Body Building

[AslanTheKing]

I prefer my muscles functional and I can already open all the jars I need to.

You have a weak handshake. A handshake like a dead fish! I suggest squeezy balls! You'll become more confident, and everyone will know just how confident and awesome you are.

And Lootifer, listen to BigBallssqueezyng
i heard his right hand, arm is much stronger than hes left hand, its all training

his left hand is only used to turn pages

[BigBallinStalin]

New workout routine.


Get outta your chair, point at something and yell, "MYEH!!"
(30 reps)

show

[Lootifer]

My current workout:

Cools, Witvrouw, Mahieu, and Danneels (2007) researched isokinetic scapular muscle performance in overhead athletes with and without shoulder impingement to identify any deficits in the scapular muscles of athletes with shoulder impingement.[5] Using 30 overhead athletes with shoulder impingement (21 males and 9 females) and 30 overhead athletes (18 males and 12 females) without shoulder pain (mean age of 23.2 years old) they measured scapular protraction and retraction of the scapula at two different velocities (12.2 cm/s and 36.6 cm/s). Using valid and reliable measures, Cools et al. found that overhead athletes with shoulder impingement had decreased force output at both velocities in the protractor muscles compared to their uninjured arm and uninjured overhead athletes. Cools et al. (2007) used the importance of scapular strengthening and observed muscle activity of the upper trapezius, middle trapezius, lower trapezius and serratus anterior during twelve rehabilitation exercises to determine which exercises are the best for scapular strengthening and scapular balance.[5] They used forty-five healthy college-aged students (twenty men and twenty-five women with an average age of 20.7 years old) and placed surface electrodes on the four muscles during the randomized order of the rehabilitation exercises. They found five exercises that had optimal utilization of each of the four scapular muscles: horizontal abduction with external rotation, side lying external rotation, side lying forward flexion, side lying forward flexion, and prone extension. Wilk, Meister, James and Andrews (2002) also discussed the importance of scapular muscle strength and stability in the rehabilitation of shoulder impingement syndrome.[13] They found that rehabilitation techniques for restoring this strength are manual resistance to the scapula during protraction and retraction as well prone horizontal abduction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoulder_i ... #Treatment

Its real fun I assure you...

[fadedpsychosis]

My current workout:

Cools, Witvrouw, Mahieu, and Danneels (2007) researched isokinetic scapular muscle performance in overhead athletes with and without shoulder impingement to identify any deficits in the scapular muscles of athletes with shoulder impingement.[5] Using 30 overhead athletes with shoulder impingement (21 males and 9 females) and 30 overhead athletes (18 males and 12 females) without shoulder pain (mean age of 23.2 years old) they measured scapular protraction and retraction of the scapula at two different velocities (12.2 cm/s and 36.6 cm/s). Using valid and reliable measures, Cools et al. found that overhead athletes with shoulder impingement had decreased force output at both velocities in the protractor muscles compared to their uninjured arm and uninjured overhead athletes. Cools et al. (2007) used the importance of scapular strengthening and observed muscle activity of the upper trapezius, middle trapezius, lower trapezius and serratus anterior during twelve rehabilitation exercises to determine which exercises are the best for scapular strengthening and scapular balance.[5] They used forty-five healthy college-aged students (twenty men and twenty-five women with an average age of 20.7 years old) and placed surface electrodes on the four muscles during the randomized order of the rehabilitation exercises. They found five exercises that had optimal utilization of each of the four scapular muscles: horizontal abduction with external rotation, side lying external rotation, side lying forward flexion, side lying forward flexion, and prone extension. Wilk, Meister, James and Andrews (2002) also discussed the importance of scapular muscle strength and stability in the rehabilitation of shoulder impingement syndrome.[13] They found that rehabilitation techniques for restoring this strength are manual resistance to the scapula during protraction and retraction as well prone horizontal abduction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoulder_i ... #Treatment

Its real fun I assure you...

so... what exactly ARE you doing for rehab? because I felt a nasty pull in my "good" shoulder tonight on the pullup bar, and the area under my scar on my bad one is screaming at me...

