Working out but no Results

someothername

hi all

im new here and signed up to try and see if you guys/gals could help me with my work out.
for the past 2 months its gone kinda stale. still doing it all and regularly but not seeing any results anymore? in fact if anything ive noticed the belly creeping up on me!
advice would be greatly appreciated

my goals are to reduce my bodyfat (to see my 6 pack propper) and generate a little more size -
as i commute form carlow to dublin for work everyday(office job so sitting down a lot) i find it very hard to have 6 small meals a day as i have noticed some of you suggested to other people on here.
the only supplements i take are multivitamens
i would consider protein etc ... but am concerned about getting a bit of a belly from the extra protein (or does this happen?)
here are all the stats in can think u might need. if i have left out anything please let me know! sorry if some of the descriptions arent correct!

thanks in advance
alan

height : 5ft 9
weight : around 13stone
body fat % : 13.5%

workout :
i go every second night so its usually 3 or 4 times a week. either mon,wed,fri,sun or tues,thurs,sat

i usually do the same thing every night.
- 500m row to warm up. do this in 2 mins.
- 4 sets of 8 bench press. 90Kgs
- 4 sets of 8 dumbell shoulder press 27kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 dumbell flies ( flat) 20Kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 Lat machine ( pulls ) 70Kgs
- 4 sets of 8 biceps 20kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 triceps 20kgs (each dumbell)
- ill do a min of 200 crunches on the ab machine - sets of 50 with 30kgs weight.
to finish off ill row about 2000meters in around 8 mins to 8.5 mins or else do a 3km run in 14mins

Diet :

my diet is pretty good. or at least i think so!
up at 5.30 every morning but dont get breakfast till i get to work at 8 ( should prob change this?)
8.00am breakfast - always have a normal sized bowl of oats and cup of coffee .
1.00pm lunch - have a roll with chicken,cheese,salad.
7.30pm dinner - ill have a tin of tuna after the nights i go to the gym and if im not in the gym ill have soup and a roll.
i dont eat chocolate at all and wouldnt be a big drinker either .

thanks again:)

Degsy

Quiff81 wrote:

hi all

im new here and signed up to try and see if you guys/gals could help me with my work out.
for the past 2 months its gone kinda stale. still doing it all and regularly but not seeing any results anymore? in fact if anything ive noticed the belly creeping up on me!
advice would be greatly appreciated

my goals are to reduce my bodyfat (to see my 6 pack propper) and generate a little more size -
as i commute form carlow to dublin for work everyday(office job so sitting down a lot) i find it very hard to have 6 small meals a day as i have noticed some of you suggested to other people on here.
the only supplements i take are multivitamens
i would consider protein etc ... but am concerned about getting a bit of a belly from the extra protein (or does this happen?)
here are all the stats in can think u might need. if i have left out anything please let me know! sorry if some of the descriptions arent correct!

thanks in advance
alan

height : 5ft 9
weight : around 13stone
body fat % : 13.5%

workout :
i go every second night so its usually 3 or 4 times a week. either mon,wed,fri,sun or tues,thurs,sat

i usually do the same thing every night.
- 500m row to warm up. do this in 2 mins.
- 4 sets of 8 bench press. 90Kgs
- 4 sets of 8 dumbell shoulder press 27kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 dumbell flies ( flat) 20Kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 Lat machine ( pulls ) 70Kgs
- 4 sets of 8 biceps 20kgs (each dumbell)
- 4 sets of 8 triceps 20kgs (each dumbell)
- ill do a min of 200 crunches on the ab machine - sets of 50 with 30kgs weight.
to finish off ill row about 2000meters in around 8 mins to 8.5 mins or else do a 3km run in 14mins

Diet :

my diet is pretty good. or at least i think so!
up at 5.30 every morning but dont get breakfast till i get to work at 8 ( should prob change this?)
8.00am breakfast - always have a normal sized bowl of oats and cup of coffee .
1.00pm lunch - have a roll with chicken,cheese,salad.
7.30pm dinner - ill have a tin of tuna after the nights i go to the gym and if im not in the gym ill have soup and a roll.
i dont eat chocolate at all and wouldnt be a big drinker either .

thanks again:)

A couple of things.Try to spilt your body parts so that you're only hitting each muscle group once a week.For example:Do chest and arms one day,back and abs another and legs another day.Some people favour more complicated splits but the idea is the same.Your diet isnt very good at all.Three meals a day arent going to make muscles grow and your meals contain very little in the way of protein..read the stickies on nutrition.Ideally you should go to the gym three times a week,work very hard on each day,lift heavy weights in the 6-10 rep range and eat TONS of food,at least six medium-sized meals per day!Also you need to sleep well and rest adequatly between workouts.Strangely enough,your belly should dissapear more quickly if you eat more meals at regular intervals rather than three meals for the entire day.

JM MARCONI

Why dont you try a new weights routine? I have been told that if you do the same routine for to long your body will get used to it and you wont see any gains. I would recommend getting some Protein powder if you cant fit in 6 meals a day. You are lifting heavy enough weights and you dont have much protein in your diet. I have Big Whey over the last few weeks and I have lost a bit of bodyfat. So once you go to the gym I dont think you will get fat from it.

We replied at the same time Degsy.

