15 years old? I’m impressed.
here’s the gist of it all:
SQUAT (barbell, smith machines suck-try to have the top of the knee break parallel w/ the crease of your hip joint)
DEADLIFT
EAT
STRETCH
EAT
SLEEP (often overlooked by younger trainers)
EAT
ditch any exercise that involves a smith machine, a cable, hammer strength,etc, stick to the basics-if your still not sure what that means read BRAWN by stuart mcrobert.
EAT some more. while i think berardi is an absolute genious, you probably don’t need to be that exacting with your diet. your probably leaner than you realize but you need some size for that to show up. EAT some more. the old school bodybuilders and powerlifters i know would laugh at a bagel on a cheat day. a cheat day is getting kicked out of a pizza place or chinese buffet. feel free to PM me. now go EAT
By what?
I’m waiting for patricia to reply about reps/sets right now. I’m trying to eat more, I’m currently P+C loading after lifting, gonna start in on the P+F at about 8 tonight and continue that till sleep.
Also, I wonder if I’m expecting too much. When I say no results, I mean that I would like to get ripped. I have muscle definition now, just not as much as I would like. Are these unrealistic goals?
I’ll try and get some pics up, but I’m afraid my mom (owner of camera) would be like “Oh my god! My son is a porn star! AAHH!”
Try doing 8x3 (Eight Sets of 3 Reps)
You need to have muscle first before there can be any muscular definition.
And that means you do need to pick up your calories. Listen, I’ve had several friends who were anorexic. But they overcame. One is now a strongwoman. So, it can be done. You just have to sit down and really think about what you want to accomplish.
Here’s what you posted initially:
This tells me that you need to gain muscle. It’s not about “eating the correct things” now. But about getting you to eat the necessary calories so that your body can begin to go into a hypertrophy mode. You’ve got to realize this now.
What Kraigy said you could try: 8x3. Maybe, so that you don’t kill yourself, begin with 5 sets first. You can try various set schemes like a 6x4, 4x6, even the 8x3. There’s no rule, like a “you must only perform this many sets”. Remember, you have the rest of your life to play around with this. To modify where needed.
All that’s important right now is to get you eating MORE and to train HEAVIER. And to also RECOVER so that you GAIN.
Alright, thanks. I’m currently doing like 5 sets, but reps vary from 10-1.
I get consumed by urges for impromptu cardio, but no longer because I feel fat etc. I mixed myself up a little shake thing, and I guess the sugar in the berries got to me or something, I started dancing around my house, which led to box jumps on the stairs, which led to figure eights on the street, which led to a twenty minute HIIT session with hills and what not. Maybe i’d be better off going back to being a skinny runner. 
Thanks for the help everyone. I’ll remember: EAT.
I can’t wait to get those pictures up now. You guys will all be like “AH! It’s a skinny white kid!”
It’s probably a bad thing that I can count vertebra(e?) in my spine when I do the praying mantis on a swiss ball.
As far as how much weight to lift.
You being able to do multiple sets of 20 is not what were talking here. I would say get the weight up into the 80% of 1RM range or higher. Follow the set/rep advice of Patricia and others.
You talk about wanting to get ripped. Most likely you have been reading all the mags and articles that tout about using super high rep sets, and training to failure, etc… While this can work to a point, you need to mix it up. By changing it up and training as suggested, HEAVY and HARD, you are going to add a great deal of strength, and a hell of a base. This then will lead to greater gains when you switch it up. You will be able to move more weight when doing higher rep work which will lead to faster gains.
So, what I am getting @ is stick to the above advice for a while. Train heavy and get strong as hell, (and bigger) then worry about cycling in the higher rep stuff later.
Eating. It is just something you are going to have to work on from a mental aspect. If you want to add muscle you are going to have to load that plate.
