Gaining weight from 135 to 155lbs!

First, set more realistic expectations. Men can generally gain about 2 lbs of muscle a month. So if you gained 20 lbs in 2.5 to 3 months (which you can), only 5-6 lbs of the 20 would be muscle. The rest would be fat, unless you are on anabolic steroids.

Second, this list has a bunch of workouts. Follow one of those. They will provide balanced gains.

Third, if you want to minimize fat gains, then you want to slow bulk, so your surplus should be 250 or 10% over your TDEE/maintenance calories. Protein should be .8-1g per lb of muscle (roughly .6-.8g per lb of weight). Fats around .35g/lb of lbm. Rest carbs.

You are skinny / skinny-fat. It is good that you want to gain weight as you have great potential to grow, and at your age, you will make exceptional progress.

Do a proper beginner lifting program. Starting Strength, Strong Lifts, Ice Cream Fitness 5x5 all come to mind. These are highly recommended for a number of reasons:
-They are designed by those who have trained a large number of novices and see what an optimal program is
-You start at a low weight, and rapidly progress
-The progression is great - you add weight for each lift every time you do it. I.e. You squat 3 times a week, with +5lbs added every time. That means every week your lifts are +15lbs heavier than before, and ever month you progress +60lbs. We call this noob gains, because only a novice can make such rapid progression. In 3 months, your squat and deadlift goes up by +180lbs, and your bench and overhead press gain +90lbs (assuming you are eating at a surplus, and do not stall on form issues). Show me any other program that boasts these kinds of gains.
-Your goal is to reach 5 reps of: squat x 1.5 bodyweight, benchpress x 1 BW, deadlift x2 BW, and overhead press x0.75BW. So at your ideal goal weight of 155lbs, you should aim for 230lbs squat, 155lbs bench, 300lbs deadlift, and 115lbs overhead press. These are great strength and mass gains for ~6 months of training.
-After this, you can upgrade to a intermediate program of your choosing (i.e. focus on strength or aesthetics).

Read this about program (applies to all 3 I've listed). I would recommend starting with Starting Strenght or Strong Lift, and then adding accessory work after 1-2 months as recommended in point #6 or switching to ICF if you want aesthetics (3x5 instead of 5x5).

Foodwise, you need to eat. Eating a caloric surplus is just as important as going to the gym. It will feel like a full time job until you get the hang of it. Simply go on google, calculate your TDEE, eat that amount +500 calories for 1lb of weight gain a week. Do not surpass 500 calories over TDEE as it will result in too much fat gains (you can only build a certain amount of muscle at a given rate). So for 20lbs of weight gain, that is exactly 5 months, which is perfect on these novice lifting programs.


Personal Advice: Leave your ego at the door. Start light so that you can lift heavy in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, and beyond. The difference between exercise and training is that exercise only gets you sweaty and sore, while training has a clear measurable goal (i.e. lift x weight in y months). That means starting out lighter early on so that you can lift much heavier later.

Form Videos:
How To Squat
Look through his videos for How To Bench/Deadlift/Row/Overhead Press.

CHEERS!

Do sets efficiently and eat more calories? Typical common sense. Choose exercises that you like, go online and search. Figure out your TDEE calories and play/adjust around to see what works...there's only such much advice that can be given but it is all about YOUR trial and error.

cypresslb wrote: »

883xlsportster wrote: »

Stay away from behind the neck anything. Keep a eye on your shoulder rotation.

Bad advice

My advice is stay away from behind the neck pressing and pulldowns too.

What makes you think this is bad advice?

on top of the advices given - dump your serious mass waste of money crap and focus on real food.
Serious mass or anything similar becomes useful when you are on a high to very high caloric consumption and find it difficult to eat all of it in food.

Good news! You're 18 and can put on a good bit of mass in a shorter amount of time than a guy in his 30s or 40s. But 20 pounds in 2 months is not advisable. Better to get on a hard lifting program with an emphasis on hypertrophy and eat lots of nutritious food. But it is going to take real work on your part. You can't do it on a 3-day a week, an hour a day with little to no progressive load.

One route you could take (there are many, and this is just a suggestion):

First start with Starting Strength or 5x5 to learn the basics. Learning to lift is important. http://startingstrength.com

Then move to the PHAT program. http://www.simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html http://www.directlyfitness.com/store/p-h-a-t-training-layne-nortons-workout-system/

Give it a year, not two months. And if you feel too tired after workouts, you're probably not eating enough and need to eat more.

cypresslb wrote: »

Considering that EMG studies show more recruitment in behind the neck OHP and studies across the board on athletes find that improper technique is the most common way to injure yourself, I wouldn't throw out an effective exercise. You can impinge your shoulders easily via benching, do you recommend people don't bench? Not keeping a neutral spine in a squat or deadlift spikes shear pressure on your spine and can lead to serious injuries with appropriate weight. Would you tell someone to avoid those?

My point is it's an effective exercise and when you maintain any semblance of form you'll be fine. Olympic lifts are still the most dangerous ones and Olympic lifting is the favorite of the world.

Of course one should use proper form on all exercises.

Proper form on the squat and deadlift will indeed protect your back.

Proper form on the bench, tucking your elbows will spare your shoulders, by not flaring them out into external rotation.

But, proper form on the behind the neck press, puts your shoulders in an externally rotated position, which increases pressure and the likelihood of damaging the rotator cuff.

So actually using proper form on the behind the neck press, puts you at risk.

There are safer options, like the military press and DB OHP, it's just not worth the risk to the rotator cuff.