Gaining mass

[Guest]

I stopped working out for about 3 months and I havent been eating correctly so I lost about 15 pounds of muscle which sucks. What would you guys suggest for me to gain mass back fast?

Im gunna drink 3 protien shakes a day and WORKOUT EVERY DAY!

THE KEY TO WORKING OUT IS CONSISTENCY!

But I have a question. For mass gain im doing 4 sets of 12 reps of a good wieght. Ussually the last set its really hard for me 2 finish the last 3 reps but I can manage it. HOWEVER, those last 3 reps I have if i am able to do them I have to change my body and I dont do those last 3 reps in correct form. Should I tone it down 2 a lower wieght?

 

[Guest]

I stopped working out for about 3 months and I havent been eating correctly so I lost about 15 pounds of muscle which sucks. What would you guys suggest for me to gain mass back fast?

Im gunna drink 3 protien shakes a day and WORKOUT EVERY DAY!

THE KEY TO WORKING OUT IS CONSISTENCY!

But I have a question. For mass gain im doing 4 sets of 12 reps of a good wieght. Ussually the last set its really hard for me 2 finish the last 3 reps but I can manage it. HOWEVER, those last 3 reps I have if i am able to do them I have to change my body and I dont do those last 3 reps in correct form. Should I tone it down 2 a lower wieght?

Always use correct form no matter what

Dont work out every day. Every other day

Whole body routines not isolation exercises.

Do not try to gain weight too fast. You will gain fat with it.

Muscles grow on rest days not work days.

Dont work to failure but train heavy weights

Cycle poundage up and down

Stay fresh and work out with quality

At your age, your hormones will do the rest.

Good luck

 

[Guest]

Bruce 2 things.

I workout everyday but I workout different muscle groups everyday so the ones i workout i cant let them rest. Monday -Friday i workout at the gym for 1 hour with wieghts and wieght sets.

On saturday and sunday i just work out 45 min in my room with free wieghts.

Question bruce, I know that form is VERY VERY important. But when i do 4-12, the first 3 sets I can do easily without 2 much of a struggle. But the last 3 reps of the 4th set its a struggle and i ussually will have to change my form.

But the first 3 sets i dont think im doing enough wieght and the last set i think im doing to much wieght. And i cant add wieght for my first 3 sets and then take away wieght for my last 4th set.

What do you recommend I do?

 

[Guest]

Bruce 2 things.

I workout everyday but I workout different muscle groups everyday so the ones i workout i cant let them rest. Monday -Friday i workout at the gym for 1 hour with wieghts and wieght sets.

On saturday and sunday i just work out 45 min in my room with free wieghts.

Question bruce, I know that form is VERY VERY important. But when i do 4-12, the first 3 sets I can do easily without 2 much of a struggle. But the last 3 reps of the 4th set its a struggle and i ussually will have to change my form.

But the first 3 sets i dont think im doing enough wieght and the last set i think im doing to much wieght. And i cant add wieght for my first 3 sets and then take away wieght for my last 4th set.

What do you recommend I do?

Flex the weight and save the form. There is no real empirical evidence to support the 4 or 5 sets for MASS approach. 3 sets can be fine also, In other words, you get diminishing returns from adding sets.

Keep the form strict and drop the weight if you have to.

Re: Split routines.

If you are trying to gain mass, I would not split body parts. Your body doesn not work in parts. Moreover, if you are working hard each day, you are creating a lot of cortisol which you body cannot recover from . Remember, if you fatigue the CNS system and your hormonal system it needs rest to recoup. If you are killing you legs today and tomorrow you kill your back, your entire body is fatigued.

Now if you are on steroids, you can get away with this stuff. But you will make better progress if you dont split and take rest days.

BTW-if you are training simply for strength and using low reps and hi weight, this does not apply. But that is another matter.

Thanks and good luck

 

[Guest]

There is no real empirical evidence to support the 4 or 5 sets for MASS approach. 3 sets can be fine also, In other words, you get diminishing returns from adding sets.

Re: Split routines.

If you are trying to gain mass, I would not split body parts. Your body doesn not work in parts. Moreover, if you are working hard each day, you are creating a lot of cortisol which you body cannot recover from . Remember, if you fatigue the CNS system and your hormonal system it needs rest to recoup. If you are killing you legs today and tomorrow you kill your back, your entire body is fatigued.

BTW-if you are training simply for strength and using low reps and hi weight, this does not apply. But that is another matter.

Please clarify the following. And yes im training for strength and mass. Im using high wieght. I like to push myself as much as I can but using the correct form. I pretty much do 4 sets of 12 with a high wieght for everything and use correct form.

And I dont work out body parts out 2 days in a row.

