Thinness in St. Louis
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Thinness in St. Louis - 5/15/2008 2:29:25 PM
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dr j
Posts: 46
Joined: 5/15/2008
Status: offline
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Greetings from St. Louis, MO!
I've read over the titles and a fair bit of the content of the posts on all of the forums a few pages deep, and there are snippets of information that apply to me here & there through the different subject areas, but not quite exactly what I'm looking for. It looks like there are alot of good perspectives on here, and a good, supportive community, so I'll go ahead & give this a post!
Never have exercised at all in my life - seriously, last time I took PE was in 8th grade.
I'm 33 y/o, been 135 lb pretty steady since age 18, except a couple of years ago when I got put on prednisone for a couple of weeks and puffed up to 145 in fat, which I've lost in the last couple of months since starting to exercise, and am back down to 135.
Recently got tired of being so thin - my posture was bad, and getting worse, with my shoulders rolling in and something of a slouch - that skinny gen-x slacker goth kid thing sort of stops working when you hit your 30's, no? My big baggy rock-band t-shirts just sort of look silly, and business clothes, whether shirts&ties, suits or polos, all just sort of hang off me. I also can't jog more than a couple of blocks before getting winded, which is just frakkin' pathetic (can anyone identify that tv show reference?).
So, my goals are two-fold - increased strength & size, as well as improved cardio-vascular fitness.
A few months ago, I started with some really basic situps & pushups every couple of nights for a few weeks, then aded some basic dumbbell exercises: flies, bench press, concentration curls, lateral raises, upright rows, tricep extensions, sqats, heel raises/dips. Did those once every 4 nights for about month, with steady increases in weight lifted and/or reps.
After a month & a half of that, I bought a weight bench, and recently have added to the repertoire, and have been alternating with routines doing chest & arm work, followed by a routine focusing on back & legs.
Through all of this, I've been purchasing steadily heavier pairs of dumbbells.
I do 3 sets of all of the below, to muscle failure. My all dumbell basic workout routines have been:
routine 1 (focused on chest & arms):
bicycle crunches
flies (rotating between flat, incline & decline)
bench press (rotating between flat, incline & decline)
hammer curls
cross body hammer curls
lying triceps exentsions
concentration curls
wait 4 days (mainly because I've been sore - routine 1 kicks my arse)
routine 2:
bicycle crunches
bench press (flat)
squats
dips/raises
seated dumbbell shoulder press
lateral raises
front dumbbell raises
dumbbell upright rows
dumbbell shrugs
one-arm dumbbell rows
forearm curls
wait 3 or 4 days, return to routine # 1.
This week, I bought a recumbant bike, and plan on working that into my routine, inserting in between the weight lifting routines.
Diet wise, I'm a vegetarian (yeh, go ahead, make some jokes). Frequently I wake up hungry & grab a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night. Breakfast is hit & miss for me. Lunches are a little inconsistent. Dinners are almost always solid, healthy & balanced, with lots of leafy greens, beans, dairy & soy. 5 nights out of 7 I have a peanut butter, honey & raisin sandwich before bed. I drink a can of regular soda or two a day, and some potato chips here & there - junk food isn't somethign I avoid, and as I don't have a fat problem, I don't really worry about it. All in all, I feel like my diet is fairly healthy, but could probably use a little more balance, and a touch more protein.
Going to a gym is quite simply not an option - we have two small children + full time jobs, I just can't get out of the house to go do anything else, especially in the context of late night meetings a couple of days a week.
So far, I've made pretty good progress - my arms have increased in size from ridiculously skinny to moderately skinny, my pecs have gained some definition, my shoulders & back have gained alot of definition. The little bit of paunch I had on my belly had disappeared, except around the far sides to back. Since I don't have much fat on me, the changes are fairly noticeable atually. Strength improvements have been noticeable as well. I've stuck to my routine, but of course have had to push it back a day or two here or there around work or family obligations.
But, I've also sort of already stalled out on increasing my bench press & flyes weight/reps. And, amusingly, I've still hovered around 135 lbs.
Further personal commentary: Graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, I play classical & jazz trombone, and play electric guitar in a goth-psychadelic-metal band. Currently employed as Executive Director of a circus, no joke. Married, 2 boys, ages 4 & 2. The "Dr J" name is my standard forum name - I have a home recording studio, and one of the people I was recording once called me "Dr. J, the audio surgeon," so I took that for my login.
