So I started lifting in the 6th grade. By 8th grade I was a junior body builder. I have been taking 5 supplements since then basically. I take three Super Amino 3000's pills 2 times a day. I drink 158grams of protein a day, I take 1000mg of L-Arginine for blood flow, and 300mg of Korean Ginseng as it has a natural steroid in it, and 5 mg of Pure Creatine Monohydrate a day for water retention while working out. I'm looking for a little more for gains.

I did take a supplement I should not have taken when I was in 11th grade. And i will never try that again. (I think you know what I mean) So I don't want any suggestions on that. I want to do this with only legal supplements.

I was wondering if anyone on here has any tips for more muscle gain. Right now my bench press is at 320lbs. My curl is 140lbs on an EZ curl bar. Leg press is 450lbs. I do 50 push ups a day. I don't do sit ups.

I weigh 196lbs and I am 5 foot 11 inches tall and I'm 19 years old.

It seems like I have hit a maxed out point almost. I haven't been able to get any gains in the past 2 months. I just need something to give me that extra little push i need. I just don't want a supplement to waste my money on

 

Do yourself a favor and read as much as you can on " Overtraining "
And take a month or two off while your reading.

 

A couple things come to mind. Every couple weeks you should totally change your workout. Now having said that, I still say stay with the basics. You are still young and have more skeletal growth remaining. Don't try to gain too much too fast. It isn't a sprint, but a long slow marathon. If you do flat benches with a barbell for 2 weeks, switch to incline dumbell benches the next, then add some flys, and so on. Benches, deadlifts, and squats should be your mainstay for growth. Especially deads and squats. If you go to a gym you'll see what I mean. The bigger guys are usually the only ones doing deads and squats consistently, and you know why? Cause they pack on the mass by working almost every muscle in your body.
Try to hook up with some older lifters at your gym. There is a wealth of knowledge they can teach you. The most I gained and learned was lifting with a powerlifter/bodybuilder. He was 5'4" and 240lbs solid muscle. Strong as a bull. We lifted heavy 2 weeks, then light 2 weeks, always switching things up. Overtraining will cause muscle breakdown, can cause sickness, etc. Eat every 2.5 to 3hrs also. That changed my body more than anything else. Goodluck...

 

thanks guys, i try to stay away from dead lifting and squats as much as i can though. my year of 10th grade in high school in the power lifting competition i was in a hurry to try my max on dead lifting and at that time i had the idea of "i haven't got hurt yet so why will i now" and i didn't dead lift properly and my back has been really messed up since then along with a knee i buckled. i tore a disk and it put my spine partially out of alignment at the base. do you guys think if i started back at dead lifting and squats slowly and built up the muscle again, that its not going to really hurt my back anymore? my doctor said it was okay to do it again, i just have always been scared since that day as ive never felt that much pain.

i do take time off from working out, i don't go at it everyday. i work out 4 days a week, take the weekends off and a random day in between, i do that for 1 1/2-2 months, then take 3 weeks straight off. when i was in high school, the trainer i had overtrained his muscles, he did big time permanent damage that was actually visible if you looked at his arms, he lifted everyday for 2 years straight. he told me if there is one thing in weight training that i want to remember is to take time off, and i've stuck to that.

 

Like Trik396 said ... change it up !!! There doesn't look like very much core training in your regimine ... I would suspect that this could have been part of the cause for your back injury as well as the improper dead lift. If you aren't strengthening your abdominals, lats and obliques (core muscles) then you are only asking for trouble. Sit ups might be rough on you right now due to the back injury but crunches should gain a lot of mileage for you especially if you hold in mid lift. Eventually you should be able to hit full situps again and then maybe you can add weights to that then. *** talk to your Dr. first .... he knows what your back xray looks like, I don't .

Have you ever incorporated pull ups, chin ups and dips into your routines ? Those work some of the "other" muscles in your arm /shoulder/back groups that don't get hit with the heavy weights. Rope climbs are another good source for that. You are a good sized ol' boy ... these things may humble you at the start.

