I want muscle fast!!

Bored-Stupid

Ok people,

This is my first post on the fitness forum so apologies if this is a regular question, which im sure it probably is.

Besically I want to build muscle fast. Could anyone tell me what protein I should be using. Ive been reading up on it and people are saying to use creatine and whey protein and if so what are they best shakes/bars and what times should I take them at? Do I take them both together??

Also if someone could recommend a weight lifting regieme for me to build muscle. Im basically looking to build up muscle in my arms and stomach mainly but would also like to see some firmness and widening of my shoulders and some pecks appearing and also I suffer from back and groin pain so could you suggest something to help me out here?

I apologise again if im filling up your forum with stupid general questions like this but ive been going to the gym religiously for months and seeing no results and its really upsetting!

Thanks

barclay2

Bored-Stupid wrote: »

Ok people,

This is my first post on the fitness forum so apologies if this is a regular question, which im sure it probably is.

Besically I want to build muscle fast. Could anyone tell me what protein I should be using. Ive been reading up on it and people are saying to use creatine and whey protein and if so what are they best shakes/bars and what times should I take them at? Do I take them both together??

Also if someone could recommend a weight lifting regieme for me to build muscle. Im basically looking to build up muscle in my arms and stomach mainly but would also like to see some firmness and widening of my shoulders and some pecks appearing and also I suffer from back and groin pain so could you suggest something to help me out here?

I apologise again if im filling up your forum with stupid general questions like this but ive been going to the gym religiously for months and seeing no results and its really upsetting!

Thanks

I cant really offer you any specific type of weights regime, but if you've been goin to the gym religiously and seen no results there could be a few common mistakes you're making.

Firstly, you may be overtraining. If you work the same muscles on consecutive days, you're overtraining. Muscles grow in between workouts, not during them - the weights session "damages" your muscles and once you're finished they go into recovery and start to make themselves stronger. This recovery period takes 48 hours, so if you work them again before the 48 hours is up, you're not actually giving your muscles the time to grow.

Second, i dont know anything about your diet but is it possible you're just not eating enough calories? To build muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn. And obviously make sure that plenty of those calories come from protein. Im not convinced you need to take any protein shakes, you can easily get 1.5 gram of protein per kilo of bodyweight from eating enough healthy meals during the day, and i think thats all you need. But if you're not eating enough calories, you wont grow.

Third, when you go to the gym do you also do loads of cardio exercise? Too much cardio burns up too many calories so that you wont get bigger. And it can also burn protein if you're not eating enough carbohydrates.

Fourth, do you mix up your weights routine? If you do the same kind of session every time, your muscles get very used to it and will stop growing as quickly. If you keep them guessing, they'll respond in a more satisfactory fashion.

Dunno if any of this helps, but i know that these are common mistakes people make. Ive made them myself.

SpAcEd OuT

Define fast

Because muscle building is a marathon not a sprint, don't expect amazing results within a few days,weeks or even months of hard training. You will get results but you won't get them fast.

That said don't let it deter you.

EAT,EAT, EAT can't stress that enough.

mack1

OP - read the stickies at the top of the forum, pay particular attention to Transform's program for beginners, and the diet & nutrition one.

Unless you're eating right and working very hard in the gym you're wasting your time with the sups. There is no secret, no quick fix, you have to work hard and smart.

I can imagine it is furstrating if you're not seeing results, but read the stickies and follow the advice and you work hard at it - you'll see results.

----

Hanley: here you go!

Boru.

Follow the program below to the letter. No more, no less.
Do this program and eat an awful lot, every 2-3 hours without fail.

Boru. wrote:

---

Weight Training

---

Now, let's look at weight training....have a qualified instructor teach you how to do a Bench Press, Deadlift and Squat - just learn those 3 exercises. DON'T learn them off the net - get a real person to teach you. That's it. Spend 2 weeks at least learning them. Then when you are confident in the movements follow this program.

Here you go 3 days a week follow the following program....

Monday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5, 75% of your 10 Rep Max x 5, 100% of your 10RM x5) do this series as many times as possible.

Wednesday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5) for the total number of series you did on Monday

Friday (50% OF 10 Rep Max x5, 75% of your 10 Rep Max) for the total number of series you did on Monday

Rest for 1 minute between each set (50, 75, 100) and 3 minutes between each series.

When you can do 5 series in good form on Monday add 2.5lbs to the bench, 5lbs to the deadlift and 5lbs to the squat.

