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Advice needed: college athlete

R

Random12467

New Member
Jan 22, 2021
5
1
I’m looking for some fitness advice. I currently am a freshman in college and I wrestle. I’m 6’2 and 225lbs. My coaches and I decided it was best for me to make the transition to heavyweight (Max 285 lbs.) collegiate heavy weight wrestling can be brutal and most guys are very large, strong, heavy dudes, and I can’t compete only weighing 225. I know I want to put on a MINIMUM of 40 pounds over the next 8 months, and I need to get as strong as possible, however I still want to keep my athletic ability and not become a complete pud. I’ve heard that I need to be at 4K calories, I’ve heard 6k, 8k+ calories. What should my calories/macros look like? I also know I need to spend most of my time in the gym, even though I already do. What should my training split look like? I’ve thought about going 3 days a week high volume and 3 days a week strength training, but I’ve also heard that this is ineffective and that I should train in fazes, 8-12 weeks hypertrophy first, and then focus on strength training after. What is best for my bulking journey in order for me to be a primed, large, strong, 265 lbs+ tank 8 months from now? Any advice helps, thanks.
 
creekrat

creekrat

MuscleHead
Sep 9, 2012
267
142
Does your college not have strength and conditioning coaches? Nutritionists? Etc. If your coach wants you to gain then he should give you the support necessary to do so.

There is a magic way to gain weight. Caloric surplus.
 
SAD

SAD

TID Board Of Directors
Feb 3, 2011
3,673
2,293
A lot of small NAIA and Div II and III schools don’t have full support staff for their athletes like most bigger schools have.

As for your question, don’t over complicate it. What you need is an abundance of quality calories and good sleep. You already said you’re in the gym regularly, and what you’ve been doing has gotten you to the college level, so keep it simple, add in a surplus of cals, and don’t neglect sleep.

If you need a reason to believe this is sound advice, I am 6’4” 245 right now, I’ve been a college athlete, fought mma, and been as heavy as 320lb as a competitive powerlifter while still running 2 miles in 15:56 for my Army PT test.

The best thing you can learn how to do now is eat too much, every single time you need to eat (not when you feel hungry). Keep the calories relatively clean and you’ll perform even better.
 
Lizard King

Lizard King

Administrator
Staff Member
Sep 9, 2010
14,532
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I was hoping @SAD chimed in, he is/was a big mofo. Good luck on the gain, would be interested in seeing a log, that's a decent amount to put on in 8 months while keeping it semi-clean.
 
Snachito1

Snachito1

VIP Member
Jan 12, 2018
298
242
My buddies son was a an all star lineman in high school in football, the kid was 6' 7 but weighed 245-250, but needed to get up to at least 280 to really be a force in Pac 10. What his dad did was look up what sumo wrestlers ate and started him on this diet of chanko for his senior year. Did it work............yes, was his physique pretty NO (he just got a little pudgy) but he did it and surpassed the 280 mark.

If you look at the Chanko nabe diet there's nothing processed or crap it's a lot of veggies, lotsa different types of meat with rice (look up Alan Thrall Chanko on youtube for this). And like SAD mentioned SLEEP!! I wish I would have taken sleep more serious when growing up, as I get lots of sleep now (along with diet, cardio, weight training) and even at 52 years I make good gains. Good luck Random!!
 
Bigtex

Bigtex

VIP Member
Aug 14, 2012
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I’m looking for some fitness advice. I currently am a freshman in college and I wrestle. I’m 6’2 and 225lbs. My coaches and I decided it was best for me to make the transition to heavyweight (Max 285 lbs.) collegiate heavy weight wrestling can be brutal and most guys are very large, strong, heavy dudes, and I can’t compete only weighing 225. I know I want to put on a MINIMUM of 40 pounds over the next 8 months, and I need to get as strong as possible, however I still want to keep my athletic ability and not become a complete pud. I’ve heard that I need to be at 4K calories, I’ve heard 6k, 8k+ calories. What should my calories/macros look like? I also know I need to spend most of my time in the gym, even though I already do. What should my training split look like? I’ve thought about going 3 days a week high volume and 3 days a week strength training, but I’ve also heard that this is ineffective and that I should train in fazes, 8-12 weeks hypertrophy first, and then focus on strength training after. What is best for my bulking journey in order for me to be a primed, large, strong, 265 lbs+ tank 8 months from now? Any advice helps, thanks.


