Decisions in life are often made with a blink of thought. For instance, I bought my pair of dumbbells without much thought about what to do with it except that one routine I know of. Or over the dining table having a lovely company of Cynthia and my buddy Tong Kiat, I suddenly announced that I want to gain 15 kg. Why 15 kg? That was my consultant instinct to pluck a number from the air. Interestingly, based on my height – according to Cynthia – 15 kg is about right. Tong Kiat shook his head in disbelief. Not because of 15 kg but rather … I am taller than him. Sigh. Men are the competitive species.
15 kg is the goal. But how to reach there is the question. Searching the Internet high and low, I have uncovered a whole new dimension called … Body Building. You know, before this week, I look at those “muscle men” thinking that they have nothing but muscles (men are the competitive …). Now, I do appreciate the kind of hard work and discipline that goes into each of those muscle that by the way, each muscle has a name. And each named muscle has a certain routine that designed to make them grow bigger and stronger.
After hours of of sieving through tons of advertisement and not too useful articles, I have found a couple of good sites that explain and illustrate how to gain muscles using dumbbells. One site has listed a seemingly unending list of routines to train different kinds of muscle. Excellent! Let my ritual begins!
Lifting dumbbells is actually pretty fun. I mean, it is fun to exercise. Looking back at all those hours spent in the corporate world, my body was so conditioned to sit for hours, feeling tired and drained after a long day at work, and only wanted to be a coach potato watching TV programs when I returned home. Compares to now, gosh, I am so full of energy! Even at night! Grrr!
I was used to puzzle over how Cynthia can spent hours reading about the different kinds of exercise from the Internet and the books and was used to think that exercise is like common sense. You just need to move your body. Now, I think differently.
And I shall close off this blog with my buddy Benny’s advice (in his exact words) on training with dumbbells (he knows how over-enthusiastic I can become):
Start small and work your way up. During my NS days, lots of guys (myself included) suffered serious muscle tearing in attempts to out-do one another. Ironically when that happens, your muscles will swell by 25%. After that, any endeavour to feed yourself or even wipe your a*s will be an achievement in itself. Generally, it takes 3 weeks minimum for the pain and swelling to lessen/go away. ~ Ouch.
Related Readings: BodyBuilding.com, Building-Muscle101.com.
8 replies on “I Have Decided To Gain Weight”
I went on a weight gain programme – to be more correct, a muscle mass gaining exercise, a few years back. It was quite successful for a while, because I managed to go beyond 60kg to about 62kg from just 58kg – a minor historic event for me, since I had never gone past 60kg prior to that. My waistline grew a little as well, which meant I needed new pants and belt. Then work, a string of poor health and lack of commitment took over, and I lost the mass that I so painstakingly built. After that it was all downhill, the muscles disappeared but the waistline remained. But let not this discourage you, because it’s a good thing, and I should restart my old engines again.
Hey, let’s do this together since our body type is sort of similar! 13 years ago I managed to put on 5 kg of muscle due to intensive training for my Oxford-Edinburgh cycling trip. I exercised like 10 to 12 hours a day. Somehow, all my hard work disappeared when I moved to Singapore.
Honestly 15 kg is a bit drastic. A 5 to 10 kg sustainable gain would be nice.
hey wilf, good luck with that!!! i was a little shocked when i read that but i would be looking forward to a brand new you.
now, time for me to lose that 3, erm…… 5kg i was supposed to since i was 18!
Hey G, thanks! Good luck with your … 5 kg too! Though I must say that you do look good with the present you.
Met up with my lovely insurance agent and she kept telling me how tasty protein powder is … but I must stay natural!
… erm, right?
Wrong! Try Myoplex! It helps in gaining mass. Drink it either during or right after a workout. There’s some science to it, for which I am too lazy to look up now.
I certainly will bear that in mind! The company name of Myoplex sounds scary though – Experimental and Applied Science …
honestly, it’s always amazing for me to find that your muscles can ‘stay’ after you have stopped your exercise for so many years since your UK study. hahaha… a bit jealous… though i am not a boy… hehe 😛
so, it would be good for you to train up your muscles again! given the ‘long-lasting’ effect of your muscles, i think it’s worthwhile for you to pick this up again! =)
as a girl, i would say, a man can be attractive with certain amount of muscles as this makes a man look more masculine. however, too many muscles, like the people on muscle shows, are kind of scary to me…. hehe 😛
beware when you ‘bump’ yourself up in weight, especially with those protein powder…. as you need to admit that age has become one of the important factors, where you will leave yourself puffy if you can’t persist in the muscle training after you have gained a lot of weight! hehe 😛
Well, the muscles I gained during my cycling trip did not stay … I am just lean by nature. I thought it is in our genes! Oh well …
Speaking of which, I have gained like 2kg after last Christmas through all the exercise rituals and 3kg after the 8 days Melbourne trip! Amazing huh?