sexr3i

What are your goals and how long do you give yourself to acheive them? How do you know if your sights are too high?

I have no idea what to aim for and I think this has contributed towards my on-off relationship with exercise. When I am working out, eating right and getting plenty of sleep I do see gains, but I've had a few months off after a bit of a bad patch I went through and seem to have lost more than I ever gained. Need to set myself a realistic target of size and weight gain but I have no idea what to aim for. I'm naturally skinny with high metabolism and have to make a real effort to eat enough, the more I eat just the more I shit during normal daily life, but when combined with exercise I do get visible results pretty much straight away and can put on size + weight but don't know how much to aim for, or what ultimate goal to work towards.

My exercise routine used to consist of 30-60 mins fairly high tempo walking with the dog, daily dependant on weather. Kickboxing twice a week, and weights mainly for upper body another 2 days a week. Now I'm down to just walking the dog, and have lost a stone and all definition and just look skinny again.

By, say, my birthday in june, I want to look half decent without a shirt on, maybe be confident enough get a decent top half tan. But I can't really put that into numbers to get a tangible goal and see if I'm on target or what?!. Should I aim to be benchpressing a certain percentage more? Weigh a certain amount? What is my "ideal" weight at 5 foot 11? I dunno, what do you guys aim for and any advice please?

robocos

So long as you are making gains I think you should be satisfied. Gaining good quality muscle as weight, as I'm sure you've encountered, is way harder than losing weight.

Look at an overall weight training plan incorporating all the basic exercise done in a split system say 3 times per week plus a couple of cardio sessions. Possibly limit your cardio if you find it difficult to gain weight but it's also important to keep your heart healthy.

Keep records of your progress/workouts and increase the weights each time, even if it's only a small amount.

Concentrate on the big compound movements i.e deadlift, squat etc.
A realsistic target would be 1 to 2Kg a month of lean weight in my opinion, therefore by June a gain of around 5-10Kg.

sexr3i

Cheers mate.

sexr3i

ok, I've put on nearly half a stone since I started working out again. Muscles are growing, shape is changing. But when tensed up post workout etc I still look like I've been skinned! Can I do anything to my diet to get like that un-cut but bulky look? Like half an inch of fat over everything would be sweet, I considered living off donuts, beer and KFC and vegging for a week but all that happens when I eat junk is I shit more, never put on any weight at all without working out and putting it on as muscle. Is it my metabolism being too high to store fat? Can I change that?

robocos

I suspect that you don't want to store fat as it tends to start becoming noticeable around your waist first and is always the hardest to get rid of.

Believe me you are in a fortunate position that your body fat appears to be low but to grow takes time and perseverance.

Maybe you could try taking in more carbs but be careful to monitor yourself as you progress.