Was wondering if any of ya old coots, or young'uns had any tips, or advice? 
I kept telling myself for 3 years that I was gonna put on some weight and pump up some muscle. I am 5'10'', weigh 140 pounds, and nearly thin as a rail.
Just started January 1st. Am looking to gain some weight, maybe 10-20 pounds. Increasing muscle, that is. I am using a powdered whey protein supplement that I mix with water after each workout. Today I ran 2.34 miles in 70 minutes on an eliptical machine. Did 3 sets of 10 reps with some dumbbell weights, sit-ups and push-ups. I know, I am badly out of shape. Hahaha!
Right now I am snacking on an orange, apple, some santa sweet tomatoes, and some cheese cubes. Anyone else out there looking to start the new year with something great?
Well you're going to want to start with drinking a protein shake about 20 minutes before you start lifting, and then one immediately afterward too. The whey before you workout is so that your muscles will have a readily available source of quick absorbing protein to pull from right when they need it, and then afterward for your body to soak in more when it needs it most, as it tries to rebuild the damage you just did to it. Your meal an hour after you eat should be meat and veggies, then cottage cheese right before bed. The cottage cheese is because it's casein protein and very slow digesting. That way your body will have a store of protein to pull from all night long. Then, some eggs or more protein first thing when you wake up. You're going to want to take in a MINIMUM of one gram of protein per lb of body weight per day. You'll be wanting to up your fiber too.
Start with heavy multi muscle group lifts, get good at them, use strict form, then after 5 months or so of that, add in smaller group isolation exercises. Your body has to adapt to the stress before it will be ready to really grow. You'll be wanting to lift 5 days a week, give or take. I always liked a one on one off schedule.
Ease into it the first two weeks, or you'll be so sore you won't want to continue. After a while you will hardly be able to make yourself get sore. If you stick with it, you'll learn to love that feeling.
Find someone to teach you good and proper form for the basic lifts, they'll be your foundation: Squat (olympic style, that means legs shoulder width apart, butt literally all the way to the ground) Deadlift, Bench, Military Press, Shrugs. Don't worry about biceps or triceps or lat specific exercises. If you're doing your basics routinely for several months, you'll get growth everywhere. Then when it's time to start isolating, your tendons and whatnot will be prepared and you won't injure yourself, so long as you're lifting VERY strictly. Form is the absolute key. You'll lift less weight if you're strict, but you won't hurt yourself either, and you'll progress faster too. If you cheat your form to move more weight, you're only cheating yourself. Remember, cheaters are only working out their egos.
A couple of vids addressing form on basic lifts, very very important!
Watch and listen very carefully. Deadlift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N9hAuxNs&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht363HslwnM&feature=channelSquat: (not that half squad legs parallel to the ground bs, real olympic squat, that will really put some strength in your core and some size on your quads.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYddZUIzJ9g&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnr0zyKh2H8&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawBY5p29fQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yha2XAc2qu8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i60dzS84n8&feature=relatedA lot of people will tell you to stop when your thighs are parallel to the ground, with your butt at knee level. That is wrong, that is actually the position to put the most stress on your knees. Going all the way deep is in reality much less stressful on your knees. I have had a knee surgery, so I can tell you from experience.
Bench is pretty straight forward, just remember to put your hands far enough apart so that you pinch your shoulder blades a little when the bar is all the way down. You want to imagine your elbows tracing an arc as a path, not going straight up and down. You'll need to develop a feel for moving the weight with your chest, not with your arms and shoulders. The mind/muscle connection is the most important aspect of it all.
Also, once you get acclimated, perhaps a month or so in, the most important thing you can do for yourself is to lift more weight every time than you did the last. If you squatted the day before yesterday, squat 5 more pounds this time. If you can't, cut back and lift 2.5 more. Lifting more weight is the key to putting on more muscle. That sounds really simple, but you'd be shocked at the guys who don't push the weight consistently. That's the key, always lift more than you did before. You will want to be working to failure in a maximum of 8 reps, a MAX of 8. 6 reps at failure would be better still. (Once you've done a couple of higher rep warm up sets of course, so you don't hurt yourself.) And failure means literally failure. Not I'm very tired and it would be tough to do another, but literally your last rep should put you in a spot where no matter how much effort you put in, you can't get one more rep. My standard was always, if someone offered me a million dollars to do one more rep, could I? If I honestly could say yes, then I wasn't pushing hard enough to hit failure in the right amount of reps.
As a beginner and a little guy, I'd start with 4 sets of 8 to 6 reps, after two warm up sets of 15-20 reps with lighter weight. You should start to feel a blood pump into the muscle group, and warm all over, then you can move on to your real sets.
I'm sure there's more that I'm overlooking here, it's late. Ask if you have any questions. I know this stuff backwards and forwards, I started lifting when I was 16. I've been off a few yeas after my knee surgery, but I'm just now starting back myself. I've had lots and lots of experience with this stuff, I lived in the gym for years and years. Hope that's been some help.
