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Generally speaking, I would tell a new to intermediate lifter to consume 1x to 1.25x grams of protein per body weight a day (since you said you are on the slimmer side I would go 1.25x) and to be in a slight caloric surplus.
For lifting, 5x5 twice a week on every compound lift was the way I got to what I would call an intermediate lifter (adding roughly 5lbs a week on each compound lift). For supplements, although not necessary, I personally go with Ryse for everything and have been pleased with it. If you wanted a strict workout plan to follow, I have heard good things about Jeff Nippard's push pull legs plan, although I have never personally tried it.
That has been disproven many times. 1g is more than enough let alone 1.25g per lb. Studies show that excess of 0.85g offers no additional benefit. In fact the difference between 0.65 and 0.85 is marginal.
Agree on the 5x5.
I've been lifting for 10 years. I've spent much time making mistakes, often induced by common misconsceptions, and learning from them.
Roids
"My ultimate dream is to move to Jersey, find a nice, juiced, hot tanned guy and live my life." - Snooki
GTL baby!
Rich piranha is my favorite natural fresh water fish
He actually seemed like a cool intelligent guy. He spoke a lot about eating as many whole foods as possible for gains.
Never thought I would see Rich Piana on WSO
This is the second time I've seen him. Rich is a legend
Agreed, but keep in mind to not do 3x for every muscle group. Maybe for the lagging parts, and your 3rd time shouldn't be as intensive as the 1st two times to prevent overtraining. I recommend looking at Joe Fazer for videos on hitting the lagging body part 3rd time the same week
One thing, it gets way easier to injure yourself with age.
I ended up with 2x hernias and a few other issues from heavy lifting. Not the case for everyone obviously, but in hindsight I wish I had stuck to lighter weights & more reps + maintained a lower bodyweight.
Now I haven't really been able to go to the gym properly since ~Feb 2022 and probably wont be able to resume until EOY...optimistically :(
Echo the last point. The underlying idea of progressive overload via greater weight is actually progressively overload via greater tension applied to the muscle. So one can apply greater tension to the muscle with the same weight. This can be done by perfecting form, or once one has perfected form one can focus on explosiveness in the concentric portion of a movement and slow down in the eccentric portion of a movement. I would stay with the same weight before getting those things down. When I become comfortable with the weight, I would increase the weight and go through that process trying to perfect the movement again. I believe that if you keep adding weight without mastery of the movement, the likelihood of injury will increase as the stabilisers might not have adapted in the same pace with your ‘strength’. Build muscle and protect the body from injury, why wouldn’t you do this?
That sounds like a great approach. I have been close to a couple injuries due to shit form, so it's helpful to remember to slow it down sometimes.
Chicken and rice plus bench press
Start pinning tren
Tuna and peanut butter smoothies, it's really that easy
Why do you want to get big? Serious question.
It’s an area where I’m deficient. I like to be strong in every area of my life. Our physic has a significant impact on our lives. It impacts the way people perceive us and natural dominance. Think it will have benefits in many areas, with leadership, women, defense.
What will help you in defense training is not getting gains, but rather practicing Muay Thai and BJJ.
Damn even his font is small.
optimal training dorks will say not to do this, but do what I'm doing:
smolov jr for squats, bench, and weighted pull ups simultaneously. repeating for 3 cycles until FT. Only do accessories on the 6x6 day.
I did this in highschool after football and went from 165 to 205 bodyweight.
There is no such thing as overtraining, only underrecovering (undereating). Eat a massive surplus, mostly beef.
Don’t hope for anything more than borderline visible if you have 3 months. Spend the time learning to enjoy lifting, and make yourself the promise that you’ll go at least 3x / week even after starting FT. Try to eat “clean”, get a gram of protein per lb of bodyweight, sleep at least 7 hours every night, and make sure you’re progressively lifting heavier shit. Not much else you can do besides that, it’s a long game.
