Thread: Brand new to training, tired of bieng skinny!

I am 28 years old 5'11 and 170 lbs my main goal is to bulk up a bit in the shoulder, arms, and chest area. I do gain weight but not as easily as others. I am not going to compete, I don’t want my life to revolve around working out, I am just tired of being skinny and feeling uncomfortable taking off my shirt at the pool etc.. The shoulders and arms seem to be a good place to start. On a recommendation from a friend at work I am currently taking these supps

http://www.bulknutrition.com/?products_id=445

http://www.allthewhey.com/wpi_unf.html

and am starting with this program

http://www.muscletech.com/TRAINING/...ybuilding.shtml

I don’t have time to go to the gym with school, work, wife, and kids, so I bought a dumbbell barbell set to work out at home. Now according to that plan you only do the work out once a week???? Shouldn’t I do those exercises at least every other day?

I don’t think I will have any issues getting to work out I have been pretty good about keeping a routine and using those work outs every other day. It really only takes about 45 minutes. I usually throw in some curls and bench press reps in there too. My biggest concern is the diet and consuming enough calories and protein. I need 3400 calories and 170-250 grams of protein daily. My problem as stated before I don’t have much time too cook for my self with all the other things going on. Also I live in Germany and don’t speak German so actually getting the right food is difficult. Right now I am eating burger king, protein bars, eggs, ground beef, rice, bread and easy to make stuff but I really am not sure about actually counting intake. This is where its going to be hard for me

So many questions. The 3 sets of 4-8 reps per muscle group is more for the somewhat "advanced" lifter in my opinion. It sounds to me like you need to start with the basics and then change up after you find the excercises that work best for you and your body. Most guys who are "bulking up" are already built pretty good but want to add thickness and size to the large muscles they already have...not ALL of them, but most. You have to BUILD the muscles up first, then BULK them up. LOAD up on the protein and hit each body part once every 4 days to start out and then go from there. These are very very generalized "tips", you need to find what works for YOU bud. Good luck.