Gaining 5lb a week.. is it possible?

[Deniska]

Is it honestly possible to gain 5lbs of muscle per week by working out 5-6 days a week?

No steroids, no magic pills, constantly working out and eating.


Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome.

 

[Irs88]

yes. all of it will be pure fat though

You can gain 1-2 lbs of muscle a month...with the exception of newbie gains, any more than that will just be plain old fat.

 

[Colossus]

No.

Depending on your natural rate of protein synthesis, you could gain up to 1/2 lb a week of muscle. But the rest will be bulk---i.e. fat and water. However, gaining exclusively lean mass is a daydream, so you have to put on some bulk weight.

 

[blinkwatt101]

You can only gain up to an estimated 5lbs of muscle/year naturally. People confuse fat with muscle.

If you could gain 1lb/month why don't more people look like bodybuilders? Think about it,Franco weighed 180 and Arnold 230. Now I see people running around saying there 220 lbs of muscle in the gym yet don't have anywhere the leaniness or muscle density nor shape of the golden age bodybuilders.

Focus on quality over quantity and the scale will mean NOTHING to you in time.

 

[CaptainJ]

Um yeah, it's definetly possible.

But it requires that you drink ****loads of milk and eat lots along with a heavy lifting routine like stronglifts 5x5.

Squatting + Milk = muscle gain.

I've gained 6lbs in a week once, through a good diet, 6 pints of milk a day, and lots of heavy squatting. I'd guess that 4-5lbs of it was muscle, the excess 1lb being fat/fluid.

Working out everyday will actually decrease the amount of muscle you put on due to not allowing your muscles to rest and grow. Muscles are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.

 

[blinkwatt101]

I'm sorry but anyone educated in building muscle(read not fat) knows that's gaining 6lbs/week is bullsh1t unless you are on a PED.

 

[CaptainJ]

I'm sorry but anyone educated in building muscle(read not fat) knows that's gaining 6lbs/week is bullsh1t unless you are on a PED.

I didn't say gaining 6lbs a week, i said I once gained 6lbs in a week. And it is very possible! How do you think all those hollywood stars bulk up extremely quickly to get wedge for their roles eg. Christian Bale in Batman, or Hugh Jackman for Xmen. They eat ****loads, combined with a very good workout routine involving squats and deadlifts. When bulking up for Xmen origins, Hugh Jackman said he ate a chicken a day as part of his diet. If you could only put on less than 1lb muscle a month like you claim, then how do these actors get wedge in a few months for their role?

Go to stronglifts.com, you'll see examples in the GOMAD forum of people who drink a gallon of milk a day , with one guy gaining 25lbs of muscle in 25 days. A gallon of milk a day only adds about 2-3% body fat per month, so it's not fat they're putting on, but muscle.

It takes a lot of work though, as eating a lot can be hard, combined with the heavy squatting. But it is very possible.

 

[blinkwatt101]

I'm going to stop responding after this....You can not gain much pure lean muscle fast. Even on a very high mg cycle with test it takes time,I've had friends who gained 20+ pounds/cycle(very long cycles) and admit that barely half of it may have been muscle,. These guys prepare for their roles for months sometimes a year in advance and get very high paid trainers who know what they are talking about. Sylvester Stallone needed to get in shape for Rambo,Franco Columbo was hired for the job.

(yes actors take PED as well,hell even Mary J Blidge was busted for using GH)

Putting on 2-3% bodyfat/month is a lot. It's the difference between your veins showing through your chest/shoulders and barely having a six pack. Basically put it this way. You go to a river,one dude has nice flat abs,and i mean FLAT at 5%. His clone comes by at 7-8%...looks like **** compared to the 5% version. When you have a low bodyfat 2-3% can mean the world.

 

[CaptainJ]

Putting on 2-3% bodyfat/month is a lot. It's the difference between your veins showing through your chest/shoulders and barely having a six pack. Basically put it this way. You go to a river,one dude has nice flat abs,and i mean FLAT at 5%. His clone comes by at 7-8%...looks like **** compared to the 5% version. When you have a low bodyfat 2-3% can mean the world.

Indeed, it will get rid of the veins and the chiselled abs, but you are STILL gaining muscle. If you don't care amount momentarily losing the veiny look and 6 pack, then you can put on muscle quickly.

