Weight Gain Tips

Michael D.

I was never really skinny, I was always just average or something about there. I was about 170 at 5'11" when I started 2 months ago. I am now 183 lbs. but even more impressive is that my body fat has gone down from 16% to 13.5% which means my gains are all muscle. People are starting to notice, expecially people i haven't seen in a while.

I had started weight lifting programs several times but always gave up because I never saw any improvements. Looking back, I now know that the reason I wasn't seeing results was because I wasn't eating right and because I was probably training too much. The funny thing is that I spend much less time lifting now and my results are incredible. I truly wish this site had been here about 5 years ago and pounded some sense into my head.

Tips

My routine is really basic. I do a full body routine MWF, doing 2 sets of 6-8 reps of each of the following exercises, modified from one of the sample routines.

Squats
straight leg deadlifts
calf raises
Bench press
bench dips
military press
bicep curls
pull-ups
crunches (with added weight)

That usually takes me just a little bit over an hour to do. Pretty soon I plan to switch to a split routine but I will continue this way as long as I see results. The only supplements i use are whey protein and creatine. I make sure I get at least one gram of protein for every pound every day and I make sure I eat at least 3,300 calories a day. That's it.

My tips for others are to read this site. This site is about getting good results for the average guy. As an average guy you need to have a good diet, you need to train right and you need to rest. Trying to do those routines in the magazines won't work and taking a million supplements won't work. I've been there and done that. if there is one thing I would say you should pay special attention to it is the dieting. Doing the workouts was never hard for me but keeping to the diet was. I started out trying to eat 3000 calories a day and at first I had trouble getting there. But I stayed at it and it got easier. Once you start eating more, you start getting hungry more. Don't give up too quick.