So, any thoughts, suggestions or comments on what I'm doing? My hunch is that I need to look at some sort of protein supplement.
Thanks in advance!
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RE: Thinness in St. Louis - 5/16/2008 10:36:29 AM
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dmobley01
Posts: 311
Joined: 10/9/2007
Status: offline
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well to gain weight you have to eat more! your meals should also start big with breakfeast being your biggest meal. eat good protein before going to bed as well. There are several vegaterian posters on here to help you with finding more protein. a good rule is to eat about every 2.5-3 hours you are awake.
as far as your routien goes a standard one could be:
squat
bench
deadlift
OH press
pullups
is always a good approach. try those 3 times a week. normally like monday/wednesday/friday is a good split. If you wanted to add in curls or tricep stuff do them at the end. You said you did squats so do you have a squat rack and a barbell? If not, i would look into doing so.
cardio does not need to be done for you to burn calories, but sounds like you need to do for overall cardiovascular fitness. I would try working running/biking 20-30 min at a moderate pace.
_____________________________
5'-11" 168'ish
bench = 185 x 5
squat = 280 x 1
deadlift = 295 x 1
I love slow days at work!
Emancipation Detoxification's Official Red Headed Step Child - getting beat since 2/28/08
(in reply to dr j)
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RE: Thinness in St. Louis - 5/16/2008 10:52:53 AM
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TheSilverFox
Posts: 1590
Joined: 1/14/2008
Status: offline
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what dmobley mentioned for a routine is EXCELLENT for a person new to the gym. you can always add in a few abdominal exercises at the end if you want to.
When i first posted on this forum, the picture was not the best. my posture was horrible. i was recommended to do deadlifts. had NEVER done a deadlift before in my life. started very low with only 10 lbs on eachside of the barbell, focussing on perfect form.
3 months later, i'm deadlifting 275 lbs. my posture is GREAT!
deadlifts REALLY help strengthen the back/core. you should definately have them in your workout. just be sure to take it slow. no need to impress anyone with large amounts of weight and end up hurting your back due to poor form. just progress slowly as you feel more and more comfortable. goodluck
oh.. and btw. you said you are tired of being so skinny at 135 lbs? but just a sentence before you said that you had been 145lbs and you were FAT???!!! haha... so those 10 pounds made you go from skinny to fat? if that's the case.. lots of us on this forum are VERRRRRY fat.
_____________________________
--J
24 yrs old (The Fox is CUTTING!!!!)
Current wt-195
32 in" waist ------- 6'1"
Current BF : 11% ---- 16.5 in'' bicep
300 lb. max bench (on June 4th, 2008)
225 lb. Sitting OH press 1 rep max (June 2008)
Deadlift max = 315 lbs (June, 2008)
Curved barbell Curl max = 135 lbs. (June, 2008)
Max ATG Squat = 235 lbs. (June, 2008)
Supplements
Biotest BCAA's, Bodyfortress BCAA's, ON 100% Gold standard whey, ON Casein, ON BCAA powder,
Multi-vit., Fish Oil, Vit. C
(in reply to dmobley01)
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RE: Thinness in St. Louis - 5/16/2008 1:59:12 PM
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dr j
Posts: 46
Joined: 5/15/2008
Status: offline
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Thanks for the responses!
quote:
ORIGINAL: TheSilverFox
oh.. and btw. you said you are tired of being so skinny at 135 lbs? but just a sentence before you said that you had been 145lbs and you were FAT???!!! haha... so those 10 pounds made you go from skinny to fat? if that's the case.. lots of us on this forum are VERRRRRY fat.
Lol... I suppose that wasn't clear, I was saying that 10 lbs was fat. not that I was fat.
(in reply to TheSilverFox)
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RE: Thinness in St. Louis - 5/25/2008 12:51:09 PM
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dr j
Posts: 46
Joined: 5/15/2008
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: dmobley01
You said you did squats so do you have a squat rack and a barbell? If not, i would look into doing so.
I've been doing dumbbell squats & bench presses, I figured eventually I'd get a barbell for this - but not quite ready yet.
on the deadlift - thanks for the recommendation - I added dumbbell deadlifts to my routine. I know this isn't exactly what you had in mind - but I've only got room for the dumbbells right now.
I added more calories to my day - switched to 1% milk from skim, almonds, protein shake, I'll keep working on this.
Thank you both!
< Message edited by dr j -- 5/25/2008 1:06:59 PM >
(in reply to dmobley01)
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