I know that size and strength go hand in hand however, right now I am more concerned about size. I am beginning a push pull full body program and will be doing about 4 exercises per workout and working out 4 days per week. Not sure if im going to be supersetting opposing muscle groups yet or not. I need help on a rep scheme not sure what to do. 5 X 5 worked well for strength for me already but not size. Any suggestions.
sorry but you’re gonna hafta eat more. 5x5 is a fantastic mass builder.
I think he wants to gain muscle, not fat. So while eating a lot will help gain fat, it’s not the best for muscle.
You need to eat sufficient calories to support your energy expenditure and enough protein to build muscle. Excess protein, carbs, and fat will all be stored as fat in the body. Not muscle, fat!
5x5 is not magic and does not work for everyone. You need to find the rep range that works for you according to your muscle fiber type. This is just done by trial and error. So since your goal is size I would start with lower reps and work up. Since most people don’t have a predominance of type IIB fibers, I would start with 5x5 and then 5x6, 5x7, 4x8, etc.
Once you get the right rep range start playing with the set volume. You have to find the correct volume where you get sufficiently stimulated but not over train. Again, this is trial and error.
If you want a reference, check out Ian King’s “Book of Muscle” or any of his other books.
lift to get stronger and eat to get big.
eat alot yet eat cleanly and you should throw on size as long as you do heavy basic exercises such as squats, deads, benches, inclines, pull ups, rows, ect.
If your lifting weights with some sort of intensity and not growing you simply werent eating enough.
First start eating alot of clean foods
Second read the set/rep bible
I would suggest working the major muscle groups with a variety of reps and intensity levels, cover your bases and target strength/functional hypertrophy/pure hypertrophy for your major muscle groups and you will get bigger AND stronger. Think about it getting bigger helps you become stronger and vice-versa so why not train both qualities at the same time?
This is not necessarily true. It is true that 5 x 5 is not the best approach for everyone. But most people who can’t make gains aren’t eating enough. Eating more does not mean chowing down and stuffing yourself and making bad food choices. It means even enough healthy foods to actually put on muscle.
[quote]Lorisco wrote:
I think he wants to gain muscle, not fat. So while eating a lot will help gain fat, it’s not the best for muscle.
You need to eat sufficient calories to support your energy expenditure and enough protein to build muscle. Excess protein, carbs, and fat will all be stored as fat in the body. Not muscle, fat!
5x5 is not magic and does not work for everyone. You need to find the rep range that works for you according to your muscle fiber type. This is just done by trial and error. So since your goal is size I would start with lower reps and work up. Since most people don’t have a predominance of type IIB fibers, I would start with 5x5 and then 5x6, 5x7, 4x8, etc.
Once you get the right rep range start playing with the set volume. You have to find the correct volume where you get sufficiently stimulated but not over train. Again, this is trial and error.
If you want a reference, check out Ian King’s “Book of Muscle” or any of his other books.
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[quote]jsbrook wrote:
This is not necessarily true. It is true that 5 x 5 is not the best approach for everyone. But most people who can’t make gains aren’t eating enough. Eating more does not mean chowing down and stuffing yourself and making bad food choices. It means even enough healthy foods to actually put on muscle.
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You have to eat enough to grow, no question. But, even eating “clean” (low-fat, no junk food, etc) you can put on unwanted fat if you aren’t careful. The biological FACT is that excess protein, carbs, and fat all get stored as fat in the body.
Many bodybuilders eat a lot more than needed and they think they are big, as in - big muscles, but the fact is that they are just fat. Then they complain that when they cut for the contest they lost a lot of muscle. Fact is that after cutting they could just accurately see their muscle size without all the fat. The actual muscle size they had all along, just without the fat.
If you don’t think this is you take the measurement test. Measure your arm flexed and then relaxed. If there is only a small difference between the two, you my friend are fat, not fit.
You can’t flex fat!
[quote]Lorisco wrote:
I think he wants to gain muscle, not fat. So while eating a lot will help gain fat, it’s not the best for muscle.
You need to eat sufficient calories to support your energy expenditure and enough protein to build muscle. Excess protein, carbs, and fat will all be stored as fat in the body. Not muscle, fat!
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I don’t have much cred on the forums (I think it’s my 2nd post), but is it fair to say that this post makes no sense whatsoever because:
a) it contradicts basic thermodynamics
b) it flies in the face of everything John Berardi has ever written
?
True, but another fact is that the body will store some of those excess calories as muscle. Did you know that?
For natural trainees to add MAXIMUM muscle mass they must add some body fat.
There is too much confusion about training and dietary methods for gaining mass because so much of the advice you will get online and in print is perverted by anabolic use. In other words, what works for the drug user will not necessarily work or work well for the natural trainee.