Muscle building advice needed

[RpgGamer]

I'm almost 18 years old, about 120lbs, I stand 5'11". Needless to asy I'm a bit lanky. I've been working on my arms alot lately, and I'm becoming satisfied with the results of my bicep/tricep area. I own a pair of dumbells and some weighted ankle/wrist braces. I have extremely high motabolism.

 

Background info aside, my chest look like nothing more than a pasty rib cage. I would like to add some muscle to my chest and shoulder areas, as right now they look much too flimsy. What exercises should I start performing to work these areas? Should I be eating more food to add mass there to begin with? Aproximatly how long will it take before I notice actual asthetic results?

 

Thank you for your time, especially if you end up answering these questions.

[Aiel]

eh cant really help with this, most of my muscle building experience is in the legs+abs (runner) i guess push ups though? try googleing it mabey

[assassin_696]

In my experience and opinion the best mass building exercise for the chest area are dumbbell flyes, possibly inclined. I think a good and relatively quick chest workout would be 5 sets of 5 dumbbell presses (heavy) followed by 10 dumbbell flyes immediately afterwards, a superset. Same for shoulders, 5 reps of of shoulder presses with 10 lateral raises as a superset.

 

Do one armed dumbbell rows and pullips to balance to your back muscles, you don't want to overdevelop the front of your body in relation to your back because it doesn't look right and can lead to injury. As for diet just make sure you're getting enough protein but you don't need to overdo it. Perhaps a can of tuna or glass of chocolate milk post-workout would be enough. How long it takes to notice results varies immensely depending on your physiology, but if you're a hard gainer it probably will take a while, but might not. Don't be discouraged, focus on the fact that if you keep it up you will get results at somepoint.

 

In summary, to build mass you want heavy movements (presses) ideally coupled with lighter movements (flyes) to complete shock the muscles into hypertrophy and hence growth. Eat well and get plenty of protein. Good luck.

[OwnagePie]

Invest in a gym membership, get a routine, and a diet.

[RpgGamer]

In my experience and opinion the best mass building exercise for the chest area are dumbbell flyes, possibly inclined. I think a good and relatively quick chest workout would be 5 sets of 5 dumbbell presses (heavy) followed by 10 dumbbell flyes immediately afterwards, a superset. Same for shoulders, 5 reps of of shoulder presses with 10 lateral raises as a superset.

 

Do one armed dumbbell rows and pullips to balance to your back muscles, you don't want to overdevelop the front of your body in relation to your back because it doesn't look right and can lead to injury. As for diet just make sure you're getting enough protein but you don't need to overdo it. Perhaps a can of tuna or glass of chocolate milk post-workout would be enough. How long it takes to notice results varies immensely depending on your physiology, but if you're a hard gainer it probably will take a while, but might not. Don't be discouraged, focus on the fact that if you keep it up you will get results at somepoint.

 

In summary, to build mass you want heavy movements (presses) ideally coupled with lighter movements (flyes) to complete shock the muscles into hypertrophy and hence growth. Eat well and get plenty of protein. Good luck.

 

:thumbup:

 

I had to google a good chunk of the phrases you used, but thank you for being so helpful. I'll get right on those dumbbell flyes and incline presses. I'll be sure to put some more meat and milk in my diet as well (good thing i just loaded up on sandwhich materials the other day). Thanks for your help :D

[LegendaryStu]

Well for one you could bin the ankle/wrist weights. All they do is lead to joint injury with no major gains.

 

What is the weights you have available for the dumbells? I would say your looking at needing at least 20kg on one for any substantial improvements which can be incremented.

A lot of people look at 5x5 now for reps, I have always stuck to 3x12 for building muscle and 2x16 for definition. Of course you need to have themuscle before trying to define it :P

 

Just remember, there is a difference between BEING strong and LOOKING strong. By rotating what you are doing you should get the best of both worlds.

 

Do not try and build only select muscle groups. Like a previous poster said, you need to workout everything for things to look 'right'.

