Getting back in the gym and I need some advice

Okay so I am 26 and decided I want to start working out again since now I have an office job and won't get near the exercise I did when working retail and could use some advice. Here is what I am looking to do;

1) I am 5' 10'' 170lbs, looking to put on 10-15 lbs of muscle, what's the best way to safely put on size?

2) Bigger more defined chest : Never had a big chest since I was a pitcher for most of my life and my coach frowned on big chests for pitchers. So I was wondering what a good chest workout would be to get a bigger more defined chest.

3) Whey Protein stacked with Creatine: Is this still the thing to do or have they come out with a better supplement stack?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

you are 170lbs... is that more fat or muscle?
if its fat then you gotta lose 15-20 lbs b4 u can think about building size. that will take a few months

bigger chest means u should start by going low weights, high reps to get some definition. bench press with barbell or dumbbells will work. if you superset it and bust out pushups right after till exhaustion will speed up that process.

iso-whey is still good. lesser the carbs the better.

im 5'6, 145. 5 years ago i was close to 190. i stuck to cardio until i lost that fat. here is what i take on the regular workout day.

morning:
1.https://www.rivalus.net/products/promasil/ (1 scoop) + glutamine
2. breakfast (usually some egg whites, oatmeal and OJ)
3. https://musclepharm.com/Assault-sp-20.html (1 scoop) - pre workout
4. https://www.bodybuilding.com/store/bsn/nitrix.html (3 pills)
afternoon
1. snack (nuts, fruits)
2. lunch (sub or pasta)
3. snack
4. nitrix ( 3 pills)

dinner
1. dinner (make sure to color ur plate)
2. around 8pm ill throw down a snack or protein shake

your diet is 90% of what your body will look like. If you feed your system shit, ull look and feel like shit.

best of luck and keep us updated

I wish you could take this sentence and beat me over the head with it until it sinks in.

Great advice that I just can't get thru my thick skull.

ktrain - thats probably the hardest thing to accept. physical activity (especially lifting weights/cardio) goes all for not if you don't eat correctly. But sometimes its the little things that add up and lead to bigger progression in the future such as;

1. burgers - forgo mayo, and cheese. i stopped eating the bun completely when i bbq at home. chicken burgers are better, turkey has alot of sodium content
2. soda pop - stop completely LOL
3. beer- switch to light
4. chips - get baked
5. pizza - thin crust with whole wheat
6. fried chicken - skin off the fried part and eat the meat only.

the list goes on...

I hope alot of other cover members will chime in and give some advice because they have some amazing insight. everyone might have a different perspective when it comes to dieting. but the goal is always the same/

Wjeremy, what would be some good options for breakfast? I appreciate the advice you're giving. Thank you. Dieting is by far my biggest downfall.

WJeremy,

I would say between muscle and fat my body is more muscle then it is fat. I'm not ripped by any means but I would describe my physique as somewhat toned.

I hear you on diet! I eliminated pop and carbonated beverages and I don't eat greasy foods and I can already notice how much better my body runs. I think my biggest downfall in the past was diet but then again I was in college so fast food and beer were very tough to lay off. But now my diet is in check and I eat much more healthier now so I am expecting better results then in the past.

I have read online that consuming 3500 cals a day is ideal for someone my size who is looking to put on weight. Good insight, or potential disaster?

FYI, I plan on doing cardio such as biking or running a mile or so every other day. Is this enough or should I put a bigger emphasis on cardio?

egg whites, oatmeal, non sugary cereal, fruits (berries and bananas are my favorites), ham, real OJ, yogurt, whole wheat toast, milk/dairy

There's been a few studies showing that eating eggs in the morning decreases your calorie intake throughout the day. I personally have not seen this in myself but i understand the science behind it.

Breakfast is by far the most important meal of the day. I tell my clients they can generally eat whatever they want in the morning because it will affect how they eat throughout the rest of the day. the WORST thing you can do is skip breakfast because your body will store more fat. Even if you are late for work and there's no time to cook anything up, drink a glass of milk before heading out to get your vitamins in and body functioning. Not to mention not eating will make you more tired and less productive.

If you are a morning person who works out between 6am - 11am, I would have something light b4 the workout (protein shake + banana for me) and then eggs+ blueberries and oatmeal after my workout.

I have mix reviews on coffee. Im not a coffee drinker but everyone around me insists that they need that "kick" or else they cant function. I feel its just empty carbs and sugar.

both biking and running outdoors are great because nature provides most of the resistances (hills, and turns)

if you are going to a gym to do it I would suggest starting that for the first 2 weeks until you get more comfortable. then after maybe get on the interval workouts and cut down your cardio workout time. Rowing is another machine that gives you an excellent cardio workout + upper body

 jeremy has it right about eating

 As far as the 3500 cals/day.....I wouldn't take that to heart. Everybody is different, & stuffing yourself with that many cals may add unnecessary fat. Adding muscle is hard work, & you need to feed the muscles properly by eating a good amount of clean protein (egg whites, chicken, turkey, lean steak, fish) along with the good carbs. A rule of thumb for protein, if you're going to be lifting hard to build, is 1 gram protein for every pound of body weight..............for you 170 grams. Since 1 gram of protein= 4 calories, you'll only be ingesting 680 calories worth of protein. So if you eat right along side that, you won't need to shoot for that 3500 cal target. Serious bodybuilder's will ingest a lot more than that but this should be a good target to start with. Also..........your body can only digest so much protein in any one meal so don't try to stuff 20 oz. steak down your throat & call it good for the day........gotta feed it gradually.

