change physique with barbell/dumbell & heavy bag?

positivenote

HI all,
I was recently listening to PJ Gallagher on the radio talking about how a certain gym has helped him transform his physique. From the images below its some improvement. This is something id love to duplicate as I moreso resemble the image on the left and am a similiar age.
My question is can this kind of results be achieved without the cost of a personal trainer? I have a had a heavy bag and barbell/dumbell set bought by my partner for christmas and jave a space in my shed to lift, but am at a loss on where to start. Are these type of results beyond the capabilities of the limited equipment access to a personal trainer?
Any and All advice would be welcomed...
Heres the photos:


*note to mods. I have moved this from the 'strength and strength sports' forum due to lack of activity in the thread

laserlad2010

I'm sure lots of people more experienced than me will be along shortly to give advice but transformation photos a year apart don't give you a sense of the slow changes one makes.

Firstly, keep a food diary for a week. There's plenty of advice out there on what is good and bad but as an example you should have around a fist sized portion of carbs, 2 fists of veg, and a fist of protein per meal.

Secondly, and whilst you should probably seek out the advice of a decent PT, if you're determined to go it alone make sure you watch plenty of Youtube technique videos.

I would advise that you should be able to do 15-20 good bodyweight squats before attempting to use a barbell. Similarly with push ups and benching. It'll make life easier for you, I would think.

Anyway, you'll get lots of differing opinions but mine is that food is the most important to get right. Otherwise you're fooling yourself.

There's no reason you can't make significant inroads at the beginning provided you have good technique

freemenfitness

This sort of change is 100% possible a trainer I work with has achieved similar and is aged 67 so it is most certainly possible.

But as was said these changes are very slow and gradual imagine taking a picture every day and flicking through them there would be no noticeable difference but between day 1 and 365 would be very noticeable.

But diet will make the biggest changes make sure you are lifting weights or yourself if you want to gain muscle.

There are plenty of free programs and some PTs will offer you an assessment and program to do on your own not all but some do.

If you want a simple one online look at 5x5 and add in some form or cardio and mobility work. I hope that helps you just dont get disheartened the most important thing is consistency just get the work done and the changes will happen.

positivenote

thanks, any links to online diet programs to accompany the lifting? Im going to talk with a PT tomorrow but im not sure they'll hep with the nutrition side.

Alf Veedersane

positivenote wrote: »

thanks, any links to online diet programs to accompany the lifting? Im going to talk with a PT tomorrow but im not sure they'll hep with the nutrition side.

What do you want to achieve with the lifting and nutrition in terms of body? Leaner, lighter, bigger...?

positivenote

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

What do you want to achieve with the lifting and nutrition in terms of body? Leaner, lighter, bigger...?

Im not to worried about the weight itself, but its building my self up strength wise which would prob mean increasing muscle and toning the weight opposed to losing any. Im 175-180lbs standing 5,10.
cheers

Zillah

positivenote wrote: »

and toning the weight

This doesn't really mean anything. If you have too much bodyfat you need to reduce calorie intake to get rid of it. If you want to gain muscle you do the opposite. You can't really do them at the same time.

FTA69

One thing I do know about is heavy bag work. Lots of people get heavy bags to improve fitness and end up hurting themselves down the line. Look after your hands because you have the potential to do serious damage flaking away at a 60kg bag day after day.

Get a decent pair of 16oz gloves, don't go near any of those crap £10 "bag glove" yokes if you're doing regular bag work. Also be sure to wrap your hands properly. I've seen and had countless hand and wrist injuries over the years from this sort of thing and they can be very debilitating.

positivenote

FTA69 wrote: »

One thing I do know about is heavy bag work. Lots of people get heavy bags to improve fitness and end up hurting themselves down the line. Look after your hands because you have the potential to do serious damage flaking away at a 60kg bag day after day.

Get a decent pair of 16oz gloves, don't go near any of those crap £10 "bag glove" yokes if you're doing regular bag work. Also be sure to wrap your hands properly. I've seen and had countless hand and wrist injuries over the years from this sort of thing and they can be very debilitating.

Cheers,
I had it in my head to see if any local boxers wanted to show me the basic techniques to ensure I was punching, posturing etc properly. Drop them a few bob for their trouble which would probably be no hassle to them.

freemenfitness

Good idea do a few boxing or kickboxing classes or privates to learn the basics and get shown how to wrap your hands to be safe.

On diet check out the precision nutrition site I dont like to give an exact diet if I have not met a person but the information and advice they offer is very much worth checking out.

Little tip take a picture each month your weight might never change when I had my largest amount of bodyfat I weighed the same to a little less than I did compared to me in my best shape.

Final one this is just in agreement with Zillah "toning" and "tone" are some of the weird terms in the fitness industry the full term is muscle tone which means one of two things gain more muscle or reduce the bodyfat to show it off.

For now I would advise just working out sticking to a plan and cleaning up your diet then after a few months start to tweak it to your needs.

Mellor

freemenfitness wrote: »

Final one this is just in agreement with Zillah "toning" and "tone" are some of the weird terms in the fitness industry the full term is muscle tone which means one of two things gain more muscle or reduce the bodyfat to show it off.

Muscle tone is name given to residual tension in a muscle. It has not gaining muscle or losing fat. That's informally called "toning", which is a misleading term to say the least. Toning in that sense doesn't really exist.

freemenfitness

100% right Mellor I phrased that badly meant to say it that it is not a real term and what most people think of it being is one or both of those two.

Breener122

You can pretty much do a full body work out with just dumbbells, barbell and your own body.

Bicep curls (biceps)
Shrugs (traps)
Military press / dumbbell press (deltoids, triceps)
Deadlift (lower back, glutes and legs also)
Dumbbell squats (glutes and legs)
Bent over barbell/dumbbell rows (lats, middle back)
Pushups (chest, triceps, delts)
Crunches (abs)
Pull ups (lats, delts and biceps depending on variation) pull up bar needed obviously, cheap enough in Argos

You could do 3 of these a day having a rest day every 3 days and keep a log of which exercises you do so you're not focusing to much on biceps and neglecting the legs etc.

Mellor

freemenfitness wrote: »

100% right Mellor I phrased that badly meant to say it that it is not a real term and what most people think of it being is one or both of those two.

I figured you knew what you meant. Was more so for the benefit of anyone just browsing looking for tips

positivenote

Thanks for the support guys. I have bought myself a nutribullet and I am going to use it to get a more healthy diet going in tandem with the weight-work.