Cadrach

More protein won't give you a belly; fats and carbs can give you a belly. Regarding your diet... where is your dinner? In fairness, soup and a roll is not a dinner. A tin of tuna? Where is your fruit and veg? You should have fruit with your breakfast and lunch, and plenty of green veg like broccoli with your dinner, in addition to a nice healthy lump of fish or chicken or meat in some form.

You definitely need to read the stickies and start eating a more balanced diet. Six meals a day is not critical, but regardless whether you're having three or six meals a day, you need to have a balanced diet -> more protein, more fruit/veg at the very least.

As regards the workout, there are far better people to give you the advice, but you need to chop and change. If you're doing 4 sets of everything with ease, why don't you raise the weight? Also, you may be better off focusing on either weight loss or muscle gain, but not both.

J.S. Pill

Quiff81 wrote:

as i commute form carlow to dublin for work everyday(office job so sitting down a lot) i find it very hard to have 6 small meals a day as i have noticed some of you suggested to other people on here.

Why??

I genuinely find that the office is one of the easiest places to eat properly. I presume you have a morning and afternoon tea break. Why not eat then? Including your first breakfast and your lunch that's 4 meals taken care of! If there's nothing suitable in the canteen or if you don't have a canteen why not bring something with you? I understand that you have a long commute and I really respect the fact that you still manage to fit your gym visits in but what's to stop you spending a few minutes preparing your food for the next day?

rubadub

Quiff81 wrote:

my diet is pretty good. or at least i think so!
up at 5.30 every morning but dont get breakfast till i get to work at 8 ( should prob change this?)
8.00am breakfast - always have a normal sized bowl of oats and cup of coffee .
1.00pm lunch - have a roll with chicken,cheese,salad.
7.30pm dinner - ill have a tin of tuna after the nights i go to the gym and if im not in the gym ill have soup and a roll.
i dont eat chocolate at all and wouldnt be a big drinker either .

thanks again:)

have you accurately weighed and calculated your calorie intake. Your description is pretty vague. You only list 3 meals, oats made to the pack "normal size" is 30g, which barely covers the bottom of the bowl, I used to be easily packing in 800-1000kcal in a bowl of museli. The lunch roll could be 250 or 1250kcal- and that is not exaggerrating, I see people in work sit down to 1000+kcal lunches convinced they are on a diet.

If you make meals to bring with you it is easy to get 6 meals per day, I can get 10 meals in somedays.

Colm_OReilly

As Marconi said, your body gets used to a weights routine (or any stress) and stops adapting.

To get a better routine, you should concentrate on big, multi joint lifts like deadlifting and squatting. The bench and the shoulder press are good exercises as well.

If you can, start doing pull ups and dips. If they're too easy, do them weighted. If they're too hard, do reverses or jumping pull ups and dips.

These types of movements will give a better neuroendocrine (sp?) response, which means that you'll release more hormones to build muscle, plus the pathways will develop so you'll have better control, which will enable you to lift more. Plus they take care of all the little support muscles, which are detrimentally ignored by doing bicep curls and the likes.

Invest in a copy of Starting Strength - it will help immensely.

If you've any questions fire away,
Colm

someothername

thanks to all that have helped so far , ive read the stickies on nutrition and along with what you guys have pointed out i def realise that my diet is crap. will be taking immediate action!
any help on the actual workout im doing ?
does it look ok or should i vary it more?
id say im doing this workout over a yr now. im not in bad shape at all but we all want better i guess!

someothername

Colm_OReilly wrote:

If you can, start doing pull ups and dips. If they're too easy, do them weighted. If they're too hard, do reverses or jumping pull ups and dips.

Plus they take care of all the little support muscles, which are detrimentally ignored by doing bicep curls and the likes.


If you've any questions fire away,
Colm

yea ive started doing chin ups (same thing? ) and tricep dips but only in the last month and have noticed my benching strength get stronger ...

for the second part you mention .... what little support muscles are you talking about here?

thanks
alan

rubadub

Quiff81 wrote:

yea ive started doing chin ups (same thing? ) and tricep dips but only in the last month and have noticed my benching strength get stronger ...

for the second part you mention .... what little support muscles are you talking about here?

thanks
alan

By chinups you probably mean with palms facing your face, pull ups are palms the other way, like if you were pulling yourself up onto a wall. Pullups will work the back well. When doing chins I often do a leg raise at the same time.

The support muscles are what give you "real life strength", if you only do isolation exercises you can get big muscles and leave some badly neglected. Then if you are straining doing an exercise and your body veers to one side you might get an injury, unable to stabilise yourself due to the muscles being weak due to never being used. Some people lift odd shaped weights to force these muscles into working. You might have a false sense of your own strength too, thinking you can deadlift 100kg, so can pick up a child easily, but if the kid is wriggling all over the place it can throw your balance and expose weak muscles- that is what I mean by "real life strength."

Try getting some pushups in, they work a lot of muscles and helped my benching a lot.

I reckon many people join gyms and feel they should use the machines "to get their moneys worth", thinking they could do pushups or chinups at home, and should really get use of these fancy machines, but they are mainly isolation machines so freeweights can be more beneficial.

someothername

rubadub wrote:

I reckon many people join gyms and feel they should use the machines "to get their moneys worth", thinking they could do pushups or chinups at home, and should really get use of these fancy machines, but they are mainly isolation machines so freeweights can be more beneficial.

yes i mostly try to do freeweights but will def try adding in some of the suggestions u have made
thanks for your help