[AslanTheKing]

sauna helps

[Lootifer]

so... what exactly ARE you doing for rehab? because I felt a nasty pull in my "good" shoulder tonight on the pullup bar, and the area under my scar on my bad one is screaming at me...

Specifically these or a variation there of:

"They found five exercises that had optimal utilization of each of the four scapular muscles: horizontal abduction with external rotation, side lying external rotation, side lying forward flexion, side lying forward flexion, and prone extension"

Youtube has most of them, but bodybuilding.com is (annoyingly) really good for exercise videos too.

[BigBallinStalin]

Does smoking help you body build?

[Lootifer]

Does smoking help you body build?

- It inhibits the transport of oxygen in your blood
and
- It is a food suppressant

Considering bodybuilding consists mainly of:
- Inflating your muscles with blood
and
- Eating everything in sight

????

[BigBallinStalin]

Does smoking help you body build?

- It inhibits the transport of oxygen in your blood
and
- It is a food suppressant

Considering bodybuilding consists mainly of:
- Inflating your muscles with blood
and
- Eating everything in sight

????

[Lootifer]

Oh @ Faded some other things that my Physiotherapist has got me doing that is good for rebalancing the shoulder joint (and therefore assisting with problems in the rotator cuff) are:

- Working out my serratus anterior (those awesome looking muscles that run down your ribs and point to your abs); google press-up plus, thats the exercise my PT has me doing
- Stretching your pectorial muscles (upper pecs - you want to stretch that area where your pec meets your shoulder joint)
- Sleeper stretch

The first one you want to be careful as the serratus anterior (SA) is really fucking hard to isolate, and a lot of the more common SA workouts are rather non-specific and will work out some muscles you may not want to (upper trapezious being the main one).

The last one also is a bit dubious; you really want to make sure you have the correct technique. Also maybe read some articles on it as there is a bit of controversy as to the benefits of it.

[Lucky Se7en]

I've never gone into body building but I've trained for football and been given advice from my school's trainers up until a few years ago. As far as working out goes there are 3 phases of developing strength/muscles. The first is obviously what you do to lift, run or whatever. I still do the same lifts and running workouts I used to do when I was training for sports just because I have liked the results so much. I do 4 long workouts a week with 2 days doing upper body and 2 days working out my lower body. It's really important to workout your lower body, it may seem like the best way to get a jacked chest is to only bench and workout your pecs, but it just doesn't work like that. You really do need to be well rounded with your lifting routine Now that the cross-fit phase is starting to take off, I'm noticing a lot of similarities between what I see them do and my workouts. My lower body days consist of a lot of explosive lifts like hang cleans and snatches mixed in with front squats and other complimentary lifts which I superset. When I do upper body I alternate between flat and incline bench and I do other complimentary sets along with those. I like to incorporate abs in between my sets, that way I can be active while I am giving my muscles I'm working out a break. It's also important to cycle your weights in order to make sure your body doesn't get accustomed to doing high or low reps. I start out at sets of 20 then work my way down to 15, 12, 8, 5, 3. Each time I go down I set a realistic goal for myself and stay at the weight/reps until I have accomplished it or feel like I have plateaued. If you download a workout it may have strict guidelines on how long you should do those reps for and what percentage of your max you should be doing the weight at, but those are just guidelines. Every persons' body is different and if you understand your body well enough, you are better off deviating from the workout. It is important to FULL range of motion when lifting, otherwise you are putting unnecessary stress on your ligaments. Nothing bothers me more than when I go to the gym and see people benching without touching their chest or squatting not going all the way down.

