Weight Gainers: Week 2

YeaILift
YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
edited September 22 in Motivation and Support
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Goal for this week is to increase my Barbell Curl, and gain more weight haha.
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Replies

  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Hey YIL, which formula is our "standard" by which we should calc 1 RM?

    Also, on the weight gain thing, I asked sometime back about what's a good rate of weight gain to ensure you're getting muscle and not fat (e.g. gaining 5 lbs in one week is probably more fat than muscle). I think the consensus reply was something like 2-3 lbs / muscle mass gain per month max, more than that would constitute fat. That's why I'm not in too much of a rush to eat way over my maintenance. Thoughts?
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    Hey YIL, which formula is our "standard" by which we should calc 1 RM?

    Also, on the weight gain thing, I asked sometime back about what's a good rate of weight gain to ensure you're getting muscle and not fat (e.g. gaining 5 lbs in one week is probably more fat than muscle). I think the consensus reply was something like 2-3 lbs / muscle mass gain per month max, more than that would constitute fat. That's why I'm not in too much of a rush to eat way over my maintenance. Thoughts?

    I'm using ((Reps / 30) + 1) * Weight since that is the formula my Droid app uses, but honestly it should just be used to show growth. I think if I do this again in a few months I'll take out the goal portion since it is so skewed across the boards. I'm going to already hit two of my goals in a week or two.

    I think that is more directed toward people who have been lifting for 1-2yrs+. Obviously I wouldn't plan on trying to gain 5+ pounds in a month and expect it to be all muscle, but I feel beginners should be able to gain more muscle in shorter amounts of time. So it really depends where you are at. Currently I eat 600 calories over maintenance on workout days and 300 over on non-work out days. I honestly am not that concerned about my weight. I am more worried about my measurements and how I look in the mirror. It is just another measure of growth.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    Definitely no simple answer to how much muscle can be added per week/month etc.

    When I started to bulk I added 400cals to what I thought was maintenance level and I was still stable weight. So I adjusted that up another 500 and now I can gain weight. (except last week :P) Which means I might need to up it again.
  • jdubs1201
    jdubs1201 Posts: 61
    Whoops, forgot to include my weight. No worries... I think my start weight was wrong anyway. I'm at about 159lbs right now (on November 1 I was 150, so I've almost gained 10 lbs!!)
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    I'll update it for next week.

    I can barely walk today after my makeup leg day yesterday. hah
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Thanks for the advice! That's a really good point to differentiate between new lifters or people who've been at it for years. I'm never quite sure where I fit in on this one, I've been lifting off and on for about 12 years now. I'll get into a lifting habit 3 days/week for 4-6 months and then something will happen and 4 years will go by and I start it up again.

    This year I started the year with the intention of losing the weight focussed on caloric deficit and cardio with some lifting in the spring for about 3 months (lost 15 lbs), then come summer I stopped weight training, just did cardio, lost another 10 lbs really really fast and saw I was losing the wrong 10 lbs, became skinny fat (13% bf) at 145 lbs.

    So I started eating over maintenance and lifting seriously again in October, and doing only about 10-15 minutes of higher intensity cardio per day tops, gained a good amount of fat already (surprised how quick that happened) and now one part of me wants to bring my body fat % down, and another part wants to forget about fat at the moment and just put on more muscle mass.

    Doing the math:

    I'd need to lose about 15 lbs of fat at my current state to get to my goal of 10% bf, but that puts me pretty light at 145 lbs which doesn't fit right for me (my bones are big - sounds like a cliche', but I have a broad build and look strange at 145).

    So I'd also want to GAIN 13 lbs of muscle to be at a very comfortable weight of 158~160 and maintain a low body fat.

    I'm gonna try to eat at maintenance for this round of weight gainers and see where it takes me, I think my strength should increase, and possibly my measurements should increase in the right places and decrease in the right places.

    So the question that's going on in my mind is whether I should consider myself a beginner at lifting or someone more experienced. I'm gonna go with beginner simply b/c I've never gone on a lifting stint for more than 6 months.
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    Thanks to jdubs for directing me to week 2 and for the support..Here is my recent update.

