Weight Gain

Greer_

I'm 17 and do a fair bit of cycling as well as the gym at least 3 times a week + rugby in school. There's not a lot of fat on me and what fat there is is muscle yet my hip bones stick out and you can see at least one rib. It's not as bad as it sounds! But I'm looking to find out what the best way to put on a bit if weight is? I don't really want to use bodybuilder stuff like creatine etc

Thanks in advance :?

rebel_brown

Eat more!

Anonymous

Greer_ wrote:

what fat there is is muscle

Fat is NOT muscle.

MountainMonster

Just to second what yehaa said, that is in no way muscle if it jiggles and wiggles about.

To put weight on eat lots of red meat, and train the areas you want to gain weight on, such as your stomach as you say.

Anonymous

Also, don't worry about it too much. Muscle will build up the more you use them. Especially at 17

gilesjuk

Get a singlespeed, you'll have big muscular legs in no time.

saintdracula

gilesjuk wrote:

Get a singlespeed, you'll have big muscular legs in no time.

AidanR

You'll probably get better advice on a forum other than cycling...! Lift proper weights, none of this split-set bicep curls vanity sh*t. Check out http://stronglifts.com/ and http://www.leangains.com/

You don't have to want to be a massive hulking guy to benefit from some of the wisdom on these sites!

Prioritise shorter interval work over longer cardio work. Eat good quality protein, i.e. meat, eggs, fish - vegetable-based proteins don't have a complete range of amino acids so aren't as good.

MountainMonster

Vegetables are wank anyways, except broccoli. Meat and potatos and bread for the win!

Greer_

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Greer_ wrote:

what fat there is is muscle

Fat is NOT muscle.

Just worded it wrong

Thanks, its pretty much just a case of eating the right foods then. A lot easier said than done but i'll give it a good go!

Greer_

Felix125 wrote:

Hi dear,

You should focus on your foods for maintaining your weight and join a gym for muscles building.
Eat healthy foods such as meat, eggs, fish, milk, butter, rice, fresh fruits and vegetables especially apple, pomegranate, pineapple, potato, cauliflower, and carrot for weight gaining.

Thanks for the reply, almost a year old though lol!

Just hit 70kg, 5ft 11, so it could be going worse! But I'm happy enough, still trying to hide my lower ribs however! I'm getting out usually once to twice a week for 20 mile rides (no gym membership now and rugby season is just about over for me)

Greer_

More like 6 months :oops: lol

jfry94

could be worse. could need to loose it like me :P tbh just eat right maybe increase protein and just ride more

Greer_

jfry94 wrote:

could be worse. could need to loose it like me :P tbh just eat right maybe increase protein and just ride more

Yeah this doesn't seem like a frequent/common problem on this forum!

Rankles

Ok I have to say Mountain Monster has made two TERRIBLE posts.

First off, red meat does not 'increase weight'. If anything eating a lot of carbs etc will help this, but you need protein for recovery from the foods described in Aidans post. Good site links too.

What mountain monster said about spot training is not true either, you can't 'train the bits you want to gain weight on' in the same way you can't spot train the bits you want to lose weight on. Gaining muscle requires balanced strength training. Focusing on only one or two muscle groups will cause all kinds of posture and other problems. If you're starting out, train your chest/back together, your legs/shoulders together and your arms when you have time. Do abdominals after every workout or during.

The second mountain monster post I'm not sure is a joke. If you are following aidans correct advice of intensity and strength training over cardio and you want a lean, muscular figure you will need to avoid processed carbs starchy carbs like bread, pasta and potatoes. Only eat these when you're doing cardio work.

To summarise

Lean, muscular and increasing muscle - interval training, not endurance cardio. Strength training 3 sets of 8-10 reps. 35:45:20 carbs protein fat ratio getting carbs only from vegetables and the occasional portion of unprocessed (brown) grains and low GI foods.

Lean, endurance or race fit cycling - endurance cardio, interval training, sparse maintenance strength training (3 sets of 10-12 reps) 40:40:20 carbs protein fat ratio.

I've probably bitten off more than I can chew trying to cram that into one post but I'm sure others will elaborate if need be

James0911

And also beginners to weight training really needed to forget all these bicep curls and tricep extension etc.
Focus on the core lifts... Squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, pull ups, dips etc. Every body is different, however there are some VERY tried and tested routines that work for "most people" mark rippetoes starting strength is possible the most well known, and strong lifts 5x5(although it's basically just starting strength with two extra sets)
I personally had good gains on starting strength but, I find a push,pull,legs routine more suited to me. Something like this....
Push, pull, legs

Monday - Pull
Deadlifts - 4 sets x 6 reps
Barbell rows - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Pullups - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Barbell curls - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps

Wednesday - Push
Flat bench press - 4 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Incline bench press - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Military press - 4 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Dips - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps

Friday - Legs
Squats - 4 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Lunges - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps
SLDL - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps
Standing calf raises - 3 sets x 6 - 10 reps


But again I wouldn't recommend doing this type of routine until you have mastered the core movements. And NEVER forget to squat... There is no better exercise for firing your body into "hyper-growth" mode!

And most importantly...
EAT big
LIFT big
GET big

Lecture over lol
James

ollie51

Rankles wrote:

Lean, endurance or race fit cycling - endurance cardio, interval training, sparse maintenance strength training (3 sets of 10-12 reps) 40:40:20 carbs protein fat ratio.

The advice from a professional nutritionist got was for 60:30:10, for endurance athletes - rememebering that carbohydrate should be the primary fuel of cyclists.

Also, 70kg at 5'11 isn't really that light - I'm 5'10" and 55kg.

mcnultycop

James0911 wrote:

And NEVER forget to squat... There is no better exercise for firing your body into "hyper-growth" mode!

This.

Stronglifts as mentioned above has done wonders for me.

OCLV74

The Single most important thing to increase in size is rest, if you want size, cut aerobic stuff completely, eat 5 or 6 times a day, not normal meal portions, I mean say a third of your normal amount, just 6 times a day. Rest, rest and rest. It's really hard to lay off the weights when you are wanting to improve, but try only to train every 3rd day, and use the compound lifts. I'd personally not go for more than 3 to 4 sets of 4 -5 reps max. Get a good training partner and after 6-8 weeks get them to spot you the final rep.

You should grow, it worked for me after 3 years of struggling to get past 12 stone. Also, be aware that your testosterone will increase naturally around your mid-twenties, and that makes a world of difference!

DCR00

OCLV74 wrote:

The Single most important thing to increase in size is rest

hell yes, totally agree with this. Rest is massively underestimated.

OCLV74 wrote:

use the compound lifts

this

OCLV74 wrote:

I'd personally not go for more than 3 to 4 sets of 4 -5 reps max

not sure about this. This rep range is usually used for power lifting, which isn't suitable for hypertrophy (8-12 reps)

OCLV74

DCR00, like I said, it worked for me, and I was a 'classic hard-gainer', mind I overtrained like a fool, but I personally found no more than 6 reps in a set worked.. To me that was the fun of training, trying different stuff til you found one that worked! Then I reached 26 and found just looking at weights stuck muscle on. Got to 30 and I didn't even need to go to the gym, just some heavy work landscaping the garden or helping a mate with his extension shoved the muscle on. The stuff that naturally occurs from your nads at roughly 25-35 shows why these top atheletes are all juicing testosterone, and I won't mention the female bodybuilding fraternity.

Edit: Or their beards!