The next phase is nutrition, your body can only perform as good as what you put into it. A lot of people don't realize the most important supplement your body needs to build muscle is water, without water your body cannot metabolize the protein. I go through phases where I am hardcore about my diet. I'll cut out the carbs all together and just eat protein and vegetables. As far as supplements go, I have always taken some type of whey isolate right after I workout and then Casein at night. I've always stuck with the well known and trusted brands, specifically Optimum Nutrition. There are a lot of brands that have high amounts of heavy metals in them which can be very bad for you, Consumer Reports had an article and brands like Muscle Milk and Myoplex scored very bad and ON scored very good. I have also tried protein that is mixed with various amino acids and other supplements and have gotten great results from HydroBuilder and Monster Milk. I try to stay away from creatine because it will make your muscles retain water which will make you look bigger, but both of these have minor amounts of creatine in them. They also have glutamine which I don't need now, but back during football camp where I wasn't able to fully rest my legs before putting them to work again, the glutamine sped up the recovery process so I wasn't as sore the next day. I'm sure people can do without these supplements but they definitely help. Because they are so expensive I use them sparingly and I also don't use them when I have caffeine, alcohol, or any other diuretic. It doesn't make sense to put something that expensive through your system if it's just going to be flushed through your kidneys.

The final phase is one of the most important and is frequently overlooked. It is very important to stretch and use your muscles after lifting. You can do everything you need to do lifting, have a perfect diet, but what you put in your body needs to be transported to your muscles. It is important to stimulate the blood flow in the regions you worked out. Other ways to stimulate blood flow can be alternating between ice baths and submerging yourself in hot water. If you want to take it to the next level every trainer/physical therapist will have an E-stim machine which you can put on your muscles and it will send electricity through your body stimulating your nerves to send blood to the region.

[BigBallinStalin]

I've never gone into body building but I've trained for football and been given advice from my school's trainers up until a few years ago. As far as working out goes there are 3 phases of developing strength/muscles. The first is obviously what you do to lift, run or whatever. I still do the same lifts and running workouts I used to do when I was training for sports just because I have liked the results so much. I do 4 long workouts a week with 2 days doing upper body and 2 days working out my lower body. It's really important to workout your lower body, it may seem like the best way to get a jacked chest is to only bench and workout your pecs, but it just doesn't work like that. You really do need to be well rounded with your lifting routine Now that the cross-fit phase is starting to take off, I'm noticing a lot of similarities between what I see them do and my workouts. My lower body days consist of a lot of explosive lifts like hang cleans and snatches mixed in with front squats and other complimentary lifts which I superset. When I do upper body I alternate between flat and incline bench and I do other complimentary sets along with those. I like to incorporate abs in between my sets, that way I can be active while I am giving my muscles I'm working out a break. It's also important to cycle your weights in order to make sure your body doesn't get accustomed to doing high or low reps. I start out at sets of 20 then work my way down to 15, 12, 8, 5, 3. Each time I go down I set a realistic goal for myself and stay at the weight/reps until I have accomplished it or feel like I have plateaued. If you download a workout it may have strict guidelines on how long you should do those reps for and what percentage of your max you should be doing the weight at, but those are just guidelines. Every persons' body is different and if you understand your body well enough, you are better off deviating from the workout. It is important to FULL range of motion when lifting, otherwise you are putting unnecessary stress on your ligaments. Nothing bothers me more than when I go to the gym and see people benching without touching their chest or squatting not going all the way down.

Can you break that down for me? What's the best pattern to avoid getting the body accustomed to doing high/low reps?

The next phase is nutrition, your body can only perform as good as what you put into it. A lot of people don't realize the most important supplement your body needs to build muscle is water, without water your body cannot metabolize the protein. I go through phases where I am hardcore about my diet. I'll cut out the carbs all together and just eat protein and vegetables. As far as supplements go, I have always taken some type of whey isolate right after I workout and then Casein at night. I've always stuck with the well known and trusted brands, specifically Optimum Nutrition. There are a lot of brands that have high amounts of heavy metals in them which can be very bad for you, Consumer Reports had an article and brands like Muscle Milk and Myoplex scored very bad and ON scored very good. I have also tried protein that is mixed with various amino acids and other supplements and have gotten great results from HydroBuilder and Monster Milk. I try to stay away from creatine because it will make your muscles retain water which will make you look bigger, but both of these have minor amounts of creatine in them. They also have glutamine which I don't need now, but back during football camp where I wasn't able to fully rest my legs before putting them to work again, the glutamine sped up the recovery process so I wasn't as sore the next day. I'm sure people can do without these supplements but they definitely help. Because they are so expensive I use them sparingly and I also don't use them when I have caffeine, alcohol, or any other diuretic. It doesn't make sense to put something that expensive through your system if it's just going to be flushed through your kidneys.

