Questions regarding gaining muscle

Hello!

As the topic states, I'd like to know what the optimal diet or workouts would be to gain muscle. I'm 170 pounds, and have a rather plain body. (I'll post pictures if necessary). I'm a professional wrestler, and my debut is 9 months away.. I want to look phenomenal. So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

May the force be with you.

Didn't your wrestling training school give you advice on this?

You can download this or buy it

What is your history with weight training?

Do you want to focus on bodyweight training or barbell free lifting (I personally would not recommend dumbbell training or machines)?

@Rickie; Unfortunately no, my head trainer pretty well told me to go read muscle and fitness and good luck lol.

@Connor I've always used machines since I began training. If I don't have access to a machine, I'll do a couple hundred pushups, situps, crunches, hindu squats, and jumping jacks. I also run three miles daily.

@Lightstrider Thank you, I'll definitely give it a read.

Nine months isn't a long time unless your already muscular but it depends how your body works. If your already got a good base, and want to look good with your shirt off, then you might just be talking about cutting, rather then bulking, without loosing strength for the comp.

But I've read not a lot of people can cut their fat down and grow muscle at the same time, as many times to build muscle you'd find an increase in body fat also in that 'bulking' phase.

Of course when cutting you can 'see' more muscle because its not hidden by fat, but in real terms they say muscle grows better when there is an abundance of nutrients which in many people tends to also make em fatter. So often people will do a heavy lifting heavy eating bulking phase, and then cut the food right down and ease the training off to focus on cutting down the body fat to reveal the muscle and look 'cut'.

For me it took ages to build actual permanent muscle tissue and not just fluid pumps. People starting out often get excited about the fast results from temporary fluid 'pumps', which disappear in a week or so. To build actual muscle I needed to focus quite a bit more on it. I had to target specific muscle groups and not try and do too many at once. I just couldn't eat enough to grow all over...

So I'd hit that specific area hard every 2-4 days (depending on how it responded), eating clean and sleeping well in between. Avoiding injury, keep it up religiously for at least 3 months but no longer then 8, then take 3-4 months off lifting (but keep eating and sleeping), and then repeat. After two runs of that, I'd get good long lasting growth which just hangs around no matter how much I starve myself.. so then I switch to a different muscle group.

This way I eventually got progress in different body parts. The more widespread full body workouts so popular with fitness coaches would seem to be good for maintenance more then fast muscle growth, but I guess that depends on training intensity and diet, and the individuals genetic capacity to grow muscle fast.

I found it important to not judge progress on growth, but just judge progress on how hard your able to work it and how well your able to be consistent (without injury) for long periods of time. A lot of the growth seemed to happen during the rest phase when I stopped training it entirely, so when picking it back up it was a bigger new blank slate to build up upon again.

If its a comp that you care about, who cares how you look!? Might be more useful to focus on functional strength and technique more to get some more advantage in the time you have to ensure a win. Explosive movement strength instead of look good love bumps.

Watch the Vegan Gains channel on YouTube. The guy basically shatters all the industry stars and beliefs about supplements, having to eat so much protein, how we don't even really need to eat animal products and that animal products are the number one cause of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. Many people who eat animal products can still get huge because of good genetics, extreme work and most all of STEROIDS. Regardless of whether or not you eat animal products there is some great SCIENTIFIC info this guy presents and he really pisses a lot of people off so it's really entertaining especially the attacks he gets in the comments. But if you have the time and interest in gaining muscle, watch his videos from earliest to latest.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr2eKhGzPhN5RPVk5dd5o3g/videos?sort=da&view=0&flow=grid

language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZCXVPY6e9Y



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIkoqmXW__w



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXae7qYFV24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoj8jPbZdQ



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTq87JB3YFM



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU5n0Xm6uzI



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVBign_5JxM

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=weight+bench




http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=push+up+handle&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Apush+up+handle



http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pull+up+bar

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http://www.bodybuilding.com/

in the above videos they talk about reps and rep ranges - like they will say "do eight reps"

that doesnt mean you put 5 lbs of weight and lift it 8 times and think "im a beast!" lol

it means that you put an amount on the bar that you can lift 8 times but not 9 times

thats the 8 rep range

or 8-10 reps would mean that you can lift the weight 8 times, or nine times, or maybe you can just barely push out 10 reps, but not 11 reps - you would fail before completing the 11th rep

this is called RM or Rep Max , and sometimes you will see it spelled out like that

a 1RM would be whatever the amount of weight is that you can lift it once with proper form, but could not lift again and a 10rm would be the amount you can lift ten times proper form but not 11 times

So, I'm right with you as a scrawny dude. But typically, if you're looking to start doing free weights the first thing you need is a gym buddy. A gym buddy is awesome because he/she can spot you doing free weights. My roommate and I workout like this (been going a month and seeing some decent results):

Buy good preworkout and good whey protein so you see max gains (Vitamin Shoppe is affordable and high quality.)

