edickson76 Member

Rip did video tutorials on all the main lifts, which are available on Youtube. Should be very helpful for proper form.

Definitely start lifting now. You have to signal to your body to increase muscle mass. Otherwise, as wolfman said, your gains are just going to be energy stores, aka fat. Solid lifting programs are contained in the lifting program thread, which is in the sticky at the top of the forum. Don't make up your own. Use a…

Check-in: Starting week 4 of maintenance b/c of a patellar tendon injury on the soccer field. The only lower body exercise I can comfortably do right now is RDL. And doc says no heavy stuff on the legs. So, I decided to maintain until I heal, which is another 4-6 weeks. Perhaps then I can finish this cut. I was at 13% BF…

Yes, that is possible, losing 1/2 to 1 pound per week. Diet needs to be geared to a cut rather than a bulk or maintenance. Protein intake will be higher. Workout routine should be a full body beginner routine. The higher protein is to help your body maintain muscle while you burn through the energy in your fat stores. Lift…

What is your current macro split?

With that body fat % you are in range to start a bulk. I'd recommend reading through the links in the sticky at the top of the forum. Also, this article will explain what is going on physiologically: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/initial-body-fat-and-body-composition-changes.html/ You don't need high…

Read through the links at the top of the forum in the sticky. As a beginner, the best exercises for gaining muscle mass are compound exercises. The big four are squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and bench presses. You can use bands for at least three of those; four if you have a bench. If you don't have a bench, use…

If you aren't tracking exercise calories you can just put in the baseline 1 rep 1 minute in the cardio category. That's what I do.

You could get some calipers and see what your body fat % is. If you are about 10% it's time to stop cutting. Just going off the photo, I don't think it will matter (that much) either way. You could also recomp and build muscle while cutting fat more slowly. Depends on how patient you are.

Start with CICO (=calories in calories out). You need to be in a surplus of your maintenance calories (=how many calories you must eat to stay the same weight). Add 250 calories to that (or 500 if you don't mind more fat in your bulk and you want faster muscle gains). You want about 0.8g - 1g of protein per pound of…

I need a t-shirt that says "I'd rather be bulking!" Last week of cut. I want to eat all the things.

I overstated Lyle's numbers, actually. It's 14-16. That's a starting point. Obviously you can adjust up if needed; it is only an estimate. I don't see the point in adding more protein that OP doesn't need. And I disagree with your assessment of what happens to protein. Although the body has pathways to convert protein to…

Sticky at the top of this forum containing link to workouts and bulking for beginners and a thread addressing difficulties gaining weight.

3600 is plenty IMHO. Generally speaking your maintenance or TDEE will be in the range of 15-17 times your body weight. (source: Lyle McDonald at bodyrecomposition.com) Rounding up to 175, you top out under 3K. I suspect you need to adjust your macros. Search youtube for Eric Helms's Nutritional Pyramid and watch it. (It's…

Keep playing. 1. You love it. (As do I) 2. Cardio is good for you. Don't want to be ripped but unable to go up the stairs without gasping for air. 3. As Wolfman said eat more calories. There is nothing wrong with cardio while bulking. You just have to eat more. if your gains have stalled, up intake by 250 and see where you…

As jdog022 said, depends on volume. It also depends on where you are in your weight-lifting. If you are in a beginner phase (i.e., still linear development), you can probably get by on 2 or 3 days a week. Most intermediate programs are 4 days per week (2, rest, 2, rest the weekend). Also depends on age. In high school I…

Read psuLemon's post on hard gainers: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1 You have to change your eating habits to effectively bulk. Whole foods not diet foods.

Finished a 20 month bulk, gaining 20 lbs. Sounds long, but was interrupted by 3 or 4 injuries along the way, including a 5 month layoff [getting old sucks]. Tried my best to eat at maintenance during the 5 month low activity phase, but still lost 4 or 5 pounds of hard work. Now in a maintenance phase for 2 weeks, before…

If your schedule permits, just adjust the workout days to one day later. For example, if you normally go MWF, but you miss M, then go TThSat. Then back to MWF the following week.

Google Eric Helms nutrition pyramid. Watch the videos and implement.

It is water changes. For comparison my weight has changed by 3 lbs. just this week. I weigh in almost every day. Focus on the trend and how you look rather than the number on the scale.

Go here: https://muscleandstrengthpyramids.com/nutrition-videos/ and watch those videos on nutrition. Lift heavy during the cut, and cut down to 10-12% body fat. Follow a lifting routine and aim to retain your current strength. When you reach 10-12%, if you like the way you look, congratulations, eat at maintenance. If you…

Pretty good bet that Sardelsa read that on Lyle McDonald's website. Relevant article is: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html/ Other relevant article on eating at maintenance first before diving into a bulk post-cut (or vice versa):…

I think each is accurate, but operating under different assumptions. For most individuals, maintenance calories tend to be somewhere in the range of 14 to 17 times your weight. So, at the low end, you've got 1876 (14*134) and at the high end 2278 (17*134). My Macros is going at the low end of that range and adding 250…

I can share my somewhat recent cut/bulk cycle. Started cut at 17% bf and dropped 10 lbs. to 8%bf. Now on long bulk so far back 13 lbs. and 12-13% bf. Overall I'm calculating a change of about 8 lbs. of lean body mass.

As others have said, generally speaking you should be fine to work out. That said you may have pulled a muscle (more than a microscopic tear). Monitor your body and see how the workout goes. For example, if during warm-up you are experiencing pain while doing a warmup set, then ease off the intensity or rest it another day.

No. Even if it were all fat. You currently have 24 lbs. of fat (16% of 150 = 24); so dropping 4 would be 20/146 = 13.7%. You will lose some muscle in a cut, but lifting heavy to stimulate muscle growth will limit the loss. I'd say target 10 lbs to lose (assuming 7 lbs. fat and 3 lbs. muscle loss) which would put you just…

Yes, that is recomp. It sounds to me like you are looking for hypertrophy rather than strength; so choose a lifting program focused on hypertrophy that appeals to you. But, since you are wanting to learn now it is worth reading up on all of the beginner programs in the sticky thread. Each program has a link that will…

One week is a very short amount of time for a hamstring injury. From Lyle McDonald: "Most people try to return to training too quickly, before the injury is fully healed and they often do nothing but re-injure it again, losing even more training time. Years ago, my mentor gave me a valuable rule that I follow to this day…

Yes, very possible. Check out first sticky thread in this forum.