Been training muay thai for about 6 months now, lessons once and week and sparring once a week, i about 2 miles very other day, a do a little bit of weights. Im just over 6 foot and just over 12 stone, my mates have noticed i look even skinnier than normal lately, i just cant seem to gain any bulk, i dont take any suppliments and am not sure about creatine from what ive heard, any ideas?? I dont eat meat would that have anything to do with it?????

advice would be much appriciated.....

serious?

if so.

you are doing all long time period cardio which eats your muscle and you probaly arent consuming enough protein to build it back (no meat). longer explanation later. tell us what you eat.

i eat alot of pasta (3 x week), cheese, rice, chips, oven food like bean burgers, lots of fruit, noodles a fair amount of veg and crisps....not alot else really

Probably not enough protein.

Also, if you're not lifting weights much I don't see why you'd expect to be gaining muscle.

Eat red meat, and Workout.
Red Meat is the best source of protein, as well as tuna.

If you want to gain muscle, you have to eat the meat.

you dont HAVE to eat meat, since you eat dairy, eating a ton of cheese and milk would work, invest in protein shakes. i think whey protein doesnt come from animals so mix that in with some milk after a workout and a couple other times a day. you need the protein so your muscles build back up after you tear them down working out. protein is also a source of energy for longer workouts, so that takes even more protein away from your muscles. there are other things you could do to imrpove your diet but consuming significantly more protein will be a big help. your body weight in kilograms times 1.2 is how many grams of protein you should be consuming throughout the day, spaced throughout the day.

protein sources that are not meat:
Milk
Cheese
wheat bread AND beans
whey protein powder

You gotta start drinking a protein shake. Like someone said your burning up your muscle.

you dont HAVE to eat meat, since you eat dairy, eating a ton of cheese and milk would work, invest in protein shakes. i think whey protein doesnt come from animals so mix that in with some milk after a workout and a couple other times a day. you need the protein so your muscles build back up after you tear them down working out. protein is also a source of energy for longer workouts, so that takes even more protein away from your muscles. there are other things you could do to imrpove your diet but consuming significantly more protein will be a big help. your body weight in kilograms times 1.2 is how many grams of protein you should be consuming throughout the day, spaced throughout the day.

protein sources that are not meat:
Milk
Cheese
wheat bread AND beans
whey protein powder

Red meat>All.

Fuck supplments.

man....

you gotta eat meat and get yourself some weight gainer. i get it at GNC. i dont know if you guys have those out there.

it has lots of proteins and amino acids, and like over 2k calories per serving.

also if you wanna get bigger you gotta lift heavy. if you wanna get cut dont lift so much but do lots of reps.

so since you wanna get bigger, let's say you normally workout with 50 lbs. and you can do that 10 times. then increase it, let's say up to 70, even thought you might only be able to do that 4 times.

cheers guys youve been a big help, im off to the shop for some protien shakes!!

i agree, meat is the best source of protein.

chinhead, optimum nutrition is probably the best tasting easy to mix best for you protein shakes.

most people who lift seriously consider the high rep = cut up a myth, to get cut eat well and do HIIT.

These guys are right. You definitely need to increase your protein consumption, but you also should cut back on the long-distance cardio and bump up the weight training. To put on muscle, you should do three full-body workouts each week, focusing on major muscle groups. Do about 5 sets of no more than 8 reps with heavy weight - not so heavy you injure yourself of course. Make sure you keep good form.

Ideally, each workout would include a leg, chest/shoulder and back exercise. I'd include some core work each time, too. You'll build the most muscle by concentrating on these groups, and smaller muscle groups like your arms will gain some size because they aid in many of the large muscle group exercises. No need to focus on them by themselves though.

On the days you're not weight training, do short, high-intensity cardio such as sprints. Warm up with a light jog for a couple of minutes then sprint like hell for 30 seconds and then ease into a jog or walk for 1 minute. Repeat these 30-second on/ 1 minute off intervals 10 times for a 20-minute workout, including a brief warm-up/cool-down.

