How long does it take to get buff?...
 

For someone who is semi scrawny how long would it take for that person to get into a semi-buff - buff shape if they worked out for 5-6 days a week doing mostly resistence training (dumbells etc)?

Thanks

well i wouldnt start off doing 6 days per week. If you are just starting out. I can see you are all fired up to become a new you but you have to ease into it. Save the energy for when you are in there, say, 4 days per week.

For the first month i would start you off on a program that involves working every moscle group, every time you go in, 3-4 times a weeek. Like a circuit program.

Then after about a month start to isolate each muslce group so you are working one or two groups each time you work out. One muscle group per week.

So for example......

Monday
Bicepts and Chest

Wed
Back and Tricepts

Friday
Shoulders, Traps

Sunday
Legs

Doing abs 2-3 times per week.

Regardless of your height, weight and body fat index... you will start to notice results in the first month.

But depending on your height, weight and body fat index..it could take up over a year to start seeing the results you truly want.

To achieve something really special you have to stay focus, motivated, consistent etc...in your eating habits and workouts.

It is all about progression and as long as youstart and dont quite....you will be able to achieve a lot.

But to totally re-shape yourself takes a long time. But nobody expects to break out into a Jimi hendrix quitar solo the first time they pick up the guitar either, even though tehy want too.....and sometimes the length and effort to get there becomes to much... that is the greatest struggle. Staying hungry and not giving up.

It's hard to say, really. Taking protein supplements will increase the process, but it can still take a long time. Just make sure that if you actually are working out 5-6 days a week that you vary what you exercise every day (ie, legs one day, chest & back the next, arms and stomach the day after, etc etc blah blah) so that your muscles have time to heal.

You'll probably notice a small difference after a month, then maybe around 3 months, six months, and a year. It's really something that you have to work at for it to happen.

I'm sure others will have more to say, but thats the gist of it.

lol, two posts both at the same time, saying a lot of the same :D

5-6 days a week? Ouch! The other two already said the downside to that. . .

Anyyay, everyone's different but for getting bigger, a fast rate of progress can be 2 lean kg every two weeks (abt 4.5 lbs). Depending on your goals and eating habits of course. If you are skinny like that it usually means high metabolism, you would have to eat like a pig to get any meat to stick to you. I mean a PIG. Eat at least twice as much as you are eating now, if not more. But eat good food or else you get fat.

Oh yeah you will lose some fat at the same time so your overall weight might not change for a while, but you will get denser and skinnier. Then the pendulum will swing back and you will start to get bigger.

sweet thanks for all your replies, anyone know a good website for the various excersizes that can be done at the gym (back,legs,abs,arms etc)?

Thanks alot!

I am a novice.. but been working out this summer. I suggest finding a work out buddy, someone who can show you what to do.. that or you can ust walk into the weight room and just do the machines. I was really scared at first, but you get used to it all. The important thing to do is just to stick to it.

Here is a great site to show the different exercises for your different muscle groups :)
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm

Short answer will agree with alterego.
3-6 months.

I disagree that you've got to eat a lot. Just eat healthy and be sure that any weight you gain is muscle not fat.

Keep in mind , if you are pressed for time a work-out buddy can severly slow you down. While it is a good idea to take rests in between sets, a workout buddy may end up stretching your rest-time in between sets to like 5 or 10 minutes. Eventually those minutes start to add up and it could take you 2 hours to do a workout then you may be able to complete in 50 minutes by yourself.

Of course, you will need a buddy to do things like benching and perhaps for fly's(I think thats what they're called?) and a few other things, but you could always ask someone else who's in the gym(if you're going to a public one) for some help..from my experience even the biggest guys in the gym are usually pretty nice and helpful.

Cowlick: If you don't eat a lot, then yeah you'll gain muscle for a bit, but eventually you'll come to a halt. How do you expect your body to gain mass, if you're not putting that mass into your body in the first place?

