I want to gain about 25 lbs of muscle for college basketball...

Two words: GREG ODEN. [what was seen cannot be unseen]

 

This is a little off-topic, but is it harmful to do cardio if you're trying to bulk up?

 

25lbs of muscle in 6 months is impossible unless you hire a cook and trainer or go the easy way and buy some Test an Deca.

 

You came to the right place. Click on any of these ads you see on the bottom or top of the site.

 

i wouldnt focus on your weight, it's more about strength. I certainly wouldnt try to bulk up too much because that can really mess with your game.

If you can play, you can play, regardless of if you weigh a little extra. Scrappy-ness can make up for a little weight differential.

 

I agree that that's too much muscle to try to gain in too short of time.

In order to even come close to this, you gotta but your butt really, really hard.

Here's some tips:

• Your full-intensity workout schedule might be like this:
  
  Lift weights 3 days a week (one day on, followed by one day off)
  Focus on using free-weights as much as possible
  On each weight day, do a total of ten weight-lifting exercises
  On each exercise, do 3 sets
  For each set, try to lift the weight 10 times or more. If you can, you need to lift heavier weight until the most you can do is 4 - 8. Stick with that weight.
  For each set, follow up with a drop set. (If you need me to explain what a drop-set is, let me know)
  Immediately after weightlifting, perform muscle stretches - this is extremely important to help reduce soreness.
  
  
• You shouldn't immediately start with this schedule exactly - start with fewer exercises, or fewer reps, or no drop-sets.... then add those in once your body has gotten familiar with weightlifting.
  
  
• About an hour before each weightlifting session, consume a large quantity of carbs.
  
  
• After working out, drink a protein shake.
  
  
• On the day after the workout, do NOT workout again. In the morning, drink a protein shake, and then drink another one in the afternoon. Use whey protein, as this is faster-absorbed than soy or casein protein.
  
  
• Eat 5-6 meals per day that are low-fat, high calorie.
  
  
• Utilize software that will track the carbs, calories, and fat that you consume as well as the exercise that you participate in.
  
  
• Might want to look into creatine. I've never used it, so I don't know anything about it, really.

 

You can't gain 25lb of muscle tissue in 6 months. That's not opinion, that's a fact. You can gain some new muscle tissue, more water and glycogen within your muscle tissue and then some body fat and easily end up being 25lb heavier and even look nearly as lean as before but it isn't muscle.

 

this man speaks the truth.

"Under the best possible circumstances (perfect diet, training, supplementation, and recovery strategies) the average male body can manufacture between 0.25 and 0.5 pounds of dry muscle tissue per week. That is the amount your natural body chemistry will allow you to build. So we're talking about around one or two pounds per month. It may not sound like much, but that can add up to twelve to twenty pounds over one year of training."

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_truth_about_bulking

 

Donny said it best, you might want to look at other options if adding 25lbs of MUSCLE is your only option to be a college bball player. You can try though...

Eat, eat and eat. Don't worry about what type of calories you are taking in. Obviously don't let your diet on consist of pizza and oreos alone, but you need to eat everything in sight for your weight gain to happen.

However, like people have said, you might be able to gain 25lb of mass (water, fat, muscle), but definitely not pure muscle alone.

I'm not sure how successful you will be if you continue playing tons of basketball during your weight gain phase, but you can give it a shot and see how your body responds.

Speaking from experience here. I'm 5'9 and weighed 125 entering college years ago. I decided I was tired of being skinny so I ate, lifted and ate some more. It took me over a year to hit 150 - and this was with tons of basketball involved. I'm currently at 155 and would like to slowly approach 165, but it isn't easy gaining more muscle than fat. I find it much, much easier to lose weight than to gain it.

Eat everything in sight (others can lead you to the types of foods) and hit the weights. That's all you can do without any PEDs.

 

i have to agree here...

for a little perspective, i made a conscious effort to put on more weight (eating more) and its taken about a year and a half to gain 15 lbs - im 6'3'' and went from 175 to 190. i wasnt trying to do what you are, but im pretty active as far as bike riding/swimming/b-ball. i would just suggest continue doing what you are doing, but eat more - but also pay attention to what you eat - someone who actually knows what they are talking about can speak to this better, but you want to focus on high protein stuff like chicken and eggs and steak - and stuff like oatmeal and bread - and when you are taking your grandma out to luby's for lunch go ahead and get that cherry pie.

i have a 20 mile or so bike route that i ride here in austin which includes a swim at barton springs - when im done i will go to whole foods and hit their hot food bar, get some fruit, a slice of pizza and one of those odwalla protein shakes - i sit there and gorge - skinny dudes like us just need to force ourselves to eat more if we want to gain weight - no other way.

 

Wait... will you be playing basketball in college? Or you want to try and play basketball in college? If you know you will be playing then just go as is, they'll tune you up. Its their job not yours. Do you really need to bulk up? What schools team are you trying to make?

 

You can try this

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This. It's nearly impossible especially bball involves cardio. So you have to eat more than you burn. But to add muscle weight you will have to hit the weight and that will have impact on your speed and endurance because you're striggering type II muscle. So you have to take it into consideration how it'll affect your game and make adjustments.

 

25lbs in 6 months is realistic especially if you are new to weight lifting. I believe about 1lb per week is a healthy amount of weight gain. As far as gaining fat thats inevitable but you can limit your fat gains by eating as clean as possible. Dont pig out on burgers and pizza cause you WILL gain more fat. Eat alot of protein rich foods (chicken, eggs, lean steaks, etc) and complex carbs and you should be good.

 

Tyler Hansbrough done got huge son!

 

Spoken like a true hard-gainer. Great advice.

For hard-gainers it's all about the calories. You will get more than enough protein if you eat enough calories unless you are literally eating nothing but sugar.

 

For someone with a fast metabolism the only difference between eating 4000 calories a day of pizza and burgers and 4000 calories a day of steak and complex carbs is the former will spend less money for roughly the same gains as the latter.

Eating clean is overrated if someone is naturally lean and looking to add muscle mass.

 

A lot of good advice in this thread. You should also consider that some people just are not meant to get that big and strong. Genetics play a big role. Additionally, diet is a huge part of building muscle and not fat. If you have difficulty with the eating part, you will have a hard time with any plan.

Since you are young, I am guessing that you may be relatively knew to weight lifting. If that is true, you may be able to make some good gains over the next 6 months, but I think you should set some strength goals instead of weight goals. Additionally, I think a basic 5X5 workout is really good for someone new to weights. A simple google search of 5X5 should give you some good programs for starting.