Then the cardio issue you have with food. While cardio is great and has it’s place, you are just defeating the purpose of loading your plate, if everytime you do so you go out and [quote] I started dancing around my house, which led to box jumps on the stairs, which led to figure eights on the street, which led to a twenty minute HIIT session with hills and what not.[/quote] You need to rest up and let that food do it’s work. The food is the building blocks of the mass you are wanting to add.
Take the training advice all have passed on to you, and sit down and work on/overcome the mental issues you have with food and cardio. You can do it. It’s a matter of realizing what your goals are, and using the same drive that led to your eating disorder, and redirecting that drive to your new goals.
Hope That helps.
Phill
Heed Phill’s advice. I was going to post similar but the bastard already covered all of my points to emphasize.
Lastly, has anyone mentioned that you should eat?
-
You gotta eat big to be big. I’m 25 and have just recently (~1 year) let this sink into my brain. About 12 years of semi-wasted, sore ass sweat dripping work. Its starting to pay off now though.
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Lift big numbers for lower reps.
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Act big. Imagine yourself getting bigger and lifting heavier weights constantly. The mind is a powerful thing.
Just keep at it. Lift Big, Eat Big, BE Big.
My bet is still that hes not mature enough to make good gains. Cross country didnt help either.
Are you shaving yet?
EAT, EAT & EAT SOMEMORE.Your growth is direct proportion to how much you eat.There has been excellent advice on training in this thread by members and almost all of them also tell you to eat.
Read your own posts and you will know whats wrong.
It is painfully obvious to all of the vets.
You have a great drive -but you only apply it whole-heartedly to the things that come naturally.
As soon as you let go and follow the excellent advice on this board and in t-mag you will GROW.
1 You say you eat to grow -but you are worried about your abs. You will never gain any muscle if you keep worrying about your abs.
-Look through some of the old posts, this has been said countless times. Building mucle while loosing fat i virtually impossible.
Loosing fat while keeping your hard earned muscle is not hard though
2 You follow jb’s reccomendations but you are not getting enough calories!
This is the MOST important component for gaining muscle. Get it together.
If you don’t do this quit kidding yourself by thinking you will ever gain anything! This isn’t me being harsh -it’s me trying to help you get it together! EAT!
3 You insist on training to failure -where in the magazine/on the board do you ever see any advice reccomending this?
-You have to let go of the thought that if you work harder than the rest you will grow more. It isn’t working, is it?!?
4 You have to work out 5times a week, GREAT! Split your bodyparts up in a manner that will allow adequate recovery.
Basicly:
Eat!
Lift (but never to failure)!
Rest!
GROW
Hmm… this thread resurrected itself. I’ll try and answer the questions as I remember them.
Phill- I hardly ever do my lifts in high reps, I just said that because I was wondering if I was doing the shrugs wrong or something, because I was feeling like 120 lbs w/ endless reps didn’t make sense, and thought my technique is off. If those numbers do make sense though, I’ll up the weight until I hit a 3-4 RM. I was just concerned that I was cheating on the exercise or something.
Also, I wonder if my definition of failure is different from everyone else’s. I’m talking like I manage to crank out eight reps, the seventh and eight being pretty damned hard, and I can’t manage to get it all the way up on the 9th rep. I consider that failure.
Also, Goldberg- No, I’m not shaving, which is another part of my concern. I wonder if I haven’t entered puberty full on enough that I won’t be building much muscle anyways, and I won’t need as much food etc. My little brother got all the caveman genes, he’s 11 with armpit hair.
I’m trying to get the damned auto timer to work on the camera, so I can get some pictures up.
Everything everyone has told you is very good. You’ve got a lot of people helping you out here, but I think they’re missing a big point.
Job number one right now is to get your head strait. Understand that what has been said about diet is not gluttony, so your not going to get fat. What it is is anabolic; eating a lot of the right types of food is only going to make your muscles grow, and I think you really should do what ever you can to get your mind to accept that.