EXAMPLE:

Monday =I will do one hour workout on just chest
Tuesday =1 hour workout on legs
Wednesday = 1 hour workout on back

But i get plenty of rest and water and I pace myself while I workout.

 

[GourmetStyleWellness]

1.5 grams of protein per day per pound of weight will be an important part of gaining mass. ...

http://www.weight-gain-tips.com/bodybuilding-diets.html

gourmetstylewellness.com

 

[Guest]

There is no real empirical evidence to support the 4 or 5 sets for MASS approach. 3 sets can be fine also, In other words, you get diminishing returns from adding sets.

Re: Split routines.

If you are trying to gain mass, I would not split body parts. Your body doesn not work in parts. Moreover, if you are working hard each day, you are creating a lot of cortisol which you body cannot recover from . Remember, if you fatigue the CNS system and your hormonal system it needs rest to recoup. If you are killing you legs today and tomorrow you kill your back, your entire body is fatigued.

BTW-if you are training simply for strength and using low reps and hi weight, this does not apply. But that is another matter.

Please clarify the following. And yes im training for strength and mass. Im using high wieght. I like to push myself as much as I can but using the correct form. I pretty much do 4 sets of 12 with a high wieght for everything and use correct form.

And I dont work out body parts out 2 days in a row.

EXAMPLE:

Monday =I will do one hour workout on just chest
Tuesday =1 hour workout on legs
Wednesday = 1 hour workout on back

But i get plenty of rest and water and I pace myself while I workout.

One hour on your chest alone is too much. How much stress do you think your chest muscles need to be stimulated to grow. Etc etc.

The classic mass gaining routine that works the whole body two to three times a week rules. Also, I would use functional exercises, not isolation. For example, ifyou are working your chest for an hour, you have to be using many isolation exercises. But in real life, you use your chest mucles in combination with others.

Do you see any functional utility in a cable cross over exercise? Likely not.

But a bench press or push up, yes. We all need to push things away from us at times. The question is, once the pec has been stressed today, do wer really need to keep doing it for an hour?

Useful questions to ask?

 

[Guest]

How about this:

EDIT: Oh yeah, I use Bowflex not free weights.

My routine has me doing two mostly bicep exercises (curls and reverse curls, 2 sets each) then two mostly tricep exercises (lying trycep extension then french press, 2 sets each). Today I screwed up and alteranted them. But by doing curls, LTE, reverse curls, then french press I was able to get a much better french press workout because the muscle had a longer break after the first exercise. Is this better or is there a reason to stick to one muscle "group" (whatever that means) at a time?

Also, I like to lift every other day. I do 45 minutes cardio on my days "off". But I have been slipping a lot lately and frequently going 2 days between lifting. I have noticed that the longer time has caused some muscles to slip just a little in number of reps (no big deal) but other muscles make sudden jumps in resistance as if they needed the longer rest. Should I try lifting less often?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

How about this:

EDIT: Oh yeah, I use Bowflex not free weights.

My routine has me doing two mostly bicep exercises (curls and reverse curls, 2 sets each) then two mostly tricep exercises (lying trycep extension then french press, 2 sets each). Today I screwed up and alteranted them. But by doing curls, LTE, reverse curls, then french press I was able to get a much better french press workout because the muscle had a longer break after the first exercise. Is this better or is there a reason to stick to one muscle "group" (whatever that means) at a time?

Also, I like to lift every other day. I do 45 minutes cardio on my days "off". But I have been slipping a lot lately and frequently going 2 days between lifting. I have noticed that the longer time has caused some muscles to slip just a little in number of reps (no big deal) but other muscles make sudden jumps in resistance as if they needed the longer rest. Should I try lifting less often?

Thanks!

It all depends on your objectives. If you are going for strength, you keep the muscles as fresh as possible and rest longer between sets. You use lower reps and more sets.

If you are going strictly for mass, the objective is to stress the muscle for a longer period of time per set and do fewer sets. For example, russian weight lifters might do 8 sets of squats with rep schemes of 1-3 and 3 minutes between sets.

A bodybuilder might do 3 sets, 12 reps with 1 minute in between. But once the muscle is shot for the day, it is shot. No need to keep punishing it, no?

Re: rest days--experiment. Some folks do better with 1 rest day, some 2 0r 3. Use your strength gains as a guide. If you are shot with one days rest, try two and see how you feel.

 

[Guest]

Thanks!

