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Any Gym Rats Here?

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Dan1584

Bluelighter
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Dec 18, 2002
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Tampa, Florida
Ok... so I'm a pretty damn skinny guy. 5'11" 155-160lbs. January of 2008 I decided I wanted to change my skinny no toned body. So I got on a crazy protein diet... reduced my carbs to good cards and minimal ones at that. I ate a ton of veggies and various meats, 4 times a day. I went to the gym 4-5 days a week and focused on weight training with little emphasis on cardio. I used creatine and protein shakes as well... I went ALL OUT for 8 months.

And I saw pleasing results. Not anything AMAZING, but I was definitely on my way and saw that it was paying off. It's hard for skinny guys like me to gain weight and get toned and bigger... so anyway.

I started my masters of architecture this fall and literally had barely ANY time to eat, sleep or see anyone outside of school. And it's going to remain that way for the spring semester, but apparently all subsequent semesters after that are a lot less time consuming... So I figure, screw the spring since I won't have time still, so I'll start back on my routine during the summer beyond. Now... here is my question...

Should I, during the busy spring semester, to start back on my crazy veggie/protein diet and protein shakes? I'm thinking with the lack of the gym and me just eating that I MAY gain some GOOD weight and be at least keeping my body from losing protein and that when summer time comes I'll just have to sculpt that down and go from there.

Any thoughts? Dunno how well that would work...?
 
how are you so busy that you cannot workout 45 minutes 3 days a week? Thats all you need. You should strip your routine down to the bare essentials. Here's a decent bare essentials program (rotate between A and B). Only listed are worksets (they don't include a couple warmup sets):
A:
Squat 3x5
OH Press 3x5
Clean 5x3

B:
Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

You can toss in pullups too at the end of each workout for conditioning (try to work up to 3x15 or something like that).

It takes very little time to do that routine but if you are constantly adding weight it will become VERY hard and you will see VERY NICE payoffs if you maintain an above maintanence diet.

The too little time excuse doesn't wash for anybody really, even med students have enough time to take care of their bodies by working out. I'm a full time student also and I know its hard to figure out a good weekly 'routine'...but its possible man. You just have to think hard about where you can cut leisure time out so you can take care of all your work (lifting is a necessary part of your workload at least if you want to be the best person you can possibly be).
 
Most people don't realize how big of a factor diet is. You have to get your calories, even if they're dirty.
 
For me its not much about time but about motivation. When im studying i have alot of time since studying is a little easier than a full time job. When i have a full time job i feel its going to be hard to maintain my routine, but i guess thats when you make a sacrifice.

Also i dont want to let myself go once i get to 30, which happens to alot of ppl.
 
a lot of people don't realize how long it takes either. i don't even see gains anymore. one month i might notice something change a small amount or notice a little more definition in an area.. that's about it. the body can only create about 1 pound of muscle a week under completely optimal conditions -

ie:
good hard lifting routine
adequate nutrition (enough cals and protein etc)
enough water
no drug or alcohol use (drugs and alcohol catabolize muscle like crazy)
 
^ disagree with the last statement. You can't blanket statement a category like 'drugs' and make a claim that holds any water really. The category is entirely too disparate.

Drugs I've had good success using while lifting/building my body: marijuana, phenibut, G (if you keep it VERY seldom), GH-releasers like CJC-1295 and GHRP-6, and IGF.
 
The too little time excuse doesn't wash for anybody really, even med students have enough time to take care of their bodies by working out. I'm a full time student also and I know its hard to figure out a good weekly 'routine'...but its possible man. You just have to think hard about where you can cut leisure time out so you can take care of all your work (lifting is a necessary part of your workload at least if you want to be the best person you can possibly be).
Click to expand...

LOL, well my roommate IS a med student and she doesn't have NEARLY as much work as I do. I spend from 8am to 3am every day at school working to keep up. Getting your Masters in Architecture is EXTREMELY demanding. I mean, yeah sure you can make time for it... there are several guys in my glass who take time out to go work out, you know what there grades are? B- (which in my program is considered failing) whereas I have an A+ and I'd like to keep it that way.

This next semester is going to be even more labor intensive and I know I won't have the time to work out properly. So I'm looking into an alternative right now. After this next semester ends all subsequent semesters have soooo much more breathing room, it's just the first two that are designed to make or break you.
 
the op... ARE YOU AWARE THA BODYBUILDING IS 80% DIET??? you simply have to eat big to get big.

