I usually frequent other fitness threads such as bodybuilding.com and others but I feel that I can get a lot of structured help here from knowledgeable individuals and not just trolls.
I am 6'3" 185lb
I train very hard. Full Body Split 3x a week, HIIT/GPP cardio 4x a week.
I'm going to go ahead and say that keeping your BF low shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm currently trying to put on mass as well. Eat and eat more! But you have to eat "clean" of course. I recently read the book from scrawny to brawny by Meija and Berardi. It's a good read and seems to have worked well for many people. If you are interested it might be a good selection especially to put on mass.
hey AG, you may have seen my posts on bb.com. this is just my opinion...
but if you are really looking to gain some serious size, I would drop all of your cardio. keep training with your current routine and milk it for all the gains its worth.
you shouldnt worry so much right now about your bodyfat, as it is really low. I am willing to bet that you probably do quite well on carbs. also not to mention the partitioning advantages you possess wrt being so lean. I would keep your diet the same as it is, dont make any changes, just drop the cardio. if you did want to make some changes wrt diet, it could be putting more carbs after your weight workouts.
i think i'll do more of what Roland was saying and Ross prescribes. I love doing the burpee/gpp/deck of cards kind of conditioning and actually have some good competition with some friends on times for these circuits. I think i will just up my cals and still lift HEAVY! thinking of switching to an upper/lower split to limit my cardio days...any suggestions of a good upper/lower split?
Just to be the "devil's advocate" here, why try to change what you're doing?
You look great... Probably 99% of the male population would kill to look like you do right now without any added mass.
Honestly, that will just accumulate anyway as your muscle matures. If you aren't satisfied and think you need to pack on mass, you are opening yourself to shoulder and knee problems from being in that mindset that tells you that you have to keep pushing those numbers up.
Stay active, lift like you have been doing, but maybe even back off a little at this point. Muscle is pretty easy to maintain... hard to gain. You've gained it, so maintaining will not take gut-wrenching exercises every day like you've probably done so far.
I'm just throwing out other alternatives. We are all so constantly focused on what we need to improve that it seems we rarely get to a point where we say, "you know, I look pretty damn good. I'm going to try to keep looking like this and be satisfied with my physique."
Maybe that's just the age speaking.
Good job so far though. If you throw out any of my pondering/advice, at least stop and take a moment to be proud of yourself for what you've accomplished so far.
appreciate the words of advice. in this world of instant satisfaction and never-good-enough mindsets, I sometimes fall into the trap of focusing on what could be better and no what has already been created. I am very happy with my body and enjoy working hard to maintain/improve it. I agree that being 20 years old can only help with musculature development and overall body composition.
When it comes down to it, if I do add 5-10lb and be where I want to be, whats next....i think i will always have to improve in some way or area. I think just being happy with what I have already achieved is most important and consistency to maintain it is whats most important.
10 -15 lbs of lean muscle added slowly to your frame would be my suggestion. Damn man that is ripped. You should have no problem keeping lean while still adding some muscle.
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Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.
I would stick with what you are doing relative to exercise but bump your calories. Do it in a structured way. Log what you eat and calorie containing drinks for at least 3 days. Figure out what your average daily caloric intake is and then add 500 calories to that number and see what happens. If you don't add much mass bump another 300 and so on until you feel you are adding too much body fat then back off a bit.
It's not the advice. It's the links to his store (and it is his store, he's co-owner of the company) and the forum of which he's super moderator.
The guy has been here less then four hours and already he's setting up advertising. He's probably trying to get his avatar posted, which is basically a url to his store and give him enough time, he'll start advertising fully like he does on MH. His recommendations and links will be of only the products his company sells, regardless.
Now, if JP says it's ok, then I can't argue. But I have to believe JP is unaware since he's said nothing.
I was not aware... Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Chris, I would at the very least have liked a PM asking permission... If I am going to help your business out, I would like to check it out first, to make sure that it meets my standards, and then have some sort of affiliation set up where my site is compensated (this thing ain't free, ya know?).
I'm going to remove your sig for now until we discuss this.