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B-MarTwoSeven

What to do when I want to work out but can't lift much weight?!?!

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I am 18 years old, very athletic, and extremely competitive but for some reason I am not very strong when it comes to working out. I can't lift much weight so when I do work out I feel like I should be able to do more and get frustrated or don't feel like I get any progress. I need some serious tips and tricks. HELP!!!!

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Compound exercises like squats and deadlifts should help you get stronger. As you said, you need to build a base of strength first. You should be able to progress quickly with the compound exercises if they're done properly in a proper program for you.

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Push-ups are an incredible often over looked workout. Pound out as many as you can as fast as you can till failure every other day and you'll notice improvements fast.

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What do you mean about "can't lift much weight"? How many repetitions are you trying to do and how fast are you moving the weight? I agree with the previous posters . Consistency is the key and compound exercises are best for overall strength. Don't get too hung up on things like bench press or biceps curls which seem to be the erroneous indicator of strength. Furthermore, what is strength? Doing tons of bench presses and curls will make you better at doing bench presses and curls. How often in a game of hockey or in everyday life for that matter, do you push a load away from your chest when lying on your back? Try to incorporate some compound movements into your routine as ktang suggested. Never mind the beach muscles that 90% of the younger members of my gym seem to concentrate on. Linked body movements where you are using multiple muscles and joints will translate better to a sport like hockey.Olympic lifts are great for this as they incorporate various muscles in a coordinated fashion much like our bodies work in everyday movement. Be very careful with these as technique is key. Doing them wrong and with too much weight can lead to injury. This is where things like pushups, pullups, squat jumps and all those other bodyweight exercises are a good place to start to develop some base first. Studies have shown that to build muscle, reps and weight are not as important as working to failure. Pushups until you fail are a great safe way to build some strength in your chest, shoulders, arms and core .Work on adding some power training to your routine. Strength is moving a load. Power is moving that load faster. Power translates to hockey better for most game situations. Plyometrics and other explosive training can develop power. Again, proper technique is key. Being able to squat 500 lbs won't necessarily make you faster on the ice. That's where power training comes in.

Finally, when you say you are extremely competitive and are getting frustrated, does that indicate you aren't able to lift as much as your buddies? Disregard all of that. The point of training is to make you better at your sport and healthier in your day-to-day life and not to see who can curl more than someone else. Use weights to measure your individual progress not to compete with the guy beside you. If you get the results on the ice that you want, then what you are doing is working. You are, I assume, trying to become a better hockey player, not a better bench presser.

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Push-ups are an incredible often over looked workout. Pound out as many as you can as fast as you can till failure every other day and you'll notice improvements fast.

Instead of doing them as fast as you can, do them with a good, smooth rhythm keeping your body under control. Doing any kind of weight exercise "as fast as you can" almost always leads to injury.

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Dont get discouraged! Keep at it and the weight will come. Also remember that just because you cant bench 250lbs doesnt mean you arent "strong".

As Chadd said it wont happen over night, but in a few weeks you'll add a little here and a little there and realize you're making progress.

Some people swear by the stuff at GNC for hard gainers, you could always try that to help a bit

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Watch the supplements. Multi-million dollar industry that wants you to believe their products are vital. Studies are still out on eating tons of protein as an effective way of gaining muscle and strength. Too much protein won't hurt you (unless you are limiting carbohydrates too much) but it will cost you $$$ on tubs of powder

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Most of those powders just get pissed right out. Your body knows how much it needs and eating a proper diet will get your fitness a sight further than hopping on the supplement bandwagon.

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Your frustrated because your ego is bigger than reality. All you have to do to get stronger is SHOW UP. Do the weighs, write what you do down and try and beat your last day by a little bit each time. ie more weight. I can go on but if you show up everyday you will figure it out. Stay humble. Weights don't care how strong you think you are.

I bench 360 for over 15 years now.

Creatine, multi vit and some whey powder. In that order. Creatine works great then a vitamin just to make sure your covered then some whey protein if you have the money.

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My bad, just passing along information I read:

http://news.mensheal...hup/2011/08/01/

Doing pushup fast is not a bad thing. That will generate power. It is important to go for explosiveness with correct form and to know when to quit when form becomes sloppy due to fatigue. Besides, with a bodyweight exercise like a pushup there isn't much chance of injury as there would be throwing a barbell around quickly.

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I'm a "hardgainer" or at least I was, but you really just have to eat, eat, and eat some more. Eventually you will get bigger, just make sure that all the calories you eat are fairly clean. I would try to aim for 2,500-3,000 calories if you can get them in a cleanish way. Eat a huge breakfast in the morning, like 6-8 eggs (only one or two yolks), peanut butter toast, oatmeal, milk, etc. That will kick start your appetite and you'll be able to eat more throughout the day. I'm a firm believer that getting bigger and stronger is about 75% diet and 25% lifting weights. That said...

You have to lift the right way to gain strength. Some other folks have already said it, but try to add more weight every time you're in the gym. Never sacrifice form, but you have to push yourself. Having a spotter is crucial too, b/c it will help you try for more w/o the danger of dropping something on your head.

You also need to focus on the lifts that create real strength and stimulate real growth. Forget about curls completely. At your level of lifting they are worthless. Focus on the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press, olympic press, rows, etc. These are the moves that will make you stronger overall. I strongly recommend following one of the two programs below, Starting Strength and/or West Side for Skinny Bastards. I wasted a lot of time in the gym before I got serious about lifting the right way, and I saw more progress in a short amount of time than in all my previous years of "lifting".

http://office.micros...C101927410.aspx

http://www.elitefts....ws4sb/WS4SB.pdf

Do some background reading about both before jumping in, but I can guarantee that if you eat the right way and follow one of these programs, you will get much stronger in a matter of months.

