Requesting guidance

[slutpuppy]

Hello all.

I'm a 31yr old 5'5 female who has gone from about 250 (51%BF) to about 200 (38%BF) in the past year. I have decided to become a bodybuilder. I do go to the gym now at least 3x a week. I did start slow but am getting to the point where I feel I can kick up my workout and be more beneficial. I would appreciate ANY advice/guidance regarding diet/workout/supplements/etc. I have been doing some web searching but all the information is a bit overwhelming.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Daisy_Girl]

How much reading have you done HERE? I know the web is very overwhelming, but if you take some time and read through a couple pages of this forum, you'll get good information. I'd stick with the Women's Forum and maybe Diet Forum for starters.

Also, post your workout, what you do now - days, times, weights, reps, exercises, cardio, etc....

Post a sample days worth of food - specifically - food, preparation, condiments, amount, size, weight, type, time of day, etc.

Finally, specifically, what are your goals? You say, "to become a bodybuilder". What does that mean in your mind? To compete? To look like a BB? Gain muscle? What timeframe are you thinking?

Congrats on the weight loss, the goals setting and coming here! Welcome!

 

[slutpuppy]

How much reading have you done HERE? I know the web is very overwhelming, but if you take some time and read through a couple pages of this forum, you'll get good information. I'd stick with the Women's Forum and maybe Diet Forum for starters.

Also, post your workout, what you do now - days, times, weights, reps, exercises, cardio, etc....

Post a sample days worth of food - specifically - food, preparation, condiments, amount, size, weight, type, time of day, etc.

Finally, specifically, what are your goals? You say, "to become a bodybuilder". What does that mean in your mind? To compete? To look like a BB? Gain muscle? What timeframe are you thinking?

Congrats on the weight loss, the goals setting and coming here! Welcome!

Thank you very much for the advice, I will definitely start reading through this site. My goal would be to compete. Of course watching the Olympics now I got the bright idea of wanting to make it to that, but not sure how realistic that is since I'm already in my 30s. I want to gain muscle, muscle, and more muscle! I have to admit when I found pics of Chris Envall I found my hero As for timeframe, of course we all want to do things as fast as possible, but I do try to be realistic, heck I have taken a year to lose the 50lbs that I have so far. But it would be nice to see better results faster of course.

As for your other questions...

I attached a picture of my 4 week rotation.

Here is an example of one of the workouts:

Back/Biceps
Rows: 1x12x37.5, 1x12x50, 1x12x62.5, 1x10x75, 1x8x87.5, 1x6x100, 2x4x112.5, 1x15x50, 1x30x37.5
Ab Isolator: 6x10x50
Lat Pulldowns: 1x15x40 (front and back), 1x12x60, 1x8x80, 1x25x40
Lat Pushdowns: 1x15x20, 1x12x25, 1x8x30, 1x4x35, 1x25x20

DUMBBELLS
21s: 1x21x10, 1x21x15, 2x21x10
Twist Curls: 1x15x10, 1x10x15, 1x6x20, 1x20x15
Hammer Curls: 1x15x10, 1x12x15, 1x10x20, 1x5x25, 1x20x15
Rows: 1x15x10, 1x12x15, 1x10x20, 1x8x25, 1x5x30, 1x30x10
Forearm Curls: 1x15x5, 1x10x10, 1x12x5

As for the diet, that is where i am having the most problem with. Obviously I am doing ok in terms of still continuing to lose weight and not gain, but I definitely don't think I am doing it right for working out and gaining muscle. Some times I do this fat-flush diet which is kind of like atkins but it doesn't actually eliminate carbs completely just confuses your body as to what its getting the most of from day to day (I can post it if you'd like). Again, I lose weight on this but get concerned that with the working out, I'm not necessarily getting enough protein for best results.

Oh yes, before I forget, let me mention that I still have to hold back on the workouts as I am still nursing a broken ankle. I have cleared it with my doctor to begin cardio lightly and other excercises but I do still have to be somewhat careful. As a result, I do walk daily a couple miles, do the stationary bike at least 30min each time at the gym, if ankle is feeling good, I will add in some treadmill time as well.

Thank you again for your advice

 

[Sassy69]

Congrats on your progress! When you say "become a body builder", do you mean compete?

Otherwise, if you have made progress but feel that your progress has slowed down by following the same diet and / or training schedule, definitely switch it up a little bit. Otherwise, the best way to kick it up a notch is to increase the intensity of your lifting. By this I don't mean to jack up the weight so much that your form suffers or overtrain, but instead really push yourself for perfect form, full extensions on all your exercises, slow it down & get (and FEEL!) the full contractions & all that wonderful burn. You can also adjust by lower the number of reps & increase the weights. It looks like you are doing some pyramid sets with a burn out set at the end. Possibly consider moving to something like 3 sets of each, with maybe 8-10 reps, if you can do 10 solid reps, then increase the weight a little.

Again if you are looking to compete, one of the hardest things for women to do is get rid of the fat in those estrogen-happy places like hips & thighs. Some of that doesn't actually go away until you have done several competition level diets to really get it down.

You might also go attend some local competitions to see what it looks like in "real life". One of the first things you will notice is that a huge percentage of competitors are not "natural", so make sure you set your expectations for your own training appropriately. But also there is a certain "way" to compete, i.e. learning the required poses, the routines, etc. A sort of fun part of competition prep is to work a flexed poses - holding them for 30-60 seconds at a time. This is also great training for getting a lean, hard look in your muscles, in addition to the regular gym training. You might even look around your local gym for either a trainer or someone who is training for competition and get to know them to give you some pointers or to follow their progress as they prep for a show.

 

[brunette]

welcome slutpuppy.

 

[slutpuppy]

welcome slutpuppy.

Thank you