MyPUAJourney Forum

First of all, I cannot thank Jack enough for doing this. Getting bigger is one of the top Priorities in my life right now, and Ive always wanted to get some personalized advice, but I’m 19 and can’t afford to pay $75 an hour for a personal trainer, and having read what he wrote about muscle type ratios in the other thread, I’m really not so sure the personal trainers at the gym would know that type of stuff.

And thank you for reading some or all of this. I figured I’d give you as much information as possible and you can look at whatever you like.

I started working out a little over a year ago, probably about two months before I left for college (my freshman year). At the time I was 6ft tall and 150 pounds. I was a fucking twig, and I was really embarrassed about it. I did some research and discovered that really skinny people like myself need to eat a lot of calories to put on muscle. So after working out for about a month (probably only 2-3 times a week), I started eating more and taking a weight gainer for the last month of the summer. I worked out about 2-3 times per week during my first year of college with the exception of working out every day for about 3 weeks over Christmas break. For the first half of the year I didn’t have a blender so I only took premade muscle milk shakes after working out and tried to eat a lot (not very successfully). I started out just doing biceps, triceps, chest, and abs, 3 sets each on one machine, but over christmas break and for the second half of the year I started using more machines, adding back and some more chest stuff. I did what I think are called circuit workouts. I would do one set of biceps, then one set of triceps, then one of chest etc., then go through all of them again until I did 3 or 4 sets of each (after reading Jacks reply to Smurf I now realize that this was a big mistake). During the second semester, I got a blender and started taking a weight gainer again. I also started taking creatine in pill form, but I now realize that I don’t think it actually did anything. It probably had something to do with the fact that you need an insulin spike to absorb creatine and I wasn’t taking it with sugar.

When I got home for the summer I weighed about 178lbs. I also grew about an inch, so now I’m 6’1”. People from high school definitely noticed which was quite a confidence booster, because while I did gain about 30lbs, it came on very slowly over the course of the year, so the whole time I thought I was getting no where.

The first month of the summer I probably worked out about three days a week, but only did triceps biceps and some chest. I started taking cell-tech creatine (which may have done something) and regular (non-weight gainer) protein powder after I worked out and on a daily basis. I weighed 180 after a few weeks of summer. At this point I thought I was putting on too much fat from the weight gainer, probably because I didn’t work out enough during my second semester and I took it every day. By a little fat I mean that I was able to get a small pinch of fat if I pinched the skin over my lower abs. Ive always wanted a 6 pack, and Im used to having no fat at all there, so this kind of freaked me out, but in hindsight it really was no big deal at all.

During the second month of the summer I started working out with one of my friends who’s pretty big. We joined a gym and worked out probably about 4 days a week. We did a push day (chest, triceps, and shoulders) and a pull day (back and biceps) and basically alternated every other time we worked out. We did abs every day though. At this point I started doing real benching (free weights) because I now had a friend to spot me and I started doing all of the sets of the same exercise consecutively rather than in a circuit. I probably did about 4 sets and 10-12 reps of each exercise, almost always going to exhaustion in every set. I think at this point the fact that I wasn’t trying to eat a lot for fear of gaining fat actually held me back from building muscle because these workouts were much more intense than my previous ones. Although I think my chest and back did get a little bigger.

When I went on vacation I decided that since I didn’t have time to work out I would go on a diet to lose any fat I had put on in hopes of being able to see my abs a little and so that I could get back to eating as much as I could to bulk without being worried about fat gain. I lost almost all of the fat (there really wasn’t much to begin with, just a little bit over the lowest row of abs). Dieting is so much easier than trying to eat a lot. I also went off creatine at this point.

When I got back from vacation I started eating a lot again and taking a weight gainer after I worked out. I also started taking creatine again when my off phase was over. This time I took Gaspari SizeOn which I think is much better than the muscletech stuff that I took before. I also started taking IntraXcell, a beta-alanine supplement. I started working out about 6 days a week.

After a week or two of that I went back to school. At school Ive been working out about 5 days a week and eating as much as I can. I split up the two day routine into 3 days. I’ll describe it in detail below. I don’t have a scale, but I think Ive gotten some results in the month that Ive been in college. I think my chest has gotten a little bigger. And my arms may have gotten slightly bigger. Arms seem to be a problem for me. Ive always wanted really big arms, but they definitely seem to have grown the least out of everything.

I have put that small amount of fat over my lower abs back on through eating alot, but Im not really worried about it because I figure that the next time I go off creatine, I’ll do atkins for a week to get rid of it.

Note: I read your reply to smurf, and I realized that I have been waiting way to long in between sets. Im really surprised Ive never seen this info before. It seems really important, so you think they would include it with workout routines in magazines and stuff. Ive probably been waiting at least 3 minutes in between sets.

Current Workout routine

Note: at the advice of my friend, I try to raise the weight after every set if I feel that I am capable of lifting a little more

It’s probably meaningless to you because you don’t know the machines, but Ill include the weight I start with on each.

Day 1:

Regular Chest machine (Hammer strength machine, Uses weight plates)
http://us.commercial.lifefitness.com/co ... benchpress
4 sets 8-12 reps (until exhaustion or close to it for every set)
Start 200lbs

I cant find a picture, but with this machine, you start with your arms fully extended away from the sides of your body holding to bars, and keeping your arms extended, you rotate your arms so that they come together in front of you.
4 sets 8-12 reps
Start 60 or 70lbs

Incline Chest press
http://us.commercial.lifefitness.com/co ... clinepress
4sets 8-12 reps
Start 90lbs

Cross cable machine – I the cables to the highest setting on each side, and start with my arms fully extended to the sides, and pull the cables together and down, so that my hands come to meet at my waist,
4sets 8-12 reps
Start 50lbs on each side

Abs
Crunch machine (the type where you are seated and there is a padded bar in front of you)
3-4 sets usually 30-40 reps for the first set and 20-25 for the next 2-3
130lbs
Note: I hate doing crunches, so I always use the weighted ab machines. For this reason, I think my abs are pretty strong (most people do around 90lbs on the machine), but not well defined.

Torso Twist machine (I only started using this recently in hopes of getting some ab definition)
3 sets twisting to each side about 12 reps each
Start 100lbs

Day 2:

Dips
3-4 sets 8-12 reps

Shoulder Press
http://us.commercial.lifefitness.com/co ... ulderpress
4sets 8-12 reps
Start 80lbs

Shrugs (I hold a 45 pound weight plate in each hand and do shrugs)
3 sets 20-30 reps

Tricep machine (hold hands behing head and lift bar, its basically the same thing as lifting a dumbbell behind your head with both hands)
3 sets
Start 100lbs

Tricep pulldown (using slightly bent bar on cable machine)
5 sets 8-12 reps
Start 100lbs

Abs (if I have time) same as day 1

Day 3:

Lat pull-down or pull-ups (the ones where your palms face away from you)
I was using the lat pull-down machine, but for the last few of these workouts I did pull-ups instead, I think I got a better workout from the pull-ups, but I don’t think they work your back as much.
Lat pull down 4 sets 8-12 reps Start 130lbs
Pull-ups 4 sets, till exhaustion, usually 8-10 pull-ups

Cable back exercise (I use the adjustable cable machine, and put the cable all the way down. I use the attachment that has two vertical bars for your hands. I sit down with my legs extended and my feet pressed against the machine and pull the cable towards my stomach.)
5 sets 8-12 repts
170 lbs (the machine isn’t really intended for this so I need a lot of weight)

Seated Bicep curls (I use dumbbells and curl each arm at the same time. I find that this, along with sitting in one of those seats with the straight backs helps prevent me from cheating by leaning back)
5 sets 6-12 reps
Start 30lbs each arm

Bicep with rope on cable machine (hold end of rope with each and pull up toward you)
3 sets 8-12 reps
Start 100lbs

Abs (if I have time)

Diet:
Breakfast- I have a premade muscle milk shake (about 300 calories and 30 grams of protein)or a protein bar (about the same) if I don’t have time to go and get breakfast. If I do have time, I get a plain bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese.

