For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

[DC]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

2. If I work out in the morning, I would plan on having a protein shake for breakfast, along with a banana or something. Would that be ok?

Having a protein shake as a supplemental part of a MEAL would be ideal though. Real food > supplements

[ehh]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

I have finally gotten my arse in gear in terms of a swimming program. I've wanted to this consistently for a while but just never stuck to it, too busy playing ball and lifting.

Anyway, for the last two weeks I have done 120 laps each week (four days, 30 laps each day). I rotate between freestyle, breast and backstroke every two laps (so there and back of freestyle, then there and back of breast, etc). So I get 10 laps of each stroke.

The first day I thought I was going to die, I wanted to stop after the first 10 laps. But man, your stamina increases fast as hell in the pool. By my final workout of Week 1 I was able get through it but I was stopping after every other lap for 10 seconds to catch my breath.

Yesterday was my 3rd workout of Week 3 and I crushed it, I was ready to do another 10 laps. From everything I've read you should do at least three weeks before bumping up to a higher workload, but I'll probably try to do 40x4 next week. My goal is to double what I've started at and get to 240 laps a week (60x4 days).

My diet has been great the last two weeks (eating more veggies than I ever have in my life too) and I have already noticed a pretty obvious difference in my chest and abs. I can't wait to see what the results are in six months when I'm up at 240 laps/week.

If anyone out there is happy w. their physique in terms of bulk but wants to shed some of that "tough fat" around your abs I would def suggest swimming.

Here's my schedule at the moment...

Mon: Adult League Basketball
Tues: lunch time swim, evening pickup basketball
Wed: lunch time swim, evening pickup (depending on how I feel)
Thurs: lunch time swim
Fri: Full body weight lifting
Sat: AM pick up
Sun: AM swim

I'm also officiating basketball games this winter so that gets me an extra 5-7 hours of running up and down the court each week. Gonna be an eventful winter!

[ehh]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Having a protein shake as a supplemental part of a MEAL would be ideal though. Real food > supplements

Well, not if real food makes up your protein shake. Obviously you're going to have whey/casien in it but some shakes are pretty powerful.

I have the same morning shake each and every day and it's 900 calories, I don't need to be eating a meal in addition to that. As is I'm usually not hungry until 1pm, I need to force myself to eat an apple and almonds around 11am.

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

That's one heck of a routine right there. I'm going to imagine you're going to be ripped after a month if your diet stays in check.

I can attest that swimming is a great workout and not easy at all!

Do you get sore just having one lift day/week or does the swimming substitute as lifting for your body?

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Well, not if real food makes up your protein shake. Obviously you're going to have whey/casien in it but some shakes are pretty powerful.

I have the same morning shake each and every day and it's 900 calories, I don't need to be eating a meal in addition to that. As is I'm usually not hungry until 1pm, I need to force myself to eat an apple and almonds around 11am.

This man knows what he's talking about.

Getting a large (30-50g) portion or protein through real food isn't as easy as you would think. Unless you're gonna cook up a chicken breast for breakfast a scoop of protein will do the trick.

[ehh]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

That's one heck of a routine right there. I'm going to imagine you're going to be ripped after a month if your diet stays in check.

I can attest that swimming is a great workout and not easy at all!

Do you get sore just having one lift day/week or does the swimming substitute as lifting for your body?

I haven't experienced much soreness for the one lifting day but my "routine" is JV as hell, it's a joke. I'm just trying to avoid getting rusty in the weight room and want to keep my muscles awake for the next 4-6 months. When I start lifting consistently again I don't want to have one of those fun experiences when you lift for the first time in six months and can't raise your arms above your shoulders the next three days! And I know lifting is too important to completely nix outta my exercise routine.

I'm still not sure how to go about the swimming routine since it's aerobic and anaerobic, I don't know how the rest is suppose to work each week. It's nowhere near as taxing on your muscles as bench pressing 250lbs but obviously rest is still needed. So far the three straight days of swimming hasn't bothered me at all. Despite the fact that I feel completely spent when I'm done swimming I'm always fresh and ready to get back in the pool the next day, which is probably I sign I can up my workload.

[therizing02]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

What are some things to do when you hit a plateau? I haven't been putting on any weight, and it doesn't look like I've been getting any bigger in awhile.

Change your routine. You have gotten really good at all of the exercises that you've been doing up to this point. Start implementing exercises that you've never done....and keep eating.

[windseer90]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Bold answers above

Thanks for the quick response. Regarding diet, my average lunch is a turkey sandwich on wheat bread, along with some cottage cheese. I only drink water, and for snacks I usually go with strawberries, an apple, cottage cheese, or something of the sort. While I know sugar is the devil, what other options for snack food or lunch is there? Or is what I'm doing for lunch ok? I can't really control what I have for dinner since my parents cook, but I'm going to avoid the deserts since they're full of sugar.

EDIT: Also, on days I don't do HIIT, it would still be ok to do some running or something of the like, right?

