Seeking weights routine advice

funkymonk

Hello, I am joining the gym soon am looking for advice on weight training. My aim is to gain muscle and weight.

I have been doing about 1 hour of lifting dumbells at home for the past year with no weight gain so I feel I need to lift more weight, more often and eat more.

I have always been thin and have a small frame with fairly defined muscles. My problem is getting more mass.

My stats:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 145lbs

Typical Diet:
Breakfast: Ceral and milk
Dinner 1: meat, veg. potateos
Dinner 2: Pasta, meat, veg,
Snack: sandwich or fruit/nuts perhaps

Plus I drink losts of milk, water and coffee and generally dont eat much sweets, crisps or junk food

I would like to know what advice you would give and have some questions:
- I am a hard gainer, so am I correct in saying I would need to lift heavy with low reps?
- I think I will need to take protein powder, is it safe to take protein powder every day?
- How often should I attend the gym and for how long should a session last?
- How long would it take normally a 3 hours of weight training a weight to gain half a stone?
- Should I do any cardio exercise at all?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

amazingemmet

No being a hard gainer means you gotta eat like a b@stard.

My stats were roughly the same as yours before i added some mass, Here's my diet.

Breakfast: Porridge, Portein shake/smoothie
11am: Chicken fillet, some veg on either a roll or with rice/cous-cous
1.30pm same again
4/5pm usually a brown bread sandwhich with lean meat etc
7pm another snadwhich pre gym
9pm post workout shake
9.30pm dinner, generally a protein carbs meal
11.30ish protein fats meal before bed.

So my advice to you is eat, eat and keep eating and you'll add mass. Ignore all the heavy weights low reps stuff until your abit more advanced as a trainer. Just stick to the basics and eat lots and you'll do grand.

Patto

amazingemmet wrote:

No being a hard gainer means you gotta eat like a b@stard.

My stats were roughly the same as yours before i added some mass, Here's my diet.

Breakfast: Porridge, Portein shake/smoothie
11am: Chicken fillet, some veg on either a roll or with rice/cous-cous
1.30pm same again
4/5pm usually a brown bread sandwhich with lean meat etc
7pm another snadwhich pre gym
9pm post workout shake
9.30pm dinner, generally a protein carbs meal
11.30ish protein fats meal before bed.

So my advice to you is eat, eat and keep eating and you'll add mass. Ignore all the heavy weights low reps stuff until your abit more advanced as a trainer. Just stick to the basics and eat lots and you'll do grand.

Amazement, I pretty much have the same diet. One note on your diet, you eat an awful lot of carbs. Is 9.30 not very late to be having dinner?

If I were a body builder I would say that I am cutting now. I'm not a bodybuilder. I just need to lose about 12lb in the next 6-8 weeks. What I have done given the above diet is I cut out the 4pm carbs and after the gym I just have a shake and a piece of fruit, after that it's protein and fats only until bed time. Is this the way to go or should I keep the 4pm carbs? What effect does this have on your training? I know you won't make progress with weights but how does cutting effect recovery between weights and cardio sessions? How does cutting effect cardio sessions? Are you going to be short of energy? My aim is to retain the same strengh level and improve cardio fittness.

Flex

funkymonk wrote:

Hello, I am joining the gym soon am looking for advice on weight training. My aim is to gain muscle and weight.

I have been doing about 1 hour of lifting dumbells at home for the past year with no weight gain so I feel I need to lift more weight, more often and eat more.

I have always been thin and have a small frame with fairly defined muscles. My problem is getting more mass.

My stats:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 145lbs

Typical Diet:
Breakfast: Ceral and milk
Dinner 1: meat, veg. potateos
Dinner 2: Pasta, meat, veg,
Snack: sandwich or fruit/nuts perhaps

Plus I drink losts of milk, water and coffee and generally dont eat much sweets, crisps or junk food

I would like to know what advice you would give and have some questions:
- I am a hard gainer, so am I correct in saying I would need to lift heavy with low reps?
- I think I will need to take protein powder, is it safe to take protein powder every day?
- How often should I attend the gym and for how long should a session last?
- How long would it take normally a 3 hours of weight training a weight to gain half a stone?
- Should I do any cardio exercise at all?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

TBH, I wouldnt class you as a hardgainer just yet because Id say alot and alot of people would have difficulty gaining weight and building muscle mass off of your diet because you arnt eating alot of calories. Eat 5 or 6 times a day, roughly equal sized meals and evenly spaced out.

Theres no danger taking protein powder everyday. Each time you go to the gym to lift weights you shouldnt spend more than 60 minutes and I find a 4 day split works great for me. When Im bulking I dont do any cardio at all, because gaining weight is already near impossible for me. The only cardio I get is walking to and from the gym. I aim for 6-10 reps on each set aswel.