    I struggled on deadlifts yesterday morning. I was unable to improve a rep and the weight felt heavier then it did the week before, It was frustrating. I was bothered by it all day and by the time my pm WO rolled around I was raring to go. And I had an excellent heavy upper WO. I beat several previous best lifts from my last training cycle and even hit a PR on flat db presses of 130lbx5 and I was pumped afterwards! tweaked my knee a bit on heavy calf raises yesterday morning but managed to work around it. hopefully next week I can do better on Deadlifts.
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    Hey, Wfs. Are you currently doing about10-15m high intensity cardio per day?
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    I'll update it for next week.

    I can barely walk today after my makeup leg day yesterday. hah

    That is when you know you got the job done
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Hey, Wfs. Are you currently doing about10-15m high intensity cardio per day?

    I run for about 10-15 min and get my heart rate constant at around 85% max, but I wouldn't say I'm at top intensity the whole time... the first 3 minutes is a warmup and I then I start running for a minute, then sprinting for about 3 minutes, then back to running, then sprinting, until the the treadmill stops.

    I do this 4-5 days/week so not everyday. Before when I was focussed on losing weight I'd jog for 45-60 minutes every other day, and do the elliptical on alternating days for the same amount of time.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    Thanks to jdubs for directing me to week 2 and for the support..Here is my recent update.

    I struggled on deadlifts yesterday morning. I was unable to improve a rep and the weight felt heavier then it did the week before, It was frustrating. I was bothered by it all day and by the time my pm WO rolled around I was raring to go. And I had an excellent heavy upper WO. I beat several previous best lifts from my last training cycle and even hit a PR on flat db presses of 130lbx5 and I was pumped afterwards! tweaked my knee a bit on heavy calf raises yesterday morning but managed to work around it. hopefully next week I can do better on Deadlifts.

    Great work mate! (except for the knee of course)

    I started my upper body training setup from Thib in this article yesterday.
    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/look_like_a_bodybuilder_perform_like_an_athlete

    Impressions were:
    This is going to have some serious volume in weeks 2 and 3.
    I was having minimal rest between sets, sometimes just the amount of time to change weight plates and it took an hour including activation exercises.
    All reps were explosive, nothing gruelled out so was happy with my max training weights.

    Also, I made a weight sled for eccentricless leg work that I will be using on Friday :)
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    Hey, Wfs. Are you currently doing about10-15m high intensity cardio per day?

    I run for about 10-15 min and get my heart rate constant at around 85% max, but I wouldn't say I'm at top intensity the whole time... the first 3 minutes is a warmup and I then I start running for a minute, then sprinting for about 3 minutes, then back to running, then sprinting, until the the treadmill stops.

    I do this 4-5 days/week so not everyday. Before when I was focussed on losing weight I'd jog for 45-60 minutes every other day, and do the elliptical on alternating days for the same amount of time.

    Just some food for thought Wfs..You may want to consider doing that cardio about 2 days a week on non weight training days. The reason is because cardio in general but more so higher intensity type cardio is a stressful situation for your body. To much of it will leave you burned out in a hurry. That will cause your WO's to suffer and even worse you'll end up over trained and that opens the door to injury. I do HIIT cardio also but I keep it to twice a week on non lifting days.
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    Thanks to jdubs for directing me to week 2 and for the support..Here is my recent update.

    I struggled on deadlifts yesterday morning. I was unable to improve a rep and the weight felt heavier then it did the week before, It was frustrating. I was bothered by it all day and by the time my pm WO rolled around I was raring to go. And I had an excellent heavy upper WO. I beat several previous best lifts from my last training cycle and even hit a PR on flat db presses of 130lbx5 and I was pumped afterwards! tweaked my knee a bit on heavy calf raises yesterday morning but managed to work around it. hopefully next week I can do better on Deadlifts.

    Great work mate! (except for the knee of course)

    I started my upper body training setup from Thib in this article yesterday.
    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/look_like_a_bodybuilder_perform_like_an_athlete

    Impressions were:
    This is going to have some serious volume in weeks 2 and 3.
    I was having minimal rest between sets, sometimes just the amount of time to change weight plates and it took an hour including activation exercises.
    All reps were explosive, nothing gruelled out so was happy with my max training weights.

