Alright, 17 years old, training for about 2 years now, I’m getting stronger gradually, and i workout about 4 times a week. I’m looking to gain weight and mass along with my strength, because I still look pretty wimpy honestly. I’m sure my answer is floating around here already somewhere, but what rep range, how many sets, give me some some good workouts for mass and weight gains please. Diet tips would be appreciated as well. Any input really. Thanks.
If you’re making strength gains and all that, your workout might be okay, it’s probably more diet… You could look up a workout too though, couldn’t hurt. I’d suggest CT’s Optimized volume training, but there’s TONS you could look through. As for diet, eat, eat, eat. Eat a meal with lots of protein, at least 6 times/day. Try to keep them healthy meals though not just mcdonalds and that kind of stuff. Make sure you are taking in more calories than you are expending throughout the day. Other than that, I’m no expert but there are again lots of articles on this site, just search some.
Upper/Lower split 4 days a week would almost definitely work well for you.
But in your comment you are pretty much asking us to do everything for you. I’m willing to help out, but its clear to me that you need to do some more reading.
Read the articles on this site, there is a WEALTH of information here. I’ve made incredible gains ever since I found this site.
Go lift, read, and EAT!
[quote]TStyles wrote:
I’m sure my answer is floating around here already somewhere,[/quote]
So why don’t you go try to find the answer yourself?
Here is a pretty good article you can read for your situation:
http://www.T-Nation.com/...uilding_workout
As for diet, search for the articles ‘massive eating’ by John Berardi and read what he has to say in ‘20 pounds of hollywood muscle’ (the workout given in that article is pretty good too)
[quote]IronWarrior24 wrote:
TStyles wrote:
I’m sure my answer is floating around here already somewhere,
So why don’t you go try to find the answer yourself?[/quote]
I was thinking the same thing. It’s not that hard to find it yourself. Now, if it was a specific question on the program, then it would be fine. But a general question such as this is not worth it. Just look around, read article, try stuff out, and then you will see what works for you.
Steak, milk, pasta
[quote]robo1 wrote:
steak, milk, pasta[/quote]
…squats
Ya, you kind of just have to figure things out for yourself. Eat a LOT, sleep a lot, and lift only as much as you need with a lot of intensity. If you’re not making gains, there’s a good chance it’s not directly related to the lifting program itself. Just make sure to eat and hit ‘The Big 3’ hard.
[quote]G87 wrote:
robo1 wrote:
steak, milk, pasta
…squats[/quote]
Potatoes
Your problem is not your workout, although it may not be the best workout, the reason you aren’t becoming more massive is because you aren’t eating enough calories to gain weight.
Some general guidelines for you:
-
you should be eating enough calories to gain about 3-5lbs every 4 weeks, or every month.
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if you can kill it, or if it grows out of the ground then it is good to eat. The exception would be milk, milk is also good.
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some cheating is okay if it helps you reach your calorie quota. This means that fast food, brownies, ice cream and other “junk food” are okay in moderate amounts if you need quick calories for whatever reason, but they shouldn’t be daily staples obviously.
-
i personally recommend you keep a daily calorie log for several months.
Some workout guidelines:
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Pick a workout that allows you to efficiently complete it in an hour or less.
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split up your muscle groups in terms of exercises and synergy. Meaning, you don’t want too much overlap throughout the week, usually in the form of indirect work, so you want to organize your workout schedule in a way that avoids this. For instance, pairing biceps with back, or hamstrings and quadriceps together on a day so that you don’t have to train a muscle that got too sore and fatigued from indirect work earlier on in the week.
-
Because your muscle growth will be dependant on the strength you can gain in that muscle, it is best to think of each muscle group in terms of specific exercises. Pick 1-2 of the basic freeweight exercises for every muscle group, and train in a moderate set and repition range for a while to see what works and what doesn’t for your body, adding weight once you can control a weight through a predetermined number of sets and reps. For instance, you may train your first exercise with 3 sets of 6 to 10 repitions (3x6-10), and your starting weight may only allow you to get 3x(10,8,6). Well you work with that weight each time until you can get 3x10,10,10, then you move up in weight by 5-10lbs.
Here are some examples of the basic exercises you should familiarize yourself with and probably select from (only 1-2 per muscle group, excluding back which should probably be thought of in terms of lat exercises - vertical pulling - and back thickness exercises - horizontal pulling and deadlifts - so you should select 2-3):
CHEST
flat BB bench press
incline BB bench press
decline BB bench press
SHOULDERS
standing military press
seated DB overhead press
DB lateral raise
TRICEPS
Close grip bench press
Parallel bar dips
Skullcrushers
BICEPS
Barbell curls
dumbbell curls
preacher curls
BACK
chinups or pullups
barbell rows
deadlifts
QUADRICEPS
Back Squat
Front Squat
Leg press or hack squat
Leg extension
HAMSTRINGS
Romanian deadlift
lying leg curl
standing single leg curl
CALVES:
Standing BB calf raises (smith machine)
Leg Press calf raises
Seated calf raises
I’m giving you a basic guideline to follow so you can start making progress now while also continuing to read up on this sport and find out what works for yourself rather than taking the bad advice of most of the posters above me and “doing your own research” without any sense of basic principles and winding up doing a ridiculous routine and eating a contest dieting nutritional plan.
Good luck. Did I leave anything out…?
[quote]mr popular wrote:
I’m giving you a basic guideline to follow so you can start making progress now while also continuing to read up on this sport and find out what works for yourself rather than taking the bad advice of most of the posters above me and “doing your own research” without any sense of basic principles and winding up doing a ridiculous routine and eating a contest dieting nutritional plan.
