I had a major health issue, now to get ripped again. I need help.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

So I don't know how many of you saw my thread about using Whey Protein to gain muscle in "The Gym" Forum, but in it I talked about how I had snagged a virus that resulted in me not being able to eat anything but hot green tea and honey for nine days and left me with a condition known as Myocarditis which is inflammation of the heart. So after losing a bunch of weight from starving, and then not being able to exercise because of my heart, I've gotten quite out of my usual shape and I need some input on getting completely sculpted.

First of all, my stats. I'm a smaller framed guy, I havnt ever weighed more than 135, I usually hovered around 128 before I was struck with this virus. I'm 19 years young. I just marked in at 5'8" tall and I'm currently only 117 pounds according the the scale I was on yesterday. My had my BMI measured yesterday and it is 4.8-5.8, its always been in the single digits.

I want to take this event in my life as a sign to do something new for self-improvement. I want to try and get to 140 pounds. 140 pounds is more of an approximation, though. I want to be completely shredded. I've always been in good physical shape, I know people at 140 pounds that are completely ripped but can't do 10 pullups when I maxed out at 12 pullups on tuesday after not doing anything for 6 weeks. I'm ready to have the godly physique the guys on my dads side of the family have always had.

I'm currently eating as MUCH food as I can, as often as I can. I eat really really healthy, no mater what, and I always have. I've been drinking "100% Whey concentrated and isolated whey protein" from the makers of muscle milk by the company Cytosport, atleast 2 servings of that every day for the past 2 weeks for breakfast. I've been eating is much protein-rich foods I possibly could. Lots of peanut butter. As many bananas as I can get my hands on.

On tuesday I started working out. I did some weight-free muscle exercises along with a few exercises that involved holding a 25 pound weight and rotating my body to target specific muscle groups like under my arms and my obliques. The next day EVERYTHING on my body above my calves were sore. I used to tumble and swim rigorously and I can honestly say I've never been so sore as I have been since tuesday. On wednesday even while being extremely sore I went to go rock climbing at my university, we have a giant indoor facility for that. Further shredded my sides, abs, arms, pecs. I'm really satisfied with how things are going. Except rock climbing is ruining my hands. I have blisters COVERING my fingers. Anyone that's began rock climbing knows what I'm talking about. However I feel rock climbing is a lot more effective than what I was doing in the gym.

I'd like to hear from someone that is perhaps a personal trainer/ nutrionist/ body builder/ anyone that knows what they're talking about to help me gain muscle. I understand resting is important, how should my rest days work, how frequently should I rest, how much of what types of foods should I be eating, etc. I would GREATLY appreciate any and all constructive criticism. I know for a fact there's a lot of god ladies and gents around here.

[kingpole Retired ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close kingpole]

Your diet sounds good. lift slow and light for the first few months. About 25% of your maximum. Remeber your muecles develop faster than ligaments and tendons. You may also want to include a 20 minute wal 3-4 days a week to strenthen smooth muscle. I would say a moderate pace would be best.

For now don't do anything the gets you out of breath. You got to rebuild the fitness of your cardiac muscle. I would if i were you take 250 mg of acetyl l carnitine to increase the strength of your heart.

Also have a doctor monitor your progress.

And progress slowly, right now it is not neccesary to get to sore.

[RockstarParkingDude Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RockstarParkingDude]

get yourself a gym membership. work on the big 4 - squat, dead lift, hang clean, bench. these are the full body exercises that will give you the biggest gains the fastest. these will make you.. thicker. get a routine that works all major muscle groups, if you need help with one i can hook you up. Keep it simple. don't get too fancy, or try to isolate too many muscles, leave that for a cutting routine, just try to hit every major muscle with the most simple, effective exercise there is for it.

gear your routine towards adding weight every session. say you bench 100lbs for 8 reps, next session go up to 110 even if you can only do it for 3. as a rule, lift the heaviest weights you can, for as many times as you can. if you aren't struggling for every last rep, you are toning not building muscle. keep your reps low, below eight. up your number of sets to 8, maybe 10. even if your last four sets are 5, 3, 3, 2 and your weight goes down 5 lbs each time.

eat often. but not huge amounts. 5 solid (breakfast, 3 during the day, one large protein meal right before bed - eggs are very good), 3 whey/gainer (depending on your preference), and one meal of protein immediately after your workouts.

EDIT: I assumed your doctor told you your heart was healthy enough for a workout program. this program is to gain weight, for a hard gainer. but for a healthy one. sore is good, if you work through it for 2 solid weeks, you won't get sore again. at your age with proper diet and heavy weight training you should be able to gain 25 pounds in 4-5 months no problem.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

The always helpful Kingpole. I really appreciate the input.