A sample weekly workout might look like this:

Monday - Deadlifts 5 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Bench Press 5 sets of 8 reps
Barbell Bent-Over Row 5 sets of 8 reps
Ab exercises (your choice) 4 sets of 15 reps

* Rest about 2 minutes between sets.

Tuesday - Sprints (20 minutes tops!)

Wednesday - Squats 5 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Military Press 5 sets of 8 reps
Pull-ups 5 sets of 8 reps (or however many you can do, but try to build up to this)
Hyperextension (for lower back) 4 sets of 15 reps

Thursday - Sprints or another short, intense cardio session like skipping rope. Again, keep it at 20 minutes.

Friday - Body-weight squats or lunges (give your legs a break after all that sprinting) 5 of 12
Incline or decline chest press (whichever you like) 5 of 8
Upright row 5 of 8
Ab exercise (your choice) 4 of 15

Saturday - Active rest. Spar a bit, go for a lieisurely bike ride, play a basketball, swim, whatever you like to give yourself a break, but keep active a bit.

Sunday - Rest

This is just a sample workout for building strength and size. The idea is to work your major muscle groups three times a week. Working these big muscle groups releases growth hormone, which will help you get bigger. You can substitute whichever leg, chest/shoulder or back exercises you like just so long as you hit these areas three times a week.

Also, ease up on the cardio like some of the other posters have said. You're only using up calories your muscles need to grow with all that cardio work.

And increase your protein. If you're a vegetarian it will be more difficult for you to pack on mass, but it can be done. I've trained vegetarians before. If you eat eggs, that's probably your best source or protein, but you can also combine incomplete proteins such as rice and beans or rice and lentils and wash it down with a glass of milk. Believe it or not, rice and lentils and a glass of milk, eaten together, have about as much protein as a steak.

Make sure you're sleeping enough too. Muscle growth occurs after you've left the gym, not while you're lifting, and your body secretes the most growth hormone while you sleep. The more zzz's you catch, the more growth hormone your body releases. Try to get a full eight hours.

Also, you have to consider your genetics. Some people, regardless of how hard they train, just won't get big. If you're tall and thin and your parents are the same build, you likely can pack on a few more muscle pounds, but you probably won't get very bulky. Just like someone who is short and squat and carrying a few pounds probably will have trouble getting lean and "cut" as they say. If you've been dealt the tall and thin genetics, don't get discouraged. Train for performance and health and try to improve your other attributes. Muscle size isn't the only deciding factor in your training or a fight.

I hope this helps you. If you have any other questions, feel free to write me and I'll do what I can to try to help you out.

Best regards,

its hard work trying to lose and build at the same time,believe me i know im doing it right now,you just have to stick with til you have lose enough wieght your happy with,after eat plenty of carbs and train heavy and you will soon gain muscle and strenght!

Fuck supplments.

Yes. Meat is the way to go. Ask Venko's mother.


But seriously. Nothing puts muscle on better than chicken breasts and steak.

Eat red meat, and Workout.
Red Meat is the best source of protein, as well as tuna.

If you want to gain muscle, you have to eat the meat.

not true at all my young friend ven, whey protein and eggs are better sources of protein than meat, they are quicker digesting and are more bioavailible, tuna is good, its quick digesting, but red meat is slow digesting and not that great

post work out you need a very quick digesting protein, so whey is the number one choice there, but slow digesting proteins like red meat and milk are great before you got to bed

Cut out/ down your cardio if you want to gain weight. Increase your protein to atleast!! 1 gram/lb of bodyweight. The only way you can gain weight is by taking in more calories than you burn period! Now the trick is finding the correct amouint of calories to lean bulk if your trying to stay in descent shape. Otherwise if you don't care just eat like a friggin horse. Eat atleast 6 meals per day, lots of protein AND carbohydrates if your looking for size. If you insist on having to do some cardio pick up an amino acid supplement like Extend or Purple Wrath and keep your cardio LOW INTESITY.

