I’d like to do some work to build up my upper body and core strength. I’ve got access to a gym at work with both free weights and machines so some questions:
– where can I find easy to understand workouts?
– free weights or machines?
– how long should a session be and how often?

Just after some pointers at this stage!

Cheers

Work more on your left arm than your right.

I’d maybe try looking at mark rippetoe starting strength.
I’d say start on a 5×5 programme if you’re looking for strength training. And free weights over machines as they will recruit more muscle fibres.
If you have access to a gym I’d ask for advice on the exercises as they can show you the correct form

Free weights over machines every time.

If you’re after basic strength, non sport specific,bBest exercises to learn in order would be Squat, Deadlift, OH Press and then Cleans (although Bench Press is another possibility).

Mark Rippetoe’s book is the barbell bible (Starting Strength).

1. ive linked to a routine below, theres plenty more on bodybuilding.com.
2. both. free weights are better for the stabilising muscles and bringing more into play, machines will isolate certain muscles better. i always thought free weights were best, but flys for instance are far better on machines due to constant tension.
3. hour to hour and half max. many will say you need more rest than you actually do, ive found if i split my workouts i could train most days, aiming for each muscle to be hit say twice a week. if you do that tho, every 4th week its good to ‘deload’ or take a week off, personally i find life dictates my time off.

ive found this blokes routines really well balanced, and hes a really informative guy too, everyone really friendly and helpful on his threads too.
hes done a few routines now, and tailors them to beginner/intermediate/advanced levels. theres a goldmine of information in all his threads if youve got a few days spare 😀 ive linked to his latest one.

depending on how many days per week you can train it may be better to do full body workouts 2 or 3 times per week to start, if you get more time then maybe something like a 3 days split. personally i do a push/pull/legs split and train on average 5 days per week and just alternate workouts, no set days, just do the next one when youre next in the gym.

oh, and diet is key to success. im assuming youve got that sorted, if not ask away.

most of all, enjoy your routine, youre more likely to stick with it that way.

hope that helps

I have been very surprised by how hard doing single legs is. I have reasonably strong legs, taken as a pair. But it turns out that split squats are murderous, and therefore appear to be rather good value.

🙂

Thanks all! I’ll let you know how I get on …

oh, and diet is key to success. im assuming youve got that sorted, if not ask away.

I’d be interested in your views on diet?

Take it easy to start with, muscles gain strength a lot faster than tendons do, so best to play the long game if you want to stay injury free. I’m a big fan of body weight exercises, for core i do hanging leg lifts, window wipers, dragon flags and front levers.

I’d be interested in your views on diet?

well this is a good place to get some knowledge on it.
its what i looked at first and tried to stick to. i also used myfitnesspal to track calories, macros each day. its very good, takes a bit of time to set up, but once youre away its easy.
i dont use it now as i sort of get a feel for how much of everything i consume, and its easier to just eat what i thinks right, and judge results by the mirror and bathroom scales.
ive wasted a fair bit of time trying to keep bodyfat down when i should really have been eating more, so now im trying a very slow bulk, ill never get down to what i was before again. my lifestyle dictates how successful ill be at that, ive come to realise theres a compromise between looking good and enjoying yourself. ill never look like arnie! 😀
for me at 5’10 and 13 stone, i aim for at least 160g protein, 90g fat, and the rest is carbs (doesnt matter what number) but as im not tracking, then im not sure how accurate they are most days.
im not a big meat eater, so i use shakes to ‘supplement’ my diet. protein generally comes from meat, dairy, eggs and whey.
fats from eggs, nuts, dairy.
ideally carbs would come from rice, potatoes, pasta, wholemeal bread…i dont eat a lot of rice or pasta tho, mines more from wholemeal bread/toast and potatoes cos thats what i like 🙂

meal timings arent important. i dont believe the old adage that bodybuilders need lots of small meals at regular intervals, ive had success too with intermittent fasting for calorie control. it really doesnt matter, just get your calories/macros in per day/week. these days im more ‘3 meals a day’, it all depends what you find easy to fit into your lifestyle, its no biggie.
diet seems to polarise people on here tho, theres usually some argument about the idiet, fasting or whatnot. just work out what works for you and your lifestyle.

hope that helps

From the link above……

This routine is designed for hypertrophy/bodybuilding (physique development) purposes, it is not designed with sports/functional performance in mind

……so I guess that means “all show, no go”

Stronglifts 5×5 with linear progression. Basicly stronglifts but you bump up the weight ever so slightly every other week. It takes a little time, but it works well.
Oh, and YHM 😀

This is good article on muscle fibres

http://www.brobible.com/sports/article/muscle-hypertrophy-explained/

I have been very surprised by how hard doing single legs is. I have reasonably strong legs, taken as a pair. But it turns out that split squats are murderous, and therefore appear to be rather good value.

Very unusual if you were symmetric, you normally have one leg with more strength and the other with better fine motor control.

My coach has given me a whole 12 week program on single leg stuff. I spend 1 day per week just doing asymmetric exercises with a barbell, to improve balance and also correct weaknesses.

E.g. try overhead barbell reverse lunges with deficit (ie stepping backwards off a box into a reverse lunge with a barbell held overhead, feet together at the top so your stance is as narrow as you can get).

Some good advice up there ^, and nice that the thread hasn’t been hijacked by the ‘have a banana and ride your bike more’ crew…

5×5 is great, gets you used to the basics, and the progressive nature of it takes the thought away.

I got bored pretty quickly though, and after trying several workouts, I am currently enjoying this 60 days to fit workout.

I like that it mixes it up, alternates between heavy and light days on a traditional 4 day split. I have swapped a couple of exercices (I don’t like french press) and have seen some good gains.

I would agree with twin4all though about not going too mad too soon as I’m suffering with my joints and hands from lifting heavy

I got bored pretty quickly though, and after trying several workouts, I am currently enjoying this 60 days to fit workout.

I pay a coach to create workouts for me. No program lasts more than 6 weeks, so you don’t get physically and mentally stale. I also find it keeps you fresher as every 6 weeks a whole different set of minor muscles get a working over as the lifts change.

I currently have four different 6 weeks programs running in parallel (one per day) from the same S&C coach as well as one competition lifting sessions with a different coach who runs a weight lifting team and then I add in up to 2 more free sessions which I make up myself (mainly 5×5 stuff), so I spend roughly one hour per day lifting weights.

What’s people’s pbs on their squats deadlifts and bench? We could have a stw powerlifing competition

I pay a coach to create workouts for me. No program lasts more than 6 weeks, so you don’t get physically and mentally stale. I also find it keeps you fresher as every 6 weeks a whole different set of minor muscles get a working over as the lifts change.

Surprised this doesn’t get more of a mention on a site about cycling rather than beach bodies.

Y&Y (I think) had an article on Sailing fitness over Christmas and the coach made a valid IMO point that the best exercise is almost always going out and sailing in heavy weather, but if you want to see the benefits of that you need to do it a lot (which risks injury and/or fatigue). So the second best option is to do something else (cycling and weights being the best for sailing) but to still sail a lot as doing a bench press or upright rows get’s you good at doing those exercises and what you actually want to do is some crazy contortion halfway between a bent over row, a sit-up and a one legged squat all at the same time.

So the solution was to keep it simple in the gym (he didn’t mention the stronglifts program but that’s the kind of thing I think he had in mind) then rely on the more random nature of real exercise to fill in the blanks. So if you were doing a weights program that biased your shoulder over your arm for some reason. Within the bounds of reason it’s not a problem. As soon as you get back in a boat you’ll be working the under developed bit much harder as a result of the stronger muscles around it and it’ll get stronger of it’s own accord.

So:
Squats = good
Cycling up hills = good
Squats + Cycling = More awesome than Surf-Mat.

