91
Your goals and your current level of progress determine the number of sets and reps.
Possible Goals
Training for strength, power, endurance and hypertrophy all require a different number of sets and reps:
Strength (how much weight your muscle can move) is best developed by lifting as much weight as possible. This is probably best achieved with 5 or less ...
37
First, it must be noted that the quantity of protein that is being recommended by the calculator you have found is not supported by science. The literature suggests that optimal recovery occurs with a maximum of about 2 grams per kilogram of (lean) body mass per day (g/kg/d), with most of the world's institutes of sport, for example, recommending between 1.5 ...
27
If you want to gain muscle and strength, then you need to
Eat
Don't buy into the 'hardgainer' non-sense.
Calories In > Calories Expended = Weight Gain
That's the simplest way I can put it. If you eat like a skinny person, you will gain weight like a skinny person (little to none). Proper nutrition is of course next but a little out of scope for this ...
26
EDIT: Since "fit" is a very arbitrary term, I should include my definition, since the asker did not.
From the starting point of a 50kg man, I consider fit to include
gaining quite a lot of weight, mostly muscle
correcting most, if not all, posture imperfections and muscular imbalances
learning proper form in all exercises, and learning how to utilize ...
25
If you are heavier you will be stronger wether this is by fat or by muscle I think we can all agree on that.
On what do you base this? Apart from very few lifts where a bit more body weight helps you, I can't see a scenario that shows having extra fat helps you lift weights.
Say there is a version of me of 70kg with 10% body fat and a version of me of ...
23
A very well thought out question. First, the technical term for holding your breath is called the Valsalva maneuver. In the world of weight lifting it has a distinct purpose: to increase the body's ability to protect the spine under heavy load. The Valsalva maneuver does not work alone. There's a pretty fair treatment of the subject on a Rebock Crossfit ...
21
The row is the exercise that best antagonizes the push-up.
It's an easy conclusion to make just by considering the force vector of the push-up. The direction of force is outward and perpendicular to the body. If you reverse that vector, you have a row.
To clarify further, imagine only the upper arm and the chest when doing a push-up (imagine you just ...
21
What is a "good morning"?
Just to add context, a "good morning" is when you're doing a squat, you go down to the lowest point, but then you extend the knees without maintaining an upright back.
This results in the butt being raised up, but not the chest, so you're just bending forward, with a lot of weight on your neck rather than your shoulders. Then you ...
18
Sure it's possible, but it depends on what you are personally willing to sacrifice.
There are 168 hours in a week. Even if you work 60 hours in a week and sleep 56, that leaves 52 hours of the week available. If you are single without kids, it is plenty of time to get in the workouts needed to shape your physique the way you want.
However, it will require ...
14
I'm afraid that's purely genetic. The only "muscles" in that part of the wrist are the Pronator Quadratus, and they are so small, they'll never get noticably bigger.
If you want thicker wrists, I'm afraid you're going to have to gain a LOT of weight. Fat, specifically.
Also, just to squash your food question; there is no food that is good for growing a ...
14
Bodybuilding is a long term endeavor, two to three weeks is nothing in the world of bodybuilding. If you'd said two to three years, then it would be a different matter.
Whatever you're doing, carry on doing it for at least 6 months, then see where you are with it.
That being said, if you want to gain muscle (which I assume is what you mean by bodybuilding) ...
12
Define waste.
You may or may not gain weight, but there are other considerations at play. Excessive caloric intake will probably cause you to gain weight, plus there are other metabolic considerations from the reduction in exercise that may have an affect as well.
When you have an excessive amount of protein intake, then you start placing a larger burden ...
12
The most important thing with getting people started lifting is to help them to like lifting. The worst thing you can do is to overwhelm them with details. The dirty little secret for newbies is they can do just about anything and make some relatively quick increases (with few exceptions). That means it matter less what they do and more that they do ...
