Interested in Gaining Muscle

Training Beginners
1

Hey guys, this is my first post here on T-Nation. Even though I havent posted, I am typically on the site daily reading.

I am not new to lifting, but havent lifted in a while. I was formally in the Air Force and, while it is no excuse, I just let me training slip away from me, dealing with deployments and being married and all.

However, I have just started lifting again about 6 months ago and I am not sure about my progression. My strength has increased significantly, even though I still have a long ways to go, but I feel I am lacking in overall muscle size.

Some quick stats, Im 5’11", 193lbs, 24 years old, 35" waist (including love handles), 16" calves, 16.5" arms, and thats about all I really know how to measure.

I guess I just dont know what to do in the form of training, considering where I am at now. My biggest fear is that I will train “hard” for a year and look exactly like I do now. I want to be as efficient as possible, and my goal is to put on as much muscle mass as possible with minimal fat gains.

Right now, I am not interested in losing body fat, just interested in gaining muscle. Maybe next spring I will try and lose some.

Anyways, what should I do. Should I try and get more lean, before I try to get big? Or should I start bulking and trying to eat alot (per one article on this site, I should be eating around 4300 cals a day). Also, what kind of training might suite my body type best as a beginner?

Here is a quick pic, I will continue to add some more pics and comments shortly.

2

Chest, not good, I dont see any improvements in it over the past 6 months, what gives? Is this just a part that is hard to stimulate and build for some people, or do I just suck at it?

3

Back, unflexed obviously. This is where I have seen my greatest improvement.

4

Flexed (I really dont know how to pose or anything, thats not the point though haha)

5


Pathetic side view

6

Calves, I train them hard, they just dont seem to grow much, and I made the mistake of always neglecting legs in the past.

Once again, I dont know how to flex, this is just trying to flex my calves a little.

7


More legs

8

Bi’s

9


Tri’s (kinda)

10

Most people on this site would probably recommend cutting first if your goal is to look more muscular and fit. Then you can bulk when you are more lean because no matter what you do, you will gain some fat when you bulk.

Also bulking is more effective on a lean person because there body absorbs nutrients more efficiently. If you have lost strength from when you used to lift a good amount of your muscle should rebound even on a diet.

I’m just saying it would suck to put back on some muscle and not be able to see it cuz of a bit of excess body fat. you might as well cut a 2 or 3 months to take full advante of a bulking cycle.

11

Ok, so here is what my training looks like so far.

For the first 2 months, I trained 2 muscle groups a day, twice a week. After doing that for a while, I learned a bit about overtraining, and was afraid that I was falling victim to that (I was doing 6-7 excersises per muscle group, 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps). Then I went to training one muscle group a day, once a week with weekends off.

Now I am back to traing 2 groups a day, here is what it looks like:

Monday - Back and Bi’s
Deadlifts
Barbell Rows
Pull Ups
Standing Dumbell Curls
Incline Dumbell Curls
Low cable row

Tuesday - Chest and Tri’s
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
Incline Dumbell Press
Close Grip Bench
Tricep Press Down
Reverse Grip press (pull) downs

Wednesday - Legs and Shoulders
Squats
Shoulder Press
Calve Raises (standing)
Leg extensions
Upright Rows
Side Lat Raises
Seated Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Shrugs

Thursday off

Then repeat

My diet isnt good, as far as limiting carbs and fats, but its not horrible either. I want to build some good muscle before I start concentrating on cleaning up my diet, though I am trying to clean it up along the way.

I supplement with Surge, Flameout, ON Whey, ZMA, occassionally creatine.

I hope this doesnt come off as a blog, and it definately isnt for any rate my physique stuff, I just want some honest opinions on what I need to concentrate on, maybe how some of you vets think I should train (total body, splits) and what not.

12

Looking at more of your pics you wouldnt have to diet for long to be cut up, but if you really wanna just gain strength you could just bulk but don’t go nuts and keep the foods clean.

13

[quote]StolyElit wrote:
Most people on this site would probably recommend cutting first if your goal is to look more muscular and fit. Then you can bulk when you are more lean because no matter what you do, you will gain some fat when you bulk.

Also bulking is more effective on a lean person because there body absorbs nutrients more efficiently. If you have lost strength from when you used to lift a good amount of your muscle should rebound even on a diet. I’m just saying it would suck to put back on some muscle and not be able to see it cuz of a bit of excess body fat. you might as well cut a 2 or 3 months to take full advante of a bulking cycle.[/quote]

This is were my dilema sits. I may just have a distorted view of myself, but I feel that I am carrying too much body fat and that I should try to lose some (alot), but then when I am around others I feel that I may be too small.

I guess I am afraid of cutting and losing muscle mass, but at the same time I am not sure how much mass I have because it is covered with fat haha. Thats why I am asking you guys here at T-Nation, some outsiders who dont see me everyday and can give me non biased opinions.

14

[quote]StolyElit wrote:
Looking at more of your pics you wouldnt have to diet for long to be cut up, but if you really wanna just gain strength you could just bulk but don’t go nuts and keep the foods clean.[/quote]

Yeah I really want to gain strength and size equally, I dont want to look big and not be able to lift much, and I also dont want to be able to lift a ton without looking big. I know looks dont matter a whole lot to some people, but they do to me.

I want to bulk, and then I was considering the V-diet, in February or so. However, I dont want to bulk if I need to get lean first. Thats what I am having a hard time understanding. I just want to maximize the results of my efforts in the gym, while trying to learn to eat right and form better eating habbits.

15

Welcome to T-Nation, smithers.

I think your initial goal to get bigger is a good one. In my development, I tried to cut before I put on any serious muscle, and I think this made it slow and unimpressive.

Also, I think gaining size and strength is more fun and rewarding during the early stages of lifting, because you get to see your poundages fly up while you’re dealing with the natural viscisitudes of eating several times a day and making it to the gym frequently.

I hear you when you say [quote]My biggest fear is that I will train “hard” for a year and look exactly like I do now[/quote] because I’ve been there and I’ve done that. The main thing to prevent that is to have a goal and acheive it.

It gives focus to your training, and it gives a sense of accomplishment at it’s completion, setting you up to set larger and more challenging goals. A sweet circle, if you will.

Because you’re a beginner, just about anything will work. My recommendation is Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. Some forum vet put together a sweet thread called “Starting Strength: The guide” which contains the program as well as a bunch of comments on it by those who’ve used it.

It’s point is to get you strong in the main lifts and develop a firm foundation of size and strength from which you can switch once you have a better picture of your long term goals (BB, PL, OL, HG, Skiing, whatever).

As far as diet, when eating for size, conventional wisdom suggests current weight x20 in calories, with you getting AT LEAST your pounds of bodyweight in grams of protein (for you it’d be about 200). More is probably better. The rest should be from healthy carbohydrates (whole wheat, oats, fruits) and fats (steak, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, avocado, salmon).

Read the beginner stickies, especially Vroom’s “Are You A Beginner II”- he indexed many important articles on training and nutrition that would behoove you to read. He’s also got some stuff on forum ettiquette that might come in handy.

Glad to have you here, and good luck!

16

Wow, thanks for the good reply.

Yeah, I read every article I can get my hands on from this site, I guess I am just having a more difficult time visualizing how it is suppose to work. I guess like most beginners, I am too worried about the details, thats why I made this post. I will give that a article a read.

17

Otep pretty much covered everything, although I will add that if you like your current routine and feel like you can make progress (add weight to your exercises regularly) then it actually looks fairly decent.

Good call on wanting to gain muscle first, I think that’s a mature decision that we don’t see very much around this part of the forum.

Good luck!