I invested in a personal trainer when I started weight training, more to get a sound base in terms of technique as well as an idea of the exercises, which I thought was worth it.

There’s technique both in terms of the lifting exercise itself, but also lifting the weights into position to start the exercise. Not so much of a problem at the lighter end, but lifting a pair of 34s into position to do some chest presses is not trivial (well, it wasn’t for me!)…

So:
Squats = good
Cycling up hills = good

Might be fine for sailing, but for overall functional fitness a bit limited.

NB Cycling is generally a rubbish exercise for functional fitness (unless all you care about is cycling), not load bearing, very limited range of movement, ignores the upper body completely.

but also lifting the weights into position to start the exercise.

Also at the end, my record is dropping a 65kg bar on my head after a split jerk went a bit awry…

I’ve also dropped a 45kg bar on my big toe, nearly passed out with pain. Luckily it was bumper plates rather than cast iron discs, so no broken toes.

I’ve also dropped a 45kg bar on my big toe

I bet that bought a tear to the eye!

free weights or machines?

Neither: calisthenics. If you want to get strong, and I mean silly core strength + back + lats + legs + arms hang off bars/rings and use leverage.

I warn you, though, it’s bloody hard work

Might be fine for sailing, but for overall functional fitness a bit limited.

NB Cycling is generally a rubbish exercise for functional fitness (unless all you care about is cycling), not load bearing, very limited range of movement, ignores the upper body completely.

That was for cycling, if it was for sailing it would be weights + sailing.

Although cycling is usually the recommended cross training for sailing, dinghy sailing is all about how much pain you can tolerate in your quads!

Anyway, the central point was not to get too hung up on doing whatever the latest re-packaging of ‘functional fitness’ was, be it crossfit, kettlebells, stronglifts or whatever. Because a good simple routine AND some of what you wanted to be functionally fit at was just as good if not better.

Used to live near an ex-SAS guy who now ran a PT business aimed at those looking to join the marines or parachute regiment. His advice was along the same lines except he specifically said use the machines at the gym because it reduced the risk of injury, then go for a run, go climbing, swim, etc on the days in-between resistance sessions. Same theory, as long as you do something else as well then relatively simple routines work perfectly fine, you only run into problems if you only did the same routines for months on end.

Also at the end…

Good point! I lost count of the number of times my gym had to replace full length mirrors due to people dropping free weights which then bounced into them…

The SF guys I know don’t spend a huge amount of time in the gym, although Krav Maga is very popular amongst those types.

If you haven’t lifted for a few years (if ever) I would be very wary of jumping in with two feet and getting injured.

I’d suggest that you spend a month or two using machines. They’re not as effective as free weights but as others have stated above they generally do a good job at preventing injury.
That month or two will get your body used to the stress your putting on it and get it ready for harder (i.e. more effective) training.

You don’t say how much space and what equipment you have at your work gym but
after that month or two machines, move on to more free weights.
Dumbbells are a good next step and if you are grumpy and train at unsociable hours you won’t need a spotter.

Also you don’t say how often you can train but if you can train 3 times a week then you can split your workouts in the following way: Leg/Push Movements/Pull Movements

Try and do bigger compound movements first (eg Bench Press, Rows, Squat).
Isolation exercises (Dumbbell Curls) aren’t as important and some completely eschew them initially.

Be super strict in your form, poor form is great way to get injured.
On that note, if you’re planning on deadlifting, squatting and even bench pressing it’s worth getting some pointers from a coach.

http://www.breakingmuscle.com is a good resource but is aimed at the crossfit crowd.
http://www.bodybuilding.com is also good and aimed more at bodybuilders, unsurprisingly.

Make sure you get your 8 hours of sleep a night and get your diet nailed.
The above links will help on the latter.
Supplements can help. I use Glucosamine for my Joints, Whey Protein to help get my Protein in and Creatine which helps you squeeze out 1 or 2 more reps.
I use myprotein.com for my supplements.

Inspriation: https://instagram.com/bobbymaximus/