not true at all my young friend ven, whey protein and eggs are better sources of protein than meat, they are quicker digesting and are more bioavailible, tuna is good, its quick digesting, but red meat is slow digesting and not that great

post work out you need a very quick digesting protein, so whey is the number one choice there, but slow digesting proteins like red meat and milk are great before you got to bed

thats a good point ive read that before. i guess they are both better in ways, i think the reason meat is real good is because it contains amounts of creatine, which is great for your muscles. (not sure if it actually contains it or increases production or whatever). prob a mix of both would be the best.

thats a good point ive read that before. i guess they are both better in ways, i think the reason meat is real good is because it contains amounts of creatine, which is great for your muscles. (not sure if it actually contains it or increases production or whatever). prob a mix of both would be the best.

meat contains creatine, but us vegetarians do not suffer from depleted creatine cuz the liver kicks in helps out with more production of creatine

i think i have almost exactly the opposite problem as you. everyone look at my thread and see if you can help with some advice.

thanks.

These guys are right. You definitely need to increase your protein consumption, but you also should cut back on the long-distance cardio and bump up the weight training. To put on muscle, you should do three full-body workouts each week, focusing on major muscle groups. Do about 5 sets of no more than 8 reps with heavy weight - not so heavy you injure yourself of course. Make sure you keep good form.

Ideally, each workout would include a leg, chest/shoulder and back exercise. I'd include some core work each time, too. You'll build the most muscle by concentrating on these groups, and smaller muscle groups like your arms will gain some size because they aid in many of the large muscle group exercises. No need to focus on them by themselves though.

On the days you're not weight training, do short, high-intensity cardio such as sprints. Warm up with a light jog for a couple of minutes then sprint like hell for 30 seconds and then ease into a jog or walk for 1 minute. Repeat these 30-second on/ 1 minute off intervals 10 times for a 20-minute workout, including a brief warm-up/cool-down.

A sample weekly workout might look like this:

Monday - Deadlifts 5 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Bench Press 5 sets of 8 reps
Barbell Bent-Over Row 5 sets of 8 reps
Ab exercises (your choice) 4 sets of 15 reps

* Rest about 2 minutes between sets.

Tuesday - Sprints (20 minutes tops!)

Wednesday - Squats 5 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Military Press 5 sets of 8 reps
Pull-ups 5 sets of 8 reps (or however many you can do, but try to build up to this)
Hyperextension (for lower back) 4 sets of 15 reps

Thursday - Sprints or another short, intense cardio session like skipping rope. Again, keep it at 20 minutes.

Friday - Body-weight squats or lunges (give your legs a break after all that sprinting) 5 of 12
Incline or decline chest press (whichever you like) 5 of 8
Upright row 5 of 8
Ab exercise (your choice) 4 of 15

Saturday - Active rest. Spar a bit, go for a lieisurely bike ride, play a basketball, swim, whatever you like to give yourself a break, but keep active a bit.

Sunday - Rest

This is just a sample workout for building strength and size. The idea is to work your major muscle groups three times a week. Working these big muscle groups releases growth hormone, which will help you get bigger. You can substitute whichever leg, chest/shoulder or back exercises you like just so long as you hit these areas three times a week.

Also, ease up on the cardio like some of the other posters have said. You're only using up calories your muscles need to grow with all that cardio work.

And increase your protein. If you're a vegetarian it will be more difficult for you to pack on mass, but it can be done. I've trained vegetarians before. If you eat eggs, that's probably your best source or protein, but you can also combine incomplete proteins such as rice and beans or rice and lentils and wash it down with a glass of milk. Believe it or not, rice and lentils and a glass of milk, eaten together, have about as much protein as a steak.

Make sure you're sleeping enough too. Muscle growth occurs after you've left the gym, not while you're lifting, and your body secretes the most growth hormone while you sleep. The more zzz's you catch, the more growth hormone your body releases. Try to get a full eight hours.

Also, you have to consider your genetics. Some people, regardless of how hard they train, just won't get big. If you're tall and thin and your parents are the same build, you likely can pack on a few more muscle pounds, but you probably won't get very bulky. Just like someone who is short and squat and carrying a few pounds probably will have trouble getting lean and "cut" as they say. If you've been dealt the tall and thin genetics, don't get discouraged. Train for performance and health and try to improve your other attributes. Muscle size isn't the only deciding factor in your training or a fight.

