so much info so little time

[jspeedy888]

Wow! awesome site, Name's Jesse i'm 24 and a full time student. I also train in Balintiwak FMA(filipino martial arts) ex. stick fighting w/ 26inch single stick.iv'e been into martial arts for the last 5 years and tried a few diff styles. ANyways also i've been doing cardio,lifting weights and messing around w/ bodyweight exercises for the last 4-5 years and can't seem to gain much muscle (perhaps In my eagerness to gain muscle i have been over training too much), i'm 5'11" 150-155lbs. (varies from weeek to week) w/ approx. 9 to 12% body fat(also varies).here are a few questions about bodyweight exerises I have? how do I start a full body weekly routine? how often do I need to rest? How do I integrate cardio and heavy bag work into the routine? My goal is to gain weight/muscle size. gain strength while focusing on the grip,forearm & shoulder strength for stick fighting. I know this is a lot for my first post. sorry if its too much. I just have a lot of questions. Ps I plan to start w/ the 20 level challenge I hope its a good starting point

[Dave.cyco]

First off, you have specific goals which is great. In that case, I wouldn't worry about the 20 level challenge as it is more of a general physical fitness type of routine. You can customize a routine to fit your needs better than the 20 level, I think.

1. How do I start a full body weekly routine?
Simple. Make sure you have all bases covered, the bases being as follows: Heavy leg work (squats, pistols, lunges, glute ham raises), Upper body pushing and pulling in the three planes: horizontal (pushups, body rows), vertical (dips, shrugs), overhead (handstand or pike pushups)

2. how often do I need to rest?
8 hours a night, or you WILL NOT grow. If you sleep any less, you can still get stronger, but only through CNS enhancement, not through increased muscle mass/size (unless you are genetically gifted, but probably no or you'd be growing already).

3. How do I integrate cardio and heavy bag work into the routine?
Cardio should be done as if you mean it, and every other day, so strength one day, cardio the next and so on. You can rest on day seven, or on day six and seven, then get back to it.

4. My goal is to gain weight/muscle size. gain strength while focusing on the grip,forearm & shoulder strength for stick fighting.
In that case, invest in a good set of hand grippers (might I recommend Heavy Grips (http://www.bwculture.net/category_s/28.htm)), and when you do any bodyweight pulling exercises (chins, pullups, rows) drape a towel over the bar and grip each end as this will crush your grip, making it much much stronger.

As for shoulders, get used to hindu and dive bomber pushups, and if you have a kettlebell or a dumbell also do turkish get ups and windmills.

Good luck Jspeedy888, train hard and welcome to BWC!!

[timfortehwin]

Hey and welcome to BWC. Dave's post sure was an excellent reply! :D

Anywho, you may need to also rig your diet for gaining weight. There are some simple rules.

Are you carb-tolerant? Ie. can you eat a high-carb diet and still be in relatively good shape? or do carbs make you fat?

If not, would you do better on low-carb plans? If so, you may be better off eating more fat and less carbs for your calories.

If you are the former, then you need to start eating lots and lots of carbs for gaining weight. In excess of 300g/day really.

Aim for 150g of (complete) Protein every single day, especially training days - you need it for recovery + growth.

Eat fat! Don't shy away from it. Aim to take in 33% of your diets from each family - saturates, mono-unsaturates and poly-unsaturates. Each of the aforementioned all offer benefits in your body. Make the most of them.

Drink milk - this is a great way to get fats, protein and calories down you. It's a vital tool for muscle growth.

Nutrition breakdown should be something like this:

300g carb/day = 1200 calories
150g protein/day = 600 calories
40g saturated fats = 360 calories
40g monounsat fats = 360 calories
40g polyunsat fats = 360 calories
total = 2880 calories

that is the VERY lowest amount of calories you should be eating. you might think i'm trying to kill you by suggesting that you eat a high amount of fats, but it's what you need if you want to put on muscle and providing you eat a very clean diet, you will be fine.

However, if you wanna grow, i imagine you'll need a lot more than that. Tweak it how you'd like to.

[silentassassin]

I agree with both Dave.cyco and timfortehwin, great advice

milk is definitely important for hypertrophy in fact you might wanna try this super milk. its really simple just add some dry milk, that you can find at any supermarket, to a glass of milk its like drinking a few cups of milk at once depending on how much you put.

[jspeedy888]

Thanks for the advice everybody. First, to address dave.cyco's advice where can I go to find a descripton of and a "how to" do exercises like the ones you mentioned, some of them are familiar but most are new to me. IN response to timefortewin's advice a high carb diet would probaly be good for me,think i'll try it out once I get all my info and start a new improved routine. Also, the supermilk idera sounds cool. One last question how many sets/reps should i do for best results for weight/muscle gain? I know i saw the info somewhere on this site but I can't find it anymore. Thanks for the all of the good advice. Hope none of my questions seem to dumb. This whole thing is kind of new to me.

[Dave.cyco]

Type in the name of any exercise at youtube.

Example: I typed in "Pike Pushups" and here is what I got
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTnMUg-iqkE

Give it a try!

[jspeedy888]

thanks dave.cyco. youtube,why didn't I think of that? i'll check it out & let everyone know what I come up w/ when start my new bodyweight workout.thanks for the feedback