zdub

If you read the link I posted in my earlier post, it talks about how greasing the groove is a great way to improve your numbers for many exercises. The idea is that you are doing many sets spread out through out the day. Just don't do them to failure. The webpage recommends 50-80% of your max, but I'm curious what Pavel (who they say is the creator) recommended.

I kind of like the mini-workout after every hour of gaming idea. It's like "greasing the groove". Also giving a +1 for Carjack's ideas. I bet you'll be a lot more careful when you're playing with one-shot kills and every time you die you have to do 10 pushups. Let us know what you decide. I'm curious as to how one could apply this to other activities... hmmmm.

When it comes to volume, it's my personal belief the much of it comes to your ability to recover. I started at 5x5 (5 sets of 5 reps each) but found as my weight increased, I was not able to sustain it. I have recently dropped down to 5x3 (3 sets of 5 reps) and am liking it so far. But I also lift 3x a week. If you are only working out once a week, you can probably go higher volume, I would recommend 5x5. But that's just my SUGGESTION, based off of personal experience and a lot of reading (this forum and elsewhere). Don't stress the specifics, get in there and starting lifting heavy stuff. Keep it simple and git 'er done. You WILL see results.

Timmy, I know what you mean when you talk about getting weird looks. Especially when I start to mount the lat pulldown machine backwards to do ham-glute raises. Get a lot of "WTF?" looks. And like several people pointed out, being able to zone out is great. Partially the reason I HATE bringing my phone with me to the gym, although sometimes it's necessary. One of the campus gyms doesn't get service though, which is nice haha. Anybody else not bring their phone to the gym or have feelings about it?

As I've only been lifting for a few months now, I am definitely still a novice. However, I can say that beginning to weightlift has been one of the best decisions I've made and I've fallen in love with it. Here are a couple of the things I love about weighlifting/strength training: - You can't cheat in the weight room. I got this point from one of King_mob's recent posts. When lifting a weight raw, there's not much you can do to cheat. Bad form might let you use other muscles, but in the end you also might end up hurting yourself. A solid lift, with full range of motion and good form is EARNED; you can't cheat. - It shows dedication and hard work. As a college student, I understand how cramming for a test works and am all too familiar with it to be honest. But with weightlifting, you can't cram for a heavy lift. It takes months and years of dedication and hard work to reach great condition. Time is a mandatory factor for getting stronger. If you had asked me 3 months ago if I could squat 135 lbs, breaking parallel, I would have said "Hell no." But today I'm confident I can walk into the gym and pull off 5 reps. Both of these points just go back to feeling like I EARNED it. You earn a new PR with all the time and hard work you've put into getting stronger. And when you look back on all the hard work, it feels great. So, why do YOU love weightlifting/strength training?

Man! I was totally going to advocate for whole milk as it is one of my main weight-gaining foods, but seeing as your lactose-intolerant, that's not going to work. :/ However, how about peanut butter? I can easily get a good 500+ calories with an apple + PB snack. Has a good amount of protein for helping with muscle growth too. Keep up the good work fellow hard-gainer!

I find that reminding myself of how motivated I felt when I started my journey helps. Watching motivating videos helps give me the same drive I had when I started. Here's some I have bookmarked: (This one is sports oriented, but can be applied to any journey towards a goal) (Same, sports oriented. But if you want to wrestle, it can apply) (Kinda long, but pretty good)And the BEST one (can't talk about motivation without thinking of this quote from Rocky Balboa): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U8e-QnBnbc

There should be a bar at the bottom of the screen when viewing this. On the left side there is a button that says Chatrooms. Click on that and a list pops up. Right now, no one is in chat and no chat rooms exist. But usually someone makes one called Nerd Fitness. I just made it, so if you want to come check it out it should show up in the Lobby now.

If you click on "Go Advanced" (sounds legit) when posting a reply it lets you select "Post Icons" under the reply message box. Maybe you accidentally clicked it?

I wouldn't stress the diet part of it too much besides eating A LOT. Carbs can still help you get the calorie intake you need to put on some weight. Whole milk and peanut butter have been my personal favorite and most used weight gaining foods. It doesn't get any simpler than: Eat A LOT and lift HEAVY doing compound movements. Follow those two tips and you WILL see weight gain and fitness improvement. That's where I started and it's got me through my first 15 pounds. Weight lifting is ideal, but bodyweight exercises can get you there too. Look at olympic gymnastic competitors who never lift weights. http://gymnasticbodies.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9:all-muscle-no-iron&catid=2:articles&Itemid=3 Let us know what you decide on!

