Ok so you guys have really confirmed what I was thinking. I don't want to one of those guys in the gym that work out 4 hours a day 7 days a week doing the same things over and over with no results. So I'll increase my calorie and protein intake. Lift heavy rotating my workouts and get plenty of rest. I want to be stronger and healthier than I am now. I don't eat fast food now at all. Ive eaten TacoBell once in the past month and maybe a trip through the golden arch once in the past 2 months. Fast food actually makes me physically sick to my stomach now. So that's no worry there. In the past almost year I have drank maybe a case of beer and that's being liberal with that estimate. We eat out once a week on Fridays with our 2 year olds at whatever pizza joint we are close too because it's their favorite. We eat pork, chicken and beef almost nightly. My biggest issue is going to be the eating 5 meals a day. Im a supervisor and I have a hard time making time to eat once at work much less 3 times. Most well, almost every day I go without eating until dinner. I have a hard time eating much then. Might explain my 8lb of weight loss in the past month and a half that and cutting out almost all meals that didn't come from the grocery store. I drink some water now and only a soft drink every couple days. Biggest issue will be sweet tea!! That stuff is loaded with sugar. Hopefully I'll be starting at the gym next week. Thanks guys for your help and if there is any other advise, by all means let me know.
As you can tell, you will get a different opinion from everyone, just like asking to hunt a scrape line. If you want to try and gain that much weight (naturally) you are in for a long road ahead. Im not speaking pounds, i m talking muscle. Personally I think attempting to bulk with lean muscle mass is the hardest discipline of all. You have to stay dedicated to the iron and your diet all the time. Read all you can from everywhere and everyone, then try and figure out what works for you. Dropsets, working sets, supersets, 5 x 5, 8 x3, 3 x 8, full body, splits etc...it's all out there and everyone thinks there way is best. Eating is king and determines if your hard work translates to any success. Lots of people go to the gym 5, 6 and 7 days a week and look like they have never been. I would read more on food than iron in he beginning, and learn as you go. Good luck, and remember, morphing your body is just as addicting as bowhunting..., maybe more because you control everything.
I agree with what many of the others have said. I tend to favor Rybo's approach partially because of my lifestyle, and partially because of my genetics. I don't like coming across as tooting my own horn (in fact I despise it), but I have VERY little body fat. I'm very toned, but I'm not big by any stretch of the imagination. I work out 6 days a week, I eat small meals frequently, but it's VERY hard for me to gain weight. I'm at 5'11 and between 154lbs and 162lbs depending on the time of the year. It never goes higher, and rarely goes lower. I attribute much of it to a fast metabolism, but it's also not enough protein and caloric intake. I don't do protein shakes as I don't care for them and I'm allergic to some ingredients in some brands. I'm starting to eat egg whites and a bowel of Kashi or a 1/4-1/2 cup of granola for breakfast, and then something high in protein like chicken or pork for dinners. I still have my goal set to hit 175 and stay there, but if I don't, in the end, I will NEVER be too bulky, and I like that. Definitely eat clean, but eat frequently. You don't need to live in the gym to accomplish your goals, either. My gym is in my home, but I'm still never in there more than an hour and that's on my high frequency day. Good luck with it.
Do less cardio before your workout. When you lift weights you are using your glycitic system for energy, your body will use this first with whatever you start with. So you actually use you muscle energy system before you start to grow muscle. Try to seperate you workouts it muscle groups that work together. chest/tri's, back/bi's, etc . your workout should be with very heavy weight any low reps with long rest between. Light cardio after. It is easier to gain weight and mass then increase your cardio to drop the fat. it is too hard to keep lean and bulk up as much as your want to. when it comes to diet main thing is to eat about twice the amount of protein in grams than your weight. Also eat protein right after a workout with some sugar. sugar increases your insulin levels and insulin increases the efficiency of protein synthesis. Good luck, just don't get so big you can't pull back a bow.
Good luck, just don't get so big you can't pull back a bow.[/QUOTE] That I won't do!! I can promise that!!
I most certainly will!! Started off my diet tonight with a big old 16oz sirloin! Have another 8oz for tomorrow to split up for work and going to start back on the hard boiled eggs. Tuna, salmon and pork chops coming up for meals the next couple days. Hear we go!! Gym should start next week some time!
Just to add a little more. water is your friend, drink lots of it, it carries your proteins where they need to go. Study each muscle group and know exactly what they do. example:::deltoids in your shoulders, there are three heads to it. one works raising your arms out to your sides, another pulls your arms toward the back and the third raises your arms in front of you, know what exercises are for each head. and so on! I would start out slow and dont get carried away. later on start doing dead lifts, squats and heavier benching for mass builders. I went up to 405 on dead lifts this morning and im 47. It took some time to get there, it dont come fast, take your time!
Doug, on the sweet tea front, you can ween yourself off some of the sugar using Stevia (it is a sweeter from a plant). We eased off the sugar cutting about half of the sugar with Stevia. Also on the intraday meals you can think of them as 'snacks'. If your main 3 meals are more protein heavy, you can get some carbs at these snacks - e.g a piece of fruit, jerky, nuts. Fat will give you calories, but it also slows the blood sugar rise from carbs, especially 'white carbs' (high GI).
nutrition first then supplements. make sure you know what your supposed to eat and then SUPPLEMENT what you are missing. generally for musscle gain (and fat loss) use whey protein 30mins max after a workout, do 10 mins of cardio before each lift and 20 when finished. go hard for the 10 and medium intensity for the 20. PERSONALLY i do arms and back monday, legs tuesday, rest/ cardio wednesday, chest and triceps thursday, and friday i do shoulders and traps. abs every 2-3 days.
A lot of replies, and I didn't read them all. So forgive me if this has been addressed already. Something to keep in mind is what's going to happen to that 220# of muscle when you stop working out..... it'll turn to fat. Unless you're wanting to be a power lifter, or a body builder, I'd shy away from wanting to be a "trunk" as you put it. Your body, and you're welcome to do with it as you please, but personally I'd go for toning up. It's definitely the healthier way. My brother was a a professional body builder in his younger years, and when he had a kid and stopped working out every day he began to blob out. He's now lost weight and has decided a lighter, toned body, is easier to maintain.
I just ate a 1000 calories while reading this. my brother has been putting on mass this year. he says he eats over 4000 calories a day and so far he's "WINNING". I got very fat the last couple of years I'm 35 years old, 6' and was at 232# and finally had to buy 38" waist pants last new years. Simply put I was fat. I started the program RIP:60 and lost about all of my fat in 60 days. at the end of week 8 i was 205#'s and look amazing fast forward through the summer and up to now I'm not ripped anymore or even close to it, but I'm not a fatty anymore. I guess what I'm saying is its a life style change to get to where your going and that means a life style change to keep it. good luck with it and I hope it works out for you, but if you get discouraged on your journey perhaps you should scale back on your target weight. If I was you I would lower the bar a tad and see how you feel once you reach that goal. this way if your happy at what you've accomplished you wont feel defeated. I'm going to have to get back to my workout as I'm getting flabby sitting at my desk all day long reading BH.com post.
