Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders, hand weights & Water polo...

[alx_fitness]

Good day,
I play water polo / swimming 4 times a week, running 2-3 times a week and work out at home 3-4 times a week (various sets of Push-ups, pull-ups & ab crunches).
Overall I'm well built and in good health.

I recently bought a pair of adjustable hand weights that can be a Min of 3kg to a Max of 15kg.
My goal is to increase the muscle mass and volume of my biceps, triceps, shoulders & chest without having to go to the Gym or use steroids & other extras...

What is the best strategy that I should follow:

1.Increase the weight of the hand weights and do less repeats for each set of specialized exercises for the biceps, triceps & shoulders 3 times a week?

Or..

2.Decrease the weight of the hand weights and do more repeats for each set of specialized exercises for the biceps, triceps & shoulders 3 times a week?

Do I have to increase the amount of daily protein / meat that I consume? At the moment I eat red meat 1-2 times a week and the rest of the week, I have a balanced Mediterranean diet, dairy products, carbohydrates, salads, seafood, etc...

I have little experience with weights so any help or other suggestions will be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

[woodstock]

try muscle confusion. you know doing different workouts to avoid the plateau effect.

[alx_fitness]

I prefer to work in a 5-8 rep range. So go heavier, fewer reps, 3x/week.

Protein within an hour after you workout

Thanks!
Exactly how many kilos should I do for biceps, triceps & shoulder exercises?
At the moment for biceps / triceps, I can do 6kg hand-weights 12-15 reps x 5sets, 3x / week.
Should I go higher with the weights?

[alx_fitness]

try muscle confusion. you know doing different workouts to avoid the plateau effect.

Thanks!
What's the plateau effect by the way?
Should I combine biceps, triceps, shoulder, chest & other exercises in one day by the way?

[alx_fitness]

Thank you all so much for all the info!
I think these will do just fine for the moment...

A few more queries:

Also, when I do chin-ups, is it best for the biceps work-out, to have the palms close to each other (facing my face), wider apart on the same vertical axis as my shoulders, or even wider, when I'm pulling up?

When they say that I have to work & train on my "core" (which is the part of my body that stabilizes the rest of my body), do they mean the muscles around my spinal column or the chest?

Two bodybuilders that own the shop I buy my weights from, suggested that in order to gain muscle mass/volume much faster, I should also consume daily for 1.5 months, 160gr (80gr before lunch & 80gr after my evening workout before going to bed) of the following protein supplement and combined with 3gr of creatine powder (daily) before my workout, to increase strength and to be able to workout more time.

All Stars Whey-Plex WPC-80
http://www.bodybuildingwarehouse.co.uk/ ... 2548-p.asp

All-Stars Creatin Pur
http://www.sport-tiedje.com/allstars/na ... tinpur.htm

So are these products any good?

I’ve never used any protein supplements or creatine before. Are there any health risks involved? Generally I don’t have any health problems, but should I ask physician before I start using them?

Also, there seems to be a confusion of whether more kilos / less reps is ideal for increasing muscle mass/volume and less kilos / more reps is ideal for definition / toning your muscles or the exact opposite:

High Reps for "Muscle Tone" BAD Advice!

http://fitnessblackbook.com/muscle_tone ... ad-advice/

I’ve asked 10 different people who have been doing weights for years (all very well built-up) and surprisingly, they had 2 different opinions on the matter. Half said that more kilos / less reps is ideal to increase muscle mass / volume & the other half said that less kilos / more reps is the best way to increase muscle mass / volume.

So what is the case then?

Thanks in advance