What's up everybody? I just now completed my first real workout since joining up here. It was mainly Arm and I believe a little bit Shoulders as well. I'll need some clarification on that, but I think I'm right. Here is how the routine went, more or less.

1) 5 sets of 10 reps- Bicep curls with curl bar (outside grip/ 40lbs including bar; didn't want to start off too heavy)

2) 6 sets of 10 reps- Tricep extensions with curl bar (inside grip/ 40 lbs again; last few sets were a real pain for me to do)

3) 3 sets of 10 reps- Dips using end table (not terribly hard to do, but arms were shaking quite a bit)

4) 3 sets of 10 reps- Bicep curls with curl bar (inside grip/ 40lbs; surprisingly easier to do. I'm not sure if it should have been?)

5) 3 sets of 10 reps- Pushups (shoulder width hand placement; arms were really aching by this point)

Now for the bad part. I rested probably way too long unfortunately. Rest periods were about 30-45 sec between sets, and about 2 min between exercises. Also had a couple of questions.

1) During the Tricep extensions, should I have been feeling it in my forearms?

2) I noticed a little pain in my lower back during the routine. Is this a sign of bad form?

Your rest periods are very good, don't worry about that. I have had plenty of workouts with much longer rest periods it all depends on how much you need in a given situation. When it comes to feeling the tricep extentions in your forearms I would say that it is completely normal. In fact any exercise that you have not done 1000 times befoure will require your body to use some unexpected muscle fibers. After you have done the exercise alot of times you should start to only feel it in your triceps so there shouldn't be any problem for now.

Your lower back is oftenly used as a stabilazor, in other words it is normal that you feel something there. However if you serriosly have PAIN in your lower back then I would either lower the weights, check your form or seek out a doctor. I have done some really heavy dumbell shoulder presses and felt temporary pain in my lower back, but that faded after about and hour or so. If you need more information, help or clarification, make a sound ;)

thanks for the reply and info. i'll be working out again on thursday and friday as well, and rested wednesday. the weekend i'll probably take off too. i just recently got my new weight bench in the mail the other day, so i can hoepfully put that together over the weekend. i did legs on tuesday, and MAN am i feeling it today. it hurts to even walk right now. here is how the routine went if anyone's interested.

1) 5 sets of 10 reps- Bodyweight squats

2) 5 sets of 10 reps- Bodyweight lunges (both legs)

3) 3 sets of 10 reps- Jump lunges (these were quite tough)

4) 3 sets of 10 reps- Barbell lunges (60 lbs including bar/also quite tough)

5) 3 sets of 10 reps- Barbell squats (60 lbs including bar/not terribly hard)

No problem man, and great routine !

cool. thanks for the advice you've given. i just weighed myself this morning when i got up, and my scale said 193. that's cool for me, since i've apparently lost about 5-6 lbs since joining up here. i think today i'll still take it a little lighter, and just do some crunches and take a walk/job after that.

Great advice William!

Daniel, try adding this exercise to your rotuine to help with lower back pain. Sounds like you might have some weakness back there. #HTH

Completed another workout yesterday. here goes the routine.

1) 5 Sets of 10 reps- Dumbbell bench press (20 lb dumbbells. 30 sec rest in between sets)

2) 5 Sets of 10 reps- Barbell bench press (60 lbs including bar/ nearly had the bar fall on me because the locking pins on my bench tried to back out.)

3) 5 Sets of 10 reps- Dips

4) 5 Sets of 10 reps- Hammer Curls (20 lb dumbbells/ Much harder than I thought these would be. It ended up being more like 10 sets of 5 reps instead.)

after this, just to see what it was like, I put my feet up on the leg exerciser of my bench, and did some incline pushups. 15 in total.

The whole workout took around 1 hour and 15 minutes.

this is the workout I did on 1-23-14.

