MichaelWhyte said:
Bruce,
So, if I'm a relatively slow gainer at 70kg for 168cm, what would you recommend I do to increase my gains of lean mass. I wanna look like one of those "pictures of cute guys in their underwear" for Pam.
I currently eat a pretty balanced diet and graze regularly to ramp up my metabolism. I've shifted most of the fat and am now gradually piling on the lean mass but slowly. I've plateaued a bit on my weights but do resistance training 3 times a week for a bit over an hour each session and take a day off between each workout for recovery. I do a two way split of back+bis/chest+tris with abs and shoulders in every workout. I do 3 sets/8 reps on each exercise doing pretty much my max weight on every set, no pyramiding. My weights are good, I bench my bodyweight and free dip with extra weight suspended to add resistance. I start with the big compound exercises then isolate the smaller muscle groups in the final exercises of each workout when they're already flogged.
Its going OK and I always get a nice burn and soreness on recovery days so I know I'm targetting the groups well. I can see the change in body shape already, but would like it to move along a bit quicker if possible. I've been at it like this for about 9 months now and am the same weight as when I started. Big difference is I've gone from the 25% odd body fat down to around 12% body fat and held my body weight and reshaped nicely thus far. I'm not taking any supplements and was thinking about a protein drink or some such to help with muscle growth and recovery. When I was into it as a kid I took the protein drinks and BCAA powder and liver tabs and... Now I just eat well and workout regularly. No way known am I touching the juice or anything like creatine...
Help? Thoughts/suggestions???
Cheers,
Michael.
Michael,
This info is of a general nature, and to avoid injury, which you will be very prone to in bulking up, I seriously recommend you seek out a top strength and conditioning coach. You can't afford to be stupid or impulsive about knocking your body around.
Just remember you will lose the additional mass quickly once you stop flogging yourself. And that the heavy weights you will have to do will knock the hell out of your cartilage, and lead to earlier onset arthritis than otherwise. Cartilage doesn't renew itself well at all.
I'd encourage you to think carefully about whether it is more important to look good in the mirror, or to be able to play soccer with your kids when they are in their teens.
DIET
- take a multi vitamin like centrum.
- do creatine.
- do glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate, salmon, mackeral, flax seed, olive oil, and stay away from canola oil; to dampen joint inflammation and preserve cartilage.
- make your own protein powder drink (mix a glass of warm water with 4tblspns of skim milk powder, 2tblspns brewer's yeast, 1tblspn lecithin, 1 tspn dolomite,) and have every morning.
- do a gram of vitamin C powder a day.
- do lean flesh cuts at no more than 1.7grams per kg of bodyweight per day.
- keep your fibrous and starchy carbs up. Don't skimp on dark green, red, and orange veges. Do heaps of steamed vege and salad.
- keep up the 6 meals a day, and do the protein drink above, with a protein and carb meal within 20 mins of finishing your resistance workout.
Lifestyle
- the most important thing for muscle hypertrophy is ensuring anabolism outweighs catabolism. This means get to sleep early, no later than 9.30 pm, and get 8 hours of good quality sleep. You may need 9 hours when pushing yourself like this, and a nap after workouts or on the weekend.
- take your wife to the gym with you. Believe me, this will revolutionize life for both of you forever. Eventually build a gym at home.
Resistance
-
gradually build your routines to this, and remember, this is the final goal.
I do not recommend routines like this to anyone without personally assessing them, and checking joints and tendons. Use this for educational purposes only.
Cut your cardio back to 3-4 x 20 mins. Best to do stationery bike 7mins, elliptical trainer 7 mins, concept II rower 5 mins.
stretch all major muscle groups
work your core, before you do the high resistance.
Cut your resistance training back to once every third day as we are focusing on a Short sharp stimulus followed by rest time for anabolism. You build musce in your sleep and when sedentary. The workout is the stimulus to your endocrine system.
Give yourself around 90sec-2 mins between sets. In that time, shake the muscles and stretch them gently.
Sets are ramped up to
1x12 for joint and muscle lubrication and warmup.
1x8
1x5
1x3
USE A SPOTTER, so you can overload. You should need help on the concentric phase, and go slow (~3-4 seconds) or super slow (~5-6 seconds) on the eccentric phase. The last set should burn and exhaust the muscle completely. You have to seriously burn the muscle with each set. You are going to be seriously sore most of the week.
Be very careful with these exercises. Whenever overloading, you are likely to damage joints, ligaments, and tendons so much more easily. That's why you must have a good base, and have warmed and stretched the tissue sufficiently. And best to do the exercise slowly. Best time for heavy weights is mid to late morning, or late afternoon. Joints are optimally wet then, and the body warm, and circadian rhythms favourable.
I don't recommend:
- full dips (they wring out and rip the anterior shoulder capsule) do half to 2/3 instead.
- lat pull downs with a pronated grip (they internally rotate the shoulder joint and impinge the rotator cuff towards the end of pull down) better to do with a palms facing grip or supinated grip.
- full bench press (they stretch and weaken the anterior joint capsule, leave one susceptible to anterior joint dislocation. and yes I have seen this even in the most successful of body builders) best to keep bar about 5-8 cms off your chest)
- I don't recommend squats, dead lifts, military presses, or bent over rows. (I have just seen too many disc prolapses, and stuffed knee menisci when doing heavy resistance)
Remember that the ripped look is mainly about losing bodyfat, not bulking up. Competitors bulk up and overeat for 6 months leading up to a comp, then cut down on Cals for the last 6-8 weeks, to get cut. This is hard on the body and brain though. They also go into comps having drank far too little water in the previous 24 hours.
I could go on and on, but it is a big field, with lots of conflicting advice. I recommend alternating sets between agonists and antogonists, which is something bodybuilders don't normally do, but their understanding of physiology does not encompass optimal use of neural networks or blood flow and glycogen stores.
