Weight lifting routine and suppliments

[Rezist]

I've started weight lifting as a means of getting exercise and looking better but I've noticed that I'm pretty much getting nothing as far as gains are concerned. I noticed after roughly 4-5 months that I could lift more weight in better control but I can't seem to progress any further. I've changed up what I've done for workout routines and my diet as well to a lesser extent.

Here's the questions I have:
1. Whats better for gaining muscle, a general like upper body day then a lower body day, with say a break in between? Or concentrating on chest/back one day, arms/biceps/shoulders another while spending less time daily in the gym but going 3-4 days in a row with a one day break in between?

2. I usually do 10-15 minutes of high paced cardio at the end of my workouts, I use to do them at the start but found it left me with less energy for lifting. Should I continue doing the cardio or possibly do none at all?

3. I know my diet isn't perfect so I'm substituting with ON protein powder and thinking of getting a general vitamin. Anyone have good recommendations for vitamins? or are they a waste of time?

 

[Unmoosical]

Read the fat loss sticky. Specifically the exercise part that talks about Starting Strength (SS) and Stronglifts (SL). Those are the workouts to be on for gaining muscle.

 

[brikis98]

What are your primary goals? Strength? Adding muscle mass? Improving performance in some sport?

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

1. If you're new to lifting a lot of the guys here are going to recommend a beginner strength routine like starting strength. I think that would be a good idea. Usually your strength gains are going to plateau on any program after a number of weeks. So you would backcycle/deload something like 5/10% of the weight and hopefully break through the stall. If you don't backcycle your lifts might even go down at least in my personal experience.
2. Maybe you can adjust the days you do cardio to the non-lifting days. 30 mins on those days or something. Even if your trying to gain weight IMHO cardio is beneficial for the cardiovascular benefits. If you have to do it on your lifting days I would stick to doing it after you lift.
3. Diet's the most important part. Lock this down first preferably with real food before you start adding in supps. Supplements definitely add in a convenience factor and they help fill in the gaps. I use NOW Adam multivitamins. The pills are pretty damn big however. They're on sale at fitrx.com and there's a coupon right now that gives you free shipping on any order I think.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I've started weight lifting as a means of getting exercise and looking better but I've noticed that I'm pretty much getting nothing as far as gains are concerned. I noticed after roughly 4-5 months that I could lift more weight in better control but I can't seem to progress any further. I've changed up what I've done for workout routines and my diet as well to a lesser extent.

Here's the questions I have:
1. Whats better for gaining muscle, a general like upper body day then a lower body day, with say a break in between? Or concentrating on chest/back one day, arms/biceps/shoulders another while spending less time daily in the gym but going 3-4 days in a row with a one day break in between?

2. I usually do 10-15 minutes of high paced cardio at the end of my workouts, I use to do them at the start but found it left me with less energy for lifting. Should I continue doing the cardio or possibly do none at all?

3. I know my diet isn't perfect so I'm substituting with ON protein powder and thinking of getting a general vitamin. Anyone have good recommendations for vitamins? or are they a waste of time?

1. As others have said, read the fat loss sticky.

2. Doing endurance exercise after lifting inhibits hypertrophy and therefore inhibits mass gain and strength gain.

3. Honing your diet in is more powerful than any supplement. Vitamins are a waste of money since you can eat everything you need to and it will be better in the long run (due to greater volume of antioxidants, etc)

 

[Rezist]

What are your primary goals? Strength? Adding muscle mass? Improving performance in some sport?

Adding muscle mass, obviously I'm hoping by adding muscle mass more strength will come, also I need the exercise to help me sleep.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Adding muscle mass, obviously I'm hoping by adding muscle mass more strength will come, also I need the exercise to help me sleep.

If your goal is to add mass, you need to alternate days of strength training and cardiovascular training, unless you're doing high intensity interval training. Anything endurance related inhibits the AKT/mTOR pathway, which is responsible for hypertrophy. The inhibition is only temporary so staggering the two types of exercises during the week will allow for both cardiovascular and strength improvements.

 

[brikis98]

Adding muscle mass, obviously I'm hoping by adding muscle mass more strength will come, also I need the exercise to help me sleep.

If adding mass is your goal, then your primary focus should be diet. You need to eat a caloric surplus to bulk and you need plenty of protein. You can have the perfect workout routine, but without the proper diet backing it up, you won't come close to the results you want. The small number of supplements shown to be effective - namely, protein powder and fish oil - can be helpful to plug some holes, but they can't be the basis of your diet. And if you really need to add a lot of mass in a hurry, look into GOMAD.

You sound like you don't have much experience with weight training, so the best thing I can recommend for you is to use a routine designed by professionals. In particular, the routine in Starting Strength is the gold standard for beginners. The book also contains the best explanations/instructions I've seen of the barbell lifts and is worth every penny if you set foot in a gym. For free resources, you can check out the Starting Strength Wiki as well as Stronglifts 5x5, a very similar routine to Starting Strength. Both routines are built around a small number of basic lifts (squat, deadlift, OH press, bench press, etc) and have you training your entire body each workout. In the earlier stages of weight training, you are able to recovery pretty quickly, so this lets you train all the muscles in the body as often as possible, and thereby maximizes strength & mass gains.

Edit --> as SC indicated, if you do cardio, it is best not to do it on the same days as your strength training.