    Also, I made a weight sled for eccentricless leg work that I will be using on Friday :)


    Thanks cd! Knee is feeling ok so I think I'll be good to go. Are you following that entire routine from that Thib article?
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    I think ny favorite part of eating so much more is breakfast. 2 eggs, oatmeal, jelly on an english muffin, and half an apple. yum
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Hey, Wfs. Are you currently doing about10-15m high intensity cardio per day?

    I run for about 10-15 min and get my heart rate constant at around 85% max, but I wouldn't say I'm at top intensity the whole time... the first 3 minutes is a warmup and I then I start running for a minute, then sprinting for about 3 minutes, then back to running, then sprinting, until the the treadmill stops.

    I do this 4-5 days/week so not everyday. Before when I was focussed on losing weight I'd jog for 45-60 minutes every other day, and do the elliptical on alternating days for the same amount of time.

    Just some food for thought Wfs..You may want to consider doing that cardio about 2 days a week on non weight training days. The reason is because cardio in general but more so higher intensity type cardio is a stressful situation for your body. To much of it will leave you burned out in a hurry. That will cause your WO's to suffer and even worse you'll end up over trained and that opens the door to injury. I do HIIT cardio also but I keep it to twice a week on non lifting days.

    Thanks for the suggestion MuscleBuilder - I'll cut back on the cardio. Idk if it's from the training or if I'm getting sick, or if it's just the frigid cold we're having (19 F) but I've been out of it for these last couple days. My back is recovered, my left bicep seems just about back to normal, but my energy levels have been low and not had much of an appetite either. Need a jump start of some sort to get back into things.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member


    Thanks cd! Knee is feeling ok so I think I'll be good to go. Are you following that entire routine from that Thib article?

    Because I train mma I can't really do it exactly.

    Mon: mma
    Tue: upper body
    Wed: mma
    Thu: nueral charge
    Fri: lower body
    Sat: mma
    Sun: nueral charge or an actual upper or lower body one if I feel energised.

    That's the plan anyway :)
  • jdubs1201
    jdubs1201 Posts: 61
    I think ny favorite part of eating so much more is breakfast. 2 eggs, oatmeal, jelly on an english muffin, and half an apple. yum

    For some reason I just can't do big breakfasts... maybe that's where I should start trying to change next. After a lifetime of just a bowl of cereal or some little breakfast bar, I can just never stomach big meals first thing in the morning.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    Breakfast and post workout meals are the most important meals of the day :)

    My breakfast is
    1/2 cup oats
    weight watchers drinking chocolate

    NUKE

    Then add 1 scoop whey protein and 1tbspn natural pb.

    500ish cals, good amount of low gi carbs, healthy fats and protein. (eggs would probably be better because of taking longer to digest but eggs and oats didn't seem to go well in the microwave)
  • jdubs1201
    jdubs1201 Posts: 61
    Breakfast and post workout meals are the most important meals of the day :)

    My breakfast is
    1/2 cup oats
    weight watchers drinking chocolate

    NUKE

    Then add 1 scoop whey protein and 1tbspn natural pb.

    500ish cals, good amount of low gi carbs, healthy fats and protein. (eggs would probably be better because of taking longer to digest but eggs and oats didn't seem to go well in the microwave)

    I've been trying to put a protein shake in with breakfast... so I'll eat a 2-pack of nature valley honey & oats bars and have a cytogainer protein shake with it. Ends up being about 600 cals with 40 carbs and almost 30 proteins. Should I be trying to replace that protein shake with actual foods?
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    Breakfast and post workout meals are the most important meals of the day :)

    My breakfast is
    1/2 cup oats
    weight watchers drinking chocolate

    NUKE

    Then add 1 scoop whey protein and 1tbspn natural pb.

    500ish cals, good amount of low gi carbs, healthy fats and protein. (eggs would probably be better because of taking longer to digest but eggs and oats didn't seem to go well in the microwave)

    Yea my girlfriend hates me when I have to work in the morning (up at 5am). I cook my oatmeal, eggs, and heat my biscuit all separately. The eggs have a different power level too so there is a lot of beeping and opening and closing going on. Haha oh well.

