Help Gaining Weight.

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I need help gaining weight. Im 16 years old. I play hockey 5 times a week. I have been doing light exercises for the past year ( pushups, situps, etc.) and have made some pretty good gains in that year. 30 lb and 2% drop in bodyfat from 8% to 6%. I am now 170- 175 lb. I have weight trainign in school and i am restricted to workign out monday-thursday for 40 minutes. These past two months i have greatly increased my intensity levels of my workouts.

I have had decent strenght gains but barely any muscle mass. My friends told me about creatine, so i did some research online and decided to give it a try. I just finished the loading phase and still don’t see any gains. I eat about 4000 cals aday + about 150g of protein. I would like to gain at least 10-15 pounds before the season starts in 8 weeks. I would appreciate any advice, tips, anything. thanks.

2

Patience. Keep doing what you are doing, just be patient. With what you are doing, gains will not come overnight, but they will come. You have gained weight, added size. Your body is changing. You are sixteen for cryin’ out loud.

Just. Be. Patient.

3

it just seems wierd to me when i was doing low intensity exercises i gained a good amount of weight for those types of exercises and now when i highly increased my intensity it seems like im not gainign any mass…and the question on creatine. how long should it take for me to feel the effect of it?

4

it just seems wierd to me when i was doing low intensity exercises i gained a good amount of weight for those types of exercises and now when i highly increased my intensity it seems like im not gainign any mass…and the question on creatine. how long should it take for me to feel the effect of it?

5

[quote]hokejka wrote:
I need help gaining weight. Im 16 years old. I play hockey 5 times a week. I have been doing light exercises for the past year ( pushups, situps, etc.) and have made some pretty good gains in that year. 30 lb and 2% drop in bodyfat from 8% to 6%. I am now 170- 175 lb. I have weight trainign in school and i am restricted to workign out monday-thursday for 40 minutes. These past two months i have greatly increased my intensity levels of my workouts.

I have had decent strenght gains but barely any muscle mass. My friends told me about creatine, so i did some research online and decided to give it a try. I just finished the loading phase and still don’t see any gains. I eat about 4000 cals aday + about 150g of protein. I would like to gain at least 10-15 pounds before the season starts in 8 weeks. I would appreciate any advice, tips, anything. thanks.[/quote]

Here’s one tip. If you gain 10-15 lbs in 8 weeks, it won’t be all muscle. The most you will probably gain is 5 lbs and thats stretching it… the rest of that weight will be non muscular such as fat, water, etc… etc…

did you really gain 30lbs from doing push ups? C’mon man… maybe you hit a growth spurt. I shot up 35 lbs in a year and never touched a weight… puberty.

6

yes sir. 30lb of muscle. no height gains. pushups, situps, and 1 pair of dumbells.

7

[quote]hokejka wrote:
it just seems wierd to me when i was doing low intensity exercises i gained a good amount of weight for those types of exercises and now when i highly increased my intensity it seems like im not gainign any mass…and the question on creatine. how long should it take for me to feel the effect of it?[/quote]

Could it be that now doing high intensity you havent upped the intake to follow the intensity?? So your working harder doing more damage and burning more but not upping the intake intensity to fill the need??

8

that’s true. my diet has pretty much stayed the same, i just added about 20 grams of pretein. This past week i also added creatine, which i was quite sure would add almost instant mass.

9

how tall are you, and what does your diet look like? What does your weight training program look like?

10

[quote]hokejka wrote:
that’s true. my diet has pretty much stayed the same, i just added about 20 grams of pretein. This past week i also added creatine, which i was quite sure would add almost instant mass.[/quote]

Thre is the problem BINGO. More work same food = no growth very possible regression due to lack of enough nutrients. Better to do less work rest and eat more. Or do the right thing up the intensity and up the intake to match.

Sure the creatine may have added some extra hydration but it aint food. it wont give you the energy and nutrients needed.

eat more or work less you choose.

11

It’s simple when it comes to gaining mass, even w/o creatine. If you weigh 150 lbs you need to eat like a 200 lber to gain mass, if you weigh 200 lbs you need to eat like a 250 lber to gain mass.

You gotta portion out your meals right, via eating less in one sitting but eating way more often throughout the day. Also, keep the calories high and the protein high. The harder you push your self in the gym, the more you gotta eat and supplement properly to recovery and build new muscle.

Remember your pretty young and it’s not gonna happen quickly, just stick w/the basics and don’t give up. Good luck to you.

12

For me a sample day would look like…
FOOD.