 As far as building your chest goes (or any other body part for that matter), watch other experienced lifters & learn good form. The object of lifting is to work the muscle that you're trying build, not just throw up as much weight as you can. If you cheat on your form you could hurt yourself & you'll not get the results you're looking for.
 Strive for a balanced body..........work every muscle group hard. Certainly you can throw in a few more sets for whatever part you want to emphasize, but don't neglect the others altogether.

 Lastly.......don't be afraid to take a day off. At your age, once you get rolling, you may not ever feel tired, & you may not want to break your momentum. But when you do feel a little ragged take a rest. Your muscles need time to heal...........lift to break them down........feed them & rest them to let them rebuild..........rebuilding=growth.

Okay so I worked out Biceps/Back on Monday then I did Legs/Abs/Cardio on Tuesday. I ended up having to take Wed & Thur off because I cannot extend my arms because of how sore my biceps are! This is crazy. I don't get how my biceps are so sore. Here is what I did;

Standing alternating dumbell curls - 3 sets, 10 reps
Seated isolation curls (?) This one is supposed to be good for working on the peaks I guess. - 3 sets, 10 reps
Standing barbell curl - 3 sets, 10 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps

For back I just did;
Lat pull down - 3 sets, 10 reps
Bent over dumbell row - 3 sets, 10 reps
Seated wide grip row (on machine) - 3 sets, 10 reps

Did I over due it for my biceps or is this normal? Back in the day I used to do 4 exercises for each muscle group so I thought I would be okay scaling it back 1 exercise for each group.

  When working your back you also incorporate you bi's.........more so if your form is sloppy. I'm not insulting you or anything, but many times when doing rows people tend to use their bicep too much. I learned to keep my back straight (almost arched) & pull the weight back by trying to touch my shoulder blades together, not worrying if the bar makes it all the way to my chest. If you're leaning forward & your back is hunched you tend to end up pulling the weight back more with your arms than your back muscles.

 Obviously I wasn't there to see, but I've had the same thing happen before I learned what I was doing wrong...........it's just a guess. Then again, if this is your 1st workout in a while you may be feeling the arms right now & it may take a day later to feel the back muscles.

  so true my buddy Ktrain.  I almost got in a fight with this fat fucker at the football game yesterday.  He was just shit to look at, listen to and talk to. My buddy and I started making fun of him saying he just wants a corndog.

Arms are starting to come around, I decided to hang from a pullup bar to stretch them out and that seems to work.

Yesterday morning I weighed 169
Today early in the afternoon I weight 173 so it looks like I am already seeing a little bit of results thanks to the new diet.

I am also taking this creatine supplement called SizeOn, makes me sweat like Chauncey Billups and I piss constantly afterward but the stuff seems to be working.

Protein, creatine, BCAAs, multis.  Personally I like that amplified wheybolic extreme 60 at GNC.  Its high quality protein but a little more expensive.  For chest I like doing a variety of different presses flat and inclined and the poster up top is right bang out as many pushups as you can during your chest workout,  it gets the blood flowing and def helps.  I just started a thread about a preworkout supplement I just started using call Jack3d by USPlabs.  It works well and gives me that extra pep.  I work 55 hrs a week usually and drink and party on the weekends so it def helps.

good luck man I got out of college a few years ago and really started focusing on running and lifting the past couple years and nothing makes me feel better.  I did alot of drinking and drugging in my youth as a teenager/early twenties and I found this is a healthy alternative that makes me feel happier than any of the drugs I ever took.  It's the best decision you'll make just stick with it even thru the plateus.  I've found I make big leaps than flatten out for a bit than mix up my routine and make more progress.

Thanks for the advice, I have definitely heard of Jack3d and might try it out if I don't see the results I want from SizeOn

Prohormones.

if your body can handle it, do bench press every day until you hit your goal size and weight.  take 1-2 days off if you need recovery, of course.

let me rephrase....work out your chest everyday. 

errr....probably didn't come out right....

but, the guy wants a bigger chest.... i didn't see anyone post about working out the chest every day so i made the simple suggestion. 

eat 1 gram of protein for every body lb you are

i weigh about 180 and have close to 150-170 a day

5 meals a day, low salt, low sugar, low carbs

i did chest today. have done supersets on low rest for a few months now with great results

incline press with incline flys...1 and 1, 1 and 1
flat bench to where you can get 15 reps

decline cables, almost a reverse (palms up) bench press motion
push ups set of 20 (5 wide, 5 closer, 5 closer, 5 diamond)

superset the first group of 2, then the second group of 2

3 sets of each

find what works for you, shock your muscles, change things up, different exrcises, different order

brown some ground turkey. 1 pack is about 100g of protein

egg whites and ground turkey omelet

oatmeal (not instant) + natural peanut butter

in my opinion the biggest misconception is that you need to eat a low carb diet.  low sugar and salt is true but its all about the type of carbs you eat