How to build up big armmuscles like Tom Hardy

[transformershy]

Any suggestions?
I've still got a few months until the premiere

I have no problem gaining body mass, but the problem is that the belly grows too.
I do work out 2 times a week, lifting weight and by the end of the work out, I do cardio.

Any specific food I should eat?
I try to eat eat least once per hour (nuts, fruits).

Maybe it's genetic?

 

[B4tman]

You should stick to a 6 meal a day plan.. Eating anywhere from 2 to 3 hours evenly spreading out the protein and carbs your body needs to warrant muscle growth. The fat unfortunetely for some of us can't be avoid it. That's why one should focus on building the muscle for a decent amount of time and after you have accomplish your goal you should beging a cutting face eating complex carbs, reducing starchy carbs and increasing protein intake

 

[transformershy]

You should stick to a 6 meal a day plan.. Eating anywhere from 2 to 3 hours evenly spreading out the protein and carbs your body needs to warrant muscle growth. The fat unfortunetely for some of us can't be avoid it. That's why one should focus on building the muscle for a decent amount of time and after you have accomplish your goal you should beging a cutting face eating complex carbs, reducing starchy carbs and increasing protein intake

What are complex carbohydrates?
And I don't eat starchy carbs such as potatoes.

 

[B4tman]

Complex carbs are slow digestive fibrous carbs such as oatmeal, brown rice,green leafy vegetables, wheat pasta etc. keep in mind that you will not build muscle while cutting you will only if done properly maintain the muscle you have build

 

[transformershy]

Complex carbs are slow digestive fibrous carbs such as oatmeal, brown rice,green leafy vegetables, wheat pasta etc. keep in mind that you will not build muscle while cutting you will only if done properly maintain the muscle you have build

So complex carbs won't build up your body mass? Just help maintain your current body muscles?

 

[B4tman]

The reason why you will only maintain is because your going to be limiting your carbs to lose fat. So if your eating the amount of carbs and protein your body needs to promote muscle growth you will grow. Check out scoobysworkshop.com under the tab nutritional tools look for calorie calculator you should be able to find your macros depending on your fitness goal

 

[transformershy]

The reason why you will only maintain is because your going to be limiting your carbs to lose fat. So if your eating the amount of carbs and protein your body needs to promote muscle growth you will grow. Check out scoobysworkshop.com under the tab nutritional tools look for calorie calculator you should be able to find your macros depending on your fitness goal

Seems like a great site.
Have you followed his tips and gained results...?

 

[B4tman]

It is a good website although you will soon find out that in bodybuilding not everyone agrees with each other all the time that why you have to figure out what works best for you. If you want to gain muscle you gotta eat and have a good diet. Also stick to compound movements with a weight that you can do anywhere from 6-12 reps. If you perform less it's to heavy if you do more its to light. Most importantly make sure you get enough rest. Make sure you are getting at least 8 hours of sleep and you allow each muscle group to rest at least 5 day before training then again. Remember your muscle grows while resting not while working out.

 

[transformershy]

It is a good website although you will soon find out that in bodybuilding not everyone agrees with each other all the time that why you have to figure out what works best for you. If you want to gain muscle you gotta eat and have a good diet. Also stick to compound movements with a weight that you can do anywhere from 6-12 reps. If you perform less it's to heavy if you do more its to light. Most importantly make sure you get enough rest. Make sure you are getting at least 8 hours of sleep and you allow each muscle group to rest at least 5 day before training then again. Remember your muscle grows while resting not while working out.

Good advices, how many sets do you usually do?
And do you eat anything before you go to bed...?

Also, is 2 times a week enough? I do not have time to workout 5 times a week, maybe 3...

 

[B4tman]

Iim on a three day split I workout 3 days a week. Mon. Chest, shoulders, triceps. Wed. Back and bicep, and fri. Legs. I do about 16 sets. I usually eat chicken breast and broccoli, but I would suggest you eat cottage cheese , because it contains casein protein which is able to provide a sustained Slow release of amino acids into blood stream sometimes lastin several hours keeping your muscles to go catabolic in your sleep

 

[B4tman]

I think 3 days is good.. You work out 2 days a week? are this days back to back and do you do full body workouts?

 

[transformershy]

I think 3 days is good.. You work out 2 days a week? are this days back to back and do you do full body workouts?