[therizing02]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Thanks for the quick response. Regarding diet, my average lunch is a turkey sandwich on wheat bread, along with some cottage cheese. I only drink water, and for snacks I usually go with strawberries, an apple, cottage cheese, or something of the sort. While I know sugar is the devil, what other options for snack food or lunch is there? Or is what I'm doing for lunch ok? I can't really control what I have for dinner since my parents cook, but I'm going to avoid the deserts since they're full of sugar.

EDIT: Also, on days I don't do HIIT, it would still be ok to do some running or something of the like, right?

I would recommend adding a lot more protein to that diet. You probably want to mix in 5-7 servings of protein per day. Try eating 5 or 6 small meals per day with a good mix of proteins and carbohydrates.....and fat.

[ehh]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

I busted out 48 laps in the pool today. Fatigue had kicked in pretty hard after the 36th lap but I got the last 12 done. I took a two minute break after 12/24/36 laps - pretty good progress for me. I should be at my 60 laps/day by the new year.

[TMagic]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

While I know sugar is the devil?

Sugar is not the devil when you are trying to gain muscle.

Carbohydrate ingestion immediately after working out is just as important as protein ingestion following your workout.

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Sugar is not the devil when you are trying to gain muscle.

Carbohydrate ingestion immediately after working out is just as important as protein ingestion following your workout.

What? Carbs are energy, not building blocks of muscle (that's protein). Carbs are a source of energy.

However, if you meant it in the way that a small amount of sugar PWO is good because it spikes insulin allowing the cells to take in the protein you put in your body.

But whey protein pretty much does this anyways, so sugar PWO is pretty pointless. If you do have some sort of sugar, it should be a certain kind (I would have to look it up) and you should not consume FATS with your meal/shake.

If you're spiking insulin you only want the sugar to spike it and the protein to go into your muscles.

I would still say protein consumption is far more important because you need to have that. You don't need to have carbs.

[TMagic]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

What? Carbs are energy, not building blocks of muscle (that's protein). Carbs are a source of energy.

However, if you meant it in the way that a small amount of sugar PWO is good because it spikes insulin allowing the cells to take in the protein you put in your body.

But whey protein pretty much does this anyways, so sugar PWO is pretty pointless. If you do have some sort of sugar, it should be a certain kind (I would have to look it up) and you should not consume FATS with your meal/shake.

If you're spiking insulin you only want the sugar to spike it and the protein to go into your muscles.

I would still say protein consumption is far more important because you need to have that. You don't need to have carbs.

Never said that Carbs are what make up muscle.

Just like you said, carbs are energy.

And your body needs energy to do everything. So to build muscle and spare the use of protein as energy, you consume carbs.

My professor (former body builder. #7 in nation. Not that that matters. Just saying its from a reliable source) went over a whole lecture on this. He basically explained it saying that your body is going to limit the amount of carbs that it has stored if none are coming in.

Just think of it as you having a bank account with money saved (carbs stored). Now say you know that you don't have any money coming in from a job or anything. You're not going to be as likely to spend your saved money on extra, unimportant things (i.e. getting bigger). You want to use the money you have for important things (i.e. energy for important bodily functions to sustain life/maintain homeostasis/fight disease).

But say you do have money coming in and money saved. You don't have a problem spending money on extra things (getting bigger).

Body works the same way. It's not going to want to use carbs(energy) to build muscle if it thinks nothing else is coming in. To build muscle you need energy from carbs. There is a demand for protein and carbs following a workout.

And like I mentioned earlier, it helps save protein from being used as a source of energy that the body is demanding, allowing for more protein to be used as a tissue builder. And just like you mentioned, the release of insulin helps facilitate the movement of protein into cells. Not only that, but studies show that carbohydrates help decrease muscle break down and enhances repair.

Some experts believe that carbohydrates are even more important than protein after a workout.

Here are some articles from the Gatoraide Sports Science Institute. Highly recommend taking a look at some of these. They have some very good reads:

http://www.gssiweb.com/Search_Result...ch=hypertrophy

Pubmed is also a really good site. It takes all of it's information from exercise, physiology, health, and science Journals, which are far more accurate and researched than Magazines and random websites:

www.pubmed.com

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.



Awesome reply.

"To build muscle you need energy from carbs"

That's one thing I have to disagree with. I consume less than 15g carbs a day and I have become fat-adapted (I use fat for energy).

I'd switch it to "To build muscle you need an energy source", and I would agree that protein is not a source of energy you want to use. It's ideally meant for repairing/building muscle.

Once again that was an awesome post with a lot of knowledge in there.

Isn't it a shame that our country isn't nearly as informed on nutritional information as they should be?

[TMagic]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Awesome reply.

"To build muscle you need energy from carbs"

That's one thing I have to disagree with. I consume less than 15g carbs a day and I have become fat-adapted (I use fat for energy).

I'd switch it to "To build muscle you need an energy source", and I would agree that protein is not a source of energy you want to use. It's ideally meant for repairing/building muscle.

Once again that was an awesome post with a lot of knowledge in there.

Isn't it a shame that our country isn't nearly as informed on nutritional information as they should be?

Ok...so I'm not sure how to take this post honestly. With it being typed, you never know how someone is really saying something. Are you being foreal, or sarcastic? Honestly.