I'll also echo Beflar on the supplement issue. Creatine is worth every penny, just don't fall for the hype and marketing at places like GNC. All you need is unflavored pure creatine powder. A 200-serving tub should only cost about $20. I don't use whey right now but I'm getting a TON of protein from my diet. If you want convenience then whey is a great alternative. A multivitamin is also a good idea.

Good luck!

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What is your purpose for lifting weights? Are you aiming on becoming stronger as a hockey player? Increase your balance and flexibility? Are you just looking to get bigger and gain more mass? Deciding your objective will help you create the right workout regime. The advice given thus far has been valuable but may not be what you are looking for. It always helps when you have a specific reason for working out so then you know what muscle groups to focus on. As has been said before, just keep at it and remember that you aren't in a competition with your fellow gym members. This deters many people from working out.

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Nobody controls where they start, just where they finish. The Westside For Skinny Bastards program is a good suggestion. Don't get any more complicated than that.

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I'm a hard a gainer and at 18 weighed about 90 lbs AFTER hitting the gym 2-3 times a week for about 3 months straight until I hurt my back. I gained about 5 lbs during that time. (my focus was strenght and not mass.. I was also a runner so burned a lot of intake.)

Echoing everyone else here, you need a goal and you need to eat. Even without working out, at your age your metabolism probably burns off more than you're consuming so you need to make sure body gets enough intake to compensate. And don't focus on weight. Focus on progress and form. I understand how it can be intimidating or even emberrasing in the gym when you're shoving a lot less weight than the next guy. But really, who cares.

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By no stretch am I a pro lifter or experienced in the gym. I'm 5' 11" and 155lbs. Easy to say I'm skinny with very little upper muscle mass. I ran cross country from Jr. High all through high school and into some college. So the only real muscle mass I had was in my legs. When i started playing adult hockey I wanted to put some weight on and gain some strength in the upper body since I was pretty well undersized compared to some of the guys on the ice. It's a non-contact league but incidental contact (and missed calls) happen A LOT.

A buddy who has lifted weights since early highschool helped me with a membership and basically was my gym buddy. The first month sucked. Plain and simple. I was impatient and wanted to see immediate results, but of course needed to build a base. Light weights with lots of consistant reps did that. The 2nd month started weight increases with rotations of maxing out weights. Within the 3rd month I didn't visually seem bigger, but my strength level had definitely increased. Both on paper and what I noticed during lifting.

Unfortunately, a shoulder injury and then most recently a knee injury has kept me out of the gym. So I'm having to relatively start over again. I've looked into the Skinny Bastards program and am going to try it out. I found that doing similar workouts previously really provided the most gain for me.

And yes.....eat eat eat. Protein protein protein. Make sure you give your body time to rest and rehab as well. I was going 6 days a week when first starting and then when I incorporated maxing out and heavier weights I took it down to 4 days a week with the 4th day being pure cardio.

Again, I'm not expert but these are things I noticed when I was starting out.

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Another key is to keep mixing things up. The human body is amazing in its ability to adapt to whatever stresses are placed upon it. Cycle your training for strength, power, muscular endurance and recovery or your body will just get really good at doing your set routine and won't be challenged and, therefore, improve.

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There are no tricks to the gym, you either do the work (and do it correctly) or you don't.

In no special order:

1.It's very important to have a good understanding of proper technique when lifting weights. Definitely worth the money to spend at least a few sessions with a personal trainer being shown good lifting techniques, and having any of your problem points fixed.

2.Don't compare what you're doing to what anyone else is doing. A workout is not a competition with other people in the gym.

3.In much the same way that 90% of people claim to have above average driving skills I've found that people who are inexperienced in the gym often have a skewed understanding of how much weight they should be able to manage on their lifts. It sounds a lot like you're simply in the period of discovering that your preconceived notions are inaccurate and reality is replacing them.

4.Understanding that genetics play a big role in a lot of this is key to not finding yourself frustrated or demotivated. Some people are just ectomorphic by nature and are going to have a harder time putting on muscle mass.

5.You have to have clear goal that you're shooting for, and a realistic plan to get there. Realistic goal setting is a key part of success to any fitness undertaking. Setting unrealistic goals will lead to feeling frustrated and demotivated.

6.Avoid the urge to overtrain. A lot of people get caught up in the idea that if John Doe lifts 4 times a week and is built pretty well, they'll become a super bodybuilder in no time by lifting 7 days a week. You grow outside the gym, overtraining is only going to slow your progress, or rob you of it altogether.

7.Use the principal of muscle confusion. Changing your workouts regularly gives your body a constant stream of new stresses to which it must adapt. It also makes workouts more interesting and helps prevent boredom and burn out.

8.Supplements are just that: supplements. They will help add to your diet, but they aren't a magic bullet that makes up for eating poorly. Diet is a key part of any fitness program.

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Pushups pullups and squats if you cant get to the gym if you can you a lot of them then just slow them down and check out this conditioning book by mens health it's an awesome book http://www.mhpowertraining.com/uof/mhpowertraining/?keycode=063749

It teaches you how to eat and lift and gives you a great workout menu plus the workout are fun and you'll reduce the risk of sports related injury if you follow this style of lifting.

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Switch up your workouts every 4 weeks and make sure you are eating enough protein. Get at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Breakfast and post-workout meals are the most important so don't skimp on those.

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There are almost as many advice out there as there are people who train which often makes it confusing. Hell, some Health magazines will contradict themselves every couple weeks with a new and improved advice from this incredibly knowledgeable personal trainer they found somewhere in the boonies.

As a general rule, if you can do three sets of 10 reps each for a certain exercise, you should add some weight the next time you do that exercise. It can be as little as 2 1/2 pounds but you need to increase it.

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