I hope this helps you. If you have any other questions, feel free to write me and I'll do what I can to try to help you out.

Best regards,


awesome dude, thank you so much, ill start the schedule on monday and see how it goes

man....

you gotta eat meat and get yourself some weight gainer. i get it at GNC. i dont know if you guys have those out there.

it has lots of proteins and amino acids, and like over 2k calories per serving.

also if you wanna get bigger you gotta lift heavy. if you wanna get cut dont lift so much but do lots of reps.

so since you wanna get bigger, let's say you normally workout with 50 lbs. and you can do that 10 times. then increase it, let's say up to 70, even thought you might only be able to do that 4 times.

Getting cut as nothing to do with high reps.
It's the eating part. People think weights get you bulky, that's is the biggest BS ever.

The fat around the muscle, is the overeating playing the role. Not lifting heavy weights.

The number one thing I hear from females regarding workouts when I introduce them to strength training (especially when it involves weight lifting): “I don’t want to get bulky!”“I don’t mind working out, but weights make me look big, and I only want to lose weight and tone up.” Girls…if you are reading this, get this through your thick skulls(and thighs) for the final time—WEIGHT LIFTING WILL NOT MAKE YOU BULKY. Your diet is what makes you bulky. Too many Manhattans and cheese fries at your Friday evening happy hours will make you bulky. Sneaking late night spoonfuls of breyers ice cream, or squirting gobs of magic shell in your mouth, is what makes you bulky. Stop blaming exercise for the fact that you arms and legs are bigger than most pro wrestlers!


Another Article.

http://www.nbc5.com/health/10148050/detail.html
The first principle is that heavy weights are a necessary component for toning your arms. Forget the myth that heavy weights with low reps make you bulky or stocky, and that lighter weights with high reps make you toned. High caloric diets and weight gain supplements make you bulky.

So, if I want to get bigger, apart from eating alot, what kind of exercises should I be doing?

So, if I want to get bigger, apart from eating alot, what kind of exercises should I be doing?

Lift heavy weights, consume around 1-1.5 grams of protein/lb of body weight(spread out in 5-6 meals/day) and take in more calories than your body uses/day. Bodybuilding.com has a calculator on there and you type in your body weight and it gives you a estimated amount of maintainance calories you need per day. Then from there you tweak it by eating 1,000 or 500 more calories per day than what your body needs. Thats how you put on size, go ahead and eat everything you see and you will definately put on weight muscle and fat, but if you eat clean and find a the correct amount of calories you can put on muscle with the least amount of fat along with it.

Pepe and chinhead,

Category5D is right too. To gain size, you really should calculate your caloric intake according to the formula he posted. Bodybuilder.com has a lot of great free articles and advice for novices and advanced lifters. They even have some MMA training articles. Going back to that formula, again everyone's body reacts differently, so tweak your diet as you see fit - as long as y'all are eating clean foods.

Pepe, to answer your question I'd refer to the sample workout plan I set up for chinhead a few posts back. To gain size, apart from eating and keeping your cardio short and intense, do three full-body workouts a week, giving yourself at least a day in between workouts to recover. For each workout do one exercise each for legs, chest (and a shoulder exercise on one of the days) and back, using moderately heavy weight for five sets of eight reps. You can do whatever exercises you like as long as you hit those muscle groups three days a week. Anyway, it's all in the post I submitted earlier if you're interested.

If y'all want a year-long workout plan, Men's Fitness is going through a 12-part series of workouts. It started in January, but there's no reason y'all can't start now and finish up next July. You can get all the workouts they've released since January at http://www.mensfitness.com/yearlong. A friend of mine has been doing it religiously since January, and he's gained quite of bit of muscle.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

Oops, sorry. It's www.bodybuilding.com, not bodybuilder.

