Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy
You've been given a lot of good and simple advice in this thread, but you seem to keep repeating yourself by raising the same issues that have already been answered. Whole eggs are not bad. No one's saying you have to do 1 rep maxes every time in the gym.
Gaining mass is not that hard.
Eat more calories, and work out with more intensity.
You don't need a nutritionist, you don't need a personal trainer, it really isn't that hard. There's plenty of free resources on youtube on diet advice, mass gaining advice, workout advice, food prep, etc., be it a person a hard gainer, someone always on the run, etc.
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Good advice here. It's a good idea to avoid aiming for too much too soon. There's been some good advice on this thread, but suggestions like the one that you ask about in the thread title tend to complicate things for someone starting out with this.
To paraphrase Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, you first have to learn to walk before you learn to fly. It hasn't happened so much in this thread, but too often I see people who have been flying for some time advising those who have yet to start walking on the finer points of flying.
At the beginning, a few basic rules will start you on the way toward building a base which you can tweak later on with more advanced workout routines.
To start with:
Lift heavy enough weights that you would reach muscle failure with a number of reps in the single digits or very low double digits.
Include some large-movement compound lifts such as deadlifts, squats, presses, rowing, pull-ups, etc.
Work all parts of the body, to keep strength, and coordinated movement, in a good balance.
Eat a balanced diet. Go easy on the junk food, so you include plenty of good nutritious food in your diet, and eat enough to support an increase in mass.
That's about it for starters. It's likely to take some time--maybe a couple of years at least--to build enough of a base to start fine-tuning your goals. The above suggestions will get you to that point, and by then you'll know enough from experience to have a better idea what fine-tuning you want to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreshFresh
Another reason it's hard for me to eat more is because I have a job where I'm on the run during the day (going place to place). Eating out is not easy. What option do I have? Prep the food before and take it with me? Wouldn't it spoil? I don't know how you guys do it.
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None of this happens overnight. That includes diet. If you have a somewhat limited appetite, you can start adding food a little at a time. Some nutritious quick snacks can be a workable way to do this. Try carrying along some nuts and a piece of fruit, or some cheese sticks, or a peanut butter sandwich (preferably on whole-grain bread of course). These foods should keep through the day without spoiling.
So you don't take on too much too soon, I'll say that people who have said your diet seems to have too few calories to support mass gains are correct, but I'd suggest working on this a little at a time. You might start with a couple of snacks during the day, with the kinds of portable foods I've suggested above.
Start lifting, and see whether the need for more food doesn't spur your appetite. If you still don't feel the inclination to eat much, at least try increasing the sizes of your meals a little at a time, in addition to eating some small but nutritious snacks through the day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreshFresh
Also, I was told lifting too heavy would cause injury.
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As Suburban_Guy points out in the passage quoted above, a good workout plan does not involve lifting your one-rep max. every time out. This should be done only occasionally, and I'd suggest that beginners should avoid one-rep max. workouts altogether.
Stick to four reps up to maybe 12 or so until you build up a good base of strength, which will take a while. Don't max out on even these four-to-12 numbers every workout, but include some workouts where you stop each set when you feel as if you could still get another rep or two.
It's true that too much really heavy, max-out lifting all the time could be risky, but a judicious balance between challenging mid-level workouts and mixing in some more heavy-duty lifting works well to build strength and mass without breaking your body down.
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