Trouble making gains

cus7462

I'm a female and I have been lifting for over a year. I lift 3-4 days a week and do cardio on day 4. I have the tall lanky body type so muscle is hard to gain for me. I am 5'6 116. I thought about doing a lean bulkier period for 3 months, then 3 months of increased cardio. And then repeat to see if that speeds up my muscle gain. Anyone have any experience with that or any other ideas?

Inspirationalwaterjug

Figure out your tdee.
Eat that amount until you find what caloric input yields zero change.

Those are your maintenance calories.

Increase calories by 5-10 percent and measure again for entire week.
If you gained weight good; if not increase more.

Using these number continue as normal.
Should you become vastly more active or change programming reasses your maintenance calories and repeat the other steps.

TavistockToad

cus7462 wrote: »

I'm a female and I have been lifting for over a year. I lift 3-4 days a week and do cardio on day 4. I have the tall lanky body type so muscle is hard to gain for me. I am 5'6 116. I thought about doing a lean bulkier period for 3 months, then 3 months of increased cardio. And then repeat to see if that speeds up my muscle gain. Anyone have any experience with that or any other ideas?

How would extra cardio help do you think?

If you're not gaining as much as you want, you need to increase your surplus.

misnomer1

Wait 4 weeks for results. if no gain, no loss then that is your maintenance intake. eat 200-300 more over that amount.

JewelsAU

Trouble making gains either means your lifting program and/or calories are not adequate. You have provided no history, so my best guess is you have been maintaining weight with none to little change in body composition? You are quite thin I imagine at 116 pounds 5'6".

So figure out TDEE if you are not maintaining now, add 250 calories to that and find you a progressive overload lifting program.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you

After your bulk period is over and you move into your cutting phase, adding in some cardiois fine, but you still need to be lifting during this time as well.

cus7462

Okay thank you! I need to add in more calories to gain the weight to put on some muscle essentially. I'm sure I'm not eating enough calories to really put on the muscle.

psuLemon

Id also drop some cardio, especially since you struggle to put on weight. A good rest day would also help with some recovery.