Muscle Mass for the novice worried about gaining...

[Ultravires]

I recently posted a thread in the Photo section of this site, which can be Ouch. Advice Needed. ( sorry for the lack of linkage - not allowed until I hit 15 posts!:sport

The general consensus of the thread would be that it would be wise to put on some muscle mass. However, I am unsure to do this and to be completely honest a little nervous due to having been focused on loosing weight for so long. Whilst I was given a weights program at my gym I have had little progress over the two months and though I would turn to your collective wisdom for any advice.

My program is as follows:

Bench Press on Ball - 8 x 3
Ball Flyes - 10 x3
Lateral Pull Down - 8 x 3
Seated Rows - 8 x 3
Shoulder Press - 8 x 3
Bicep Curls - 10 x 3
Rope Pulldown - 10 x 3
Leg Press - 8 x 3
Leg Extensions - 8 x 3

I do this program every other day, in addition to doing cardio every day. My cardio consists of doing two of the following every day.

Bike - Between 25km and 30 km
Run - 5 Km
Row - 5 Km

Also if it is of any use to you, a typical days diet is the following.

Breakfast
Two Weetabix with skimmed milk, raisins and honey.
Piece of home baked wholemeal bread with strawberry jam
Cup of tea with skimmed milk.

Snack
Home baked oatmeal cookie

Lunch
4-5 slices of roast beef/turkey
Small dish of rice crackers.

Dinner
Typically something like chilli, cottage pie etc (normally realtive healthy as it is home made)

Desert
Small bowl of ice cream

 

[Typhon]

Are you still trying to lose weight? Your diet looks unhealthy, far too few calories. I’d suggest adding in some more protein and dropping the ice cream; unless you’re under 12 there really is no excuse for eating sweets and sugary snacks.

The training you’re doing ticks most of the boxes but a couple of things you need to think about.
1) Legs – the route to real strength gains – leg presses and extensions are inadequate as the sum total of leg work. Start off by adding the staples of leg training, deadlifts and squats, and look at adding some others like lunges, step ups, calf raises leg curls etc to compliment them
2) The ball; why are you doing bench and flys on a ball? I may get blasted by the ‘functional training’ people for this but if you want to get the most out of benching then use a bench. I can’t understand the logic behind using a ball for one of the key lifts. It’s seems to be very commonly recommended to the clients of skinny-ass 20y/o fitness instructors who read about it in a magazine