Quoting LawnMM
I don't know if you even want my advice based on our interactions in the other thread but I'll offer it anyway with a little more info available on you here.
Yes, I still value your opinion and thanks for visiting this thread. Your last response in prime's veggie thread put things into perspective. I just read your prior responses with more bias than you put into them. My bad.
Quoting LawnMM
I'll start with a question, how tall are you? Thats just to get a better picture of your frame and overall size right now. If I understand your post correctly you want to gain about another 10lbs of muscle right?
I'm 5'10" and 140 pounds currently, and you read the post correctly; I'm trying to gain another 10 pounds of muscle.
Quoting LawnMM
I hope you don't mind me making a few observations about your routine. Might give you some insight, or you could tell me to kiss off, you decide. You seem to be doing a LOT of sets overall. Your rep ranges are good so it leaves me wondering why so many exercises and so many sets overall?
I read somore and I see you do most of your exercises are being done on machines. Just curious as to why? Not knocking machines in the slightest, I use them myself. However, I think if you incorporated somore steel into your routine you might find it fatigues your muscles faster. Instead of leg extensions why not try squats or a leg press?
This workout was set by one of the former trainers at the gym. I think he started us on the machines as a way of breaking us in. We're ready to change up the routine here pretty soon, and since we almost always partner our workouts, adding some freeweights is potentially in the cards because we've got built-in spotting.
In the case of the leg extensions vs. squats, we're forgoing the squats because my workout partner was told not to do squats or leg presses by his doc and we have been trying to work the same routine for efficiency's sake.
Quoting LawnMM
If you're wondering why I'm advocating this its because I gather from what you wrote here that you probably have the metabolism of a blast furnace based on what you said you're doing. You're tearing through calories like a rabbid hamster on a wheel. Thats a great thing. It means you're healthy and fit but it also makes it harder for you to put on weight because you need THAT much more in excess calories to be able to add some muscle.
Think of it this way, calorically you need enough calories to survive (heartbeat, breathing, walking, etc) and then you need another slew more to support all the lifting you're doing 3-5 days a week, and then you need even more for the biking and the spin classes you're doing. Thats just to maintain your weight. You'll need even more to add mass. So the reason I suggest trying to incorporate more dumbell and barbell exercises is because I think it will wear you out faster. Hopefully you can get the same sense of fatigue but with less exercises and less sets.
That's a great idea, and you're right that fatiguing faster would probably get me to my goal sooner. Getting there by more eating alone has been difficult at best.
Quoting LawnMM
Now you would be starting to lessen the number of calories you're burning off through sheer exercise. Spin classes are great, but they're another calorie burner. A big one if you're really hitting it. You want to back off the cardio a bit if you want to add lean mass. If when you reach your mass and strength goals you feel as though you picked up some fat along the way (pretty likely) thats when good eating and spin classes will get you down to where you want and hopefully with a minimal loss of muscle.
I'm a little reluctant to stop the spinning for three reasons: it's basically the only aerobic exercise that I get, I still have some visceral fat that hasn't burned off through my other routine, and I'm training for the longer bike rides in the spring.
Quoting LawnMM
Another observation is that you increase your weight with each set until failure. Suggestion to go along with the observation: Try warming up with a light set and then starting off HEAVY and reduce weight as your muscles fatigue. Obviously you'll be able to lift more weight when you're fresh so I think it makes sense to lift heavier at the start and reduce the weight as you fatigue than starting low and trying to work up.
I'm a big fan of the less is more approach. Its not really necessary to spend 2 hours in the gym in order to stimulate muscle growth. I did legs earlier this week. I did three exercises for a total of 10 sets. I warmed up light for my squats and did four sets. I did three sets of stiff-legged deadlifts and three sets of standing calf raises. Usually takes me between 30-45 mins tops depending how busy the gym is and my legs are DYING when I'm done. I squat 220 for reps, I can leg press 500+ for reps, and I max out the standing calf raise machine if the seated is busy.
I'm not trying to brag, quite frankly I don't think thats really that great but I'm still packin' on size so I'm not finished yet either. The point in throwing out numbers is to try and lend some credibility to what I'm saying. I probably do half the sets and exercises you do and its still more than adequate to stimulate growth. I'm not telling you to change anything. You know your body better than I do. I'm just suggesting you try a few different things and see if it works for you.
I have found that warming up allows me to lift more afterward, so I can see the value in doing a warmup set and then starting heavy and working down to failure or exhaustion. I plan to give this a try.
Quoting LawnMM
Are you incorporating creatine into your diet? If not I suggest you pick some up at GNC. Its pretty affordable and you can get it with a transport system already mixed in. Do a loading phase when you bring it home. 5g serving 5x a day for five days and then just go with a single 5g on days you aren't working out. Do one serving before and one serving after on days you are lifting. I'd be willing to bet just adding creatine if you aren't already on it will boost you another 10lbs in 4-6 weeks.
I hadn't considered creatine yet, I thought the protein would be enough, but I'll definitely look into supplementing with it.
If my diet were any healthier, I think I'd lose my appetite altogether.
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