The number one thing I hear from females regarding workouts when I introduce them to strength training (especially when it involves weight lifting): “I don’t want to get bulky!”“I don’t mind working out, but weights make me look big, and I only want to lose weight and tone up.” Girls…if you are reading this, get this through your thick skulls(and thighs) for the final time—WEIGHT LIFTING WILL NOT MAKE YOU BULKY. Your diet is what makes you bulky. Too many Manhattans and cheese fries at your Friday evening happy hours will make you bulky. Sneaking late night spoonfuls of breyers ice cream, or squirting gobs of magic shell in your mouth, is what makes you bulky. Stop blaming exercise for the fact that you arms and legs are bigger than most pro wrestlers!


Another Article.

http://www.nbc5.com/health/10148050/detail.html
The first principle is that heavy weights are a necessary component for toning your arms. Forget the myth that heavy weights with low reps make you bulky or stocky, and that lighter weights with high reps make you toned. High caloric diets and weight gain supplements make you bulky.



Um those are shitty personal trainers... Lifting heavy weights DOES build bulk. Why do you think power lifters lift heavy weight small reps? You can lift light weight for thousands of reps and its going to cut you up... You might add a little mass but you will cut up very hard. Lifting heavy weight for few reps regularly builds bulk. Its simple, everybody knows it. You lift near your max for size you lift light high reps for cuts. I would fire those noobs if they were my trainers.

thats not true. Lifting heavy weights doesnt build bulk. Wat does build bulk though is lifting heavy weights and building up fatigue. Fatigue is wat stimulates muscle growth. If you lift heavy weights for small reps and avoid fatigue, you will get stronger without gaining bulk.

You really need to ramp up the calories however if you don't eat meat that could be tough to do. Maybe try pastas, potatoes, etc. for non meat calories but watch so you don't overdo carbs

Thanks alot for all the help guys. Ive been weight lifting for like a month, ive seen some gains, but I still weigh the same. I think my workouts are fine, ill try to eat even more.

Um those are shitty personal trainers... Lifting heavy weights DOES build bulk. Why do you think power lifters lift heavy weight small reps? You can lift light weight for thousands of reps and its going to cut you up... You might add a little mass but you will cut up very hard. Lifting heavy weight for few reps regularly builds bulk. Its simple, everybody knows it. You lift near your max for size you lift light high reps for cuts. I would fire those noobs if they were my trainers.

IT'S THE DIET that makes you bulky, if you overeat, then you're gonna have fat around the muscle..and no cutness at all.

Look it up online, It's everywhere..Every website will tell you that.
If you lift thousands of reps of light weight, it won't do shit, if you still eat alot. Yo uare still gonna be bulky. Good Dieting is what makes you cut nicely defined.

That's one of the biggest myths of weightlifting, that heavy weight low reps get you bulky, That's all a myth. you get muscles of course, but it's the Diet that makes you or breaks you...

Lol all of this is confusing. Ive checked that site, and its also confusing..... all I want is bigger arms (and back and chest and stuff)......

muscles are made in the kitchen, not the weight room

I feel like I get stronger with low reps but I get more size from alot of reps

both make me bigger though if I'm getting nutrition, if I dont have the shake I just get more cut

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the importance of proper rest for muscle recovery.

Also, if you just started working out recently, lean muscle mass takes a lot longer to develop than fat loss. That is to say, it is normal to see a reduction of fat without significant increases in lean muscle mass.

Make sure you are eating a good, balanced diet and be patient. Have a nutritious snack (or shake) with some protein after you work out, and if you still are not seeing any of the results you desire, try to increase your overall intake of calories.

There are lots of things that impact metabolism, but at the end of the day, you will not gain weight if you burn more calories than you digest. So, if you want to gain weight, you need to ingest more calories than your body uses. Some of those calories will be converted into muscle fiber when your body repairs itself post workout.

If I were you, I would look in the 'training instructional' part of the forum, and search for the 'crossfit journals.' It might take a little while to filter through them and find the information that you need, but I assure you it will be worth it. I've been doing crossfit for a while now, and the results are fantastic. If you take their diet and exercise advice you will gain strength, muscle, and lose fat.

Good Luck.