Thinking of things you can do to help, whenever you get these urges to do cardio, try this: stretch. Stretch out your hips, back, chest, arms, and every other part of your body that has muscle in it. My reasoning here is that you’ve got a deeply rooted fear of gaining fat, and hopefully, getting bloodflow to your muscles will interupt that fear and replace it with the positive feeling of anabolism. You gotta kick that fear to the curb, bro.
Don’t spend your teenage years afraid.
Ryan
Its possible you are just a “late bloomer” or simply not mature enough to make gains like you want. This might suck for you right now but things will be better in a couple of years. I didn’t start growing until I was 17 but when I did I grew a lot.
Sticking to the basic exercises will work great here. Bench press, deadlift, and squats. Believe it or not, deadlifts and squats will assist with the growth of your entire body. This is because massive exercises like these ones will cause more GH and testosterone as a response to the exercise.
You are 15; if your bodyfat is 11-12% that is fine. You aren’t fat and once your body starts putting on muscle (either because you mature enough or you get your diet more in line with what your body needs) you’ll burn it off anyway. This along with larger muscles will make you look like you want.
You guys think I should ditch the P+C and P+F meal combinations, and just eat whatever, as long as it’s clean? I’d like to put on mass, but not a large amount of fat.
Can’t seem to find an edit post button, so I’m gonna have to double post. Sorry.
This is basically a summation of what
I’ve learned from you guys, and I’d like to write it out so you can all yell “WAIT, NOOOO!” before it’s too late.
Anyways, the plan so far is: Shoot for 3300-3500 calories a day to bulk. Wave bye to what abdominals I have. I’m planning on getting one of those hydro whatever body fat check things done, then probably getting a pair of calipers to monitor progress. Is it possible to do them on yourself?
I’m going to attempt to stick to berardi’s PF and PC meal plans, in hopes that most of the weight will be lean. My weight with shoes on the scale at school is currently about 126, so I’m expecting to bulk till about the middle of February, then start a cut at around 2500-2600 calories.
I’m still deciding on a routine to pick, I think I’m gonna finish out the week with what I’m currently doing, use the weekend for a two day rest cycle, then start whatever I choose come Monday.
Does anyone have any recommendations for things I can do for legs on the Smith machine at school? I’m gonna see if I can snag a BB from the clean area for squats, but not having a rack and having to get it up and then over my head is going to make things difficult, and definitely lower what weight I can do. Maybe I’ll plan on some Ian King stuff with dumbells and what not.
Also, at the school weight room, the deadlift area is a little circular hoop looking thing you step into, with pegs on the sides to stick plates on, looking sorta like a steel hula-hoop with handles. I think the idea is this this more space efficient. However, I’m curious as to whether you get the same lift doing this, as your hands are down parallel with the legs.
Ryan said it all.
Get your head straight!
Eat to grow, lift heavy and grow. Your late puberty could be an issue -Your head definiteley is the main issue.
And whats up with your insistence training to failure?
If you choose to do this at least manage it like the wsb guys do. They only do it on their ME days on one exercise pr ME WO.
Its good to see you are trying, very good to see you are tracking your calories.
Sad to see how you refuse to up you calories, and don’t stop figuring it all out by yourself.
Sad to see how don’t just follow one of the many excellent programs on this site to the letter; instead of tweaking it before you have even tried it.
You are following berardis reccomendatins -sorta I cut this out of the original massive eating article
A) Most people succeed in training well enough to grow, but they fail in eating well enough to grow.
B) Most people eat well enough to grow, but they don’t train well enough to grow.
Pencils down. Okay, which is it? If you said “A,” give yourself a gold star. But don’t feel too badly if you chose “B.” To an extent, both answers are correct. Most people probably train and eat incorrectly! But if I had to pick one answer that was more true than the other, I’d say “A” would be the best choice. If you’re not growing, it’s probably your diet, not your training, that’s holding you back.
With this article I’m throwing down the gauntlet. This is your wake up call if you’ve ever made any of the following statements:
“I eat a lot of food. In fact, it feels like I’m eating all day! But I just can’t get any bigger.”