Lunch- I usually get either a hoagie with salami, ham, and corn beef (it’s a little smaller than a subway sandwich), or a chicken Quesada, or a hamburger. Sometimes I have the bagel described above for lunch. I’m really not sure how many calories are in any of this stuff.

Dinner- I usually get pasta with marinara sauce and sausage and a bunch of other stuff in it. Or I get another a subway sandwich (Italian BMT) or a gyro at a deli.

Milk- I try to drink about half a gallon of skim milk a day because I figure that it has both a lot of calories and a lot of protein in an easily consumable form. If I have the meals in my room I drink milk, and I put milk in my protein shakes

Supplements:
Protein: I take ON Whey Protein after working out its about 50g of protein. I just switched from isopure recently. I now realize why its so popular, 50g serving has 10g of glutamine in it and a bunch of other aminos. I also bought ON Casein protein to take before bed, but Ive been lazy and only taken it a few times.

Weight gainer: I take Cytosport Cytogainer. Lately, the only time I take it is when I feel like I haven’t eaten enough during a day.

Creatine: I take Gaspari SizeOn. Its hard to say definitively if its working because as I described above my workout routine has gotten more intense lately as compared to when I took creatine in the past, but I think it is. I didn’t get any immediate gain after taking it, so hopefully not much water retention.

Beta Alanine: I was talking IntraXcell Beta-Alanine, but there seems to be a shortage or something because its on backorder everywhere now, so I haven’t been able to take it for about a week.

NO: I often take Superpump 250 before I work out. I don’t think it really gives you that much more of a pump, but if Im not in the mood to work out it definitely helps.

Forgot to post a goal picture

http://pro.corbis.com/images/BXP53008.jpg?size=572&uid=%7B0DE01554-6419-4436-8912-63F6E49BC691%7D

minus the gay look on his face

You're body has become accustomed to the exercises you have been performing. To make matters worse you've been using a lot of machines during your workouts - and machines don't build raw muscle the same way free weights do. Free weights work with gravity, meaning other muscles come into play just to help stabilize the weight! The more muscles that are firing together, the more growth hormone is fired, thus the more the muscle gains the capacity to grow!

We need to overhaul and shock your body into performing better. What We're going to do is utterly insult your nervous system so it's got no choice but to tell your muscles to grow back bigger and stronger - we're gonna' put 'er into fight/flight mode. And I hope you're a fighter!

For your chest we're going to focus on an interesting routine, it's called the "Patient lifters method." You'll find out why in a moment.

On your chest day I want you to ONLY perform this one exercise, which is a flat bench press. You are going to start off by lifting a weight you can "comfortably" lift for only TWO reps. By comfortably I mean you might be able to get another one if you really struggled for it.
You're going to perform this exercise for 6 reps, and you're going to take a 4 minute rest between each set (time it precisely on a digital watch).
The tempo is going to be very slow, 4.1.2 (for questions on "tempo" refer to "Smirks Fitness Challenge" post)

Lifting in such a strict manner is going to force your body into adapting to the weight very quickly, which will give you a fast strength increase (translated of course into a size increase) as well as shock your body into growing more. You are to continue 6 sets of 2 reps, until you reach a total of 6 sets of 4 reps. Meaning you can lift the desired weight 4 reps each set, so you STOP when you hit the 4 marker, and try to hit that again your next set.

Next I want you to work out your biceps to exhaustion using strict barbell curls, followed by cheat curls, then perform 40 chin ups with palms facing you (emphasis on the bicep over the lat) before the end. Followed up by crunches and a 20 minute jog.

Your third day is going to comprise of triceps, and shoulders. you're going to perform laying triceps extensions, 4 sets of 8 with a 1.5 minute rest inbetween, followed by dumbbell kick backs, 3 sets of 10, 1 minute rest between, followed by military press, 4 sets of 8 with a 2 minute rest, and finally, bent over dumbbell flies, 3 sets of 12, 1 minute rest.
Finish off this days exercises with 4 sets of 50 crunches.

