billydowlingrei

Hi, guys. Well, I thought I'd start a journal here to help keep motivated. I'm a complete beginner but in the months and years I hope you'll all be proud lol! My short-term goals:

- Put on some serious weight.
- See some encouraging changes in muscle.
- Get into a good routine, define a diet.


My long-term goals:

- Get into a hard exercise routine.
- Have a body which could basically be described as 'Impressive.' Not absolutely huge, but impressive.


Right now, I'm toned and I do like my body, though I am overly skinny, and do find it hard to put on weight. So before skinny wee me tries doing bench presses with 90KG weights (lol @ the mere thought), I guess first thing is to try and just get a damn good diet. And sleep pattern. My sleep is awful. One day it's two hours a night. The next it's 14 hours. Terrible - need to get that sorted!

I'm a student with a part time job, and food can be pretty expensive. I try my best, but I admit it is often an issue to keep plenty of food in my cupboards. Both joining a gym and getting some equipment for my house are issues too, as this costs a lot of money I don't have to spare right now, but am looking into it for the future.

All I own currently is a pair of 10KG dumbells, and my body. I lift weights or just use my body-weight for other exercises, such as lunges and press-ups.

Anyway, as I mentioned my primary aim is to put on the weight. I used to be a terrible eater, sometimes skipping pretty much all the meals of the day, worrying my girlfriend. I'm not proud of that, but often times it just seemed I never got hungry, and could happily go an entire day living on nothing but a sandwich. Stupid, eh?
Well, I've changed all that around and put a lot of thought into what I eat. Here is what I had today, for example, and more or less what I've had for the past week. Food and exercise...

[Typical Daily Diet + Exercise ]

8am approx.
75G Porrige
100G Blueberries

12pm approx.
100G Tuna + Sweetcorn

4pm approx.
2x chicken breasts.
Brocoli
Potatoes

[Light Work-Out: One day on, one day off.]
50 Sit-ups
100 Push-ups (split into sets of 25)
100 Lunges (split into sets of 50)
100 Bicep Curls (10KG Dumbells)

9pm approx.
100G Tuna + Sweetcorn

12am
100G Tuna + Sweetcorn

And stuff I had throughout the day...
- 2 Litres of water through the day
- 100G Brazil nuts.
- 2x Apples



I really do love tuna and sweetcorn lol. That is by far the most common thing I eat, and try to throw it in a couple of times a day. Tuna though, along with chicken and most other meats, is expensive.

Also, I'm guessing my work-out is pretty lightweight and if someone has any idea what I can do with my limited equipment (my body and my dumbells) to improve this work-out, I would be very thankful. I kinda wonder if bicep curl is even all that useful.

Well, that is a typical day. In the past week or two I've gone from 9.11 stone to 10.4 stone, which is encouraging. I am skinny, always been toned due to light workout routines over the years, but really looking to take it up a whole new level.

I'm 21. 5'9". 10.4 stone.

And I will get pics up once I get hold of a decent camera.


Billy

Geo

Good Luck with Your Goals dude. Remember its a Marathon, not a race to put on nice clean muscle.

Geo

Greekgoddess

Eggs are one of the best sources of protein and can be found cheap! Stock up and eat. Go to the local market and buy tons of fruit and veg- good forms of carbs and if you go at the end of the day you can snap up all the offers.

Any fish is good, (I must be the only bb in the world who can't stand tuna!) and if you can bulk buy chicken it is a lot cheaper. Buy a whole cheap one and cook it and keep it in the fridge to snack on. Brown rice is filling and mixed with veg and a bit of meat makes a healthy meal. Add a seed mix to your snacks or even to your porridge in the mornings. If I am not cutting for a diet I also add condensed milk to sweeten it and add some protein.

Bodyweight exercises are fine for the time being. If you can do one press up you are lifting most of your bodyweight......don't get hung up on the equipment thing and the big weight numbers. All you need is enough weight to make your muscles grow!

irwit

Personally i think you are ****ing in the wind with that routine. Im skinny bastard myself and I really dont think you are going to do anything but "feel the burn" and swell your muscles with that weights routine.

Body weight exercises. 3 sets of 10.

Dips and pull ups are great and no excuses not to be doing these. Body weight or add a dumbell between your legs when body weight gets easy.

Body weight squats for a start and then squats while holding your dumbells.

Deadlifting whatever you have lying around your house thats heavy. Just make sure you are using good form. Remember your body wasnt designed to deadlift or squat a dumbell so dont think you need these to do the movements.

Rows with your dumbells but you will need more weight that 10k.

Bicep curls IMO are a waste of time at your stage.

Also personally I think higher reps arent going to get you anywhere. Do really slow reps for your pressups and such, theres a lot to read up about lighter weight but much slower reps. Cant find the link to hand but its in these forums somewhere and was a good read. Im talking 10 seconds down, 10 seconds back up. Basically theory is longer the better.

Finally your diet has no protein in the morning, I would add some whey into your breaky. Apart from that diet looks ok apart from I cant see you lasting a week on that much tuna and sweetcorn. You should enjoy your diet when bulking I think. I would look into some more interesting recipies.


Your training routine, your diet and your sleep are all key and all equal. Eat 1000 eggs and day and squat 200k but if you are getting 2 hours sleep a night your body will be fuked! Concentrate on getting all 3 nailed! After realising how important sleep was I went out boughta £1000 bed and some black out curtains. Cant explain the difference it made waking up after an uninterupted 8 hour sleep compared to what I had before.

Finally I would up your water, your **** should be clear through the day.

billydowlingrei

Thanks, guys! Guess I'm not gonna update this as often as I thought I would, but that's okay.

I've dropped the weights/biceps curls almost entirely, and am focusing much more on press-ups, and other 'body' exercises.

I've started with the egg whites in there as you suggest Greek Goddess! My liking for eggs is a bit like your own for tuna though lol. But I'll eat up!

Irwit, yeah I take on board what you say about sleep. I've been sleeping much better recently. Usually out for 12am and up for 8am. Been keeping that pattern going for close to a week now!

Dunno if it's just my imagination but I see a few little changes in my body, especially the muscles worked by my two favourite exercises: push-ups and lunges.


Thanks, guys!


Billy

Greekgoddess

Go for whole eggs until you are cutting for a contest!