But I assume that you don't like losing that 6 pack or veiny look ever, and you're unwilling to comprimise by putting on a bit of fat in order to gain a lot of muscle, which is probably why you disbelieve in the ability to gain muscle quickly.

 

[DJeasy]

Is it honestly possible to gain 5lbs of muscle per week by working out 5-6 days a week?

No steroids, no magic pills, constantly working out and eating.

I think it is highly unlikely.

Unlike fat which essentially just collects into drops, protein must be synthesized, piece by piece from individual amino acids (and then folded and then transported,etc.). Not only is it a slow process, it is also energetically expensive and there exists the additional problem of our bodies lacking any real type of amino acid depository to draw from (besides breaking down other muscles). Circulatory amounts of amino acids are also puny; we're talking around 10-20 grams in the entire bloodstream. A slow digesting source of protein or frequent intake of faster digesting protein can certainly create a steady flux of amino acids, but all of these digested nutrients first pass through the liver before entering blood circulation. A lot of that protein is just being converted into carbs and fat and you'll smell the ammonia (from amino acid metabolism) later in your urine.

Also, remember that there are about 450g in a pound. Even supposing you ate 400g of protein per day, it would have to be composed of the exact combinations of required amino acids, digest at the proper rate, somehow pass the liver unchecked, and avoid other cells that can intake and metabolize them.

The combination of all of this is very unlikely.

 

[Deniska]

Thanks for the responses.

Im not worried about gaining body fat, because in the last two weeks i lost about 3lbs of fat alone while i'm working out, i am getting stronger and leaner. I dont think its water weight loss, because i constantly eat and drink a lot water, juices and tea all day long.

I do try to work out 5 days a week, but i dont work on same muscles every single day, thus a group of muscles gets a day of rest.

Ill take a look at the sites you have suggested.

Thanks again.

 

[Colossus]

How do you think all those hollywood stars bulk up extremely quickly to get wedge for their roles eg. Christian Bale in Batman, or Hugh Jackman for Xmen?

They're called PEDs. Or, in lay terms, steroids.

YES, Hugh Jackman did have an impeccable diet when he was getting into shape. And he trained rigorously. But unless he took a year off to get into Wolverine shape, he was using some sort of PED, likely Winstrol or Anavar. I 110% guarantee you. You think he is going to talk about that on Oprah?!?

If you were drinking 6 pints of milk a day and squatting heavily, I'm sure you gained some considerable muscle, but guess what else you gained??? FAT. Just because you aren't displaying signs of subcutaneous fat accumulation doesn't mean there isn't visceral fat accumulation.

I'll say it as bluntly as I can: Unless you are on an AAS, if you gained 6 lbs in a week it is NOT ALL MUSCLE. It is not even 50% muscle. Think about what 3 lbs of steak looks like. That's a lot of meat, right? Now imagine your body biosynthesizing that much muscle tissue in 1 week. If you believe that is possible you need to put down the Flex magazine and pick up a physiology textbook. :crazy:

 

[blinkwatt101]

Hugh Jackman's physique shouldn't require more then 2 years training naturally. His physique isn't bad and is better then 99% of men but upon further inspection,he has some MAJOR weak points. His tris don't match the size of his bis and his chest is weirdly shaped. BUT with that said...look at how lighting and the pump makes him look amazing.

http://killjill.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/hugh-jackman.jpg
That pic shows his weak points.

Now see what lighting does for him.
http://media.comicmix.com/media/2009/02/21/hugh-jackman-wolverine-nude.jpg

 

[muscleman]

You're beyond dumb if you think you can put on 5lbs of muscle in a week. Even if you were on juice. A few things already pointed out:

1) When you gain weight through training it's not all lean mass. There will be some fat and some water weight. This is unavoidable. How much of each depends on many factors.
2) If you gain 5lbs in a week it's not all muscle I guarantee you. Noob or not.
3) I don't want to discourage discussions here, but the bodybuilding.com forum is going to be a much better source for accurate information.
4) Doesn't matter how much protein you eat. Your body can only synthesize so much at a time. If you eat 400g/day (poor you if you tried it) and your body only synthesizes 150g of it (doesn't mean you added 150g of muscle, just means it went towards muscle building ... ana/catabolism states come into play here), guess what happens to the other 350 of it? Burned as fuel or stored as fat ... waste of $$.

 

[CaptainJ]

They're called PEDs. Or, in lay terms, steroids.

