I want to put on 10 lbs of muscle, whats the best way to do so?

Question

My new years resolution is to increase my muscle weight since I am underweight. I work out fairly regularly and eat well but never gain any weight. Whats the best way to add muscle weight through diet and exercise without using a personal trainer or supplements that most likely don't work?

Answer 1

Well, you have to lift weights in the right way (strength training). As a general guideline, for most exercises this might be something like doing 6-8 repetitions and about 4 sets. This would be the maximum amount of weight you can lift while staying in 6-8 reps across four sets, with a couple minutes rest in between each set. And then you have to give yourself time to heal and build before re-stressing a particular muscle group again. Typically, this is four or five days or so unless you're still sore. You'll want to do exercises that stress the same muscle groups on the same day to prevent re-stressing them again before they heal; for instance you wouldn't want to be doing bench press on one day and then the next day doing flies. This typically requires two days for the upper body to split up muscle groups, a day for the lower body, and an abs day, perhaps followed by a day off. For upper body, you'll want to make sure you're covering all the muscle groups, including your upper and lower back, shoulders, neck, biceps and triceps, and forearms, and chest. Although there are a lot variations and ways to do this.

With regard to food, if you're skinny and underweight you'll have to eat more calories than you burn to gain weight. That means eating more than you feel like eating at meals, and trying to choose reasonable foods for this purpose (not junk food). You might choose to use a whey protein supplement, but keep in mind that you can only utilize a limited amount of protein in a single ingestion, and the rest will be excreted. So, you need to take in your protein in reasonable portions scattered throughout the day rather than drinking a blender full of protein shake at one sitting.

If you're exercising/lifting weights, obviously you'll be burning off more calories like crazy, and that means it will be all the more difficult to eat enough calories.

Sometimes when weightlifters are "bulking up" to put on muscle they naturally put on fat along with it because they are eating all the extra calories. When the fat percentage gets higher than what they want, they then "cut" by eating less calories and perhaps doing cardio to help burn off some fat.

Answer 2

Get a work out buddy.

There are many different methods to increasing muscle mass. Supplements actually do play a big part in this. The Nitric oxide is very good at helping committed consistent ppl increase lean muscle mass. GNC has a book on Nitric Oxide, and this book step by step outlines what workouts to do, and at what intervals ... this isn't for beginners though ... you need to have a basic A-B-C understanding of weight lifting and most importantly, be consistent in your work out.