AboutBonnie Hardie Expertise I am a personal trainer/boot camp instructor in SouthEast Florida. I am certified in:
personal training,aerobics,nutrition,womens,senior,youth and boot camp fitness.I can answer questions about workouts,sets and reps.Pyramid training,drop sets,etc.I can give suggestions on the best exercises to do for different body parts.Machines vs free weights.Home workouts or gym workouts.I can tell you what to look for when planning to join a gym.
Online Personal Training!!!
www.fitnessgenerator.com/rpbfitcamp
Experience I have been a personal trainer,aerobics instructor,nutrition advisor and boot camp instructor for several years,in South Florida. I generally prefer to train people outdoors in a park setting.The workout outside is just as tough as a gym workout.I can give people a excellent workout using just their bodyweight.I do a bootcamp style class with groups of 5-10 people.
Well first off I'd like to apologize for the length of my email, but here I go...
I am a guy 5'7" tall and 160lbs. I work out all my muscle groups but naturally what I keep a close eye on is chest and upper arms. I currently have a 39.5" chest and 14.5" arms. My goal is to reach a 44" chest and 15.75-16" arms, and of course a killer six pack. Now here comes the part where I get confused.
I'm pretty skinny and last summer I worked out hard and got a sexy six pack, but I was still skinny (37.75" chest, 13.5" arms 148lbs.). So last October I started lifting heavy, eating protein after my workouts, I stopped doing cardio and ate a lot. So now I'm bigger but I don't have a six pack anymore. I don't know if doing cardio and watching what I eat will cause me to stop gaining muscle or worse, lose muscle mass. Can/should I do both cardio and weight train? How can I ensure that I'll gain muscle but still stay skinny enough to have a six pack? What's most important to me is to reach my body size goal as soon as I can. And my next set of questions, thanks for reading this far if I haven't lost you yet.
I've changed my workout plan that I've been using to get really big. I'm not sure the best way to go about it. at first I was doing 3 sets of 6-8 reps and 4 exercises per muscle group and working them twice a week. Now I'm doing 4 sets of 6-8 reps and 4 excercises per muscle group once a week. I don't feel that I've been gaining much this way so I want to go back to doing it twice a week. Should I lift heavy (like if I were just going to lift once per muscle group) or go back to 3 sets for exercises per muscle group?
Also, I sometimes do 5 exercises for my triceps and biceps. For example, my tricep routine is: 1 set of rope pushdowns immediately followed by 1 set of overhead rope extensions. I do this 4 times. Then I do 1 set of dips immediately followed by 1 set of dumbbell tricep extensions. I also do this 4 times. Then I do 4sets of press downs on a machine. Is that too much?
Thanks for taking the time to answer my loooong question! Take care.
Answer Hi Ari,
Thank you for your question.I apologize for taking a few days to answer,but I was out of town.
Anyway to answer your question-
If you want to get bigger-you should lift heavier weight with fewer repititions.You should be working each body part 3 times a week.Do 3-4 exercises per muscle group.
A good routine would be to go back and forth with two body part exercises-for instance,if you are doing bicep and tricep-do a bicep exercise followed by a tricep exercise,bicep,tricep,etc.
You can pair up the muscle groups this way:
bicep/tricep
chest/back
quadricep/hamstrings.
Doing abdominal exercises with weight will help to give you a six pack.
You still need to do cardio-just cut it down a little bit.
As you know-nutrition is very important:
more protein and carbs-less fat and sodium-also be sure to drink plenty of water.
Thank you-let me know if I can be of any more asistance to you,
Bonnie