 

I would consider SS (Starting Strength), an extremely good book and i am sure with a bit of googling you could find its workouts online. it is not a gimmick, it truly works.

 

Any questions let me know

[9276wizard]

Bench press/ dumbell press.

 

And you've got to EAT MORE if you want to put on any mass at all.

 

Best would be to go to a gym and do at least these 3: squats, deadlifts, and bench press. Starting Strength as said before is a great book, go and pick up a copy, read it, and apply it.

 

Good luck.

[hermyabc]

I'm almost 18 years old, about 120lbs, I stand 5'11". Needless to asy I'm a bit lanky. I've been working on my arms alot lately, and I'm becoming satisfied with the results of my bicep/tricep area. I own a pair of dumbells and some weighted ankle/wrist braces. I have extremely high motabolism.

 

Background info aside, my chest look like nothing more than a pasty rib cage. I would like to add some muscle to my chest and shoulder areas, as right now they look much too flimsy. What exercises should I start performing to work these areas? Should I be eating more food to add mass there to begin with? Aproximatly how long will it take before I notice actual asthetic results?

 

Thank you for your time, especially if you end up answering these questions.

 

Wow...I've found my twin! Well sort of.

I stand 6 feet and weigh around 135. I have biceps and triceps, but my rib cage, like his, kind sticks out. I do have some pecks, but they can be better. I have 1 problem though.

I broke my wrists a few months back and anything that bends my wrist is bad for me?

So are there any chest working exercises that I can do without bending my wrists?

(So pushups are a no-no)

[Gandalf14141]

Bench, take a dumbbell and lay down on a bench, put it behind your head pull up and put over chest(works pecs and triceps), dumbbell flys, all that I can think of atm

[bonzeben23]

My advice mate is to bulk up. If you are 5'11" you should weigh around 180 pounds when fully jacked. I would also advise to get a full body workout routine such as P90X or P90X+ and follow their guidelines.

[fastortoise]

It's possible you won't see a lot of results for even your first year of working out. There's tall thin people at the gym that can lift a lot more than me but they still look skinny with average muscle mass. I'm assuming that you're also like them, and since you're main goal is to have a big upper body... you'll most likely fail at getting desirable results.

[assassin_696]

I broke my wrists a few months back and anything that bends my wrist is bad for me?

So are there any chest working exercises that I can do without bending my wrists?

(So pushups are a no-no)

 

Do pushups on yor knuckles. Supposed to be better for you anyway and doesn't use the wrists. Just make sure you're stable in that position so your wrists don't suddenly bend.

[depresins]

I broke my wrists a few months back and anything that bends my wrist is bad for me?

So are there any chest working exercises that I can do without bending my wrists?

(So pushups are a no-no)

 

Do pushups on yor knuckles. Supposed to be better for you anyway and doesn't use the wrists. Just make sure you're stable in that position so your wrists don't suddenly bend.

 

It's still putting pressue on his wrists. Not a good idea for somebody that skinny, he is unlikely to have enough muscle mass to prevent injury to his wrists. Pushups on your knuckles are better, they encourage an increase in bone density

[RpgGamer]

It's possible you won't see a lot of results for even your first year of working out. There's tall thin people at the gym that can lift a lot more than me but they still look skinny with average muscle mass. I'm assuming that you're also like them, and since you're main goal is to have a big upper body... you'll most likely fail at getting desirable results.

 

 

well that's a little discouraging :/

 

But atleast I know, I can still gain strength :lol:

 

So, it's been...2 weeks? ish

 

Already my arms are looking better (I wouldn't say signficantly, but noticibly). My pec area hasn't changed to much if at all, but yeah. Atleast my shoulders are starting to come to fruition. And after a month or so of working my biceps/triceps there's been some pretty significant gain. If I wasn't so pasty, I'd be incled to post a picture. Maybe over the summer, when I don't look like casper, I'll show off the glocks. They're not quite guns yet. :twss: