Questions for those who workout

I do heavy weights, which I highly recommend. If this is your first time working out (which I'm not sure) then try easing into it and testing your limits. That way you don't wipe yourself out on day one and go home discouraged.

As of now, I'm doing a high protein, low carb diet; trying to get rid of a bunch of stored junk food attached to my gut. If you're interested, check out Lyle McDonald's books.

I'm not much of a believer in supplements. Common vitamins are good, creatine does work if you do it right, but other than that, most supplements are a big rip-off.

It's best to work out right before you eat. There's science behind that, but I'm too lazy to look it up

 

Heavy weight lifting is great method to gain muscle, confidence and strenght. As i am ectomorph i just try eat as much as possible and still dont gain fat Try L-arginine L-cytruline before workout its nice pump, monohydrat creatine.

 

1- Calisthenics. Because I think it's the most healthiest way how to get big. Bodybuilding style training pumps up big muscles faster and easier but it ignores a lot of important stabilization muscles, spinal muscles and does not do any favors for joints in long term. Body weight training on other hand does strengthen joints and make them healthier, as well as exercises many small but important muscles that bodybuilding ignores or leaves underdeveloped. Example of those would be spinal muscles as well as a lot of small stabilization muscles in core. Besides I just find it more fun. Working on things like one arm push ups, planche, handstand push ups, etc. It's just more fun for me than just mindlessly picking up weight and putting it back down lol. But that's just me.

2- Mostly raw vegan. But my goal is not huge size. If it is yours then don't worry about protein too much, it's easy to get even on raw vegan diet lol, if I would want to. The recommended amount is greatly exaggerated in bodybuilding cycles. 1g of protein per kilogram (not pound) of lean body weight is more than enough. More than that is just a waste, you don't absorb it just poop it out. I like to work out fasted and do not take any pre or post workout meals. But then again, my goal is not to add as much muscle as possible. So those things might be important for a bodybuilder, I'm not sure haven't done much research on this one.

3- No. Because I think they are nonsense. Everything you need you can get from food. Of course if you can't, well then supplement. But if you can afford and have time, real food is always better than processed supplements.

4- At mornings. Because that's the time I have the most energy. If my mornings are not free I get to it as soon as I can after my school is done. The later I seem to postpone it the less energy I have. Well, maybe not so much energy, more like a desire. I just feel mentally tired at evenings and don't want to do anything.

 

Hey man,

I love weight lifting for increasing muscle mass, and that's what I'm currently doing; working out 3 times a week
has always been great for me.

As for diet, all I'm trying to do is tracking calories and eating more. Every day, I want to be sure of eating at least
2200 kcals and keeping that calories surplus.

I've never taken any supplements, besides glucosamine for a month (for joint pain) and I've been going to gym
for years. I can tell you that I can still improve without them and I already have a good fit body.

However, I usually workout in the afternoon (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

 

What the fuck does working out mean? P.S. My favorite flavor of protein powder is toothpaste.

 

I do body weight + wieght training like how @Shugi Shugi Some muscles get under developed. Im sick in the head and i cant have that. But i also like weight training but also really like body weight.
For supplements i just take whey protein and some of that daily shit especcially when i get a wet dream.
Time - Whenever

 

I use free weights (barbell + dumbbells) for the majority of my workouts but I also include some bodyweight exercises (namely push-ups and pull-ups).

Research has shown that the ideal amount of protein seems to be around 0.8-1.3g per lb of body weight (slightly more than this if you're on a diet and trying to preserve muscle - since muscle is metabolically expensive, a high protein diet can help prevent you from losing too much). Check out Eric Heim's research into how much protein you need if you want to know more about that. He talks about it a little in this video:


So I try get 0.8g/lb or more each day. Otherwise I just focus on getting the right amount of calories and maintaining a caloric surplus. For me that's around 3300 calories/day - the amount you'll need will likely be quite different because everyone's pretty individual.

I'm on the shorter side (5'7), don't weigh a ton, and am pretty sedentary outside of my workouts, so you'd normally expect me to only need like 2200-2300 calories to bulk up, but in my case that's not true. So yeah, everyone's individual and needs a unique amount. That amount also changes as your weight/body composition changes.

Before I answer, I feel like I need to link the nutritional priorities pyramid:



Getting the right calories and macros (as well as the right workout routine and proper recovery) is where 95% of your results come from. Other things like supplements are really only contributing that last little 5%. So if you don't have your diet/workout/recovery in order, supplements are completely useless - and if you do, then you don't need supplements either.

That said, I take Creatine, studies have pretty conclusively shown that it helps both with lean mass gain (i.e. gaining muscle) and with strength gains. Creatine is also found in food but it's impossible to get the kind of amounts that are beneficial without external supplementation (you'd need to eat kilograms of meat every single day to get enough Creatine from diet). It's also really cheap, like 6 months of Creatine costs me like $7. So there's really no reason for me not to use it.

I also take a multivitamin and some other supplements but I don't take those for workout purposes - more for general well-being as some of them help my overall mood/energy levels/etc.

As far as protein supplements. Unless you're a vegetarian/vegan, or dieting down/trying to lose weight, you're probably getting enough protein from your diet (assuming you eat meat in your dinner). If you're dieting on very low calories, veggie/vegan, or just have a weird diet, then buy some protein powder to supplement with.

I work out a few hours after I wake up. Omarisuf made a great video on this subject the other day:


If you're interested in starting your fitness journey out by the way I highly recommend subscribing and watching through his videos. The fitness world is plagued by so many liars and so much information. Lots of super jacked dudes who just got there with huge amounts of steroids and don't actually know anything about fitness trying to claim that they're natural so that they can sell you their workout routines and ideas, because you think if you buy them you'll end up looking like them.