Day 1, Chest and Tris:

4 sets flat bench (10 reps if you can each set)
4 sets incline bench (same reps for everything, if you can of course)
4 sets decline bench
4 sets of dumbbell bench/chest fly combo
4 sets of triceps extensions (machine)
4 sets of overhead dumbbell thingies (I don't remember what they're called, but they murder your tris.)
4 sets wire machine pulldowns
3-4 sets to 100 of a weighted abs machine
Optional: 4 sets of skull crushers

Day 2, Back and bis:
4 super sets of lat pull downs (wide grip, close grip and chin up grip for 10 reps each exercise)
4 sets of seated rows
4 sets of lower back
4 sets of hammer curls
4 sets of wire curls
4 sets of a bicep machine
15-30 minutes of cardio

Day 3, shoulders:
4 sets of overhead press (I like using a machine because I have bad shoulders)
4 sets of shrugs (can use dumbbell or bar)
4 sets of front and side raises
100 weighted crunches

Day 4, Leg Day (worst day ever) :
4 sets leg press
4 sets calf raises
4 sets of hamstring curls
4 sets of gobblet squat
10 minutes or 50 floors on the stair stepper

For leg day you can also do deadlifts, back squat, front squat, hack squat and other squat exercises. But you really have to watch your form because you can hurt yourself. When I squat I use a Smith machine so I have less chance of getting hurt.

Anyway, I hope this helps a little. Having a gym buddy is everything because it motivates you to put out. Before I had a gym buddy, I would just go to hit the heavy bag for an hour. So it helps if you have someone to keep you on track.

its hard to find credible sources who will give any kind of time line for muscle development

this guy gives an estimate - whether you like it or not lol i dont know but it at least allows you to conceptualize what youre getting into

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_wy8tLSbjs

as a pro wrestler you'll probably want to work the hell out of the "vanity muscles"...don't do that....work on functional muscles or you'll be prone to injury...

there is no definitive time frame that can be offered as there are so many variables...diet, genetics, routine, etc...if you don't have to go to a job then you can spend a few hours a day at the gym, which could speed up results, you can try the insanity or p90x workouts as they generate results in around 90 days...and they don't require any expensive equipment...but again diet and genetics will factor in as well...

To gain strength and muscle fast try the Stronglifts 5x5 program. Simple, fast, functional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk9A4s65D8A

OP are you still around, i am really curious how things have been going for you?

MadMage wrote: To gain strength and muscle fast try the Stronglifts 5x5 program. Simple, fast, functional.

I second this, or any kind of strength-based workout. Where you have strength, you'll surely have the muscle there. In nine months, you could make some significant muscle gains. I'd start with strength, then on to power, then hypertrophy. Not only would you have the strength and size to say that you actually train, but you'll have enough mass to make your "vanity" muscles appear bigger, once you start hypertrophy. A 5x5 program would get you started on strength, 5/3/1 would help you with power with strength, and if you want those muscles to be more defined, choose a hypertrophic workout from bodybuilding.com or something.

Diet plays a bigger role in this than many will realize. If you aren't eating enough, you won't grow very big, no matter how much you train. Fuel your body and push your strength limits; you'll see results if you discipline yourself to stick to what you're doing. If you get discouraged, don't quit. There are many resources out there for support in your endeavors.

I love reading this title. I'm a naturally slim (skinny) dude. After a divorce I wanted to gain muscle mass. I can Def tell you this...you are going to get a lot of plans from many different sources. It will be a lot of brain work trying to decide what plan to use. From one ex scrawny guy to (a similar frame guy) I can tell you this is what I did...

Got a checkup before starting any routines. Make sure you are in good shape to start.
Treat it like your lessons here...I researched and got an understanding on how muscles grow, how muscles build, how muscles strengthen.
Get a proper diet. You're gonna need food and fuel for your workouts/muscles and honestly the more you eat (whether its healtho or non healtho food)...the bigger you're gonna get...it's just wise to be sure you're eating food thats gonna be good to your system. I also researched calories/food energy. (3,000 calories equal one pound...) I ate more calories than I was eating...I upped it to close to 4,500 calories a day. I also picked up a mass gainer (protein shake). This helped add calories and vitamins to my daily meal plan.

I picked exercises that targeted larger muscle groups. (Back was priority for me) my neck and trapazoids grew fast and gave me a more masculine look. WORK YOUR LEGS. 9 months is plenty of time.

But, more importantly...stick with a routine and don't skip meals.

Sincerely,
One sexy body Jedi

I am late to the game, but I would say that cutting is your best shot at looking jacked. If you want to pack on mass, by all means do it, you can't get too big in my book. However, if you want to appear badass, ripped, and have 9mos, like 3 now, then I'd saying shaving a few points for the BF instead of bulking is going to help you. IMHO without knowing your program and diet and history, you are talking 2 years to pack on enough muscle (10-15lbs) at your size to make you look huge. If you're a newb you might gain more. Fingers crossed you are one of those gifted mofos who can add 10-12lbs a year and cut at the same time despite being 5yrs into lifting.

also maybe kinda of interest: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-ripped-dude-how-much-muscle-can-i-put-on-naturally.html