I try to take full body workouts now since I don't have much time, is that not good...?

I used to work out 3 times a week and splitted my workout to take arms one day, chest another day etc.

And each work out is about 2 hours (45 minutes with cardio)

Am I doing anything wrong?
Like is 2 times a week not enough?

 

[Cobblepot]

Don't worry about it that much. Try to get enough protien (poultry, egg, fish, even peanut butter and french cheese) if you' re lacking with that you will not grow.

3 days? What days? monday, tuesday, wednesday or a day rest in between? Don't work out more than 40 minutes with weigths. If you're lean enough, don't do the cardio.

 

[transformershy]

Don't worry about it that much. Try to get enough protien (poultry, egg, fish, even peanut butter and french cheese) if you' re lacking with that you will not grow.

3 days? What days? monday, tuesday, wednesday or a day rest in between? Don't work out more than 40 minutes with weigths. If you're lean enough, don't do the cardio.

I work out tuesdays and fridays.
And how important are legs exercises? I feel that I don't need an entire day with legs when I do cardio each time.
So I usually just take 2 leg excercises each time + cardio of course

 

[B4tman]

Don't worry about it that much. Try to get enough protien (poultry, egg, fish, even peanut butter and french cheese) if you' re lacking with that you will not grow.

3 days? What days? monday, tuesday, wednesday or a day rest in between? Don't work out more than 40 minutes with weigths. If you're lean enough, don't do the cardio.

Good point that I forgot to mention If you work out more than 45 min your body releases cortisol. .. I'd you are doing full body work outs you will need more time to recover

 

[transformershy]

Good point that I forgot to mention If you work out more than 45 min your body releases cortisol. .. I'd you are doing full body work outs you will need more time to recover

Does cortisol affect muscle growth in a negative way?
After my strength work out, I usually take one small cup of amino acids (liquid), drink one restoration drink and eat 2 ricecakes before doing my cardio (4x4 interval running with 5% gradient/hill). I got this tip from a personal trainer I randomly met.

 

[B4tman]

Does cortisol affect muscle growth in a negative way?
After my strength work out, I usually take one small cup of amino acids (liquid), drink one restoration drink and eat 2 ricecakes before doing my cardio (4x4 interval running with 5% gradient/hill). I got this tip from a personal trainer I randomly met.

cortisol is a hormone that has the opposite effect as testosterone. It is catabolic and is released when your body is being physically or mentally stressed( overtraining. Stressing) it does affect your muscle gains

 

[Mister Meddle]

If you're new to weight lifting you'll be lucky just to pack on 7 pounds in two months (and about 4 pounds if you're intermediate), which isn't extremely noticeable. I've been lifting for 6 years, same height as Hardy (5'10") but about 7 pounds lighter. If it took 6 years to accomplish that then there's no way you will get anywhere as close in 2 months. Even if you take steroids you'd be lucky to pack on 15 pounds in two months. Even that doesn't perform over night miracles.

B4tman is 100% correct about cortisol. It's always recommended to keep your workouts under the 45 minute mark.

Do a three day split. This is what I'm currently doing:

I do chest/triceps on Mondays. When you work your chest you do a lot of presses and usually your triceps are also getting worked. It makes sense to combine the two.

Biceps/Back on Wednesdays. With a lot of back exercises you're working on pulling exercises which also works the biceps. It makes perfect sense to work on both muscles. In the end of this workout I do three sets of wrist rollers. When doing bicep exercises you're working your forearms so you might as well make the most of it by doing a single exercise for dem babies!

On Fridays I do shoulders, traps and legs. If you want to look like Tom Hardy then you need to work on your traps because he his are huge! Plus it looks weird when a person is muscular but has skinny person traps.

On my rest days I do 45 minutes of stretching. I also like to do wrestling neck bridges to keep the neck strong. Tom Hardy did the neck bridges to build a strong neck for the movie Warrior.

Before each weightlifting workout spend 5 to 10 minutes on high intense cardio to warmup. And also stretch the the muscles (you're about to work on) to avoid injury. All of this shouldn't be included in your 45 minute weight lifting time limit. You might end up spending about a total of one hour in the gym.

Make sure to eat at least a gram of protein per pound you weigh. That might be too much protein, that's why we get protein powder. Eat greens because they're low in calories but high in fiber.