Omarisuf is one of the few who 1) isn't sponsored by anyone, 2) is as natural as he claims to be, and 3) actually knows what he's talking about and gives information backed by research etc. He's also just a really fun guy to watch and pretty inspiring since he's achieved a lot both in strength and physique.

Another good fitness YouTuber that you can actually trust is Alan Thrall:
https://www.youtube.com/user/athrall7

Some words of advice that would have saved me a ton of time when I first got started:

- Ignore 99% of fitness "articles" out there. The muscle magazines, the bodybuilding websites etc, most of their information is out-dated or just plain wrong.
- This especially goes for working routines, I'd say 95% of the generic workout routines out there are garbage, so pick one of the handful of very well known and tried and tested ones. Stronglifts and Starting Strength are great if you want to pack on some strength initially (which will also help you put on size later). Jason Blaha's ICF 5x5 is a nice beginner routine for if you want to put on a little more size at the same time rather than putting all your focus in Strength. Fierce 5 I'd say is kinda in the middle between those two. There are also several other good ones like Candito's Linear Program (what I'm doing right now) although he personally recommends you get familiar with all the major lifts for a few months before diving in to his program.
- Spend money on food first, workout equipment second (if you don't use a gym), and only buy stuff like supplements if you have way more than enough cash to cover everything else first. As I showed above in terms of priorities, supplements don't really do much for you. So should only be an added extra that you buy if you feel like it. As far as what supplements to get: Creatine + Fishoil + Multivitamin, I wouldn't worry about anything else.
- Strength training/bodybuilding/olympic weightlifting/powerlifting/etc etc are all a marathon, not a race. Even as a beginner when you get beginner gains that allow you to progress MUCH faster than someone more advanced, growth still happens slowly. Expect to gain maybe 20lbs of muscle your first year if you do everything really well and get your training/diet/recovery down right.
- Related to that, don't rush weight gain. Eating 5x as much won't get you 5x as much in the way of muscle gains. Past around 2-2.5lbs a month (and that's if you're lucky and doing everything right) you can't gain any more muscle than that in a month without the likes of steroids. So as long as you're gaining like 3-3.5lbs+ of total body weight each month, you don't need to try eat more to "speed up the gains", it doesn't work like that. You'll just get fat.
- Consistency is key. Don't pick a program you aren't going to stick to for at least 5-6 months. Every time you hop programs or change things up, you're having to back-peddle a little, so it'll slow your overall progress down. Pick something you'll enjoy and stick to.

 

1. I've tried both weight lifting and calisthenics . calisthenics is more enjoying for me...
2. I eat anything I want.. But I avoid junk foods and I try to lessen my carbs intake..
3. I want to take supplements, but i don't have money to do so..
4. Morning, when I woke up.. So instead of burning carbs, I burn fats.

 

What are your goals? There are different approaches for different situations.

 

i use weights to work out because it allows for more progressive overload and therefore strength and muscle gain. If you want to get better at sports and become more healthy but not concerned about getting super jacked then cross fit is probably for you. If learning different moves and gaining flexibility and mastering your body weight motivates you then I would choose calisthenics which you can gain muscle from but not as much as weights because once you have mastered the moves and are doing really high reps it won't do much for growing your muscles and gaining strength.

I eat a lot of food, mostly clean because I have room for fat gain. I have not been training properly for long and probably could have made way more gains if I ate more in the past because to gain muscle a calorie surplus is optimal and if you are already lean like me 10-12% body fat then gaining some fat and going up to 15-20% is great for gaining muscle. I eat a lot of carbs, most of them coming from oats, bananas, potatoes, fruit, rye bread, pasta and rice so mainly complex slower digesting carbs. I get enough protein from eating eggs (a great testosterone booster due to their high nutrient and cholesterol content) usually eat 4 of them a day, meat and fat free greek yoghurt which has a ridiculous amount of protein. My fats come from healthy sources such as eggs, meat, avocados and nut butter (avoid high omega 6 vegetable oils and trans fats and your good). I eat a high carb meal around an hour before my workout and I have a meal post workout.

I do take zinc, magnesium and vitamin D because they are all important for testosterone production and I have experienced better sleep since I started taking magnesium. I don't take any whey protein, amino acids, bcaa or creatine because I can get enough protein from natural sources and can't be asked to buy creatine lol but yes if you have trouble eating enough protein buy some good quality whey (it tastes awesome too) and creatine has been proved to be useful.

I work out after being awake for 4 hours because it is when cortisol is lowest and testosterone is highest.

Hope this advice helped.

 

If you are carrying extra weight I would recommend trying to lose it before trying to put on muscle mass however at a beginner level it is possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time. I recommend intermittent fasting in a caloric deficit with light exercise and or weight lifting (thats what I do). Once you get at a body fat percentage you are happy with then I would recommend lifting heavier weights until failure and eating in a slight caloric surplus. For building muscle I would recommend getting .8g of protein per pound of your weight so 100 lbs would be 80g of protein a day. Fats and carbs are also an essential part of nutrition dont cut them out but keep a balance of nutrients roughly 40% carbs 40% protein 20% fat. I reccently lost 70 lbs and in my experience diet is by far the most important factor in health and how you look. Diet combined with nofap is a powerful combination. Look at healthy lifestyle changes as permanent not temporary. Hope this helps

 

Ok cool I am still relatively new to the fitness world and know mainly only the general fundamental basics. You seem to know what your doing and those results seem impressive. Keep on being patient disciplined and knowledgeable and you will continue to be successful