Are you a runner at all ?? 30 minutes of cardio (jogging, sprints, jump-rope)after EVERY workout will increase your endurance and that will help you in the weight room too. Again, this changes up the routine and besides, all bulk and no endurance is not cool, bud.

50 push ups a day .... that's a good start . Wouldn't hurt you to at least double that amount... maybe every other day.

Can't help you when it comes to supplements .... I know very little about them. I have used creatine and weight gain before. You probably know more than I do ... I probably got more results from a high protien diet (and eating more often like you said) than with supplements.

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

Maybe I missed this but I don't see where you have included any cardio in your routine. Again, maybe I just missed it and you do have that in there somewhere.

If not, I feel that the working out you're doing is all for no good. Guys who work out and don't do any cardio tend to have heart attacks. If your heart can't handle the load, then all the muscle in the world isn't going to do you any good.

I agree with Pistol.

 

These guys give great advice.

Mixing things up helps alot. Your muscles are always getting a new type of irritation that way. That's how I look at it anyhow.

I belive squats are the best all over body exercise. Stretch alot and work your way up slowly to get and keep good form.

I love stiff legged deadlifts also. Squats and those for me were an excellent combo. But it took me a good while to build my way up.

I quit using a belt in the mid 90's. To me I felt that it was counterproductive. So I worked hard at really strengthening my lower back and midsection. I've never had issues with it, even when lifting heavy. (by my standards anyhow lol)

Pull ups and pushups are awesome. For pushups I use a set of push up bars and one of those exercise *****. Hands on the bars and toes pointed straight down on the ball. It makes you provide good control with your midsection because the ball is trying to shoot out from under your feet. And an added perk is that when doing regular pushups flat on the ground you can bang out an extra 20-30 you couldn't do up on the ball. They seem like no effort.

Keep in mind you are still young. Try and get your issues taken care of now so they dont haunt you when you get older.

Good luck

 

At 19 years old what you "need" to get past this plateau is very bad for you. I have been what most would consider a recreational weightlifter for about 4 good years.
My stats are similar to yours, 6'0" 213 lbs. Bench is around 290, I can rep out with 235-240 no problem. My thing is diet, it has been really hard for me to keep up on it since summer time. My bf% shot up from 14.1 to 17.0 in three months.
You have to really understand, the average male human body WANTS to be right in the 150-180 range. Anything you (we) do to get out of that range is tough.
Squats (and other fundamentals) are time proven mass builders. I keep it light (315 max 8 reps) mainly because it is hard for me to keep form after that.

Besides the junk you can buy at GNC, all the other stuff is essentially tinkering with your natural hormones. Since they are illegal and you really can't do it under a doctor's supervision, you are playing trial and error with your body. When you read about guys packing on 15-20 lbs in 12 weeks you have to understand it is all but impossible to sustain the size afterwards.

Oh, and what they said.....

Switch it up, anything over 6 weeks on the same rotation is not good IMO.

 

Another thing, you're going to need to bump that protein up to at least one gram per body weight. I assume the rest of your diet makes up the additional intake, but that is still an awful lot in just shakes.

There is no "natural" steroid from Korea, going to have to call bs on that for you. Even if it was, there is only one orally administered steroid that is even remotely worth taking and it is not found in Ginseng.

I would be willing to bet money that whatever you took in 11th grade was probably the wrong compound(s), for the wrong amount of time followed by the wrong post cycle therapy. (a mistake at ~17 years old anyway).

