How to build muscle?

Jamal_Guildford

Hi,

I think the title says everything... I would like to gain a few pounds. I planned to reduce my cardio session from 5 to 3 and add 3 weight lifting sessions instead (see below):

Monday: Cardio (Running, cycling or rowing)
Tuesday: heavy weight lifting (all the muscles: legs, abs, biceps, triceps, chest, shoulder, back)
Wednesday: Cardio (Running, cycling or rowing)
Thursday: heavy weight lifting (all the muscles: legs, abs, biceps, triceps, chest, shoulder, back)
Friday: Cardio (Running, cycling or rowing)
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: rest day or classes or weight lifting session

For the weight lifting session, I am planning to do with heavy weight and low reps. 5x5 for each muscle at my maximum.

For the diet, I usually eat around 350kcal for the breakfast, 750kcal for lunch and 850 kcal for dinner. I was planning to add two whey protein shake (around 500kcal): one between breakfast and lunch and another one after my work out session.

Am I on the right way to bulk?

JoRocka

gaining muscle is two things

progressive lifting program
and
regulated constant surplus.


Is that a specific program- or one you made up?

I highly HIGHLY recommend- lifting more than 2 times a week- and getting on a program- for lifting.
With compound lifts.

And to much cardio- cardio means you have to eat more- do if you want to because you like it- but keep it minimal. More cardio = more food and when bulking- the cardio should not outweigh the lifting- and this program does.

more lifting- more food- less running.

ninerbuff

Also mentioning along with the above that muscle hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic) is more of a response of high volume training. So changing your rep range (8-12) with multiple sets (4-5) for at least 16 sets per body part seems to be consensus. I've personally done it that way when I started and got great results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Jamal_Guildford

gaining muscle is two things

progressive lifting program
and
regulated constant surplus.


Is that a specific program- or one you made up?

I highly HIGHLY recommend- lifting more than 2 times a week- and getting on a program- for lifting.
With compound lifts.

And to much cardio- cardio means you have to eat more- do if you want to because you like it- but keep it minimal. More cardio = more food and when bulking- the cardio should not outweigh the lifting- and this program does.

more lifting- more food- less running.

Ok I am considering lifting three times a week (one session on Sunday). I am not following any specific program, I tried to copy the Strong lift 5x5 with heavy weight and low reps. I am planning to have two sessions A and B:

Session A: Bench Press (5x5), Shoulder Press (5x5), Bicep Curl (5x5), Tricep Extension (5x5), Dead Lift (5x5), Squat (5x5), Palms-up wrist curl (5x5), Weight Crunch (3x30)

Session B: Lying Fly (5x5), Lateral Raise (5x5), Supine Bicep Curl (5x5), Kickback (5x5 for each arm), Wide Row (5x5), Toe Raise (5x5), Palms-up wrist curl (5x5), Weight Leg Raise (3x30)

I am planning to do each set at my maximum. What do you think? Am I doing too much reps?

You did not say anything about the diet.... What do you think? Is there enough food/kcal? I am usually trying to eat high protein foods (milk, peanut butter, eggs, tuna and chicken) and good carbs (brown bread and vegs).

Jamal_Guildford

Also mentioning along with the above that muscle hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic) is more of a response of high volume training. So changing your rep range (8-12) with multiple sets (4-5) for at least 16 sets per body part seems to be consensus. I've personally done it that way when I started and got great results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Hi ninerbuff,

Should I switch my training program in that way:

Session A: Bench Press (5x8), Shoulder Press (5x8), Bicep Curl (5x8), Tricep Extension (5x8), Dead Lift (5x8), Squat (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Crunch (3x30)

Session B: Lying Fly (5x8), Lateral Raise (5x8), Supine Bicep Curl (5x8), Kickback (5x8 for each arm), Wide Row (5x8), Toe Raise (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Leg Raise (3x30)

KarenJanine

To gain weight you need to eat over your TDEE. Do you know what your TDEE is? With the cardio you are doing I would expect it is higher than 2500 cal (your current planned intake).

Try this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Jamal_Guildford

To gain weight you need to eat over your TDEE. Do you know what your TDEE is? With the cardio you are doing I would expect it is higher than 2500 cal (your current planned intake).

