Too skinny

[DJay]

I've decided to take up Thai boxing but am concerned about losing weight coz of all the cardio involved. I am 6'2 and only 160 lbs. I have recently been eating a lot and taking protein supplements and also doing an intense weights workout twice a week to try and bulk up but am not having much luck. I have a very high metabolism and so find it really hard to gain any kind of significant weight.

Do you think I should bulk up more first BEFORE I start muay thai or should I just get on with it? I know that thai boxers are wirey but I really have no muscle to speak of at all at the moment.

I'm not asking advice on gaining weight. I've read that many articles on the subject I could write a novel but could just do with some advice on how I should go about this.

[TheCount]

Eat more, Get a good weigh training routine. Balance it out with Thai Boxing.

[Beowolf]

Eat. A lot. Really, thats it.
Seriously.... your worried about losing weight. What do people do when they want to lose weight? They eat less. So if you want to not lose weight, you should eat more.

[ItalianStallion]

eat 6 times a day, get lots of protein, start lifting weights and keep the muay thai

[TigerDude]

Hey, you'll have a great reach in your weight class!

[succubus]

lucky you. :p

eat more. :)

the extra exercise you're getting will help you put on weight anyway, with the extra muscle mass you'll be putting on.

[gracie22555]

the main character from star wars hayden christiansen has the same stats as you 6'2 160. for star wars episode 3 he bulked up to 190 pounds, he said he ate 6 meals a day, it was tough on him he said. after they shopt the movie he went back to his normal weight of 160 so just face reality and realize not everyone has the genetics to be huge. unless your willing to eat 6 meals a day for the rest of your life :) :)

[ItalianStallion]

the main character from star wars hayden christiansen has the same stats as you 6'2 160. for star wars episode 3 he bulked up to 190 pounds, he said he ate 6 meals a day, it was tough on him he said. after they shopt the movie he went back to his normal weight of 160 so just face reality and realize not everyone has the genetics to be huge. unless your willing to eat 6 meals a day for the rest of your life :) :)

He bulked up for that film?? :confused: He look skinny to me...Anyway, he only lost all that weight because he stopped lifting, which is like anything, you stop MA trainning you will lose your skills. If you dont stop lifting, you wont lose muscle, simple as that. Plus eating 6 times a day isnt that hard....

[wazzabi]

how long have you been weight training? what exactly are you doing in your program? how many reps, sets, what exercises? you said you weight train 2 days a week, so do you do upper body in one day and lower in the other? or do you break it up differently?

[illegal entry]

Peanut Butter + Poptarts + Deadlifts = Muscles

[|MT|omar]

Peanut Butter + Poptarts + Deadlifts = Muscles
hahaha

Nutella (hazelnut spread) works well on just bout everything... from bread, to banana's or whatever else u can come up with :p

[DJay]

how long have you been weight training? what exactly are you doing in your program? how many reps, sets, what exercises? you said you weight train 2 days a week, so do you do upper body in one day and lower in the other? or do you break it up differently?

I've been working out regularly now for about 2 months. I was advised to work out just twice a week but keep the workouts short and intense and get 3 days rest inbetween each workout. I workout Mondays and Fridays and apart from chin ups and crunches which I do in multiple sets, all my other exercises are one set to total failure. Again, I adopted this approach after getting some advice off a mate who seems to know his stuff.

All my lifts are with dumbells and I do mainly compound lifts like shoulder presses, bench presses and squats. The squats have been a bit of a problem as I have had a bad knee from a football injury. I workout out the entire body each time and don't break up the workouts for different body parts.

So far I've added a couple of pounds and have been eating more and also downing 3 protein shakes a day.

[aml01_ph]

Let's break it down...

I've been working out regularly now for about 2 months. I was advised to work out just twice a week but keep the workouts short and intense and get 3 days rest inbetween each workout.

Getting enough rest between workouts is always good. This gives the body enough time to recover from each workout. However, I would have to question your fitness objectives. If you want to acquire technical skill in a MA any weight training or cardio training must be supplemental to your MA training.

I workout Mondays and Fridays and apart from chin ups and crunches which I do in multiple sets, all my other exercises are one set to total failure. Again, I adopted this approach after getting some advice off a mate who seems to know his stuff.

Now here I see a big problem right away. Although it can be a nice break form monotony, training to failure is largely an inefficient way to gain strength or mass for the one reason that the rest peiriods between exercises get longer.

All my lifts are with dumbells and I do mainly compound lifts like shoulder presses, bench presses and squats. The squats have been a bit of a problem as I have had a bad knee from a football injury. I workout out the entire body each time and don't break up the workouts for different body parts.

The concept of progressive resistance is perhaps the single most effective method of working with or around an injury. There have been cases where a lower back injury was rehabilitated through progressive deadlifting.

Training to failure by the way is likely to aggravate your bad knee.

[wazzabi]

it's good taht you're sticking to compound exercises and not wasting your time breaking them up into isolation exercises. it's been a few months, so you might wanna do 2 sets instead of 1. how many reps do you do with dumbells?

the 3 days of rest is great, but if you find that your body is adapting and you're no longer as sore as you used to be or if you no longer feel sore after 2 days, you can cut the rest down to 2 days and put more training days into your schedule. the rule of thumb i go by is, if the muscle isn't sore, i can work it.