richo

Hello all. Ive been visiting the gym 3 times a week and a work out on a sat/sun for around 6 months, and started a routine a year ago at home to try to get the perfect abs! But for the last 3 months its now becoming difficult to increase any proper build up. Now hopefully someone can recommed me a way to improve on my set up. This my normal routine and food -

Morning - Alpen cereal
then at work -
Coffeee break time - 1 sandwich slices (normally meat) and yogurt nut/fruit bar
Liunch - 1 full sandwich, loads of fruit and yoghurt
Break time - Precision Engineered Super Whey Protein Chocolate shake ( http://www.gnc.co.uk/pages/product_D...tNumber=035500 ) banana and 1 slice sandwich
Evening - normal full meal

Work out during the week -
Mon: Badminton for an hour; 30min gym time working out upper body; 1 hour 5 side
Tue: 50min gym time (3min rowing machine; 2 pecs machines; swiss ball abs; abs/crunch home machine; chest press machine; negative dip; trunk curl - all in 12-15 reps, 4 times over)
Wed: tennis
Thu (same as tue)
Sat: fit swing at home, swiss ball, following 8min abs video 3 times.

So this is what i do, quite a lot of sport and gym work but i really would like, just at one stage in my life, is that i have a perfect 6 pac! ATM the top of my upper body is fine but the lower abs is so hard, so tough to work on it. Any ideas please, ways to improve on the routine and food supplements? thanks for any ideas.

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colt24

I think the main reason why your not getting any bigger is due to your diet and work out routine. Alot of guys here will tell you to change your diet as you wont get bigger eatting that stuff. supplements are pointless unless you have a good strong diet in place.
I think you defo need to change your work out if you want to gain mass

muscles have memory,, you need to change your routine around DDDDD

is that all you want perfect abbs btw?

colt24

p.s i dont see any back work or leg work :S

ah24

Putting it simply..biiiiiiig changes are needed.

Get reading in DaPs's and liams training journals...both of them have a sh1t load of info...constantly bloody repeated from where they dont listen - so please dont do a 'daps, offo, liam'

Chris4Pez

TBH like everyone else has said i would work on the diet mate honestly as thats the thing lacking and also try re-evaluating your training routine, by this I mean work out exactly what it is you want e.g more mass, better abb's etc as each thing requires a different form of both diet and also training, once you have done that then come back on and people will be able to help you in the right direction!

offo

Its not a case of listening but people like to hear more than one opinion on things

squat_this

But everybody is different when it comes to BB so you will hear 1,000s of opinions! The basics are the same for everyone though...eat, train the compounds, rest. You dont need to be told this constantly!

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Chris4Pez

after reading your post again i personally think that your over training as well mate on both chest and also your abb's plus your not really working any lower back!

1 thing that you should remember is to work everything evenly e.g if you work arms for example you would work bi's but also tri's (not together but you would work them non the less), your working abb's but not lower back or back.

Training too much chest and abb's like i said earlier will not only be over training them but could cause serious complications in the posture long term ( a typical example is big breasted women they eventually get a curvature of the spine as do boxers) my advice honestly m8 would be to train all round body not just chest and abb's.

Chris4Pez

squat this totally agree m8 as people always need to be reminded of the basics no matter how new or advanced they are, reps to you for that m8!

offo

I know but people saying different rep ranges and excercises...But through asking many different guys thoughts it all comes down to the same core excercises..deadlifts squats, OHP bench bent over rows etc....

colt24

He does look pretty lean though,, good base i think.

squat_this

Getting advice on rep ranges is going to end up with many different answers though Offo mate. You have to figure out what is best for you (everyone is different) and change it up when you plateau. Certain bodyparts may also react to rep ranges differently, for example calves are normally done to a higher rep range.

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Premiership Champions '02-'03, '03-'04, '04-'05, '07-'08

Heineken Cup Winners - 2004, 2007

richo

thx, i appreciate all the opinions The reason why i dont really do any gym work on the lower body is simply because of my body type - ive got rather big calfs and thighs! Ive always been very sporty and always been footy playing, and ive naturaly got bloody big legs! so tbh, that is already pretty much packed out, to increase even better they would look very odd. my calfs at the biggest area (top) are 15cm across, at the base ankle 6cm so rather large really. Perhaps i will change the routine tho and will just concentry on the lower back.legs just to give the abs/upper body a rest?

Ive tried to add a lot more food wise - before i only ever ate at lunch time, one normal sandwich and no protein shakes. Can anyone suggest a new food routine, or a link to a website?

offo

Yeah you are correct squat right now i am doing rep ranges of 8 instead of 5 see how that goes I got alot out of 5 rep ranges in the first few months and then that stopped so now we#ll see how its going >D:lift:

TH&S

I'm assuming you mean inches rather than cm....

Mate I have 17in calves and 28in thighs and I still devote a day a week to legs in order to get them bigger, leaner and nicely defined. The reason you aint getting bigger cos cos you aint training properly as you are ignoring some of the biggest muscles in your body.

Put simply exercises such as squats and deadlifts activate around 60% of the muscle fibres in your body, which results in muscle tissue growth all over the body due to the natural release of Test and GH.

You really need to sort your diet out - theres no protein in there, and you're probably getting about 1500kcals per day... Which is what I eat before 2pm most days...

Routine wise... where do we start???? Are you obsessed with your abs???

Monday: Ditch the gym. 2hours of cardio is enough for your body to deal with.

Tuesday: Back & Bis:
Deadlifts
Chins
Rear Delt Flies
Bi Curls

Thursday: Legs & Abs:
Squats
Stiff Leg Deadlifts/Pull Throughs/Good Mornings (pick one of those)
Calf Raises
Ab work of your choice.

Saturday: Chest, Tris and Shoulders:
DB Incline Bench
Dips
Close Grip Incline Bench
Military Press
Lateral Raises

Eat more protein. Sorted.