Yea buddy! I remember the first time going to the gym and squatting just the bar. Boy was I embarrassed. But I stuck with it and am glad I did. Keep it up. Try to go at least 3 times a week and get in the routine. And in 6 months look back and it'll all be worth it. And remember...Train like an animal, eat like a horse, sleep like a baby, grow like a weed.

I'm note sure how else to explain it except that it is fitness geared towards combat. Kind of like functional fitness for the military you could say. And to the question about joining the military, I went to 6 weeks of Marine Corps OCS (PLC-Juniors) this past summer. While I've come to the conclusion I don't want to be an officer, it is still very likely I will enlist in the Marine Corps or go for Army Rangers after I graduate. I think I'm going to go with doing squats and deadlifts on the same day. Not sure yet if I'm also going to try and do cardio on the same day. Regardless, the next day will definitely be a rest day. I'm going to start off by doing it once a week and then decide if I want to substitute more cardio for weightlifting. I understand I won't see as fast of progress with my deadlift and squats numbers, but hopefully I'll see it carry over into my cardio performance. Last question: Do you think it would be okay to do an upper body workout on the rest day after deadlifts/squats? Or do I need to give my whole system a break since I'm working such large muscle groups? Ultimately my whole plan is going to come down to how I feel and if I think I need more rest I'll take it, but just wanted to get some input.

Like andygates said, it's not that they are hard, but that they require time that could be spent on cardio. Routine-wise, I'm following the Strong Lifts 5x5 idea. Slowly increasing weight. Are you saying that as long as I'm not sore, that running the next day shouldn't be a problem? I suppose if I went on my long runs the day after doing squats/deadlifts I would be working the slow-twitch muscle fibers instead of the fast-twitch fibers used in weightlifting, but I'm not an exercise physiology expert (hence asking on the forum). I'd have to save the sprints/stair runs for later (although they are my favorite workouts). How bad would it be to do a sprint/stair run workout the day after weightlifting? Thanks for all the input so far. I guess one of the things I'm worried about is getting adequate recovery time while still getting as many workouts in as possible. Trying to get the most for my "money", so to say.

Okay, after doing some research (Google) about squat and deadlift helping out with running,I've decided to work squats and deadlifts into my routine. Like Zima recommended, I'm thinking once a week so I have plenty of days for rest and for cardio. I understand I won't see quick gains in weight, but as I said before, I'm not so concerned with weight, especially for squats and deadlifts. Thanks for the recommendations and help.

Okay. Here are my goals: Endurance - I want to be able to run far, fast. Upper body strength - Be able to do lots of pushups, pullups AND have a decent bench and overhead press. So what I'm wondering is: is it okay if I don't do squats and deadlifts and just stick with my cardio (5-7 milers, 1-3 milers, HIIT (Tabata and stadium stair running) while continuing to do upper body weightlifting (DB bench and press)? Will there be problems with an unbalance between my lower and upper body? I'm training for combat fitness, so I use dumbbells to work the stabilizer muscles as well. I'm not really concerned with getting HUGE lift numbers. Sometimes I will incorporate a weighted vest into my cardio/lower body workouts (20# vest for squats, lunges, stairs, etc.). So my legs are getting somewhat of a weighted workout. However, dropping squats and deadlifts would allow me to do more cardio and really improve my run times since I wouldn't need recovery time from the weightlifting. EDIT: I'm doing a tough mudder in October which I feel really applies to my goals. I want to be able to run far, fast (it's 9 miles) while having the upper body strength to tackle obstacles quickly. Just to give you all a better idea of what I'm going for. Ideas? Thanks. If you need more info, let me know. Current condition: Decent endurance run wise - 3 miles in less than 19 minutes. I'm working my upper body a lot right now. Trying to get my bench up (currently at 45# DBs 5x5) as well as my pushups (I really suck at pushups). Also working on pullups - currently can do ~15 deadhang pullups, hoping to get to at least 20. My cardio has mainly consisted of stadium stairs and some HIIT (sprints) since I've been trying to build my upper body since I got back from OCS.