Is there certain kind of trainings you should do when you're bulking and others while your cutting? if yes, which?

Is deadlift a back exercise? Is it good? I see everyone talks about it.

I'm 5' 11, 165 pounds.
I have been working out on my own just getting my muscles toned and prepared for a real workout for a fee months now. Been doing basic lifts, pushups like crazy, all kinds of pull up bar exercises. I'm ready to get real and start gaining. I just wanted to be sure i could commit before I dove in. I think im ready.

Can you please recommend a supplement routine? Brand is the key here. I'm just worried ill go out on my own and buy junk. I've been eating real well so I want to fuel up right.
Goals: increase strength and fill out a t shirt lol... I want to build lean muscle but I need to bulk up.
Can you possibly provide a correct supplements for beginning real lifting? If an exercises routine comes with, I wouldn't be against it but I don't dang to eat up all your time lol

Thanks in advance for any advice
If there's any questions you need answered from me ill be glad to

This post was edited by Stealth on Jul 16 2012 06:42am

Yes. However, read this first:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=401020685
Pre-Workout Supplements Discussed

Here's the bulking routine:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=345300636
5x5 plan


And here's the cutting routine:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=304396247
Cutting Workout Routine (6 day all equipment)


My advice would be to stay away from intense compound strength exercises on cutting, and focus more on volume.

As far as deadlifting, it works the back/legs/bis. However, if performed with STRAIGHT legs, it works more of the lower back and hamstrings.

Here is the list of supplements to look into - IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:



1. Multivitamin (NOW! Adam or CL Orange Triad take 3 in the morning and at night)
2. EFA's (NOW! Super Omega 3-6-9 take 2-3 with every food meal, not shakes)
3. Kre Alkalyn (Buffered Creatine) Scifit Kre Alkalyn 1500 is fine - take 2x pills every morning and 2 every evening (non-workout days) - take 2 pills pre-workout and 2 pills post workout (workout days). Drink at least 12 oz of water with each dose.
4. Vitamin C (NOW! C-1000) - take 4g per day (1x capsule every 3-4 hours)
5. Vitamin D (NOW! D 5000 iu) - take one 5,000mg capsule per day with breakfast
6. Arginine + Ornithine (NOW! Arginine + Ornithine) - take 4 capsules pre-workout, post-workout, and pre-bedtime
7. BCAA (Optimum Nutrition BCAA caps) - take 4 capsules pre-workout, 2 during workout, 4 post-workout, and 2 pre-bedtime
8. ZMA (NOW! ZMA) (3x before bed)
9. Dopa Mucuna (NOW! Dopa Mucuna)(2x before bed)
10. GABA (NOW! GABA)(1x before bed)
11. Melatonin (1x before bed)
12. Glutamine (5g before bed and/or post workout)

Also, if you consider protein shakes supplements (I don't) you would want something along the lines of Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex Natural, and have a shake post workout.

If I can only get to the gym 4 times a week
Would it better to do the strength training or the hypertrophy training??

Depends on your goals...however, hypertrophy can be done in 3 days, and 5x5 can be done in 4 days. Both work with your schedule.

Hi there!
First off, my name is Steven. I'm 23.
I'm 6'5 - 6'6 (depends on the time of day) and 225 lbs. I used to play keeper for soccer, basketball, and tennis, but I've been getting a little out of shape lately.
I was just thinking of asking some nutrition questions on the open forum, but then I saw some of your posts, so we'll see where my mind wanders to as I write this.
I haven't been lifting weights for about 6 months, so I've seen a huge drop in muscle mass, but I started lifting again about 3 weeks ago.

My main question is about nutrition. . . I don't necessarily need the small details pointed out, but general suggestions would be helpful.
Currently I know my diet is horrible. I started trying to cut out raw sugars, other than some natural sugars with breakfast, though I don't know that that's necessarily right either.
My first step has been to reduce my calories from liquids. . . 7-8 sugary drinks down to 0-1, but now I don't know what to do with myself during the day. I have a tendancy to like to taste what I drink, so that has gotten me in trouble. I should probably just curb that habit, but do you have any other suggestions of drinks with flavor, but few calories?

