Gaining mass…need suggestions!
I need some serious advice. I have been tearing up the gym something fierce for quite a while and have plateaued out on mass. I’ve changed everything several times from sets and reps to different order of workout sequence to keep my muscles from being able to adapt. I am using creatine and good protein, eating 5-6 healthy, high protein meals a day, have completely cut out cardio, and can’t seem to gain any more size. I’m in the gym hitting it hard for between 1.5 and 2 hours 3 days in a row, then a day off, then back at it. I highly doubt it’s a matter of not lifting heavy enough. Any ideas?
June 17, 2008 at 11:51 am
Suggestions:
-eat more. I know this is obvious but gaining weight is all about calories in vs. calories out.
-take a week off(or deload) if you haven’t in a very long time. It keeps you from over training.
-Don’t change rep/sets exercises way too often. Your body won’t have a chance to adapt to it.
Do you just want to gain weight or gain pure muscle? It takes a long time to gain muscle and the more muscle and the stronger you get, the slower it gets. You seem to do everything right so just keep at it.
June 17, 2008 at 10:41 pm
You’ve obviously been much more successful than me in adding quality size, but the only thing I can think of is similar to what John said. Try increasing your rest periods, maybe not necessarily by taking a week or two off, but what about trying a day or two between lifting sessions? Just a thought. Good luck in getting back to packing on the mass.
June 20, 2008 at 7:43 am
Thanks for the suggestions guys. The question I have about resting between workouts, when you watch Pumping Iron and see what Arnold did, though he was on roids and I understand that, he was in the gym pretty much every day. I see a lot of body builders that only lift like 3 days a week compared to my 5-6. I guess my question is, do you make better mass gains getting more rest like that than tearing up the muscle? If a muscle group is still soar from the last wokout, I give it a rest, but if it doesn’t feel soar anymore, I feel it’s time to hit it up again. What do you think? Also, I know what you mean about the eating more, I guess I’ll just have to wait until I get back from deployment and can get more of the quality foods I need. Thanks for your help.
June 20, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Everyone responds differently, of course, but I’ve always heard that the heavier you lift the more rest you need.
But, I’ve had another thought - are you still doing primarily a powerlifting workout? Have you ever tried light weights and a lot of reps for any length of time? I know a couple guys who have really made gains by switching to a light/high rep routine for a few weeks and then back to the heavy lifting. I think Joe Weider used to call it the "muscle confusion" principle.
By the way, also consider that back in the "Pumping Iron" days, and the roids played a big part, but Arnold’s full time job was bodybuilding. I think you’ll find that when he wasn’t in the gym he was pretty much eating or resting - something I know that you don’t have the luxury of right now. So maybe he was gettting a lot more true rest between workouts.
June 20, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Just another quick thought - how many bodyparts do you work each day? What about only hitting one at a time, but really hit that bodypart hard? That would allow the other bodyparts to rest and still let you get to the gym each day - but only hit each group once a week.
June 20, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Calories, calories, calories. Try increasing the amount of red meat you eat if you are trying to gain, make sure that you are getting your EFA’s (essential fatty acids). High protien meals are good, try an increase in your complex carbs and ride that insulin spike. And one final note on training, take a week off, relaxe, eat, drop all supplementation. Then go back to the gym and hit it hard, heavy compound movements, but try to finish the bulk of your heavy lifting after 45mins-1hr, then some strechting, abs, cool-down.