I've been reading through the forum and saw that those who wanted to get bigger needed to go through a bulking process. How much muscle can a person put on without going through this process? I run track so going through the bulking process will slow me down. I have to stay as lean as possible at all times. Is it even possible to put on muscle without going through the bulking process?

You can do a "clean bulk." More experienced members will surely chime in, but as I understand it the gist is that you have to watch your diet like a hawk. You have to watch your total calorie intake and fat intake very closely, and it's a slow process.

It is true that to gain muscle you’ll almost certainly need to gain weight but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to gain fat; most people find it easier to gain muscle while allowing fat gain but this doesn’t have to be the case if you need to keep yourself lean. Eating a calorie surplus of around 200 calories a day and training well should see you make improvements which will help you limit fat gain and improve your speed on the track too.

BTW, if you’re a runner then why isn’t building muscle on your legs one of your goals? (from your sig)

Can you give me a sample meal? It's fine if I gain a little fat. I just can't go through that whole eat like crazy phase because I need to stay lean.

Because my legs are already killed pretty much every practice. I'm a hurdler and a jumper so I don't run for long periods of time like distance runners, who have skinny legs. I do a lot of plyometrics and sprinting and lifting is in our workout schedule about twice a week. We don't do any upper body work at all so my legs are leagues away from my upper body. It's not really necessary for me to have a built upper body for high school track. I'm just doing this to look better. Sorry if that sounds bad, but what's wrong with wanting to look better? lol

Mostly stick to lower-fat foods (you get 9 calories per gram of fat versus 4 calories per gram of protein/3.75 for carbs; there's more in the nutritional stickies around here). Like Typhon said (he's a lot more experienced than I am), increase your daily calorie intake by 200 or so, maybe make adjustments later based on your results.

Unless you drastically increase your calorie intake per day (like 700+ more), it's very unlikely you'll gain the amount of dead weight you're worried about getting.

There is no need to be afraid of fat just because it contains more calories than protein and carbs. Fats are important for many body processes, too little fat in the diet can give you consequences. Though, you should limit saturated fat and avoid trans fat completely.

For a clean bulk you need a small calorie surplus, like Typhon said, train good and hard, do compound lifts over isolation lifts and watch the weight gain.

Yeah, I’ve read the July and August editions of ‘Men’s Health’!!!

Let's make this a more simple process. Since you want to look better and appear to want to focus on the upper body, just add in 1 or 2 upper body days per week. That will make a bit of difference.

Things to remember -

You are an athlete, so the general bulking "rules" are not the same for you as it is for folks who have no athletic endeavors.

Since you are not currently training any upper body, adding in upper body a couple of days per week will make a difference, and, you will gain size in the upper body.

You can do all of this by simply making sure you eat enough. As I see it there is no need to do an official "bulk" phase.

Just keep things simple and train hard. You will make your gains.

Thanks for all the advice. I thought I needed to eat a lot more than 200 more calories to gain muscle. I was talking to one of the football players and he said pull-ups are my best friend. He said I should start off with that instead of benching. Is that a good idea? Pull-ups are way harder than benching IMO so I thought starting off with something a little easier would be better. Am I wrong? I tried to do pull-ups today and only got up to 8. Then I tried chin-ups and got to like 15. I have no idea what I can bench.

When I started out, I could barely do 3 pull ups (palms facing away) just a couple weeks ago. Although I have no idea how many pullups I can do non stop, I will tell you pull ups will build your shoulders and back like nothing else and my routine of my upper includes 80-90 total within 30 minutes or so of time, with the other half of my hour being legs and core.

Look at my progress log:
http://training.fitness.com/wellness...log-35572.html

I do nothing but body weight exercises and my gains have, to me atleast, been HUGE. I prefer to have a high body weight:strength ratio than be huge. I figure size will come in time (which, nobody likes), but having good strength and being able to look good AND be strong, as well as remain limber, was more important to me. I want the physique of a gymnast. The look is merely a byproduct of their training, and that's what I'm after.

I do my pullups palms out because they are harder and work your back and shoulders more because you don't have your biceps as assistance (well, as much). It's the reason you were able to do only half, cause you don't have as much stress on the bicep to help you out.

I'm in a learning stage as well, so I'm learning as I go, but I've found my routine to work wonders for ME....keyword me, because what may do boatloads for me, may not do AS MUCH for you. Pullups are great though...I'd suggest doing them and variations of push ups. Gains will come faster than you think if you stick with it.

Don't worry about calories, adding 200 calories is too specific. What i mean is, that you don't really know the exact calories you need, it's an estimation, a very good one, but still, an estimation. That is the reason behind trainers suggesting an increase of 500 calories for clean bulk with the option of decreasing or increasing. Some people need 700-1000 kcal more.

Lol, my point is, it's better to eat more than you need and then decrease rather than eating less than you need.

Look what you have to your advantage. Obviously if you're running track your bodyfat should be pretty low. Low body fat enables you to build solid muscle better than someone in a higher body fat. Your body is producing more testosterone at a lower body fat and this gives you an edge. I met this guy that was pretty big, 6' and 208 lbs, at 8% bodyfat. He ran track and was very successful. He said he wasn't sure what to pursue, track or bodybuilding. Remember this, building muscle naturally burns fat. And that should be one of your goals is cutting the fat and keeping solid weight. This will allow you to be faster and stronger. Make sure you're stretching plenty to keep yourself flexible as well.

I've never heard of this. Why is it that the body produces more test at lower BF levels?

It's a relative thing When you have low body fat, it's not so much that you're producing more testosterone. It's just that the testosterone you have is not being converted into estrogens.

Fat cells promote estrogen production. Fat cells are loaded with aromatase (an enzyme) and that tells fat cells to store estrogen. Testosterone is then converted into estradiol and androstenedione to estrone. The higher your percentage of body fat, the more estrogens your body will produce and the fatter you will get unless you control your diet and use supplements and exercise to lower that estrogen production.

That is why females with low body fat percentages stop menstruating. They don't produce enough female hormones to ovulate because they lack the required bodyfat to be "female".

BTW, zinc inhibits the aromatase enzyme, so if you want to lose fat, take zinc.