Str gain or Size??

[_Wolf_]

too many egs will make u fart

(i think)

[ChinPieceDave667]

Originally Posted by DoT.

well that's the prob, my mom won't let me eat alot of eggs.

I said that eggs are good but she doesn't want me to eat them alot.

Any other suggestions for breakfast?

Ok this makes me wonder even more, HOW OLD ARE YOU? and how tall?
This makes it seem like you're younger than 14. It's not a bad thing if you are young, I'm just very curious and it might help us fix/understand your problem.

[DoT.]

i'm 16 and about 5'5

[Kane]

Originally Posted by TALO

I forget what he called it, but he had a good name for it

I think it was "Midnight Money Shake". Don't quote me on that though

[TALO]

Originally Posted by DoT.

i'm 16 and about 5'5

shit man, what are you so worried about???

[Darkhorse]

Originally Posted by DoT.

well i've been lifting for a couple months now and gained alot. But it seems i'm not gaining anymore. I used the beginner str and intermediate str by Mark.

I'm a puny 117 lbs and i was wondering if i should go for size or str?

Also the lower bottom inner of my chest doesn't seem to form, i know the chest grows as a whole but is there any exercise you can suggest for this??

Well, you cannot honestly be worried about symmetry when you're 117 lbs. I just got done posting in another forum with a guy whose worried that his "upper chest" is lagging when he's only 147!

A couple of months is all it took before you "finished" the two programs by Mark (I assume Rippetoe)? Bullshit on that.... And shame on you for not sticking to ONE PLAN all the way through.

I've explained this a few threads ago to another member (who I just banned). If you're not addressing strength, how the hell are you going to gain any mass?? Strength and mass are INDEED correlated in the sense that doing sets of ten benching with 200 lbs will provide more mass than doing that with 100 lbs.

Worry about sticking with those beginner strength programs and PAY YOUR DUES. After a few years, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised to see how much mass you packed on worrying about strength vs. doing some "pump sets" of 10-15 reps per set.

[_Wolf_]

i just want to say something here.

DoT, i used to change my programs on a bi-weekly basis. 0311 and eric hammered it into my head to stick to ONE single program. well: eric has taken me under his wing so to say and i have a good protoge off late

but u know what u need to understand? its gonna take YEARS to get where uwant right now. and u know what? when u get where u wanna get right now, ull want more. and that will taken even more time. this business is a lifestyle challenge. it is not a short term plan. u HAVE to make lifting ur life.

dont misunderstand me: i have a GPA of 3.667 atm so ill explain. lets say i have 3 exams back to back and as per my schedule my exam falls on a workout day. so in that case i will make sure i prepare myself for my exam well in advance not to be affected by the fatigue of the workout.

now this is something u HAVE to do. and u cannot think everything in terms of days and weeks and months. u have to think about YEARS. where do u want to be years from now? do u have a plan? a goal for that? if u do u have to work towards that goal CONSISTENTLY right from now.

and, go buy the book "Practical Programming" ASAP.

best of luck

everyone here is great: 0311, eric, dave, hrdgain, kane, TALO, scorcher, etc.... i am the baby out here - no doubt about it lol

[DoT.]

wow thanks alot guys, i guess i'ma start packin my lunch and eating more. I never knew how much determination was involved in bodybuilding. I guess i'll try harder and watch my progress in a years rather than months

[EricT]

Well that's good. As I said before you should be on the "beginner" programs for a while. The stating strength is supposed to take you anywhere from 3 to 9 months. Even 6 months on that would correlate to a tremdendous strength gain.

You certainly have to realize it takes years. Of course you can't really plan for years ahead. To stay motivated you need short AND long term goals. You might set a short term goal for squats for instance...it doesn't matter if you reach it perfectly just round about. Keep setting your sights a little higher and as you reach those milestones you'll slowly begin to realize that you are much bigger.

I do have a question though. When you did these other programs did you just stop at some predetermined point in time or did you actually hit a wall and become unable to progress any further? I'm guessing the former since now it seems like you may have stopped when you stopped gaining weight.

Despite what the internet may lead you to believe THERE IS NO PREDERTERMINED TIME FRAME ON ANY OF THESE BEGINNER OR INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMS. I think one of the BIG problems is all the internest posts presenting these as rigid cookie cutters.

Now I'm going to launch into one of my long posts that will go largely ignored but I'll say it anyway cuz it makes me feel better to give the straight dope as I see it.

The idea is that you would for instance, run the Starting Strength for a while in this rigid, completely static way and then when you bogged down you'd give up and start all over by cycling back the intensity again. The problem with that is that most people are not going to cycle back and will move on to what they see as something more interesting or more advanced. And since they didn't really do it right the program won't live up to the hype it was given so they'll look for a 'better' program.

Also, while they could have continued progressing for quite a while longer if they knew how to make the slightest manipulations to the program, instead the format ignores the fact that the body's adaptive system is a dynamic process and as changes take place in the way it adapts and reacts we have to make allowances for those changes. And I'm not talking about complicated rocket science that only someone very advanced or educated could do or understand.

Why is this better? Because running one of these programs correctly, which means milking them for everything they are worth results in a cumulative strength gain which will for outweigh running it for 8 weeks or 9 weeks only and 'starting over'. Because of those changes I spoke of the second run is likely to be FAR less successful than the first and the sum of the parts doesn't come to as much.

Sucessfull strength training has far less to do with picking good programs and much more to do with commiting to a way of training and learning and apapting that training as you go along.

[onestop]

Here is the thing. You are 16. I weighed 155 for most on high school and early college. I tried eating more lifting more and different programs. You have a genetic makeup that is only going to allow you to go so far. Barring taking steroids which seems to allow one to progress beyond their genetic limits. And I am not advising that. I was told my whole life by my father that I would fill out in my 20's and I didn't believe him. Lo and behold come 23 or so, by body changed. I was able to lift more and eat more, naturally withouht having to force feed myself. I know weigh anywhere between 200 and 215 lbs. I think that time is your answer. I put in a good ten years of lifting before I started to gain the mass that I wanted. And it wasn't for lack of determination, rather my body jsut needed the time to catch up. This isn't all to say that you can't make some headway. I say eat healthy, eat what you can without making yourself sick. And try a split program. Lift for strength for a couple months, 10 to 12 reps per set. And then try mass fora month or so. I would be surprised if during your mass training you did nto see an increase in your 6 rep max. I still do this split myself. It helps whenever I hit a plateau.