What Can a 21-Year-Old Male Achieve in Weightlifting After 6 Months?

[ibysaiyan]

Age: 24
Height: 6'0"
Weight: ~173lbs.
Diet: Vegetarian
Supplement: Creatine monohydrate 5g/day, 1 Gold Standard protein shake ~36g/day extra.

I have been weightlifting for a few months after taking another handful off. I do MWF, full body workouts every day (a lot of people do isolation or bodybuilding schedules where they work one muscle group once a week on different days, but that's not great for strength or mass training). Since I do the same muscles 3 days a week, I do high weight, low reps, 1-2 sets. Just a warmup set or two, 4-6 reps, then my peak set with 6-8 or 8-10 as a goal depending on exercise. Bench, deadlifts, overhead barbell press, squats, weighted pullups & dips, rows with barbell, standing jumps: all of these every day. Big gains compared to 1 day a week bodybuilder stuff.

I also do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu WThF, (used to be MWThFS before new job ruined that). Nothing better for cardio than wrestling/mma training. To be sure: I ran cross country and swimming in college, and I feel like I'm a better runner and swimmer now from doing Jiu Jitsu than when I trained for either specifically. Have done BJJ since February of '11.

Haven't been sick/had a cold for a year since I started this. Love it.

Nice. Is it free weights which you do ?

 

[ibysaiyan]

You seem to have the right of it, mostly. I wouldn't worry about your body consuming muscle tissue too much. Catabolism shouldn't happen to any great degree unless you severely restrict calories--while the goal should be a normal caloric intake for your target weight.

In general, to lose fat, strength training is actually quite useful. The more muscle you have, the more calories you need to burn even while being slightly sedentary. In that regard, forget crunches or any isolation workout--better off overall doing full body exercises such as squats, deadlifts, clean and press, bench which use muscles all over your body.

For fat loss in general, the amount of time you exercise is more important than the intensity, from what I've heard.

I entirely agree with what you have said.

 

[ibysaiyan]

Yep. I wouldn't say anyone is too old for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specifically, because its surprisingly low impact. But its really hard on your muscles and body for the first few months for anyone--committing to that is probably the hardest part.

It is like an extended body weight work out. For me when I jits it helps to keep all my muscles kind of tense to react quicker, which early on left me sleeping very well on practice nights. Its really cross training for anything in a lot of ways.

Just make sure if you start lifting to research proper form if you never have, and maybe find a buddy who will do it with you. You have to do deadlifts and squats properly to put up your maximum weight safely, which can be daunting, but the benefits are high.

Indeed. Especially with the main 3 lifts.You don't want to end up with a herniated disc. lol I almost had my hip muscle torn :( Having friends who know their game helps a lot ( from personal experience)

Also believe it or not.. there will not come a point , ever where you will think " Ah I have perfected my form" there will always be few adjustments / tweaks which you will make it get over the "plateau" ( HUP applied to weight lifting ? lol)

 

[ibysaiyan]

I want to do leg weight lifting workouts and also plyometrics to jump higher; has anyone done this?


And @ OP, what saiyan do you wish to look like after working out?

Hahah good one :P

 

[ibysaiyan]

I want to do leg weight lifting workouts and also plyometrics to jump higher; has anyone done this?


And @ OP, what saiyan do you wish to look like after working out?

By "leg specific" do you mean compound exercises ?

 

[Drakkith]

I do what it takes to pass my PT test for the Air Force, which is just some push ups and sit ups or other ab workouts and a little bit of running. I don't enjoy it so I don't do it.