It's going well, after only a month and a half there is a big difference in my legs, tris, and shoulders. And a noticable diffence in my biceps and chest. I can't see my back so good so I don't care as long as it doesn't hurt :lol:

My waisteline has not reduced at all! :evil: But I let my diet go to crap so that's to be expected I guess But my waistline is changing shape, it's hard to explain, and my butt dissapeared

Oh BTW my resting heartbeat is in the low 70s now I had a heart rate in the 80s and I think that is a risk for death although I am still young :freaked:

If it wasn't for the convenience of the Bowflex I would still be screwing around. It might not be perfect for everyone but it's perfect for me.

 

[Guest]

The Bowflex is a very smartly designed, very effective machine. Good luck with it.

:lol:

 

[Guest]

gourmetstylewellness.com- I know what you mean about the protien. You need 1 gram per pound of your body. So if you wieght 150 pounds you need 150 grams of protien per day. Im drinkin 3 shakes a day


And bruce, if i workout for 45 min and a get a good chest workout in and my chest is done, the next day your saying I should rest and not workout just my legs? That seems like a waste of time 2 me. Plus i let me chest rest more than a couple days before i work it out again. EXAMPLE:

Monday- Chest
Tuesday -Legs
Wendesday - Back (If my chest is still soar or I dont feel like its ready to workout I will move my back day to thursday and rest if i have 2)

When i work out my back I notice that some of the back exercises I still workout some parts of my chest. Like the Low rows, dead lifts, and a bunch of exercises that i dont know the names of. So if my chest is not feeling up 2 par i will let it rest.

 

[Guest]

gourmetstylewellness.com- I know what you mean about the protien. You need 1 gram per pound of your body. So if you wieght 150 pounds you need 150 grams of protien per day. Im drinkin 3 shakes a day


And bruce, if i workout for 45 min and a get a good chest workout in and my chest is done, the next day your saying I should rest and not workout just my legs? That seems like a waste of time 2 me. Plus i let me chest rest more than a couple days before i work it out again. EXAMPLE:

Monday- Chest
Tuesday -Legs
Wendesday - Back (If my chest is still soar or I dont feel like its ready to workout I will move my back day to thursday and rest if i have 2)

When i work out my back I notice that some of the back exercises I still workout some parts of my chest. Like the Low rows, dead lifts, and a bunch of exercises that i dont know the names of. So if my chest is not feeling up 2 par i will let it rest.

No what I am saying is that I would work your entire body at one time and then rest one or two days. Then do it again.

The one bodypart per day idea is bizzare and I never understood how this makes sense in a functional way. Neither can the exercise scientists.

 

[GourmetStyleWellness]

From some of my recent reading, the whole gram per pound theory is good, but for *gains* which you're looking for, you need to exceed it by a bit. 1.5grams per pound seems to be the trend right now.

Drink tons of water and have your kidney functions monitored before and during. An apple a day will also help things keep flowing in the intestines when Protein can really clog things up.

gourmetstylewellness.com

 

[Guest]

Yea i do exceed the protein amount. I get about 50 more grams of protein then I actually need.

And bruce, if I where to work out my whole body in one day I would be in the gym for like 3 hours. Plus i get tired pretty easy. gourmetstylewellness.com, i will drink lots of gatorade i think its better =)

 

[Axon]

Love the Bowflex. I actually have the "crossbow," which is the bowflex knock off by Weider. It's a great machine.

 

[Guest]

Love the Bowflex. I actually have the "crossbow," which is the bowflex knock off by Weider. It's a great machine.

I just saw one. Nice unit and good price.

 

[Guest]

Yea i do exceed the protein amount. I get about 50 more grams of protein then I actually need.

And bruce, if I where to work out my whole body in one day I would be in the gym for like 3 hours. Plus i get tired pretty easy. gourmetstylewellness.com, i will drink lots of gatorade i think its better =)

You dont need to do that if you use whole body exercises. Squats, pullups, clean and jerks, deadlifts and presses, bench presses. Actually, Arnold S. made his living using these types of exercises.



check out the work on dragondoor.com. Pavel is the man on the issue of strength training.

 

[Axon]

Love the Bowflex. I actually have the "crossbow," which is the bowflex knock off by Weider. It's a great machine.

I just saw one. Nice unit and good price.

Yeah, I lucked out and picked mine up used for $350. Basically, I ran into a guy who was using it as a coat rack, offered him 350 on the spot, and then had to carry it down 4 flights of stairs (which actually was hard as hell.)

It was worth it.

 

[Guest]

Love the Bowflex. I actually have the "crossbow," which is the bowflex knock off by Weider. It's a great machine.

I just saw one. Nice unit and good price.

Yeah, I lucked out and picked mine up used for $350. Basically, I ran into a guy who was using it as a coat rack, offered him 350 on the spot, and then had to carry it down 4 flights of stairs (which actually was hard as hell.)

It was worth it.

Best way to buy one!

:lol: