lifting weights - how long till i get muscles =P

Time will vary greatly between person to person due to factors like metabolic rate, diet, nutrients etc but within another 2 weeks, assuming you have a decent protein intake; you should start seeing and feeling some muscle difference.

 

Here's the thing... the results are immediate. You just may not see them because you see your body daily.

You'll see it happen in three ways:

1. Increase in muscle tone: This happens every day that you work out and it lasts about 2-3 days.
2. Increase in strength: This will happen over the course of weeks. There will be big gains in strength at first and then you plateau somewhere between 6 months and a year. After that, the gains take more work.
3. Increase in mass: This takes the longest and is the most gradual. Most of the time, you will notice it when your clothes don't fit or someone asks you, "Have you been working out?".

Mass increases are permanent. The rest will only exist while you continue to work out.

There's three things that you should do to help with this:

1. Get baseline pictures. Repeat the pictures periodically and compare them.
2. Get measurements of your upper arm, waist, chest and thigh. Track these along with your overall body weight.
3. Jot down your routine after you work out. Keep track of what you did and how much weight while it's fresh in your mind. This will help you track your strength gains. And if you decide to work with a trainer in the future, it will save some time in figuring out new exercises for you to do.

 

lol you dont "get" muscles, you have muscles right now... But if you work on them they just enlarge. (as pointed out by KaraBulut)

If you've only got small weights you need to get bigger ones, get ones that you can add weight too.

Dont use weights that are too heavy so you can't use them properly, dont use weights that aren't heavy enough. You need the spot where you can feel the burn, but can do the whole rep.

Make sure you do different kinds of reps (get a DVD that specializes in this) so you can work on each different muscle.

Good luck.

 

6 weeks - Honestly, don't look for results before that. You'll be heartbroken if you look too often.

 

To get bigger you have to eat bigger. Those of us with ridiculously high metabolism may be envied by those who struggle with getting fat, but if you're like me you would prefer having a bit of chub to the emaciated Holocaust look (just an exaggeration obviously).

So eat more and work out with heavy weights, doing lower reps. There's tons of routines online- check out bodybuilding.com. And eat as much as you can, not shit but stuff with good decent nutrition that can help you put on weight. Nuts and poultry are great..

I was able to gain weight by eating 6 meals a day and working out 4 days a week, each muscle group once a week. But I was also not working fulltime and not in school.. eventually I settled on 3-4 meals per day and taking whey protein 3-4 times a day, in between meals.

 

In another thread I've mentioned that I'm doing the 'P90X' program. Over the course of 13 weeks I've worked out and watched what I've eaten. And the changes in my muscles over that length of time are noticable to me, but not to anyone else. So don't hold your breath. For me, it was more a function of losing the layer of fat that was hiding the muscles.

What they say in the videos is that if you are going for an increase in muscle size, then you should be doing only 8 to 10 reps of each exercise, and you should struggle ("feel the burn") with the last 3 that you do. If you're not feeling that then you're not using weights that are heavy enough.

Don't do the same exercises every day. Your muscles need time to recover. If I understand it right, they get bigger because you've actually caused some small tears during your workout, and in the healing process they actually heal bigger (to accomodate the weight that you're starting to lift). So they need that time to heal.

Look online for a whole routine that you can do. And good luck.

 

I have the same problem as well, I can see the muscle definition, but there's still extra fat ):

been doing weight training both at school and a little at home for 2 months now, I'm hoping to lose that fat and replace it with more well-toned muscle

 

I've been working out 5 days a week for the past 8 months. Only over the past month have I started to notice an increase in muscle definition. I can tell that my strength has been increasing, just there was so much fat that it took a while to burn the fat that was hiding the muscle.

 

To be honest, it really depends on your body fat percentage. If you have low body fat then it won't take very long. If you are on the husky side, then you probably will need to work very hard. And if you are on the hunky side, then dieting will be much more important than working out.

 

Couldn't agree more. It's funny that you should descrribe yourself as a "weakling", because I guess I would've described myself like that as well a year back. I was so sick of being seen as unathletic and pathetic - I started gymming for a few reasons:

1) So I can throw Javelin further to compete in a major inter-schools event next year in February (goals help a hell of a lot for motivation).

2) I wanted to look better.

You need to have the correct diet if you're going top gym - without it, there's only so much you can do before you hit a plateau.

In order for the muscles to show, you need to tone. You tone by doing cardio work (running, swimming, cycling) to burn fat deposits; do low weights with high reps, consume LESS kilojoules of energy than you use; and the more muscle you have, the faster you burn fat.

In order for the muscles to grow, you need to lift heavy weights. You grow muscle by doing weight lifting/machines to "attack" the muscle, so that the body will repair the muscle with more strength than before so it can handle the "attack" better (which is why you eventually need to start lifting heavier weights); do high weights with low reps; and consume MORE kilojoules of energy than you use (so eat a helluva lot).

