I am trying to gain as much functional weight as possible, i am at 220 now and what to try to get to 235 by the end of winter. How much over maintance should I eat every day? Also any other weight gain suggestions are welcome. Thanks
Will42
I have no idea what you mean by gaining functional weight, but check out massive eating from John Berardi here on t-mag. Follow his guidelines and you should put on the weight.
I agree with Chris; functional weight is a very vague term to use. Are you a gymnast, football player, powerlifter, or bodybuilder? How much to eat and how to train are dependent on your sport, your goals, your genes, and your supplementation (e.g. androgens vs. non-androgens).
I get what you’re saying. You do have to eat over maintenance, but in this case, it’s the exercise protocol that’s most useful. Power movements are the most important for ‘functional strength’ and you don’t need size to improve your power (usually). If you want to gain size and power, you’ll have to follow a hypertrophy plus power program along with additional eating. The best way to add useful weight is to increase the amount you eat post-workout. ie. Have more food in your belly for the 6 hours after you train.
Honestly, I would suggest looking up the ‘poliquin diet support group’ thread and reading that. But, you’ll want to work on power and myosin hypertrophy - and you’ll not want to renege on cardio, or the strength won’t be useful.
There have been a couple really great power workout articles in the last couple of weeks.