My question is, how can I gain the most muscle is the shortest time??? I am not trying to look like the Hulk or nothing, I prefer small defined muscles. But thus far I have not been able to succeed at this. My diet does suck, I eat way too many carbs and not enough of the green stuff. So help me out here so I can be read for Spring Break 
Just take a quick jog, lie down on newspaper, then ask people to read you. You should be read by Spring break.
In general, body building has two categories, high reps, low reps (be kind to me, oh ye more knowledgables). High reps will tone what muscle you have, low reps will help build mass. I say first put on enough weight that you can only get about five reps, build that up for a while, then just stick at a weight and work up to higher reps.
A rep = a repitetion. So five reps = lift the weight five times.
Of course, you have about 4 months. If you come up with a system so you work out almost every day for those four months, you should see a big difference by break. Remember, though, that it takes a long time to see this difference.
First off… What kind of diet, and excercise routine do you have? How CONSISTENTLY do you lift weights? How old are you? What do you typically eat?
Here’s how I get cut for spring-break/summer
Workout 3-4 times a week for 1.5 or 1 hour depending on how much I work out. (3 times a week, 1.5 hours a session, 4, 1 hour a session). I’m not talking about lifting REAL heavy weights, but do try and work your way up. The most important thing is to burn body fat so you can expose those muscles. By lifting weights, you increase your metabolism and burn fat, and when you build muscle, you burn more fat also. Be sure to work your abs every day, and work them as hard as you can, this is the hardest area to improve.
Drink plenty of water.
Eat right. I usually eat like this:
Breakfast:
Drink a good supplement (like met-rx), eat some Cereal (like total or something with lots of vitamins), and if I’m still hungry, I eat some fruit (for simple sugars).
Lunch:
Eat Tuna Fish (the kind that comes in the lunch kit) A piece of fruit, Some kind of vegetable (carrot sticks are good).
Dinner:
Eat a sandwich (a healthy one) or a steak, or something not as healthy as the rest of the day, but not all fat either.
This usually gets me looking decent in 6 weeks. Sometimes less, sometimes more.
Just remember, to work out Consistently, eat plenty of protein, and stay away from saturated fat. The Met-Rx shake is good at increasing your recovery time, and making sure your getting all your vitamins. Also, if you are over the age of 25, be sure to do some sort of cardio-vascular aerobics 4-5 times a week. Most people who are under 25 can get away with just lifting weights, but that won’t cut it for most people over 25.
Easy. Join a gym. The gyms have trainers. Ask the trainer what to do cause we sure don’t want to get sued should you try lifting 100lbs & it falls on your head.
I have a question about your diet… if you don’t mind.
I recently started taking Karate twice a week, but now it seems like my body is demanding more, and I usually don’t have enough energy to make it through a whole class without feeling ill.
Would this type of diet provide me with more energy to make it through the class? I haven’t been eating right (usually no breakfast, fast food for lunch) and I need to start bringing my own healthy lunch to work and eating breakfast. I figure the workout has caused my body’s needs to increase and the fact that I’m not meeting them makes me feel sick and run-down towards the end of the day (before evening karate class). When I first started I was okay, but after two months it’s really affecting me.
What other types of foods are good for breakfast and lunch to provide a good diet?
What is Met-RX? I’ve never looked into supplements.
When I first got into weight lifting, I started with 10-12 reps on the upper-body, and 12-15 reps on the lower body. And you should use enough weight so that you fail between 10-12 reps on the upper body, and you fail between 12-15 reps on the lower body. This pushes you to the limit. If you reach 12/15 reps respectively, increase the weight. Do 3 sets of each exercise. After about 1.5 months, reduce the reps to 8 to 10 on the upper body, and 10-12 on the lower. After another 1.5 months, switch to the pyramid routine. You do the first set so you fail at 11 or 12 reps. The second set you fail at 8 or 9 reps. And the 3rd set you fail at 5-7 reps (upper body and lower body). By the way, a set is a combination of reps. 11 repititions done at once is one set. Rest for 1 minute and 30 seconds to 2 minutes between sets. Rest time varies with exercise. I really recommend that you keep weight lifting journals (sounds gay, but it really helps) and write down how many reps you did, how many sets you did, and what weight you used for each exercise.
Here are the exercises I did when I first started:
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I started with Leg Press, and moved on to the squat (works quads/glutes). The squat also works your back a little, and your heart.
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Bench Press. This works the the middle of your pecs. If you have the [forgot the name, something like adonamis] complex, and you are super focuses on your chest, also do incline press, decline press, and flys. But just start out with the bench press. You’ll get too overwhelmed doing so many chest exercises at first.
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Shoulder Press/Military Press - works all of your deltoid.
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Bicep Curls
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Tricep Pushdowns using cybex cable machine. You can also do skull crushers, although those are hard on your elbows and harder to get proper form in with heavy enough weights to work your tricep.
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Leg curls - works your hamstring
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Leg extensions - works your quads (optional since the leg press and squats really work your quads good; but leg extensions can give you a good “diamond effect” over your knee cap if you point your toes by rotating your foot out on the first 6 reps, and in towards each other on the last 6; this technique also enables heavier weight)
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Back Extension - this works your lower back. I had lower back pain before I started lifting weights because I have a naturally massive upper body which bore down heavily on my back, but I have absolutely none now directly because of back extensions; having a strong back really helps you out. These are when you lay on an incline bench (inclined about 60 degrees) that has leg supports on the bottom, and you bend all the way over to the floor and then pull yourself back up to make yourself straight again. You can hold weights as your back gets stronger. I recommend doing 20 to 25 reps on the first set, 15-20 on the second, and 10-15 on the third, as the lower back muscles have lots of endurance like the abdominal muslces.
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Inclined situps. As you get stronger, have a friend throw a medicine ball at you on your way up, and then throw it back to him once you reach the top, and then go back down slowly. Then have him throw it at you again as you come up
Repeat until you can’t take the pain any more -
Machine-assisted pull-ups: Hopefully your gym has an assisted pull-up machine. Pull-ups really work your lats, and your back. You can also use the cybex lat-pulldown or barbell-rows in replace of pull-ups if you don’t have access to a pull-up machine. If you can do 10 pull-ups on your own, then you don’t need a machine. But generally speaking, you won’t be able to get 3 sets of 10 unassisted pull-ups in even after training for 4 or 5 months
Those exercises took me about 70 minutes to do with a partner when I first started lifting weights. If you are pressed (no pun intended) for time, you can eliminate the bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, and leg extensions. The squats, bench press, military press, back extensions, lat exercise, and situps are the most important IMO. You hit the triceps with the bench-press, and you hit the biceps with the pull-ups. Also, please don’t neglect the legs. Having a big upper body with weak legs looks silly