Im starting to get unfit again. At 150lbs I am quite skinny and just from my body type it is particularly hard to make big gains and always feels like I have to work twice as hard as some to get half the results (as a person I workout with shows). Anytime I workout I just seem to get stronger with unnoticable physical differences. Im actually alot stronger than my bodyweight would give me credit for.
However, do you think using creatine would be helpful? - Im obviously going to use protein supplements but never used creatine before....
However, do you think using creatine would be helpful? - Im obviously going to use protein supplements but never used creatine before....
Creatine is a naturally occuring food supplement and it won't help you produce much noticible size, but will give your muscle tone a little more fullness. Some will argue that its primarily water retention for the muscle cells, but once you start taking it you'll notice your volume of water intake will rise. The primary benefit for strength athletes is it increases muscle endurance, which thereby exhausts more muscle fibers which causes better gains during recovery.
I take approximate 5 grams with my protein shake during workout days and during recovery when I feel I need it. You can saturate your system temporarily with 20 grams for the first week, but staying at 20 grams is a waste of money because your muscles can only absorb about 5 grams per day.
You can get enough creatine and protein in a regular diet, but you have to monitor what you eat and I'm just not that disciplined. A protein shake taken within an hour of your workout will give you the most benefit. I'm a strong believer in supplements if your diet is not always consistent and of lower quality.
You will probably benefit from a high calorie protein supplement formula to gain a few pounds. When you lift weights, you not only burn calories during the workout, but you also burn calories post workout as well, so your daily caloric intake needs to be much higher than normal. If your body doesn't get enough calories from your diet, guess where it finds them?
Fat and muscle.
I doubt that you have much fat to burn so you definately need to consume more calories.
I understand your dilema; at age 21 I was very strong for my size, but it didn't show very much. I was 5-9, weighed 148lbs and was a National Class weight lifter (320lb bench/405lb squat). I had been working out for four years to get to that point, but not gaining much weight during the process. Looking back I realize it was my diet. I simply wasn't taking in enough protein and calories. I was never a big eater back then.
I stopped training for over 20 years and gained nearly 50lbs until recently taking it back up again. I turn 50 next year and my birthday goal is to take up where I left off and see if I can be stronger now than I was then. My bodyweight will stay between 175-185lbs.
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Bagger
1-H "Because of questions of all kinds, reams of additional detail must be made available - but separately, and probably endlessly." Homer Kelly
What Bagger said...and research post workout nutrition. Some guys go hog wild with protein to keep a positive energy (nitrogen) balance, and forget about the bodies' favorite fuel. Your enemy is the catabolic hormone, cortisol. I have learned that carbs are just as important as protein for two (at least) reasons. # 1 for the sake of glycogen stores that you will need to fuel intense work outs # 2 to help insulin levels rebound after an intense workout. Apparently insulin is as influential as testosterone in the muscle building business! A key for me is taking a complex carb drink after a workout (I use Twinlab's Ultrafuel) then I sip on a whey protein shake within an hour of the workout.
As for creatine...make sure you drink loads of water! I have heard that it works well for those willing to train with intensity. I get my creatine from cow corpse!
Your bench/squat at 148 pounds is/was phenomenal, Bagger
You never gain muscle when working out. In fact, you are tearing down muscle fiber in the gym.
You gain size and strength during the recovery cycle so getting high quality sleep, trying to live a low stress lifestyle, and eating high quality foods 5 or 6 times a day is vital for good recovery and muscle mass gains.
I've seen you on this forum at all hours and wonder how you get any rest.
I've been using ZMA as a sleep supplement and it works wonders. It doesn't make you sleepy, but it promotes deep sleep which is important in recovery.
__________________
Bagger
1-H "Because of questions of all kinds, reams of additional detail must be made available - but separately, and probably endlessly." Homer Kelly
Im starting to get unfit again. At 150lbs I am quite skinny and just from my body type it is particularly hard to make big gains and always feels like I have to work twice as hard as some to get half the results (as a person I workout with shows). Anytime I workout I just seem to get stronger with unnoticable physical differences. Im actually alot stronger than my bodyweight would give me credit for.
