I have 4 monthes to bring up my shoulders and tone the legs up before my next fitness competition. I need some nutrition and training tips to help me. By the way i have never been over 18% bodyfat and weigh 130lbs at 5’9. No matter what i eat i never seem to gain weight. Good and bad i geuss. Please help me add the mass. Any tips would be appreciated.
For legs, have you looked into Ian King’s method of splitting leg training? See “The Ian King Cheat Sheets” for more info. This has always worked well for me.
For shoulders, Ian has also written some specialaization programs in his column. Check the FAQ section. They link a few of these in there.
Diet wise, have you tried adding liquid meals between regular meals? This is about the only way some people can fit in the calories needed for mass gains. Also, I’d skip the thermos while trying to add mass, at least in the first few months. Maybe you can add them in if needed in the last month. You may also want to tell us what kind of training and diet you’re doing now and maybe we can spot the problem.
I just got done helping someone who also had the “I eat and eat and eat and am never able to gain weight” problem. She was working out with weights 5-days a week and after looking at some pages of her food log, saw that she was eating no more than 1160 calories a day. She was pretty lean already, too. She was practically expending MORE calories than she was consuming. May I suggest you begin a food log. Figure out how many calories a day you are consuming - you should be eating ABOVE your daily expenditure.
Do what TEK suggests: STOP the thermos. Make sure you are consuming enough protein. WHAT is your training regimen like now? If you are doing fitness, more than likely the weight trianing is not as important right now as the planning/training for your routine. With the amount of tumbling/gymnastics in a typical fitness routine, you'll be receiving ALOT of leg training - which would incur muscular development (i.e. "tone") in the legs. However, you'll still need to weight train 'em. BUT by adding the routine training regimen, that will expend MORE calories. Just a thought.
But do read the FAQ for the exercise tips. Lot's of good stuff there.
My thighs have taken a new life with two things. Upping the intensity of bike training, doing more all out effort with it, and seperating my lower body training into two days, Squats and leg curls; Stiff deads and extensions
My current favorite shoulder exercise works the entire shoulder, is a compound movement, and accordingly, really kicks the heart into action. It is a hang clean, followed by an overhead press, using a barbell. Does anybody know if this exercise has a more proper name? Help me out here. You can set up for these quickly using a standard flat bench press, with the bar on the lowest pegs. While straddling the bench, facing the bar, you can pick up the bar, back up a bit, clean it to your shoulders, then press it over head, lower it to your shoulders slowly, then lower it back to the hanging position slowly. Try a search on hang clean for possible illustrations.
When I was in college and had trouble gaining weight I would take a vitamin b-complex pill before each meal and it increased my appetite tremendously. I also made sure I took in 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. 4x during the day I would drink protein powder mixed in milk and have one before bedtime with some peanut butter. I ate four regular meals also. This may be too basic of advice for you because it sounds like you have been lifting for a while but what works best for my shoulders are seated military presses with dumbells and side lateral raises. Upright rows work well for me also but they cause pain in my forearms. I may try doing those with dumbells in the future. For legs Ian King’s “Limping into October, November, and December” They are part of a twelve week program.
Here are the links:
Good luck.
I see alot of tips on the leg training here. However, w/out seeing you (and a visual perspective is important when talking about fitness competitions - NOT just bodybuilding), really can’t get a proper idea of where you’re at now. So, I ask questions to see if I can get some numbers: What is your level of BF% now? You have four months - now that would leave you about one month to put on some more mass in weak spots and then you have 3-months of contest prep. During contest prep, you are bound to lose “some” mass. This is all dependent upon how much BF you have now. And IS this fitness? Or figure? Different competitions have different BF requirements: Bodybbuilders will be the leanest, Fitness will be lean to leaner, Figure not so much leanness but shape is the issue.
So, at this point, four months out from a contest, I would definitely stick to the weight training basics. Nothing fancy. Just pure "heavy" (but remember guys, this is for Fitness/Figure - TOO much muscle will be a detriment) - compound movements.
SO...what are you eating now? What's your training regimen like?
I always get questions about my delts, and the only real ‘trick’ I’ve stumbled on is that I do laterals before I do presses. I guess I’m naturally strong, but with all the assistance muscles, I could never be sure the stress when compeltely to my delts. Now I do seated laterals (pretty slowly), and then eiether DB presses, or smith machine militaries. After that, my arms feel like they want to raise on their own!
I just call it the clean & press. I think it becomes a clean & jerk if you cheat on the press.