Diet
What I currently eat:
Breakfast: I started eating eggs. . . that's about it, but other than eating bananas if I'm on my way out the door, I don't really know what else, in general, I should be eating for breakfast. (I still eat toaster strudels. . . x.x)
Lunch and Supper: I have been noticing my trend to eat greasy foods, with excessive portions of red meats, few veggies/fruits, and lots of starches/carbs.
Snacks: :/ sugary foods, nachos, some fruits, nuts, nutrigrain bars. . . I have bad habits.

How often should I really be eating? Should I just be ditching the whole idea of "main" meals, and having more, smaller meals, rather than a few excessive meals with snacks between? I know my diet seriously needs help, though sometimes I'm at a loss of what to do.

Nutrition
Regarding your previous post about vitamins--(14405)--is it plausible to work in daily vitamins/minerals into a regular diet, and are there any advantages to doing so rather than taking vitamins (eg. possible organ strain from high concentrations of certain vitamins/minerals)?
Would you suggest glucosamine as a supplement for high impact exercise? I understand that studies regarding its efficacy are in conflict with one another, though the idea of increasing a precursor to cartilaginous tissue as a preventative measure makes sense to me. . .

Workout
Presently I am only lifting weights, doing ab workouts, and playing tennis for exercise. . .
I have yet to test my maxes, so I'm not sure about the percentages. . . do you test maxes for things like curls, tricep extensions, etc?
My general rotation looks something like this (with scattered/unset rest days) [6 main exercises a day with 3-5 sets per exercise of 4-8 reps or until exhaustion on each set. . or more reps in the case of body-weight exercise)


Day 1: Chest/Triceps
Bench Press (warmup, ~60%, ~70%, ~85%, ~75%, ~60%)
Dips (3-4 sets of max reps--no weight belt)
Tricep pull-downs (machine, fairly constant weight, 3 sets)
Chest fly (warmup, 70%, 80%, 90%)
Other chest/tri exercises: skull crushers, tricep extensions, machine bench, machine fly.

Day 2: Biceps/Shoulders
Regular Curls (80%, 80%, 70%)
Hammer Curls (same)
Shoulder flys (warmup, 70%, 80%, 70%)
Full supination curls (60%, 70%, 80%)
Shrugs (50%, 70%, 90%)
We pretty frequently do machine workouts for some of the other exercizes. . . though we try to use cables if we use machines.

Day 3: Legs
Squats
Block jumping/plyometrics
Weighted calf-raises
Leg extension/retraction
Hip adduction/abduction machines
(This day seems to get skipped out of hatred the most so I'm not sure on weights or approximate max percentages)

Day 4: Abs/Lower back
This is a concentrated day of abs and lower back. . .
Dead lift
seated lower-back machine,
Ab twist machine (3 sets 20 reps)
I really don't know names for much of our exercises, but this is our abdominal focus day. . .
We usually finish with the "ab-ripper" workout from p90x if you're familiar.

I'm really not sure how better to structure our workouts, or if I'm getting enough variety in the exercises. . .
How would I transition from one workout schedule to another?
Should I have a specific plan of exactly what I am going to do before I get there?
I'm also trying to keep my fast twitch muscles going, but I don't really know what I should do for training, and to what extent or in what manner I should do cardio.

Bahh. Sorry if this was a haphazard post.
I appreciate any help you can give me!

Hey there.

I'd be glad to help you.

First of all, let me try to itemize everything to avoid clutter:


1. Diet - given your height/weight and goals, I will be giving you this:


http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=406743805
3,000 calorie diet w/ 40/40/20 macros



2. Vitamins - I would suggest taking the vitamins I illustrated previously. They will not hurt you, even in high concentrations. You would need to take obscene amounts of vitamins to have negative effects. As far as glucosamine, I would advise trying Universal Animal Flex which is a good joint support product with virtually everything you need in it, including glucosamine.


3. Workout - Given your current plan, I'd like you to move over to 5x5 training in order to build maximum strength.

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=345300636
5x5 plan


After approximately 4-8 months of 5x5, you should have a good enough platform for which to move onto hypertrophy.

Furthermore, you don't need to actually do 1RM discovery of curls and other minor exercises. However, you can estimate your 1RM based on the rep weight you do.

Your recommended whey protein?