Your fourth and final work out day, will consist of pure legs. You'll start the day off with a 20 minute jog (treadmill or real jog, I prefer real jogs personally), and then move to the squat rack. You are to perform 4 sets of 12 squats, with a 2 minute rest between them. Then perform 3 sets of 12 calf raises, 1 minute rests. And finally finish off with some laying leg curls, 4 sets of 10. If your legs aren't totally dead at this point, finish off the day with a 15 minute jog.

As for your diet, it seems you have a lot of chunk on you. The guys in the pictures are at what seems 4% body fat. You're not near the 4% mark, you seem to be somewhere around 9% (I could be wrong, test it foryourself to find out) Either way, you need to get DOWN to at least 6% to look like your goal pictures. I want you to follow a diet similar to the one I gave Smirk, only I want your max calorie intake to be 2200 per day, and I want you to eat your body weight in grams of protein per day (like smirk was instructed)

So to be clear it's a 6 meal a day program, consuming each meal withing 2-3 hours of eachother. Focus on drinking a lot of water, and keeping the meals no more than 400 calories each. As long as you consume the proper protein consumption this meal system will work brilliantly for you!

IF you have any more questions hit me back!

- jack Coxwell

I am not a fitness expert in any way, but I completely agree with jack in the use of free weights over machines.

I workout at home with just dumbbells and a weight bench. When I was in college I had access to a huge gym with tons of equipment, but to be honest I feel like I am getting better results now with far more basic setup than I was in college with all the fancy machines.

Hey, I didnt realize that you had responded until today. Ill get started on the routine tonight.

I have some questions about the biceps day:

"Next I want you to work out your biceps to exhaustion using strict barbell curls, followed by cheat curls, then perform 40 chin ups with palms facing you (emphasis on the bicep over the lat) before the end. Followed up by crunches and a 20 minute jog. "

Im not sure exactly what you mean by working them to exaustion. Do you mean one set, or several sets? How much time in between sets? Heavy weight or light weight? Should the 40 chinups be all at once, or can I take a rest if I cant do any more? Should I limit the amount of rest if I do take a rest?

Also, why do you suggest using barbells over dumbells? I would think dumbells would be better as they insure that both of your arms get a good workout. I tried doing curls with a barbell today. I did 6 to 7 sets (can remember) of 7-12 reps with a 50 pound barbell with 90 seconds or less of rest in between. Then for the cheat curls I went up to a 60 pound barbell and did 3 to 4 sets of about 6-8 reps. By the time I got to the chin ups I could barely do them, but it really wasnt the same sensation I get when I do the same thing with dumbbells. Last time I worked out with dumbells, I only rested 90 seconds in between sets and did 25 pounds on each arm. I could barely move my arms and my biceps and forearms were pumped more than ever. My arms were sore for 3 days after that (maybe this isnt a good thing?), and usually my biceps dont hurt at all in the days following a workout. I guess I'll see if they're sore again, but Im not feeling like they will be.

I just bought a body fat calculating scale. Its a good one, it has both foot contacts and hand contacts. My body fat seems to be in the 12-14% range according the the scale. My weight is about 184 when my system is pretty much empty.

Im going to follow your diet plan, but can I really put on mass eating that few calories? That seems to go against most of what Ive read about building mass. I want to get cut eventually, but for the time being, Im really most concerned with mass, and I guess not putting on any more fat.

Also, Im assuming that there is no break day? (Not a problem, Im just checking)

What about back? I dont see any back exercizes, or am I just putting that off for the time being?

Thanks!

Another question-
Would it be possible for me to use dumbells for the chest day? I dont have a spotter the majority of the time when I workout, and I think it's way to dangerous for me to attempt to lift this much on a barbell without a spotter. I tried it using one of those squat racks where the barbell slides up and down, but its really not the same thing as free weights.