I need help gaining mass!

I’m 20 years old, stand 6’ tall and weigh 175lbs. My problem is that I am way too thin and can’t seem to build mass. My goal is to gain about 25lbs. Right now, my forearms are “girly” and my chest is pretty much non-existant. I’ve compared my overall measurements to the an “ideal” measurement (based on my wrist-size) and I’m lacking about two inches in both the bicep and forearm area. I’m lacking about 6 inches in the chest area. (My chest, hips, and stomach are all around 36in!) So, yes, despite how thin I am, I still have a pot belly. My neck and lower body are fine. So, I’m thinking about going on the “Skinny Bastard” diet, but I know that it won’t do much for me unless I have a good workout routine set up! So, I’d like to ask what you guys think about my routine…


I’ve been working out for about 9 months now on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The workout lasts about an hour and goes as follows: 3 sets of 10 reps of bench presses at 80lbs, 3 sets of 10 reps of chest flyes at 22.5lbs, 2 sets of 10 reps of shoulder presses at 12lbs, 2 sets of 10 reps of concentration curls at 20lbs, 2 sets of dumbell rows (for back and triceps) at 33lbs, and 2 sets of 10 reps of overhead tricep extentions at 25lbs (on the whole bar – so that’s about 12lbs per arm.) Each rep. takes about 6 seconds and I allow 45 seconds between sets for all the above listed excercises. I follow that with 50 abdominal crunches. The only suppliment I’ve been using so far is 2 does of 17g of protien powder per day. In case anyone wonders how I came up with this: I am using an adapted “core” routine from Men’s Health’s “Peak Conditioning” guide. I’m not sure if this is significant, but – I run 1.5 miles on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. So far, I have not made any significant gains – no weight change at whatsoever. The only results I’ve noted are that my chest has some slight definition, and my biceps are seem more chiseled than ususal. Any avdice would be much appreciated! I think I may actually have a testosterone problem as well. Not just because I can’t make any decent muscular advances, but because my sex drive is pretty much non-existant. (I’ve been taking Horny Goat Weed to try to remedy this condition, but it dosen’t really help.) Please don’t focus on this problem however, as I haven’t seen a doctor yet to test mt thyroid. Thanks for any advice!

Eat more food…or rather quality food. Read the articles Massive eating and foods that make you look good nekid. EAT MORE PROTEIN!!! 34g of protein isnt enough. Drop the concentration curls. Stick to compound movements. Deadlifts, Dips, pullups, chinups, bench press, squats. If you cant do pullups or dips on your own use a gravitron or settle for lat pulldowns, or find a spotter that will help your reps. If you can drop some of the running just 1 mile instead of the 1.5.
Do some more ground work on your end. Instead of coming up with the perfect routine find one here that is geared towards hypertrophy and use it.

For the 1,000,000th time… Use big weights on big lifts like squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, bentover row, olympic lifts, etc. Eat tons & tons of good food. Here’s a blender bomb post from andy’s forum: a bunch of stuff you can put in one: homogenized milk, whipping cream (>800 calories per cup!), ice cream, powdered milk, fruit, chopped nuts, molasses/syrup, brewer’s yeast, olive/flaxseed oil, yogurt, semi-boiled eggs. A good blender bomb has about 100g of protein & 1000-1200 calories & doesn’t cost a lot.

I weigh 160-165, and get around 250 g of protein per day, and am steadily gaining weight now that I record how many caloried I eat. Two doses of 17 grams of protein will not cut it. I have an extremely fast metabolism, and need 4000 plus calories a day just to maintain weight. I stayed around 150 for a long time until about 3 months ago when I started keeping track of my calories. I’m guessing that you too will have trouble gaining weight until you start recording calories and protein. It takes effort, but it’s more than worth it.