How to build muscle?

[bbq]

Well, I am a bit of a beginner when it comes to this. I have been going to the gym, mainly to do free weights, for about 9 months or so now. Whilst I've definitely put on a fair bit of muscle (half a stone), I've realized I need an actual work out plan. So, I have two questions -

- What exercises should I be doing to work on all of my muscles,
- and what should I be eating to capitalise on this?

Sorry if I've gone and broken some rules with my cluelessness.

[Nath]

What's your objective? Functional strength? Endurance? Appearance? Sport (i.e. lifting more for its own sake)?

[jtw]

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/WorkoutMenu.html

based on your schedule you might pick one of the split workouts.

[jtw]

and eat a lot of protein and fat.

[bbq]

What's your objective? Functional strength? Endurance? Appearance? Sport (i.e. lifting more for its own sake)?

Appearance, and functional strength.

and eat a lot of protein and fat.

How much is 'a lot'?

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/WorkoutMenu.html

based on your schedule you might pick one of the split workouts.

That's a pretty useful site, thanks.

[jtw]

and eat a lot of protein and fat.

How much is 'a lot'?

as far as protein goes, as much as you can. often suggested for getting bigger is that at least 40% of your caloric intake is protein (up to 1 gram or more per lb of bodyweight), and no more than 25% of your calories come from carbohydrates. don't be afraid of fat since it's more calorie-dense than protein or carbs, and as long as you're not eating sticks of butter or spoonfuls of lard it's not going to hurt.

easy ways of adding protein are snacks: protein shakes, nuts, cottage cheese, regular cheese, beef jerky, milk...

[shocklocks]

What free weights exercises do you do? As you're not on a set routine i'd reccomend Starting strength. http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ
Follow the program religiously to the point where you've maxed out the beginner stage and given the intermediate stage a decent go. Until you've maxed out the first stage I wouldn't worry about split routines/isolation exercises and all that jazz. People have the tendancy to think if they want to look big and strong they need to train like a body builder when in reality it's not needed. Body builders use split routines because they're at the point where they need the extra time for their muscles to recover. If they were able to train each muscle group 3x a week without dropping the intensity/weight lifted they would. Until you reach this stage it's more efficent to stick to compound exercises with a barbell. Even though appearance is one of your goals keep the reps at 5 for now, you build more strength this way and more strength is more weight lifted which is going to translate to faster muscle gains then if you'd been on an 8-12rep split routine.

As for nutrition. Check out these 2 sites.
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/ ... upplements
http://stronglifts.com/how-to-build-muscle-mass-guide/ (While I prefer starting strength the articles on this site are very informative, id check them all out if I were you. Esspeically the best of section.)

Remember though that a topic like nutrition is going to give ALOT of conflicting opinions. This is mainly true if you're looking into a specific diet as person who made said diet needs to give it defining characteristics that differ from other diets. So long as you follow a few basic rules and eat cleanly you should be fine. For example:

1: To determine how much to eat. Eat at roughly 16x body weight in pounds to lose fat. 18x bw to maintain the same body weight and 20-22x to gain weight. Depending on a number of factors like metabolism/genetics this may not be good enough for you. If you requrie a more percise measurement start calorie counting. See the methods in the starting strength nutrition page if you need to.
2: 6meals day. 2-3hours between each one.
3: Eat at least 1g of protein per bw in pounds. Spread it out over the day and have it with every meal. Eat a wide variety. http://stronglifts.com/build-muscle-on- ... f-protein/
4: Have at least 33% of your diet coming from fat. Make sure a good proportion of this is healthy fat from fish oil/olive oil/nuts etc. The rest should be natural animal fats.
5: Carbs arn't your friend. That being said, alot of people arn't going to suffer if a small percentage of their diet is made up of low GI whole grain carbs. It's something you need to determine on your own. If you're worried about it go on a low carb diet(Atkins diet, zone diet, anabolic diet, slow carb diet etc)
6: Drink water. Lots of water. At least 4-6litres a day. On top of this, stop drinking fizzy!
7: Supplament with a multi vitamin and fish oil. Whey if you need it to reach your protein needs. Unless your doctor/ a professional tells you other wise you shouldn't need any other pills/potions.
8: Alcohol is also unfortuantely not your friend. 1gram of alcohol is nearly twice as many calories as a gram of carbohydrates and has a similar effect of making your body store fat by using the alcohol as energy instead. The fact most drinks are high in sugar/carbs as well only makes this worse. When you do drink do your best to keep it to red wine and try to stick to straight spirits. A few shots of bourbon(washed down/diluted with water if needed) is infinitely better then a couple bourbon and cokes.

Lastly, aim for 90%(or as close to as possible) perfection. No one is perfect and having 1-2 cheat meals a week isn't going to wreck your progress. This point is really going to come down to your weight. If you're skinny and need to pack on pounds it's not such a big deal if you want to down a pizza or two(Just stay away from empty calories like soft drinks.) The more fat you have however the harsher you're going to need to be on yourself.

