Nooby needing advice

GTForce

The only problem I have is breakfast. Don't get me wrong...I always eat a good breakfast, however, it is the one time I need to kinda "force-fed" myself. When I wake-up all I really crave is coffee and water.
I find that frequent snacking helps. Inbetween larger meals I snack on protein bars, trail mix, almonds, cheese, cold cuts etc...
Bodybuilding can be expensive, but the way I help justify it is reminding myself that I spend the same amount of money on supplements every year that a lot of my friends spend on booze per year.

Fishhead, try some different rep ranges. Do 12-15 reps per set for a month then drop down to 6-8 reps. Make note of what works best for you. For example I found that my quads respond best to higher reps (12-20) but my hamstrings were hit better with lower reps (6-10). Also, I found that hams/quads/calves on one day was too much so I now train hams with back, quads with abs and calves (seated), and calves (standing) with arms and high-intensity cardio. That reminds me, one trick for increasing hunger is cardio. Nothing too extreme, maybe just 20-30 fairly intense minutes either on an off-day or after an "easier" training session. Chest, shoulders, arms would be ideal...legs and back are too exhausting. Cardio can really help to increase hunger and helps your body feel less sluggish and bloated.

Good Luck

Fishhead

Thanks for the advice GTForce i will start doing 12-15 reps (how many sets?) tomorrow and start recording my progress on a sheet. I like the idea that cardio will increase my hunger, ive been trying to keep cardio to absolute minimium otherwise i would need to eat even more but if like you say it will make me hungrier then i'm willing to give it a go. At the moment im open to any suggestions as i feel my progress has really slowed down.

Thanks again

GTForce

Fishhead, if you keep your cardio to 15-20 minutes (30 minutes max) then the total calorie burn really isn't all that high. Generally, the increase in hunger and reduced bloated feeling will allow you to increase your calorie intake beyond what you will burn during your added cardio. High intensity cardio is best in my opinion. Would you rather be built like a 100 or 200 metre sprinter, or a middle to long-distance runner? Personally, I feel that world-class sprinters have among the best physiques in the world.
As for sets, you should follow a rule of inverse relationship between sets and reps. What I mean by that is, as you increase your reps per set you should decrease the total sets you perform. For example, if you are going to increase your reps to 12-15 then perform 3 sets per exercise. If you increased your reps to 20 then you would only perform 2 sets. Conversely, if you reduce your reps to 8 then 4 sets would be better. One of the best formulas for strength development is 5 sets of 5 reps. Sometimes I do 6 sets of 4 reps...as sets go up, reps go down and vice-versa. The key is to keep a watchful eye on the clock...workouts should not last more than an hour. This hour does not include a light warm-up of 5-10 minutes easy cardio and stretching. It does include your high intensity cardio if doing it after a workout.
Progress does not come from training longer or more often, it comes from training smarter and more effeciently. Train less but increase your intensity per session, per set and per rep.

Cheers, GTF