Lifting question

• mooneyfan4ever

  I know a lot of you have far more experience in this subject than myself, so I am consulting the wisdom of the new huddle.
  
  I have a lot of trouble gaining any weight at all, ever. I'm 6'1" 163 lbs and with my school schedule changing soon, will have significantly more time to spend working out. I want to start lifting, (did it a little in high school for track, never got too serious) and I want to put on some size/weight. Could anyone point me to a reliable source, or give me some information on what lifts to do (sets/reps) and what I could do about diet and nutrition to give me an advantageous situation? Thanks for the help in advance.
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  Eat, eat, then eat again, and again. Get 1g of protein per lbs of bodywieght you have or wan t o reach. Say 190 or 200 for you......
  
  Do lifts that hit your major muscle groups. Bench/Incline, Pullups, Squats, Press, you know, the basics....
  
  Don't spend more than an hour in the gym. Keep rest b/t sets to no more than a minute. Keep record of the wt. you lift and add weight every week. Never do the same exact workouts for too long.
  
  
  Keep cardio to a minmium b/c you don't want to burn the calories you need to build muscle.
  
  Eat every 3 hrs. Don't let yourself get hungry.......
  
  Keep saturated fat below 20 grams/day though. You don't want to gain fat, just muscle
  
  Creatine and protein shakes, maybe even a weightgainer if you can't consume enough calories from food, you can drink those extra calories, easier to digest...
  
  Nutrition is as important as lifting whenyou are trying to pack on muscle. Also, 8 hrs of sleep a night is clutch too.....
• Gblock

  dont do any cardio, lift heavy weights low reps, lots of core lifting such as deadlifting and such, down a couple raw eggs in the morning or find other ways to get more calories and protien. i wouldnt waste money on all the protien shakes, and supplements and all that you get what you need from your diet and most of it just stresses out your liver and also just ends up being undigested. basically lift everyday and you should get bigger in my experience. make sure you lift to failure on your last reps.
• baseballstud24

  Protein...Protein...Protein! I was 150 when I graduated and I shot up to 170 in 2 months to go with lifting. Now I'm almost to 190 and I'm getting fat because I quit lifting...In my prime though...Protein and lifting put the pounds on me
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  Measure your waist and weigh yourself before you start and record it. If you gain weight but your waist stays the same size your gaining muscle not fat. Some gyms have a hand held body fat measurement thingy you can use instead. You can make sure the wt. you're gaining isn't fat that way too.....
  
  If your waist is growing cut back on the fat and calories a little.
  
  It takes a little experimentation to figure out what diet works best for you.
• UA5straightin2008

  

  taking a whey protein supplement within the first 30 min after your workout works well with recovery and muscle fiber growth...also depending on your morals/rules you need to follow, you could always take supplements like NO explode or creatine that will make you pretty big pretty fast
• Con_Alma

  Big muscles are the easiest to add to. Don't alienate those quads and glutes.
• UA5straightin2008

  

  ^^true that, hit the squat rack
• Thunder70

  

  www.bodybuilding.com is pretty nice for beginners.
  
  My suggestion is to eat, eat, eat and read, read, read....
• Thunder70

  

  UA5straightin2008 wrote: taking a whey protein supplement within the first 30 min after your workout works well with recovery and muscle fiber growth...also depending on your morals/rules you need to follow, you could always take supplements like NO explode or creatine that will make you pretty big pretty fast

  Make sure you increase your water intake if you plan on taking creatine...
• sleeper

  

  stronglifts.com
• stickfighter

  GOMAD
  
  Gallon Of Milk A Day, Mark Riptoe is a big believer that GOMAD will add the weight and size.
• Bigred1995

  

  My advice for you would be to ignore everyone around you when you're in the gym (if you'll be doing your lifting at the gym) and concentrate only on what you're lifting and how you're progressing! So many beginners start out expecting to lift a ton, compare themselves to people around them and quickly become discouraged when they don't meet some sort of lofty goals; so they give up or get hurt.
  
  good luck and have fun!
• UA5straightin2008

  

  Thunder70 wrote:

  UA5straightin2008 wrote: taking a whey protein supplement within the first 30 min after your workout works well with recovery and muscle fiber growth...also depending on your morals/rules you need to follow, you could always take supplements like NO explode or creatine that will make you pretty big pretty fast

  Make sure you increase your water intake if you plan on taking creatine...

  yes definitely or you will cramp like a mofo and cry like a girl
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  Another important techinique if you want to maximize growth is the speed with which you perform a repitition.....
  
  Explode up, 2 sec, and let the weight down slowly, 4 sec......Repeat.
  
  Check out Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Lot's of Info. in there.
• allstar

  Ask NCF, he can leg press the most of anyone I know.
• GOONx19

  

  StrengthEngine.com will set up your whole workout for you, week by week.
• I Wear Pants

  Gblock wrote: dont do any cardio, lift heavy weights low reps, lots of core lifting such as deadlifting and such, down a couple raw eggs in the morning or find other ways to get more calories and protien. i wouldnt waste money on all the protien shakes, and supplements and all that you get what you need from your diet and most of it just stresses out your liver and also just ends up being undigested. basically lift everyday and you should get bigger in my experience. make sure you lift to failure on your last reps.

  Not doing cardio is a bad idea.
• Thunder70

  

  always do some type of cardio...its good for your heart...
• Sonofanump

  allstar wrote: Ask NCF, he can leg press the most of anyone I know.

  But just 1th time.
• Doodle3451

  http://myfitspace.com/forums/ has some good all around information, training,diet,supplements ect... . It's sponsored by the guys who own MusclePharm.com...Cory g, he also owns Oldschool gym in Pataskala Ohio and I have seen great results from his workouts...Here is his youtube page where he demonstrates many of his workouts.. http://www.youtube.com/user/corygt3
• queencitybuckeye

  I Wear Pants wrote:
  
  Not doing cardio is a bad idea.

  Unless you want to become a really buff unhealthy person.
• GOONx19

  

  ccrunner609 wrote: One poster mentioned heavy weights and low reps......that is completely wrong. Building muscle is Lower weight, higher reps.
  
  Make sure that you are giving your muscles full recovery between days of use. Tear that muscle down and let it grow back bigger before ripping it down again.
  
  I always did a routine where I had 4 days break between using any specific group. 100+ reps per session per muscle group using sets of 12-15 reps and at least 3 different lifts to hit those muscles.
  
  You have to switch up your lifts to get your muscle to respond, you have to change up your hand positions do hit the complete muscle.

  Low weight/high reps gets you cut and prevents injury. The muscles with the most growth potential, however, are best stimulated by high weight/low reps. For building mass, most sources suggest a multi-week cycle; something that varies in difficulty, such as: medium, hard, medium hard, very hard, easy. Easy would of course be low weight/high reps and very hard would be highest weight/low reps.
• Strapping Young Lad

  

  Don't worry about low reps high weight or that crap. You've got to meet a certain volume of reps, depending on the muscle group. 10-12 reps is where you wanna be, a little higher for legs 12-15.
• Thunder70

  

  Some of the suggestions are funny. I'll just leave it at that...