men's fitness

I believe every one of us has some sort of a hobby(ies), there are the outdoorsy-type that would go camping, fishing, jungle trekking, etc. Others like it more physical, outdoor/indoor sports. Some would just paint, collect stuffs, blogging, the list goes on.

I for one am in love with the sport called bodybuilding, but I prefer to call it physical fitness. It’s good for the overall health, mentally, physically as well as emotionally. There’s no other way that beats pumping iron when you want to let some steam off.

I might not be the perfect person to talk, or give advices, on this issue. This is just me writing about something I like doing and perhaps give some general pointers on it.

If friends just beginning to have the idea to get into shape, i always advice them to ask themselves first, what type of body they want. Do they want to look like bodybuilders (picture Arnold), actors (hugh ‘wolverine’ jackman), or male models (not sure, but you have the rough idea). This is important, mainly because these types of bodies are different from each other, therefore requires different types of exercises/trainings. Most friends would go for wolverine for obvious machismo reasons. When you decided which type of body you want, then you can begin.
I will not go into details, you can download it from google, saves you a lot of money and time (thank god for technology). From there you can outline your training program, but remember, the program is flexible, if you find it to be boring, change it occasionally.

During my early years of physical fitness, I went to a gym rakyat near masjid negeri in kk. I used to train with amateur bodybuilders, these guys are hardcore, and i was pulled into their training program, which was a BIG mistake, because i forgot then, i never wanted to have a bodybuilder’s physique, but i was training to become one. REMEMBER, DO NOT FALL INTO THIS TRAP. After three months, I put on mass and get really big, i used to bench 120-130kg with these freaks haha. Until one day, a friend told me to my face, you have a babyface type of face with the body of a monster, and he was right. Your facial texture too plays an important part in your overall body type (at least i think so).

Their program was, they focused on 5-6 types with 5 to 6 sets of one part of muscle, two times a week, the standard bodybuilding program. Eg. Monday, Thursday, they will do their chest and triceps. Tuesday, Friday their backs, shoulders and arms. Wednesday and Saturday their legs and calves, and abs every day. There’s nothing wrong with this program if I were training for competition, but i wasn’t.

I rest for half a year i think, to let the mass size down. And changed my training to a drastic whole body workout 6 times a week. It may sound insanely absurd yes, overtraining maybe, but lets do a comparison. I train each part of my major muscles with one type of training a day. Eg. I’ll do a shoulder dumbbell press a day for six days, means i work my shoulder muscle 6 times a week. Now lets compare it with the bodybuilders program, they do 6 types of shoulder exercises a day, two times a week. So 6 x 2 = 12 times a week. Its double the number of times i trained mine, got it? So there’s no issue of overtraining.

I do this whole body workout with light weights, i use no more than 7.5kg of dumbbells for single arm exercises, 15kg if using two hands (barbells). If i were to add more weights, i would add more mass, thats not what i aim for. To build strength and stamina, i cut down on my rest time from 1 minute to 45 seconds, and add on more sets and more reps but not more weights. (most people i see in the gym have the tendency to rest longer than they should between sets, this is a no no, keep in mind the shorter you rest the more calories you burn).

Throughout my years of training, i found out that for my 5’7” height, the 7.5 and 15kgs are enough to build a lean muscle definition. When i go to the gym today, it is common for us guys to check out the other gym goers. And compared to most of them, i am smaller, but my definition is better (masuk bakul angkat sendiri haha), because this is the type of body i want.

Recently i’m trying a new program, this one i copied it from arnold’s encyclopaedia of bodybuilding. Now don’t be alarm, no i’m not training to become like him, no way in hell no.
Mon Wed Fri (chest&back), Tue Thur Sat (Shoulders, arms & legs). Abs and light jogging on the treadmill everyday. I will not change the weights of the dumbbells, i’ll just add more sets and reps and cut down rest time.

Now lets talk about food intake. To have a firm 6 pack you have to loose those flabs hanging around your love handles. You can train your abs doing 1000 crunches a day and see no results, because you may have built the abs muscle inside but it is covered with fat. How to loose these stubborn entity? Simply by burning more calories than you take and cut sugar and salt entirely. why cut off sugar? you may ask. well the answer is simple, the body will burn calories for energy, and the easiest to burn is sugar, if you have it in your system, and the hardest is obviously fat, by not having any complex sugar in your system, the body will have no option than to use fat to burn those calories. And to maximise your fat burning, you also have to combine both cardio and weight training in your program.

I’ll give the program a try for a month to see the results and to listen to what my body says, and how my body reacts to the program. This is also an important note to take. Some types of exercises are good for some, better for someone else, best for another. Try and find yours. Its just a matter of patience and trial & error experiments. In the meantime enjoy your workout and keep the motivation going, best of luck, till next time.