Creatine bro
I’ve gotten back into the swing of training and even as a former elite level athlete, I am still experiencing doms a few weeks into training. I am doing around 60% of my former workout routine at a much lighter weight all around (DB bench 4x12 @ 55lb when my peak was 85lb).
I’ve found my body to be all jacked up even though I only took maybe 3.5 months off of training hard (was still training but eating like shit).
I remember first time I ever did DB bench after watching a YouTube video. Did it back to back days and was walking around with my arms at a 70° angle lol.
I highly recommend doing a beginner program like starting strength. The Reddit PPL (push pull legs) is also very well constructed for a beginner, and you can sub lifts depending on what equipment is available to you.
Remember, you can’t out-train a bad diet. Trust me, if anyone is proof you can’t, it’s me. You can go through my post history and see I’ve done some crazy ass workouts, but even then, I couldn’t just eat whatever. .85g of protein per pound is a solid goal. Take creatine and drink a ton of water.
I love seeing people get into exercising and personal health. It’s one of the most important lifestyle choices you can make.
Lastly, don’t ego lift. Today was my back day and I finished with burnout curls using 15lb dumbbells (before my face pulls and rear delt flys). I have fantastic rear delts- my main lift targeting them is band pull aparts. I had shoulder tightness due to pitching for 15 years and this helped solve it. Do 20 pull aparts and come back to me. I’ve worked up to 500 where I just amrap, rest 30 seconds, then continue until I hit 500. They can handle a ton or volume once you begin regularly training them and make you look jacked. Also great mental toughener as the burn sucks
Also went the path from very skinny to relatively big—if you want a protein-rich caloric surplus, I found the easiest way to do it was to eat protein rich meals during the day (and eat until you are full), and then before bed kill an absolutely enormous smoothie. My go to was always milk, oats, two raw eggs, a banana, peanut butter, scoop of protein powder, and frozen blueberries. Also, take Creatine. 5g a day is probably the right place to start.
If you think of yourself as a hardgainer, this is 100% the easiest way to meet your caloric goals. Also means you wake up in the morning and absolutely Bob Ross the toilet bowl maybe two or three times, but that’s the price of greatness.
500mg test E - 2x/week
150mg prop eod
175mg tren a eod
75mg wistrol ed
2 iu of growth after waking up, 2 more iu of growth before workout
20mg clen - 4x/day
Throw in some anavar every now and then when you get to cutting.
This guy f***s
How tf do you have 40k+ bananas
You got a body target you are going for? If your brain is fried from social media use then there is a good chance it flat out isnt achievable without steroids.
Big and fluffy or lean and chiseled. Pick one
This guy Ryan Hall has run a sub 60 min half marathon and also decided to get ripped and gained 40lbs:
I think his after shot is the pinnacle of being natty. You can't get much bigger than that unless you're juicing.
Been lifting ~8 years.
Max incline bench: 255lbs
Max weighed pullup(s): 135lbs + 200lb frame for 2
Max squat 255lbs (broke my lower back in HS)
Find a starting strength lifting program and follow it. Buy Optimum Nutrition chocolate 100% Whey protein powder and have 2 shakes per day with water, ice, and 2 scoops of protein. (It is the best tasting protein powder you will ever find.) This should get you to ~100g protein per day. Supplement with eggs/chicken/ground turkey from there to get to 1g protein/lb bodyweight.
Find Seth Feroce on youtube. Watch 10 of his most popular videos. The dude is an unreal teacher and has a killer mindset. Apply the training tips to your workout plan and get the "Strong" app for IOS to easily track workouts. Aim for 15+ working sets (meaning you can only get 0-2 more reps per set) per workout.
Literally do the above and you'll get jacked and change your life. GL
Look up BBB 5/3/1, boring but big. Add some assistance lifts, eat a lot more than you are and you should be good to go.
This is one of my favorite workouts to gain size. Def emphasize boring but you can’t knock it bc it produces results.
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