The Bamboo Room (Forum) > Gaining weight - help
For most people, eating more is the cure. Pasta or bread usually does it. You might be the body type that responds more to fats, and good ones of those would be oils and nuts.
Coach Brett
Hey Steve ==
As this is an open forum, I hope no one minds if I throw my thoughts into the ring here.
Coach Brett is totally right, you have to pack on the calories ... especially since you your training focus is Tris. You are an Ectomorph. Your body type serves as one of the more difficult for weight gain --- put its totally doable.
When you say, "looking to put on some weight" I am going to assume you are talking about muscle. If so, you gave us all the key to helping you by stating you lift "3-4 days a week with medium reps and medium weights" . . .
You are asking the age old question of body building-- how can I gain more weight. And from the days of Jack LaLaine to now, the formula has been the same, muscle grow in relation to the amount of stress put on them .... and more stress comes from only one thing -- higher weights -------------- but, its not THAT simple. You are a triathlete ... you cant just get into the gym and be doing one rep sets on each body part -- you'd never recover.
Are you in a place where there is winter and summer in terms of racing --- an off season and a comp season? If so, I would use the off season as a great time to work on your "gain oriented" strength training. For each exercise - after a thorough warm up - consider bringing your reps way down and your weight up and pyramiding that over 4-5 sets ... for example 75% max 5 reps, 85% max 4 reps, 95% max 2 reps, 85% max 4 reps, 75% max 5 reps --- with about a minute and a half between sets -- this will shock your hormones get the muscle building factory working in over time -- plus keep you lean.
There are hundreds of ways to lift for gain .. that is just one example. .. keep in mind the key rule -- want muscle, load your muscles,, either my increasing the weight or going super slow on the motion or both .. the idea is to damage the muscle as much as possible (in a good way) ..... which brings up something very important -- by lifting for gains you substantially increase your risk of injury -- so keep it save,, warm up great -- and work your recovery --- for gain, if doing it correctly, you only need to lift a body part once a week.
One of the best investments you can make is in a personal trainer who knows what they are doing ... if you cant afford one every workout, at lease get one to draw up a plan for you based on your goals and needs..
And eat .. plenty.
Good Luck
BC
Bob Cal
i think once i can find a good balance between my tri training and weight lifting then ill be able to put on some good weight and get stronger. thanks for that advice Bob Cal
Steve
Bob has good advice. And there are shortcuts that don't work in the long term. Don't just "eat more", but built a habit of eating more HEALTHY foods that have higher calories.
One interesting example is Bruckner Chase, who purposely puts on fat, not muscle, as insulation for cold-water distance swimming. As you can see, things get get very individualized based on your specific goals.
Coach Brett
I am a college triathlete looking to put on some weight. I am about 5'10" and 140 pounds. On top of my enduranse training i lift weights 3-4 days a week with medium reps and medium weights. Is gaining weight just a matter of eating more of the healthy food i am already eating or is there something i need to focus on specifically to help me gain weight. Thanks to all who helped!