oiler90

Started heavy duty weight training in early March, weighed in at 170#. Have continued religiously since then and have added 15# of pure muscle. Now it seems I'm stuck at 185# but cant seem to add more bulk/pure muscle size. I'm eating all the time, high amounts of protein and calories. Take creatine daily in rec. doses. What's up ? Is it possible I've reached my weight/size max ?? I have a hard time believing that's true.

ihateschoolmt

How long have you been stuck?

oiler90

Seems to be about 3 weeks now. I am increasing weight in my basic exersizes I do, pushing myself very hard on every single set (to failure). Working each muslce group once a week - about 5-8 sets per muscle group.

Some areas have had continued growth/development (abs, tris, bis, traps) other areas are in the rut (pecs, lats)

ihateschoolmt

How many calories are you eating a day? Do you not train legs?

P-funk

change your program around.

Diet a bit and go hypocaloric for a few weeks and then your body will be primed to gain some weight again.

train legs?? if not, you better start.

http://pwtraining.blogspot.com/.....come and see what is on my mind!

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oiler90

I don't really count cals because I literally eat all day cause I'm always hungry. Here's a typical day's meals: breakfast - 2 eggs, sausage, cereal, strawberries, oj, toast; 10am - chicken breast sandwich; 11:30 yogurt; 1:00 another chicken sandwich; 2:00 sandwich again; some raisins, carrots, etc; 3:30 more chix sand. --this goes on until I get home from work at about 9, then I have a bigger meal, maybe steak, cheeseburgers, pasta, you know, substantial food. So in a 8 or 9 hour day, I eat 6 or 7 of these chix sandwiches cause theyre portable and I have no time for a sit down meal at work. I figure since Im taking in small meals all day and the chix is a good protein source, then I'm doing well - esp. since I have a great breakfast and dinner at night. Oh yeah, I drink about 4 litres of water day, mixed with Accelerade mix (for endurance purposes at work) and Mono-creatine for daily maintainence of creatine load.

I don't train legs because I'm a professional tennis player and they get plenty of work on the tennis court.

P-funk

well there are your two big problems:

1) start training legs. Playing tennis and performing resistance training with your legs are two different things. Gaining some strength in your legs will help you on the court and the added strength/stabalization could help prevent injury.

2) your diet is shit. absolute shit. don't worry about counting calories, you are eating garbage.

read the stickies and fix these things and you should be as thick as you want in no time.

http://pwtraining.blogspot.com/.....come and see what is on my mind!

Ivonne's Blog on Health and Wellness!

Looking for online training/coaching/consulting? --> Optimum Sports Performance

"In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the experts there are few."
-Buddha's Little Instruction Book

ihateschoolmt

That's edurence work, you need to train them anyway. I bet you if you start trainging legs you will get out of yor sticking point.

oiler90

Ok, I'm a rookie here, so I need you to explain to me that if I already have legs that look like a bodybuilder (and I'm being serious here, just a genetic gift from my dad), never, ever have injury to legs (great strength and flexibility), and have the national ranking to back up the claims here, then why do I need to start training legs ? I don't see the connection between this and my rut that I am in w/ my upper body? What I am striving for here is a more balanced look in my body since my legs are so big.

#2 : I'm eating shit ? Please give me some ideas of what would be better than eggs, sausage, cereal, fruit, sliced chicken breast, steak, ground beef, pastas. Is it a matter of not enough or just the wrong food ?

ihateschoolmt

http://www.newstarget.com/001506.html---avoiding strength training your lower body actually hampers your ability to build a strong upper body as well. Here's why: the largest muscles in your body are found in your lower body -- your glutes and hamstrings. By strength training these muscles, your body generates an enormous quantity of growth hormone. Once this growth hormone is circulating in your bloodstream, it actually enhances the growth of muscles throughout your body.

