Getting Bigger - point me in the right direction?

[Boring_Chris]

33yo been running, cycling and swimming for years. Wanting to put some weight on my arms, shoulders, chest and back. Running has kept me lean for but I'm a natural fatty (mesomorph). I'm in good shape but there's nothing on my arms, at all. But the thing is, I don't care in the slightest how strong I am. I could not care a less. All I want is a bit of weight in the right places to fill out a t-shirt. For girls, basically. My competitive interest will always be racing.

So, my thinking was; stop all cardio bar swimming + one 6 mile run a week (don't want to lose it!)

Start eating like there's no tomorrow. All chicken, tuna, eggs, salmon, nuts, avocado, brown rice, and all the veggies. As much as I can afford.

Go nuts touring the machines to target specific muscles. Work them until absolute failure, 3x 10 reps or so?

Slowly work up the compounds. Get some professional advice on form.

Eventually, when the weight start increasing, start splitting the days of the week to target specific areas (including the compounds)

I don't mind putting on a little fat over the winter (hopefully it'll soon vanish once Tri season gets underway next year)

Sound reasonable? Stupid? Average? Any advice welcome!

[Boring_Chris]

ColdoRS said:

Day 1 - Chest and Triceps
Day 2 - Long Run
Day 3 - Back
Day 4 - Shoulders and Biceps
Day 5 - Shorter Run
Day 6 - Legs
Day 7 - Rest

Day 1;
Bench Press, incline dumbell press, cable flys
French press, close grip bench press, rope pushdowns

Day 3;
Deadlift, lat pulldown, bent over rows, single arm dumbell rows

Day 4;
Standing military press, side dumbell raises, front dumbell raises, rear delt flys
Straigh barbell curl, dumbell curl, cable hammer curls

Day 6;
Squat, stiff leg deadlift, walking lunges, standing calf raises

All of the above 3 sets of 10. Drop set (10reps/10reps/10reps reducing weight ~20% each drop) on the last set of each muscle group.


High Protein, Moderate Carbs, High Fat diet. Don't go too crazy if you believe you're a mesomorph as it will result in rapid fat gain and rapid motivation loss! Use http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm to work out your basic metabolic rate and initially shoot for 500cals above that - re-assess after 3 weeks to see how your body has responded with regards to fat/weight gain. If no change, bump it up another 500. If you've gained bad weight (mirror), reduce it by 250. Although with the swimming, running and now the weight training, you may find you need to eat way more than your bmr to see change.

Try and focus carbs around your workouts (pre/post) and protein in every meal.

Good fats - avacado, eggs(inc yolk), peanut butter (organic/natural), oily fish.
Good carbs - oats, brown rice, cous cous, sweet potato.
Good proteins - fish, eggs, chicken, turkey, red meat.


Don't make it more complicated than it is. If you eat in a calorific surplus and you lift heavy and consistantly, you will gain muscle.

This is great, thank you! I'll follow this as best I can.

Im going to incorporate some standing around with an angry face drinking protein shakes, too. Should boost T levels. Already seen massive gains just by watching 80's action movies!

"I'm not fat, I'm accumulating mass"

[Boring_Chris]

chris watton said:

I would seriously consider a 5x5 routine, especially if you're just starting weight training.

Ignore specific small muscle exercises like biceps isolations, you will be wasting your time. Just stick to progressively heavy compounds and, if you really want to give your biceps a good workout (if you have enough in the tank after the main routine), do pull ups. If you do countless BB and DB curls, you will end up disappointed with the results. IMOHO

Sounds reasonable.

I've done my share of compound lifting in the past, and it did work wonders. I'd leave the gym feeling utterly broken at times, but in the good way.

Went on a couple machines yesterday.... left feeling like I'd just done some weird stuff with my arms? Nothing special! Bit achy today, though!