Going to start a Mass phase soon.

[Anton Emery]

Hi Everyone,

I am going to start a muscle building phase soon and i figured i would lay it out here for others to see.

I have been thinking about it for a while, but after recently reading Starting Strength and Practical Programming i'm going to give it a go. Plus with the weather slowly starting to get colder eating more and lifting heavy sounds appealing.

Right now i am:

BW: 160lbs
Height 5'10"
BF%: Not quite sure, i can see top four abs.
Deadlift 320
Squat 250
Press: 125
Weighted Pull Up: +70lbs or so
Bench: Its been a while, was never a big bencher.

Overall I would like to get stronger, add more muscle, and then cut down whatever fat i gain afterwards. I am going to be teaching some classes at Crossfit Portland, and i wouldn't mind actually looking a bit more like i lift weights. I think of Scott Hagnas who is not that much heavier than me, but has more muscle, less fat, and is much stronger. Thats my end goal, and i think ending up around 170 or so would be good.

For a lifting i plan to just start out with Rippetoe's Starting Strength routine. I may be a bit beyond the Novice stage in my deadlift numbers, but i feel i have a ways to go with the Squat and Press. Plus reading Practical Programming has me all fired up.

Food wise i am just going to make sure i get enough calories and enough protein, ideally from the usual healthy sources. But i need to eat and half a pizza pie is within reach, well beggars can't be choosers. I was reading that anywhere from 16-20 x bodyweight is a good caloric goal to start with for weight gain. I'll have to monitor and see how things progress and go from there. I grapple as well, so i may have to tone down my practices or just eat more (not a bad idea).



Anton

[Frank Needham]

Looks like you have a good handle on things to me. How long you been lifting? Are you going to do the milk?

[Anton Emery]

Man, i'd like to do the milk. But at a gallon a day thats a decent amount of money. I'll have to see how the progress goes and if i can fit in enough calories.

As far as time lifting, i have been messing around with various things for about six years. But i was never consistently on any sort of great plan. In college it was bodybuilding type stuff, and i gained about 20 lbs. Then i got into juijitsu, focused alot more on conditioning, and pretty much neglected quality heavy lifting. I have been at Crossfit Portland for about 10 months and in that time have learned alot. I think a much higher strength base would help me alot with workouts like Fran, Grace, etc, as well as improved abilities on the mat.


Anton

[Kevin Perry]

Looks like you know what your doing. You may be suprised on your deadlift if you start a little low and blast through it later on making one pr after the next. Milk is expensive now, I think it was in the past week or two that prices soared. keep us posted.

[Anton Emery]

Was talking to a friend and he mentioned something, which i had also thought about. Is Starting Strength enough volume to induce muscular growth? 3 x 5 seems kind of low. Though people that do it and eat enough seem to report muscular gains. Perhaps i might better off with PM Mass Gain program.



Anton

[Mike ODonnell]

Originally Posted by Anton Emery

Was talking to a friend and he mentioned something, which i had also thought about. Is Starting Strength enough volume to induce muscular growth? 3 x 5 seems kind of low. Though people that do it and eat enough seem to report muscular gains. Perhaps i might better off with PM Mass Gain program.

Not really....as most gain more fat on the milk diet. But they (powerlifters) usually just want more size (not a six pack...unless it is beer)...which helps to increase strength too. Don't confuse SS with a hypertrophy based program. You need both strength and glycogen depletion/loading if you plan on being bigger AND still try to stay lean. 3x5 if good to start with...but then you need sets of 10s too if you really want size and not strength as a priority.

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Anton Emery

Was talking to a friend and he mentioned something, which i had also thought about. Is Starting Strength enough volume to induce muscular growth? 3 x 5 seems kind of low. Though people that do it and eat enough seem to report muscular gains. Perhaps i might better off with PM Mass Gain program.



Anton

lol, seriously?

Along with what Mike said it definitely is enough volume. The overall stressor here is the linear progression. You're adding weight every workout. If that's not a good stressor for muscle mass I don't know what is.

When I was training for one arm chinups (which is less of a muscle stressor that squats clearly), I was doing less volume than 3x5 a day and pretty much gaining muscle and strength at an impressive rate. Basically, just do it.

[Anton Emery]

Starting Strength it is. I'll be kicking that off today. I have been logging my food via fitday. Initially shooting for around 3200 calories and will adjust from there. I am initially trying to get enough calories via mostly Paleo sources. If that does not work i'll look at other strategies.

I know Starting Strength should be done entirely on its own, but i hate to drop grappling, so i am going to do the best i can. I am mainly concerned about eating enough. Logging and actually seeing what i take in helps.


Anton

[Dave Van Skike]

Shoot for strong and the size will take care of itself in most cases..as long as you eat.

I see you're settled on the Starting Strength template, which is great. I'd say take a look at Westside for Skinny Bastards (free download somewhere out there) as well. There are numerous other templates for basic strength building. Frankly, anyhting from Keys to Progress to a bunch of boring ass Sheiko programs will work too if you eat enough. SS will work but won't work forever, once you get to intermediate level stuff you'll want to tweak it. Teh Texas Method from Practical Programming worked great for me for a good long stretch, then I had to tweak it.

I see you do Crossfit...you might want to revise that..(my suggestion is Forever..but that's just me.) grappling and endurance training (crossfit) are not your friends if you want to prioritize big(er) and strong. For someone at 170-180, I'd say a bench mark of 1,2,3 is a legit achievable goal for 6-8 months. press BW, squat 2 times BW, deadlift 3 times BW. the DL is kinda ambitious but failure to meet a goal is a very illuminating process.

[Anton Emery]

Yea, no Crossfit for me during this phase. I'll keep some sort of minimal conditioning by grappling, but thats it. And even with the grappling i will have to monitor it so i dont train to much.



Anton