Hard for me to gain muscle
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krknobbe10 wrote: »I'm sorry if all of my threads seem the same and same questions, this is just very hard for me to do when I have been watching what I eat for such a long time and have never really got into this gaining muscle thing. But since I've seen other women and I want that look its time to take it seriously instead of the thin look which is gross.
I will add that you need to be prepared for the psychological part of bulking which is that you will lose definition and start to think you are getting fat/bloated/etc....you just need to push through that and keep eating and lifting...
I second mrM's suggestion of the post on bulking, a lot of great info in there...0 -
krknobbe10 wrote: »I'm sorry if all of my threads seem the same and same questions, this is just very hard for me to do when I have been watching what I eat for such a long time and have never really got into this gaining muscle thing. But since I've seen other women and I want that look its time to take it seriously instead of the thin look which is gross.
Bulking/gaining muscle is a mind game and you have to let the "I don't want to get fat" idea go if you want to do it. That's your choice, of course, but you can't avoid putting on some fat. If you want to do a bulk/cut cycle then you should be ready to gain about 5% on our BF% before cutting again at a minimum. If you don't allow yourself to get a little higher on fat before you cut you will just be spinning you wheels.
So in sum, be ready to committ to some fat gain or you will need to change your goals.0 -
Thanks all!0
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I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
They don't put on the amount of muscle they claim. Take Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, he claimed he added 40 lbs of muscle in 3 months. He is misinformed. Increased weight of 40 lbs is not 40 lbs of muscle.
Ben Afleck for the new Batman movie coming out they claimed he added a ton of muscle and was 8% bf. You see the pictures and he basically looks like a guy that added a bunch of weight and is like 20% bf now.
Misconceptions.
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
They don't put on the amount of muscle they claim. Take Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, he claimed he added 40 lbs of muscle in 3 months. He is misinformed. Increased weight of 40 lbs is not 40 lbs of muscle.
Ben Afleck for the new Batman movie coming out they claimed he added a ton of muscle and was 8% bf. You see the pictures and he basically looks like a guy that added a bunch of weight and is like 20% bf now.
Misconceptions.
Plus drugs at times but even that won't give you 10lbs a month in muscle.0 -
Yup, it's hard (nigh impossible) for you to gain muscle because you're cutting. You can say you're not but at 5'6 on 1700, you are.
I'm the same height bulking on 2600ish. It's pointless to try to build muscle without accepting a bit of fat gain. All your protein and training, ATM, is doing is helping maintain the muscle you have (not a bad thing). You need a surplus (and you certainly need carbs) to build muscle.0 -
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.0 -
Would that help me finally start losing some weight again? Maybe I need that.LolBroScience wrote: »
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.
You could have your T levels checked. Low T does cause weight issues.0 -
Would that help me finally start losing some weight again? Maybe I need that.LolBroScience wrote: »
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.
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Would that help me finally start losing some weight again? Maybe I need that.LolBroScience wrote: »
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.
Would it help? Absolutely... Should you do it? This isn't the place for that discussion.
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Yeah everyone does say to get blood tests. I guess maybe that's the next thing to try. It's that or starve myself one 1500 calories a day. 2100 isn't working. It's just kinda crap it's so effortless for every other dude.Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
Would that help me finally start losing some weight again? Maybe I need that.LolBroScience wrote: »
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.
You could have your T levels checked. Low T does cause weight issues.
I told you about a month ago to do that. Go have blood work done.0 -
Yeah everyone does say to get blood tests. I guess maybe that's the next thing to try. It's that or starve myself one 1500 calories a day. 2100 isn't working. It's just kinda crap it's so effortless for every other dude.Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
Would that help me finally start losing some weight again? Maybe I need that.LolBroScience wrote: »
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
Gear.
You could have your T levels checked. Low T does cause weight issues.
I wouldn't say it's effortless for anyone, unless they are very lucky, but worth a check just to make sure everything is in order anyway.0 -
Not enough calories.
