Building up the chest after cardio...

[Badgerboy]

Hi all,

For the last 6 months I have made a concerted effort to lose weight, stopping drinking in January made a hell of a difference! I've now lost one and a half stone and down to 11.5, and stepping up the cardio to get rid of the rest of the extra fat that doesn't seem to want to shift. (Whats left on the stomach and jaw line)

Unfortunately, my muscle tone has suffered as I didn't want to mix weight training with my cardio. As a consequence, my legs are great but my arms and chest have no definition now. Can anyone recommend any decent sets I can do at home to build myself up? I have a set of dumbbells with a large variety of weights I can use, but unsure as to what exercises or how many sets I should do daily.

Any pointers would be gratefully received.

[Onemcs]

Personally I'd Mix both. You may not notice weight loss as you proceed to gain muscle.

I'd also look at doing dumbbell deadlifts and dumbbell squats. By pulling back your back your chest will stick out more and is a more natural pose, than half of the people with a massive chest and tiny back.

Chest wise your traditional Bench press and bench flyes are ideally the best. Just remember to watch your form and start of light! Weight can always be added but repairing injuries not so much!

[Badgerboy]

Thanks, better to do a little less but more often then? I assume 3 sets of 15 reps of each would be okay per night?

[Lost_BMW]

Badgerboy said:

Thanks, better to do a little less but more often then? I assume 3 sets of 15 reps of each would be okay per night?

If you want the muscles to grow and size is more a priority than strength then, especially if doing higher reps, don't have much rest between each of the sets. That will really help stimulate growth more than longer rests which would be used for lower rep, strength, training.

You might also try some workouts/weeks where you lower the weight pretty slowly, pause just off the chest (no resting it on the chest of course!) and then press out an approx. timing scheme often recommended is something like 4-3-2 (4 seconds down, 3 pause, 2 pressing) though others are suggested and it's the basic approach not the exact timings that seem to help hypertrophy.

Floor presses are also good, esp. if you have dodgy shoulders - and don't forget push ups. Good for overall fitness and my chest has started to regrow after years of no specific training for it from high rep, multi-sets often spread over 2 or 3 sessions a day. The difference in size in the 1st month was remarkable and the only weights were one or two sets of single arm floor press once every week or two (a boxing specific exercise for me).

[BenM77]

These are the exercises I would do at home with dumbbells.

Push ups
Chin ups
Shoulder press
Db rows
Db squats/deadlift
Db curls
Db tricep extensions

Loads of options how you want to train, I personally like doing a non stop circuit but it is not for everyone

[alfa pint]

I used to be in a similar position - bench press is your friend - normal, seated, incline and decline pressing. Either a 4 x 10 or a 5x5 routine, with at least a minute in between sets, but no more than 3 mins. Your last rep must be virtually at or near exhaustion, but not complete failure otherwise you'll just hurt for days. Without knowing your size, strength and age, I'd start with about 30kg on the bar and see how you go. I tend to do a warm up with 40kg on the bar and then do my sets with about 65kg on it i.e. total weight 85kg. Flys / crossovers etc help with definition too.

Don't forget to work on the reciprocal muscles as well, therefore a bit of rowing type exercises, otherwise you'll over develop your front, under develop your back and pick up injuries (which is exactly what I did wrong).

[Lost_BMW]

alfa pint said:

I used to be in a similar position - bench press is your friend - normal, seated, incline and decline pressing. Either a 4 x 10 or a 5x5 routine, with at least a minute in between sets, but no more than 3 mins. Your last rep must be virtually at or near exhaustion, but not complete failure otherwise you'll just hurt for days. Without knowing your size, strength and age, I'd start with about 30kg on the bar and see how you go. I tend to do a warm up with 40kg on the bar and then do my sets with about 65kg on it i.e. total weight 85kg. Flys / crossovers etc help with definition too.

Don't forget to work on the reciprocal muscles as well, therefore a bit of rowing type exercises, otherwise you'll over develop your front, under develop your back and pick up injuries (which is exactly what I did wrong).

Don't want to seem unnecessarily argumentative but there is very little evidence/research if any to suggest that even a minute rest is needed if size/growth is the aim rather than strength, and on top of that rests beyond 3 mins have often been used by powerlifters et al using v. low rep/high % 1rm protocols for strength gains. My bench went up by 40 odd Kg one summer using up to 6 minutes between sets of 3 to 6 reps.

Though probably best to vary over time.

[90 B]

The biggest mistake people make is reading into things too much.

Unless you want to be a bodybuilder, you don't need to do anything too extreme. From experience, do weight training 3x per week as there is no need for anymore at your stage. In my opinion, if you want to really get serious and shift some of that " unwanted " weight whilst TONING (not building) muscle then ...

SWIM 3 TIMES PER WEEK

Maintain a BALANCED healthy diet rich is protein (very important).

With regards to your weights regime.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of the bench press. I am not condemning but I feel it puts a large amount of strain on your shoulder joints. Makes you open to snap your shoulders up. The dumbbell equivalent is much better as your shoulders are never locked in a position.

TOTALLY agree with pull ups, chin ups, push-ups etc. Cannot beat body to weight.

Again, squats and deadlifts are a funny one. I don't do them. Unless the form is PERFECT and you know exactly what you are doing, stay away from them. There are alternative excerises which offer the same results without the risk factor. For legs. Instead of squats, bang some weighted lunges out. I swear by them. Even if your form is bad (which is shouldn't be) and as long as you keep your back straight, you cannot injure your back. And if you cannot do another rep, just drop the weight! Which is hard in the middle of a squat.

I cannot tell you exactly what to do as everyones body is different. But if you want a HEALTHY, TONED body.

Eat clean, lift weights and most importantly, SWIM 3 times per week.

You wouldn't believe the change.

Edited by 90 B on Tuesday 3rd April 23:34

[90 B]

90 B said:

The biggest mistake people make is reading into things too much.

Unless you want to be a bodybuilder, you don't need to do anything too extreme. From experience, do weight training 3x per week as there is no need for anymore at your stage. In my opinion, if you want to really get serious and shift some of that " unwanted " weight whilst TONING (not building) muscle then ...

SWIM 3 TIMES PER WEEK

Maintain a BALANCED healthy diet rich in protein (very important).

With regards to your weights regime.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of the bench press. I am not condemning but I feel it puts a large amount of strain on your shoulder joints. Makes you open to snap your shoulders up. The dumbbell equivalent is much better as your shoulders are never locked in a position.

TOTALLY agree with pull ups, chin ups, push-ups etc. Cannot beat body to weight.

Again, squats and deadlifts are a funny one. I don't do them. Unless the form is PERFECT and you know exactly what you are doing, stay away from them. There are alternative excerises which offer the same results without the risk factor. For legs. Instead of squats, bang some weighted lunges out. I swear by them. Even if your form is bad (which is shouldn't be) and as long as you keep your back straight, you cannot injure your back. And if you cannot do another rep, just drop the weight! Which is hard in the middle of a squat.

I cannot tell you exactly what to do as everyones body is different. But if you want a HEALTHY, TONED body.

Eat clean, lift weights and most importantly, SWIM 3 times per week.

You wouldn't believe the change.

Edited by 90 B on Tuesday 3rd April 23:34

[Badgerboy]

Thanks for the tips chaps, I'll see how I get on and check in down the line.