General

[quote=0kevqn]@TrueAtheist: Thanks for making me feel like an intermediate level and above lifter[/quote]

Np brah

@TrueAtheist: Thanks for making me feel like an intermediate level and above lifter

[quote=0kevqn]You need to go up in weight. Don't do multiple sets of 40lbs dumbbells. For example, I do 4 sets of 10 reps for dumbbell bench press. First set I do 35lbs, then go up 5lbs every set[/quote]

Ehh pyramiding sets is usually an intermediate level and above training style, considering he's struggling with 2 sets of 40 lb dumbbell press, pyramiding isn't really going to help him as he probably can't even do a couple reps with 50's. (Unless he starts his pyramid at like 20 lb dumbbells.. which is going to be way too easy). Nothing wrong with doing working sets of the same weight especially when you're a beginner. Most important thing is total volume (volume = reps x weight) over anything.

[quote=stillllish]Completely wrong. His arms are failing in presses when he still has the strength for more. Front delts do a lot of the pressing, shoulders should be in your arm day, you should have an arm day, he specifically needs an arm day. Your arms will not be sufficient from push/pull exercises. I know the feeling of being able to push more weight but your arms not having the endurance or the strength to match your chest. You came out the gates feeling the need to correct me when what you suggest is bollocs, and you yourself are obviously a beginner from what you're saying. What I said is spot on and gave him a beginners arm workout that will work for him for what he needs. Your split is bad also fyi.

Train to hypertrophy, stay consistent, eat in surplus (1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day if you're counting), get your sleep. Stay consistent.[/quote]

Lol only on basilmarket.

Why are you talking about pressing movements when my question wasn't about pressing movements? When did I say to only do push/pull exercises for arms? I also don't think it's sufficient volume to cause hypertrophy which is why I said to put in isolation exercises for triceps and biceps on their specific days.

I wasn't correcting you more than questioning why you feel the need to pre-exhaust shoulders when you do biceps or triceps. Do you swing your elbows so badly on curls that your front delts do most of the work? Your triceps aren't the primary muscles for extensions or dips in comparison to deltoids?

I wasn't attacking you but now it's obvious you don't know what you're talking about if you think frequency isn't important for a beginner and if you think you need to take in 1.5g protein per pound of body weight. Push/pull/legs is one of the most popular splits for a reason. Learn what you're talking about before you attack people being curious about the stupidity coming out of your mouth.

[quote=ulti25]Why do you feel the need to include deltoids into your arm workouts? There's no need to pre-exhaust deltoids to work triceps or biceps. And a beginner doesn't need an arm day anyways.

Much better to do something like fullbody, upper/lower, or push/pull/legs various times a week to hit muscle groups 2-3x a week (with each split giving equal volume) for a beginner. My favorite split is legs/chest+tri/back+bi/shoulders+traps/rest and repeat. Provide sufficient volume near the end of back and chest days alongside with hitting them 2x a week and your biceps and triceps will grow. No need to dedicate a day to them imo.[/quote] Completely wrong. His arms are failing in presses when he still has the strength for more. Front delts do a lot of the pressing, shoulders should be in your arm day, you should have an arm day, he specifically needs an arm day. Your arms will not be sufficient from push/pull exercises. I know the feeling of being able to push more weight but your arms not having the endurance or the strength to match your chest. You came out the gates feeling the need to correct me when what you suggest is bollocs, and you yourself are obviously a beginner from what you're saying. What I said is spot on and gave him a beginners arm workout that will work for him for what he needs. Your split is bad also fyi.

Train to hypertrophy, stay consistent, eat in surplus (1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day if you're counting), get your sleep. Stay consistent.

start with low weigh that you can have perfect form in and take one day off between workout days so your muscles have a chance to recover

[quote=stillllish]I started at 5'11 130lbs (anorexic looking). I'm now 190lbs at about 11% bf atm, with a 315lb bench, 495lb deadlift, and 405 x 3 squat. I mention this to show that I've worked hard and understand how to put muscle on starting from being very skinny.

For your arms, first thing is first you need to build a mind muscle connection. If arms are your problem (my specialty arms/shoulders) feel free to pm me any direct questions or specific concerns and I'll gladly respond when I'm on basil. Start your arm workouts by pre exhausting shoulders with 2 tri sets of standing barbell press, upright rows, and lateral raises (one big set combining 3 lifts). Grab a cambered bar for the cable station, cable curls and pushdowns are probably two of the best movements for flooding your biceps and trices with blood, enhancing your mind muscle connection. Finish with 2 hand overhead extensions (edit: SEATED two hand overhead extension) and seated alternating dumbell curls. Do that once a week in your routine on arm day, stay consistent, eat in surplus, get your sleep.

