eating to gain mass

In the past I've typically lost interest in working out because, while I become toned and see more muscle definition, I don't put on much mass.

Part of this is probably because I've always refused to go to a gym so the majority of my workouts have used body weight exercises.. but I don't doubt that what I'm eating has a role to play as well. At 5'11 163lbs I'm not a very big guy to begin with, so I'm sure I can still gain some mass with bodyweights by simply increasing the difficulty of the exercises I'm doing (eg: more difficult pushups etc).

I eat very well but maybe my timing, amount of protein/carbs/whatever is off, I don't know..

What advice can the great minds of NSMB give me?

What advice can the great minds of NSMB give me?

Be happy with the body you've been given. If it ain't broke, what's to fix!?

Be happy with the body you've been given. If it ain't broke, what's to fix!?

this

Stay light and go for speed

short answer b/c i'm busy right now.

while gaining muscle mass can be a challenge for someone who has a naturally lean physique such as yourself, just b/c you haven't had success in the past doesn't mean you can't in the future. but, it will take hard work and a comitment to your diet.

the three big questions to ask yourself are:

1. how important is this to you?
2. are you willing to put in the work required?
3. are you willing to maintain this over the longer term?

not everyone enjoys the gym lifestyle.

Gomad, gallon of milk per day on top of your normal food plus workouts. google it and profit.

to the first two posters: Very happy with what I have, but recognize that my lower body is a fair bit stronger than my upper body and if I leveled the imbalance I'd be stronger on the bike.

short answer b/c i'm busy right now.

while gaining muscle mass can be a challenge for someone who has a naturally lean physique such as yourself, just b/c you haven't had success in the past doesn't mean you can't in the future. but, it will take hard work and a comitment to your diet.

the three big questions to ask yourself are:

1. how important is this to you?
2. are you willing to put in the work required?
3. are you willing to maintain this over the longer term?

not everyone enjoys the gym lifestyle.

I certainly don't enjoy going to the gym, but enjoy pushing myself to reach personal goals so that's why I've always used bodyweight exercises. But to answer your other questions:

Being strong and fit are always a top priority. Not only do the activities I enjoy benefit from greater strength, but I recognize that when my body is stronger I'm generally less prone to injuries.
There's no problem staying disciplined to a routine and diet, as long as I'm seeing results.

I've always been super scrawny and weak as piss. Starting strength barbell program (google it) and at least 5 but as many as 10 eggs in smoothies a day put 28lbs on me in about 8 months (which is a total of about 40lbs heavier than when I was a dumb sickly vegan about 7 years ago). I can't drink milk, which is probably a better/cheaper/easier way to put on weight. I could stand to lose about 5-10lbs of fat now, but since I'm normally skinny and have a small appetite, it will come off pretty quick now that I've recovered from surgery and can ride my bike again.

10 eggs a day gasp!! Well, I've been tested for cholesterol and I'm in the top 4% of the country, so don't worry about eating lots of raw eggs. I'm told by my doctor, and read it elsewhere myself, that grains are a bigger contributor to high cholesterol and cooking the egg yolk is a no-no as well.

Benefits? Fixed my long term backpain. 15 years of pain and now I have none, and can sleep in any position I choose and not wake up in pain. That's the best benefit. But also feel way stronger in everything I do. Sprinting a bike has improved greatly. Distance stuff is much the same. Picking up fallen logs or groceries is massively easier. My posture has gone from brutally shitty to the way it should be. Had to buy a bunch of new clothes.

It's not easy. You have to lift heavy while you eat or you will get fat. You have to eat a lot when you are the opposite of hungry. You are probably light because you don't have much of an appetite, so stuffing yourself again when you're already sick from your last meal 4 hours ago is as hard as squatting til your eyes bulge 3 days a week. But even though I've been forced to back right off due to an injury requiring surgery, now that I'm back on it I've kept most of my strength and weight so I've created a 'new normal' for my body.

You say you want upper body strength mostly. But don't be fooled into neglecting the most important lifts. If you want to gain weight and get strong everywhere, you need to squat and deadlift as a first priority. There is no 'leg day'. Every workout is leg day. Squat, and then worry about what comes next or you will be asking the same questions another year from now. Good luck!

Reading your posts again, I just want to add: Can you do this with bodyweight only? I've heard pullups being referred to as the upper body equivalent of squats and bodyweight alone is a decent amount of weight especially in the beginning. That's real pullups, not the crossfit kind. But for gaining mass I really can't see you getting the results you want without heavy squats and deadlifts. All depends on how bad you want to gain weight. Eating like a horse and doing pushups will probably just make you fat and pretty good at pushups.

http://www.amazon.ca/Super-Squats-Pounds-Muscle-Weeks/dp/0926888005

prior to starting mtb riding back in the early 90,s all i did was train for size and strength . now i have no interest , today i,d rather have strength and endurance with quick recovery .

have you considered the freeletics program from the clips i have seen those who stuck it out had great success in gaining weight and strength

https://www.freeletics.com/en

and if you like too squat check out the supersquats routine

Bodyweight isn't just pushups and pullups. It can be about developing strength, flexibility, power and coordination. With your low bodyweight you could probably rock out with calisthenics you can do outdoors or anywhere else - no weights no gyms only your body and much of the stuff you would find at a park or kids playground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYZXdZ4DEo0
There are a lot of intro/beginner videos on YouTube. Search "calisthenics" or "barstarzz"

I graduated high school at 6'6" 180lbs. I'm now 215lbs lean which is still really light at my height.

My riding is infinitely better when I'm carrying more lean muscle. Not too much, mind you. Just enough, and with the metabolic capacity to drive it.
My experience has been that the more powerful I am the more fun riding is, especially the kind of riding we have around here. Why wouldn't you want to increase your available power output and crash survivability?

At some point if you want to improve power you'll need to include some beyond-bodyweight movements. Olympic lifting and kettlebell training are great ways to do this. Pair those with high intensity metabolic work you can make power gains without gaining a lot of extra body weight, which is awesome.

You can make awesome gains without a gym but for things like squats, deadlifts, kettlebells and O-lifting it's important to get some proper coaching periodically. Once you have a good grasp of the fundamentals of form and pattern you can get really creative.

Why be satisfied with anything? You want to be strong? You want to change?
Go out and do it. Experiment, learn, become better. You'll pick up a ton of valuable learnings along the way.

i have no real love of the gym but i go. i'm tall and skinny with a weak upper body unless i work it pretty hard. adding mass is very difficult for me and i don't worry too much about it these days, but hey, i'd like to be bigger and stronger like many and there are benefits: sports/activity performance and injury resistance mainly. i don't understand guys who are already big and wide spending so much time on mass building lifting at the gym - i do it because i need it, but that's a different topic…

for me what has worked in the past (and goes away when i let up…) is general strength training until i'm quite fit and strong, few months steady lifting; then i have to add a set or 2 of heavy, lift to exhaustion sets. not fun, and quite uncomfortable- very hard work. and it took consistent 3 days a week for 6 months. also- i took creatine. i probably don't eat the ideal diet and didn't then, creatine played a role. i probably gained about 12lbs upper body. hard to maintain. enjoyable for sure. (i recall being single and dating and having some serious fun throwing around some smaller gals who really appreciated the ability to be carried about by a tall guy, diff story again ha ha)

as i age (46) i'm concerned about muscle mass loss and overall health. i envy you guys who enjoy cooking as my diet is my weakest link to optimum health. i think it is for so many of us…