Vegetables have carbohydrates in them....

What's disadvantageous about starches?

The final phase is one of the most important and is frequently overlooked. It is very important to stretch and use your muscles after lifting. You can do everything you need to do lifting, have a perfect diet, but what you put in your body needs to be transported to your muscles. It is important to stimulate the blood flow in the regions you worked out. Other ways to stimulate blood flow can be alternating between ice baths and submerging yourself in hot water. If you want to take it to the next level every trainer/physical therapist will have an E-stim machine which you can put on your muscles and it will send electricity through your body stimulating your nerves to send blood to the region.

Is there any significant difference between stretching a certain part for 15 seconds versus 30 seconds?

(Stretching is necessary, but it's the most boring part of exercising).

[Lucky Se7en]

If you go through phases of doing different reps it keeps your body from plateauing and getting used to high or low reps. I like to start out with high reps and do the sets I laid out before for about a month or so and gradually work my way down to high weight low reps. Some trainers will say give yourself barely and breaks when doing high reps and a long break in between low rep sets, but I've never really listened to that. It's also important to gradually work your way to the higher weights, if your body isn't accustomed to lifting that weight it won't feel as comfortable and you're more likely to get hurt. When I was younger it didn't really bother me but now that my body has seen some wear and tear I can feel the difference. I also don't max any more, I see it as a good way to get hurt, I don't go below 3 reps.

I just try to cut out the fillers in my meals and try to eat less empty calories. An example is I eat pasta and meat sauce with a vegetable a lot, I'll often cut out the pasta and just mix in green beans with the meat sauce. The pasta is really just there to satisfy my hunger and doesn't really have special purpose on my plate.

It is important to stretch before you exercise to warm up, but I am talking about after you work out and even the day after. It's important to do whatever you can to get blood flowing to the region. It's the same concept as treating a sport injury. For example, I had a partial tear in my bicep ligament this past October, before I had it checked out I figured I'd give it a month of rest and it'd be better, but that wasn't the case. I went to the doctor and he said it's important to treat injuries instead of just giving them time to heal, especially in the shoulder region which doesn't get much blood flow. And now we are starting to see professional athletes get treated for muscle pulls by getting their own blood transfusions directly into their individual problem muscle, it's some interesting stuff. As for stretching for 15 or 30 seconds I remember hearing that if you don't stretch for at least 15 seconds you aren't getting a beneficial stretch in. Being flexible and limber is important because it will help you prevent injuries, but stretching out your muscles too much can hurt your fast twitch muscles. Thinking back, my warmups before football games and practices were very different and for a good reason. We did a lot of yoga and stretching in the off-season to prevent injury, but during the season and particularly before games we did a lot of range of motion stretches such as putting our hand straight out and kicking our leg straight up to it and all the way back 20 times. It really all depends on what you are training for, I'm sure the average person won't notice much of a difference, but here is an article which describes it pretty well if you're interested...http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/0 ... etch/?_r=0

[nietzsche]

are you sure this was not a tdans trap thread?

[premio53]

I got out of the Marine Corps in 1979 at 26 years of age. The only exercise the Marines did to stay fit was pullups, situps, and the three mile run. Knowing that as a civilian I would no longer have the discipline to maintain such fitness I started loonking for something easy and non time consuming and discovered the "Bullworker" in the back of a comic book or something. I settled on a knock off called "Macho Power" and used it for several years until it wore out and then ordered the official "Bullworker XL5" and continued to work out with it for several more years until it broke. After that I pretty much quit exercising.

I broke my knee last year and was out of work for a couple of months. I hadn't worked out in well over twenty years and couldn't even do one chin up. I bought a new version of the Bullworker called the "Steel Bow" and within three months I was doing chin ups again. The muscle tone has come back and I feel twenty years younger. I will swear by the Bullworker. I can do three sets of exercises in less than ten minutes.

