Any bodybuilders out there?

I have a friend who is 6'6" and is lucky when he weighs in at 170. He made a bet with his roommate that he could gain 20 lbs in 4 months bringing him into the normal weight range, dare to dream big buddy. Being a girl myself, my knowledge of lifing comes almost exclusively from New Rules of Lifting for Women but so great is my lust for competition I told him I would do research and do whatever I can to help him win this bet.

Does anyone know of any good resources for building mass and gaining weight? Eating and work out plans would definitely be a plus. I'm specifically concerned with his taking enough rest days, he is currently lifting almost every day but rotating muscle groups.

Thanks!

The hypertrophy programs in the original New Rules of Lifting would probably be a good place to start workout-wise.

Building mass is much more a factor of diet than anything else, this article by Dr. John Berardi (a former competitive body-builder and now professor of nutrition) gives a pretty good idea of the amount and frequency you'd have to eat to gain muscle mass fast.  His book Scrawny to Brawny would also probably be worth checking out.

Thank you! That's just what I needed, I'll check them both out immediately.

Tell him to get a product like this:

http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productI d=2134057&cp=2108309&pg=2&cid=Goo gle&gclid=CL6K1Z-9m5gCFQpxHgodKmPDmg& parentPage=family

At 1,250 calories per serving, it would be pretty hard for him to keep from immediately putting on weight (granted, unless he is regularly working out the weight gained will be fat).

at his size i would start with 2500-4000 calories of smart meals, not just junk.  mass gainers and whey/soy protein shakes in the morning and casein protein shakes before bed.  for meats mostly stick with red meats(especially top sirloin) it's about the leanest steak with a whole lot of protein.  as far as books goes, the arnold's bodybuilding encyclopedia is a great book along with most men's health sponsored books.  also with his protein shakes instead of water i would mix them with organic whole milk or at least regular whole milk.  supplements such as arginine, creatines and glutamines are things he'll need because it's gonna be a rough road ahead.  if he's a hard gainer it takes time and a strong commitment to pack on weight.  he might also want to pick up magazines and study such as "flex" and "muscles and fitness" also instead of full body training he would might want to stick with certain body parts on certain days, for example this is my schedule:

monday:  biceps and triceps, switching which one i do first every week

tuesday:  legs and abs

wednesday:  rest

thursday:  chest and shoulders,

friday:  back

weekends:  rest, besides going out and playing basketball or something

why even bother workin out if its just too gain weight...eat a ton!!! and the day of weight in tell him too drink as much water as he can. and carbs are great fo water retention:)

All excellent information guys, thanks so much. I'm going to gather all this together and go look at his food intake and work out schedule at some point soon. I have a feeling that he's still not eating enough despite the fact that he has upped his calories a huge amount. I'm not sure he's aware of just how much protein he needs to build 20 lbs of pure muscle. Actually *I* am not quite sure how much protein he needs. On my lifting days I feel fairly good if I get in around 150g but I saw numbers in the 350 range in a couple of these articles I've been reading. Can that really be true?

 350g would be for someone on steroids - a natural trainee can at most use 1.8g/kg of protein over the long term. Well, in the initial 1-2 weeks of starting a training program you might need up to 2.4g/kg, but that's extreme and only in the acute phase.

 (Some extreme cardio events can also cause protein needs in that range, but the normal cardio need is 1.4-1.6g/kg/day.)

 I second the recommendation to look at Berardis work; if he's going to gain any weight at all it's vitally important that he learns to eat properly for his goals.

When it comes to training though, for a beginner I wouldn't go with anything but Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength - either Kethnaab's interpretation or the actual Starting Strength book; and I would definitely not go with any kind of a body part split whatsoever; someone new to training doesn't have the capacity to work hard enough to need more than a few days of recovery.

 Most supplements are overpriced crap from companies out to take your money by selling you expensive placebo; about the only thing I'd use is straight up whey/casein protein and then only because it can be hard to get in enough protein at the right times before and after a workout without it. Well, creatine might potentially be of some use as well; it's one of the few supplements that have shown to have an effect in multiple independent studies. But most amino acid supplements and various "muscle gain formulas" are based on nothing but shaky interpretations of suspect in-house studies. 6-OXO is ErgoPharms flagship product and is sold as an estrogen blocker and testosterone booster that will lead to dramatic muscle gain, but in this independent study published in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition there was barely any change in hormone levels and no detectable difference in body composition.

And this is the best the supplement industry has to offer.

 Don't read Flex or Muscle&Fitness, that stuff will rot your brain. They're as bad as Shape or Self or cosmo when it comes to fitness; their published workout routines will only work for 'roided out mutants, and half their "articles" are advertorials for the supplement companies that own the magazines.

 (Why no body part splits? Because for a beginner training each muscle twice a week results in twice as much muscle growth as training it once a week. It's only when you're within spitting distance of your genetic maximum that you need to resort to workout programs designed for advanced trainees with more than 10 years of continuous training experience.)

Melkor, I take it that by "body part split"...that also covers push/pull workouts? And if converting to a whole body, is three times a week still okay? such as Tue-Thur-Sat?

 A Push/pull would let you work out 4xweekly which is doable, but the way I'd do it is start with a whole-body workout 3xweekly for the first few months and then switch to something a little more complicated once results on the very basic routine starts slowing down.

 I like not over-complicating things for a beginner - while you could potentially see faster progression on a push/pull 4xweekly you could also see faster burnout and overtraining as workout intensity and workload overloads their work capacity. I'd rather make the tradeoff of having slightly slower progression over the long haul than to have rapid progress the first 3-6 weeks and then a crash/burn that means they need to take 3 weeks off to recover from overtraining.

 With a litte more training under their lifting belt trainees can handle workloads that would outright kill a beginner. Overall, I think it's preferable to build up gradually and find your tolerance limits by edging up to them instead of starting full throttle and then try to scale back until you find the exercise level that's actually tolerable.

Original Post by melkor:

 A Push/pull would let you work out 4xweekly which is doable, but the way I'd do it is start with a whole-body workout 3xweekly for the first few months and then switch to something a little more complicated once results on the very basic routine starts slowing down.

What would be the "something a little more complicated" that you would go to?  (bad grammar - sorry) 

Generally, a Push/pull or an upper/lower is slightly more complicated than whole-body 3xweekly ;)

 Seriously though, I'd pick something from the Exrx workout template menu and construct a workout from the basic principle of "pick the least complicated workout template I can use and still see progress with".  Well, either that or go with one of the pre-made commercial programs out there from some of the saner coaches.