How about this......you need typically anywhere from 18-21cal/lb to gain weight. So start at 18 cal/lb and check the scales at the end of the week. If you did not gain, the add another 500 cal/day/ At the end of the week check again to see if you are gaining at least 1 lb/wk. If not add another 500cal/d the next week until you see you are gaining. Once you start gaining you should be able to divide the calories by your current body weight and that will tell you how many calories/lb you need to gain in the future. Remember as you gain weight you also need to refigure the amount of calpries you need to continue to gain.

Lets start with your current weight....225 x 18 = 4050 cal/day. That will be your start until you determine exactly how many calories/lb that you need to gain. As protein start with your body weight in grams. 225g is a great place to start or 900 calories (22%). Stick with about 25% fat or 1012.50 calories (112.5g). That leaves 2137.5 calories (534.5g) from carbohydrates (53%). Your sport including the weight training is very dependent on glycogen, plus you are trying to gain weight. Dont cut the carbs much lower and if you do, go up on protein. Again, as your body weight goes up, you nutritional needs will also go up which is why I included percentages of your total calories.

Total cal - 4050 to start
Protein - 225g (22%)
Carbohydrate - 534.5g (53%)
Fat - 112.5g (25%)

Check this site out.....http://www.cronometer.com It is a free site and you can use it to for analyzing you diet and won't have to do all of this math. To get to that 265 lb mark you are going tohave to gain 5 lbs a week. That is going to be kind of hard unless you are willing to add quite a bit of fat. Yo umay suffer some athletic ability.
 
R

Random12467

New Member
Jan 22, 2021
5
1
Thanks for all the advice. It’s good to have a place to start.
 
S

searay

VIP Member
Dec 20, 2017
853
721
To gain muscle/strength you should train no more than 3x wk and stick to the basics, bench, squat, deads. Don't go overboard with the weight and hurt yourself. Stop when your form gets bad and stick to 6-8 reps. Not many people promote the Dogg Crapp routine by Dante Trudell but it is a 3 day program m-w-f and I have made the best gains ever using this. Check it out by either googling or youtube and you will see how much sense it makes as a strength gaining program. You have to hit a certain # of reps x 3 sets before you can add weight and if your not gaining over a 2-3 wk period you have to change the lift your failing at. At first it may seem complicated but it is actually very simple and straight forward. No guess work.
 
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The other Snake

The other Snake

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Aug 19, 2016
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For God's sake, please don't put on a slab of fat just to weigh more. On the mat, speed kills. Take it easy in the gym, you're not a powerlifter, you're a wrestler. The only time strength becomes important in wrestling is when your technique had failed you and you end up in a position you didn't want to be in.

I know all of this sounds odd coming from a meathead but talk to another coach about the idea of gaining weight, not the one you have but another. Sometimes a coach is thinking more about the team than just one weight class.
 
jshredz

jshredz

VIP Member
Nov 14, 2012
18
9
I’m looking for some fitness advice. I currently am a freshman in college and I wrestle. I’m 6’2 and 225lbs. My coaches and I decided it was best for me to make the transition to heavyweight (Max 285 lbs.) collegiate heavy weight wrestling can be brutal and most guys are very large, strong, heavy dudes, and I can’t compete only weighing 225. I know I want to put on a MINIMUM of 40 pounds over the next 8 months, and I need to get as strong as possible, however I still want to keep my athletic ability and not become a complete pud. I’ve heard that I need to be at 4K calories, I’ve heard 6k, 8k+ calories. What should my calories/macros look like? I also know I need to spend most of my time in the gym, even though I already do. What should my training split look like? I’ve thought about going 3 days a week high volume and 3 days a week strength training, but I’ve also heard that this is ineffective and that I should train in fazes, 8-12 weeks hypertrophy first, and then focus on strength training after. What is best for my bulking journey in order for me to be a primed, large, strong, 265 lbs+ tank 8 months from now? Any advice helps, thanks.

Don't go crazy by adding calories too fast.
Start by adding between 200-400 calories per week.
Check your fasted morning weight once a week to monitor your progress.
Both scale and mirror will important to monitor your gains.
If your gaining more than 3 lbs weekly don't add calories again for another week. So you will add calories every 2 weeks vs 1 week. Basically give your body a chance to adjust to the calorie surplus and then add calories again. This will help you from gaining too much bodyfat.
As far as training more isn't always best specially when bulking to this level. Your weight training should be no more than 4 days per week. Maybe only 3 as someone else has mentioned here.
Any other time you spend in the gym should be to work on your flexibility and speed.
 
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