Post your upper body routine, maybe it's your training. It's much easier to gain weight the frist few months than any other time.

oiler90

Monday/Friday - Flat bench, incline bench, decline bench, dumbell flys, dumbell pullovers, cable crossovers, tricep ext., I do about 3 or 4 of these exer. @ 4-6 sets each and no more than 6-8 reps per set. I keep the exer. choices random to keep the body guessing. Ab work every day (these are growing like weeds), traps.

Wednesday/sometimes Sat. - High row, mid row, lat pull down, bicep curl, abs, traps. Same weight structure as Mon/Fri.

ihateschoolmt

Your chest isn't growing because your doing to many sets. You can work your chest in 8 sets or less. Triceps are getting a lot of work from your chest, so your in the right set range there, but do skull crushers or close grip weighted dips because those are better mass builders. I don't know what high rows and mid rows are, but do bent over rows instead. For legs do squats, deadlifts, leg press, leg curls. You also need to work your shoulders. Do military presses and db presses and lateral raises.

chris2489

Stick to mainly compound movements and eat more

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celt

Yeah, and also rear lateral raises for your posterior delts. Check this out http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

P-funk

if you are playing tennis that much I would do more rowing and posterior work and exp. work your external rotators since most of what you are doing is anterior and internal rotation.

http://pwtraining.blogspot.com/.....come and see what is on my mind!

Ivonne's Blog on Health and Wellness!

Looking for online training/coaching/consulting? --> Optimum Sports Performance

"In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the experts there are few."
-Buddha's Little Instruction Book

TJ Cline

You have been training Heavy Duty style for 3 months, put on 15 lbs of "pure muscle" and you're stuck???? If you put on 15 Lbs of pure muscle ( all in your upper body) in 3 months you should be happy as hell, about 1 in 10,000,000 men can do that in such a short time.

Tough Old Man

Is that 1 in ten million. Hell then we should are wish for his gains. Imagine eating the garbage he is and putting on 15 lbs of pure muscle and no fat. I don't see where he mentioned fat, so i assume it was al muscle. Doubt it but hey you never know.

Vieope

FURtherness

TJ Cline

For anyone who doesn't train legs with weights, to put on 1.25 Lbs of pure muscle a week ( all in the upper body) for 12 weeks is beyond AMAZING! To complain about is .

oiler90

Maybe I'm just being very impatient right now because the gains I had in the first 90 days came so easy. I try remembering what I was doing by writing things down, so I can't figure out why I'm at this standstill now. Its very aggrivating. My bodyfat is around 6-8% right now, basically because I take in so little fats and train cardio so much in my sport. I mean really heavy duty cardio.

Maybe if I up the intensity, weight, food intake a bit it will come around in another month. Any thoughts ??? I only want another 10# of muscle and then I think I'll be happy.

ihateschoolmt

You need to eat enough calories to balance out the cardio.

oiler90

If my diet is junk, as some here have said, then can you guys please tell me what I can eat when I am litterally on the job and cannot stop and sit down to eat a mean for 8-10 hours in a row. That is why I eat foods that I can pack in a huge insulated cooler and take with me as I work. Any advice on changing to a better diet to fit the "weight gain" formula would be appreciated. Thanks.

ihateschoolmt

Eat chicken, beef, turkey, or some kind of lean meat and brown rice, or some whole grains and take fish oil capsles or peanut butter. Of course there are more things you can eat, but that's all I can think of right now.

Favre

Start buying cans of tuna. If you're serious then eat it straight out of the can. Can't get much simpler than that. Protein every 3 hours, find a way! Get chunk light so you eat more tuna with less mercury and it costs next to nothing. I work 12 hour shifts and sometimes by the time I get to my tuna it's warm but I still eat it anyways.

It's pretty remarkable that you've just put on 15 Ibs. of pure muscle and are still at 6-8% bodyfat.

Start counting calories also. You're doomed to fail if you just guess how much you're eating. At least do it for a while to get some idea, then after that you'll pretty much know how much you're eating without having to write it down.

oiler90

This is good stuff. Thanks guys.