How to gain muscle?

I am the same way... the more I work out more cut/lean I look.. Dont ever really bulk up.. I've tried different work out methods for only increasing muscle mass but to no avile

 

The only way to gain muscle is to train. You have to lift weights and muscles will break down and more muscle will grow. And for that you need protein, the building blocks for muscle. You don't have to drink shakes but you must consume at least your body weight. For you that is 165g of protein daily.

Its that simple really. Your muscles have to be exposed to heavy weights so that when you work out, they tear and in turn will grow more to accomodate that weight strain you put on them. Hence when you reach a plateau in your training, meaning you are not able to gain any more muscle despite lifting, you have to increase the weight. That is because your muscles get used to that same weight. Its practical sense, keep putting your muscles on heavy stress and feed yourself with adequate amounts of protein daily so that they grow and form more muscle.

Of course you need a lot of rest and sleep. Your muscles won't grow when your in the gym, only when you are asleep. So make sure your getting enough rest to let the muscles grow.

 

Don't listen to your doctor. Protein shakes are fine, like whey protein, etc etc, just make sure you drink water after you take the shakes and maybe before and you'll be fine. If you have a fast metabolism and eat a lot of food but don't ever gain weight, then protein shakes are the way to go. Just don't take/try any of the pill products or stuff like that, THOSE are bad on your kidneys and hormones and everything else.

Oh ya, also lift heavy weights, and eat high protein foods like, fish, beef, eggs, oatmeal, etc etc.

 

Do compound lifts to stimulate whole-body muscle growth. Squats and deadlifts are first priority if you wanna bulk up. Also bench, military press, cleans, power cleans, and snatches. And do pullups, don't use a pulldown machine. Always use free weights. DON'T USE MACHINES. If you do some research you'll be able to develop a routine that fits your body type and lifestyle. Maybe start out with full body workouts using compound lifts maybe 2-3 times a week, and after a few months you'll start to see results. Just make sure you work your whole body. Calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, traps, lats, deltoid(especially rear deltoid), bi's, tri's, pecs, abs, intercostals, obliques, rhomboids, forearms, and possibly some rotator cuff exercises, but I think as a swimmer you probably have a powerful rotator cuff. Eat a shitload. You need protein to build muscle, but it's harder for your body to process protein, and in turn you use up a lot of calories breaking the protein down. Eat at least 6 meals a day, and try to strive for a .5/4.5/1 fat/carb/protein ratio. That's how you get big

Summary: Do only compound lifts (or at least do hella squats and deadlifts), whole body routines, and eat a shitload. And do research. The more you learn the easier it is to tweak your routine to suit you. Try learning about glycogen supplies, fast and slow twitch muscles fibers and the like. Last thing, if you do negative reps and forced reps you will see a nice increase in strength.

 

Eat big, lift big, get big. You say you're already swimming for 2 hours a day, that's a lot of cardio. If you want to gain more lean muscle mass you're going to have to eat A LOT. Your also 6,3 so by a lot I mean A LOT. Find out what your consuming already protein and calorie wise and adjust. To gain optimal muscle mass while training you need to eat between 1 and 2 grams of protien per pound of bodyweight. When you first start out you may not gain much weight if you dont diet correctly and you may attribute that to having an extremely fast metabolism which may be true but it wont be the reason you arn't gaining weight. Many first timers that try putting on muscle mass that were already extremely skinny have a hard time putting on weight and they think it's becuase of their metabolism. Your metabolism only plays a small role in lifting the real reason is becuase contrary to what they may believe, they simply arn't eating enough. The most important part of weight training is your diet. Since you're already training cardio 2 hours for 5 days a week you're going to have to eat a ton most likely 3500 calories plus a day, probably closer to 4000 becuase your 6,3.

 

take ibuprofen right after your workout. or tylenol or advil or any NSAID. it helps you gain like 40% more muscle mass because your body can work normally right after working out, instead of being tired.

i don't know all the details but my boyfriend just read some article about this. sounds legit, though. and it can't hurt, at least.

 

At first I thought this was BS, but you're right.
Muscle Mass/Strength Increased By Ibuprofen Or Acetaminophen In Long-Term Resistance Training

If you're going to do this, don't take tylonel. Very bad for your liver. I'd go with ibuprofen.

 

Are you still swimming competitively? If so, I'd strongly suggest finding a swimming forum to ask such questions as I'm sure you know, too much muscle or muscle in the wrong places will slow you down.

If not and you want to continue to swim that much, you're going to have to eat an insane amount of food. Hell didn't Phelps eat something like 12,000 calories a day?