1) 5 sets of 10 reps- Leg exerciser on weight bench [Seated] (35 lbs on bench/ 30 sec rest between sets)

2) 5 sets of 10 reps- Leg exerciser on weight bench [Laying on stomach] (35 lbs on bench 30 sec rest between sets)

3) 5 sets of 10 reps- Barbell squats (80 lbs including bar/ 45 sec rest between sets)

4) 5 sets of 10 reps- Goblet squats (30 lb dumbbell (30 sec rest between sets)

5 5 sets of 20 reps- Bodyweight squats (30 sec rest between sets)

Whole workout took around 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Damn dude you;re really kickin some ass! I like all the exercises you've picked. Don't worry about your rest periods, I actually kinda chuckled when I saw that in your first post because as a beginner with that kind of rest time, it shows me how pumped and excited you are to be training!

Keep up the awesome work man :).

thanks a ton dude. at some point today, don't know if before or after work, I'm planning to try Scott's Ab-omination workout. looks tough, but fun at the same time.

oh man trust me that's a killer one. I've done it twice. I really need to keep up with that one and try and make it a weekly thing. Let me know how it goes man!

well, I tried that workout, but wasn't able to do it yet. I guess that's something I'll have to work my way up towards. I'm going to buy a punching bad this weekend, and will be able to use that for cardio sometimes. I don't have a treadmill, and don't really want to try running in the cold, so would running in place be any good as an alternative? It gets my heartrate up, so I think that's good, but I'm not really sure.

this is the workout I did on 1-29-14. I hadn't worked out on monday or tuesday, but messed up, and missed out on them. anyway, here is what was done.

Arms

1) 5 sets of 10 reps- Alternating dumbbell curls (20 lbs)

2) 5 sets of 10 reps- Bicep curls (curl bar/ outside grip. 40 lbs with bar)

3) 5 sets of 10 reps- Bicep curls (curl bar/ inside grip. 40 lbs with bar)

4) 5 sets of 10 reps- Dips

5) 5 sets of 10 reps- Elevated pushups (feet on leg exerciser of weight bench)

Legs

1) 5 sets of 10 reps- Leg exerciser (Seated. 45 lbs)

2) 5 sets of 10 reps- Leg exerciser (On stomach. 45 lbs)

3) 5 sets of 10 reps- Goblet squats (30 lbs dumbbell)

4) 5 sets of 10 reps- Barbell squats (70 lbs with bar)

5) 5 sets of 20 reps- Bodyweight squats

Whole workout took about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

i'm in a bit of a slump right now. i've been doing overtime at work lately, and haven't had the desire to workout. i've now gone almost a week and a half with little exercise, and my motivation is slipping big time. i can't workout after work at home, since i don't want to wake my sister up, and i usually wind up sleeping too late to workout before work. any ideas of how i can rekindle the flame of motivation? i did 50 pushups today, but that won't cut it i know.

Hey man listen up. Is your goal just a dream that you cannot reach because your energy levels tell you: Not today ! Or is your goal in fact something you are able to strive for, something that will make you superior ? Will you let other people surpass you and achive their goals and become bigger, stronger and more intelligent ? Or will YOU surpass their greatest expectations of you and make them look at you as the big dog and not just some wannabe weightlifter. Every workout you skip, every meal you don't care about there will be someone else out there hitting the IRON harder and stronger. Earning more experience and getting bigger not because they had the energy for it but because they WANTED it MORE than ANYTHING else in this world. Will YOU be a part of that group that lacks motivation and gives up because their energy was running low and work was becoming a bigger part of your life that your own passion ? Or will you stick out from the crowd and be unuiqe and have other people gase uppon your greatness and not the other way around ? Go out there and FIGHT for what you want brotha, if not then you simply do not want it enough or you were not made to go down this path of greatness !!!

Don't give-up man!!

I find that when we work too much we tend to not drink enough water, not eat enough food, and not get enough sleep.

Lack of those three things can mentally drain you. Fight the urge to give-up. Force yourself to eat more, force yourself to drink water, and get as much sleep as you can and you will be able to wake-up early!

If you need help with meal plan let us know! We can give you some ideas for easy to make foods to keeo the calorie intake high! #HTH