11
Rippetoe & Kilgore describe in Practical Programming why many trainers--particularly strength trainers, and most particularly weightlifting trainers--eschew crunches:
The lower back is supported from the anterior by the abs, and ab work done correctly, protects and assists lumbar stability. "Done correctly" means that the abs are strength-trained, as ...
11
Everything always depends on your goals.
The best exercises are the ones that help you accomplish your goals.
If you are a power lifter, your goals are to get the biggest squat, deadlift, and bench press you can. Obviously, it helps to do those exercises to make them stronger. It does also happen that they are very good exercises for General Physical ...
11
There's actually a number of strength sports, where people who don't compete train similarly to competitors in those sports. A brief understanding of them will help you decide what would be a better match for you:
Bodybuilding is primarily building and shaping your muscle for aesthetics. However, there is a big nutritional component to bodybuilding that's ...
10
Why would Vince be so anti-crunch?
I wouldn't say Vince is anti-crunch so much as he is anti-novice. The distinction here is that Vince would assume if someone were to do crunches as part of their routine, then that person is a novice and does not belong in his gym.
Is there any merit to this belief?
Yes. Ask anyone in the world and chances are most ...
10
Short of getting coached directly, the best tool for the job is taking video. There are a number of digital video recorders that have at least an hour of video available on the device. When you are training by yourself, you want a video recorder that can stable enough for you to stand up and trust that it won't fall over while you are lifting. You may ...
10
I would say it is almost impossible to exactly mantain body size. I would recommend to alternate low workout periods with higher ones (say, 1 month of aerobic and low intensity and low volume weight training and 1 month of higher weight training).
In this way, you would lose a bit of muscle while reducing body fat and re-taking previous muscular condition at ...
10
First of all, know that there is no ONE best way to curl. There are a few factors here to be aware of.
Standing vs. seated
When you curl standing up, it's very important that you try to keep your upper body as static as possible. It's easy to help out with your entire body by swinging the bar, taking focus away from the biceps.
This is, however, its own ...
10
You are not an ectomorph. There is no such thing as an ectomorph, as the concept of somatotypes is a nonsense pseudoscience that was made up in the 1940s and has never been supported by evidence.
What you are, at 5'7" and 55kg, is very skinny. If you eat more without exercising, you'll get fat, and if you eat more and add a sufficient intensity and volume ...
9
I don't know if this is practical for you, but joining a gym and hiring a personal trainer may be the most effective option. That's what I did right after I graduated college, and I found it worked out very well. I worked with a experienced trainer once a week (and lifted once a week on my own), and put on about 10lbs of muscle mass in the next year and a ...
9
You're already doing the first and most important thing: you're working the upper body more than your lower, since you're on GreySkull LP rather than a more squat-and-lower-body-pull program like StrongLifts or Starting Strength.
It is important to note that you're entering the realm of bodybuilding at this point: developing aesthetics instead of strength, ...
9
My son asked me to take a look at this question. I'm a second-generation phlebologist, myself the son of the man who coined the word "Sclerotherapy" (=injection treatment of varicose veins) in 1939, and who founded the organization currently called the "American College of Phlebology" (it started as the "Phlebology Society of America", which I ran for about ...
9
First, this is not immediate cause for alarm.
It is rather common as far as post-workout complications go, and is not, to my knowledge, an indicator of more serious problems.
Second, the reason for this.
Your skeletal muscles are controlled by motor nerves. Each motor nerve controls a large group of muscle cells. Of importance is that these groups overlap,...
9
Alcohol has many detrimental effects in the body, and you cannot replace carbs with it.
Lowers Growth Hormone and Testosterone
Inhibits recovery
Causes dehydration
Lowers muscle glycogen
Decreases aerobic capacity
It is caloric, but non-nutrient
Alcohol has a catabolic effect on protein synthesis; the result is lower muscle mass/smaller gains, but it also ...
9
Do slow negatives, start at the top and lower yourself slowly, this is the way most people get strong enough to do their first, clean pull/chin-ups. If you have a rubber band to attach to the bar, that can work too.,
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