# Bulking up - weight training



## dudi (17 Oct 2008)

Howdy, 
I've lost the weight (fat) I wanted to, now I want to bulk up a bit with muscle.

Does anyone know a good site that shows some decent weight training exercises to do to improve muscular fitness? possibly with a pair of dumbells (i have some already)?

I want to improve my upper body, back and leg strength... I also want to bulk up a bit. Hopefully this will stop the missus moaning about me being skinny without her pressuring me to put the fat back on!


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## yenrod (17 Oct 2008)

Never mind 'bulk up' - i need to bulk down as i can get big muscles fairly easily !


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## Dayvo (19 Oct 2008)

There's a mine of information on the internet, but for starters have a look at this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/health_and_fitness/4275356.stm

Men's Heath magazine has plenty of useful tips etc., and Argos has good, cheap fitness products.


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## Bodhbh (20 Oct 2008)

Should be able to google lots on this. You should be able to do a decent workout with just the dumbells (if you're just after bulking up a bit, not getting all hardcore).

My only advice is pay attention to breathing and technique properly from the gitgo. I started weight training at home without any instruction - pretty sure bad technique was responsible a hernia i ended up with several months down the line (which made me give it up and buy the bike instead and now I'm here...)


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## Greedo (20 Oct 2008)

I'm the same. Lost a lot of weight by just stopping eating rubbish and now feel my legs are a bit skinny. Squats for this CC'r I think?


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## dudi (20 Oct 2008)

I've managed to sort a routine... kind of... 

cant remember what most of the names of the exercises are, but i have aches in muscles i never usually ache in. so it's good for me i guess!


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## kikzen (20 Oct 2008)

www.exrx.net

make sure for proper hardcore compound exercises (deadlift and squat in particular), you make sure you get a good spot/demo and always start with a low weight. these two can really cripple you if you mess them up!!


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## porteous (22 Oct 2008)

Better safe than sorry! I started working out after leaving the army and being told I was getting type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and too much cholestorol. Joined the local gym got fit again and started working out with resistance machines. I year on, no diabetes, right ammount of cholestorol and the blood pressure is down (Doc really disappointed ! He saw me as a regular visitor I thnk.) Anyway, for £30 a month (For me AND her indoors) I get full access to all the facilities and a _supervised training regime. _REALLY important if you don't want to waste your time with the wrong sort of exercise or, worse, end up damaging yourself. Put on two inches on the chest and three off the waist in 12 months. I now ride the bike 4 miles there and 4 miles back, which is making me even fitter. 

Start slowly and take advice from professional fitness trainers. Good luck.


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## Thedude (22 Oct 2008)

I like crossfit.com. You don't really need that much equipment and helps both muscular and aerobic development. I think the best excercises are simply: Push ups, sit ups, Pull Ups and Squats.


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## jimboalee (24 Oct 2008)

If you are wanting quick muscular weight gain, forget it.
Professional bodybuilders ( and young unemployed lads with nothing else to do ) might gain 1 lb of musculature each week, if they go to the gym every day and concentrate on one body area each day. Its bloody hard work.

Those of us who have a job to do and a house to keep might gain less than 100 g of muscle in a week. So to exchange that 10 kg of fat into muscle will take well over two years.

The tour winners are usually in their late twenties / early thirties and have been cycle training and racing hard for fifteen years.

porteous is quite correct. Always take the advice of a qualified fitness instructor.





Names have been omitted to protect the innocent.


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## postman (24 Oct 2008)

I don't understand i tried some simple leg exercises over 6 weeks.And my cycling got worse.Have stopped and my cycling has got better.Can you over stretch the leg muscles.Or after 20 years of cycling.Are they just at the right position if you know what i mean.


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## jimboalee (25 Oct 2008)

It may sound anti-productive, but to build muscle, you MUST rest them between work-outs.
Every time you feel pain, some muscle fibres are rupturing. They need to heal and they will heal stronger if fed with protein. You will recover quicker if you sit in an ice bath after a hard session.

Subscibe to BikeRadar and get their e-mails every week. Joe Beer writes for them. There was an article about 'resting' recently.


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## postman (25 Oct 2008)

Thank you for that advice i was exercising every other day.Will try again.


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## walker (2 Nov 2008)

the reason your cycling is suffering is because your possibly not stretching off correctly or at all. as you take up resistance training the muscle shortens to contract, therefore it being at its strongest when smaller, stretching off counters this. 

While you are cycling your going through both lengthening and shortening phase of muscle contration, if the muscle is only used to being at its strongest in the shorter phase it needs to be stretched out to compensate this


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## ColinJ (3 Nov 2008)

jimboalee said:


> Always take the advice of a qualified fitness instructor.


Also - reduce a simple image down from over 640kB before posting !

Either on your own computer, or online using a site such as shrink pictures.


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## Jonathan M (3 Nov 2008)

Another vote for gym membership here!

Joined the locall JJB in May, £32.50/month on an NHS corporate membership, and since then have lost over stone in weight, endurance and general cycling strength have increased, this is on a current routine of:
1) Monday spin class of an hour
2) Wednesday spin class or gym warm up, then a routine devised by one of the instructors to look at leg strength, upper body toning, and core stability
3) Saturday long road ride up to 4ish hours.
Every fourth week then a rest week is thrown in, I don't stop completely but intensity is less, and the ride at the weekend would only be a couple of hours.

If weather is truly lousy (like it was in the summer) then saturday's ride will be replaced by a combined spin for an hour,plus the gym routine, giving a couple of hours of mixed exercise.

Somethings that I've observed about spin class, though.

A good spin class isn't about leg speed, it will be based on resistance, and an instructor will not advocate periods of mega fast cadences. Lots of classes will literally be "spinning", and having done the odd session or two with instructors who follow this method, it bears no use to a cyclist IMHO. A good spin class is similar to a well structured turbo routine, for me it has the advantages of having an instructor shouting at me (! only kidding) plus there are nubile lycra clad females all around - spin doesn't seem to be a male "thing".

Personally I don't intend using the gym to bulk up, rather to ensure enough of a mix to enhance the cycling I do - and I have found the core stability exercises have made a great difference to lower back pain which I used to encounter a lot on rides of more than a couple of hours (under when on the mountain bike).


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## fossyant (6 Nov 2008)

Lots of hill climbing - you don't want surplus muscles..... and it will give you good core strength !


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## walker (9 Nov 2008)

fossyant said:


> Lots of hill climbing - you don't want surplus muscles..... and it will give you good core strength !



explain the relation of core strength and hill climbing?


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## ColinJ (9 Nov 2008)

walker said:


> explain the relation of core strength and hill climbing?


I've been cycling in Yorkshire for nearly 20 years so I do _a lot_ of hill climbing and yet I've never developed enough core strength on the bike to stop me getting back ache. I think core strength is good for hill climbing, but I'm having to turn to dedicated exercises to develop it.


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## jimboalee (9 Nov 2008)

I think there is a mix up between 'core strength' and 'core stability'.

Core stability improves the control and articulation between lower and upper torso.


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