Trying to Gain Mass, but puttin on too much fat?

[Sariat]

I'm 6'0 about 170-175 lbs, so I'm super skinny, I have been working out the past 3 months, taking weight gainer, eating a lot (mostly clean, I do cheat around 1-2 times a week every week)

I have been putting on a little mass, (its VERY hard for me to gain weight/muscle), but I have started to develop a belly.

Here's my current workout

3 days a week,

Chest/Shoulders/Triceps 3 sets of 6 heavy weight

Back, Biceps 3 sets of 6 heavy weight

Legs 3 sets of 6 heavy weight

I was told to not do cardio as it will eat up my "progress", but I am tall and skinny, with big shoulders, long arms, and now a belly. I have noticed a slight difference in my physique (after 3 months) but nothing to write home about. Any suggestions/advice as far as cardio?

I have started doing 10 minute H.I.I.T. sessions focusing on abs to kind of offset this , but its only been 10 days. Also, I was thinking about doing this

http://www.starz.com/SiteCollectionI...us_Workout.pdf

The Spartacus Workout

[Last5oh]

What are your goals (weight/bf)? A little gut is natural when trying to bulk up but you'd definitely tone it down tossing in abs/obliques. Gotta overshoot your bulk goal to cut back down. Takes nothing but time. Maybe try mixing up your workout to 4 days a week and/or two muscle groups each day adding another exercise to each group. I've had great results with that. It's debatable as far as cardio goes . . . don't do anything excessive, but light cardio speeds recovery imo. That 300 style workout is good, I do a circuit variation of it and love it.

[Sariat]

Well right now I have a great "frame", tall , wide shoulders, but barely any chest, thin arms (but defined)

I just want to even out, get a little bigger, not too much, but just enough to get me out of the skinny category

[Last5oh]

Originally Posted by Sariat

Well right now I have a great "frame", tall , wide shoulders, but barely any chest, thin arms (but defined)

I just want to even out, get a little bigger, not too much, but just enough to get me out of the skinny category

I feel ya, I'm 6'5" n was 180ish during my college swim days n 215 now.
You say your diet is clean n you eat alot but care to elaborate on that some? Your results are pretty much determined 60% diet 40% workout . . . so you can put the time in and have zero results if you don't eat enough. How many calories, fat, carbs, protein each day? What kind of weight gainer - I'm thinking it's prolly high in sugar if you're noticing a gut - maybe look into an alternative. You need to eat roughly 3,000 calories n something like 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight each day just to maintain your current weight, so if you want to gain you'll need more. Your body can only digest 25g of protein at a time so you gotta spread it out . . . I try eat something every 2 hours, like cliff/protein/meal replacement bars.

[tex]

IMO you're not lifting enough to not be doing any cardio. Both frequency and volume could go up.

[mikecobra95]

In 8 months I went from 175-180 range to 200lbs. I am 6'1". I did get a bit more of a gut doing it, but you have to eat to gain.

I was lifting 5 days a week, sometimes 2 times a day for 6 months straight. I still mixed in some cardio as well.

I would have 5-6 protein shakes a day, 2 of those being CytoGainers. The other 4 were Syntha 6 or Muscle Milk.

I ate 5 times a day. I did all this for almost a year just to gain that bit of size. It's hard work, really hard. And it gets expensive for protein and food. As I tell anyone trying to gain size, lift more, eat more, sleep more.

If you think you're lifting heavy, get a spotter and lift more. Lift till failure, drink protein, eat a lot. If you think you're getting fat in the gut, eat lean meat, alot. You can cut back fat once you reached your gain goal, you HAVE to eat, mass cannot grow without an excessive calorie intake.

And the worst part about it all is that it will all go away really fast when you don't keep up with teh lifting and eating. I am back down to 185. I'm not lifting as much anymore

[Taylor]

We have a similar makeup I think except that my body does not put on fat. I'm 5'11 and 165 but I wouldn't describe myself as skinny.

Methinks you need to ditch the petty shit like triceps and biceps and do more barbell work. I suggest you look into the Stronglifts 5x5 or Rippetoe programs. I've been on Stronglifts for 4 months and have seen great strength gains and I've put on 15 lbs of muscle. The only thing I'd change about the Stronglifts program is incorporate incline and decline bench into the A days as well.

[SS Junk]

You are ingesting more calories than you are burning. If you are going to be working out only three times a week you need to do cardio if you are going to maintain the same caloric intake. If there are those who say cardio isn't necessary then they must be referring to those who work out at least two hours a day five times a week.
Start paying attention to your calories. If you are going to cheat then cheat once a week. You can't justify cheating with your current workout regiment. You will not lose fat no matter how many ab exercises you do. As stated it's more about diet than it is working out.
It's also possible you have a mental block going on. You may think the weight you are doing is heavy, but try adding another 10lbs and see if you can get 6+ reps. I fought with this for years. My bench was weak as shit and I could never understand why. I started adding weight that I thought I could never do and surprised myself. Confidence grew and working out became a much happier experience.

[Sariat]

All Good Advice,

I don't really mess with the dumballs/bar bells/ weights etc I use a lot of the machines, but I do use the bench press. My bench is pretty weak, but I could possibly do more with a spotter.

Anyway , when you suggest lifting more -- I was told that in order for my muscles to recover I need to let them rest -- so should I work out each muscle twice a week?

[tex]

You're not going to gain much without compound lifts. You should be squatting 2x a week, at least. There is no such thing as over training, only under eating and under sleeping. Lift as heavy as you can, as often as you can, and eat clean, dense calories, sleep 8 hours a day. It's not rocket science, and people who tell you it is are either trying to make excuses because they're lazy, they like being average, or they're stupid.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by tex

You're not going to gain much without compound lifts. You should be squatting 2x a week, at least. There is no such thing as over training, only under eating and under sleeping. Lift as heavy as you can, as often as you can, and eat clean, dense calories, sleep 8 hours a day. It's not rocket science, and people who tell you it is are either trying to make excuses because they're lazy, they like being average, or they're stupid.

You should just copy/paste this into pretty much every thread that gets posted in here.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Sariat

All Good Advice,

I don't really mess with the dumballs/bar bells/ weights etc I use a lot of the machines, but I do use the bench press. My bench is pretty weak, but I could possibly do more with a spotter.

Anyway , when you suggest lifting more -- I was told that in order for my muscles to recover I need to let them rest -- so should I work out each muscle twice a week?

Do yourself a favor and get off the machines. There are lots of instructional websites and videos on how to properly squat, deadlift etc without injuring yourself and theyre 3958635863865x more effective than machines.

[SS Junk]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Do yourself a favor and get off the machines. There are lots of instructional websites and videos on how to properly squat, deadlift etc without injuring yourself and theyre 3958635863865x more effective than machines.

Exactly. The most important thing to remember with free weights is control over the entire range of motion.

[Taylor]

Not to mention the machines will you get you all kinds of out of proportion (ask me how I know).