Is this a good upper body workout?

Question

I know this is really low weight for a guy to be working with but I am a complete noob to the gym equipment. I'm pretty weak so right now I'm just focusing on adding some muscle mass to my arms. I'm going to start with chest presses, lat pull-downs, and dumbell curls. I am going to do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for every workout station. Part of my plan is gonna be:

- 2x8 60 lb. chest presses
- 1 set of as many reps I can possibly achieve at 70 lbs.

Whenever I can achieve 12 chest presses at 70 lbs. my work-out will change to:

- 2x8 70 lb. chest presses
- 1 set of as many reps I can possibly achieve at 80 lbs.

If you need me to clarify something I will. I just want to know if this plan is going to put a decent amount of muscle on my arms. This is so important to me that I actually lost sleep over it and I can't stop obsessing over how weak I am. So please tell me if you think this will work or not. I'm hoping that every exercise day I will be able to add a few reps to the last set. Thanks.

Answer 1

SO to start with, if you're just focusing on adding muscle mass to your arms, why describe your chest routine as opposed to your arm routine? Anyway, if you want to add muscle to your arms you need to do mainly compound exercises as these will allow for a bigger weight to be lifted which is what will help your muscles grow. Standing barbell curls are probably best for this, mixed with preacher curls and concentration curls (single joint curl using your knee for support, or somthing similar) and you can always add cable curls to the end of your routine to get a decent pump which will increase the blood flow to your muscles transporting more protein and promoting bigger gains.

You really need to be getting AT LEAST a serving of high quality protein before and after the gym to give your muscles the biggest potential to grow. Eating right and getting enough protein is a very important aspect of training. Include a decent powder in your diet and you will notice a substantial change over a shorter time. Try and eat a bagel or two slices of white bread directly after training as this will provide your muscles with some quick acting carbs which will replace those depleated resources from training and will help go to rebuilding muscles rather than to fat.

Don't try lifting too much weight, I can't stress enough how important good form is over trying to lift more weight but lifting poorly. I see many young lads at my gym all trying to look big by lifting too much weight and performing bad movements. This will do you no good and you can seriously injure yourself. After your first few months you should quite speedily be able increase weights as this is the time you will grow fastest.

Another way to increase the size of your arms is to do tricep exercise. The tricep actually makes up 2/3 of the muscle mass in the arm, so training these will make your arms grow faster and potentially look bigger.

If you say you're weak, is it ok for me to assume you are skinny? If this is the case, dont worry about doing cardio just yet. Eat plenty of carbs and protein and after about a month, or when you've put on about a stone in weight then add some cardio to the END of your routine. If you do cardio now, it will just burn the muscle that you're trying to build and you wont get much bigger, if you bulk up abit first, your muscles will get the right nutrion and then the cardio you do will allow you to tone and sculpt your muscles.

If you can reach 8/10 reps on a certain weight, increase it next time as bigger weight, fewer reps is key in building muscle. Dont exhaust yourself either, stick to about 3/4 exercise for each body part, trying to hit them from different angles and try training seperate body parts on different days, with 48 rest before your work them again.

Finnaly, get plenty of rest. NO matter what you may think, muscles are not built in the gym. 7/8 hours sleep each night is required for your muscles to recover.

Train hard but safely and im sure you will reach your goals in no time. Hope this helps a little bit.

Answer 2

1] check out or buy a book about body building - there are a lot of exercises you need to add so you build up the accessory muscles [ back, shoulders, chest, neck ] to help the arms and prevent injury.
Also, you should do 3 sets of 10 reps each of all arm exercises - multiple reps work better than too much weight.
2] add some cardio - 30 minutes at least three times a week.
[ walk, swim, bike, dance, run ]
3] eat well - avoid fried, fast, and junk food - even diet junk food
3 servings lean protein a day
4 servings whole grain bread, cereal, rice, pasta
3 servings low fat dairy
4 servings veggies
2 servings fruit
4] drink 1/2 gallon of water a day - flush out all the toxins
5] take vitamins with minerals every day - extra stress will increase need for nutrients