[/quote]
I’m pretty sure he could get a sense of basic principles by doing his own research. He just has to use some common sense. I’d venture to guess that he knows that he isn’t dieting for a contest. So, he probably shouldn’t start a diet that says anything about “Contest Diet”. You do understand that doing his own research would prevent him from “winding up doing a ridiculous routine and eating a contest dieting nutritional plan.” That’s the point of doing your own research, Finding things out for yourself. He should do some reading into the subject before just jumping in, just to get the basics down. With the amount that he knows right now the routine that you are giving him could be ridiculous, but he’d probably still do it because you told him to.
First of all I never gave him a routine.
Secondly, a beginner does not even know where to begin, especially with the overwhelming amount of information out there. Doing a simple google search on these topics will yield some of the hokiest bullshit you could imagine.
Besides… this an internet forum. I will say this should have been posted in the ‘beginners’ forum, but people are acting like its some sort of special club for the cool kids.
::NEWSFLASH:: THIS IS A FORUM, A WEBSITE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ASKING QUESTIONS AND GETTING RESPONSES.
FANCY THAT!
Do you have a problem with the guidelines I laid out?
Furthermore, how easy do you think it would be to learn the things I just posted if you were just starting out and your only real resource was the internet. lol
[quote]mr popular wrote:
First of all I never gave him a routine.
Secondly, a beginner does not even know where to begin, especially with the overwhelming amount of information out there. Doing a simple google search on these topics will yield some of the hokiest bullshit you could imagine.
Besides… this an internet forum. I will say this should have been posted in the ‘beginners’ forum, but people are acting like its some sort of special club for the cool kids.
::NEWSFLASH:: THIS IS A FORUM, A WEBSITE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ASKING QUESTIONS AND GETTING RESPONSES.
FANCY THAT!
Do you have a problem with the guidelines I laid out?
Furthermore, how easy do you think it would be to learn the things I just posted if you were just starting out and your only real resource was the internet. lol[/quote]
Dude I don’t know about you, but the rest of us on T-Nation knew everything we needed the first day we set foot in a gym. It’s not like there is an infinite number of plans, most of which are mediocre at best, or that it is not obvious that a person is not eating enough to gain, or needs more protein. If you just look up good muscle building programs the first one is obviously the best, I’m sure the best bodybuilders and weightlifters will tell you that they taught themselves exactly how to be huge, and never got practical advice from older, bigger, stronger men, like this kid is looking for here.
[quote]eeu743 wrote:
mr popular wrote:
First of all I never gave him a routine.
Secondly, a beginner does not even know where to begin, especially with the overwhelming amount of information out there. Doing a simple google search on these topics will yield some of the hokiest bullshit you could imagine.
Besides… this an internet forum. I will say this should have been posted in the ‘beginners’ forum, but people are acting like its some sort of special club for the cool kids.
::NEWSFLASH:: THIS IS A FORUM, A WEBSITE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ASKING QUESTIONS AND GETTING RESPONSES.
FANCY THAT!
Do you have a problem with the guidelines I laid out?
Furthermore, how easy do you think it would be to learn the things I just posted if you were just starting out and your only real resource was the internet. lol
Dude I don’t know about you, but the rest of us on T-Nation knew everything we needed the first day we set foot in a gym. It’s not like there is an infinite number of plans, most of which are mediocre at best, or that it is not obvious that a person is not eating enough to gain, or needs more protein. If you just look up good muscle building programs the first one is obviously the best, I’m sure the best bodybuilders and weightlifters will tell you that they taught themselves exactly how to be huge, and never got practical advice from older, bigger, stronger men, like this kid is looking for here. [/quote]
Why don’t you two queer bags make out already?
And this dude asking for advice has supposedly been training for 2 years, so this is not the first time he’s stepped in the gym.
Seriously, though, you two douchebags come off so cocky like you know everything there is to know. Aren’t you both still in highschool?
Who are you again?
[quote]mr popular wrote:
Who are you again?[/quote]
Interweb tough guy?
… what?
Look, you aren’t offering any advice, and you’re crowding up someone’s thread for no reason.
If you have a question for me or something, you need to PM me.
I started reading T-Nation, never asked for a program and dieting advise, did my own research, and I think I know a good amount to make my own program once football is over.
The best way to learn is to teach yourself.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
eeu743 wrote:
Dude I don’t know about you, but the rest of us on T-Nation knew everything we needed the first day we set foot in a gym. It’s not like there is an infinite number of plans, most of which are mediocre at best, or that it is not obvious that a person is not eating enough to gain, or needs more protein. If you just look up good muscle building programs the first one is obviously the best, I’m sure the best bodybuilders and weightlifters will tell you that they taught themselves exactly how to be huge, and never got practical advice from older, bigger, stronger men, like this kid is looking for here.
Why don’t you two queer bags make out already?
And this dude asking for advice has supposedly been training for 2 years, so this is not the first time he’s stepped in the gym.
Seriously, though, you two douchebags come off so cocky like you know everything there is to know. Aren’t you both still in highschool?[/quote]
I dunno, sounds like you might be the one who’s still in high school.
All mr popular has done is give this young man advice when he asked for it. Maybe he could have done it himself by looking around, but why not help him out and point him in the right direction? Sure he might have been training for two years, but he might have doing a terrible job and only benching and curling, something pretty common in high school gyms. So there’s a good chance he is very inexperienced, even with two years behind him.
All I did was make a point sarcastically, but I feel effectively, that this whole “teach yourself thing” seems kind of silly if you consider that the biggest people often found a big, strong mentor at a young age, and advise others to do so as well. They had resources too, but they learned best from more experienced people, just like this guy is trying to do.
But you’re telling him to just figure it out like it’s really obvious which one of the thousand programs out there he should choose from. When I first tried to do everything by myself, it was a huge mistake, and it went terribly. It wasn’t until I got the help of someone with more knowledge that I began to really make gains.