I've decided to start lifting... however will it take me years to see any progress?

OK.. I've been weak and puny all my life and I have decided to start bulking. I currently weigh 110lbs at 5'7". Yes I am as thin as a stick. I want to change though. at first I just wanted to gain fat because it seemed easier but I realise how dumb that is now.

I have pretty much never lifted seriously before in my life. The only time I did was as a freshman in highschool about 5 years ago. I was so small everyone would make fun of me about how they could easily "cave my chest in" or "snap my arms like a twig".

from what I can remember back then I could only lift the 45lbs bar that was it. I have a feeling its not much different now. to give you an idea how weak i am I can only do about 2-3 real push ups and I dont weigh that much.

so my real question is can I expect to make any real progress in less than a year if I do serious bulking/lifting? my friend who has been lifting for a few years now said that it will take at least 12 months before I see any progress at all in strength/size given my current phsyical shape. this news is quite a demotivator. I plan on eating everything I can, 6 meals a day and workout 3 days a week.

thanks in advance.

Actually you should see some progress after 8-12 weeks if you stay consistant. This will be an exiting time for you because you should make enormous gains. Just stick with it stay focused and you will reap great benefits.

Cheers,
Scotsman

my current goal is to gain 20lbs and weigh 130.. I know that is still skinny but its a hell of a lot better than what I weigh now! I think I would be extremely happy if I could gain 20lbs in less than a year.

The key is don't give up on yourself. It will take sometime but you can make some gains in 6 months. Being consistent with your training. When I first started training I could only bench 95lb's but over about 6months I was benching 160 for some good reps. Now that might not seem like a big gain but it was for me.

Eating is a big key to gaining muscle. You can put on fat easy but who wants that hehe. When I started working out I thought I could just eat anything and gain weight. Boy I was wrong. I had to get used to eating 6 meals a day with good protein and carbs. But once I did I could feel the hardness in my muscles when I worked out. They felt solid. So I guess what I'm saying is read the boards and get some books on bodybuilding and set up a good plan of attack.

Hope this helped some.

Dude enjoy the gains. The first year can be the best as long as your nutrition is on and you're forcing the muscles to adapt with progressive resistance. If I was still gaining the way I did when I first started I'd be putting Cutler to shame..umm..not really but you get the idea.

personally i think u should not set any goals for now. just start eating tons of food, make sure you get sufficient protein, and search some of the posts on this board for a workout regimine you like and youll start seeing gains. but u gotta make sure you eat enough and sleep enough to repair your body. im glad u came here cuz there is tons of info on this forum and its all free. good luck.

thanks for the advice guys..

I'm definitely not trying to get huge or anything because I know that won't happen. its not in my genetics, both my parents are very small (i'm tallker than them actually) so I have a small frame to start with.

I just want to gain some weight, look NORMAL, and have a decent amount of strength. (I'd be thrilled to be able to bench 100lbs)

shit man, if u stick with it you could be big. genetics arent impassible, just a temporary road block. knock that road block down and youll be on yer way.

Yeah dude, listen to what all these guys are saying........they are true to this game and we all help one another out in any way possible. When I first started working out I was 5'10", 135lbs.......SUPER SKINNY and sickly looking. I could only bench 95 lbs and hated the way I looked. Now after about 5 to 6 years of total overall lifting and 2 to 3 hardcore, I am 6'2"(you won't grow taller lifting of course lol) but I am now 221lbs. Don't give up on it, and stick with it. Once you start seeing any results you will fall in love with this weight-game BELIEVE ME, b/c that's how it was for me when I first started. It did take a while but if you hit it hard, eat, eat, and what's that one other thing, oh yeah eat! plus get your rest every night and don't abuse your body by any means, you should see progress in 4 to 6 weeks. Not life altering change but you will see change. Just the sore muscles made me feel good b/c I knew something was changing. Don't worry bro you will grow, take it from a mirror image of you back when I was young. It happens, all it takes is YOU to get with it and stick with it and remember "PAIN DON'T HURT" Good luck bro!

at 19 i weighed 115 pounds, i reached my heaviest 280 after i turned 50.

Heres some important info.What is the most anabolic substance known to man? If you said food then you are 100 percent correct. It is absolutely impossible to put muscle on without enough nutrients to support the process. You can train day after day, month after month, and still see absolutely nothing new in the mirror if you are not eating enough.

Taking this into consideration, it would stand to reason that the more food you consume, the higher an anabolic response your body will have after a brutal workout. So if you were looking for a muscle building magic bullet then you have no further to look than your refrigerator! Go stand in your kitchen for a minute. Look around, you are completely surrounded by the most anabolic substance in the world! You can almost feel its power as if the cabinets were about to explode. For if you consume the correct amount of macronutrients you will undoubtedly experience a surge of muscle growth that you never imagined possible!

Everything I have ever done has been to the extreme. Whether at work or play I have always attempted to break barriers. I believe that this is the mentality a bodybuilder must have if he/she is to succeed! Therefore, you can imagine what transpired when I first discovered the anabolic power of food. I stuffed myself with it!