Completely false unless there is some new scientific study to contradict this

Effect of ibuprofen and acetaminophen on postexercise muscle protein synthesis

T. A. Trappe1, F. White1, C. P. Lambert1, D. Cesar2, M. Hellerstein2, and W. J. Evans1

1 Nutrition, Metabolism, and Exercise Laboratory, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, Departments of Geriatrics and Physiology and Biophysics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Central Arkansas Veterans HealthCare System, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205; and 2 Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3104

We examined the effect of two commonly consumed over-the-counter analgesics, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, on muscle protein synthesis and soreness after high-intensity eccentric resistance exercise. Twenty-four males (25 ± 3 yr, 180 ± 6 cm, 81 ± 6 kg, and 17 ± 8% body fat) were assigned to one of three groups that received either the maximal over-the-counter dose of ibuprofen (IBU; 1,200 mg/day), acetaminophen (ACET; 4,000 mg/day), or a placebo (PLA) after 10-14 sets of 10 eccentric repetitions at 120% of concentric one-repetition maximum with the knee extensors. Postexercise (24 h) skeletal muscle fractional synthesis rate (FSR) was increased 76 ± 19% (P < 0.05) in PLA (0.058 ± 0.012%/h) and was unchanged (P > 0.05) in IBU (35 ± 21%; 0.021 ± 0.014%/h) and ACET (22 ± 23%; 0.010 ± 0.019%/h). Neither drug had any influence on whole body protein breakdown, as measured by rate of phenylalanine appearance, on serum creatine kinase, or on rating of perceived muscle soreness compared with PLA. These results suggest that over-the-counter doses of both ibuprofen and acetaminophen suppress the protein synthesis response in skeletal muscle after eccentric resistance exercise. Thus these two analgesics may work through a common mechanism to influence protein metabolism in skeletal muscle.


What this means is that your muscle will not absorb protein properly thus leading to inhibited muscle gains.

when they tested over the course of months, they failed to mention whether they continued to test the placebo group which is paramount to such a study

Looking for more info now though

 

are you in highschool or college?

ask the wrestling team if you can practice with them
a few football players and swimmers practiced with the wrestling team at my school

 

Umm, I wouldn't be too sure if that's a good idea. I'm not sure about other high schools but at ours its usually hot in the wrestling room and most people lose weight and sometimes muscle instead of gaining it, not all the time though, but most the time it is pretty hot.

 

What? Did you even read the first sentence?

Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting

 

Eat peanut butter & drink that milk, or a hamburger, pizza, or any other high protein food, you said you have low fat so don't worry about that.

 

eat.

protein shakes are fine doctors these days have a habit of turning their patients into frightened babies

 

the reason its hot is so we can make weight by getting rid of water weight

but it does build muscle quick (atleast for me but everybody is different)

do you lift? that usually helps me quick to

and that perfect pushup thing is also good but idk where you can get it because it was a christmas present

 

same prob... 6 foot 2, 160 cant gain a pound. some days im 155 then the next im 160. i dont get it. i heard everything i see and dont gain a pound. been trying to workout more.

 

Yeah, That study appears legit. I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before but for a "substantially greater increase" in "muscle mass and strength", that sounds like a good deal.

But yeah, to the OP - there is a fitness, health and nutrition forum here. I don't see how this topic would fit into the box as it stands now .

I would google "starting strength" by Mark Rippetoe and go set up a solid routine from there. His weight training program involves a lot of squats, bench pressing, and deadlifts, all which will help you put on some weight.
If you're sure you can't drink protein shakes, at least look into creatine. You're going to need to eat more, period, if you want more muscle at your size. Are you on the swim team or something? If you really want to put on muscle faster, you will want to reduce the amount of cardio you do.

as far as nutrition goes, I would recommend some milk and yogurt. Peanut butter is good too. Lots of good fats and protein. Oatmeal is also good for bulking up.

 

I put this in my other post, but seeing as how everyone is just saying "eat protein" I'm gonna repeat this, eat 4 times more carbs than protein. But still eat a shitload of protein. 2 grams per lb of body weight.

Your body uses calories breaking down the complex protein molecules, so you have to make sure you have enough energy(carbs) to achieve that.

4:1 carb to protein ratio. 1000 grams of carbs and 250 grams protein. any 4:1 ratio. I've seen studies saying 3:1 is better but fuck that, you need all the calories you can get

Edit: and still only do compound lifts.

 

Protein shakes, and work our 3 days a week. change your shit up tho and your good. Eat 3 meals a day and stay active. I went from 120-158 in 4 months so im happy im goin for 170 and it wont be long at all