    Also, natty peanut butter and oatmeal. Amazing imo.

    I've been trying to put a protein shake in with breakfast... so I'll eat a 2-pack of nature valley honey & oats bars and have a cytogainer protein shake with it. Ends up being about 600 cals with 40 carbs and almost 30 proteins. Should I be trying to replace that protein shake with actual foods?

    I think it is more a matter of how hungry you are and how much money you can spend on supplements. Like today, I was feeling especially hungry so I didn't have my post workout shake or casein shake and instead replaced it with whole food. Just make sure you are hitting your macros.
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Lost the wallet, so I trained in house today. Alternating between pull-ups and pushups. Did:
    4 x 30 pushups
    5 x 9 pullups

    Took a good 2-3 minutes between each set though, seemed to help a lot.

    Then I found my wallet, :happy:

    Will hit the gym on friday and see if there's any improvement. I'm hoping I can bring my squat up, perhaps even my military press as well.
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member


    Thanks cd! Knee is feeling ok so I think I'll be good to go. Are you following that entire routine from that Thib article?

    Because I train mma I can't really do it exactly.

    Mon: mma
    Tue: upper body
    Wed: mma
    Thu: nueral charge
    Fri: lower body
    Sat: mma
    Sun: nueral charge or an actual upper or lower body one if I feel energised.

    That's the plan anyway :)

    Looks like you are training hard..What do you do for your mma training cd?
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
    My breakfast is 1 and 1/4 cup oats. This is also my pre WO meal.
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    I hate to do it because I was really enjoying trying to bulk, but spring break is 11 weeks away and I want to look my best. I won't have enough time if I wait till Jan 3 to start cutting again.

    Sorry guys but I won't be continuing the updates. We could start a thread to talk about workouts if you guys want or even continue to use this one. I'll probably start trying to clean bulk as soon as I get back from Florida.
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    I hate to do it because I was really enjoying trying to bulk, but spring break is 11 weeks away and I want to look my best. I won't have enough time if I wait till Jan 3 to start cutting again.

    Sorry guys but I won't be continuing the updates. We could start a thread to talk about workouts if you guys want or even continue to use this one. I'll probably start trying to clean bulk as soon as I get back from Florida.

    Funny you say that b/c I've been thinking I should get back to cutting also. With that said, I'm not gonna be changing my routine much, actually gonna try to maintain my weight and just try to improve my strength. I've got a feeling I may be able to build some muscle mass while at maintenance anyways.

    Maybe one of us could take over for you with regards to these updates, if you want to share out your spreadsheet. I think you could keep with the group and just make your goals be more about retaining your current 1 RM or still improving it, and not be about weight gaining. As you said, it's not about the weight but about the measurements, you probably wouldn't want to cut only to find you've become weaker or lost muscle mass, this kind of tracking can help ensure that muscle loss is kept to a minimum.

    Anyways, today I was able to improve my 1RM on squats:
    12 x 135 lbs puts me at 189 1RM (Squats)

    Ate a big breakfast and I think that helped.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    A bulk doesn't have to be massive overeating! Why not just do a clean bulk now? That is what I basically did over the last 3 months. Up about 10lbs and minimal fat increase.

    MMA training involves:
    Mon & Wed: start with kick boxing type stuff, kick shields and thai pads usually. Usually about half an hour of this. We also include things like takedowns, sprawls etc. Then we might do some specific takedown/takedown defence wrestling stuff. This is truly the most exhausting! Then we'll do some jui-jitsu technique stuff. Usually get taught a new sweep, submission or escape and do these drills for half an hour or so. Then we finish with about half an hour of random grappling trying to use what we learnt. Session is usually 1.5-2hrs long.

    Sat is conditioning circuits. Last week we did 2mins on 45sec break. Circuits of tractor tyre flips, sledge hammer on tyre, 25lb weighted step ups, then kickboxing, leg machine, rope climbs 24ft (HARD!), ab wheel roll out, 90lb farmers walks and barbell complex (DL, hand cleans, overhead press, good morning, squat). This workout is pretty bloody hard!
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    A bulk doesn't have to be massive overeating! Why not just do a clean bulk now? That is what I basically did over the last 3 months. Up about 10lbs and minimal fat increase.

