Need help on gaining muscle mass

TxFirefighter77

Hi! I'm new to this site! My wife has been on here for a while and told me it could help me reach my goals! I'm 6'0 191 lbs I want to gain muscle mass, but also wanting to keep my abs! I really want bigger arms, chest and shoulders! Any advice?

PunkyG210

I really don't know anything about building muscle mass, but I can tell you that Beachbody has a program called "Body Beast" that supposedly will help you build muscle mass. It might be something to check out. And, just so you know, I'm not affiliated with Beachbody although I have done some of their programs.

GuybrushThreepw00d

Time to look at bulking over winter..
Bodybuilding.com has a lot of resource you might want to read.

TxFirefighter77

Thanks for tha help

wellbert

leangains.

HeidiHoMom

Lift heavy weights and eat slightly above your maintenance level (like a hundred or so cals extra). You won't put on any real muscle mass if you are eating in a deficit.

toddis

Strong Lifts 5x5 or Leangains are good websites.
Starting Strength and Maximum Strength are good books.
Omarisuf aka Chef Buff is who i watch for advice on youtube about lifting and caloric intake for gaining strength.

kuntry_navy

protein

HeidiMightyRawr

Lift heavy weights and eat slightly above your maintenance level (like a hundred or so cals extra). You won't put on any real muscle mass if you are eating in a deficit.

This!
1) Lift heavy
2) Eat above maintenance
3) Get enough protein

You may start to lose your abs a little, as fat gain will come alongside muscle gain, but eating above maintenance is the best way to gain muscle. After you've gained some, you can then focus on losing a little body fat in a deficit to get the abs back, while maintaining your muscle if that's what you wish.

FitandFab33

USE THIS!! It's pretty much amazing... and IF doesn't have to mean fasting for days- I do 14-10 or 16-8 (and I'm a breastfeeding mom) and I workout fasted (with MORE energy than I have if I workout fed).

http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

deadliftfan

Strength training and hypertrophy training is slightly different. Stronglifts is more powerlifting style. Hypertrophy (bigger muscles) generally requires higher reps (10-12).

In addition to what everyone else's said,

- Forget machines. Use free weights and do compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull ups, bent over rows etc.
- Testosterone is key. Make sure your diet includes enough cholesterol (from eggs, beef etc), vitamin D, zinc etc.
- Take creatine, beta alanine and fish oil supplements as a minimum.

You're going to put on some fat (and water, glycogen) etc when you're eating above maintenance. There's no way to avoid this unless you want to go down the illegal AAS path. Once you've put in enough muscle, you can cut to get your abs back.

TxFirefighter77

Hydrotrophy is it. I'm gonna start later today for Atleast two 8wk cycles. Thanks peps

darrensurrey

You will find MFP useful for logging your food intake so you can tweak things if you find you're getting too lardy or your muscles are not growing (ie you're not eating enough). That's the theory, anyway.

As someone mentioned above, it's about hypertrophy. But also technique:
Kai Greene - I'll Never be A Weightlifter: http://youtu.be/m8wZNGL4iA4

TxFirefighter77

Yesterday and today has surprised me on how unhealthy I've been eating. People have been telling me protein but I take gold standard. Thanks for tha help. And yes form is important to me.

SHBoss1673

there's two ways to gain muscle mass (essentially), the faster way, bulking with a relatively large calorie surplus, and the slower way, essentially keeping the lean program with a small calorie surplus.

Traditional bulking will add mass faster but will also add a larger percentage of fat. You can gain up to 2 lbs a month of mass while bulking (in rare cases, even more), but you'll probably add about 1 lb a month of fat as well, there's no easy way to avoid it using this method. On the up side, it's generally pretty easy to remove the fat after you finish a bulking phase.

The newer method is to have a very small surplus of calories, raising your protein levels to around 40% (anything over 40% doesn't help mass growth at all, despite what some forums say, there's no science to back up extremely high protein diets over diets of about 30 to 40% protein). Along with the small calorie surplus you would continue with the traditional mix of weight training, HIIT training, and cardio. of course your maximum lean mass increases are a lot lower, usually around 1/2 to 1 lb per month depending on how dedicated you are.

The TYPE of mass building would depend mainly on the type of exercise you are performing. I.E. if you want overall functional mass increases and strength increases, you exercise one way. If you're looking for straight size increases, you do it another way, and if you're looking for increases in endurance muscle mass you do it a third way. But you didn't specify so I won't get into that.

Regardless of the way you do it, you WILL gain fat, the question is whether you are willing to sacrifice speed for fat gain.

SideSteel

Lift heavy weights and eat slightly above your maintenance level (like a hundred or so cals extra). You won't put on any real muscle mass if you are eating in a deficit.

This!
1) Lift heavy
2) Eat above maintenance
3) Get enough protein

^ This.

Lift_hard_eat_big

Lift heavy weights and eat slightly above your maintenance level (like a hundred or so cals extra). You won't put on any real muscle mass if you are eating in a deficit.

Exactly, not unless if you're on the juice.

eblack25

hi everyone my wife uses this site to help her loose and told me could help me gain im 5'11" and 180 i want to gain lean muscle and weigh about 200 my twin is this and he looks great would like to not be the skinny guy anymore. anyone can add me as long as you give me tips to improve thanks.