I am confused. Aren't these 2 paragraphs contradictory?


BTW I never skip breakfast. The main point is whether to eat before I go for workout at 5am, or not.

I always eat a healthy breakfast at 6:15, once I get home from the gym.

 

How're they contradicting?

You should eat before to get your metabolism going as soon as possible. Working out after you eat will only increase it, especially lifting weights since lifting keeps your metablism going at a high rate even after you leave the gym.

 

Whatever makes you feel comfortable. Eat something with some carbs and high protien. Egg whites? protien shake mixed w/ water?

 

Grab the bar shoulder width apart. Shrug towards your ears. Sometimes the jewelery gets in the way but you can adjust

 

The point of not eating before doing your cardio IS so your body eats itself. With no carbs present, the body is going to eat away at the stored fat to produce energy. I'm not saying don't eat breakfast, I'm saying don't eat it before doing cardio. I'm also not saying do a full body workout on an empty stomach. If you go over my posts they are all focusing on not eating before a cardio exercise, as this is the topic currently at hand. Cardio on an empty stomach will not only result in greater fat loss, but also speed up your metabolism and when you do eat your breakfast, it will make better use of it.

 

Sam to raise up your pecs go with a decline bench press. This will work the lower part of your chest and give a lift to your pecs. That being said I would do the following on your chest and back day...

Lats
Seated Row
Reverse Butterfly
Bench Press
Decline Bench Press
Butterfly

 

CARDIO done at the appropriate rate upon waking up is an extremely efficient way to burn fat. If done properly, and all your eating is in check, CARDIO done the first thing when you wake up is the most effective way to burn way.

Anaerobic activity like weight lifting without eating is a big no-no.

Some things I do when practicing my healthy living style:

-I NEVER mix carbs and fats, and NEVER eat protein by itself
-I NEVER do cardio above 65-70% of my heart rate zone
-I NEVER have 2 carb meals in a row, unless it's my post workout meal which consists of fast absorbing whey along with dextrose in a 2:1 of carbsrotein, and then post-postworkout meal which consists of complex carbs and lean chicken
-Squats, Bench press, deadlifts, and rows are a must

Working your abs aren't gonna make them thinner, in fact they are a muscle and like any other muscle if you do resistance training they tend to get bigger.

I just had to chime in as there is so much mis-informing going on here. Before anyone starts the flaming, this is the protocol I use and it works wonders for me. Everyone's different, and part of the challenge in this sport is to find what works for you.

 

Also, your split is important and obviously rest is just as important. Although your muscles need rest to repair, your CNS also needs rest too.

I don't see how some of you can work chest and back together basically 2 big muscle groups. I know I couldn't with 100% effort.

 

Skimming the last couple of pages here. Veritas is right, if you want to MAXIMIZE your body's fat burning ability, do your cardio ONLY (never lifting) in the morning before you eat breakfast. Then we you get home/work/school, eat your largest meal of the day, breakfast. You need protein at breakfast, but basically you should be taking in protein w/ every meal.

As far as splits go, I do the following.
Mon - Chest/Bis
Tue - Legs (Quads, hams, calves)
Wed - Off, no lifting
Thurs - Back/forearms
Friday - Shoulders/Tris
Sat/Sun - no lifting

I like doing my tris on a seperate day from my chest because I do chest first, and my tris are already hit mildly/decently and cashing them out isn't as effective FOR ME, as nailing them on a seperate day when I can totally get the maximum out of that muscle group. And also because your tris are 2/3's of your arm, your bis are the smaller portion. Ex., if I try and do dips with my own weight after I've done my chest, I just can't. If I hit them on a seperate day (fridays), I can start off with dips with 0 problems and nail the sh1t out of them. This is what works well for me, might not work as well for you.