YES, Hugh Jackman did have an impeccable diet when he was getting into shape. And he trained rigorously. But unless he took a year off to get into Wolverine shape, he was using some sort of PED, likely Winstrol or Anavar. I 110% guarantee you. You think he is going to talk about that on Oprah?!?

If you were drinking 6 pints of milk a day and squatting heavily, I'm sure you gained some considerable muscle, but guess what else you gained??? FAT. Just because you aren't displaying signs of subcutaneous fat accumulation doesn't mean there isn't visceral fat accumulation.

I'll say it as bluntly as I can: Unless you are on an AAS, if you gained 6 lbs in a week it is NOT ALL MUSCLE. It is not even 50% muscle. Think about what 3 lbs of steak looks like. That's a lot of meat, right? Now imagine your body biosynthesizing that much muscle tissue in 1 week. If you believe that is possible you need to put down the Flex magazine and pick up a physiology textbook. :crazy:

Indeed, I never said it would all be muscle, i mentioned that some of it would be fat+fluids etc. But even as you accept, 3lbs+ of muscle a week is still possible. Now considering that I don't eat much for a powerlifter (3 average meals a day), someone who was drinking a full Gallon a day, along with eating 6 good meals a day, doing lots of squatting and deadlifts, followed by getting lots of sleep and recovery would definetly be able to get 5lbs of muscle a week or more. The only problem is that it is an extremely grueling, difficult, not to mention expensive lifestyle and could only be kept up for a short time.
Yes you would gain a lot of fat, but you would gain much more muscle.

 

[muscleman]

Indeed, I never said it would all be muscle, i mentioned that some of it would be fat+fluids etc. But even as you accept, 3lbs+ of muscle a week is still possible. Now considering that I don't eat much for a powerlifter (3 average meals a day), someone who was drinking a full Gallon a day, along with eating 6 good meals a day, doing lots of squatting and deadlifts, followed by getting lots of sleep and recovery would definetly be able to get 5lbs of muscle a week or more. The only problem is that it is an extremely grueling, difficult, not to mention expensive lifestyle and could only be kept up for a short time.
Yes you would gain a lot of fat, but you would gain much more muscle.

What a load of BS. Do you know anything about strength training? I've done exactly what you just outlined and not even close to 5lbs muscle/week. Probably a lost cause, but don't listen to this hogwash. 0.5lb/week is doable, 1lb MAYBE. 5lbs? You're on crack.

5lbs of weight/week is possible. 10lbs of weight/week is possible. There's a guy (forgot his name) would shaved off 38lbs in 3 days for a contest prep (very dehydrated and no food in his system, but possible). But you're daydreaming if you think gaining 5lbs of muscle in a week is even remotely probable.

 

[blinkwatt101]

Use your head. IF 5 lbs of muscle/week was possible why don't more people have a nice physique? People commonly confuse fat for muscle and that's where all the misconceptions begin. If you can gain that much in a week why does did it take the best the world has ever seen 5+ years to become monsters?(arnold)

 

[Deniska]

Heres a problem that i'm dealing with at the moment and do to lack of my knowledge i dont know what the issue is or how to fix it.

With my right hand/side i am able to do 5 push ups with one hand, but with my left hand/side i am only able to do 2 push ups.

Now i work both sides equally at all times, and the only thing comes to mind, is why my left side is weaker, is because i have semi heart issues since i was a kid. Thus left hand/side being closer to heart might be the reason why i can only do 2 reps of one hand push ups.

But, my left side has more stamina when i use free weight, versus my right hand/side. For example; with my left arm i can do 12 curls, but with my right hand i'm struggling performing 10 reps using same exact weight.

Any advice what i can do to even both sides out or what the issue might be?

BTW, im left handed if that makes any difference, but i only write with my left hand, everything else i do as a right handed.

Thanks.

 

[blinkwatt101]

Dude to be honest,the reps are irrelevant, all that matters is the look in the mirror and making sure everything is proportional. Just try as hard as you can while lifting to make sure everything is even and when it's something like curling,make sure you trade off the starting hand every set.

 

[MrVain]

just get on the juice man, everyones doing it, ryan reynolds HAD to be on it to get his body in shape for blade 3

arnie has been on them since he was a teenager

stallone is STILL on them

youtube > steroids saved my life, watch it, go out n get some juice