If you want to supplement then make sure you take vitamins. Usually I take one of vitamin B, C, D, E as well as zinc & calcium. But most bodybuilders don't like swallowing a lot and they like to use multiple vitamins. It's your choice but taking vitamins is essential.

I'm a strong believer of creatine. It allows water into the muscles which is good for better pumps, slight increased strength and it makes your muscles look a little bigger than they actually are. Because muscle isn't only dry tissue, it's also water. And when there's more water in the muscles they will look bigger. Creatine isn't essential but it's a nice bonus.

Speaking of water drink at least one gallon per day. This is EXTREMELY important! Water is just as important as protein. What I do is I fill up a whole gallon of water and I make sure to drink it throughout the entire day.

And also, if you want to build as much muscle as possible then you should mostly focus on weight training and less cardio. 5 to 10 minutes to warmup is good not only to warmup your body but because it's proven that cardio could increase your testosterone. But if you do long sessions, like 45 minutes, you're sweating a lot! And if you're sweating a lot you're losing a lot of water. This is the reason weight lifters look smaller when they're cutting fat..... because they're losing water weight, even from the muscles. But once they're done cutting they begin to look bigger after a week or so once the muscles store more water.

I know it's long but I hope it helps. If you have any questions then feel free to ask.

 

[Mister Meddle]

By the way if you want to follow an experienced bodybuilder then subscribe to luimarco on YouTube. Scooby is good but the problem is most of his stuff is for beginners that are looking to workout at home with limited equipment. But there's a reason serious lifters are bench pressing large numbers in the gym instead of doing a lot of extremely slow dumbbell flyes and very slow push ups at home. Scooby built and currently maintains his physique at an actual gym. However Luimarco speaks from his personal experience. He shows his own meals, discuss his own stories and experiences that people could benefit from. But I do recommend Scooby's calorie calculator from his website.

 

[transformershy]

If you're new to weight lifting you'll be lucky just to pack on 7 pounds in two months (and about 4 pounds if you're intermediate), which isn't extremely noticeable. I've been lifting for 6 years, same height as Hardy (5'10") but about 7 pounds lighter. If it took 6 years to accomplish that then there's no way you will get anywhere as close in 2 months. Even if you take steroids you'd be lucky to pack on 15 pounds in two months. Even that doesn't perform over night miracles.

B4tman is 100% correct about cortisol. It's always recommended to keep your workouts under the 45 minute mark.

Do a three day split. This is what I'm currently doing:

I do chest/triceps on Mondays. When you work your chest you do a lot of presses and usually your triceps are also getting worked. It makes sense to combine the two.

Biceps/Back on Wednesdays. With a lot of back exercises you're working on pulling exercises which also works the biceps. It makes perfect sense to work on both muscles. In the end of this workout I do three sets of wrist rollers. When doing bicep exercises you're working your forearms so you might as well make the most of it by doing a single exercise for dem babies!

On Fridays I do shoulders, traps and legs. If you want to look like Tom Hardy then you need to work on your traps because he his are huge! Plus it looks weird when a person is muscular but has skinny person traps.

On my rest days I do 45 minutes of stretching. I also like to do wrestling neck bridges to keep the neck strong. Tom Hardy did the neck bridges to build a strong neck for the movie Warrior.

Before each weightlifting workout spend 5 to 10 minutes on high intense cardio to warmup. And also stretch the the muscles (you're about to work on) to avoid injury. All of this shouldn't be included in your 45 minute weight lifting time limit. You might end up spending about a total of one hour in the gym.

Make sure to eat at least a gram of protein per pound you weigh. That might be too much protein, that's why we get protein powder. Eat greens because they're low in calories but high in fiber.

If you want to supplement then make sure you take vitamins. Usually I take one of vitamin B, C, D, E as well as zinc & calcium. But most bodybuilders don't like swallowing a lot and they like to use multiple vitamins. It's your choice but taking vitamins is essential.

I'm a strong believer of creatine. It allows water into the muscles which is good for better pumps, slight increased strength and it makes your muscles look a little bigger than they actually are. Because muscle isn't only dry tissue, it's also water. And when there's more water in the muscles they will look bigger. Creatine isn't essential but it's a nice bonus.

Speaking of water drink at least one gallon per day. This is EXTREMELY important! Water is just as important as protein. What I do is I fill up a whole gallon of water and I make sure to drink it throughout the entire day.