Outline your EXACT current diet and we can advise you more. Also need height, weight, age, and sex also body fat composition if you have it.

g'em

OP, it's not a stupid question at all, but there really isn't a "quick fix" available here. Good, wholesome food will help you build muscle, and supplements are an afterthought to that. What's you diet like now?

crotalus667

g'em wrote: »

and supplements are an afterthought to that

Hmmm I hate to have to disagree with you g'em (mainly because your bigger and stronger than me;)) but I do sort of , as far as im concerned the post workout shake (.4g protein and .8g simple carbs per kg of body weight) is a must ok I will agree stuff like createn and no booster’s should not be considered essential , Im also of the opinion that whey (pure whey not the stuff with extras in it) schould be treated like a food source not a supplement

g'em

good point croatalus, PWO nutrition is extremely important. BUT if the rest of your diet sucks, no amount of dextrose/ maltodextrin/ whey/ super-amino-profile shake will really help you reach your goals. I'd rather see someone dial in their diet and then when they have that pretty sorted you can worry about shakes.

People have a tendency to get too caught up in the perfect shake, when in reality what they eat in the 23 hours outisde of the gym will do more for their physique in both the long and short term.

Killme00

Bored-Stupid wrote: »

I suffer from back and groin pain so could you suggest something to help me out here?

Please make sure you do plenty of stretching every day not just with every workout. It will increase your recovery times and also stop most silly little injuries occurring.

wasabi

For your back and groin pain a visit with a physio would be a good idea. They'd be able to figure out the source of the pain, and very probably prescribe exercises to help sort it out, also to check your form on any exercises that could potentially aggravate it. Well worth it.

Sports Med Ireland are good: http://www.sportsmedireland.ie/

Bored-Stupid

Wow thanks each and every one of you for your help I really appreciate it

Boru - Im male, coming on 21 on Saturday (so have a pressie ready), Im 5ft11, 12st, sorry dont know my body fat %,.

Typical days eating (today for example)

7:00am - Bowl of Fruit and Fibre with a Knorr Vie drink

1:00pm - Cajun Chicken with stuffing panini, portion of Garlic Bread and a can of coke

3pm - Bag of Kings Crisps and a can of Fanta

7pm - Sirloin Steak and mash with baked beans and a glass of Avonmore Supermilk!

I know it may not be healthy but you can give my some foods that I should be eating that are full of protein and carbs and have the calories I need.

And also when you talk about changing what areas you work on what is the best daily combo? How much Cardio should I do and is it wise to hit the pool afterwards for a few lengths. I want to build muscle but im not that fit so thats important to me as my family suffer with heart problems!!

Thanks again for all your help and I wish you all a Happy 2008!

Bored-Stupid

crotalus667 wrote: »

Hmmm I hate to have to disagree with you g'em (mainly because your bigger and stronger than me;)) but I do sort of , as far as im concerned the post workout shake (.4g protein and .8g simple carbs per kg of body weight) is a must ok I will agree stuff like createn and no booster’s should not be considered essential , Im also of the opinion that whey (pure whey not the stuff with extras in it) schould be treated like a food source not a supplement

What supplement do you use and does it work?

Roper

Bored-Stupid wrote: »

Wow thanks each and every one of you for your help I really appreciate it

Boru - Im male, coming on 21 on Saturday (so have a pressie ready), Im 5ft11, 12st, sorry dont know my body fat %,.

Typical days eating (today for example)

7:00am - Bowl of Fruit and Fibre with a Knorr Vie drink

1:00pm - Cajun Chicken with stuffing panini, portion of Garlic Bread and a can of coke

3pm - Bag of Kings Crisps and a can of Fanta

7pm - Sirloin Steak and mash with baked beans and a glass of Avonmore Supermilk!

I know it may not be healthy but you can give my some foods that I should be eating that are full of protein and carbs and have the calories I need.

And also when you talk about changing what areas you work on what is the best daily combo? How much Cardio should I do and is it wise to hit the pool afterwards for a few lengths. I want to build muscle but im not that fit so thats important to me as my family suffer with heart problems!!

Thanks again for all your help and I wish you all a Happy 2008!

I'm going to make this very easy for you. Until you can start writing down that you have at least 3 lean meat portions a day, along with as much garden veg as you can eat, don't touch a protein shake. Apart from the steak, there isn't a single thing I'd keep in that diet if I wanted to build muscle.

More lean meat, more veg. Less salt and sugar (ie. no coke, no baked beans). Replace the Fruit and Fibre (yeah the Hamster chow!) with boiled, scrambled or poached eggs. Replace the panini with meat and veg. Replace the garlic bread with a small sign saying "Eat this at parties only". Replace the crisps and Coke with a bag of unsalted nuts and a bottle of water. Keep the steak, in fact, have one all the time! But replace the beans with lots and lots of veg. Then take that meat/veg meal and have it twice in the day.