 

Cardio is good for the heart and health in general. There is no doubt. But he wants to attain mass, and cardio will hamper his gains. I totally disagree with your statement about guys who work out and don't do any cardio having heart attacks. You have been misled in a terrible way. Lifting weights at a good pace with 45seconds to one minute between sets has shown to raise the heart rate and strengthen the heart muscle. Someone has passed along the wrong info to you.
Getting back to your workout... if your back is screwed up, stay away from the leg presses you said you are doing. Many people, actually most people do these incorrectly and I've seen guys screw up their backs horribly from LP's. Proper form is KEY. It is key to everything. I see you say you curl 140lbs... you must be darn strong if you can do this with absolute mechanically correct strict form. If you are cheating, you are risking injury. You are not an elite bodybuilder who is using juice who can get away with cheating out the last few reps. Too much to risk. If you don't squat, either regular, hack, smith machine, whatever, YOU WILL NOT GET BIG.

 

Quote---Korean ginseng contains steroids such as panaxtriol. The steroids are remarkably similar in structure to anabolic steroids found naturally in our body. This makes Korean ginseng ideal for athletes and body builders looking for a natural alternative to anabolic steroid. Korean ginseng is also used by women for treatment of post menopausal symptoms.

And i was taking dianabol in 11th grade, i was doing it all correctly, it was just bad mistake actually....

I do at least 30 minutes most of the time 40 mintues of cardio 4 days a week too.

I do chin ups and pull ups as part of my routine also.

I use an ab roller. 50 ab rolls on work out days.

I am 14 percent body fat.

The reason i only take 158 grams of protein a day is because i make up for the rest on the things i eat in a day. Using too much protein from what i have heard can be hard on your liver, its not a proven fact, but i don't want to find out.

I mainly work on my biceps, But i cant forget about the rest of my body. I was taught how to curl by a physical trainer. So if he taught me right then im not cheating. The way i do it is keep my back straight, make sure my arms are aligned properly, and use my arms only to pull it up. I do not swing it up or hop it up.

 

You have not come close to your limit! If you keep working out and stay healthy, you'll be increasing in strength well into your 40's.

So don't ever give up staying in shape. You want to be able to play with your kids when they're teens and older.

 

honestly the best thing ive found for myself is to constantly keep my body guessing. i never get into a routine of doing the same lifts. try bumping your caloric intake up, maybe change your diet up some, and change your lifting routine. im am currently cutting myself from a hella bulk from the last 6 months. im 22 years old 5'11" tall and got up to 225lbs @ 16% bf. right now im about 210lbs @ around 13% bf and cutting down to 7%. ive busted through many plateau's over the last couple years, and i think what did it was me constantly changing my diet, and lifting routines. the only supps i take is whey isolate, and a once a day multi. ive been body building for about 3 years now, as i used to be real fat, and got sick of it. i plan on competing in another year or two just for fun. if you want any help breaking your plateau, pm me... ive coached quite a bit of kids.

p.s. You really need to start doing deads/squats, as they are a necessary evil if you want to get BIG! try hooking up with a big guy at the gym to show you proper form for both.

 

lol, totally NOT TRUE!

 

SHOCK THE BODY OFTEN!
Over the past few years I have turned into sofa slug and those days are numbered.
Here is what I did...when I was trying to break plateaus and/or improve.
Stop all the weights in the gym, make a harness and hook yourself up to something heavy and go like mad. Drag your truck, a sled loaded with rocks etc etc. If you are not keen on squats...this will not only hit the legs but it will define a new level of cardio.
Since you have been taking the same supplements for awhile, toss them too...try eating more protein, less stimulants like ginseng and Creatine [in my opinion] is just filler that bloats what you have. Others will disagree.
Get a speed bag and pound on that for an hour...again...more cardio with amazing results for energy in the gym.

Pick a goal and go to it. You have the sense to ask and research which is good.
You may have to try many different things to get past a plateau.

Have someone sit on you while you do a set of 20 push ups, then do another 50 without the weight. You will be amazed how the body can load up with real heavy weight and then use just your bodyweight. Conditioning/strength and endurance are all needed and should be balanced. I tend to balance everything at the extreme end of the scale. I am back at that now and I am 45 yrs old.

SHOCK THE BODY OFTEN!

And remember...always always S T R E T C H.

Scotty