    MMA training involves:
    Mon & Wed: start with kick boxing type stuff, kick shields and thai pads usually. Usually about half an hour of this. We also include things like takedowns, sprawls etc. Then we might do some specific takedown/takedown defence wrestling stuff. This is truly the most exhausting! Then we'll do some jui-jitsu technique stuff. Usually get taught a new sweep, submission or escape and do these drills for half an hour or so. Then we finish with about half an hour of random grappling trying to use what we learnt. Session is usually 1.5-2hrs long.

    Sat is conditioning circuits. Last week we did 2mins on 45sec break. Circuits of tractor tyre flips, sledge hammer on tyre, 25lb weighted step ups, then kickboxing, leg machine, rope climbs 24ft (HARD!), ab wheel roll out, 90lb farmers walks and barbell complex (DL, hand cleans, overhead press, good morning, squat). This workout is pretty bloody hard!

    I was clean bulking, and I don't plan on changing my routine, just my diet. I'll go back to bulking after spring break, but I want to have the lowest body fat of my life by the time March 5th hits.

    12 weeks: 2000c
    11 weeks: 1800c
    10 weeks: 1750c
    9 weeks: 1700c
    8 weeks: 1650c
    7 weeks: 1600c
    6 weeks: 1550c
    5 weeks: 1450c
    4 weeks: 1400c
    3 weeks: 1350c
    2 weeks: 1325c
    1 week : 1300c
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    I hate to do it because I was really enjoying trying to bulk, but spring break is 11 weeks away and I want to look my best. I won't have enough time if I wait till Jan 3 to start cutting again.

    Sorry guys but I won't be continuing the updates. We could start a thread to talk about workouts if you guys want or even continue to use this one. I'll probably start trying to clean bulk as soon as I get back from Florida.

    Funny you say that b/c I've been thinking I should get back to cutting also. With that said, I'm not gonna be changing my routine much, actually gonna try to maintain my weight and just try to improve my strength. I've got a feeling I may be able to build some muscle mass while at maintenance anyways.

    Maybe one of us could take over for you with regards to these updates, if you want to share out your spreadsheet. I think you could keep with the group and just make your goals be more about retaining your current 1 RM or still improving it, and not be about weight gaining. As you said, it's not about the weight but about the measurements, you probably wouldn't want to cut only to find you've become weaker or lost muscle mass, this kind of tracking can help ensure that muscle loss is kept to a minimum.

    Anyways, today I was able to improve my 1RM on squats:
    12 x 135 lbs puts me at 189 1RM (Squats)

    Ate a big breakfast and I think that helped.


    You're right. I'll keep updating.

    Just in case anyone wants to use the excel sheet in the future.
    http://rapidshare.com/files/435999407/WeightGainers_RoundOne.xlsx

    I'm glad the big breakfast helps. Working out low on carbs definitely isn't ideal.
  • jdubs1201
    jdubs1201 Posts: 61
    Here's my end-of-week stats... YL, thanks for keeping this up even if you're not gonna participate anymore. Just wanna thank you for starting this in the first place - it's really got me excited about my lifting and gaining!

    Weight: 160lbs (woohoo, gained 10lbs since November 1!!)
    Bench Press: 105
    Shoulder Press: 80
    Barbell Curl: 65
    Squat: 115
    Deadlift: 145
  • YeaILift
    YeaILift Posts: 580 Member
    Here's my end-of-week stats... YL, thanks for keeping this up even if you're not gonna participate anymore. Just wanna thank you for starting this in the first place - it's really got me excited about my lifting and gaining!

    Weight: 160lbs (woohoo, gained 10lbs since November 1!!)
    Bench Press: 105
    Shoulder Press: 80
    Barbell Curl: 65
    Squat: 115
    Deadlift: 145

    No problem. It had me really motivated too.

    Did 205x6 on deadlift and 200x6 on squats. I could have probably done a little more on both but my grip on the dead lift always slips even with a hook grip, and I want to make sure I have great form on my squats before I go up too much per week. Looking up at the ceiling really helps with squats. Started lunges at the beginning of the month and they are kicking my *kitten* haha.
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