My heart is doing really good though, I've been <b>recovering</b> for 6 weeks. For clarification I mean that after I was cleared by my doctor to be okay, I spent 6 weeks letting my heart recoup. So I'm going at this with a perspective of being in good enough condition to basically tear my muscle fiber as much as possible to allow for them to grow. But I'm no physical trainer, I'm an Engineer and psychologist. So I don't know the best way to do this. My "Body Weight Strength" as my friend referred to it is really high, which I'm assuming means that for my size my muscles are extremely powerful/efficient (which through experience and comparison I'm inclined to agree). I've never really been much of a weight lifter, I've always emphasized wanting to gain <I>practical</i> muscle. I want a strong and sculpted machine type body. Think of Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club. His pecs aren't huge. His biceps aren't gigantic. But he's completely ripped and his body looks like it can't be conquered.

That was a lot of rambling. Kingpole, what's a "wal"? You said include a 20 minute wal a few times a week.

I get my paws on that supplement for heart strength for good measure.


I'm just so tired of feeling weak and little :/ reminds me of why I want an unconquerable body. Deep rooted feelings of insufficiency from being bullied and beat up over my small size and superior intellect when I was little.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

get yourself a gym membership. work on the big 4 - squat, dead lift, hang clean, bench. these are the full body exercises that will give you the biggest gains the fastest. these will make you.. thicker. get a routine that works all major muscle groups, if you need help with one i can hook you up. Keep it simple. don't get too fancy, or try to isolate too many muscles, leave that for a cutting routine, just try to hit every major muscle with the most simple, effective exercise there is for it.

gear your routine towards adding weight every session. say you bench 100lbs for 8 reps, next session go up to 110 even if you can only do it for 3. as a rule, lift the heaviest weights you can, for as many times as you can. if you aren't struggling for every last rep, you are toning not building muscle. keep your reps low, below eight. up your number of sets to 8, maybe 10. even if your last four sets are 5, 3, 3, 2 and your weight goes down 5 lbs each time.

eat often. but not huge amounts. 5 solid (breakfast, 3 during the day, one large protein meal right before bed - eggs are very good), 3 whey/gainer (depending on your preference), and one meal of protein immediately after your workouts.

EDIT: I assumed your doctor told you your heart was healthy enough for a workout program. this program is to gain weight, for a hard gainer. but for a healthy one. sore is good, if you work through it for 2 solid weeks, you won't get sore again. at your age with proper diet and heavy weight training you should be able to gain 25 pounds in 4-5 months no problem.

My university has a full gym, swimming pool, rock wall, indoor track, basketball, hockey, wrestling, along with just about anything else on could want. And since I'm a student I have full access almost 24/7

I AM cleared to workout with weights, I was advised to watch the cardio. My good friend told me about a routine he did where he gained a documentable 20 punds of muscle in 2 weeks by eating that much food, consuming about 1000% the daily recommended amount of protein, and his workout consisted of lifting his max weight on all major muscle exercises, like the 4 you mentioned plus a few more. He would do one set of 10 reps and then move on to the next exercise but he did 3 cycles, and he would do that routine in the morning and in the afternoon. I was amazed. I don't necessarily want to "Get Huge" I'm sure you've read my reply to Kingpole by now, I want to be sculpted. So would I go for building muscle then sculpting it? Because I'm trying to develop already sculpted muscles. Does that make sense? I don't wanna be able to bench 150% of my body weight I wanna be able to knock off a set of 30 pullups without getting shaky.

So much support and knowledge here, I love it. You guys are great.

[kingpole Retired ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close kingpole]

Yes, to much cardio in excess of 60 minutes will rob you of muscle this includes the cardiac muscle. But walking is suited for your condition. If 20 minutes is to much do 15 minutes. dont get above 60% of maximum heart beats per minute.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

Oh! You meant "walk"? That makes sense. You just said "wal"

I walk around my campus at school all throughout the day, I think that's more then enough walking. Probably adds up to at least 25 minutes.

[E_Weazy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close E_Weazy]

Your friend and his documentable 20lbs of muscle in two weeks seems physically impossible. From all the top world training coaches and even doctors with knowledge on gaining weight, 10 lbs of muscle a week should be impossible.

It is already physically demanding to put on even 2-5 lbs of PURE muscle a month.

Although I am not doubting he gained that much weight, take into account when you eat so much and your GI is most likely going to be packed to shit. So a lot of weight gained can be just mass from food in the GI as it progresses through your body.

Also, you said you wanted to get sculpted. I suggest you figure out what your daily caloric intake in which you won't gain or lose weight. Once this is determined, simply add on 500 calories on top of this number. With this small increase in 500 calories, it will ensure that no extra calories are attained and put into developing fat. This way majority of your gains will be muscle tissue.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

Yeah, my friend was probably trying to be motivational. That's a good point about having packed insides.

My caloric intake isn't an easy thing to track though.
Maybe around breakfast and lunch.
But my dinner is prepared from scratch almost daily. Like this evening, I made pizza from scratch, one with just dough, tomato based sauce, pepperonis and mozza and one with dough sauce mushrooms green bell peppers onions and olives. With that I had an iceberg/romaine lettuce mix salad with sliced almonds craisins broccoli and a vinaigrette. And a tall glass of good ol' chocolate milk.
I have NO idea how to calculate that at all.