BREAKFAST
-Pack of cinnamon rolls 1200 cals. 16g protein
-1 scoop whey 300 cals. 30g protein

POST WORKOUT
-myoplex protein RTD 300 cals. 43g protein

LUNCH
-Turkey sandwhich 600 cals 30g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

SNACK
-Protein bar 150 cals 15g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

DINNER

  • 1 chiken breats w/ pasta 750 cals 60g protein

BEFORE BED
-1 scoop whey 300 cals 30g protein

TOTAL 4100 cals 220g protein

That is just a sample. i don’t keep track of calories and i usually eat somethign different for breakfeast lunch and dinner everyday. I workout about an hour after breakfeast, so my workouts are always early in the day. everyother week i have an extra day to workout. so 1 week i work out mon. - fri. then the other mon- thurs. then mon- fri. so i schedule my routine based on two weeks.
EX.

Monday
-deltoids-Military Press 12x3 Lateral Raise 10x3
-biceps-Hammer curls 10x3 Barbell curls 10x3

Tuesday
-chest-Bench Press 8x5
-triceps-French Press 12x3 Cable Extensions 10x3

Wednesday
-Legs-Squat 10x5
-back-Front pulldown 15x3 Cable Row 10x3

Thursday
-deltoids …
-biceps …

Friday
-chest …
-triceps…

For weeks when i can only workout 4 days a weeks I eliminate my Wednesday workout.

13

[quote]hokejka wrote:
For me a sample day would look like…
FOOD.

BREAKFAST
-Pack of cinnamon rolls 1200 cals. 16g protein
-1 scoop whey 300 cals. 30g protein

POST WORKOUT
-myoplex protein RTD 300 cals. 43g protein

LUNCH
-Turkey sandwhich 600 cals 30g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

SNACK
-Protein bar 150 cals 15g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

DINNER

  • 1 chiken breats w/ pasta 750 cals 60g protein

BEFORE BED
-1 scoop whey 300 cals 30g protein

TOTAL 4100 cals 220g protein

That is just a sample. i don’t keep track of calories and i usually eat somethign different for breakfeast lunch and dinner everyday. I workout about an hour after breakfeast, so my workouts are always early in the day. everyother week i have an extra day to workout. so 1 week i work out mon. - fri. then the other mon- thurs. then mon- fri. so i schedule my routine based on two weeks.
EX.

Monday
-deltoids-Military Press 12x3 Lateral Raise 10x3
-biceps-Hammer curls 10x3 Barbell curls 10x3

Tuesday
-chest-Bench Press 8x5
-triceps-French Press 12x3 Cable Extensions 10x3

Wednesday
-Legs-Squat 10x5
-back-Front pulldown 15x3 Cable Row 10x3

Thursday
-deltoids …
-biceps …

Friday
-chest …
-triceps…

For weeks when i can only workout 4 days a weeks I eliminate my Wednesday workout.

[/quote]

ok, your macros are way off. How are you getting 60g of protein out of a chicken breast and pasta?

what type of turkey sandwhich is 600 calories? cinn. roles in the morning are 1200 calories? first off, ditch those. When i started gaining i always would down a big shake in the morning, and a meal a few hours later. In the shake, i would throw in a 1/2 cup oatmeal, few cups milk, few scoops protein, and a couple tbsp of peanut butter.

If you want to gain, you have to make good food choices, but you also need to eat calorie dense foods if getting a lot of calories is rough for you. Pasta, whole milk, PB and nuts are all good calorie dense foods.

If you’re not gaining, you’re not eating enough.

14

and you’re only working your legs once a week? You don’t need to be working out 5 days a week either. and are you doing 3 sets of 15 reps? or 15 sets of 3?

in either case, after a few weeks of lifting with higher reps to get used to it, you need to increase the weight and lower the reps.

You don’t need an arm day. stick to compound movements and read stuff on this site.

15

let me just say… well done on gaining 30 pounds while loseing fat other than that just eat like you do only more of it and dont skip legs

16

Thanks for the advice. I tried keeping my diet as clean as possible, but i never knew of anythign i could eat, which was simple, had a lot, of carbs, other than cinnamon rolls. And yes the whole pack has 1200 cals. For the turkey sandwhich I make 2 sandwhiches. For the chiken breast, I make a LOT of pasta.

Yes I was doing 3 sets of 15 reps. Should I keep it under 10??

I’m not doing a lot of legs because I play hockey 5 times a week, so I figured my legs get drained there + i don’t have much time to workout at school anyways (around 40 min).

This morning I ate 5 egg whites, a cup of oatmeal and 1 scoop whey. This would be alot less cals. but a much better food choice.

17

[quote]hokejka wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I tried keeping my diet as clean as possible, but i never knew of anythign i could eat, which was simple, had a lot, of carbs, other than cinnamon rolls. And yes the whole pack has 1200 cals. For the turkey sandwhich I make 2 sandwhiches. For the chiken breast, I make a LOT of pasta.

