some newbie Qs, help appreciated

Hey all

I'm new to training and have a few questions. I'm 5'11", 182lbs, always had a pretty strong physique around chest and shoulders.

1) My aim isn't so much to put on body mass - though I don't mind this if it's muscle - but to... a) firm what I already have into muscle; b) lose some off my waistline.

2) I'm by no means fat, but there's a bit of excess I'd like to get rid of. But my worry is, if I lose that by doing cardio etc, surely I'll lose weight from the other areas that I want to build (upper body etc) - are losing weight and building muscles two things you can't do at the same time?

3) I'm particularly keen on building my arms. A friend of mine who's a gym instructor gave me the below program and he assures me it's enough to see gains but to be honest it just doesn't feel like I'm doing enough work and have little faith in my arms building up given the little amount of work they're getting in this program. Can anyone give me some points on arm building, or articles I can read?

4) Here's my program - note, I've replaced pull-ups/pull-downs with since I only have bar/dumbbells and, from what I gather from exrx.net, this exercise works the same muscles as pull-ups/pull-downs

Day 1: squat, flat bench, OH press, bent-over rows, barbell pullover

Day 2: deadlift, incline bench, arnolds, bent-over rows, barbell pullover

Day 3: squat, flat bench or weighted dips, OH press, bent-over row, barbell pullover

So is that ok? Seems to be a lot of repetition with things like pullovers but for all I know that's good.

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Thanks in advance for any help

if your by know means fat, but want to turn what you have into muscle... wat is it lol?
 
"anyway, particulary keen on building your arms" - i wouldnt just work on your arms to do this, as im sure your gym instructor has said.
 
gaining muscle and loosing fat can be done at the same time, but you need to calculate your caloric intakes first. then split that up between your meals.
 
you should be having six meals no matter what the portion size is (from the caloric needs) as to keep your motabolism up.
 
but the main things is that workout program youve aquired. its TERRIBLE but not your fault.
 
you'll be over working your muscles, as its a 2 day split. i do  a 7 day one soon to do a 4 day split once im cut.
 
your muscles need 7 days to fully repair, and about 48 hours to repair enough to work them again. which your not allowing, meaning your damaging yourself and prob why your not getting any results.
 
a simple better workout would be:
 
day 1: chest and tri's
day 2: back and Bi's
day 3: traps and shoulders
day 4: legs and abs
 
if you wanted to prolong it to more days have days of cardio with abs. but not next to each other.

ORIGINAL: dr j
I even found one site asserting that eating soy makes people gay. psaw.

Oh dear... time to revise the routine, then. Thanks a lot for your thoughts.

What I meant re: fat was that I'm not what you would consider fat, but I have SOME fat that I'd like to get rid of you. You just wouldn't walk past me in the street and think "fatso" ))

Will look at the routine you suggested. Thanks again.

gaining muscle and loosing fat can be done at the same time, but you need to calculate your caloric intakes first

So what you're saying is, I can still eat over the recommended calorie intake (i.e. as is required to build muscle) but if I split this evenly over 6 meals this will be sufficient for building but will also take weight off the waist?

Also, presumably to lose weight but also aid muscle growth I should be eating a lot but only good stuff, and zero junk, choc, biscuits etc?

What confuses me is that some people seem to endorse eating rubbish for building muscle, since it's processed by the training. Bizarre...

theres two diff methods of bulking, clean bulk and dirty bulk. IMO clean is better for obv reasons but i also find i get quicker results and i feel healthier all round. dirty bulk is just basically for people that are a tad lazy or really cant quit their habits. its not good.
 
when you calcuate what cals, you'll see your cutting cals, your maintenance cals and your bulking cals.
 
if youve got lots of fat you want to cut, this will be about 200 under your maintenance.
if you want to maintain your muscle and fat % then have the maintenance.
if you are below say 10% BF and want to gain muscle mass then bulk = more cals than maintenance.
 
i think if you have your maintenance and lift, and then have a day of cardio in your split, its possible to gain muscle and loose fat. then you'l have the decision to bulk again if desired.

ORIGINAL: dr j
I even found one site asserting that eating soy makes people gay. psaw.

Thanks a lot - but how to know what foods are cutting/maintenance/bulking calories? Perhaps you have a link I could check out to find this out?

Cheers

ll foods are. its what quantities you have them in.
 
so basically, when i was on a bulk i had the same foods im having now, but more of them in each meal. with the exception of less carbs on a cut. if you get me.

ORIGINAL: dr j
I even found one site asserting that eating soy makes people gay. psaw.