A little advice please.

Sandals

Right So i am a skinny scrawny guy, with perhaps a slight stomach,(wouldnt be evident when wearing clothes, but just doesn't look to trim otherwise)
anyway so I have started trying to get healthy,
I went for my 1st run in years the other day, and am going to keep that up,
I can only run during mid week,

I also work out my arms/shoulders through a powerball, as well as press ups,

and use a variety of crunch techniques for my abs,

I dont really know what other excercises I should be doing have no equipment or access to gym.

I went into a health shop today and bought epa fish oil vitamins as well as a 1kg container of Muscle and weight gainer,

which I feel may have been a mistake as I am more interrested in muscle gain than weight.

I am planning on running two days a week, (dont think I could manage much else at start anyway, too busy.

Then arms three days.

and abs two and alternate between abs and arms next week,

I would really apreciate any advice as I am kind of guessing everything.

amazingemmet

Whats your main goals? gain weight or get fit? Whats your diet like? I'd lay off the mass builder and muscle stuff for awhile its only really needed when your doing more full on work

Sandals

My Main goal is to become fitter with more lean muscle,
My diet is pretty good, I dont eat cakes/biscuits/chocolate/crisps anything like that.
WHat efffect will the muscle stuff have so?

amazingemmet

Theres no real point to supplementing your diet unless your doing intense workouts. an you post what you eat in a day just to give me an idea

Sandals

I eat a cereal at breakfast maybee half 9 depending on lecture

Then at 11 a homemade ham and cheese sandwiche

at 1 another homemade H+C sandwidche, and a plait of unsalted chips.


At 6 then I have either homemeade chicken curry with noodles, a pizza, or lasagne or pasta.

Over the course of the day I have 1.5 litres of dilutable peach.orange

and 2.5 litres of Water,

rarely anything else (IT is a student budget diets)

Once a week I would drink heavily at night, maybee naggon of vodka, two bulmers and a fat frog.

What does that seem like?

Loomis

Sandals wrote:

I eat a cereal at breakfast maybee half 9 depending on lecture

Then at 11 a homemade ham and cheese sandwiche

at 1 another homemade H+C sandwidche, and a plait of unsalted chips.


At 6 then I have either homemeade chicken curry with noodles, a pizza, or lasagne or pasta.

Over the course of the day I have 1.5 litres of dilutable peach.orange

and 2.5 litres of Water,

rarely anything else (IT is a student budget diets)

Once a week I would drink heavily at night, maybee naggon of vodka, two bulmers and a fat frog.

What does that seem like?

Immense hangover and probable liver damage in a few years...

I would have thought drinking that amount of alcohol would make any exercise you've done during the week redundant as you gain weight from alcohol which you'd just lost through working out during the week?

Sandals

YEs, I do often get severely drunk, and forget everything that happened, the night before,afterwards. I find it very hard to stop though.

Dragan

The first step to improving the physical for you i feel will be self discipline.

Your eating well is really just a diet low in protein, high in processed foods and containing lots of bad fats.

Not to be mean but there are a million websites where you can find basic diet information and a simple google search will reveal them all.

Loomis

Sandals wrote:

YEs, I do often get severely drunk, and forget everything that happened, the night before,afterwards. I find it very hard to stop though.

Well I'd suggest drinking significantly less than that.And also drink a lot of water during the night.Try to have a pint of water for every pint of alcohol.If nothing else this will help reduce the strength of your hangover.

Sandals

Dragan wrote:

The first step to improving the physical for you i feel will be self discipline.

Your eating well is really just a diet low in protein, high in processed foods and containing lots of bad fats.

Not to be mean but there are a million websites where you can find basic diet information and a simple google search will reveal them all.

I am shocked by that, i would have though my diet was high in protein and low in fats, how dont i get enough protein with all the ham and chicken i eat?

*I do have good self-discipline when it comes to eating, I thought i was doing well by eating that stuff.

I also eat a bag of apples over the course of the week.

amazingemmet

I'm in agreement with Dragan here. You need to eat more fruit and veg and more
good carbs, also swap the orange stuff to a low sugar one.

Dragan

You have two ham sanwiches and a chicken curry maybe. Thats providing maybe, and i mean MAYBE 100gramd of protein. This would be enough protein to add lean muscle on if you weighed about 75 pounds which i am assuming you do not.

The cheese, unless low fat, will be high in bad vats, and as most places cook there chips in vegtable oil they will be too. Ham itself is quite a fatty meat.

As for the apples, these are mainly fructose ( the sugar contained in fruit ).

Do you see where i am coming from? You need to aim for AT LEAST 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass and at least 3grams of clean source carbs. You need to take in some healthy fats as well, be it from fish or whatever other source you like. Me, i go for flax.

joejoem

But the amount of protein he is eating wont really make a difference if he isnt pushing himself surely? To get fit you will need to set a routine. I was as you desrcibed, skinny, no belly but it wasnt shapely but its taken me 7 months to put on a good amount of lean muscle and I'm still trying to improve areas. You can try push ups but I found them so boring that I couldnt disipline myself to do them regularally. When you say you dont have access to a gym, can you not get to one by the school/college/work or even one by your home? It will definitly be worth your while, great for confidence, general self worth and for some people - meeting people.

Otherwise Id say get yourself a chin up bar for €20 and put it up in the house. There are several types of chinups that you can do to build shoulders, chest, arms etc. Then for your abbs start a few different types of situps. Build up slowly to a larger amount and stagger the work outs two days apart. Cardio will get rid of whatever puppy fat you have on your stomach.