Try this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

According to your website, my TDEE is at 300kcal.

Jamal_Guildford

To gain weight you need to eat over your TDEE. Do you know what your TDEE is? With the cardio you are doing I would expect it is higher than 2500 cal (your current planned intake).

Try this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I meant 3000 kcal

KarenJanine

To gain weight you need to eat over your TDEE. Do you know what your TDEE is? With the cardio you are doing I would expect it is higher than 2500 cal (your current planned intake).

Try this calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I meant 3000 kcal

In that case you need to aim to eat around 250 cal over TDEE to gain mass, ie 3250 cals total per day. If you're not gaining enough eat more, if you're gaining too quickly eat less.

Aim to get at least 1g per lb lean body mass of protein and at least 0.35g per lb body weight in fat. The remainder of your calories can come from where you like, although bear in mind that carbs are important when gaining weight.

jlvanderstoel

If you want to stick to two or three weight lifting sessions I would advice you to split it into an upper body and a lower body work out.
However, quitting the cardio and following a split scheme for strength training(aproximately 4 days a week) would seem like a much better idea to me.

mereditheve

Couple thoughts for you:
1 - Your 3x/week plan is too little. Why would you give yourself more rest days than workout days?
2 - The reps are too low for muscle building. Increase reps to 12 per set, and aim for 3 sets to start.
3 - Your exercises don't address muscle groups adequately. For example, you have only 1 tricep exercise and 1 shoulder exercise and your bicep exercises are too similar. Meanwhile, you are ignoring back completely (bent over rows, lat pulldown, seated rows, etc) and what are you doing for legs/abs? Make sure you aren't conveniently overlooking muscle groups that you don't like to exercise -- those are usually the ones that need the most attention.
4 - Eat enough protein and fat, stay hydrated (esp. if you are using creatine), and get plenty of rest
5 - Finally, if your goal is to gain muscle, don't work at your maximum. Work at a pace where you won't injure yourself doing 10-12 reps and gradually increase. You are better off building muscle slowly than injuring yourself.

How much and how often are you currently lifting? Have you followed any programs before?

I don't recommend that you try to customize a plan on your own without having some understanding of what you're doing so you can be sure your plan supports your goals.

CrusaderSam

Also mentioning along with the above that muscle hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic) is more of a response of high volume training. So changing your rep range (8-12) with multiple sets (4-5) for at least 16 sets per body part seems to be consensus. I've personally done it that way when I started and got great results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Not true.

The sarcoplasm is the cytoplasm of a muscle fiber. Most of the sarcoplasm is filled with myofibrils, which are long protein cords composed of myofilaments. The sarcoplasm is also composed of glycogen, which provides energy to the cell with heightened exercise, and myoglobin, the red pigment that stores oxygen until needed for muscular activity. The sarcoplasmic reticulum(SR), also known as the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, forms a network around each myofibril of the muscle fiber. This network is composed of groupings of two dilated end-sacs called terminal cisternae, and a single transverse tubule, or T tubule, which bore through the cell and emerge on the other side; together these three components form the triads that exist within the network of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, in which each T tubule has two terminal cisternae on each side of it. The SR serves as reservoir for calcium ions, in which the T tubule signals the SR to release calcium from the gated membrane channels to stimulate a muscle contraction.

A myoblast is a type of embryonic progenitor cell that differentiates to give rise to muscle cells.

Skeletal muscle fibers are made when myoblasts fuse together; muscle fibers therefore have multiple nuclei (each nucleus originating from a single myoblast). The fusion of myoblasts is specific to skeletal muscle (e.g., biceps brachii) and not cardiac muscle or smooth muscle.

Myoblasts that do not form muscle fibers dedifferentiate back into satellite cells. These satellite cells remain adjacent to a muscle fiber, situated between the sarcolemma and the endomysium (the connective tissue investment that divides the muscle fascicles into individual fibers).

Satellite cells are described as quiescent myoblasts and neighbor muscle fiber sarcolemma. They are crucial for the repair of muscle, but have a very limited ability to replicate. Activated by stimuli such as injury or high mechanical load, satellite cells are required for muscle regeneration in adult organisms. In addition, satellite cells have the capability to also differentiate into bone or fat. In this way, satellite cells have an important role in not only muscle development, but in the maintenance of muscle through adulthood.

