I want to bulk up

Lazers pew pew

Hi. I'm about 6ft and currently 12 and a half stone.
I love going to the gym and spend at least 30-40 mins doing cardio which makes me lose weight. When i lose weight i look gaunt and it doesnt suit me. When i have a bit of weight (like over the xmas when i stayed away from the gym) it suits me
I dont want to lose any more weight, i actually want to bulk up a bit.
In terms of diet and exercise regime what should i be doing to add muscle.

Thanks

Ouijaboard

I'm a similar build to yourself 6ft/13st very low bodyfat naturally but I was starting weight at about 11st so have made some good improvements in adding weight over the past 18months or so.

I'll explain my mistakes so you can avoid them from the start.

For roughly the first 4 or 5 months I didnt really make very much in terms of gaining weight, I made some gains but not even near what I was hoping for. after a bit of research I realized that during training I was making the following mistakes:

1. Not eating nearly enough; I had a reasonably healthy diet but I was only eating just enough for maintenance, I had totally underestimated how much I should've been eating.
I was probably eating about 80grams less protein per day than I should've been. Try to eat roughly around 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight, so start adding large amount of fish, eggs, meat, milk, cottage cheese to your diet. If you find it hard to eat 5 meals or more a day then consider a whey protein shake to get the extra into your system. At first I found it hard to force food into my mouth but gradually you get used to it. Try eat small amounts every 3hrs or so.

2. Silly training, I was doing split workout with way too many isolation exercises and not concentrating enough on the basic compound exercises.
Concentrate a couple of days a week training doing the basics...Squat, Bench press, deadlifts, military press, barbell or dumbell rows. dont be too interested in trying to improve the lateral head of the triceps or the inner chest etc. Its totally pointless. Most starters make the mistake of trying to impress in the gym by how much they can bicep curl or how much they can move on the pec deck machine. The compound exercises will really make you add muscle on the main large muscle parts. Doing heavy deadlifts, barbell rows (chins if you can do em) etc will indirectly add more to your arms in the first 6 months than any bicep exercises. Isolation exercises can be added down the line.
Have a look at this thread to get a good workout program:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

3. too much cardio, used to do about 30 mins 3 times a week.
You can keep some cardio in but I just cut it completely for a while an slowly started started incorporating it back in, Its good to do some but if trying to bulk cut it to a minimum for a while. If you notice a bit too much food going to your waist then step it up a bit as needed.

Right let me know how it goes six months down the line

Lazers pew pew

great post
after a bit of research yesterday i found out that compound exercises are the way to go
i found this website where it shows you all the compound exercises and instructional videos
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm

as for diet change, yeah i know, i really need to focus on it
i'll give the whey shakes a go as well

have you a toned defined body today?

Ouijaboard

managed to keep the ould waist at 32" or so, it did go up about an inch but I've no prob with that.
I guess I'm genetically the the lean toned low bodyfat type (ectomorphic i think the call it) so never really put on much in the line of bodyfat. Also find it easy to lose any additional fat that came on from large eating, suppose i'm lucky enough in that way, i do a bit of cardio but never did a crunch or situp in my life and still have a six pack

My main prob when i started was skinny forearms and skinny legs syndrome. And they have responded well from training but it was only after my thighs and chest/back grew that they responded in proportion.

yeah thats a good site that you posted for reference to exercises/diet etc.
another great site is http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
has pretty much every muscle in the human body and exercises that hit them.

Best of luck in your campaign, you shouldnt have too much bother since you were used to the routine of going to gym anyway. Its the people that never went to gym in their life that find it a real struggle to change bad exercise/eating habits once they hit late twenty's early thirtys.

lolo2

cougar1 wrote: »

Its the people that never went to gym in their life that find it a real struggle to change bad exercise/eating habits once they hit late twenty's early thirtys.

so bloody true, it took me a long time to realise I couldnt eat 3,500 calories a day, do no exersize and still be 7 1/2 stone! Hit the age of 22, throw in the pill and were up two stone in no time. At least the weight gain made me discover the joys of exersize though, now ill never go back!