Big build isnt nececarally a must. If its for women, they can be equally impressed with a toned skinny guy. Its taken me a long hard slog to build up what I have and without a gym I dont think I would have been able to do it.

My advice would be to start off with small goals and build yourself up from there. If you can do 4 chinups to start then do that and aim for 6 cinups 4 weeks down the line. Do searches for closed grip, wide grip chinups

Dragan

You can do whatever sort of routine to want, if your diet is not there you won't gain a thing dude.

joejoem

Sorry I misread that, I thought we were talking about a protein suppliment.

Dragan

No worries.

Sandals

Ok thanks all for your help, I really apreciate it,
If I cut down on cheese, eat an extra bag of oranges, and five bananas a week,
took some linseed in water, had sliced unprocessed turkey sandwiches on brown bread and had steamed vegetables(the ones in a bag) with my dinner twice a week, would that be good then?
Should I have some nuts as well,
I dont have chips every day maybee twice, one of which would be unislim oven chips, theyre my fav oven chips,


And Is the muscle gain powder really of no use, should I take it after meal or in place of one?

SBob

Sandals wrote:

I went into a health shop today and bought epa fish oil vitamins as well as a 1kg container of Muscle and weight gainer,

which I feel may have been a mistake as I am more interrested in muscle gain than weight.

Do you think some people buy it because they want to get fat??!!

The weight gain implies muscle gain, but you have to allow for other gain also, just diet to lean up when the time is right. The idea of those supplements is to help you improve your calorie intake so that weight gain is possible. If you eat sensibly and work out consistantly, the weight you put on should be mostly muscle mass.

Sandals

Sandals wrote:

Ok thanks all for your help, I really apreciate it,
If I cut down on cheese, eat an extra bag of oranges, and five bananas a week,
took some linseed in water, had sliced unprocessed turkey sandwiches on brown bread and had steamed vegetables(the ones in a bag) with my dinner twice a week, would that be good then?
Should I have some nuts as well,
I dont have chips every day maybee twice, one of which would be unislim oven chips, theyre my fav oven chips,


And Is the muscle gain powder really of no use, should I take it after meal or in place of one?

Ok so this week I bought all the extra items listed above, can you tell me if that's enough?

and could you please answer this;

And Is the muscle gain powder really of no use, should I take it after meal or in place of one?

joejoem

No it will be of use too you, its not a meal replacement though, best first thing in the morning and after a work out.

Transform

Gosh worms can every where!!!

Get your training sorted also as there needs to be a major overhaul there also

Got to have all the following covered

1. Aerobic exercise
2. Weights
3. Stretching
4. Core or ab/back work

Healthy diet will be a massive bonus though NOTHING will happen unless your training incorporates all of the above

Sandals

what do you mean by worms can,

today I ate very little and then went for an hour and half squash game, am exhausted, tomorrow I will eat lots of protein and work out,

no Idea what to do about stretching naievely can't see it doing anything.

Sandals

I have stopped taking the shake as it only has 25g of protein per serving and 58g of carbs. and i dont want to get fat,

I am instead eating loads of turkey and have noticed a difference in bulk and fitness already.

joejoem

Sandals wrote:

I have stopped taking the shake as it only has 25g of protein per serving and 58g of carbs. and i dont want to get fat,

I am instead eating loads of turkey and have noticed a difference in bulk and fitness already.

In two days?

Dragan

joejoem wrote:

In two days?

Unlikely that it's caused from cutting out carbs, and very little can happen from diet in two days except water rentention.

joejoem

Sandals wrote:

I have stopped taking the shake as it only has 25g of protein per serving and 58g of carbs. and i dont want to get fat,

I am instead eating loads of turkey and have noticed a difference in bulk and fitness already.

Your a skinny guy, skinny guys dont get fat easily. You wont get fat with that shake unless you do no excersise. Take the shake, and continue eating all your turkey etc. The muscle will build up, your belly will go and you will grow more muscle. ONLY if you work out.

Sandals

joejoem wrote:

Your a skinny guy, skinny guys dont get fat easily. You wont get fat with that shake unless you do no excersise. Take the shake, and continue eating all your turkey etc. The muscle will build up, your belly will go and you will grow more muscle. ONLY if you work out.

ok thanks, but would I be better to get a protein only shake?

joejoem

Sandals wrote:

ok thanks, but would I be better to get a protein only shake?

If you want to build up muscle then no, i would finish what you have then get some protein. Easygainer sells it cheaper than you get anywhere in the shops and its a beter brand.

You will need to continue eating well and heavy. Dont worry, you wont get fat if you excersise and keep doing weights. Eating loads of (healthy) food + Excersise/weights = muscle!

BossArky

At Uni I was pretty skinny and weedy until I started off going to the gym and drinking a litre or two of milk afterwards, along with a can of tuna. Lots of protein in there - perhaps try that depending on how hard you are working out.

Dragan

A guy i used to work with used to have a chicken and two litres of milk everyday for his lunch in work. It was a site to watch him eat it man. He was in great knick as well. Not too sure why everyone always says to fear dairy.

joejoem

BossArky wrote:

At Uni I was pretty skinny and weedy until I started off going to the gym and drinking a litre or two of milk afterwards, along with a can of tuna. Lots of protein in there - perhaps try that depending on how hard you are working out.

Tuna and milk smoothy? Euughhh!

Dragan wrote:

A guy i used to work with used to have a chicken and two litres of milk everyday for his lunch in work. It was a site to watch him eat it man. He was in great knick as well. Not too sure why everyone always says to fear dairy.

Different folks, differeent strokes. I drink around the same a day, and I eat two batches of chicken fillets a week (14 fillets) at least and a few lbs of mince and a few tins of Tuna.