question on bulking - Exercise & Fitness Message Board

RPMcCalip · 10-09-2004, 07:20 PM

Hello, I am stuck in a place I do not want to be, and I will be here for six weeks, so I decided to take this time to work out as much as i possibly can, and try to put on as much mass and muscle as I can. Right now I am 6'1" and 185, which is pretty decent for me, since I am an ectomorph and have been extremely skinny my whol;e life. I'd like to try to put on maybe 5-10 pounds of muscle while I am here, since I won't have much to except work, sleep, eat and work out. I eat 5 times a day, and drink two protein shakes per day. My workout schedule is split into chest tris abs on monday, bis shoulders abs wed, chest tris abs fri and legs on sunday, then alternate the next week. I was doing a 6 day routine before with abs and legs on my non-upper body days. Right now I am eating eggs for breakfast, two meatball sandwhiches pre workout, then after working out a protein shake, then two pieces of grilled chicken, then a grilled cheeseburger after that, another protein shake, and canned chicken before bed. I don't want to put on a lot of fat weight obviously, just as much pure muscle as I can. Can anyone give me any tips as far as my routine or eating habits that might help me add more muscle?

Thanks in advance,
Randy

RPMcCalip · 10-11-2004, 12:24 PM

bump. . . . .

Tank53 · 10-11-2004, 01:01 PM

I think the first thing that came to mind when reading is if you are eating enough of the right foods. I think you’re eating enough just I wonder about the variety. Sounds like you’re all about protein from the 2 cows and 3 chickens you kill for meat everyday. Wow you eat a lot of protein!! Where’s the fruit and vegetables? I also wonder if you are getting enough fat in your diet. I will cut across the grain and say that I think every person trying to put on muscle should at least think about eating peanut butter. I personally believe it’s severely overlooked. Yeah it has fat and someone will call me a fool but you have to remember you’re supposed to get fat in your diet. Fat and PB have gotten a bad rap with the diet crazes. The daily valves are there for health reasons but the problem has been going way over those limits. The problem has been moderation, not fat in which we need every day. Almost everything you listed sounded lean enough to be in its own body building debut.

Second, how long are your work outs? Are you doing any sort of cardio training? If so when and for how long. Is it on the same days you weight lift? What kind of sets do you do? I can’t say too much without knowing those. But my guess too is you are training too much. 6 days a week is a whole bunch if your weight lifting but there are differing options.

Third, change your routine. If you are doing a bench press with a straight bar, try using dumbells. If you are doing lat pull downs, try ordinary pull ups or a different exercise. Your body gets used to your routine. To build you need to change it (make it adapt) and if you’re going for mass, heavy heavy weights. If you’re doing 3 sets of 10 at 185 on bench, try 210 and go for 3 sets of 6.

Just a few thoughts……

RPMcCalip · 10-11-2004, 11:08 PM

Hey Tank, thanks very much for the advice. I was concerned about overtraining actually, but I thought since I was only doing upper body three times a week I should be ok, and then abs and legs the other three. That's still too muc h though, you think? I talked to one of my friends who is into weight lifting and he said he thought it was probably too much also, so I guess I should try cutting back a little. As far as food goes, it's not quite as much protein as it sounds, as I usually eat about 30 grams at a time. I think it comes out to around 230 or 240 per day, something like that, with protein shakes and milk included. I was eating peanut butter and milk every night before bed, for a few weeks actually and saw a big gain in weight, but I thought it was mostly fat so I stopped eating it. I might try it again, eating less or maybe during the day instead of night. As far as changing routine, that was also very good advice because I havent in a long, long time, i mean like 6 months probably ive been doing the same routine, so I should definitely mix things up. But I'm a creature of habit and once I find something that I like. . .

Thanks for the tips, and if anyone else has anything to add I'd love to hear it.

Randy

phillydude · 10-12-2004, 07:12 AM

I'm gonna agree with Tank... sounds like you are eating the right stuff. The only thing I thought of when I read your diet plan is "too much bread." If you are eating a few meatball sandwiches in the morning (I'm assuming those are on "hard" rolls) and a cheeseburger in the afternoon, that's a lot of processed white bread. Other than that, switch up the workout a little if you've been doing the same thing for six months, and you should be good.