On chest day make sure you bench press (with a barbell, you need mass). On back days do your pullups (use an assist machine if need be) and do not forget your deadlifts. On leg days, squat. Good luck and all the best on your journey.[/quote]

Why do you feel the need to include deltoids into your arm workouts? There's no need to pre-exhaust deltoids to work triceps or biceps. And a beginner doesn't need an arm day anyways.

Much better to do something like fullbody, upper/lower, or push/pull/legs various times a week to hit muscle groups 2-3x a week (with each split giving equal volume) for a beginner. My favorite split is legs/chest+tri/back+bi/shoulders+traps/rest and repeat. Provide sufficient volume near the end of back and chest days alongside with hitting them 2x a week and your biceps and triceps will grow. No need to dedicate a day to them imo.

@xdarkshynobi: yea youre right and i know were youre coming from. i think people should learn proper form then think about weight. i would rather somone test out a new max at a lift with proper knowledge and fail then someone who sticks to pushups because he wants to play it safe. just because there is a chance for injury does not mean you should hinder your own progress.

I started at 5'11 130lbs (anorexic looking). I'm now 190lbs at about 11% bf atm, with a 315lb bench, 495lb deadlift, and 405 x 3 squat. I mention this to show that I've worked hard and understand how to put muscle on starting from being very skinny.

For your arms, first thing is first you need to build a mind muscle connection. If arms are your problem (my specialty arms/shoulders) feel free to pm me any direct questions or specific concerns and I'll gladly respond when I'm on basil. Start your arm workouts by pre exhausting shoulders with 2 tri sets of standing barbell press, upright rows, and lateral raises (one big set combining 3 lifts). Grab a cambered bar for the cable station, cable curls and pushdowns are probably two of the best movements for flooding your biceps and trices with blood, enhancing your mind muscle connection. Finish with 2 hand overhead extensions (edit: SEATED two hand overhead extension) and seated alternating dumbell curls. Do that once a week in your routine on arm day, stay consistent, eat in surplus, get your sleep.

On chest day make sure you bench press (with a barbell, you need mass). On back days do your pullups (use an assist machine if need be) and do not forget your deadlifts. On leg days, squat. Good luck and all the best on your journey.

Keep on pushing. Increasing the amount of food intake may help because you're gonna need the energy to be pumping weight. If this is still a problem after about 2 weeks, you might wanna try just basic body workouts (pushups situps etc) to build your way up. I dont think thats necessary though. I do calisthenics which is all bodyweight so I dont touch weights at all.

[quote=xdarkshynobi]You don't need to worry so much, keep in mind take it slow. REPS OVER EVERYTHING. IF you can do 500 push ups, that's always gonna be better than 50 reps of dumbbell press @40 lbs.[/quote]

If you're trying to build muscle, it's not reps over everything

Most likely you are exhausting yourself because you go to failure every set, this causes a huge strain on your central nervous system which causes you to, well get exhausted. This is why you stop when you're unsure if you're going to be able to finish the next rep. Not going to failure is the way to go if you are trying to make strength gains. However if you are actually trying to gain mass then you shouldn't mind using lighter weights to get those 6-12 reps.

As a beginner I recommend that you do something similar to 5x5 stronglifts or any other programs with a lot of compound movements. Free weights are the way to go even if you're small and weak AF. Find someone to teach you proper squatting, benching and deadlift form, either on the internet, a PT, or even a friend who knows what he's doing.

Just remember that frequency is everything (at least 3-6 workouts a week), and to gain mass you should focus on getting a lot of tension on your muscles and you cant be in a caloric deficit (or supposedly you can, just in the beginning, aka noob gains).
If you want to get stronger you should try to produce explosive power, controlled negative, explosive positive.

If you have any question, feel free to pm me, I always enjoy lifting chatter
As a bodybuilder (not pro though, even though I wish) I can only recommend ways to gain mass, I don't have much experience with strength gaining training methods.

[quote=rixworkwix]@xdarkshynobi: youre right for a begginer it is good, but if someone has the means to gym equipment (op seems he does) i would highly recommend dumbbell press with a sufficient weight compared to doing 500 pushups just because he would stimulate the muscle fibres much faster with 3 sets of 10-12 of dumbbell press. also those 500 pushups would give a better workout for your triceps and front delt compared to the chest. if you dont have gym equipment and dont want to join a gym and you are just starting off then pushup too the sunrise pal[/quote]

I just think most beginners go into the gym half hearted. Not fully aware of how much 200 lbs really is. Hell even a low weight can still be detrimental. My assumption is TS isn't ready for HEAVY compound movements. Hyper extension is a common injury for beginners. The last thing anyone need is discouragement due to an injury.