Regulation of myogenic differentiation is controlled by two pathways: the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt pathway and the Notch/Hes pathway, which work in a collaborative manner to suppress MyoD transcription. The O subfamily of the forkhead proteins (FOXO) play a critical role in regulation of myogenic differentiation as they stabilize Notch/Hes binding. Research has shown that knockout of FOXO1 in mice increases MyoD expression, altering the distribution of fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myogenesis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_fiber

Jamal_Guildford

Couple thoughts for you:
1 - Your 3x/week plan is too little. Why would you give yourself more rest days than workout days?
2 - The reps are too low for muscle building. Increase reps to 12 per set, and aim for 3 sets to start.
3 - Your exercises don't address muscle groups adequately. For example, you have only 1 tricep exercise and 1 shoulder exercise and your bicep exercises are too similar. Meanwhile, you are ignoring back completely (bent over rows, lat pulldown, seated rows, etc) and what are you doing for legs/abs? Make sure you aren't conveniently overlooking muscle groups that you don't like to exercise -- those are usually the ones that need the most attention.
4 - Eat enough protein and fat, stay hydrated (esp. if you are using creatine), and get plenty of rest
5 - Finally, if your goal is to gain muscle, don't work at your maximum. Work at a pace where you won't injure yourself doing 10-12 reps and gradually increase. You are better off building muscle slowly than injuring yourself.

How much and how often are you currently lifting? Have you followed any programs before?

I don't recommend that you try to customize a plan on your own without having some understanding of what you're doing so you can be sure your plan supports your goals.

I forgot to mention something... I do my weight lifting workout session in my room. It's taking me too much time to do go to the gym 6 times a week (busy with work and private life). So I have a bench and two dumbbells.

People usually recommend low reps and high weight for muscle building. 12 is a high number of reps per set. This is my view....

default

If you wish to bulk, why 3 cardio sessions? I find doing a full body heavy routine impossible for more than a couple weeks, it's too much strain on your system to go heavy on all your groups that many times a week.

As for as the time concern, there's always time, everyone is busy with work and private life you need to make your goals a priority.

jmangini

I'd focus on the big lifts - bench, presses, squats, dead lifts, bent over rows, etc and cut out the cardio. Too much cardio will only make it more difficult to gain weight. And eat big.

bpotts44

Look into Mass Made Simple by Dan John. Great lifting routine.

jmangini

Couple thoughts for you:
1 - Your 3x/week plan is too little. Why would you give yourself more rest days than workout days?
2 - The reps are too low for muscle building. Increase reps to 12 per set, and aim for 3 sets to start.
3 - Your exercises don't address muscle groups adequately. For example, you have only 1 tricep exercise and 1 shoulder exercise and your bicep exercises are too similar. Meanwhile, you are ignoring back completely (bent over rows, lat pulldown, seated rows, etc) and what are you doing for legs/abs? Make sure you aren't conveniently overlooking muscle groups that you don't like to exercise -- those are usually the ones that need the most attention.
4 - Eat enough protein and fat, stay hydrated (esp. if you are using creatine), and get plenty of rest
5 - Finally, if your goal is to gain muscle, don't work at your maximum. Work at a pace where you won't injure yourself doing 10-12 reps and gradually increase. You are better off building muscle slowly than injuring yourself.

How much and how often are you currently lifting? Have you followed any programs before?

I don't recommend that you try to customize a plan on your own without having some understanding of what you're doing so you can be sure your plan supports your goals.

I forgot to mention something... I do my weight lifting workout session in my room. It's taking me too much time to do go to the gym 6 times a week (busy with work and private life). So I have a bench and two dumbbells.

