Starting to workout again

C

creativEclipse

0
Before you read this I want to give you a fair warning it will be a fairly long post, but I appreciate any and all I help you give.

Okay a little background on me should be a good place to start; I’m an 18-year-old guy. I’m 6’2 and I weigh in at 158 pounds. When I was 15 I started to workout, obviously at that age I didn’t know much about what I was doing…and thus I didn’t see enough result over the thirteen months that I did it, so I kind of gave up after getting a car and other perks of starting high school.

Given my height and my decent sized frame, I’m under weight (by I’d guess at least 15 pounds) and I simply cannot gain weight. I’ve tried eating 6 meals a day, I’ve tried eating junk food all the time, I’ve tried the whole eat a lot and no exercise thing and I still weigh 158. A very high metabolism seems to be common in my family, too. Basically what I want to do is bulk up, but I want it to be lean muscle. People I’ve talked to (I don’t know how much they know about fitness) tell me that it’s best to gain the weight first, then burn it off and build muscle at the same time. Which is why I’ve tried to gain weight, but can’t do it.

Like I said I want to bulk up, but I want lean muscle. So I’m defiantly going to start working out again, but I still know very little about putting together the right diet or the best workout for me. My actual question though is I’m really considering buying a Bowflex Ultimate 2, as it’s in my price range and I’ve heard nothing but compliments on working with resistance. Or should I take the 1200 bucks and invest it into a gym membership? I’m afraid to do this because it’d require me to work my schedule around the hours of the gym and because I’m small I’d feel kind of awkward around the guys who lift there. Also what do you guys think about cardio for someone working towards my goal? Would running burn too many calories and defeat any chance of gaining weight?

This part may belong in another forum, but hopefully someone here can help me with it. I’m looking to do this in advance for next spring (2006 that is) to go out for my college baseball team. I played baseball throughout my youth, until I took a line drive to my. I went to three doctors and they all said that there was some damage to the knee most notably the ACL was partially torn. They said that it wasn’t bad enough to require surgery and gave me a brace and sent me to rehab. It’s been almost two years since I’ve done anything really strenuous on my knee, but I still have pain in the knee every now and then. I’m very afraid of tearing the ACL more. Do you guys know anything that I could do to strengthen my knee before working out on it for long periods of time?
 
Hello! Congratulations on your decision to get back to working out!

You’ve gotten an ectomorph metabolism, so it would be hard for you gain muscle but not impossible. That what you heard of getting many pounds at the same time you gain muscle is how other metabolisms work, but not yours. If you were to do so, you would lose almost all your gains when trying to burn the fat. Just forget about that. You need to grow slowly but constantly based on a diet that gives you more than what you need and a training program that makes you work very hard.

My first advice, go to a gym. Given that you need to do hard exercises, getting a machine capable of offering you that would be fair too expensive. There’s no need to stay at the gym for too long, so you just can get by with the amount of time you can spend on it. It would be good for you to start taking some supplements, but that only once you’ve started and working at a high level.

As for your knee, having a strong quads is essential to preserve them, so I’m pretty sure that working accordingly your injury will get way better soon. I got through something similar in the past.

If you want I can give you some diet guidelines and a routine to start over.

Later!
 
if you're not gaining weight you're not eating enough. may seem unreal to you but its true. at one point in my life i was consuming 5600 calories a day.

i started out at 125lbs 5% bodyfat with 12" arms when i was 20 years old old. best i ever got was 180lbs 10% bodyfat with 15" arms. match your eating with good basic training. it will take time. dedication, commitment and patience are also required.

what does your meal plan normally look like?
 
My diet right now is rough, very rough. I rarely eat breakfast as I'm not a morning person at all and barely drag myself out of bed in time to shower before my 10am class. Though I always make myself drink an 8oz glass of orange juice before I leave. I eat a lot of protein but very few vegtables. I normally drink about 3 sodas a day and maybe 20 oz of water in a days time. So obviously I've got to change my diet as I start this, but I have no idea where to start.

Polcas it would be very helpful if you'd post that stuff.
 
Weight

I was like you whan I was younger, I even asked my doctor how I could gain weight. He told me to drink milkshakes with a raw egg in them. Well they tasted good but no gain. I am 6'4" tall and I was never over 175# till I hit about 30 years old then slowly I started gaining, but a little at a time, it took from 30 to 44 years old to get to 195-200. I am now trying to stay at 190 even, I just started to workout again so if I decide to gain a little mass I'll do it in the future. Don't worry you'll get there.

TP
 
EAT EAT EAT. You're not eating enough food to build muscle. Have at least five substancial meals and drink a gallon of milk during the day. Stick with compound lifts using free weights and stay away from the machines. Limit your cardio during bulking up so you're just doing the bare minimum to stay fit.
 
you must eat breakfast. even if its not a whole lot, it is very important if you want to gain muscle. I realize it can be a pain...i wake up at 530 to go to work, and the last thing i want to do is move, let alone make breakfast. i just have oatmeal and a protein shake...its not a whole lot, but it does the trick.

and i would cut the soda. or if you must, i would switch to diet soda, or drop the soda intake substantially.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top