As far as sets go on each muscle group, I like what Dorian Yates (I think that is his name, read his book years ago) says, less is more. Overtraining is your worst enemy when it comes to lifting in the gym, it will stunt your growth. Doing umpteen sets is pointless, you will overtrain doing that (slowing growth), and burn yourself out after a year of lifting. I learned this the hard way. I started doing less sets, but focusing more on my movements and negative resistance, and working hard to failure and it was like starting all over again. I wondered why a few years prior, I'd see these ripped dudes, come in the gym and knock their chit out in 30-40 minutes and bounce. And my dumbass would be there before they got there and after they had split. If you learn to do this correctly (quit focusing on doing heavy weight like every other idiot in the gym, like the guy you see with multiple 45 lb weights on each side of the bar not bringing the bar down to his chest, stopping 2 inches higher, etc, you know the guy that does 3 reps and grunts loud ) you'll not only grow well, you won't be burning yourself out in the gym because that is what happens. If you kill yourself in there, and after a year you're like f it!

A brief synopsis of one day.

Chest. Warmup on flat bench, dumbells, pushups, whatever. 2 sets to get a very light burn, absolutely no failure sets.
Then
Flat bench/dumbells -2 sets to failure 10-12 reps (nail them hard, you should be grunting and killing them)
Incline - same thing
Decline - same thing
Flys (I like doing these with cables) - same thing
Done!

Bis.
Warm them up with 2 sets.
2 sets of indepent curls
2 sets of sitting/standing curls (bar)
2 sets of machine/cable curls

Done. I'll do ab work, 2-3 days a week, mixing them in with my workouts as they recover.

I apply this philosophy to every muscle group. I also will start the routine backwards, change it up, etc, almost every week. Sometimes, starting with flys, incline, or decline, always mixing it up. I also keep my failure target at 10-12 reps. During the routine, if I start failing at 6-7 reps, I'll drop the weight to get back into my target range. Constantly failing at 6 reps and the like will get the fat, thick muscle, and I like the lean muscle better. You can focus on bulking up with 6 reps for 1/2 the year, then increasing the reps to 12 the second half of the year, to cut up, but I prefer to build the fine muscle fibers layer upon layer. Again, whatever works for you, you can do either.

Also for the new guys, Weider makes a great book called Ultimate Bodybuilding. Don't buy it for the read, buy it for the pics. The pics are great for understanding all the different excercises you can do for a particular muscle group. I learned a ton from that book in the beginning, because you really want to vary everything up. My shoulder/back routines are different every week, and I try to make a habit of using almost every piece of equipment in the gym, so that my body doesn't get to used to anything. To grow, you should stick to the core excercises but it is always a good idea to suprise your body. If you do this from the beginning, you'll be a lot better off then some of us, who had to unlearn first so that we could re-learn. Stretch always before your routine, extensively, as a dumb injury will fuk you out for months. Also again, don't worry about the weight so much. I've seen guys that are completely ripped using relatively moderate weight because they really knew what they were doing. Either they were trainers, ex-trainers, had a degree in it, or were just plain smart. Don't get into weight competition wars with the blockheads in there whatever you do. And I can't stress enough to get your rest. Your body grows when you are asleep, so get your 8 hours everynight and forget about getting drunk

All of this chit, is about discipline. Discipline with your form (very, very important) including using resistance instead of using a ton of weight (focusing heavily on your downstrokes), extreme discipline with your diet, discipline with your sleep, discipline in getting there (not skipping out regularly), not talking the whole time to gym rats is very important, streching extensively before and after

I've trained fat, beer swelling heathens to ripped mofo's in just a matter of months. It's all about how disciplined you can be, at the same time don't push yourself too far. Everyone is different. Some people simply just can't handle eating pure food 90% of the time, it really kills them. If that is you, find creative, healthy ways to eat right, it truly is 70% of this. Last thing I can think of, is that I never workout more than 2 days in a row. You grow outside of the gym, so 7-10 days between working out the muscle group is ideal. If I have to miss a day due to work or whatever reason, I don't skip it. I just do what I was supposed to do the following day. My splits above are just an example. Many times I'll take more than that to complete the 4 days. The old adage of hitting things twice in a week is utter bs IMHO. The professional natural bodybuilders, many of them, wait a full 10 days before they hit that muscle group again, but they are completely destroying the muscle, utter fatigue, then giving it much rest (growth time) before hitting it again. Roid boys can hit chit much faster because of the drugs and the quicker recoup time because of them.

 

WOW.