Bulking up. Tips for nutrition and routines?

I know, but I asked for YOUR answer.

I'm 19 and at 140 so obviously want to bulk and become more toned. Is it possible to get to a good level in the next 7 months. I want to really research and make sure i'm doing the right form/right shake e.t.c. Quite skinny so there is a big reason too, what routine would you suggest? I'm considering going four times a week, isolating chest/back, shoulders/arms, legs and a mixed day. Want to go slowly and build up, any tips/advice?

Train until failure, constantly. Prefer good form over too much weight, always, but at the same time remember that you must, again, do your sets until failure. About food, well, the harder you'll train and the more you'll get hungry; just est clean and good food like pasta and meat (prefer chicken and similar over red meat though, that can't be eaten everyday). Really, just train train and eat eat, that's my best advice - don't overthink plans. You can see results in the first two months. I'm 19, I was skinny and gained about 7 kg's since last august, and it's practically all lean muscle. Make pull ups become one of your favourite excercises, too .
P.s I hope you're thinking of going to an actual gym and not just doing it by yourself.

Why?

My advice is to keep it numerical. Count calories. IIFYM calculator. It takes a few minutes to count calories every day, and you can adjust for your weight gain so your bulking doesn't stagnate, ultimately giving you more out of your training, eating and recovery.

Compound movements, keep it simple and fun. Bulking is the best part of training. Enjoy it.

What are the benefits of training to failure, 'constantly'?

Seems like a quick way to absolutely exhaust yourself. Would be incredibly difficult to train like this if you play a sport. There is no need for a new trainee (I assume new) to train to failure all the time, especially on the big movements.

How are you supposed, exactly, to build muscle if you don't stress it enough to allow it do so? That's the basics. If you do 10 reps but you could still do 10 more then your training is pointless. As soon as you learn the form you should indeed train to failure. Again, your last rep has to be the last you can do. You must feel the burn, one would say. That is if you want results.
I obviously don't mean you should ****ing collapse in the gym. You may have misunderstood me.

You can do stress the muscle adequately without going to failure. Attempting to achieve muscle failure all the time is potentially dangerous advice, be careful.

It takes thousands of reps and many months - years of lifting and thinking about lifting to learn the form that is most appropriate to your body. You can build a hulk of muscle in the mean time

You don't have to feel any burn to get good results. Take heavy squats or deadlifts to absolute failure 3x a week and I'd bet on them collapsing lol.

Cheers mate, yeah I go to a really nice gym got pretty much everything I need. What routine should I start with, best to isolate each part of the body for each day? What about cardio too. I do want to bulk up and become a bit more toned but yeah will work hard.

I didn't misunderstand you.

I'm saying that you do not at all, ever, have to go to failure to achieve good results, or results at all for that matter. Training to failure for a beginner is risky business when motor patterns are not ingrained and form is usually bad anyway.

Why is deadlifting and squatting 3x a week bad..?

Listen to the trainer, he'll explain you best, if it's a good gym. They'll usually make you start without isolating the muscles and only after one or two months you'll begin training with the so called splits.

My current split is: chest + biceps; back + triceps; legs + shoulders. I'm comfortable with it. It's not a huge deal though; again, don't overthink plans: I like this split, which is the one my instructor gave me anyways, as I can pump the biceps more during chest day as they're already involved a lot in back excercises. Same goes for triceps and chest excercises.

Regarding cardio, it's good to do it: personally, I like to go running in the park on sundays and whenever I get free time and I'm not going to the gym. I only use the cardio machines at the gym to warm up before training.

Then I have no idea where you're coming from. Again, it's the basics of muscle growth to stress your muscle enough. And if you don't train until failure it simply won't, ever, be stressed as much as it could be. I've stated clearly that you must learn good form first however, maybe you didn't read that. And who on earth squats 3x a week? Well I guess that could be reasonable, somehow, but not for me as I do another sport too and I'm active all week.

Train as in what way. Yeah I know form is most important, just want to figure out what kind of routine I set for myself. Properly warm up?

What you mean train in what way? Anyways, I didn't intend to give you much advice on specific routines etc. as I believe your gym trainer should help you exhaustively with that.Warming up, yes, it's important. Leg day? Hit the cardio machines for at least 5 minutes before. At least. About 5 is usually fine for me though. You wanna do some minutes on the rowing machine if you have one in your gym as well before every training - at least that's what I do.I suggest you ask your trainer for shoulder warm up exercises as well, if he doesn't give you any. They're very important. If you ever feel pain whilst training your shoulders, stop and ask for advice. I ended up with a small inflammation on both my shoulders; nothing serious, but it's always best to avoid this sort of problems, especially with such a delicate part of your body (shoulders are more exposed to injuries).Warm up before, but do stretching after too . It's very useful.And please don't start taking protein shakes randomly. At least ask for some professional advice before doing that. I personally don't think there's the need to, absolutely not at beginners level, I don't see the point; just eat a lot and make sure your food has nice protein and carb intakes.

lol bro of course you do need to consult the trainer. He'll direct your training. And yes that's what I mean by trainer :P.