Go out buy a gallon of milk everyday and drink it, do lots of squats... and you'll get big. then after a few months get some steroids
 
Gaian Planes said:
^ disagree with the last statement. You can't blanket statement a category like 'drugs' and make a claim that holds any water really. The category is entirely too disparate.

Drugs I've had good success using while lifting/building my body: marijuana, phenibut, G (if you keep it VERY seldom), GH-releasers like CJC-1295 and GHRP-6, and IGF.
Click to expand...

Its obvious which drugs I'm talking about:

Alcohol of any kind
tobacco
stimulants of all types (meth, amp, coke, e, etc.) exceptions being low dose ephedrine and caffeine

and I'd disagree with marijuana personally.

theres also many drugs that interfere with anabolism or cause catabolism but that's a long list.

oh and peptides aren't really drugs..
 
If Obama can stay in shape anybody can. Honestly that guy's schedule is about as brutal as it can be.
 
Yeah if you're 19. He's 47 with the most stressful job on the planet and a family.
 
Don't forget he's also half Kenyan. Genetics play a large role in body composition.
 
Sure, genetic make-up has to do with how skinny he stays etc. (from what I saw him eating on the trail he can basically eat anything and stay super skinny... I also remember him saying Michele reminded him constantly to eat because he loses weight easily) but he works out almost daily. It's all about scheduling; a trait I wish I were better at sticking to.
 
aanallein said:
Its obvious which drugs I'm talking about:

Alcohol of any kind
tobacco
stimulants of all types (meth, amp, coke, e, etc.) exceptions being low dose ephedrine and caffeine

and I'd disagree with marijuana personally.
Click to expand...

Everyone is different, but i have kickass results with consuming cannabis in the evening followed by gorging on food. Weed lets my body process 5K calories in a day easy (and I have a very healthy diet).

The cannabis + lowered levels of testosterone shit is a bunk study backed by the same people that want drugs illegal. Its a street myth. Just google it, its been restudied and debunked for 15+ years or so.

Im not saying theres no side effects to smoking/eating cannabis with regards to weightlifting. But I consider it a tradeoff for what it does to my appetite.

/goes and makes 2nd dinner...


meh, really i used to never see increase in bodymass after a full year of lifting (albeit somehow getting stronger, whatever lol). Ive gained a shit ton of mass, relatively speaking, from following rules a prof bodybuilder told me.

Cycle your workout style:

4 Weeks of hypertrophy
(8-12 reps, 4 sets, pretty much everything you do - do it VERY slow. Max weight so that you pretty much fail completely on the 12th rep, or get a minimum of 8. Focus strongly on the negative. Your initial pumps will feel deceptively easy, your final pumps will burn like wildfire).

4 Weeks of strengh training
(5-9 reps, 3-4 sets, fail on 9th rep of 1st set. much more weight than hypertrophy phase. Increase the tempo slightly from previous period.).

4 Weeks of neurological power training
(1-5 reps, 3 sets, failure on 5th rep of 1st set. Youre basically maxing out everything you do. This trains your neurochemical response so that when you do hypertrophy again, you can get quite a lot more weight. Focus somewhat on the negative, but do these as fast as your body can handle without damaging ligaments.)

10 days of rest

repeat.

Each above "week" must include 2-3 days of rest.

Ive stacked like 10lbs of new body mass and am hideously cut now, after 6 months of this. I have a few articles of clothing I cant even fit into comfortably now. Im still comparatively thin (to some jacked bodybuilder dude), but strength and response are fucking obscene. The only suppliment I take is a tiny amount of creatine + caffiene before lifting, and some whey when Im done. Outside of that, I get everything the body needs via diet.
 
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^ Nice post rm-rf :)

Especially... "Max weight so that you pretty much fail completely on the 12th rep" As heavy as possible considering this and you pack it on
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But I will add, its unlikely you will be able to do 12 reps on the following sets. So it might go something like 12 reps, 10 reps 8 reps. Just making it clearer for everyone...


Out of curiosity, what other exercise to you get apart from weights? Do you get much incidental exercise as far as walking goes??
 
Pretty sure you can get 5k cals per day without weed THEWOOD. :P

Rest of your post is good tho

personally I just change up my workout whenever I feel like it. right now I'm doing a high rep/set scheme with light weight but usually i go moderately heavy. as long as you keep it changing your body will continue to respond
 
i basically live at the gym. i work there so i probably spend 75% of my week there.
there is just nothing better than exercise, it's the best self confidence booster ever.
 
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