Newbie needs help...

[State or Die]

Ok, Ive been on a "program" for a little over a month. I am keeping track of calories, protein, carbs and fat in Excel, as well as workouts and weight. goal is to gain lean muscle mass. Currently, I weigh about 176 and am 5'11". I have already gained about 18 pounds and have gone from 158-176. I would like to be in the 185-190 range. I do not know what body fat is, although i know its got to be somewhat low because i am developing pretty decent abs.

I consume about 2800 calories a day and try to keep split around 50/30/20, which means i consume around 200 grams of protein a day.

730 AM
6 egg whites
whole wheat bagel
1 tb natural pb
multivitamin

10 AM
protein bar (18-20 g, 6 g fat)

1230 PMchicken
whole wheat bread

300PM
cottage cheese/carrots

530 PM
granola
protein shake

800 PM
chicken/shrimp stir fry or turkey or venison
sweet potato
protein shake

1030 PM
vanilla yogurt with 2 tb natural pb

usually drink about 100 oz of water a day

MONDAY
chest

TUESDAY
Bi's and Tri's

WEDNESDAY
Cardio

THURSDAY
Back/shoulders

FRIDAY
Cardio

SAT or SUN
Legs

right now i have pretty decent definition and i dont want to lose that. Do you guys have any recommendations? I know I probably dont get enough veggies....

[swanso5]

you need plenty more carbs...once sammey sees this she'll say the same..you'll piss excess protein out so 200g for your frame is probably too much to utilise...add fruit in am and veg/salad in pm

for split try this:

mon - legs
tue - chest back
wed - off
thu - arms, calves etc
fri - off
sat - full body
sun - off

i don't know why chest gets a whole day but back has to share with shoulders even though it has more functions and is a much larger than muscles than the pecs...make sure you're doing equal volume for quads/hams...tri./bi...chest/back or you'll pay when you're 50 with a hunchback

[State or Die]

you need plenty more carbs...once sammey sees this she'll say the same..you'll piss excess protein out so 200g for your frame is probably too much to utilise...add fruit in am and veg/salad in pm

for split try this:

mon - legs
tue - chest back
wed - off
thu - arms, calves etc
fri - off
sat - full body
sun - off

i don't know why chest gets a whole day but back has to share with shoulders even though it has more functions and is a much larger than muscles than the pecs...make sure you're doing equal volume for quads/hams...tri./bi...chest/back or you'll pay when you're 50 with a hunchback

thanks for the response.... youre right, i probably do need more carbs, but i didnt know to what extent. I try to keep it one muscle group/day because i cant be in the gym for more than an hour or so, and back/shoulders just seem to kind of naturally go together. i keep a pretty equal volume, but probably do more back/shoulders than chest to tell you the truth.

what kind of vegetables do you suggest? i generally just dont like them much, i gotta get over that.

about the hunchback thing - you may be right regardless of what i do, i already have slight kyphosis, but have since i was a kid... cant really do much about it without surgery, and they dont suggest surgery for people over 17. I mean, people cant really tell that much - but i can

[Evan]

I am very similar to you, 5, 11 and recently I had glandular fever and dropped down to about 143 pounds!
I am now back up to about 170 pounds and like you are looking to add even more lean muscle mass.

I found that increasing carb intake considerably around pre and post workout nutrition along with whey protein and L-Glutamine has helped me tremendously. And to add to that I am still at about 8 % body fat so it hasn't added any excess body fat either.

So I am with swanso5, up the carbs! Especially post workout. Although it is a good idea to cut of complex carbs at night and stick to vegies, salads and fruit.

Good Luck champ!

[swanso5]

if you have kyphosis now you'll only worsen it with so much chest work...in that regard YOU should always use a 2:1 back :chest sets/rep ratio so it doesn't get worse...your posture may never be perfect but it can be improved...i had a posture pro with the chiro in the middle of last year and registered a score of 28 where you're meant to be 0 (but no one is) after doing the Neanderthal No More program from t-nation.com, i got down to 16 in 8 weeks and now from going to the chiro and getting aligned properly i'm at 8 so it can be done...as for veggies, any one's you want anytime you want...the full body workouts should not exceed 45mins in total anyway and if they are you're either resting too long or doing too much

[State or Die]

if you have kyphosis now you'll only worsen it with so much chest work...in that regard YOU should always use a 2:1 back :chest sets/rep ratio so it doesn't get worse...your posture may never be perfect but it can be improved...i had a posture pro with the chiro in the middle of last year and registered a score of 28 where you're meant to be 0 (but no one is) after doing the Neanderthal No More program from t-nation.com, i got down to 16 in 8 weeks and now from going to the chiro and getting aligned properly i'm at 8 so it can be done...as for veggies, any one's you want anytime you want...the full body workouts should not exceed 45mins in total anyway and if they are you're either resting too long or doing too much

i dont know - i dont really feel like im over working chest though...

i usually do bench, incline bench, flies, decline and cables... thats it (3 sets/10 each, sometimes 4-5 sets of bench)... is that too much?

[swanso5]

yes

quoting own post

in that regard YOU should always use a 2:1 back:chest sets/rep ratio so it doesn't get worse

[State or Die]

yes

quoting own post

in that regard YOU should always use a 2:1 back:chest sets/rep ratio so it doesn't get worse

i am never sore though... i figured if i were over working a muscle group - id be sore ?

[swanso5]

your not overworking the chest relatively speaking but under working the back...you've negelcted your back so you need to cut chest vol and increase back vol two fold to get the balance back