Also, while you may get big results in 6 months, you shouldn't play/and or hope for it. Everyone's body is different, and it could take you years to achieve what you dream of. Like you can see from a thread I posted the other day, I havn't been making the biggest gains over the past few months, but it hasn't discouraged me because I enjoy going the gym. Getting those big muscles has almost taken the back-burner to simply enjoying the time I spend in the gym. If it's not fun, then find another way for excersize because you're not going to get ANY results if you're not enjoying it.

It's called a "clean bulk' and it takes longer, but has a much better look and is a lot healthier for your body then just getting fat layer over your muscles that you will inevitably have to go into a cut cycle to remove. The problem with wanting to get big and not having the correct information is that you will end up a thick fatty mess that looks big in long sleeves but horrible when the shirt comes off.

For proper mass gains, eat clean and eat more calories then you are supposed to be taking in daily (go find out what your BMR is), make sure you are getting plenty of protein, and keep consistant on your workouts (weights AND cardio). Don't listen to anybody who says to eat whatever you can because you will have wasted a lot of your life and end up very unsatisfied with the results. Not only is misinformation a waste of time, but it is very unhealthy as well.

For a more accurate guestimate on how long it will take, post a pic of your frame and one of the body you aspire to look like and we can give you a better idea.

Well I just meant eat *more*
not go nuts eating everything :D

hahaha I just got the funniest image in my head thinking about that...

If you want to gain cleanly, you should do aerobic (jogging, swimming laps, cycle) exercises just as much as strength.. yes, I know most people don't appreciate it. Protein supplements and creatine help. The first summer I started working out religiously, I gained 25 pounds.. that was 5 years ago. Since then I'm at a plateau. Growth spurt stopped, so I'm just trying to keep the fat off.

People seem to think that their mass increases will continue at a normal rate, and when the plateau happens, it unfortunatly gets some to turn to roids :(. By the way, I too believe and have learned that to gain clean mass you definately do not neglect your cardio.

I worked out hard for about 3 months and noticed some good results... I think I'm in the same boat as you, pretty thin, but just keep at it... motivation is the toughest part, especially when you're struggling to throw down sets of 10 with 125lbs bench and see the dude next to you doing like 200+ easy, it sucks but keep at it... and take pride in the fact that the really strong guys all look kinda fat whereas you'll get some nice definition right away and look a little bigger than you actually are... ;)

Wow what an open question. it depends on a lot of things...

best site ever:

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Cool, that is a good site, I'll have to remember to bookmark that one for when I finally get back to school and can start lifting again... ;)

Totally depends on how you work out, your habbits, and the person doing the working.

When i used to lift semi-often, i was going 5 days a week for about an hour a day. Lifting that frequently i gained quite a bit fo strength. I didn't spend my time too well and didn't work all that hard, but in about 7 months i had increased my bench 75lbs, squatting 100 more, etc. I was much stronger than i started. Over the course of this period though, i only gained about 10lbs, maybe 15. Most of this was from growing a few inches. I was 120 going into it, came out 135 or so. Again, i am pretty skinny so i didn't have much weight to lose, thus the little increase in weight. I grew very little more muscle mass, and i got more toned. But i got much stronger. I knew several other people would had similar gains and had a rather noticable increase in body size.

It depends on what kind of person you are and what you consider "buff". You can gain strength and not much bulk, and you can also gain a lot of bulk, but not all that much strength. It depends on how you work out and what you want to accomplish.

Curious as to what a cut cycle is.

A 'cut' or 'lean-out' cycle is defined by more cardio, less weight training, and leaner, cleaner foods. It's a good way to trim the fat that you may have gained along with your muscle in a 'bulk-up' phase/cycle.

I switch from one to the other every 5-6 months or so, every time I start plateauing with one, I move on to the other.

Also, when on a cut cycle, you create a caloric defecit so you are losing bodyfat from your diet as well. Some take fat burners too while cutting, but I am totally against suppliments that puts an unnatural stress on your system. Working out goes in cycles, "bulking" and "cutting". Bulking is done during the winter season until a few months before summer (when you are going to be wearing less clothes) you start your cutting. It is the way that your body grows mass while maintaining a healthy low bodyfat percentage.