@xdarkshynobi: youre right for a begginer it is good, but if someone has the means to gym equipment (op seems he does) i would highly recommend dumbbell press with a sufficient weight compared to doing 500 pushups just because he would stimulate the muscle fibres much faster with 3 sets of 10-12 of dumbbell press. also those 500 pushups would give a better workout for your triceps and front delt compared to the chest. if you dont have gym equipment and dont want to join a gym and you are just starting off then pushup too the sunrise pal

[quote=rixworkwix]if you have any questions feel free to PM me. threads like these get clouded with multiple opinions and sometimes good ones get lost (saw probably 2-4 actual worthwhile advice so far on this thread)

iv only been lifting for 2 years but i have a fair amount of knowledge and also help another person on this site through PM's with any lifting questions.

@xdarkshynobi not really. if someone can do 500 pushups they are just wasting their time. it will not stimulate the muscle fibers and will take a lot of time. 3 sets with 40lb dumbell press with good strict form will be much better for muscle progression. when the 40lbs get too easy you would move to 45-50lb. that is called progressive overload.[/quote]

Progressive overload can be define in more than the way you are putting it into context. Like you said though IF someone can even do 500 push ups. How are you gonna say push ups don't stimulate enough muscle fibers? With proper form anything is tough. THAT EXTRA push up going to failure is practically the same thing is progressive overload. This advice was oriented towards a beginner who should still be working on neurological signals.

if you have any questions feel free to PM me. threads like these get clouded with multiple opinions and sometimes good ones get lost (saw probably 2-4 actual worthwhile advice so far on this thread)

iv only been lifting for 2 years but i have a fair amount of knowledge and also help another person on this site through PM's with any lifting questions.

@xdarkshynobi not really. if someone can do 500 pushups they are just wasting their time. it will not stimulate the muscle fibers and will take a lot of time. 3 sets with 40lb dumbell press with good strict form will be much better for muscle progression. when the 40lbs get too easy you would move to 45-50lb. that is called progressive overload.

You don't need to worry so much, keep in mind take it slow. REPS OVER EVERYTHING. IF you can do 500 push ups, that's always gonna be better than 50 reps of dumbbell press @40 lbs.

You need to go up in weight. Don't do multiple sets of 40lbs dumbbells. For example, I do 4 sets of 10 reps for dumbbell bench press. First set I do 35lbs, then go up 5lbs every set

Thanks everyone. I'm going to keep trying this week and I'll let you guys know if I feel any better afterwards.

Don't forget your protein shake! I feel better eating a small protein snack before then refueling with a shake later, makes it worthwhile.
I have never known anyone that can just jump into a gym and work out for two hours without any kind of experience. But now you have great advice from everyone on this post as well!
Good Luck!

Sleep. You repair muscle in your sleep. Sleep for at least sleep 8hrs. You'll trash your gains if you don't sleep. The simple 5x5 is good.

Keep a a spreadsheet and write down your reps/weights. Everytime you do a certain type again try to do one more rep or increase the weight by a little (even 1 lb). YOu will see results even if it seems on paper at first.

^ listen to this man. Blaha's ICF 5x5 combined with 3400? calories a day had me go from 130ish to 150 in something like 3 months.

What are your goals?

should do icf 5x5 if you wana work on strength

Dont be ashamed to use low weight. Everyone starts somewhere. Try some body weight exercises. Can you do a push up, a dip, or a pull-up? If not try benching on the Smith machine, and when you do pull-ups/dips, use the weight assist. The most important thing is not how much you can lift, but how you are handling the weight. Ask your friends to teach you proper form when benching, squatting, deadlifting etc. Use the bodybuilding.com forums. Last thing you want is to get injured. I can't speak much about supplements as I don't use them much, but they might help a skinny guy like you.

Just keep on going to the gym more frequently to increase your work capacity. It's normal for beginners. It takes time for a body to get accustomed to unfamiliar movements/exercises. Explain on what you mean by efficiently. If you want to other arm exercises, go lighter on the dumbell press.

Just work your way up slowly man. Also, build a good diet for yourself so that the muscle you're building is actually.. building in mass.

Meh you're just a beginner. Stop trying so hard and learn to be patient. You will see it soon.