Want to gain 20lbs of muscle.

[RickS44]

I'm pretty new to weight training so I was wondering if I could get some advice here... I'm 22 and weigh 186 pounds. I used to be obese, at my highest I weighed 364 pounds. I'm unhappy with my body shape at the moment and I'm wanting to gain about 20 pounds in muscle.

Losing all that weight I lost a lot of muscle also so I'm wanting to build it back up so that I can return to more of a normal body shape. However, in the past year or so I've discovered a passion for exercise and keeping fit so I'd actually like to get the best possible results for my body that I can. Rather than just building up a normal amount of muscle I want to actually have a good body or the best I can get.

SO, with that in mind. What workout would you recommend? Pretty much, i'm wanting to build muscle. I've been weight training for the past 3-6 months on and off. For the last 2 months more solidly but now want to take it seriously and actually improve my body.

One last question also. Generally speaking, when one builds around 20 pounds in muscle how long does it take and how much weight should I be expecting to put back on over the course of the muscle gain?

Thanks for your time!

- Rick.

[nrut88]

You can take a few supps and get there pretty fast...

But, if you're new to the ball game I'd probably hold off on that for a while...

[deapee]

Eat around 3400 CLEAN calories a day, 200-225 grams of protein, and you can put on 1-2 pounds of muscle per month. So in 2 years you can gain 20-25 pounds of muscle with no increase in body fat percentage.

[RickS44]

Originally Posted by deapee

Eat around 3400 CLEAN calories a day, 200-225 grams of protein, and you can put on 1-2 pounds of muscle per month. So in 2 years you can gain 20-25 pounds of muscle with no increase in body fat percentage.

If it means gaining weight and doing it in a shorter time I'd much prefer to do that to be honest. I've read that you can gain around 2 pounds in muscle a month, so it'd take what? 8 months to a year to gain about 20 pounds of muscle? I mean i'm pretty new to this but I want to get stuck into it and just get the ball rolling. As i say, i've been using weights for about 6 months now and doing cardio for about 9 months.

What workout program am I looking at here if I want to get this done in around 8 months to a year? If such a thing is possible, excuse me for my lack of knowledge.

- Rick.

[skinnyguy02]

Originally Posted by deapee

Eat around 3400 CLEAN calories a day, 200-225 grams of protein, and you can put on 1-2 pounds of muscle per month. So in 2 years you can gain 20-25 pounds of muscle with no increase in body fat percentage.

nah you can put on a pound or two a WEEK without gaining too much fat.

[skarotum]

Originally Posted by skinnyguy02

nah you can put on a pound or two a WEEK without gaining too much fat.

Ok, so there's 52 weeks in a year. You are saying that a person can gain 52-104 pounds per year in muscle? lol I really have to know where you learned that.

To the op. You can not gain 52-104 lbs a year in muscle. You will be doing good to gain 15 pounds of muscle a year. Which will be very noticeable. However, you will be changing you body composition as well and if done right, you will have lost s bit of fat too. Don't go solely by the scale, take pictures, muscle measurements as well as waist measurements. That will give you a better indication of true gains. But there is no way you will gain 104 lbs a year of muscle.

[bango skank]

Originally Posted by nrut88

You can take a few supps and get there pretty fast...

But, if you're new to the ball game I'd probably hold off on that for a while...

lmao, why don't you just say steroids?

anyhow there's absolutely no reason, NO REASON, for a novice to use steroids. Unless you're a pussy who's afraid to train hard.

My advice:

Do Rippetoe's.
Do read the FAQ.
Do buy the book.
Do ask questions here.
Do Power Cleans.
Do reset your weights.
Do drink a gallon of whole milk every day (if you want to gain muscular bodyweight).
Don't add exercises.
Don't add sets.
Don't change the order.
Don't be stubborn.

[bania]

Originally Posted by RickS44

I'm pretty new to weight training so I was wondering if I could get some advice here... I'm 22 and weigh 186 pounds. I used to be obese, at my highest I weighed 364 pounds. I'm unhappy with my body shape at the moment and I'm wanting to gain about 20 pounds in muscle.

Losing all that weight I lost a lot of muscle also so I'm wanting to build it back up so that I can return to more of a normal body shape. However, in the past year or so I've discovered a passion for exercise and keeping fit so I'd actually like to get the best possible results for my body that I can. Rather than just building up a normal amount of muscle I want to actually have a good body or the best I can get.

SO, with that in mind. What workout would you recommend? Pretty much, i'm wanting to build muscle. I've been weight training for the past 3-6 months on and off. For the last 2 months more solidly but now want to take it seriously and actually improve my body.

One last question also. Generally speaking, when one builds around 20 pounds in muscle how long does it take and how much weight should I be expecting to put back on over the course of the muscle gain?

Since you are new to weight training, if you do things properly, you have the potential to gain 20lbs of muscle relatively quickly. The key to doing so is to:

1. Focus on compound lifts, and forget about most single-joint movements.
2. Eat a LOT of quality food
3. Get a lot of rest.

Best overall mass gains tend to happen when trainees center their routines around heavy high rep squatting OR heavy high rep deadlifting.

Here's a great book dedicated to just what you're looking for:

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Squats-P.../dp/0926888005

The book was discusssed here:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=827392

Since you used to be quite heavy, one thing I would change with his approach is to hold back on the milk. Milk is very high in sugar. There is lower carb milk out there now, though.

[troylcook]

how many times should I work each muscle group a week? It seems like a lot of the workouts recommended on this site work each muscle group (i.e. chest) only once a week. That isn't too much recovery time?

[skinnyguy02]

Originally Posted by skarotum

Ok, so there's 52 weeks in a year. You are saying that a person can gain 52-104 pounds per year in muscle? lol I really have to know where you learned that.

To the op. You can not gain 52-104 lbs a year in muscle. You will be doing good to gain 15 pounds of muscle a year. Which will be very noticeable. However, you will be changing you body composition as well and if done right, you will have lost s bit of fat too. Don't go solely by the scale, take pictures, muscle measurements as well as waist measurements. That will give you a better indication of true gains. But there is no way you will gain 104 lbs a year of muscle.

As a beginner, yes he can gain 1-2 pounds of muscle a week. Of course the gains will taper off but 1-2 pounds is not uncommon beginners, then of course the gains will slow down to 1-2 pounds a month, then so on and so forth, you took my advice way out of context.

[RickS44]

Thanks very much for the advice guys. Some helpful stuff here.

One other question I have is if for example I do the Starting Strength program this pretty much takes care of your whole body right? Also, how long is this program generally used for? How many months?

Thanks.

- Rick.

[RickS44]

Also, how is muscle gain measured? For example, in pounds how do you know/measure how much you've gained?