Gaining Weight In The Form Of Muscle

[[old] Rate35]

Hey folks, I got a question that might seem a bit odd since most people are trying to lose weight but I would like to try and gain a bit of muscle in weight in a 3 week period. Reason being I have an erg competition coming up soon and I m a little low in weight for the category I m going to be competiting in (150lbs- 19yr old men). Right now I m roughly 140ish and I feel as though I ll be able to compete in the category with the build I have (16yrs old on 17, 140ish in weight, 6'4 so I m pretty skinny I guess you could say) but I d like to maximize my potential by gaining some weight. <br /><br />I know some people will say do more weights but its hard to do that when our training program at our school goes weights erg weights erg weights or the other way around for a week and since we've started in november I ve gained a little bit of muscle but not a whole lot.<br /><br />Should I try and drink protein shakes or other stuff like that? I ve never really experimented with gaining weight but if I start to gain some will it keep going and be something I cant control because I m trying to stay under 145lbs the whole year for school.<br /><br />The other thing I want to be roughly 148ish of muscle not just be fat by eating more and I d like to be able to lose it after, is that even possible?<br /><br />Thanks<br />

[[old] Big seven]

what our weight trainer at my school generally tells us is, if we want to gain muscle, to work very hard and just eat a truckload of good foods. High protein, lots of carbs... etc. Pretty much just eat a lot and make sure you aren't taking shortcuts in your training schedule.<br /><br />Personally i'm on Aussiebodies WPC (whey protein concentrate) so i can recover faster from my training, because i tend to want to get the maximum benefit from all of my sessions per week. WPC on its own doesn't make you bigger though, its all relative to how hard you work and your diet in general. I take it in the form of a general weight gain shake which i've talked to proffessional bodybuilders about, and that is about 35-40 grams of WPC, the same amount of skim milk powder, and then blended in 350-400 ml of full cream milk. I take two of these a day. The fat content of full cream hardly bothers me, being a teenager and all.<br /><br />But it tends to be working, i've put on about 3-4 kg of lean muscle in my upper body in the duration of the rowing season so far. Perhaps consult a proffessional dietitian though.. anyway hope i helped in some way or another.

[[old] Coach Gus]

Can't see where the slight muscle weight gain you might make in 3 weeks will be enough to make any difference. At your age, I would recommend you forget about weight gain and let your body natural grow as you mature. 16/17 is too young to be concentrating on mass gain in my opinion. Work on your overall fitness and the muscle will come along on it's own. As an on water coach I'd much rather have a fit group of tall lean rowers than a bunch of heavily muscled bodies weighing down the boat.

[[old] Big seven]

thats absurd, you want a heavily muscled group of young men who are also tall. How do you expect the power to be applied if there is no strength in the quads, lats and triceps.. Another point is that 16/17 is the perfect age to be focusing on muscle gain, not neccessarily to a body builder's extent, but with all the hormones buzzing around your system telling you to grow grow grow, it's only reasonable. Also for the record i'm not talking about becoming the next Arnie, i'm just saying that overall strength is an important part of applying pressure throughout the rowing stroke. Lastly, there have been plentry of short, muscled rowers who have done exceptionally well in the past..

[[old] Big seven]

Although i agree that muscle gain techniques aren't going to have much effect in 3 weeks. how far are you racing in your event?

[[old] hjs]

<!--QuoteBegin-Rate35+Feb 7 2006, 01:12 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Rate35 @ Feb 7 2006, 01:12 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hey folks, I got a question that might seem a bit odd since most people are trying to lose weight but I would like to try and gain a bit of muscle in weight in a 3 week period. Reason being I have an erg competition coming up soon and I m a little low in weight for the category I m going to be competiting in (150lbs- 19yr old men). Right now I m roughly 140ish and I feel as though I ll be able to compete in the category with the build I have (16yrs old on 17, 140ish in weight, 6'4 so I m pretty skinny I guess you could say) but I d like to maximize my potential by gaining some weight. <br /><br />I know some people will say do more weights but its hard to do that when our training program at our school goes weights erg weights erg weights or the other way around for a week and since we've started in november I ve gained a little bit of muscle but not a whole lot.<br /><br />Should I try and drink protein shakes or other stuff like that? I ve never really experimented with gaining weight but if I start to gain some will it keep going and be something I cant control because I m trying to stay under 145lbs the whole year for school.<br /><br />The other thing I want to be roughly 148ish of muscle not just be fat by eating more and I d like to be able to lose it after, is that even possible?<br /><br />Thanks <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />Train hard but also take enough rest, and very important !!! eat enough, Just eat more, keep it healty !! , but eat more, weight yourself once a week, if possible also measure your fat %, Keep increasing your foodintake up to the point where your will start ganing weight. The bodyfat % measure is to see if the weightgaining is muscle and not just fat.

[[old] jd187144]

Three weeks is not enough time to make signifcant gains in muscule, you might find out youre gaining weight but it wont be solely be musucle.<br /><br />Look for the long term goal. Think what your spring weight needs to be. <br /><br />I'm a lightweight's lightweight. I come in around 145lbs and have trouble gaining weight or keeping it on at that. But from my personal experience I have found that having a post workout recovery shake will help to put back in your musucles what you just depleted. <br /><br />i've tried thousands of protien drinks over the years. And it felt like i was only buying stuff to make my urine more expensive. none of it seemed to work well. After a bunch of research this year and meeting with a real dietician, (no more fake internet doctors telling me what works.) i found that having a protien drink that is a blend of whey and casien works best right before bed. This is the only thing that has helped me keep on weight and gain some more muscule mass while my fat % stayed the same. Over the three months of winter training, when i ussualy lose weight, <b>I've gained 5 pounds</b>. A big step up for me. <br /><br />So what i'm really trying to say is that none of this will happen in three weeks. Its simalar to why we train year round for a 7minute race in the spring. make a weight goal for the spring and try to hit it then maintian if you youre rowing lights.<br /><br />good luck, hope this helps

[[old] ljwagner]

I never gained a pound during training season.<br /><br />I was a bit shorter at 6'0". But excess calories I tend to slough off as heat. I found I could only gain weight when doing less cardio work, and somewhat restricted weight work. Three sets or more, I gained strength, but not weight. Two sets, I picked up some weight. That way, my muscles still got the hard stimulus for growth, without the excessive cardio workout (I still did cardio). But for me, that was 15 lbs in about 3 months, and about 5 years ago.<br /><br />Try to get a protein snack after workouts. A nighttime protein snack, as previously suggested, may help, too. Stay hydrated.<br /><br />