1

Currently I am gaining strength (and muscle) with a 3-way split.

  1. Back- biceps
  2. Chest - triceps
  3. Legs - Shoulder

This however is my concern, I am getting married in 6 months and bought a suit which has room for gaining muscle, but not too much in the upperleg area. I'd like to be more muscled when I am getting married, but due to my suit restrictions I cannot get too muscled in the upperleg area. While I don't want to have skinny legs and a muscular upper body, I don't want to buy another suit.

Currently I have just toned down the excersices I am doing for my legs to squats, lunges and an excersize for my calves.

Daniel
  • 4,484
  • 2
  • 21
  • 46
Kevin
  • 147
  • 7

1 Answers1

4

Six months is really not a long time. You can get to advanced level in 2-3 years (with proper programming) and spend six months just to put on 5-10kg to your lifts after that. By taking six months off, you might miss out on maybe 3-4 pounds of muscle gain. Obviously you don't want to go backwards on your legs, so keep in mind the detraining rates outlined in this answer.

That said, it might be a good opportunity to work strictly on strength (myofibril hypertrophy -- see this answer if that's "Greek" to you) which won't add much mass. You'd be keeping your reps at singles, doubles, and triples. That will set a foundation for more rapid sarcoplasmic hypertrophy once you're ready to gain mass.

Community
  • 1
Daniel
  • 4,484
  • 2
  • 21
  • 46
  • 1
    Yep. Do what Olympic lifters that are sensitive to their weight class do: stay in the lower rep range, and focus on strength. Keep your calories consistent and not in surplus. Even cut down a bit and hang at a lower calorie level. And ditch the split and go with Stronglifts / Starting Strength. – Eric Nov 05 '14 at 19:59
  • @EricKaufman Agreed about the oly lifters. Stronglifts/SS might be good depending on experience. Since he has no restrictions on upper body size though (which seems to be his concern here), he could try a routine that gets him in the gym more often. 5x5 routines are sort of "prilepen's chart" with their rep schemes, instead of a bodybuilding routine which would get people in the 5x10 range. – Daniel Nov 09 '14 at 08:29
  • 1
    You're probably right but unless someone is geared up or doing hypertrophy as an addition to "real" lifting it always seems the domain of weak, injured, and frustrated people. Hardly a scientific viewpoint, I know. – Eric Nov 09 '14 at 16:23