People usually recommend low reps and high weight for muscle building. 12 is a high number of reps per set. This is my view....

everyone is different when it comes to number of reps. I find I get better results in the 12 to 15 rep range but some swear by the 5 to 8 rep range. The general rule of thumb is low reps for strength and higher reps for definition. Strong man competitors live in 5 rep range and body builders generally focus on 8 to 12. Arnold and Stallone did a lot of 15 rep sets. Depends on the look or goal your looking for. Really heavy exercises like dead lifts should be kept to the lower reps so you don't snap your joints up.

ninerbuff

Also mentioning along with the above that muscle hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic) is more of a response of high volume training. So changing your rep range (8-12) with multiple sets (4-5) for at least 16 sets per body part seems to be consensus. I've personally done it that way when I started and got great results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Hi ninerbuff,

Should I switch my training program in that way:

Session A: Bench Press (5x8), Shoulder Press (5x8), Bicep Curl (5x8), Tricep Extension (5x8), Dead Lift (5x8), Squat (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Crunch (3x30)

Session B: Lying Fly (5x8), Lateral Raise (5x8), Supine Bicep Curl (5x8), Kickback (5x8 for each arm), Wide Row (5x8), Toe Raise (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Leg Raise (3x30)

It's a start. Part of any muscle building routine will involve trial and error so see what results you get from that.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Jamal_Guildford

Couple thoughts for you:
1 - Your 3x/week plan is too little. Why would you give yourself more rest days than workout days?
2 - The reps are too low for muscle building. Increase reps to 12 per set, and aim for 3 sets to start.
3 - Your exercises don't address muscle groups adequately. For example, you have only 1 tricep exercise and 1 shoulder exercise and your bicep exercises are too similar. Meanwhile, you are ignoring back completely (bent over rows, lat pulldown, seated rows, etc) and what are you doing for legs/abs? Make sure you aren't conveniently overlooking muscle groups that you don't like to exercise -- those are usually the ones that need the most attention.
4 - Eat enough protein and fat, stay hydrated (esp. if you are using creatine), and get plenty of rest
5 - Finally, if your goal is to gain muscle, don't work at your maximum. Work at a pace where you won't injure yourself doing 10-12 reps and gradually increase. You are better off building muscle slowly than injuring yourself.

How much and how often are you currently lifting? Have you followed any programs before?

I don't recommend that you try to customize a plan on your own without having some understanding of what you're doing so you can be sure your plan supports your goals.

I forgot to mention something... I do my weight lifting workout session in my room. It's taking me too much time to do go to the gym 6 times a week (busy with work and private life). So I have a bench and two dumbbells.

People usually recommend low reps and high weight for muscle building. 12 is a high number of reps per set. This is my view....

everyone is different when it comes to number of reps. I find I get better results in the 12 to 15 rep range but some swear by the 5 to 8 rep range. The general rule of thumb is low reps for strength and higher reps for definition. Strong man competitors live in 5 rep range and body builders generally focus on 8 to 12. Arnold and Stallone did a lot of 15 rep sets. Depends on the look or goal your looking for. Really heavy exercises like dead lifts should be kept to the lower reps so you don't snap your joints up.

Thanks I am going to start with that and see the results. Hopefully I will gain weight and muscle!

jmangini

Also mentioning along with the above that muscle hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic) is more of a response of high volume training. So changing your rep range (8-12) with multiple sets (4-5) for at least 16 sets per body part seems to be consensus. I've personally done it that way when I started and got great results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Hi ninerbuff,

Should I switch my training program in that way:

Session A: Bench Press (5x8), Shoulder Press (5x8), Bicep Curl (5x8), Tricep Extension (5x8), Dead Lift (5x8), Squat (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Crunch (3x30)

Session B: Lying Fly (5x8), Lateral Raise (5x8), Supine Bicep Curl (5x8), Kickback (5x8 for each arm), Wide Row (5x8), Toe Raise (5x8), Palms-up wrist curl (5x8), Weight Leg Raise (3x30)

It's a start. Part of any muscle building routine will involve trial and error so see what results you get from that.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I generally like 5 sets per exercise for chest and squats, 4 sets for shoulders and 3 to 4 sets for tris, bis and abs. But as above mentioned, it's trial and error. Find what works best for you. I don't think as a beginner you will get any more growth from the smaller muscles like bis doing 5 sets instead of 3. I'd increase the volume after you've been training for 3 months. That's generally the point where you will hit a plateau and need to mix it up to shock your muscles into new growth.

MuscleHeadNerd74

Again it is trial and error, to see what works for your body, info you read or receieve will have to be field tested to see what works on you. What you see or read or hear about is great info, and your base, work around to see what you can apply, but always start off with the basics