lifting

Post Reply New Topic

I've always enjoyed lifting weights but never had enough motivation to get really big....plus since my motor skills aren't amazing, it makes it harder....does anyone have any advice?

I started practicing handstands, I can nearly do a complete handstand pressup now.

At 30 years of age, my upper body strength has exploded, I have developed very strong shoulders & Triceps and my forearms look like popeye.

Get started on the handstand pressups, the single most effective bodyweight exercise

from my experience, success is the best motivator.

starting muay thai after having trained a few boxing basics made my punching power skyrocket - sparking more interest in exercises to increase my max and explosive strength as well as spending more time shadowboxing & on the heavy bag to hone technique and pondering to get a speedball.
the next muay thai session, i want to see any kind of improvement from myself - even if small. if no improvement took place, i will have to train more to have something against the frustration...
muscle development right now is absolutely motivating me to further train: tomorrow after muay thai, i am going to make a test run through all the machines to see where my force limits went.
some parts of kicking technique frustrate me right now: i am doing more and more slow-motion and shadowboing exercises to get it right... not getting the darn kick to work properly frustrates me incredibly: seeing the set goal (improving my body kick to get it to rib breaking power) at a static distance (faiing to get the hip torqued in fast enough).

in a recent newsletter, there was a set of rules for athletes. one of them was: "If you don't have a goal and a deadline you are just
exercising, not training." - which i recommend as basic dictum for your training. set a first goal (dont start with goals that need years to arrive at) and a close deadline.

good lifting

My advice is to start off with a weight that you can handle and then build reps that way.

Then when you feel like you can handle it go to heavier and then heavier weights.

But don't bulk up for the sake of bulking up.

For me personally I don't want the kind of muscles where my arms look like water balloons, I want stringy muscle (the kind where you are strong but your arms don't like like they came from a comic book.

So if you start slow you should be find, but don't rush things.

Because your arms will either be to fatigued and never come down, ie your muscles keep in a continual tightening, or you will hurt something.

PS: All this talk of working out makes me want to do some, god I need to get back in shape.

Lifting is fun, but I think they body builder look is kind of queer.

I'm going to be dead honest here. Most people won't get very much bigger no matter how much they lift and how much stronger they get. I've learned that most people who seriously bulk up from working out are using anabolic steroids. I know this from experience. I've been working out since I was 15, I'm 20 now. Since then I have added about 300 pounds to my bench press, my arms are not much bigger than they were when I started at 15. The people I know who seriously bulked up were all on steroids.

Getting stronger without steroids will give your muscles a more refined look but don't expect to have your muscles explode in size.

This is true. You will get bigger if you lift big very regularly and eat a lot (I have done this), but you probably won't get much past a certain size, and you certainly won't look like the guys you see on TV. The body builders, pro wrestlers, etc all are on the juice. Even pro athletes in sports where they test know how to get around it. In boxing for example, people only juice when they are training for a fight, not right before, and the athletic commission only tests for banned substances right after a fight.

i love lifting best advice is to just do the work follow the program and you will get results

i love lifting best advice is to just do the work follow the program and you will get results

I agree with this. Handstand pressups is one of my main work outs. It took me about 3 years before I got my balance up enough and strenght up enough to do the full push ups. But its great getting there and once you achieve it.

Been able to do the handstand push ups for about 3 years now. Recomend that kind of workout. Increases strenght, balance, motor skills, fitness

I will say this. Do not train in just one thing. Don't just lift weights. Run and do handstands etc as well.

I disagree with how you guys are saying you can't bulk yourselfs up. I know I could bulk myself up alot more if i wanted to using my methods. But i have reached my target size. which is a size that I think girls will be most interested in and I will be most agile in. Big body builders are often not agile of flexable.

That reminds me keep your flexablity up.

This is me. I have built my way up from being a Stick figure to this. A little exersice often is recommended.

by the way, did it strike anyone of you as funny, how this subforum houses threads on martial arts and weightlifting side-by-side with threads on zelda and final fantasy?

YES I SURELY DO! This is my thing.

If you have problems with technique you need to concentrate and practice. In order to improve your motor skills you obviously need to teach your neuro muscular system how to do the exercises I recommend very high repitition work for practice. And make sure you try your best to get it perfect every time.

Why high reps, 1 it's easy to learn and teach the exercises with light weights, practice practice, practice. For optimal muscle building anything over 20 may be too much but when I first started I made good gains with sets of 225 which also helps to drive back your pain threshold even more.

I suppose when you say MOST PEOPLE you are right. But what makes you think we are anything like most people? You don't have to watch to many pro bodybuilders being interviewed to realise that way more than 1/100 pro bodybuilders are Aspergers it's more like 2/5. And the incidence of monotone speech is at least 6/10 among caucasian bodybuilders. The best Bodybuilders also tend to have very little resting muscle tonus compared to what I would call strugglers.

Plus adding 300lbs to the bar from age 15 to 20 shows you are not exactly doing badly adding weights to the bar and frankly at your age you will add strength more easily than size thats just how it is (I went through the same thing although I did add 6 inches to my arms between age 18 and 20 which I thought was alot). Later in life you will more easily add size without having to do drugs. Plus if you are more defined and not getting bigger you need to eat more because if you are not gaining fat or gaining enough muscle then it's quite obvious you are not eating enough to get bigger.

IMO at least when motor deficiency is not present the ability to add size and particularly strength is part of the Aspergers advantage. If nothing else.

High Pain Threshold
Obsessive focus in a single interest

Are the most important known prerequsites of bodybuilding success.

my post from this thread; http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... 58&start=0

Youd do well to check out this site; www.hypertrophy-specific.com A lot of the members are students of sports science, and all the advice in the official articles is referenced to scientific research (rather than myth). Its quite a friendly place too IIRC.

Seriously - thats a fantastic site. I get the impression most casual BBers (including personal trainers etc) dont have a clue what their actually doing with regards to hypertrophy - Its amazing how many people still think pushing their 12rep maxes every week & going to failure every workout is somehow going to help them grow over the long term!*

One of the main reasons that the only guys getting anywhere seem to be those on juice, is because being on juice makes a s**t, ill-concieved routine into a good one.

*No offense if thats what anyone enjoys doing, it may be very effective for endurance or strength, its just a very poor system if your training naturally & your goal is hypertrophy.

I love to workout. My advice is to just go at it at your own pace. Lift slowly 10-12 reps for 2-3 sets and feel the burn. Once you get used to it, increase the weight gradually.

If you're looking to build on strength rather than bulking up on your muscles, set the amount of weights a little higher than ideal and lift them with fewer repetitions.

Try not to rush and be yourself. Anotherwords, don't try to rush your workout routine to the point where you're trying to look as huge as Hulk Hogan or else you may hurt yourself and/or not get where you want to be. Go to the gym a couple times a week.

Also, I recommend you add some cardio exercise.