I'm 18 and I posted here a good while ago asking aboutwhat to do with hardly any time or money. I have since sorted my situation out to some extent and now have about 30 mins to an hour each day to train. I am still training using what I have at home as I still can't afford to go to a gym.

Question 1:
When is the best time to train and is my diet ok? I have been training roughly 15-30 mins before dinner. I am still only having 3 meals a day but have significantly upped my protein and carb intake by trying to eat plenty of bread, pasta, tuna and chicken. I am also eating more in general.

Question 2: What exercises should I be doing with what I have? I have dumbells and a barbell, both of which I can change the weight on. The weights are generally a bit too light for most lifts so I improvise using the old steel wheels off my Fiesta in conjunction with the weights which tops it up nicley. A couple of days ago i also tied some other dumbells and some squash bottles of water to the barbell to try some deadlifts.
I am looking to bulk up a bit. I dont want to be massive, I would just like to be a bit above average and be reasonable well toned by the end of the summer.

How many reps should I be doing of each of the exercises? Self explanitory, I want the best results as quickly as possible without killing myself.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

You need 10 - 12 reps' if you want size in my opinion. This is what I do and I'm growing nicely. Be careful adding things to up the weight because if one falls off, the weight will go off balance and you could seriously injure yourself. I once seen a weight fall off which threw it one way, then all the weights on that side came off which threw it the other way, and it was a scary sight, lol!

I'm not sure if there is a best time to train, but you want to train after you've got your carbs' in so you have energy. Then you want some directly after you train. This could be a mass shake with carbs' and protein.

If you could throw a few shakes a day in with your three meals it will help a lot. Chuck in a few bananas with milk to make more of a meal out of them. You can have them with scottish oats like off myprotein too, which will help up the carbs' and calories.

Excersise wise, I will make a reply on that in a minute, as I am bursting for the toilet. LOL.

Benni.

 

Thanks thats a great help to start off with. I had been doing 20-25 reps of most things so I shall up the weight a little to bring the reps down.
When I add other stuff to my existing weights to make them heavier, I always make sure the stuff is very secure before lifting, having dropped a 5kg on my toe I know how much it hurts and don't fancy anything heavier coming into contact with my feet or wrenching a muscle from the sudden imbalance.
Eating wise I will try and get some protein shakes or similar in, anyone have any suggestions as to what is going cheap that is any good at the moment?
Some advice on what exercises to do would be great, I am currently doing crunches, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, upright rows, standing curls, press ups, a sort of variation on a bench press using heavy weight added dumbells due to lack of a bench and space limitations around anything suitable to lie on and some squats. I am unsure what to do from here so some suggestions would be great.

 

This is a post I made a day ago to someone else, but I will add some more for barbell.

Shoulders.

Side lateral raise.
Front raisers.
Bent over raisers.
Shoulder dumbbell press.
Shoulder front barbell press.
Behind the neck barbell press.
Traps. (Shrugs).
Traps with the barbell.

Chest.

Dumbell press.
Flies.
Dumbell pullovers.
Sit ups. (Can do these weighted with bottles of water in a backpack)
Flat bench press.
Incline bench press (Get a board if you can and make your own incline if your bench doesn't adjust).

Back. Dumbell pull ups.
Normal pulls up for lat, front and behind. (Again can wear a backpack with the dumbell in or something heavy if it's too easy)
Bent over barbell rows.

Bicep.
Dumbell curls.
Hammer curls.
Bent over dumbell curl.
(All basically a variation of the same thing really, but not much else you can do).

Tricep.
Skull crushers with dumbell.
Overhead extensions with dumbell.
Seated dips.
Close grip bench press.
Skull crushers (Will be hard with a big barbell but possible and heavy at first.

Youtube those excersises, and see how you get on. You could do each bodypart twice a week if you are a beginner, as you're lifting lighter weights and will see good gains this way. Then as the weight gets heavier, like in about 12 months come down to once a week. More like when you feel ready really, ie more exhausted and aching. I can't tell you too much, as I'm a newbie myself, lol.

Benni.