Jack

Great post Deby! Bar one small point Defining a muscle is a result of building mass and lowering fat to make the striations of the muscle more visible. Using less weight and higher reps will not define a muscle - this is a popular myth.

This is usual for beginners. Work on your endurance! Also, make sure you are eating properly to fuel your training. Eat some good complex carbohydrates 1-2 hours before you exercise - bread, bagels, rice, potatos, pasta, yams, oats. These complex carbohydrates will give you more long-lasting energy than any energy sweet, candy bar, or fruit juice.

Favourite colour is black for the same reason as karatekid. Food would be pasta, chicken, and cheeses.

Most of these calculators will assume that most extra weight is fat, not muscle. If it says you're overweight for your height, but you are well-built and reasonably lean, I wouldn't worry. And yes its believable you can eat over 2000 calories a day three60, if I eat any less than 3000 I start to lose weight, and I'm only 140lbs LOL! Just make sure you get those calories from clean sources!

You can meditate with eyes open! Sit like you normally would meditating, and allow yourself to have a soft downwards gaze - do not focus on what you're gazing at, focus on the act of gazing. You will notice your breath becoming rhythmic and you may want to shut your eyes after a while. This form of meditation is more effective for a 2-5 minute break and recharge than anything, but it still works nicely.

Dbzhub, you have a LOT of learning to do. https://www.bodybuilding.com Read all of the articles by Layne Norton and Derek Charlebois, then come back with any questions.

First of all, cool it. Please do not call others idiots for having different opinions to you, thanks. The weighter lifter has better strength at lifting heavy objects because he has developed his limit and absolute strength by using a training method solely focussing on developing these, so he can lift a far heavier weight than the Bodyweighter who has not directly attempted to increase these through specific training, but increases them at a far less-drastic rate since the movements focus a lot more on muscular endurance and flexibility than limit strength. You say yourself the bodyweighter can "maintain strength for long periods of time" maintaining strength = ENDURANCE, one of the bigger benefits of the bodyweight style of training. A powerlifter who trains to increase absolute strength will have far greater strength, but only for a short time - the power he produces cannot be sustained for a great length of time. This is where we must look past one superior system of training and learn to incorporate both to get the benefits from each. It just happens powerlifting is directly centred about building strength, while bodyweight exercises build some strength to a limit, and then work on increasing endurance. I remember when I did sets of 80-90 pushups and couldn't do one one-handed pushup. Lots of endurance didn't build the required strength, I'm afraid. Using progressive resistance training has allowed my strength at different types of pushups to soar. Your body adapts to whatever you throw at it. Fitness is merely an adaptation to the surrounding environment. We are still cavemen to our biological systems. If a man cannot do one pushup, but practices, the body will realise it is imperative to be able to do this pushup for whatever reason, and so the adaptation occurs in STRENGTH to be able to do that pushup. The man now practices to do multiple pushups, and after he can get about 15-20, he forces himself to try to do more and more. Now, the body and the mind have already adapted to give this man the strength to do this movement, the difficulty of the movement is the same, so the body sees no need to become stronger for one pushup, so now, realising more and more pushups are needed to be done, the body will adapt by increasing the endurance in the muscles.

Let me get this right - if your eyes are closed but you are thinking, then then your eyes do not hurt, but if your eyes are clsoed and you are trying not to think, they do hurt. I am no doctor, I cannot help yo with the eyes hurting, but perhaps if it is a direct result of trying not to think, then you are trying too hard. You shouldn't expect anything from a session of meditation. Don't force a thing. If any outside influences could disturb you, just accept them, and allow them to pass. The same with thought, accept and pass. I could never really meditate at home for some reason, so if I ever feel the need I know a hoast of places around my town that are private and peaceful where I can sit and do it. Regarding the eye pain though, I would suggest seeing a medical professional.

