Too small, Steroids??

---

Hey guys first of all i like to clear up that i don't intend to ever use steroids unless for terminal illness, but i wrote that to get people's attention. Okay so basically i play football, and im going to be a senior next season, i missed all of last year with a torn acl and cartilage injuries. I was basically off the team during the time and i lost a lot of chance to get stronger and bigger. I'm 5-8, 170 lbs, i'm very cut and muscular, now the problem is that coach has moved me to fill a hole at linebacker, and i used to play safety, i am very undersized for that position and i know i can't go through a season and take on 300 lbs linemens. so I have basically until september to gain at least 20 lbs, which is my idea weight for outside linebacker. what are some good supplements or techniques i can use to get more weight. I take protein shakes, people have told me to take muscle milk or creatin, or however you spell it, but i'm afraid of the side effects of those two. so please give me some suggestions.

try working out everyday, like wake up do pushups and lift weights if u have, also a good idea is to find out linemen techniques from books or the internet because its not all weight, it is possible to take down a man who is bigger than you

well i work out everyday with football team but it's very hard to gain 20 lbs by just working out. i know how to take on a lineman that's much heavier, i have had some experience at linebacker, plus i blitz a lot out of our formation so i do have to take on them often, but the problem is that at my weight my body will not be able to take the wear and tear of colliding with linemens for a whole season. so i need suggestions on what kind of supplements i can take to help gain muscle weight

hey i just read your archive, i wanted to say thanks, those exercises really helps, i got a few questions though. for example, after day one workout, do i rest and do day two workout a day later? and are there any supplements that's good? or if you don't recommend suppliments can you give me some food suggestions that i should eat? i'm in high school so i don't eat as much as i like

This is a little summarized compared to what I was writing before, since I went back and for some reason my forward button greyed out and I lost what I wrote for a response.

If you want to gain weight, you NEED TO EAT. Eat a big breakfast, bring snacks to eat during or between classes depending upon if you're allowed to snack in class or not. Eat a big lunch. Have more snacks between afternoon classes, eat something when you get home. Keep eating and snacking until you go to bed at night. Get plenty of rest and try not to stay up too late on weekends if you can avoid it.

Helms thread on The Basics of Bigness is exactly right. You need to do the full body exercises like squats, deadlift, and bench press. You also need to rest between workout days as that's when your muscles will recover and grow. Rest is just as important as exercise since the combination of the two is what cause you to build and strengthen muscles.

For pure power, here are some excellent exercises that are similar to what a sprinter would do. You'll want to do these as September is getting closer. Late July would be a great time to start. The same principles of plyometric training apply to a football player as a sprinter. By lengthening and then contracting your muscles, they have more power than if you were to just contract them from their normal position. Plyometrics trains your muscles to do this by lengthening the muscle fibers and then exploding into the motion followed by lengthening them again. This is repeated over and over. The best exercise you could do to gain power in your legs is jump squats. You crouch down in a squat position (I do this with a 10 lb medicine ball) and jump into the air, then land, crouch, and do it again. The motion should be fluid without rest inbetween. Quality in plyometrics is far more important than quantity. At the moment I usually do 2 sets of 20 as part of my non-track workout on Mondays (track season has started). Plyometrics are most effective on people who already have a large strength base from training with weights or other strength intensive physical activities. It won't build mass, but it will noticeably improve the explosive power of your legs. Look up other plyometric exercises as well. Jumping up and down from a bench or box, feet together (or stepping up and jumping then doing it with the other foot, kind of like stairs except your foot drops down to the ground so the other foot can do the same stair (bench) again) is also a great plyometric exercise. Once again, the motion should be continuous and fluid with no pauses. This sounds easier than it is.

I can't really answer your question about creatine. I've heard that it is great for muscle recovery and helping to build muscle, but I don't know enough about it to give you the details.

http://www.mmusa.com/fitness_supplements_new/fitness_supplements.php?session=43fcda724492b196af68f066c3d3b106&page=0&groupid=4&productid=4Check that out if your looking to get bigger.

What form of creatine does the body have the easiest time ingesting? I remember reading this somewhere, but I can't remember what the answer was.

Is Monohydrate a dry powder?