[shocklocks]

Honestly, for best results, consult a nutritionist. Frequently, the conditions you're dealing with are more complicated than a simplistic "just eat more of this" can handle.

I wouldn't hold any more stock in a nutritionists opinion about weight lifting then advice from a reputable site. If you're eating the right ammounts of the right types of food and are having problems for some reason or if you know you have special circumstances then by all means seek professional help. If you're worried about health get a check up from your doctor. Chances are a nutritionist is just going to make you keep a log of your food for a week and tell you whats wrong with it. Theres enough information on the web for you to do that yourself. Not only that but you'll probably get better advice from places dedicated to nutrition for strength training then from a nutritionist who doesn't know much about the subject. I can all but gurantee they that if you logged a perfect diet for a strength trainee and showed it to them they'll say you're eating too many calories and too much protein.

[akashra]

The short answer is 'creatine' (combined with other exercise/weights).

I don't actually use it (though I will be during this years build phase), but basically everyone tells me (and everyone else) the only person you're cheating is yourself by not using it. (Creatine is a naturally produced substance for muscle development. You basically just load and supplement it to 5x).
Note: MAX 3 weeks of use after loading phase. No more. Yes, I know hockey players pour it on everything in their off-season, just don't do that. And do some research before taking my advise here.

Of course, as said above, the protein advise is just as sensible. For build periods, 2.5g per kg of body weight.

[0range]

I'm going to give a nod to Starting Strength too. It goes very much into depth about body mechanics and proper technique for a half dozen of the most important exercises. I think it also gives a schedule for a workout, but it's been a while since I've read it.

[elminster]

I think it largely depends on your goals as to what you should be doing. In general however, eat more, eat more protein, vitamins/minerals, drink more water, more exercise, not too much cardio, good rest peroids. Muscular hypertrophy is what you want if you're main goal is muscle mass.

6: Drink water. Lots of water. At least 4-6gallons a day. On top of this, stop drinking fizzy!

I've never seen anyone recommend this high. It's several times more than the health authorities recommend. In fact, if you're saying "At least", then you could quite easily end up with water intoxication. I'd like to see one even moderately credible source elsewhere that recommends this before considering this amount.

[shocklocks]

I've never seen anyone recommend this high. It's several times more than the health authorities recommend. In fact, if you're saying "At least", then you could quite easily end up with water intoxication. I'd like to see one even moderately credible source elsewhere that recommends this before considering this amount.

I guess I should of been clearer... I meant at least 4litres up to 6. Personally I drink at least 3 1.5 bottles of water easily.

http://www.aasgaardco.com/store/store.p ... 199&rn=304
That and Starting strength are pretty much tbe bibles on strength training. In it Rippetoe recommends one liter of water for every 1000 calories expended. The "authorities" recommend you should be on a diet of 2000-2500calories, thats 2-2.5litres and is enough for a sedentary person. Most strength trainees would easily be up in the area of 4k calories. Those that are strength training and losing weight at the same time might by a little lower (3-3.5k) however water keeps you sated and another .5litre isn't going to kill you(infact if you keep a large water bottle with you at all times you'll probably be suprised how much you drink.)

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/water.htm
This site is made up of extremely credible articles, with the majority(including this one) written by Dr. John M Berardi whose doctorate from the University of Western Ontario specializes in exercise biology and nutrient biochemistry. His recomendation is 4litres on training days for a 70kg person. If your goal is to build muscle and you're following the program properly then you'll weigh more then that. If you're just starting out and you're a male under 70kg then doing something like the GOMAD program is probably best for you anyway and you'll need significantly less water due to the ammount of liquid you get from the milk you're drinking.

http://stronglifts.com/how-much-water-s ... ink-daily/
The author of this site is very reputable and I wouldn't be suprised if his advice is based directly from one of the two sites above. Again he stresses the fact that the ammount reccomended by the authorities is in no way intended for athletes.

[Nath]

I guess I should of been clearer... I meant at least 4litres up to 6. Personally I drink at least 3 1.5 bottles of water easily.

6: Drink water. Lots of water. At least 4-6gallons a day.

4 litres may be reasonable, depending on the person and climate. 4 gallons = over 15 litres.

[shocklocks]

4 litres may be reasonable, depending on the person and climate. 4 gallons = over 15 litres.

Ahh. My bad. Yeah I meant 1-1.5gallons / 4-6litres. Get so used to seeing em interchanged so many times I didn't even click when I read the other post.

[elminster]

4 litres may be reasonable, depending on the person and climate. 4 gallons = over 15 litres.

Ahh. My bad. Yeah I meant 1-1.5gallons / 4-6litres. Get so used to seeing em interchanged so many times I didn't even click when I read the other post.

Yeah, 4-6 litres is a healthy amount depending on circumstances and person. 2 Litres is the standard recommendation for an average male (Most people don't do heavy exercise), but with exercise you can require an few extra of litres. 4-6 gallons (15-22litres) though, is overkill.

The rest I'd basically agree with.

If you're looking for a supplier for supplements in the UK, I'd recommend myproteinn.co.uk. I've not found anywhere cheaper in the UK or anywhere with less nonsense.