And also, if you want to build as much muscle as possible then you should mostly focus on weight training and less cardio. 5 to 10 minutes to warmup is good not only to warmup your body but because it's proven that cardio could increase your testosterone. But if you do long sessions, like 45 minutes, you're sweating a lot! And if you're sweating a lot you're losing a lot of water. This is the reason weight lifters look smaller when they're cutting fat..... because they're losing water weight, even from the muscles. But once they're done cutting they begin to look bigger after a week or so once the muscles store more water.

I know it's long but I hope it helps. If you have any questions then feel free to ask.

I've noticed that some people (including luimarco) do a reverse weightlifting (they start with heavy weights and then take lighter weights after one set is done).

Any opinions on this?
Is it better than to start with light weights and then add more weights after one set?

 

[Mister Meddle]

I've noticed that some people (including luimarco) do a reverse weightlifting (they start with heavy weights and then take lighter weights after one set is done).

Any opinions on this?
Is it better than to start with light weights and then add more weights after one set?

Personal preference. A lot of body builders like to start out low so they could warm up the muscles to prevent injury. And others like to start out heavy because they want to do as much weight as possible without getting the muscles sore during the warmups. It's entirely up to you. Personally I do a low weight, high reps warmup set for only each major muscle group before the first exercise. This would be one set and twelve reps. And after that I usually aim for three sets and 7 - 9 reps for each exercise.

If your reps are too heavy and too low your body is going to focus more on strength rather than size. If you're going to do too light then, well just look at women that you see bench pressing 40 pounds in the gym. 7-9 reps is ideal. But form is extremely important. Don't cheat with anything just to feed your ego! And drink water during your workouts.

 

[transformershy]

Are there any workout that you guys recommend?

I'm also interested in what nuts/fruits has high protein content.
I did some googling, but they all say different things. But the most mentioned are almond, Brazil nuts, passion fruits, avokado, guavas and pomegranate.

 

[mbnasir6]

Mister Meddle is 100% correct, follow what he says and after a while you'll see good, noticeable changes.
But actors have Personal trainers and all the equipment and time in the world, that's why they have an advantage over us.
Tom must have been working out at least 4 times a week for Bane and his role in Warrior.
2 hours is too much, 1 hour is optimum, preferably at least 3 times a week. Legs are VITAL to train, you don't wanna have big strong arms and then not be able to overhead press a heavy weight because if your small weak legs, do you?
I keep one day for upper body, and the other for lower, and this rotates on a 5 day workout, so Bench, Overhead Press, Rows and Shrugs one day, Abs, Squats and Deadlifts. My priority is weight gain so I solely use Compound Exercises but if you dint have a problem with gaining mass, then add in some isolation movements as well.

 

[transformershy]

Mister Meddle is 100% correct, follow what he says and after a while you'll see good, noticeable changes.
But actors have Personal trainers and all the equipment and time in the world, that's why they have an advantage over us.
Tom must have been working out at least 4 times a week for Bane and his role in Warrior.
2 hours is too much, 1 hour is optimum, preferably at least 3 times a week. Legs are VITAL to train, you don't wanna have big strong arms and then not be able to overhead press a heavy weight because if your small weak legs, do you?
I keep one day for upper body, and the other for lower, and this rotates on a 5 day workout, so Bench, Overhead Press, Rows and Shrugs one day, Abs, Squats and Deadlifts. My priority is weight gain so I solely use Compound Exercises but if you dint have a problem with gaining mass, then add in some isolation movements as well.

Wait, I'm confused now. I thought that if you lifted heavy weights, you gained strength and muscle size while if you lifted medium weight with many reps, you gained marked muscles? Or is this wrong?

 

[Mister Meddle]

If you lift light weights with high reps then that's a sign that it's too easy. I'm talking about over 12 reps. That's what women do lol. Lift big in order to get big. But certainly not too heavy. If you lift around the 2 to 5 reps range you're only going to build strength. 7 - 9 reps is ideal for size. However if you're a beginner then I suggest 12 reps. You don't want to over load yourself. Your body has to get used to handling heavy weight as well as the movements.

By the way I could design you a workout routine. Just answer this, how long have you been working out for? Try to be precise. And what kind of weight lifting exercises do you do?