Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Want to put muscle on? The sans-bullshit version

Meridae'n · 02-20-2005, 04:12 AM

I've noticed lately that a few people here go to the gym a bit. I've never actually thought about starting a thread like this as I thought it would be a waste of time as it's hard enough to get people to stick to a program that works in real life, let alone someone you can only converse with on the net.

When I was 19 I worked as a personal trainer in the gym in my home town of Deniliquin, mostly as the two girls who ran it knew a whole lot about fitness but not alot about weight training. It was fairly informal, I'd help people who ask for it, and because I loved it I got alot of custom. I read a lot about weight training those days as I had previously had a knee-reconstruction which had ended any dreams I had of playing Rugby League professionally, but the weight training bug stuck with me.

Anyway, I had the chance to put alot of methods I read about to practice on both myself and many others, and seen what works and what doesn't.

Firstly I'd like to list a few truths...

1) WEIGHT TRAINING IS HARD WORK. It's about triggering a survival mechanism in your body that forces it to grow in order to protect itself. Your body will try to conserve energy at all costs, which unfortunately means it will do everything in it's power to minimise muscle mass to the bare minimum. Only hard work will convince your body that it needs to retain greater amounts of muscle for survival.

I can imagine you are saying "well, duh", but you may be the same person who finds a reason not to do all the hard exercises and therefore give yourself no chance at gaining any muscle.

2) MACHINES ARE USELESS. Well, not all of them, but definately the majority. You need to be either moving your trunk through space or using freeweights, preferrably the former. The reason? Your ultimate aim is to get stronger, as only increased strength will result in muscle gain. You can't do that with machines, sorry. I know they look cool, but they are a waste of your fucking time.

3) BICEP CURLS WILL NOT MAKE YOUR ARMS BIGGER. But gee, don't I look cool swinging these dumbells around. See all those guys hitting their Bi's from every conceivable angle? Fuckwits. For starters your Biceps are very small, and therefore tire very easily. If you want big arms, strive for a big chest and back. Two of the most impressive sets of guns I've ever seen belonged to two blokes who never worked arms... one of them being Derek Boyer (google him, he's a bouncer in Albury and frequent World's Strongest Man contestant). Unfortuneately this point lost me about half of my male clients.

The reason they wont make your arms bigger is this, perhaps the most important thing you'll read in this post...

YOUR BODY GROWS AS ONE COMPLETE UNIT. Yup, that means that you can't just grow muscle on one past and not another. Don't like that? Tough. Sure, those blokes doing bench presses and Bicep curls every day might experience little gains, but believe me, it wont be much. You need to be working every part of your body, and all of them equally hard, if you want to see any gains.

4) ONLY A PROGRAM THAT INCORPORATES COMPOUND EXERCISES WILL WORK. I'm just being a prick now aren't I. By 'compound exercises' I mean those that require two or more joints to be in use directly. Of course simple exercises have their role, but it's only a small one. That means Leg Extensions are out, and Squats are in. Pec Deck is out, Bench Presses are in. Catch my drift?

To be continued...

02-20-2005, 04:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
Meridae'n Loose Cunt Location: North Bondi RSL	Want to put muscle on? The sans-bullshit version I've noticed lately that a few people here go to the gym a bit. I've never actually thought about starting a thread like this as I thought it would be a waste of time as it's hard enough to get people to stick to a program that works in real life, let alone someone you can only converse with on the net. When I was 19 I worked as a personal trainer in the gym in my home town of Deniliquin, mostly as the two girls who ran it knew a whole lot about fitness but not alot about weight training. It was fairly informal, I'd help people who ask for it, and because I loved it I got alot of custom. I read a lot about weight training those days as I had previously had a knee-reconstruction which had ended any dreams I had of playing Rugby League professionally, but the weight training bug stuck with me. Anyway, I had the chance to put alot of methods I read about to practice on both myself and many others, and seen what works and what doesn't. Firstly I'd like to list a few truths... 1) WEIGHT TRAINING IS HARD WORK. It's about triggering a survival mechanism in your body that forces it to grow in order to protect itself. Your body will try to conserve energy at all costs, which unfortunately means it will do everything in it's power to minimise muscle mass to the bare minimum. Only hard work will convince your body that it needs to retain greater amounts of muscle for survival. I can imagine you are saying "well, duh", but you may be the same person who finds a reason not to do all the hard exercises and therefore give yourself no chance at gaining any muscle. 2) MACHINES ARE USELESS. Well, not all of them, but definately the majority. You need to be either moving your trunk through space or using freeweights, preferrably the former. The reason? Your ultimate aim is to get stronger, as only increased strength will result in muscle gain. You can't do that with machines, sorry. I know they look cool, but they are a waste of your fucking time. 3) BICEP CURLS WILL NOT MAKE YOUR ARMS BIGGER. But gee, don't I look cool swinging these dumbells around. See all those guys hitting their Bi's from every conceivable angle? Fuckwits. For starters your Biceps are very small, and therefore tire very easily. If you want big arms, strive for a big chest and back. Two of the most impressive sets of guns I've ever seen belonged to two blokes who never worked arms... one of them being Derek Boyer (google him, he's a bouncer in Albury and frequent World's Strongest Man contestant). Unfortuneately this point lost me about half of my male clients. The reason they wont make your arms bigger is this, perhaps the most important thing you'll read in this post... YOUR BODY GROWS AS ONE COMPLETE UNIT. Yup, that means that you can't just grow muscle on one past and not another. Don't like that? Tough. Sure, those blokes doing bench presses and Bicep curls every day might experience little gains, but believe me, it wont be much. You need to be working every part of your body, and all of them equally hard, if you want to see any gains. 4) ONLY A PROGRAM THAT INCORPORATES COMPOUND EXERCISES WILL WORK. I'm just being a prick now aren't I. By 'compound exercises' I mean those that require two or more joints to be in use directly. Of course simple exercises have their role, but it's only a small one. That means Leg Extensions are out, and Squats are in. Pec Deck is out, Bench Presses are in. Catch my drift? To be continued... __________________ What's easier to believe: that a guy was born without sex in the manner of several Greek demigods and grew up to be able to transmute liquids and alter his body density yet couldn't escape government execution, or that three freemasons in a vehicle made with aluminum foil in an era before digital technology escaped our atmosphere, landing on the moon, broadcasted from there, and then flew back without burning up?