However, do you think using creatine would be helpful? - Im obviously going to use protein supplements but never used creatine before....
Check out the forum to this site. A lot of good info.
Also, you'll need to be sure that you do 3 things;
1. Eat enough calories. It sounds basic, but if you don't eat more than you burn, you won't gain weight.
2. Get plenty of rest. Without enough rest (which includes enough sleep nightly, as well as enough time to recuperate between workouts), you'll never get the gains you're after.
3. Do the right type of training. If you're goal is to put on weight, you'll need to lift heavy, with a focus on compound exercises. That said, you don't want to go so heavy that you're only working in the 1-5 rep range. That's great for making you stronger, but it isn't necessarily optimal for size gains. This is a genaralization, of course. It will take a little time to find the rep ranges that work best for you.
Creatine monohydrate is good but it has big drawbacks. The problem with creatine monohydrate (let's call ot CM for short) is you need to ingest a large amount to get any benefit. What CM doesn't get absorbed into your system is converted to creatinine. Creatinine is basically toxic. It can play havoc with the kidney and liver. There are newer products out that are ph balanced. The creatine gets absorbed before it's converted to creatinine. Only a capsule a day or before you work out. No CM "bloat". Look for Kre-Alkalyn patented stuff.
As mentioned in previous posts, the true killer of gaining muscle mass is cortisol. Very catabolic. Steroids are anti-catabolic. When your system is stressed it releases cortisol. The trick is to work the muscle sufficiently but not overtrain. "MORE IS NOT BETTER"!!! Take a page from the Mike Mentzer method of working out. Heavy Duty! For example. If your working quads. Pre-exhaust the quads by doing one set of leg extensions to TOTAL FAILURE with a weight you can do for 8 reps. Then immediately limp to the squat rack and do the same with squats. When I mean TOTAL FAILURE I mean it. When you're done with that one superset, your done. No more.
Diet wise. Google... Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. Get the ebook. The best out there.
Well Matthew, it sounds like you are an ectomorph as opposed to those natural builders, mesomorphs. So, calories, calories, calories! When I was building I at about 3500 calories a day and I am 5'4" and never weighed over 127lbs. I was also running daily in the Florida heat and I was just trying to keep my body from breaking into my muscles for fuel as my bodyfat was 16%.
To increase my size I had to cut my cardio way back, and I loved running on the beach; in Atlanta, not so much.
I would like to interject here that there are some really positive reports of late that indicate that Creatine is helpful in neurological disorders, heart health, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. The application of the supplement would be different than for this thread but for people that may not want to stay with the rest of the material I think it's worth consideration.
You received great advice so I won't revisit those issues. In order to set your calories we need your weight and your body composition to find your true metabolic energy cost for your activities. I need to know every exercise with the weight, reps and sets. I need to know your cardio workout schedule. And we will even factor in the thermic effect of your food so we need a journal of your existing calorie intake. To put on muscle weight you have to get really focused on eating frequent meals that are smaller but your body can metabolize all of the nutrients before you take in the next meal.
(You can only use a specific amount macro-nutrients at any one time so this insures that there is no excess to store as fat). Bodybuilders eat as many as 7 or 8 meals; yes they set the clock to take in a shake in the middle of the night. Potatoes, rice and beans, even pasta should accompany your cruceierous vegetables. Ofcourse you need to get good protein, red meat is the best resource for chromium picolinate and please don't forget to eat your good fats in fish and olive oil. You could still keep the butter and whole milk to a minimum so that you are building lean mass and not just weight on the scales.
Now, when you are sure that you have the nutritional component in place you need to be sure that you are working out enough to stimulate muscle growth. As Bagger said, this will require more recovery time so your sleep routine becomes critical. Especially for people with a high metabolism you need to allow your muscles time to recover from the micro-trauma of your exercise or you will be robbing Peter to pay Paul. You will need more recovery time than mesomorphs or endomorphs.