Hope that helps.

seanieclarke

i see people are advising to eat loads and have a big calorie intake.

but wud the weight he wud put on not be fat? or wud it be muscle because he is working out?

thanks

Beau

Ask your personal trainer about Escalating Density Training, I did it for 6 weeks and it had amazing results. Probably the toughest thing I have ever gone through in a gym but it was bloody worth it and it produced the quickest results I've seen.

seanieclarke

Beau wrote: »

Ask your personal trainer about Escalating Density Training, I did it for 6 weeks and it had amazing results. Probably the toughest thing I have ever gone through in a gym but it was bloody worth it and it produced the quickest results I've seen.

can u briefly say wat it was please?

cheers

Beau

You basically find your 1 rep max on each exercise, start lifting 80% of that. Choose two exercises, say for legs do Squats and Deadlift. Do both exercises back to back for as many reps as possible in a fifteen-minute period. Record your results, next week you'd aim to beat those results. For one session, do about 3 fithteen minute sets with different excersises for different muscles. You can also do one excersise for 10 minutes with short breaks in between,

You'd be surprised how much you improve after 4 to 6 weeks!

crotalus667

Bored-Stupid wrote: »

What supplement do you use and does it work?

At your stage you rely just need a good multi vit and a decent whey NC on capel street have a 20% off sale evry first saterday of the month pop in and ask them for advice , but sort out you diet first you need to be eating a lot more proten 1.5-2g per pound of lean body mass

g'em

Beau wrote: »

You basically find your 1 rep max on each exercise, start lifting 80% of that. Choose two exercises, say for legs do Squats and Deadlift. Do both exercises back to back for as many reps as possible in a fifteen-minute period. Record your results, next week you'd aim to beat those results. For one session, do about 3 fithteen minute sets with different excersises for different muscles. You can also do one excersise for 10 minutes with short breaks in between,

I think it's reasonable to say that this technique is preferable for beginner or intermediate lifters... back-to-back squats and DLs with 80% of my 1RM for 15 minutes? I'd have no CNS left :eek:

mack1

Roper wrote: »

I'm going to make this very easy for you. Until you can start writing down that you have at least 3 lean meat portions a day, along with as much garden veg as you can eat, don't touch a protein shake. Apart from the steak, there isn't a single thing I'd keep in that diet if I wanted to build muscle.

More lean meat, more veg. Less salt and sugar (ie. no coke, no baked beans). Replace the Fruit and Fibre (yeah the Hamster chow!) with boiled, scrambled or poached eggs. Replace the panini with meat and veg. Replace the garlic bread with a small sign saying "Eat this at parties only". Replace the crisps and Coke with a bag of unsalted nuts and a bottle of water. Keep the steak, in fact, have one all the time! But replace the beans with lots and lots of veg. Then take that meat/veg meal and have it twice in the day.

Hope that helps.

QFT - this is excellent advice.

Degsy

I dont see why the meat has to be lean all the time though.Fats are necessary to build muscle just as they are for everyday functioning of the body.Also,i find that a bit of fat in the meat gives a much better flavour than a piece of meat thats completely lean,if you enjoy the food you're more likely to stick with the diet.I used to eat tons of chicken and turkey breasts,no flavour and very little fat,i eventually got sick of them and found i had to have a pork chop,a piece of sirloin,roast beef or whatever to stop the monotony.Obviously,it wouldnt be a good idea to gorge yourself on sausages and fatty bacon every day,but fat in moderation is a good thing.

WHIP IT!

mack1 wrote: »

QFT - this is excellent advice.

Apart from the bit about eating garlic bread at parties!

Who the hell wants to stand beside the bloke that smells like garlic?? C'mon Roper, think Man!

Laslo

Also remember that there's load of information available on-line. Obviously that includes a lot of misinformation too but the more you train and listen to your body, the more you'll understand what works and doesn't work for you when building muscle.

Diet is very important as is getting the balance right between intensity and resistance when you're in the gym. I spent years lifting really heavy weights and, even though I got pretty big, I didn't look great. After a few years of that, I started doing much more cardio and I dropped the weights I was lifting in favour of lighter, more intense resistance workouts. After a while I got my old size back but I was much healthier and ripped. Fitness and muscle should always go hand-in-hand IMO.

Roper

Degsy wrote: »

I dont see why the meat has to be lean all the time though.Fats are necessary to build muscle just as they are for everyday functioning of the body.Also,i find that a bit of fat in the meat gives a much better flavour than a piece of meat thats completely lean,if you enjoy the food you're more likely to stick with the diet.I used to eat tons of chicken and turkey breasts,no flavour and very little fat,i eventually got sick of them and found i had to have a pork chop,a piece of sirloin,roast beef or whatever to stop the monotony.Obviously,it wouldnt be a good idea to gorge yourself on sausages and fatty bacon every day,but fat in moderation is a good thing.

Even the leanest meat contains some fat. When people refer to lean meat they generally mean good cuts, steak, chicken, turkey etc. Whereas fatty meat would be ribs etc.