Today, a douchbag at the GYM made jokes about my weight when I was on the weight scale. This is characteristic of my endeavor to gain muscle mass. I pay a lot of attention to good form, have the exercises you need to gain muscles but no idea how to split them. I am pretty clueless about the subject matter of splitting. I do 3 sets and 5 reps in 3 work outs a week.

bench press
deadlifts
overhead press
bicep curls
barbell extension
shrugs
squats
lateral raise

Any practical advice?

[EDIT] More bro-science. Learn the difference between "reps" and "sets" please. Somebody could really injure themselves doing 12 sets of anything.

if your a bit on the heavier side ( high body fat), i would add more cardio to your routiine. But its always great to emulate someone you admire. For beggining body-builders, you don't need to worry alot about splits since yoru body is going to adapt because its not used to the new level of stress. I am an athlete and perform compound lifts every other day excluding weekends. Just as long as your not working same muscle groups same workout when you use your compund lift you should be fine. For example, squats and deadlift on the same day with heavy weight is gonna be a killer on your legs. But other than that you have solid exercises and don't need to overcomplicate things.

P.s if you want to workout like a bodybuilder 5 reps is not enough, generally that rep range is for strength but it is necessary to build up strength before pursuing hypertrophy.

sample: Upper/ Lower Split (alt. heavy squat and heavy deadlift daay)

I do a full body routine because an unfortunate RC injury leaves me unable to do most isolation exercises for shoulder/pecs.

Basically I do ABA/BAB, where A day is pretty much a push day and B day is pretty much a pull day. But I do DB Bench + Row on A and DB Shoulder + Lat Pulldown on B, since trap/pec and delt/lat are antagonistic muscles that are good to work together on the same day.


Also, I've lost about 3 pounds of fat with no strength loss on my current cut, which is good I guess. But I've got a ways to go.

As someone who started out only able to bench a little more than the bar five year ago and can now bench my own body weight, I can tell you that you need to two things:

1. Low reps, high weight.
2. Eat, eat, eat.

Since you're doing 3x5's of compound exercises, it sounds like you're doing something similar to Rippetoe's Starting Strength. Which is good. That system will add a lot of muscle and make you a lot stronger. I did it twice and both times I got a LOT stronger. I know Philip on this board mentioned getting great results from it too.

But you have to eat. If you're not gaining strength, you're not eating enough. Eat clean, but eat a lot. Lots of protein. Lots of veggies.

Right now I'm doing a modification of Rippetoe that takes into account the Reverse-Pyramid Training mentioned at http://www.leangains.com. My workouts are as follows (up until this week):

A = Squats/Bench/Rows
B = Deadlift/Military/Chin-Ups

I switched it up this week because doing heavy Squats/Deadlifts every other day started to hurt my lower back a lot. So now I rotate them a bit differently, replacing Squats with Leg Extensions/Curls once a week. But the idea is the same. Full body work outs doing big compound lifts. I've been adding a lot of muscle and strength since August. And the reason is I EAT. I eat like a goddamn horse.

(09-29-2011 03:49 PM)Mark Wrote:  As someone who started out only able to bench a little more than the bar five year ago and can now bench my own body weight, I can tell you that you need to two things:

1. Low reps, high weight.
2. Eat, eat, eat.

Since you're doing 3x5's of compound exercises, it sounds like you're doing something similar to Rippetoe's Starting Strength. Which is good. That system will add a lot of muscle and make you a lot stronger. I did it twice and both times I got a LOT stronger. I know Philip on this board mentioned getting great results from it too.

But you have to eat. If you're not gaining strength, you're not eating enough. Eat clean, but eat a lot. Lots of protein. Lots of veggies.

Right now I'm doing a modification of Rippetoe that takes into account the Reverse-Pyramid Training mentioned at http://www.leangains.com. My workouts are as follows (up until this week):

A = Squats/Bench/Rows
B = Deadlift/Military/Chin-Ups

I switched it up this week because doing heavy Squats/Deadlifts every other day started to hurt my lower back a lot. So now I rotate them a bit differently, replacing Squats with Leg Extensions/Curls once a week. But the idea is the same. Full body work outs doing big compound lifts. I've been adding a lot of muscle and strength since August. And the reason is I EAT. I eat like a goddamn horse.

I was thinking about doing a program very similar to riptoe. Basically involves 5 exercises, 3 times week, 5 reps.

Isn't this purely a strength building program though? Does it help with getting a lean and cut body? Or am I better off with isolating, and doing higher rep exercises (8-12)

Whether you get bigger or get lean depends on your diet

A program like above will help you build strength. But if you want to get bigger, you're going to have to eat 500-1000 calories over your BMR and accept that some fat will come with it.

Thanks! Thus the bottom line is that a rather skinny guy who wants to get bigger needs to have a diet extremly high in protein, minerals (e.g. zinc) and vitamins and carbohydrates and needs to focus on certain muscle groups excluding most of the other muscles till these recover from the last work out. Also, I should not go for a high number of repetitions until I can lift way more weight/have sufficient strength. Where the advice is a bit inconclusive is how many times you should work out a week and how many excersises. I've heard that too many excersises in one day greatly increase the probability of injuring yourself.

You pretty much got it. For bulking, three times a week, and never work out for more than 45-60 minutes at a time. That should do it. If you're skinny and trying to get big, focus on the big compound exercises: squats, deadlifts, bench and military presses, chin ups and rows. Stuff like bicep curls and calf raises aren't going to do anything.

Lift heavy. Lift to failure.

Eat like a goddamn animal, good healthy whole foods 4-6 times a day: lots of lean beef and chicken, eggs, tuna, veggies, sweet potatoes, brown rice, wheat bread, etc. Try to eat most of your carbs either in the morning or immediately after a work out. Eat 500-1000 calories over your maintenance level (can be calculated online, google around).

Do that for 3 months and guarantee you'll add some serious muscle.

Also, I highly, highly, highly recommend creating a diet log. I always knew a lot about nutrition, but I would slip up and fuck up with my diet all the time for years. I was a keyboard jockey basically. I had no discipline. Finally about a year ago I started keeping track of everything I ate on an excel spreadsheet and it's seriously changed everything. It's made me accountable and congizent of everything I put into my body. For the first time in my life I'm starting to get a really nice body this year, and I can totally attribute it to tracking my calories. I've lifted and exercised hard for years. But it wasn't until this last year that my diet got really tight.

Thanks Mark. Well I'm currently 5'11, 168 pounds. If I want lean gains, can I just maintain my daily caloric level? I definitely don't wanna lose weight, just cut down the fat I have around my stomach area and add a bit of muscle in the upper body.