Yes I was doing 3 sets of 15 reps. Should I keep it under 10??

I’m not doing a lot of legs because I play hockey 5 times a week, so I figured my legs get drained there + i don’t have much time to workout at school anyways (around 40 min).

This morning I ate 5 egg whites, a cup of oatmeal and 1 scoop whey. This would be alot less cals. but a much better food choice.

[/quote]

Id say read up on diet. You dont want to be just bigger and stronger but healthy right live a few years. its not that hard once you grasp it. Its just about making wise choices you know whats good for you and what isnt. Go dense still just from better source good fats, sweet taters etc.

these should help
7 Habit
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

Foods That Make You Look Good Nekid
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460638

Legs I kind of agree you can not do as much for legs since you are playing hockey so much but I would say go hard and heavy one day a week. heavy as in 5 rep or so. mainly strength based as your doing a ton of endurance type work and speed work with the skating. Lookl at west side for skinny bastards its for atheletes and has just one leg day due tpo the abundance of other sport specific activity. Your going to want to make that day count big compounds.

OK that breakfast. to get it closer to the K/cal amount have 5 whole eggs, add a few nuts to that oat meal, and maybe use milk in the whey. Then your right up there with your previous meal in terms of total k/cal intake but from healthy choices.

Best of luck
Phill

18

[quote]hokejka wrote:
For me a sample day would look like…
FOOD.

BREAKFAST
-Pack of cinnamon rolls 1200 cals. 16g protein
-1 scoop whey 300 cals. 30g protein

POST WORKOUT
-myoplex protein RTD 300 cals. 43g protein

LUNCH
-Turkey sandwhich 600 cals 30g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

SNACK
-Protein bar 150 cals 15g protein
-Fruit 200 cals

DINNER

  • 1 chiken breats w/ pasta 750 cals 60g protein

BEFORE BED
-1 scoop whey 300 cals 30g protein

TOTAL 4100 cals 220g protein

That is just a sample. i don’t keep track of calories and i usually eat somethign different for breakfeast lunch and dinner everyday. I workout about an hour after breakfeast, so my workouts are always early in the day. everyother week i have an extra day to workout. so 1 week i work out mon. - fri. then the other mon- thurs. then mon- fri. so i schedule my routine based on two weeks.
EX.

Monday
-deltoids-Military Press 12x3 Lateral Raise 10x3
-biceps-Hammer curls 10x3 Barbell curls 10x3

Tuesday
-chest-Bench Press 8x5
-triceps-French Press 12x3 Cable Extensions 10x3

Wednesday
-Legs-Squat 10x5
-back-Front pulldown 15x3 Cable Row 10x3

Thursday
-deltoids …
-biceps …

Friday
-chest …
-triceps…

For weeks when i can only workout 4 days a weeks I eliminate my Wednesday workout.

[/quote]

I would like to say congratulations on reading T-Nation at the age of 16, as well as for following any type of routine and learning anything about nutrition at your age. In my opinion, you are leaps and bounds ahead of your peers who eat cheeseburgers, fries and pizza and do bench and curls five days per week.

That being said, I feel you do have room for improvement. I recommend Joe DeFranco’s WSSB routine. You can find it here.

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/articles.htm

This program works well for athletes who are working their legs during their sport quite often.

Some other advice:

  1. Lift three or four days per week instead of five. The combination of your youth (and high metabolism), weight training and sport are burning up a lot of energy.

  2. Focus on gaining strength on big, basic compound exercises rather than pumping out lots of volume on isolation exercises.

  3. Consume even more calories. Drink “get big shakes.” Fill up a blender full of milk, oats, whey protein, fruit, yogurt, nuts, honey, flax oil, etc., and drink it throughout the day every day without letting it decrease the amount of calories you are eating each day. It can add a couple thousand calories to your diet per day.

19

Thanks alot guys. I really appreciate the input. I am going to try and tune my diet and training and update this post…this may sounds like a stupi question but can you take creatine with milk?

20

You could replace those cinnamon rolls with oats, they have a much lower impact on blood sugar, and would add alot of fiber to your diet. Toss in some raisins or something for even more good carbs. Oats have the added benefit of being incredibly cheap, so you can eat tons and tons.

Add in some simple (sugary) carbs with that protein post-workout. It will help with recovery. Or just buy Surge, which is about the best PWO ever.

You might also mix that before-bed meal with some milk to slow digestion. Whey absorbs very fast normally. I personally eat cottage cheese 30-60 minutes before bed.

That’s the obvious stuff I can see. Good luck man, keep reading and asking questions!

-Sab