Hi everyone, I am new here. I am in my teens and have wanted to become muscular for years. I haven't changed a thing about my diet. It is the same as it normally is. I am overweight. But overweight vs healthy weight only works for the average person. Lots of fat for their weight and they will register whatever their weight is as far as ranges even though they really are obese. Muscular people will often register as overweight or obese when really they are at a healthy weight. I have been training before but it has been years since I did it. I am not sure where to start now except that I need to do bodyweight exercises first(and all the muscle training apps I have seen will not start me on the easy exercises or will start me on the easy exercises but at 3x12(3 sets of 12 reps) which is just too much for someone like me who essentially hasn't been training muscles at all. If anything I should do just 1 exercise per muscle and 1 set of 10 reps per exercise because of my muscles having not been trained.
Hi Caters First of all welcome to the forum. As the activity on the forum builds up I am sure you will find some very useful information and advice about future training options. Maybe the best place to start (if you are comfortable) is to give yourself an initial long term goal and short term goals along the way. You will find the general advice is that exercise and diet very much go hand in hand. It is possible to make small tweaks to your diet and increase your exercise for very helpful results. Would you feel comfortable discussing your short and long term goals on this thread which will give other members more background allowing them to help you?
Well my first goal is to get my abs from top to bottom to show. That is only 1 step to becoming muscular. I don't really have anything more short term than that. But 1 thing is true that will help me along this process. I have been able to lose a significant amount of weight(and get muscles to show at the same time) via exercise alone(like 20-30 lbs in just a few months). When it comes to weight loss, I lose weight faster than the deadline for the goal at all times. So like I might want to lose 8 lbs in a month and I actually lose that much in 3 weeks. And again this is with no change to the diet whatsoever, just exercise. And the last time I really trained my abs(several years ago it was), I was overweight like I am now and all I did was exercise my abs every day. Here was my schedule back then before I was injured: Week 1: 1 set of 10 sit ups every day except when sore or cramping Week 2: 2 sets of 10 sit ups every day except when sore or cramping Week 3: 3 sets of 10 sit ups every day except when sore or cramping Week 4: 1 set of 10 reverse sit ups except when sore, then 3 sets(keeping the regular sit ups at 3 sets) This fourth week was when I got injured. It was a chronic muscle injury that lasted for a whole year. I waited a few weeks, it still hurt to exercise, a few months later, same thing. So I stopped completely until a few months ago. But when I restarted, I started at 3 sets of 10 sit ups. At first all I felt was lactic acid(not even DOMS, just the anaerobic burn in my abs). But a day later, it was just as easy so I figured my muscles were fine and did another 3 sets of 10 sit ups. A day after that, it got very hard. I only did 1 set of 10 sit ups that day. The day after that, I couldn't even do 1 sit up. I had to use my arms and legs to get up from a laying down position since my abs wouldn't work the way they should. This is when I told momma that I hurt myself and I showed her that I couldn't do 1 sit up. She told me that I had pulled a muscle in my abs and to let the muscle rest for a few days. So I stopped completely again and I haven't done my abs since. Both times, the muscle injury was due to overtraining the muscle. So that is how I know that I can't start at 3x12, instead I have to start at 1x10 per muscle(except the arms and legs but those I think should come last anyway since they will be indirectly exercised) and I have to start with bodyweight exercises because I have no equipment, not even weights.
Hi. My name is Tom and i am a fully Qualified Advanced Personal Trainer, Nutritionist and Sports Therapist. I have taken a look at your post and the good news is you have already taken the first step in your plan by recognising you want to change. This is the first big step and you have achieved it. It sounds like you can lose weight quite easily this would tell me that most of the weight you are holding is water weight. This shows that when you put weight on it is most likely because of certain foods you might be eating. For me to be able to guide you i need to know a couple of things. How old are you What is your current weight What was your injury you had And what does your diet look like on a daily basis. You mention you have no gym equipment, you do not need to worry about this. I can come up with a basic plan for you to help with your goals within your own home. It is surprising with some imagination what workout can be done at home. Take a look at one of my previous post about do i need to join a gym to get fit. Reply with this information and i can help you achieve your goals! Tom.
I am 17 years old and female. My current weight I don't know exactly but it is somewhere around 180-185 lbs. The injury I had in both cases was a muscle strain(also commonly called a pulled muscle) from overtraining my abs. My diet varies. Sometimes, especially when my dad is away travelling, I eat healthy meals like spaghetti squash. Other times I eat less healthy foods such as pizza. But 1 thing that doesn't vary so much is the frequency of my meals. I usually have 2 meals a day, 1 for breakfast and 1 for dinner with 6-8 hours between those meals. I eat a lot of fruit as a midnight snack. Like yesterday I ate 3 apples as a snack. This snack is usually 4-5 hours after dinner.
Hi, it sounds like you can achieve your goal quite easily if you make a couple of small adjustments. Firstly you dont want to be pushing yourself so much that you end up being injured, that is not going to help you achieve your goals any faster. Now looking at your diet you say you eat 2 meals a day and then eat fruit before bed. It is not a good idea to eat fruit before bed as there is alot of sugar in this. Now as mentioned in a previous article i have written it wont necessarily make you gain weight but if you do this regularly it will attribute to gaining weight. So you must cut the fruit at such a late time before bed. For this meal i would suggest eating something that will digest slowly so you wont feel hungry before going to bed. Some example are: Any white meat Cottage cheese Peanut butter It also seems the meals that you are eating are high in carbohydrate and low in protein. As weight loss is your main goal i would suggsst you need to change these meals to include complex carbohydrates such as: Wholemeal pasta Wholegrain bread Brown rice Porridge Green veg Sweet potatoes These type of carbs will keep you feeling fuller longer. I would also suggest that you eat 4 meals a day. This will help with speeding up your metabolism. These meals should have complex carbs protein and veg. With the training that you do i would suggest the following. Exercise 3 to 4 times a week doing bodyweight training to start with. If you look through my articles you see one that has some training programmes that you can do at home to get you on track. Do about 30 min cardio daily for health reasons and this will help with your weightloss. So the main points are increase your meals, eat complex carbohydrates and exercise 3 to 4 times a week and do cardio daily. Try this for about a month and you will see good results. When you have done let me know and i will take look and see how you can further advance your goal. If you have any questions ask. Thank you Tom Good luck follow me on twitter/instagram @gymtoto
