What exercise to do to gain muscle mass/weight?

This part is very true. Must add though that it's not only this but also volume/intensity-of-effort balance - you can do a 30 set workout, you can do a 12 set workout, either will work if you train according to volume, i.e. you're going to have to put more effort into your sets and go closer to complete muscular failure the less volume you do, but if you can do that, you don't need much volume.

I do always stand by the idea that you're better off going higher into the moderate rep range to build muscle, but if you don't build your strength as well, it's not gonna work either way. People are always asking me for tips on how to make their arms bigger - they're all probably prepared for a specific program that's been the ticket to my gains, or the old "I was told just do compounds and my arms will grow" which I think is BS, if you're training to build muscle and your arms are taken to failure from compounds alone then you're doing them wrong, they should only be assisting the main muscle. On the other hand, I don't do anything special for arms - I've merely just made an effort to get them stronger. Even when people add in arm isolations to their routine, they just tack them on the end, get a pump and it's job done they reckon, but IMO any exercise added is worth doing properly or you might as well not do it. You should be making just as much of an effort to get stronger on arm exercises as you should a bench press or a squat. First thing I ask is, how much are you curling or lifting on skullcrushers? The answer is never impressive. I started out curling 30kg, now I'm curling 60kg. I'm eating to grow, I'm being strict with my form to isolate the muscle and I'm giving it enough work to stimulate growth - it has to grow, simple as.

Tbh, I advocate a mixture of all rep ranges and varying intensity etc. The programming is more complicated, and a novice can keep it simple with similar results if they want, but whatever. Some days I'll have a heavy 6x6 (I dunno why I picked 6!) squat day, or a high rep deadlift day, or whatever. For me, it's about ingraining that technique. I'm heavily focused, no phone, no music in my ears, I'm just worrying about every single rep and my form on that. I do some sets where I do AMAP (as many as possible) without going to total failure, so if my form starts to break down, I stop. I just incorporate all of this. If you're hitting overhead press, bench, rows, chinups, deadlift, like I do, your arms will grow. Sure, they won't be as big, but they'll definitely grow noticeably. At the end of the day, I don't have the discipline to come to the gym every day and do the same sh*t, so I've structured my program to eventually lead up days where I'm hitting out triples or singles. I still consider myself a novice. None of my lifts are above 200kg yet. Lots of weakness that needs to be addressed.

looool of course its possible without fapping but it will be much easier without it, thats for sure.

Fair enough. I'm the opposite tbh, I'm so regimented I generally train on upper/lower type splits training each muscle twice a week, though I'm doing push/pull atm which I'm quite enjoying, same sorta thing but just switched round a bit. I've been into the Dorian Yates training style for a good while now, nearing on a couple of years. I've got my spreadsheet, that says for each exercise, on my last workout I used this much weight for this many reps on my workset - today, I do one more rep. I go to balls-to-the-wall failure, grunting, grinding, the last rep takes 5+ seconds normally, the form is strict still but I'm really pushing against the sticking point with everything I've got. I've always stuck to the DY style of any warmup sets as needed (if any, depending on where the exercise is in the workout) and then one set to total failure followed up by an intensity technique to take the set beyond failure - be it a dropset, cheat reps/ extra negatives, partials etc. Atm I'm experimenting with more ramp-up sets and done away with the set-extender to see how it goes, but the above approach served me very well.

My weakness has always been pushing movements tbh due to rotator cuff problems. Getting stronger since I stopped freeweight benching for a while, I think those types of exercises were aggravating it. Using Hammer Strength press machines now and I'm still gaining on my chest, and my strength on overhead pressing movements is coming leaps and bounds atm.

Is it? What's the reasoning and science behind this, I'm intrigued

What're your squat/bench/ohp/deadlift lifts?

I'm deadlifting 3x a week, I can't have the same approach to grind it out each session as I'm cutting. One way ticket to snap city :P

Deadlifting 3x a week madness, I hope you know what you're doing haha

Could literally link a million articles lol, just google 'no fap' or 'benefits of no fap'

What're your squat/bench/ohp/deadlift lifts?

I'm deadlifting 3x a week, I can't have the same approach to grind it out each session as I'm cutting. One way ticket to snap city :P

Sorry ivy but from personal experience, I wholeheartedly disagree. I never really did any type of 5x5 or strength routine myself (tried it for 6 weeks after already lifting for about a year I think, but I got bored and wasn't impressed). From day one I was doing a warmup set followed by two sets to failure in the 6-10 rep range for every exercise, doing 2-3 full body workouts a week to start with. It was a dumbbell only routine though so all freeweight exercises, mostly compounds too of course. But BBing has been my focus from the start, I've made better progress than most people around me in that respect and I'm pretty strong too

What program did you run? I'm curious since these programs are linear progression, not some sort of peaking or periodised program, so there shouldn't be a 4 week timescale.

What was the 'starting strength' program you undertook?

Starting Strength is a program of longgg history, and Mark Rippetoe wrote a book about it. The original program was written by Bill Starr (could be wrong here)

Anything other than the programs written here http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Program

are not Starting Strength.

What you are saying is "I've got an iPhone, it's not made by Apple, but it's still an iPhone. Maybe the iPhone you bought from Apple is BS"
See the analogy?

Hmmm. Honestly, there's nothing magical about BB split nor is there anything magical about SS. Your muscle only breaks down so fast and rebuilds so fast. Actually considering the BB principle of high volume with SS you hit body 3x a week as opposted to split you hit a body group 2x a week. Undoubtedly SS is one of fastest way to put on muscle for a beginner.

I got it from some random website

It's all about volume:frequency balance. You might hit a muscle less often with a split (often only once a week) but you create a greater growth stimulus. I personally don't think hitting a muscle once a week is optimal for natural/drug free trainees, but at the same time I don't believe that training every muscle in one workout allows for as much of a focus on stimulating growth in particular areas once you get a bit more advanced and start moving heavier loads.

I did indeed train full body 3x a week as a beginner and do agree it's a fantastic approach, but I absolutely know that a purely strength-focused routine is simply not needed. Growth stimulation first, progressive overload to ensure continued progress, and I honestly believe that if you want to gain muscle then train on a more bodybuilding focused program. As long as it's a decent program then your approach and effort facilitates progressive overload/strength gains. As I said, I trained on bodybuilding styled routines from day one and if you look at statistics of average growth in male trainees on an effective diet and training regime, I've exceeded them. Could put it down to genetics, but I truly believe the fact that I focused heavily on stimulating the muscle rather than just simply moving weight has really helped.

I think it's also down to genetics. Some people like myself don't need more than 2-6 sets a week on the basic lifts to make significant muscle gains, some people need more volume and isolation exercises. I have just focused on increasing my squat, bench, deadlift, ohp and chinups, for 8 years, and I have experienced better muscle growth using that 'strength' approach than everyone in my gym that uses a 'bodybuilding' approach.

I think it's also down to genetics. Some people like myself don't need more than 2-6 sets a week on the basic lifts to make significant muscle gains, some people need more volume and isolation exercises. I have just focused on increasing my squat, bench, deadlift, ohp and chinups, for 8 years, and I have experienced better muscle growth using that 'strength' approach than everyone in my gym that uses a 'bodybuilding' approach.

just google 'no fap' or 'benefits of no fap'