Here is my new shcedule I just wrote up. I am concentrating on gaining weight at the moment, when I have achieved my goal I will concentrate more on speed, strength, flexibility, and cardio efficiency... Primary Goal: To increase mass from 64KG to 75KG at a rate of 3KG/month. Minimise fat gain whilst gaining weight. Secondary Goals: To increase strength, Cardiovascular ability at intense activites, Dynamic and Static flexibility Tertiary Goal: To increase speed Monday: Resistance Training Bench Press: 4 x 6-8 Pushups: 1 x Bodyweight failure Squat: 4 x 10-20 Hindu Squat: 1 x Bodyweight failure Tuesday: Cardio and Abdominal Training Reverse Crunch: 2 x 8 Twist Crunch: 2 x 8 Crunch: 2 x 8 5 minutes skipping 5 minutes Starjumps Wednesday: Active Rest day Thorough warmup, and stretch. 3 x 10 dynamic stretches 15 second isolation stretches. 30 second compound stretches. Thursday: Resistance Training Chins: 4 x 6-8 (first 2 sets Thumbless, last 2 sets with Thumbed grip) Deadlift: 4 x 6-8 Shrug: 2 x 6-8 (Heavy enough to count as a farmer's walk also) Friday: Complete Rest Day No activity Saturday: Cardio and Abdominal Day Reverse Trunk Twist: 2 x failure Great Wall(tensing): 2 x 10 5 minute Stairjumps Sunday: Active Rest Day Thorough warmup, and stretch. 3 x 10 dynamic stretches. 15 second isolation stretches. 30 second compound stretches. Diet: 0700 - Oatmeal w/milk (590 cals, 24g pro, 75g carb 16g fat) School - Three tuna sandwiches, one PB+J sandwich, two bananas (664 cals, 52g pro, 96g carb, 27g fat) Workout - Orange Juice (200 cals, 0g pro, 40g carb, 0g fat) Postworkout - Weightgainer w/milk (500 cals, 38g protein, 75g carb, 10g fat) 1840 - Dinner - Varies (500 cals, 30g protein, 75g carb, 15g fat) 2000 - Can of Tuna, Orange Juice (260 cals, 36g protein, 20g carb, 0g fat) 2130 - Peanut Butter, Cottage Cheese, Milk (690 cals, 44g protein, 33g carb, 50g fat) * On non-workout days, orange juice is excluded Totals: Workout days - 3404 calories, 224g protein, 414g carbohydrate, 118g fat Non-workout days - 3204 calories, 224g protein, 374g carbohydrate, 118g fat

Well, Phanta, stop doing 50 every day and try doing as many as you can in 2 minutes, rest a minute, and repeat three more times. Do that two or three times a week.

Yes, chest and triceps go well together since triceps are used in all chest pressing movements. If I had triceps on a second seperate day, I would be working them twice a week due to their secondary use in presses which I do not want. And yes, I like combining the tough compound movements. Very intense but enjoyable.

Phanta, you really don't need to do pushups and situps every single day! Especially if you're weightlifting as well. At the moment, I'm out of Martial Arts training so my weightlifting schedule is like this... Tuesday - Chest/Tricep Wednesday - Back/Bicep Thursday - Leg/Shoulder Saturday - Abs I will be changing this to.. Monday - Bench Press, Squats, Reverse Crunches Thursday - Pullups, Deadlifts, Crunches Saturday - Twist Crunches with martial arts training, it would be changed. And when I have put on enough size and strength I will add some running in to cut down on fat.

I think it is unreasonable that he is denying you to go out if its just one night. If it was permanently going three nights a week I may be able to understand about him not being enthusiastic since he may want to enjoy staying in with your company. Have an honest talk with the guy. He can't be saying you can't go out of malice or spite, there must be some reason. Just have a good chat with him and find out his reasoning.

Good post Deby, one small thing. "Tone" is not something you build, it is simply a result of muscle size and low bodyfat.

Haha, my earliest memories, I have no idea how old I was, but my first memory was watching a recording of myself on video camera (looking into the video camera) of the first time I crawled across the lounge.

A great way to build grip strength quickly is known as the "farmer's walk". Try holding two heavy buckets or dumbells, anything heavy, one in each hand. You should pick something so heavy that no matter ow hard you grip, you drop it within a minute. Do this two or three times with a minute or two rest in between, once perhaps twice a week. If you mean increasing finger/knuckle/palm/knifehand resiliance to strike harder with less pain, try attacking reasonably soft objects at first, slowly building up the resistance of the material - take is slow and easy with this one!

I don't bounce... you're giving yourself to a rythm which any skilled opponent will pick up on and disrupt.

BJJ, since I have very little knowledge or experience in groundfighting so far.

Oh, but it is.

You're not doing normal weight training, on which I could give a lot of advice, but chishi with which I have little knowledge and no experience. You could do a fullbody workout twice a week, perhaps.

Health food shops. Sports shops.

Cardio in the morning before breakfast is the best time for fat-burning. The reason for this is that the glycogen which acts as fuels for the muscles and is stored in the muscles is not present since you have not eaten for eight or more hours, and so your body will use its next fuel source - fat. You will want to jog at a reasonable pace to get your heart going but not straining much for about 30 minutes. 3/4x a week will suffice.

In my opinion, training for girls is pointless. You should be training for yourself. Music is good, but you should not need music to want to train, although it is a great motivational aid. One quote that I really like that gets me in the weightroom after a tough day of school when I feel tired and demotivated is, "Humans need motivation. Machines do not need such superficial emotions, they are simply set a task and they accomplish it. Be a machine."

Switch them up, leave some days for recovery though, I was doing well with intensive sessions of pushups 2 or 3 times a week.

Make sure you're keeping perfect form when the weight is added. You may need to use the muscles of your midsection more to keep your back straight. Be sure to perform the pushup slowly, this may help you in feeling it in your chest and arms. And yes, blasting out a set of unweighted pushups after three sets of weighted pushups really does feel good! Weighted pushups are great in getting better at Pushups, I oft had a challenge with myself - how many pushups can you do in two minutes? I was at around 70, next workout I did my pushups weighted, and then the workout after that unweighted I blasted out 81... nice little improvement.