Newbie Questions!

[Ejhickey]

Hey guys, first time poster looking for advice. I'm 6'1 and 177 if that helps anyone answer any of the questions I post.

I guess ill start off by saying, Does anyone know an effective way to raise bench weight? Ive been stuck doing 45's on each side for months, and I work out my chest twice a week with generally 12-15 sets focused on it. I am sore for 3-4 days sometimes after working out, so I dont understand why, when i put 5's on each side in addition to the 45's, i cant do 10 full reps for even 1 set.

For the past 3 1/2 weeks ive also been taking Phosphogen HP (I used to be 170 now a 177, i think a lot of it is water, the rest is a mixture of muscle/fat from increased eating), has anyon had any experience with it and know if it works well and maybe im just not training hard enough to see the benefits?

Lately, because ive been upset with my lack of gains in strength, ive almost doubled my workout. I work out with one group of guys from 8-9pm, working on 1 or 2 specific muscles, then theyll leave and ill stay and workout what we just did over again. is this the best way to gain strength? I definately am always sore for days after I do it, whereas if I didnt double the workout I most likely wouldnt be sore.

Also, whats a safe amount of pounds to gain per week if im not trying to 'bulk up', just add a lot of muscle and be very toned/cut. Gaining 7 (maybe 8 now) lbs in 3 weeks seemed fast, and it doesnt look like it was 8 lbs of muscle .

Also, heres pretty much my workout for everyone to critique and say how bad it is (im inexperience so please dont be too harsh cause i really dont know what im doing).

Monday
(Bar)Bench Press: 3-4 sets x 10 reps (or max) at 135 lbs
(Bar)Incline Bench Press: 3 sets x 10 reps (or max) at 125 lbs
(Bar)Decline Bench Press: 3 sets x 10 reps (or max) at 135 lbs
(Cable Cross Machine) Some Decline Chest Movement, basically sides are down at the bottom and I pull them up in front of me: 3 sets x 10 reps

Tuesday - all sets 3x10reps (or max)
Standing Dumbell Curls
Standing EZ Bar Curls
Bicep Machine
Tricep Rope Pulldown
Tricep EZ bar, lying flat on bench and pushing it from behind my head to above it
Tricep Machine, Pushdown

Wednesday - all sets 3x10 (or max)
Military Press
Sitting,Dumbells, pushing from my shoulders upwards above my head
Shoulder machine Where you kind of shrug it
Standing, Holding Light dumbells at side and bringing them up in front of me
Rear Delt Machine


Repeat the second part of the week


Any help or advice given is appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Evan

 

[fantasma62]

One of the best things you can do when training is taking time to rest. I have read that some of the bigger gains occur as your muscles are resting.
In my opinion, I would give HIT or Gopros P/RR/S a try. Check them out, there is a wealth of information in this forums, in fact, check out people's journals.
Regardless of this, you need to rest.
Also, do you go to failure or up to a number? Or, do you fail at 5 reps or you count off and go all the way to X amount of reps and stop there? One thing that may help you is forgetting about a number of reps and simply lift until you can't lift no more, thus reach failure.
Gurus, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that rest and reaching failure will help you a whole lot....Just my opinion...

 

[Arnold]

I guess ill start off by saying, Does anyone know an effective way to raise bench weight? Ive been stuck doing 45's on each side for months, and I work out my chest twice a week with generally 12-15 sets focused on it. I am sore for 3-4 days sometimes after working out, so I dont understand why, when i put 5's on each side in addition to the 45's, i cant do 10 full reps for even 1 set.

Train chest 1 time per week and drop it to about 8 sets.


For the past 3 1/2 weeks ive also been taking Phosphogen HP (I used to be 170 now a 177, i think a lot of it is water, the rest is a mixture of muscle/fat from increased eating), has anyon had any experience with it and know if it works well and maybe im just not training hard enough to see the benefits?

Have you tried adjusting your diet? Increasing protine and calories?


Lately, because ive been upset with my lack of gains in strength, ive almost doubled my workout.

You should be doing the exact opposite.


I work out with one group of guys from 8-9pm, working on 1 or 2 specific muscles, then theyll leave and ill stay and workout what we just did over again. is this the best way to gain strength? I definately am always sore for days after I do it, whereas if I didnt double the workout I most likely wouldnt be sore.

It sounds like you are overtraining.

There are plenty of workouts posted, try gopro's: http://www.ironmagazine.com/article65.html

And I highly recommend you start reading thru the articles: http://www.ironmagazine.com/archive.html

 

[crazy_enough]

Welcome aboard!
There's such a thing as overdoing it, adn it leads nowhere...
If after a workout of specific body parts u still got juice to re-do it, rethink the intensity that u put into ur w/o...It might just explain the lack of results....

 

[Tommy]

Another suggestion is to try dumbbells for a while for chest,or alternate one week db's next week bar.

 

[ihateschoolmt]

O-V-E-R T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G Only train chest once a week, only do about 8-10 sets and you have to eat right to gain muscle. I used to train like you, I weighed 127 pounds at 5'11. I started listening to the people on this forum about training and diet and gained 18 pounds of lean body mass so far, and I've only been doing this for about 5 months.

 

[ruemanshu]

you're doing too many reps with not enough weight. to gain strength u should increase the weight you're using and lower it to 4-6 reps a set and do 2-4 sets