Gaining weight (not too much) for a vegetarian

[Songtsan]

Another tip - those trying to gain weight would be well recommended to limit the amount of cardio they do until they reach their planned goalweight - you gain muscle faster this way. You can still gain weight while doing lots of cardio, but its a lot harder. Limit cardio to warm-ups and cool-downs, and maybe you can have one more intense cardio training day per week (usually paired with a high carb day - more on high carb days in a bit).

[Songtsan]

ps you can gain weight by eating a large bowl of wholewheat pasta with butter for dinner, alongside your veggies, and eating a peanut butter and banana wholewheat sandwich for your snack whenever you need one.

 

in fact, if you post here your average daily food consumption, like a food diary for the past week, it will be pretty easy to show where you can boost your calories and where you can boost your protein intake.

 

Dont eat high carbs for dinner actually - unless you workout late at night - otherwise the excess carbs will be used as fuel instead of fat - which is a more desirable fuel source at night, because you want to use up excess fat - not store extra because you ate a huge bowl of pasta. I am not saying it wont help you gain weight - but I personally prefer to have really low fat - like 6-8% and high carb meals at night will interfere with staying this lean if done too often.

[niveQ]

I should correct what I said. I am looking more to gain muscle and strength. My ignorant mind correlates this with weight so I mentioned weight.mbut, I couldnt care less about my weight. I just want more muscle, and more strength.

 

I have never liked gyms, but will go if you would strongly recommend.

[Songtsan]

I should correct what I said. I am looking more to gain muscle and strength. My ignorant mind correlates this with weight so I mentioned weight.mbut, I couldnt care less about my weight. I just want more muscle, and more strength. I have never liked gyms, but will go if you would strongly recommend.

 

no - not necessary...I dont go to a gym either - I do all body weight exercises..pushups, abs work, dumbbells, stability balls, medicine balls, yoga props, foam rollers - make yourself a complete home gym...the only thing that is more difficult to do at home is exercises for the middle back - such as rows, etc. They have things you can buy for this too - sort of like really expensive cable props you hook up to a bar hanging in a doorway - I think they are like $200 or so. A cheaper way is to just got to a playground with some good jungle gym equipment and do some rows there.

 

In order to gain muscle, you will gain weight, unless you lose an equivalent amount of fat - but you should never have your % fat below 4-5% as that is unhealthy.

 

Hemp protein is a complete protein and is good - also good is whey protein...one may also buy separate BCAAs and add these to the mix....

 

other supplements that have a proven track record include creatine (many types), and NOS...I recommend creatine for improved strength, but only moderate amounts...I assume you take vitamin supplements to make up for the things you miss in meat, such as B12, and calcium/magnesium...also vitamin D3...do you take all that stuff?

Edited June 30, 2013 by Songtsan

[Songtsan]

On repetition tempos...

 

Rep tempo - the speed at which you do your repetitions...ideal rep tempos for regular weight trainers are around 5-6 seconds per rep...about 1.5-2 seconds on the concentric (muscle shortening phase), and 3-4 seconds on the eccentric phase (muscle lengthening phase). Concentric contractions usually go against gravity..eccentric contractions go with gravity.

 

When muscles are shortening, they bunch up...when muscles are lengthening, they relax.

 

Muscles are about 140% stronger during the eccentric phase - they can handle more weight - thus the time is longer to challenge them.

 

Eccentric contractions are usually what leads to DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness...when you get sore from a workout a day later or more...training both ways equally, instead of how people put most attention on the shortening phase and just quickly return the weight, leads to improved balance/stability within the muscles themselves and within the whole body as a unit...you become far more aware and in control of your muscle movements.

 

Point of post: do not rush your reps - pay attention to eccentric movements too.