Multi-goal 17yr old Meso needing training tips

[Jace K]

Hi. This will be relatively long, sorry!

I've been reading this site for a good few months now and I've learnt a great deal from it. The problem for me is that there's almost too much good information, and a lot of it obviously doesn't relate exactly to my goals and to my body.. plainly it can't. I realised what I needed was almost a personal trainer, or anyone with decent experience with bodybuilding to "coach" me, or not even that, just advise me.

I've turned to the forums because I know there's a whole bunch of really switched on people out there that can help me, and I'm hoping a few will be able to give me a little bit of time. I'm only talking one off, not a weekly coach or anything. But I do have quite a lot of specific questions, and really need someone in the know to put in a bit of time reading the rest of my post, getting to know "me" as it were, and advising me the best way to go about achieving what I want to achieve. A tall order I know!

Background then. I'm 16, 17 start of the next year, and I'm a mesomorph. I'm 6'1" (185cm) and I weigh 160lbs (72kilos) which apparantly gives me a BMI of around 21. I'm physically fit, I play a lot of sports, gymnastics and the like. I have three main goals, in order of strict importance.

1) Pack on upper body muscle mass
2) Increase Vertical leap
3) Increase general cardio/stamina

1) This is the biggest one obviously, and I guess the hardest. I'm looking to beef up my entire upper frame, but in particular my chest and shoulders.

2) This is mainly for basketball, but also for parkour (free running if you know it by that name?)

3) Just general stamina fitness. Being able to run further, faster. Having the endurance to play straight through 4 quarters of high school basketball with little drop in playing standard.

They are in strict order of importance like I said, so the mass building is far and away the main goal.


What I need from you

Ok before I go on, I should say exactly what I want before I lose those that have kept reading so far! I basically need you to help me work out a weekly training program using what I have that will accomplish the goals above. I'll give more details now


What I have available (exercises I can do etc.)

Weights wise, I have a bench (not really incline or declineable, but I could if needed) and a barbell and a pair of dumbells. I've got plenty of weights so I can make them as heavy as I need. I don't have access to a gym, so this is where it starts to get interesting I guess. So the exercises available are any you can think of that you can do with a pair of dumbells, a barbell and a bench. I can do handstand pushups if that's something else that I could include, and obviously any other bodyweight exercise, or exercise you can do around the house.

I have plenty of 100% whey powder to help with getting enough protein, and I take vitamin tablets every day. I can also eat enough to put on the weight (600g carbs, 150-200g protein a day etc.). I just need to get my weekly training routine down.


When I can train

Obviously, I'm still in education, so my life is already structured around that. I like to train late, last thing before bed usually, tires me out for bed nicely, so that means I can train any evening of the week. However, I would like to keep friday and saturday night free for obvious reasons; I wouldn't want to stray from my routine, so if it avoids those nights from the start it'll be easier I imagine. So that's sunday through thursday I can train.


Some more specific problem/issues I need advice with. Are goals 1 and 3 contradictory? (mass building, and endurance/stamina) Running would naturally help my stamina, but would it give me problems with gaining mass? Or would eating enough be enough to counter it? Can I do both at the same time in other words, or does doing one defeat the purpose of the other one and vice versa? Can you still get better at endurance while packing muscle? (again, priority wise, I'd rather pack the muscle than get the endurance if I had to choose and couldn't do both).


The other thing is rest and exercise variation. In the past I had tried a twice a week thing, where I'd do an identical workout consisting of the bench press, dumbell flyes, and bicep curls. I did notice gains, but the rest I needed between each intense session meant I could do it a max of twice a week, and couldn't exercise other body parts (eg. couldn't do handstand pressups for my shoulders, because my triceps would be knackered from the bench press)

I have learnt that a varied routine is better, in that you shouldn't do the exact same exercises every session. I'm guessing this would also mean I could train more often during the week (I could train one body part while resting another for example) which would be good, because I seem to need a lot of rest (3 days) after an intense session on a muscle, which I think is normal anyway.

I think I'm about done with the information. Hopefully now you have a good picture of me and my goals, so I hope you can help. The main thing is just getting a good routine down. In this sort of format

Sunday: (insert exercise) (insert exercise) etc.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:

Friday: REST
Saturday: REST

I understand that It'd really be best to make my own workout, but to be honest, I'm just not sure how. What exercises are the best for overall upper body building? How often during a week should each body part be trained? And should I for example, concentrate on arms on sunday, then while they rest, do some vertical leap practice monday, along with abs or something, going back to arms on wednesday or something, and back to vertical leap practice on the thursday? Should I be doing an endurance run every day? Every other day? Or like I asked before, does that hinder my mass gains?

That's an example of what I'm trying to achieve, training a lot in a short space of time by staggering it so that some body parts rest while I'm working others. The thing is, I don't know exactly which exercises are best for upper body mass increases, or vertical leap, and which exercises combine with which others, and which should be avoided doing at the same time. (for example, was it a good idea doing flyes and wide grip bench press in the same workout? Or was that overloading my chest?)


I will check this thread very often, so if you need to know more, please don't hesitate in asking me. If you have any input at all, can answer any of the questions I've asked above, please do so. And if you can take it upon yourself to design a weekly routine for me using the equipment I have available (or even just help me design one and critique it), then I would be so incredibly grateful to you.

Thank you so much for reading everything I've written so far, and thank you so very much in advance for any and all help you give me!

Jason