See the contradiction? I would suggest you build some muscle first. You may not see the gains at first because it could be concealed beneath your body fat, but then when you start toning, it will become more evident.

Unfortunately, I'm not a trained professional, so I can't give you 100% accurate advice, but I can say that after 10 months of gymming (just weight lifting), I feel so much stronger than before and I feel I look better (I'm was a skinny person, so didn't need to tone much - except maybe my stomach >.<).

I would just do weight training. Whatever you do, get a reason to be doing it - if you don't stay motivated, you will not end up with the results you want and you may even become despondant and upset. Get pictures of what you want to look like and put them up on your bedroom wall; write down your goals and put them next to the picture, watch the "Secret" and use their method if that works for you (it's working for me -I made a Vision Board" and so far almost EVERYTHING has come true).

Good luck with your journey to hunkdom =P

 

QFT

Spot on bro!

 

also, just to make sure, since you havent posted what movements you are doing... less is more in the beginning.

You are working to get your body used to working out. dont be tempted to do like a arm day and a leg day and a chest day (etc...) when you first start out. Your body is not used to it, so you will be over training. The more you work out, the better acclimated your body will be, then you can split up your workouts to emphasis specific muscle groups. at that point, your body can be pushed a bit more by doing more movements for a specific muscle.

Also, muscle is not, never has been, and never will be built in a gym. That seems wrong, but it isnt. Muscle is damaged in the gym, but is built outside the gym through proper nutrition, rest, and recovery time. you should give around 46-48 hours for your muscles to recover from the last time you worked through specific muscles. That gives your body enough time to properly rebuild the torn muscle fibres. This forces your body to become stronger, because it wants to limit future damage. over time, you will see gain in muscle mass.

Building muscle is in the art of recovery. Working a muscle more often then two days at the least puts you in danger of overtraining, which zaps your ability to grow stronger, and just plain grow.

Also, suppliment wise. all you probably need at your age and experince right now is a good quality protein shake. protein basically is what your muscles for the most part are made of. A protein shake after you workout, and good water intake and 7-8 hours of sleep anight really do count if you are trying to build muscle. maybe when you are bigger in a year or two, you might want to consider creatine, which is a suppliment found in red meat which helps store energy in your muscles for short bursts of motion, which is what weight lifting involves. It also helps keep your muscles properly hydrated, which can helpthem appear bigger. That little extra energy can help you push yourself just a bit farther, which means you can do a bit more weight/have better controll in the final reps of a set. But if you dont have much muscle, it is just a waste of money, because you wont have much muscle to store it, so work on building a good solid base before considering it.

When I started creatine, I was doing a half dosage, and I noticed a improvement both in my abilities to push the weight, and also, within a few weeks, as my body began to really utilize it fully, my muscles began to get bigger, in part because they were fully hydrated. my goal is to keep useing creatine till about mid january, then work on getting cut before my trip to greece in march to study history, art, and culture.

 

30 reps is really in the 'endurance' range.

for building muscle you want to focus on challanging weight and doing in the 5-12 rep range. the15-30 range is usually what athletes who was focusing on endurance do, ususally with a low weight.

what kind of equipment are you useing.

For example, at home, I have a olympic bar *basically that holds plates with 2 inch openings*, a adjustable bench, and 2 25's, 6 10's, 4 5's, and 4 2 1/2's, which are in pounds. it may not sound like much, but it has been good enough for me. when I need more weight, I just go down to a sporting goods store, and pick up some more. Given that I work out alone, I dont do huge weights, because I do what is challanging, but what I know I can be in complete control since I dont have a partner to spot me. so I may bench around a hundred, but I still have seen growth, because I am still challanging myself with controlling and useng perfect form with the weight I have.

I personally believe it is silly to hold yourself up to the standard of what someone else is lifing weight wise, because as long as you are confident in your ability to push a weight and control it with good form, you are less likely to injure yourself trying to match what someone else is doing.

No need to get cocky and show off. I know a guy who is so cocky about the fact that he can bench press 175 pounds for two reps. but I asked him if he could do twelve at 100, and he couldnt. That shut him up, and he lowered his weight, got his reps up, and he really started to pack on the muscle.

But five to twelve with challanging weight seem to be the good rep range for building muscle.

 

A typical set for a beginner is 8 to 12 reps. Usually done in sets of 3.

Anything past 15 reps is counterproductive. If you're able to do more than 12, you need to up your weight on the next set.

Keep in mind though that if you up your weight but lose you form, you're not doing the exercise correctly. Try the higher weight for a set or two but if you can't do it, then lower back to the original weight and do the full set correctly.

 

Also, remeber, rome wasnt built in a day...

I too am naturally skinny, made worse because I am tall, and am working on putting muscle on in hopes of being more average "though now that I am getting closer to average, I am starting to think a bit past average would be worth the extra effort.*