Creatine works better for some than others. I must begin by reminding people that there can be side effects that can inspire hypertension and a potential strain on the renal system so if you already have either of these issues the Creatine Monohydrate would be contra indicated. Your body already makes this amino acid but you have a limited capacity to store it so a challenging workout program often leaves your energy too low to train hard enough for your objective. I have never worked with anyone on Creatine that didn't feel stronger and more agressive in their workouts, even within the first week. You will also see significant enhancements in your muscle size immediately but this first week it will be water retention inside the muscles, not that subcutaneous, bloating water retention. I have seen as much as a five pound initial increase but the development will slow down the next week as you are now developing the muscles you have, hypertrophy, and potentially experiencing hyperplasia, actually building new muscle fiber. This has been contraversial but new studies are promising.
It is important to remember that the volumizing water retention in the first week requires that you replace the water that the muscle is pulling out of the blood stream. This also means that you have to pay attention to environmental dehydrating factors; like drinking coffee and tea and even enduring the heat. Rule of thumb is that you need a half cup of water, above your usual intake, for every fifteen minutes you are outside; this applies to winter as well. If you get dehydrated you could have some stomach upset and even cramping and constipation. If you are dehydrated by using the supplement and can't correct your fluid intake I don't recommend you take this effective supplement. I will also suggest that you drink distilled or reverse osmosis water instead of tap or spring; it is easier on the liver and you're going to be drinking a lot
You are going to love the power you bring to your workouts but take it easy as you increase your resistance. Only increase the weights by five percent per week so that your soft tissue can adapt.
There is a formula that has always worked for your goal to grow your size and insure that you are not taking any risks to the kidney and liver, It will also keep you from wasting your money as Creatine is not cheap (you want to be sure your chosen product is 99.5% pure) and if you are taking in more than your body can use it will be wasted, making your elimination system work too hard.
So in the first five days you want to take a loading dose, followed by signicantly less for the rest of the month and then you want to take two to four weeks off, often considered a washout phase. This is mostly precautionary but you will be able to own all of your muscle development. This lets your organs rest but be prepared to loose the volume from water retention but, again, the muscle fiber you gained will stay put as long as you keep training. Then you will repeat the cycle. So here's the formula:
Loading Phase
Five days of raising your existing creatine production by appx. 20%
1. Body weight in pounds divided by 2.2 equals body weight in kilograms
2. Body weight in kilograms times 0.3 equals your total grams of Creatine
3. Total Creatine in grams divided into four doses throughout the day (this is
all your body can assimilate at one time.
150 lbs. / 2.2 = 68.18 kg
68kg X 0.3 = 20.4g
20.4 / 4 = 5.1g Creatine dose throughout the day
Maintenance Phase
Day six reduce the dosage to maintain your progress; there is nothing to be gained by loading longer as your ability to assimilate diminishes.
Body weight in kilograms x 0.03 equals daily maintainance dose.
68 X 0.03 = 2g Creatine dose per day
WashOut Phase
You are stronger so take this time off Creatine to let your organs rest and enjoy the kick you will get when you resume.
You should take your Creatine AFTER your workout and mix it in some fruit juice. Grape juice seems to be the favorite because it has the most fructose thereby raising your insulin to push the creatine into the muscles. Some people recommend taking it with a high, complex carb meal but I like to get the nutrient in immediately. I also recommend taking advantage of the window of maximal amino acid uptake after a workout; up to about an hour. I would brown bag in these cases. I like to wait a bit then to have my carbs so that my body keeps burning fat for fuel; it just means less cardio.
Some people find that they gain muscle and simultaneously feel like they are leaner when they are on the creatine cycles. However, your calories are critical to grow and most competitive people keep a little more fat on while they are building and then lean out when they reach their objective.
Finally, I would recommend you take Branch Chain Amino Acids and Glutamine to maximize protein synthesis and Vitamin C in significant doses will help with repair and soreness. ofcourse, water, water!
I think that's enough for now. Keep us all posted,
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