Because he doesn't need them. He's a beginner. And I've never contested any of that besides having to put hard work into doing your reps, which is the basics of the damn muscle growth, again. This discussion is pointless as it seems that you just like to boost yourself with nonsense. And I'm serious, average people train legs once a week, including myself. If you do squat 3x a week, good for you - don't pretend it's a common split though.

I didn't say there was anything wrong with squatting once a week. A novice doesn't need to split the body up into days. For example monday - chest, tuesday - shoulders etc.

I'm 19 and at 140 so obviously want to bulk and become more toned. Is it possible to get to a good level in the next 7 months. I want to really research and make sure i'm doing the right form/right shake e.t.c. Quite skinny so there is a big reason too, what routine would you suggest? I'm considering going four times a week, isolating chest/back, shoulders/arms, legs and a mixed day. Want to go slowly and build up, any tips/advice?

Which is why you're a big joke. Why would you want to know? I've been lifting for about six months. I'm not an expert by any means, but I sure know you must not wait more than a couple of minutes between each set, a common mistake many beginners, at least at my gym, do.

Well, I find it a joke that you run around telling everyone they're wrong when you're no expert, which was clear from your posts anyhow tbh, I was just curious as to your idea of what was too long.

I have no idea where you got the idea that more than two minutes is too long, but you're wrong. How much rest you take is dependant on the style of training. If you're always going to failure (which btw is a preferance, not a requirement - intensity vs volume balance is infinitely more important) then you're gonna benefit more from resting at LEAST two minutes, whereas if you're avoiding failure and going for volume then you'll benefit from shorter rests.
Studies suggest that roughly 3 minutes between sets produces the best gains http://www.soheefit.com/longer-rest/

As for frequency of certain exercises, the upper/lower split is very popular and has you training each bodypart twice a week. Worked well for me over the past few years.

That's an interesting post, however, I've never declared to be an expert and never pretended to give advice that specific regarding resting time. I feel like none actually read my posts. Personally, mine goes from one to three minutes. It's subjective. What do you mean by "going for volume" in contrast to training to failure? I'm not english so I'm not that keen on the terminology. Are you talking about weight loads?

You clearly said two minutes is too long.

Volume, in short, is the number of sets per workout.
RPE, i.e. Rate of Perceived Exertion, basically means how close to failure you train, with 10/10 meaning total muscular failure.
Training with a high RPE or low relative intensity on your worksets means you'd generally train at relatively low volume, whereas a 40 set workout might be perceived as overtraining but when performed as straight-across sets, short rests and avoiding failure, it becomes very manageable.

Whether a program will be effective or not depends on how these factors are applied as well as how progressive overload is factored in. I've made superb gains training 12 sets per workout (ramping up to a heavy 6-8 to total failure, 3 minute rests) as my main approach, whereas conversely I've made great gains performing 48 sets per workout, 8 sets of 8 reps per exercise, same weight across all sets avoiding failure and 30 second rests between sets. If the volume:intensity balance is good, as is the exercise selection, it'll work, but beginbers and intermediates are advised to go for a middle of the road approach.

I'd subscribe to what Woody said - to the train everything at least twice a week and only in certain circumstances train it more than three

I'd be curious to know which part of my paragraph was "painful to read" by the way. You always learn something new. I know there's more that could be done for warming up, but I've personally never investigated it into depth.

What you mean train in what way? Anyways, I didn't intend to give you much advice on specific routines etc.You back tracked hereas I believe your gym trainer should help you exhaustively with that.You don't need a trainerWarming up, yes, it's important. Leg day? Hit the cardio machines for at least 5 minutes before. At least. About 5 is usually fine for me though. You wanna do some minutes on the rowing machine if you have one in your gym as well before every training - at least that's what I do.I suggest you ask your trainer for shoulder warm up exercises as well, if he doesn't give you any.That's fineThey're very important. If you ever feel pain whilst training your shoulders, stop and ask for advice. I ended up with a small inflammation on both my shoulders; nothing serious, but it's always best to avoid this sort of problems, especially with such a delicate part of your body (shoulders are more exposed to injuries).Warm up before, but do stretching after too . It's veryuseful.And please don't start taking protein shakes randomly.The concept of protein shakes being taken randomlyAt least ask for some professional advice before doing that.You don't need professional advice for shakesI personally don't think there's the need to, absolutely not at beginners level, I don't see the point; just eat a lot and make sure your food has nice protein and carb intakesA debatable pointDas it

With all due respect bro (i know you meant well), you simply don't know enough yet to give advice to this guy....

I reckon a 'trainer' has told you most of this and you are simply regurgitating it. If it was good advice to begin with then you'd get away with that but when it's not very good to begin with it's just a car crash.


OP - Cucumber and Woody have saved you.
Either do a routine such as in the FAQ or go upper/lower split. Have a read for yourself and decide. You'll make gains on either. Progressive overload. Eat 250 calories above maintenance per day (get the app myfitnesspal to track calories). Bulk for several months...

That is it.

Well you did... But we are going round in circles here.
It isn't that difficult, just misinformation gets banded about and clouds the water.

You DO NOT need a PT/trainer/instructor.

The guys on here know more than most PTs.
Some are ok, some are not. You can learn all you need to without them.
End of discussion. I'm not sure how i can make this any clearer...