A new purpose at the gym

[DontBurnMyFlag]

Hey all. For the past 2 years I was going to the gym for overall fitness and to lose weight. I was an out of shape college kid who could hardly run a mile without dying. I dropped at least 20lbs and can now run 5 miles with ease. I attended the police academy after getting fit and became even more fit in the process.

Im at the point where my fitness goals have changed. I would always hit the weight room and alternate cardio as well, but all that did was help me lose weight and tone up.

Im not looking to gain massive amounts of uncut muscle, but Im looking to definately increase my muscle mass. Ive always been skinny and would appreciate staying that way. Im a relatively strong guy, but I could use more when it comes to my upper body and midsection.

Unfortunately because all my fitness research and reading over the past 2 years has been focused on losing weight and getting fit, I never payed much attention on how to properly gain muscle.

I have increased my caloric intake. Plenty of lean meat, whole grains and carbs and protein shakes. No junk or soda.

Ive cut back the cardio a bit, but I dont want to lose my speed or stamina as it is an important part of my career.

How does one go about starting this. I can definately tell I put on a pound or two in the past 2 weeks, but I feel its either water or just fat.

Should I focus more upon weight training for longer periods and more weight. I used to do lower weights and a large amount of reps. Is it time to change.

How do I mix in a cardio workout with out negating all the work I will be doing? Should I throw in high intensity interval training? Longer runs just less days a week?

Someone help a brotha out. haha.

[Titansfanmjfink]

I've always heard that to put on muscle mass you want to do heavy weights w/ less reps. Also exercises that use multiple muscle groups (clean and jerk, snatch, etc) are supposed to be good for bulking up. I don't think cardio has much to do with it. It's definately gonna keep your legs a little smaller unless you really bust *** with leg work.

Oh yeah, Dips and chinups and stuff like that are supposed to be good.

Also, pm sent

[Vorpal]

Try looking for a book called "Brawn" by Stuart McAllister. He also publishes a magazine called Hardgainer that specifically addresses your problem.

[rocko]

Google "Westside for Skinny Bast*rds" and you will find workouts to use. One thing most people make a mistake doing is doing steady pace cardio, i.e. running 3-5 miles at a steady pace. If your goal is to make your muscles aerobic, then steady state cardio is fine. However, assuming you are in law enforcement, steady state cardio is hardly ideal for your career. What you need to do is work intense intervals with prescribed rest periods. So you may sprint 200 meters, rest 3x the amount of time it took you to run, repeat, repeat, repeat. It's preferable to do hill sprints b/c it places less stress on your knees. You can also always find dirt or grass to run on to do these sessions. Muscle mass will be gained by increasing intensity of your weight training along with increasing your caloric intake. You simply cannot increase muscle mass on a caloric deficit. I'm somewhat of a nerd when it comes to physical fitness but what makes you want to gain muscle mass? If you don't do it already, incorporate olympic style lifts into your routine along with explosive lifts or explosive bodyweight exercises. Simply lifting heavy weights, thus causing hypertrophy, often leads to muscle mass gains but reduction in speed. It doesn't do a whole lot for you to get big and bulky and end up being slower.

[kenshin]

I have found the website t-nation to be very helpful with my workout needs. Now, the site does like to sprinkle ads throughout its articles, so please ignore those ads. You'll still learn a lot.