Anyway, please give brutally honest advice as to what you think and any areas I should target to improve. Any other advice for muscle mass building would be appreciated! (Target # of sets and reps, # of exercises per body part, etc.) Thanks!!
When the chips are down, and when all the smoke clears, and the
bottom line is revealed, my advice (and others) on what you should do/improve upon will crack and weather as compared to your wants and desires for health and fitness beating in your heart. Check with your heart at the door, before you walk through and receive/accept advice.
Do you
WANT to stay lean and/or build endurance, etc, etc.
Do you
WANT to put on some more lean muscle?
Seems like a redundant question, but it isn't.
Personal goals can be different.
What is it
YOU want out of diet and fitness?
If so, do you have a good grasp of reality when it comes to building improving muscle mass in terms of months, years of work, your particular nutirtional properties (learn and adjust as you go), and learning from the extent of your previous training experience.
To "improve" muscle mass, believe it or not, can be a very individual experience and experimentation.
Some who embark on improving their muscle mass, seem to get out of control on their calories, as it seems it gives them a free ticket to eat whatever and whenever they wish in the quantities they desire, and wonder why they are putting on too much fat in the process.
If you are concerned about this, listen up, for a second.
Putting on some fat is not only "necessary" but inevitable when trying to improve muscle mass.
If putting on muscle mass is your personal goal, then its my opinion that you have to at least "grasp" the idea that in NORMAL (average, post newbie wonder gains) circumstances, that biological accumulation of fat normally exceeds the body ability to biologically/chemically to produce muscle.
The way you "attempt" to control this, is though knowing your personal particulars in how many calories/macros you need. This is true unless you are a rare genetic/metabolic wonder human (which do exist). Even then there is a limit, though the bar is a bit higher than most.
Therefore, set calories and macros in line with what you want from your training. Do not set the surplus to high, be reasonable with it, and adjust calories and/or macros as you see the feed back coming/not coming.
Another notation: Gaining good muscle weight (in the sense of time, and speaking in average, understanding exceptions), is a kin to the same-speed like when losing fat issue, its close kin (albiet the amount can differentiate), especially for the FIRST year new person, and after that (assuming things are right), it tends to slow with a more trained person, etc, etc.
Good material to read:
Now that you have the idea that fat accumulation "can be" theroretically controlled, and being so lean now, do not let this worry you so much. What you learn while attempting to gain muscle, can be used to lose the minor amount of fat tissue gained in the process. A lot of it is just putting the gear in reverse, and adjust calories, and macros to your personal situation.
Here are some other quality source material for muscle hypertrophy:
(several articles here, by a person I respect)
Best wishes for your personal goals.
Peace.
Best regards,
Chillen