Make no mistake about it, you will never become huge on 2,500 calories a day! No matter what any sell out magazine tells you. I know that allot of you are thinking, " what about my abs? I don't want to lose sight of them." Have you ever seen pro bodybuilders in the off season? They are tanks! Lee Priest competes at 225 and has gotten up to 300 pounds in the off season. While I am not going to ask you to go to these extremes, you must sacrifice by gaining a small amount of fat if you ever hope to add serious muscle mass. Guess what? When you diet the fat off after a bulk, your abs will still be there, and with them, a whole new layer of lean muscle mass that you can show off at the beach! Remember bodybuilding is a process of building the body up and then chiseling it down again. You must understand that you cannot build anything without the proper materials and that is what "Diet" is all About. Here's what I am going to do, I will post a mass building diet that is meant to build muscle, while keeping fat gain to a minimum. I will accomplish this by sticking with extremely clean eating!
Components :



Protein - I can talk all day long about the importance of protein! But I will sum it up by saying that this macronutrient contains the building blocks of muscle tissue! Without the proper amount of protein you can kiss muscle gains goodbye! I would recommend a minimum of 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight a day from sources such as chicken, fish, turkey, steak, skim milk, egg whites and protein powders. Therefore, if you weigh 200 pounds, you should consume 200 to 300 grams per day. Lastly, I would stay away from foods such as bacon and ribs. All the meat you eat should be lean.

Carbohydrates - Obviously you cannot induce muscle growth without intense workouts. Well, there is no way that you can train at an optimal level without the bodies chief source of fuel. The Carbohydrate. This macronutrient not only fuels us, but it releases one of the body's most anabolic hormones in response to its ingestion. This hormone is called insulin, and it increases the uptake of protein into our muscles tremendously. Carbs also spare protein so that it can be used to build muscle as opposed to being burned as energy (see note). You should consume 2.5 to 3.5 g of carbohydrates a day. That said, a 200 pound man would consume 500 to 700 grams of carbs a day from complex carbohydrates such oatmeal, and wheat bread.

Note: The body has the capability to convert other macros into glucose. Such a process is known as gluconeogenesis. Mr. Knowlden discusses this in The Window Of Opportunity. Here is an excerpt:

Cortisol literally converts muscle tissue to proteins for conversion into glucose. This is your body’s way of producing energy when all readily available energy (glucose) and stored forms (glycogen) of energy have been expended. To compensate for this depletion of energy, your body will go into a process called gluconeogenesis to produce glucose from amino acids in the liver. The end result of this process? Hard earned muscle used as energy, and all potential gains becoming null and void.

Essential Fatty Acids - Fat intake, namely from EFA's, are vital to your progress. Essential Fatty Acids help with countless areas in our bodybuilding lifestyle. For more information on this, refer to, Essential Fatty Acids - An In Depth Analysis.

Calculating Your Calories

I discuss caloric calculation in 13 weeks to burning fat the diet. You can go to the exact section by clicking here. Once there, find the amount of calories it would take to maintain your current bodyweight. Here is what you must understand: even though food is extremely anabolic, a general rule of thumb, is that the higher you raise your caloric intake, the more fat you will store. You can minimize this through clean eating, and slowly raising your calories. For example, say your maintenance is 3, 000 calories per day, you might tack on an additional 250 calories the first week to increase muscular gains. On that low an increase, fat gain will be negligible to non-existent! If weight gain fails, then increase your intake slowly again.

Sample Meal Plan

The following diet is over 4,500 calories, you will of course adjust it to your daily needs as calculated above.

Meal One
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

5 egg whites
60
0
18
0

2 whole eggs
144
0
12
10

1 cup Oatmeal 300
54
10
6

1 medium sized apple
90
23
1
0

Total
594
77
41
16




Meal Two
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

7 oz chicken breast 217 0 45 4
1 cup Oatmeal 300
54
10
6

Total
517 54 55 10



Meal Three
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

6 oz Tuna
186 0 39 3
4 slices wheat. bread 440 104 8 2
Total
626 104 47 5



Meal Four (PW shake)
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

45 Grms Dextrose 180 45 0 0
45 Grms Dextrose 180 45 0 0
46 grams of Whey
220 6 46 3
Total
580 96 46
3




Meal Five
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

1 Cup of Oatmeal 300
54
10
6

1 Large Sweat Potato 150 35 3 1
2 turkey Burgers 260 2 48 6
Total
710 91 61 13



Meal Six
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

8 oz fish 258 0 45 9
1 Large Sweat Potato 150 35 3 1
Total
408 35 48 10



Meal Seven
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

8 oz fish 258 0 45 9
2 or 3:1 ratio N3-N6 EFA'S--2 table spoons 250 0 0 25
Assorted Greens 40 6 2 1
Total
548 6 47 35



Meal Eight
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

1 Cup Cottage Cheese 220 5 45 2
2 or 3:1 ratio N3-N6 EFA'S--2 table spoons 250 0 0 25
Assorted Greens 40 6 2 1
Total
510 11 47 28



Daily Totals
Calories
Carbs
Protein
Fat

Nutrient Grams
4,500
474
392
120


This articles was meant to build a solid foundation. A foundation based on the following fact: " If you want to be one of the Big Boys you've got to eat like the big boys!"



Now its "Time to get big"

RADAR