“I can’t gain a pound of muscle. My parents are both skinny, so it must be genetic.”
“I’ve always had a fast metabolism. That’s why I can stay lean but can’t get any bigger.”
“I’m scared to go on a bulking diet because I don’t want to lose my abs.”
“I’ve tried mass-building diets before and put on a little muscle, but most of the weight I gained was fat.”
Running your numbers through the calculator cave me these reccomendations:
Kcal: 3836
Now start eating
By all means if you are comfortable with the P+C/P+F meal combos stick with them. But you dont have to be anal about it. Even JB has said ppl have tken this issue to far. When he wrote that article it was meant as another tool to add to the box, not a rule to be followed all the time. It is a great diet to follow to bulk and limit fat gain though, that is what he invented it for.
As far as your def. of failure. Yes, that is training to failure. If you fail to complete the lift, you have trained to failure.
Phill
Lobo, it’s all been said one way or another, but I’m going to attempt a little additional persuasion as well.
You are 15. You are 5’6" and 120 pounds. I am a size 4/6 woman and you are SMALLER THAN ME. You have way less LBM than Patricia who is 5’4". You need to do 2 things:
- Work out less.
- Eat more.
If you can quit that lifting class, do so. Quit the marathon sessions and meditate instead. Don’t even worry about Berardi’s diet, just eat as much as you can. Somewhere he described what he personally did to add mass when he was younger, and it wasn’t pretty like his diets designed for T-mag. I can’t remember the details at the moment, but it sounded like an incredible amount of food and not such an emphasis on “clean.” Maybe take a look at the “Skinny Bastard” diet.
When people around here talk about tweaking the diet to an incredibly detailed degree, these are people trying to overcome age, sedentary jobs, or other metabolic disadvantages. If we were all experiencing the incredible surge of anabolic hormones you will be experiencing in the next few years, all of this fine tweaking would be largely unnecessary. Don’t blow your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a massive hormonal growth surge by starving yourself and overtraining!
In my opinion, you probably need to gain some fat before you’ll be able to gain any muscle. You think you’re at 10-12% but your mom, a doctor, thinks lower. If you’re at 7%, I bet that you don’t have the energy reserves (i.e., fat) to grow. At 5’6" and 15 years old, you are probably going to grow at least a few more inches. You might hit 5’10", 6’ – IF you eat enough to fuel the growth surge when it happens. If Berardi recommends X # calories to fuel 10 pounds of muscle growth, how many MORE calories do you need to grow both height AND muscle? How many calories do you think it takes to grow an inch?
My teenage brother gained over 50 pounds one year, largely muscle. I cannot even imagine him worrying about blowing his diet by eating a piece of bread one day. He was eating cereal by the box and steak by the pound, chickens by the whole and tons of other crap.
If you were eating anywhere near enough, you wouldn’t have been overcome by cravings to eat French bread and bagels. Listen, the cravings are a bad sign. Dieters have cravings. You’re 15 – eat all the French bread you want! Eat Frosted Flakes. Eat pizza. You’ll be eating better than 95% of teenagers if you eat some vegetables and protein and not just chips, soda, and fast food all day long. You have the rest of your life (after age 25, say) to obsess over a clean diet. Enjoy eating while you can!
Just don’t blow your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a massive hormonal growth surge by starving yourself and overtraining!
(And yes, I know I already said that before.)
Delayed puberty might have something to do with the anorexia. Make sure to get plenty of fat.
Fat is your friend.
Everything everyone else said is right on. Amazingly right on.
Get stronger by lifting heavy (80%+ of 1RM for 5 or fewer reps). You will get bigger.
And I’ll just underscore the “eat more” reccomendation, but say: if you follow JB’s reccomendation, you can keep your abs. Even if you “lose” them for a while, you can diet down a little after a while.
Good luck.
Dan “Work out, eat, sleep, repeat” McVicker