Gym-Newbie dilemma

jayElliot — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:17:43 +0800

Hi y'all!

"Old" newbie here. Got some questions for all the gym-rats here, especially the "o-tais". Need some feedback on my situation. Really hope that u guys can help me out. I'll try to make this as brief as possible, and please forgive me for any naive questions that I might ask.

Ok, first things first; a little info on myself.

I called myself "old" because, well, I'm 31yrs old. But i'm only now going to the gym to build that "mythical" gym body. (At least for me la).

I joined a ghetto gym (situated close to my apartment) about 1 month ago. It's owned by a former bodybuilder, and, according to him, former mr. malaysia. I'll refer to him here as "my coach".

Nway, from day one, my coach gave me a training program which he calls "Circuit Training", in which I do twelve (12) different excercises such as the following:

1. Cable Tricep Extention
2. Standing Calf raises
3. Leg extentions
4. Chest press
5. Hip twist (1minute)
6. Lat pulldown
7. Shoulder Press
8. Decline Situps (20-25)
9. Pec Dec
10. Seated cable row
11. Leg curls
12. Standing bicep curls (dumbell)

All the above exercises (except hip-twist and sit-ups) are done 10-12reps (or till failure), and are done in that order. This is what I do monday, wednesday, and friday, and being a former athlete in my school and uni days, I give every training session everything that I got.

So here's my problem:
On my 2nd week, my coach said that I should do two (2) sets of the above Circuit Training routine. After that, everytime after training, despite feeling very tired after the gym session, I have problems sleeping at night, sometimes staying awake till morning! If I do manage to sleep, it's after 3am and I wake up feeling like I i hadnt slept at all.
On top of that, I've fallen sick twice in the last month.

When I first decided to start gym training, my initial short term goal was to build up as much mass as possible till July, after which I would start doing more cardio, and go into the "cutting" phase till end of November.

So guys, my dilemma is:-

1. Why do I have problems sleeping after training? Is it because I am too unfit to train like this?
2. My goal is to bulk up on muscle. Is the Circuit Training routine given to me suitable? I know I might have limited knowledge in bodybuilding/strength training, but from what I understand, shouldnt bodybuilding training consist of "Body-part days"? Or is this training supposed to build my strengh first?

To be honest, I'm already kind of bored of this routine, and going to the gym seems more like a chore, rather than a joy, now. Plus, my coach gets really annoyed if I do anything outside of his training program.

And one more question on supplements:-
1. Since I want to bulk up, should I be taking Mass Gainers or just pure Whey Protein?
The thing is, I'm 5'6" (165cm) and 69kg (152lbs), my BMI is 25.1 and my body fat is 30% (according to some test machine), so I'm not actually lean and skinny. (I have some 'love-handles'). But I've been told that Mass Gainers are better than pure Whey Protein when u want to bulk up, and that pure Whey is better suited for the cutting phase.

So, that's all for now guys. Looking forward to yr answers. Thanx in advance. And sorry if I sounded like a complete dork.

Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by jayElliot

Gym-Newbie dilemma