Newbie, some rather off beat, silly questions I suppose.

[vahtryn]

Well I suppose I should give a little back ground. I'm one of those people that just really doesn't gain weight. I stay between 120 and 150 pounds for most of my life. My weight fluctuates depending on if I'm employed or unemployed. I spent the last 15 months being unemployed in San Francisco just to party it up and see what the hell I really wanted to try to do with my life, you know find yourself mentally. Mental health is just as good as physical if you ask me.

I've also been a smoker for the past fourteen years, just recently quit (just finished day number three and I still refuse to buy cigarettes). I know that I have used cigarettes for most of my life as a way to stop from eating meals as they cause your body to burn off sugars that are stored, great way to make sure you don't eat when you can't afford to buy food for a week or so.

Since I got my new job about a month ago I've put on about 15 pounds. Sure some of it is probably fat but some of it is also muscle. I get my cardiovascular work out by skate boarding all over San Francisco and Berkeley. It's how I grocery shop in SF, it's how I commute from the BART to the office and back, also how I go find places to eat while I'm out there. I can now skate 6 miles daily without stopping, which is difficult in the afternoons as it's all up hill but I figure as my lungs clear out I'll have no problems with it. A long board would make for a better work out that way but I have yet to either build or make one yet.

Here's what my goals really are in all of this. I've never been physically strong, just strong enough to force my body to do what it needs to do (I've had to work on the farm growing up, and I've had to carry speakers when I was a live sound engineer). I'm tired of always having to struggle or force myself to do something that involves quite a bit of weight. I'm also not looking to put on massive amounts of body mass. I'd much rather stay smaller than be huge. Some of the things I do, such as urban exploring, are much easier being a smaller person than a bigger person.

I wouldn't really want to bust out of the border line medium/large tshirt/jacket/hoodie size on my upper body. I also really don't want to get far beyond wearing a 32x32 pants (they're about 2 inches too big where I'm at now, so I figure I have some room to grow).

I would also like to have definition. While I'm not fat, I'm not exactly in the best shape or best looking.

Food wise I average between 1.5k to 2k calories a day. Usually in the form of fresh vegetables and meats that either I or my gal cook. I do have a passion for going out for food as well to experience new flavours. Never gorge myself as I take left overs home. Rarely do the fast food thing because it's no where close to where I live, commute or work. I am an avid beer, whiskey and wine drinker. I love the flavours, I love making beer, and I love pairing all three together with the meals I create or purchase when out.

I've just started using free weights, doing curls and lifting my shoulders in various directions. I've also started doing "bench" presses with them along with push ups. I've also picked up a sit up bar that attaches to my bathroom door to do curls and sit ups. it's all pretty new to me so I'll post the amounts I do after a week of starting this out and tracking my progress.

So basically I'm just looking for some advice. I want to have body definition, I don't want to be big. I'd like to be able to hold my own against other people and things like that. As bad as it sounds, I'd like to be "cut" like Edward Norton in American History X. He's not big, he's still pretty lithe but has muscle definition on all parts of his upper body. Another long term goal by building some muscle mass is to either swing or break dance or both. I simply cannot do either with the amount of strength I currently have.

-edit-

The other way I get a cardio work out. I generally tend to dance between 10 and 24 hours a week. It really all depends on how many nights a week I go out. I can be one of those people that will go out every night of a week and dance between one and seven hours and keep on going if the party is really good. Yes, I am one of those rave people as well

[alblocker]

I dont know why you posted in here but its pretty in depth so you sound pretty serious. Skateboarding everywhere is great cardio but to me it sounds like you do way too much cardio and random strength training. You really need to read the stickies.

Read around the boards and bodybuilding.com about how to diet or how to bulk and taylor your diet to what you want to do. From the sounds of it i would recommend bulking for a long while. Nutrition is #1

Set your self up on a weight training regimine. (if you need one pm and ill show you mine but there are tons out there)

Cut down the cardio. If you skate boarding 6 miles + everyday your burning a ton of calories which will mean you have to eat a ton if you bulking or even if your cutting.

Stickies say it best though