Thanks for all the adice Paul. It spurred me on to hit the weights hard. Now my arms ache loads lol
A old friend of mine who used to box said that I can put of lots of muscle just doing 3 main excercises with a barbell. He said to do 3 lots of 12 of:
- military lifts
- arm curls
- and the rowing type exercise

is this balloney? can i really bulk up just doing these 3?

thanks for the honest advice Paul.
I currently only use dumbells due to not living at my own place at the mo and lack of room.

I'l start doing squats when my legs fixed (broke it 2 months ago)

Is a bench essential for doing bench presses? probably a silly question, but im lacking in room for one at the mo

Thanks for the advice

Joe

a bed is always handy for bench pressing!! there is no other way of building up chest really  im not a fan of bench press anyway as i find it hard to notice improvments but you have to stick at it an keep doing them else you end up looking a bit silly with hoooge abs and no chest lol good luck!

Thanks for the advice Paul.

I think i'll do a squats, chins, and press ups then (with my raised press up handles), and some militarys

whats the main advantage of doing militarys when i'll be doing chins anyway? id imagine im using the same muscles?

Should I do chins and press ups like weights by counting to two seconds on the way up and two on the way down. should my arms be directly above shoulders on pull ups?


thanks!
i'll be writing up a plan of what im gonna do so i stick to it





 

Or to put it another way - chins are the vertical pull, and militaries the vertical push. They are antagonist movements, think Newton's third law of motion "for every action there's an equal opposite reaction". The antagonist movement for the bench-press would be the row (bent over with a barbell for instance), these two movements are the horizontal push/pulls. A good basic routine would be the vertical & horizontal push/pulls, plus deadlifting (for hamstrings, back, grip etc) and squatting.

For instance:

Chins (vertical pull)
Overhead Press (vertical push)
Bench (horizontal push)
Bent over Row (horizontal pull)
Close stance back or front Squat (quad dominant)
Sumo Deadlift (hamstring/hip dominant)

As these are all compound movements, they'll hit your whole body, no need for pointless sit-ups or any other crap - your core is involved in all these movements as a stabilizer (especially in squatting and deadlifting, the 2 best core building exercises).

Things I would avoid are upright rows (bad for the rotator cuffs) - doing horizontal and vertical push movements on the same day (also stressful for the shoulders). Machines, avoid avoid avoid - stick to the free weights. Machines force your body into an unnatural path, you can get injured doing any kind of lifting but you're more likely to get injured using a machine. Also if you're doing squats or deadlifts - FORM FORM FORM!!! Read up on these exercises. The squat is especially difficult to master. It requires a lot of flexibility in the hips and hamstrings - dont let your lower back round as you drop down!

why isnt the dumbbell curl recommended as an exercise? thats the one ive usually focused on the most!!!

ive got my pressup handle thingys out. theyre easily twice as hard now when i lower myself so much lower than before. how long should i take over these and chins? count to two on way up and way down???/

thanks!!!Joe

thanks

i cant do squats for a few weeks as my leg too weak at the mo tho so think i'll keep doing the dumbell curls till then. my forearms are getting tiny!! but i dont know how to get em big just sitting down

thanks for that! never heard of that site before lol

im feeling the benfits of it already. started doing 12 kg curls  and could barely do ten now two lots of 12 is easy then another ten