Why so much cardio? You're losing what gains you might get with that much cardio.0 -
krknobbe10 wrote: »Any ideas? I'm 5'6 at 137lbs. I am lifting heavy 4 days a week. Eating 1700 calories and getting at least 140g of protein. My lifting program is split days and I do cardio 6 times a week. Cardio for the longest is an hour. For lifting I do 4X8 or 3X12 and some I do until failure. I'm with a trainer right now for another week so the lifting workouts are his plan and I do additional lifting on Saturdays before I run. Saturdays I tend to hit every area of my body like biceps n triceps and quads and shoulder and chest and hamstrings. Any suggestions for anything I should change/switch up? After I am done with my trainer next week, I plan on lifting 5 days a week with doing cardio 5-6 times.
Increase your calories. Cut cardio to twice a week for no more than 30 minutes. When you are done with the trainer look into a hypertrophy program like HST.0 -
Your cals are low for doing all the cardio not to mention over training all together more than likely. To bulk, rest is very important as well as a eating at a surplus. Less is more in cases that you describe. I can't tell you an near number of cals, without knowing cals burned and activity level but assuming your body is in good health you should be well over 2300 cals.
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i feel that you posted a thread less than a month ago about starting a new work out routine or something like that... so with that memory in mind...
it's only been a month. eat more, lift heavy.0 -
Alright I'm going to try and make this simple for you the best that I can. If you're trying to gain muscle, you need to bulk first and you need to eat way more calories than 1700. You should be doing very limited cardio exercises (running, etc..). You should be lifting heavy weights using compound movements, meaning exercises that do NOT focus on just one isolated part.
For example, Pull-ups, Dips, Squats, Deadlifts (any variation), Bench Press, Row (any type), shoulder press, and shrugs. Anyone out there think I'm missing anything? Often times it seems many people don't understand that you use all of your muscles when lifting no matter what exercises you do it's just that some focus more on other muscles than others.
Pull ups and Lat pull downs are focused on the back, particularly your LATS aka wings. Shrugs and shoulder press get your Traps (big portion behind and next to your neck and shoulders). The Rows just get the overall back, particularly the middle and lats. These back exercises all work on your biceps too which is why doing bicep work is very overrated. The biceps do not require that much work, if you're doing intense heavy back you won't need bicep work really.
Diet: You need to eat approx. the same daily grams of protein equivalent to your body weight, a little bit more than that wouldn't hurt. Doing twice the amount you're making your kidneys work super hard and your body doesn't really even use beyond a certain amount of daily protein for muscle repair anyway. Carbs and Fat are your best friend too. Eat a ton of bread, rice, cereal, oatmeal, whatever you like. Eat lots of oils, peanut butter, nuts, avocado, EGGGSSSS!!!! Eggs are great, they have high fat and protein which is what you'll need. Don't worry about cholesterol, they have found that the cholesterol in eggs won't really give you a heart attack and you won't have to worry about that until you're 90 and muscular because you ate eggs
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BMR calculator for the OP is showing 1415 as BMR. OP please do some research. On another thread you mentioned you avoid fat since you do not want to get fat. Learn some basic nutrition. Look up iifym.com for the BMR calculator; read what terms or acronyms mean. In order to gain muscle you'll need to accept you'll gain fat. Recognize you'll need to increase your caloric intake to gain both. If muscle is the driver for you, dramatically reduce your cardio work. YMMV but you probably need to get in a better relationship with food PRIOR to attempting change. Best of luck.0
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Or drugs. It's usually going to be males that have the biggest transformation vs a female.
I see the "it's hard and takes forever" thing all the time. So how do actors do it for roles so quickly? Is it just the amount of training time they have (hours a day vs someone with a normal schedule)?Building muscle is hard and takes a long time. Just focus on making sure you keep progressing strength wise, and eventually the muscles will get bigger too. If you just want more definition, then continue cutting fat and the muscles you already have become more visible.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Gaining muscle includes gaining weight since one is putting on mass. Along with that mass, fat will be included. It's inevitable. The body is an excellent energy storage organism. That's why it's so much easier to get fat than it is to lose weight.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 0 -
_Terrapin_ wrote: »BMR calculator for the OP is showing 1415 as BMR. OP please do some research. On another thread you mentioned you avoid fat since you do not want to get fat. Learn some basic nutrition. Look up iifym.com for the BMR calculator; read what terms or acronyms mean. In order to gain muscle you'll need to accept you'll gain fat. Recognize you'll need to increase your caloric intake to gain both. If muscle is the driver for you, dramatically reduce your cardio work. YMMV but you probably need to get in a better relationship with food PRIOR to attempting change. Best of luck.
All of this.0
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