Also, my goal is to be sculpted with Practical muscle. Cause like I said I have a friend that's 30, he's my weight and 140 pounds, pretty damn ripped, works out a lot, but he can't even do a V0 skill level climb on an indoor rock wall. V0 is like. SUPER easy, the lowest difficulty. Its basically just doing hand over hand/leg climbing. So idk. Its slightly complicated what my goals are because I don't want to gain JUST muscle I want it to be useful and beautiful.

[E_Weazy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close E_Weazy]

Functional strength, yet not pack on lots of weight? Sounds like Cross-Fit type workouts to me =D

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

Could you elaborate on Cross-Fit type workouts?

Like I said earlier I've been rock climbing and its TOTALLY working me. Using my own body weight and maneuvering to climb is really targeting all my muscle groups along with increasing the effectiveness of muscle stabilizers and endurance. But the more intense I push myself rock climbing the more my hands get all messed up. I have 18 blisters between my two hands and two of them have been torn off. Haha.

So if cross fit exercises could give me the same feeling of gaining sculpted muscle and enhancing muscle stability thatd be great.

In the past I've basically worked with Muscle Memory, doing pullups (or precision jumping or lifting or doing anything athletic) became second nature when ones body is like a well-oiled machine and everything is 1) strong enough and 2) stable enough to perform the task at hand.

[blink2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close blink2000]

Yes, to much cardio in excess of 60 minutes will rob you of muscle this includes the cardiac muscle. But walking is suited for your condition. If 20 minutes is to much do 15 minutes. dont get above 60% of maximum heart beats per minute.

i find that strength and muscle mass lost from intense workouts is easily regained. during each wrestling season in college i lost weight, but each off-season i got bigger and stronger than the previous season. i have never heard that more than 60 minutes of working out is bad for my heart (or that it caused me to lose muscle in my heart)--in college athletics i had to work out 4 hours a day... i was in the best health of my life too...

[blink2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close blink2000]

i do agree that too much cardio (lets say, over 30 minutes on your 2-3 off-days per week) can slow down your muscle gains. in fact, if you're already pretty big / strong, it can really damage your muscle gains (i think that's why powerlifters and bodybuilders really do have to avoid a lot of cardio, it's difficult to keep growing at their advanced level).

at beginner and intermediate levels, you can still gain lots of strength and mass while doing cardio, but it will definitely slow down your lean mass gains.

if you're just going for overall fitness, cardio and weight training do blend together well. unfortunately, it doesn't work that way if you're lifting for just size / strength.

[RockstarParkingDude Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RockstarParkingDude]

for real dude, if you are 110, then you don't need to work on much cardio really. stick with heavy weights. if you aer a hard gainer, then you won't blow up with muscle. it will come on a few pounds at a time, and your BMI will stay super low. you need to go to the extreme of weight gaining programs, and you will still stay shredded. don't worry about that.

for someone who has no trouble gaining weight, this routine would make them gain bodyfat and muscle very quickly.. a hard gainer on the other hand will more likely gain muscle slower, but gain little to no fat at all from this.



stick with your pullups. but remember that if you can do 8 pullups with a 45lb plate hanging on your belt, you can probably do 45 normal. it would be hard to get your reps that high without adding some weight first.

heavy weights for low reps will make a hard gainer that is super skinny into a hard gainer that is still slender, but muscular. this is the routine i follow, more or less, and i'm built like bruce lee.

[rockwell Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rockwell]

for real dude, if you are 110, then you don't need to work on much cardio really. stick with heavy weights. if you aer a hard gainer, then you won't blow up with muscle. it will come on a few pounds at a time, and your BMI will stay super low. you need to go to the extreme of weight gaining programs, and you will still stay shredded. don't worry about that.

for someone who has no trouble gaining weight, this routine would make them gain bodyfat and muscle very quickly.. a hard gainer on the other hand will more likely gain muscle slower, but gain little to no fat at all from this.



stick with your pullups. but remember that if you can do 8 pullups with a 45lb plate hanging on your belt, you can probably do 45 normal. it would be hard to get your reps that high without adding some weight first.

heavy weights for low reps will make a hard gainer that is super skinny into a hard gainer that is still slender, but muscular. this is the routine i follow, more or less, and i'm built like bruce lee.

I'm 118 >.> hahaha however I do understand what you're saying. I would have to agree about the Bruce Lee thing. I have ALWAYS been in good shape, but I have always exercised too. To be honest what motivated me even further to get really shredded, This guy came in to the rock climbing facility and took off his jacket and whatnot to get ready to climb, the dude was totally fucking chiseled but it wasn't anything like, abnormal looking. I would guess he was at like 160 and around 5'11" but seriously the guy was just ridiculously chiseled. I want to achieve that type of physique. I know i can do it, I just don't know the best way.

I'm going to start hitting the weights then for sheer mass and definition and continue rock climbing to keep my muscles conditioned to work how I want them to.

I would try the weighted pull-ups if I wasnt already sore just as a test because like I mentioned previously I apparently have a high "body weight strength", I can do a whole hell of a lot more than most guys that weight 120 pounds can. My grip is shot because of rock climbing, along with just every muscle group above my knees.

blahhhhhh, I'm eager for Monday so I can get to the gym.