Weight Training For Gaining Muscle Mass

A. Food Consumption

The one common denominator of almost every one of my researches about gaining muscle weight has been to eat a lot! This does not mean you should go out and eat burger king everyday or indulge in your favorite kind of cheesecakes all the time, the key is that you want to eat a lot of protein, not fat. For most people trying to gain weight, eating a lot of carbohydrates is not a bad thing, so I am not an advocate of some Atkin’s diet or anything. Try to make sure your caloric consumption is in the upper 2000’s if you are anywhere between 130-160 lbs, and if you weigh more, make sure you get more calories. If you are planning on gaining at least 5-10 lbs, you probably want to count your protein intake. Rule of thumb is that you should eat at least 1 to 1.5 grams of protein for every pound that you weigh (If you weigh 160, you should be eating around 160-240 grams of protein a day). If you are a naturally lean person, like most people who want to gain weight are, you will gain around 1-2 lbs a week if you exercise and eat at least 1 gram of protein a day for every pound you weigh.

B. Weight Training

For most people, going to the weight room 2-4 times a week is the optimum. This is because you want to shock your muscles every time you do go to the weight room but you also want to leave at least 24 hours for the muscle groups you worked out to rest. Most weight training programs I’ve read promotes working 2-3 muscle groups every workout. Since this is the muscle mass gaining section, I will only emphasize on how you can increase your muscle mass with weights. Read the other pages for other programs.

Machines and Free Weights for various muscle parts

1. Shoulders – Military Press, Sitting Dumbbell Press-Ups, Dumbbell Raises.

2. Back – Lateral Pull-Down, Rowler’s Pull

3. Chest – Incline/Normal/Decline Bench Press, Lying Dumbbell Presses, Press-Together Machines

4. Biceps – Preacher Curls, Standing Curls, Dumbbell Curls, Concentration Curls, Pull-Ups

5. Triceps – Skull Busters, Behind-the-Head Dumbbell Press, Press-Down Machines

6. Upper Leg – Squats, Leg Machines, Decline Leg Press

7. Calves – Toe Raises, Steps

8. Abs – Crunches, Leg Raises, etc.

Usually you might want to do biceps and chest one day, and triceps and shoulders another day. Or maybe legs and arms one day, and chest, shoulders, back another day. Bottom line is, just divide them up so you can do a muscle part at least 2 times a week. For every muscle part, you want to do about 4-6 sets a workout session. Each set should be made up of the most weight that you can do for about 6-8 times (reps). Rest at least 2-3 minutes between sets. Make sure you drink lots of water during your workout session.

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