New to Gym please help

Hey guys, can you please give me some information, 28 year old male here.

im a 6ft tall guy, weighing 76kg. For my height, i feel that i am too slim and wish to bulk up.

i know that i need to eat loads and work out, and have recently started going to the gym (twice a week).

my problem is that after the gym, the next day, my chest, arms and sides can be really sore.

sometimes this soreness lasts for a couple of days and i am not sure this is good.

is the soreness down to poor warm up by myself or am i damaging my muscles.

can any1 help me on this?

also can any1 advise me how to get bigger arms?

thanks.

vinni

We will need some more information about your workouts to help you fully. What workouts, sets, and reps do you perform at the gym? What is your warm up and cool down routine? What do eat on your workout days? I don't have as much experience as others here (packard, swanso, lesplease seem to post the most advice), but here is what I have found can help through my 9 years of military experience:
1. Whenever you do an exercise that you don't normally do, you will probably feel sore and this is normal for a little bit.
2. Make sure your muscles and good and warm prior to working out. I personally warm up for about 5 minutes (running in place, jumping jacks, arm circles and such) and then about 2 minutes of LIGHT stretching the muscles I'm going to work out.
3. Don't train to failure, especially if you are new to weight lifting. The only time you should workout near failure is the last rep of the last set.
4. Drink plenty of water.
5. Ensure you train with proper form. Better to lift with a lighter weight and do it right, then lift heavy and break something.
6. If you are new to weight lifting, I would recommend starting with mostly body weight exercises for most of your routine. Pushups, pullups, and chinups are a good start for the upper body. Lunges, squats, step ups, and calf raises for lower body. You can find lots of variations of these exercises to make them easier or harder. The reason you want to start with these is that they build a foundation for your training. You should be able to handle your own bodyweight before you add extra weight to it (ie earn the right to lift weights). They are mostly compound exercises too. So when you do a push up, you will exercise shoulders, chest, and triceps. When you do a chin up, you exercise back and biceps. It allows your body to build the muscle where it needs it. If you try lift a heavy weight with dumbbell curls, you might just find your back screaming at you because it can't provide the proper stabilization.
7. After your workout, stretch all the muscles you used.
8. The better your nutrition after a workout, the easier time your muscles will have to recover. Drink a protein shake within an hour of your workout (the sooner the better).

As far as making your arms bigger, I would refer you again to #6. I bet you will see bigger gains doing chin ups vice curls. As far as damaging your muscles go, that is actually what occurs when you lift weights. The muscle fibers tear and get rebuilt stronger and usually bigger. If you are asking if you are injuring yourself and that is why you feel sore, then I doubt anyone but a doctor could tell you. It has been my experience that if you injure yourself during a workout, you will feel it immediately and not the next day.

Some soreness 2 days after is quite normal. If the soreness is severe back off on the quantity of exercise you are doing. It sounds like you might be over training. Try to do some type of activity on the days between resistance training, this will help flush nutrients in and waste products out of the muscles. Also, make sure you are using proper form. Within a matter of a couple of weeks your body should adapt to the workouts and then you can gradually increase intensity from there. Ideally for a beginner you should be doing about 3 sets per exercise and no more than 2 exercises per body part. After 2 - 3 months you can start adding and mixing routines.

Eat 1 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Make sure to get 30% of calories from healthy fats and fish oil. Post workout try 8-12 oz of low-fat chocolate milk, it has the ideal ratio of protein to carbohydrates for recovery. Follow with a balanced meal within and hour.

Los Angeles Personal Trainer