Comeback Workout!

[MikeW]

[MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION] Hi, I've done a lot of research things but the main articles seems to contradict each other....
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Nevermind I know I will find how to do things

Haha... yes, it's true, there is a lot of contradictory opinions by the "experts". This is especially true in the "Health and Fitness" industry where MANY of the people promoting products or routines do not have a strong background in science.

From what I understand a lot of this "should you lift heavy or should you lift lighter with more repetitions" has to do with a person's goals. Personally, I mix it up. I do one day of heavy PULL movements, one day of heavy PUSH movements... then a day of light pull and a day of light push. But, then, I have more time than I know what to do with,

I know a guy at my gym, Jeff, who is a competitive Powerlifter. (... on smartphones, not relevant to our discussion except it gives you an idea of his size.) He's a big guy but more importantly he is STRONG as hell. I've watched him squat, deadlift, and bench and what he does is SCARY!

In case you don't know, Powerlifting (not the same thing as Olympic lifting) is an individual (as opposed to team) sport in which competitors attempt to lift as much weight as possible for one repetition in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Each lifter is placed into a specific division and classified by several variables including weight, age, and experience. Further subdivisions are made between what is known as “raw” and “geared” powerlifters, that is, whether or not they're wearing supportive 'gear'.

When Jeff trains, he is training to build STRENGTH... Yes, he is a big guy but what he looks like isn't important to him. He is not (strictly speaking) a "bodybuilder". He is training so that when he goes to a competition he can do his ONE REP MAX on stage in front of a panel of judges.

OTOH, I have another friend at the gym who IS a bodybuilder. I don't have a picture of my friend, Jordan, but here's one of a Rusian bodybuilder, Aleksey Leusukov:



Jordan isn't THAT beastly but they actually look very much alike. Jordan IS concerned with the size of his muscles. He wants to look HUGE (and in fact, he injects , an AAS, as do many bodybuilders). Bodybuilding is about competing for appearance, not strength. I know for a fact that pound for pound, although Jordan is bigger than Jeff, JEFF is stronger than Jordan.

The point being that these two guys train very differently from one another. Here's a bodybuilding.com explanation for this (click the image):



As for depression, its something I've struggled with all my life, even as a child. As an adult, after years of therapy, it became far less of an issue for me. That is to say, I learned techniques for managing it. I went through a bad stretch two years ago and began taking a prescription medication from my Dr which has helped. I tried going off it this summer but that didn't work... I slipped back into depression again. So I've resumed that medication. I don't *like* having to take anything but for right now at least it seems necessary. I hope at some point I can go off it again (I have been able to do that in the past).

One thing about muscle building: If you've developed your muscles, they do 'remember' in a way. I'm not at all sure how this works but I've experienced it myself. I began working out consistently in 2010 and then in 2014 (when I got depressed) took a year off. But when I went back to working out in 2015, my muscles got back to where they had been in only a few months. I imagine you'll find something similar.

Finding time to workout when you're working a job -- especially if you're running your own business -- is very difficult. This is why I always say the most important thing is doing something you enjoy doing. Depending on your goals, WHAT you do is far less important. What is important is DOING something consistently.

Then again, of course, it does somewhat depend on what you want, what your goals are. If you want to be physically 'fit' (healthy) then an activity like swimming is perfect. OTOH if what you want is to build a muscular physique (even if it isn't 'overly' muscular like a bodybuilder) then you need to do at least SOME resistance training. Resistance training can be lifting weights or it can be pulling on resistance bands or it can be using one's own bodyweight.

Theoretically, anyone CAN do air squats, pushups, and pullups just about anywhere any time of day -- those are three of the big six I mentioned before -- and these ARE forms of resistance training, your body's own weight being the natural resistance. Hell just practice getting down on the floor and getting back up again as fast as you can over and over again. It's a workout!

Doing only that, though, you'll just never look like Aleksey! For that, you not only need to train for size, you need to inject yourself with Tren on a daily basis.