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 By: Derek Charlebois
This is just one question out of many! View the full listing of FAQs here.
How Can I Gain 20 Pounds In 5 Months? If you have time to respond to my questions, that'd be great...I look through the site often, and liked your bulking series, and I was wondering if you could give me some pointers, cuz I’m trying to gain some weight myself. Stats: Age: 19
Anyways, I have been lifting seriously now for 1 year. I used to run cross country, and I was really skinny, weighing around 125-128!! Well, I decided to give up cross country and long distance running in general, so that I could stop looking so damn lanky. Right now my bench is at 155-175 lbs., and I can barbell curl 85. I keep accurate records of my food intake, and my calorie level is at 2300-2500 right now. I eat around a 55/30/15 carb/protein/fat ratio. I would like to weigh around 155-160 by the end of September, hopefully without adding too much body fat. Can you give me some eating/training tips to achieve my goal? Oh by the way, I do some light cardio two days a week in the mornings for 30min before breakfast. I burn around 400 calories during each of these sessions. The foods I eat are very clean... oatmeal, egg whites, skinless chicken breasts, tuna, whey protein, etc... I also drink 1 gallon of water each day. Why aren't I seeing results any faster?? I feel like everyone around me (friends from high school) are all getting big and muscular off of pizza and French fries, and I am seriously questioning why I have to put myself through such a strict diet if I’m not even making any gains. Here is my workout split and nutrition program: Click Here I'd appreciate your help, because you look like you've had some obvious success...
One thing you have working for you is your determination, organization, and the fact that you follow such a clean diet. Your diet is pretty good, but could use some tweaking. You’re training could use some rearranging as well. Because of your build, I’m guessing ectomorphic due to the fact that you describe yourself as lanky and lean, and current condition, you should be able to gain a good amount of muscle without adding too much fat. Your goal is to gain 20 pounds in about 5 months. This is VERY doable. In fact, it will be done. Here is what I recommend for your workout split. Monday - Chest/Shoulders Bench Press 3 X 4-6 - view exercise
Tuesday - Arms Barbell Curl 2 X 4-6 - view exercise
Wednesday - Rest OR High Intensity Cardio (16 minutes all out) Thursday - Legs Squats 3 X 4-6 - view exercise
Friday - Back/Traps Deadlift 3 X 4-6 - view exercise
Saturday - Rest OR High Intensity Cardio (16 minutes all out) Sunday - Rest OR High Intensity Cardio (16 minutes all out) Choose 2 of the rest days to do cardio. The cardio is high intensity/short duration. There is a lot of research showing the benefit of this type of cardio. It will serve well in your quest to gain muscle. You can do abs with cardio. Diet Protein: 250 grams
The foods you eat are fine. But, for pre and post workout, I highly recommend this combo of AST's VP2 and HSC. More info is available at these links: HSC: Click Here VP2: Click Here These are two excellent products. Take a scoop of VP2 and a scoop of HSC before and after your workout. For cardio, take 1/2 a scoop of VP2 and 1/2 a scoop of HSC. So have your breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, then the pre and post workout shakes. Follow that up with dinner and for your last meal before bed, you want to consume a slow digesting protein. I suggest: 1 cup cottage cheese
Throw all of them in a blender and you are good to go. I recommend adding cinnamon to give it more flavor. So replace the nuts with flax seed oil. I would then eat the nuts during your mid-morning snack. Your basic setup is fine, you just need to increase your carb intake. So in summary: Breakfast: Your usual - (Shown Here)
Bro, if you follow this plan, especially the pre and post workout shakes, I guarantee you will make massive gains. Keep me up to date on your progress. BTW, never do any type of exercise before breakfast, on an empty stomach. At that time, you are already in a catabolic state and exercising pushes you even further in one. The guy replied back with these questions:
Should I do a few high rep/low weight warm up sets before hitting the weights hard and heavy with the low reps?
Always warm up before you start lifting. Just do it at the beginning. You don’t have to do it before each set. He is an article I wrote about PROPER warming up: Here!
In the past, my workouts usually take an hour and fifteen minutes, will the new split you gave me take less time in the gym? (I know that workouts should be kept to an hour max.)
The new split should take you around 45 minutes, give or take a few minutes. I forgot to mention you should rest 2 to 3 minutes between your sets. The main objective of this routine is to heavily overload your muscles. When you use a low rep range, you do just that. In order to be able to complete heavy set after set, your body needs some rest.
I have done squats before in the past, and they have made my knees crack. Is it possible to eliminate squats from the leg workout and still grow?
Squats are THE BEST exercise you can do for your legs. One reason your knees might have popped is because you did not proper warm up and/or were using incorrect form and/or using more weight than you could handle correctly. Instead of doing 4-6 reps on squats, try doing 10-12 reps, using a lighter weight and really concentrating on your form. If they still crack, you could try hack squats or squats on a smith machine to see if that helps. If that still doesn’t help, replace them with leg press and replace leg press with lunges. So if squats don’t work, do: Leg Press 3 X 4-6 - view exercise
I run in the mornings only because I have a ton of work to do during the day, so before breakfast is the most convenient time. Would it help any if I ate something before my cardio sessions? (maybe some whey protein and glutamine?) If it is still not a good idea, I will make the time to do it in the afternoon.
You can do cardio in the morning no problem, BUT you want to eat protein and CARBS before hand. Cardio is not necessarily burning fat when you do it. You are burning calories. The real fat burning effect of cardio is seen afterwards, during the rest of the day, because it elevates your resting metabolism and increases your body’s ability to burn fat. Therefore, cardio in the morning is a great idea, if you eat. That is why I recommend the VP1 and HSC shake because whey protein and dextrose are extremely fast digesting sources of protein and carbs. They will supply you with the energy needed for an effective cardio session and decrease the chance of you body using muscle to create glucose through the process of gluconeogenesis. The last thing you want to do is lose muscle. By bracketing your workouts how I have suggested, you won’t.
According to the macronutrient breakdown you gave me, I will be consuming around 3,000 calories each day. Is the amount I should be consuming throughout my whole "bulking phase"? Or should I bring it up slowly every two weeks or so by 250-500 calories, starting from the calorie range I am in now? For example: Current level: 2300
I understand that no matter how much more you eat over maintenance, only a certain amount goes to muscle, (i.e. 500 calories over maintenence) Any more would only make you fat!
Yes gradual increase it. I would increase it 200 calories every week instead of two weeks.
You suggested having 1/2 cup of oatmeal before bed... but doesn't eating carbs before bed block growth hormone releases? I have heard that you should only consume protein and EFA's before bed, as they stimulate more hormone release...though eating carbs would put me to sleep faster... can you clarify all this for me?
Eating carbs before bed will NOT have any negative effects on hormone release. In fact, it will have positive effects. You are about to go 6 to 8 hours without any food. During this time, your body can become catabolic, meaning it will use muscle to create energy. The reason we sleep is so we can recuperate. In order to recuperate and grow, our bodies need adequate nutrients. If you do not supply your body with these needed nutrients, it will breakdown muscle to get the nutrients needed to repair itself. If you follow a clean diet, consuming carbs at this time will not make you fat. The opposite is true. It will prime your metabolism as well as spare the much needed protein you have just consumed from being used to create glucose. Eating a well balanced meal before bed will put you in an anabolic state instead of a catabolic one. This is just one question out of many! View the full listing of FAQs here. You can contact me with your questions and comments at dspikehead@hotmail.com. Later, Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
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