By the way, the "Bullworker" was used by such world class athletes as Muhammed Ali, Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Woodruff]

By the way, the "Bullworker" was used by such world class athletes as Muhammed Ali, Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That's got possibilities, since it appears I can sit down while working out. My only question then...will it allow me to eat or nap while I'm working out? Because that's kind of a deal-breaker for me.

[loutil]

Body Building and fitness have very different objectives. You need at least 200 grams of protein per day to body build.

Thanks! I wasn't focusing on that but I already checked out my protein intake and I'm nowhere near that. 120 max (I'm only 5'10 185). Maybe I should do protein shakes too.

Have not read through this entire thread but I can offer some advice. I have been lifting and training for over 25 years. I am 50 and still sport a six pack .
Protein intake is important but only when used properly. At 185 lbs you would want to intake 185 gram/day to build muscle. However, it takes carbs to assimilate protein. Your best and easiest option to supplement your protein is to take a tall glass of chocolate milk within 45 minutes of finishing your workout.
If you tell me specifically what your objectives are I can offer some advice. As it will be free advice you wont hurt my feelings if you do not listen ...

[loutil]

Ah well sounds like you know what to do

Also stink on the meniscus. I tore mine about 13-14 years ago, now have the beginnings of osteoarthritis. Did you have surgery on it?

no, it was a fairly minor tear and they said that surgery might not make anything better... but it made me not really run for a while and I had to do some physical therapy to strengthen the supporting muscles (thus why I ran so damn slow)... now I HAVE had surgery on my shoulder for having one of the tendons partially tear... *sigh* I'm too damn young to be this tore up...

also, after asking the question in here, I also asked one of the army guys I work with... he invited me to join them, and has been utterly kicking my ass for the past week, so yeah... when in doubt, ask someone who's in better shape than you...

Thats quite funny (cynical laughter)...

I had a torn meniscus, and now have a partially torn (but full thickness whatever that means) Supraspinatus tendon. Im pretty much doing the opposite to you; had regular knee ops (most recent 18 months ago) but furiously avoiding surgery on shoulder (had cortisone a week and a half ago and am trying to be as diligent as possible with rotator cuff exercises).

I can one up you however, 2 or 3 years ago I had surgery on my other shoulder to fix recurring dislocations (big one, was off work for about 3-4 weeks - fixed it up a treat though). Im 31... F this body and its frailty...

Shoulders are a funny thing...
I wrestled in high school and over lifted with bad form in my early 20's. By my 30's I started having issues. Eventually I found my way to cortisone. 11 shots in my right shoulder until they finally stopped working. Last year I had a subacromial decompression performed on the shoulder. Best thing I ever did . Now I have full range and can lift without pain. Although, I have given up on any lifting/pressing above the shoulder...

[Phatscotty]

Body Building and fitness have very different objectives. You need at least 200 grams of protein per day to body build.

Thanks! I wasn't focusing on that but I already checked out my protein intake and I'm nowhere near that. 120 max (I'm only 5'10 185). Maybe I should do protein shakes too.

Have not read through this entire thread but I can offer some advice. I have been lifting and training for over 25 years. I am 50 and still sport a six pack .
Protein intake is important but only when used properly. At 185 lbs you would want to intake 185 gram/day to build muscle. However, it takes carbs to assimilate protein. Your best and easiest option to supplement your protein is to take a tall glass of chocolate milk within 45 minutes of finishing your workout.
If you tell me specifically what your objectives are I can offer some advice. As it will be free advice you wont hurt my feelings if you do not listen ...

Got it covered! I take 30-35 grams of chocolate flavored (kinda) whey protein with a glass of milk twice everyday. I count my protein up to 100 grams and then I stop paying attention, but I've been getting about 110-130 daily. Now that my work at Chick-Fil-A is done (got to eat there twice a day for 4 weeks! Sausage sandwich on a bun is the best I have ever tasted!) and I did my 100+g a day, but over this last month I have only put on 3 pounds. Granted I had to make do with far less gym equipment than I have been accustomed to (hotel only had dumbells that top at 20 pounds, I even resorted to doing push ups )

But now I am back home and going to start combining my "Super advanced, high performance mass and strength fuel" w/creatine monohydrate, ester Phosphate, and ethyl ester, still doing my multi-vitamins (interested in "oils" but just getting into this stuff) and I'm gonna keep doing my protein shakes twice a day as well as combine the creatine shake just before and another immediately after every other day, might change it to every third day.

Hopefully with my old routine back the next 4 weeks I can put on 6 pounds? Sound possible?

[Lootifer]

3kg in 4 weeks should be doable if you are dilligent.

@ Lucky7

Nice info; pretty much agree with everything you have written except for two little bits:

The pasta is really just there to satisfy my hunger and doesn't really have special purpose on my plate.

Tehe, obviously you havent had the pleasure of a cardio focussed regieme. During my rowing season I would be mowing through 3000-3500 kcal/day and still ending up energy deficient (lost about 3kg over the season).

Creatine

Love it or hate it, it has been shown to work (someone link that website which has all that research data) taking on water is a side effect, but that doesnt mean its doesnt also do what it says it does (improve your anaerobic energy system). I personally dont use it, but I might once i get back into more serious power work.

Regarding stretching. You raise a good point. Almost everyone agrees these days that static stretching should not be done prior to exercise; it should all be dynamic or functional stretching/warming up (google it). But static stretching should still be done (along with foam roller/tennis ball work) outside of workouts (or afterwards). It doesnt impact your fast twitch fibres per se, it simply loosens the muscles and you can lose a bit of power temporarily.

[Lootifer]

I got out of the Marine Corps in 1979 at 26 years of age. The only exercise the Marines did to stay fit was pullups, situps, and the three mile run. Knowing that as a civilian I would no longer have the discipline to maintain such fitness I started loonking for something easy and non time consuming and discovered the "Bullworker" in the back of a comic book or something. I settled on a knock off called "Macho Power" and used it for several years until it wore out and then ordered the official "Bullworker XL5" and continued to work out with it for several more years until it broke. After that I pretty much quit exercising.

I broke my knee last year and was out of work for a couple of months. I hadn't worked out in well over twenty years and couldn't even do one chin up. I bought a new version of the Bullworker called the "Steel Bow" and within three months I was doing chin ups again. The muscle tone has come back and I feel twenty years younger. I will swear by the Bullworker. I can do three sets of exercises in less than ten minutes.

By the way, the "Bullworker" was used by such world class athletes as Muhammed Ali, Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lol.

- FIrstly underlined bit: So in 1979 marines weren't that fit? (i kid i kid; likely all the non-fitness stuff like war games or unit exercise or whatever you call them was actually giving you a pretty solid base to work with - remember anything above ~120 bpm heart rate will assist your cardio system)

- Second underlined bit: It doesnt exist.

There are no magic routines or pieces of equipment that will "Bring back muscle tone, and make you feel 20 years younger". Its achieved via hard work and time/effort - there are no shortcuts. You're either telling fibs about how much oeffort you put in (or the results you saw) or you're a salesman (or both...).

- Final underlined bit: Yeah and im sure it made up a grand total of about 1% of their exercise program.

[Lucky Se7en]

Shoulders are a funny thing...
I wrestled in high school and over lifted with bad form in my early 20's. By my 30's I started having issues. Eventually I found my way to cortisone. 11 shots in my right shoulder until they finally stopped working. Last year I had a subacromial decompression performed on the shoulder. Best thing I ever did . Now I have full range and can lift without pain. Although, I have given up on any lifting/pressing above the shoulder...

I know this thread is dead but I had an older injury come back and I thought back to this for some reason. I had my shoulder looked at for an older injury that had been lingering, it isn't that painful doing every day stuff but there are certain movements I can't do, and forget about lifting. I went to the a doctor about a month ago, he took x-rays and checked out my shoulder. Looks like I have an inflamed clavicle and they thought I might also have a tear in my labrum. I'm getting a cortisone injection for the time being and seeing if that can help with the swelling in the clavicle until I can get my arthogram to see what's really going on. They also talked about taking out a piece of my clavicle which seems similar to what you were talking about with subacomial decompression...long story short does this sound anything like what you dealt with, and you have any thoughts on it?

[Dukasaur]

This is my kinda body building.