careful when doing a new exercise on it. if it is anything like my shoulder try not to work the muscle group until you feel comfortable. my suggestion would be to jump on the quad curler and the hamstring curler not but any weight on it and do lots of reps - you should feel a deep comfortable burn and don't push it past comfortable. and you are probs going to have to live with the fact that your lower body will suffer for the time being in your routine. also to get bench marks do be so afraid to try one set at a working weight to see how it feels every now and then.
Care bro. Hope it all works out ^_^
EEEEDIT: I would say don't try a mass gainer if you want to lose fat as well, but if you can't keep up with a schedule and are eating properly going to the gym and still not seeing results (my case) - give a mass gainer a go its a bit more about trial an error with the protein shakes, just because one is good doesn't mean its good for someone else.
Again, thank you so much bloodmyst, very helpful information! I actually partially tore my ACL, which put me out of sport for about 8 months, and then when I went snowboarding I did it again :/ So I'm only just getting back into things now, and I'm doing it right this time as I've been threatened with a possible knee reconstruction if it happens again.
I'm more than likely going to keep updating this blog (or writing a new one) with my gym progress for people to follow as an inspiration (and I'll need that inspiration too . I 'should' be starting gym next week depending on work, and my knee has been flaring up again as of late after some pretty intense soccer training regimes.
Is that a photo of you Parox? If so, you want to get bigger? You need to eat, and you need to eat a hell of a lot more (considering your metabolism will burn through a freaking full size chocolate cake in 5 minutes lol). I'd go for at least 6 meals a day (do a bit of research for a decent diet) and chuck in 2 x tablespoons of peanut butter as well. I remember watching a bodybuilding video where Ronnie Coleman was on the off-season for Mr Olympia and he said during this time he was trying to put on weight, having the peanut butter apparently contributed greatly.
Oh and in my previous post, when I mentioned the Creatine. If your going to buy this, make sure you drink LOTS of water. I remember when I was on it, holy guacamole my pee was orange! So I learned my lesson, lol. Funny short story actually, when I was training for a bit, 1 month into taking Creatine I won the inter-school cross country! May I add that I hate running! The stuff gives you rediculous energy. Back in the day, the serious hardcore Body Builders used to eat raw meat just so they could get their Creatine intake (yuk!). Thankfully these days, you can buy it in powder form
Yeah, that is a picture of me Bloodmyst, I eat a lot already! What I would consider to be far too much, and not even healthy food (Legit, I've eaten like, a full cheesecake, or 1L tubs of ice cream in one sitting and it did two parts of sweet F.A.). I will aim to eat even more, and include 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, whether it be on a sandwich or not in my daily diet.
Again, thanks Bloodmyst!
starting strength is a pretty good guide, im sure there is a wiki on that as well. your strength will rise exponentially on that program, then it will slow down but still a very good guide. I am considering to go back to the gym as well, been sitting down to much recently. good luck mate
Just a few things I hope to help add. From your photo you need to eat and eat alot. 6 meals a day is good - also Shakes & pre workout food are classed as meals. But not so good when you said for breakfast all you had was fruit?
You need protien and alot of it. Following are very good sources:
* Meat - Chicken, Fish, Steak, Pork, Mince - Pretty much any meat. And if you want to put on size dont worry about lean cuts or just eating boring chicken all day. You will find it much easier to get food in if it does have a bit of natural animal fat with it. Just cut off excess amounts. Also dont eat deep fried crap.
* Eggs - Awesome bang for size of meal for protien and good fats. Eat these whenever you can.
* Milk - You want to put on size? Drink alot of milk.
These are all good whole food protiens.
Also you want carbs such as-
* Wholemeal bread
* Rice
* Oats
* Potatos
* Veggies
* Fruit
A meal plan I had was as follows-
Wake Up
Pre/During Workout Shake/Meal
Protien Shake - 1 scoop
Skim Milk 250ml
Apple
After Workout Shake
Protien Shake - 2 Scoop
Skim Milk 350ml
Alot of Honey
After Workout meal-
250g of Meat
250g of Mixed Veggies
2 Slices Wholeweat bread
2 Eggs
2-3 Pieces of Fruit
Lunch-
250g of Meat
250g of Mixed Veggies
Rice/Potatos
1 - 2 Eggs
2-3 Pieces of Fruit
Afternoon Tea-
Yogurt
Protien Shake - 1 scoop
2 - 3 Pieces of Fruit
Dinner-
250g of Meat
300g of Mixed Veggies
Daily Supplements-
Whey Protien Concentrate
Multivitamin
Fish Oil
Glucosamine
This was with me training 6 days a week - 3 x Lifting 3 x Cardio
I lost 13 kg from 113 to 100kg without losing any body fat according to caliper tests within 3 months. I put this down to nutrient timings. You can and want to take in as much protien & carbs upto 2-3 hours after a lifting session. If you are ever hunger eat more eggs & fruit. Also as I noted dont stress about cuts of meat - I mean obviously dont get really shitty meat but you dont need to get high price cuts nor eat just chicken breast. Also dont worry about egg myths or the sucrose in fruits.
I had high cholesterol & bordaline diabetes before the above diet. All I ever did was trim off fat and ate mainly pork, steak, chicken thigh/whole chickens.
And both cholesterol & diabetes tests 6 months latter showed both had dropped to healthy levels.
As for workouts starting strength is good otherwise you also have the following: http://madcow.hostzi.com/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm
5 3 1 Jim Wendler - Highly Reccomend His Boring but big version - Will get you big fast. Cant find link but can send you the e-book over email if you like.
531 is what I use and within 6 months totals went as follows -
Bench - 70kg x 1 to 130kg x 1
Squat - 90kg x 1 to 172.5 x 1
Deadlift - 115kg x 1 to 180kg x 3 (need more weights at home to max properly)
Big strength gains and I was losing fat at the same time.
This is all pretty general and more about what works for me. Though if you stick to basic:
Eat alot of Protien/Carbs from whole foods
Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Miltary Press
Thank you very much rythmatik, I had a brief look over all of those links and your post before bed, and Your diet is very helpful. I wasn't sure if I was eating too much, or not enough, but this has given me more of an insight as to what I should be eating.
Also, the links were really helpful! I tend to use http://www.muscleandstrength.com as my source of gym needs, but I will check the others out as well!
I thought my diet would of been helpful for you. It gives you a look at what you would have to get close to eating to reach your goal of 90kg. When I got down to 100kg I had 86-87kg of muscle. I dont believe you would have to eat quiet as much as I was. This is because I was doing 3 nights a week of cardio for MMA training which used up alot of cals. But also on those nights dinner ended up eating 1 and a half of what I listed with rice/potatos ect.
Another couple of tips -
Lift HEAVY & Low Reps.
Also diet wise I found going by how I felt/looked alot more benefical mentally & physically than weighing yourself. I would only weigh myself once a month or so.
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