* Start with learning proper technique before going heavy with weight resistance exercises.

* When starting out stick to around 8-10 total sets per bodypart/workout -total, with around 3-4 sets for each exercise for each body part. Basically, keep workouts short and intense, using good form and technique.

* Always stretch before and after training - cardiovascular and weight training related. Dynamic stretching is recommend preworkout.

* Do cardio on your days off or at least 5 hours after any weight training (this does not include warm up or a warm down). Even if you are trying to gain weight, doing cardio is important - it keeps us physically fit and also works our core and abs.

* Split up your training. If you train chest on Monday, it's best not to train shoulders or triceps the day after because you worked both body parts hard on chest day. It would be wiser to train back or legs the day after because they are the antagonist and aren't involved in the exercise.

* Rest is important. Take a day off after every second or third weight lifting day (you can still do cardio) to allow your muscles to recover.

* Keep switching it up. Your routine may work for you now but you will soon start to stagnate and your body will adapt to the stress it is being placed upon. Try doing higher or lower reps, change certain exercises/angles on the exercise, and/or pair different muscle groups on workout days.

For additional information, please check out some of my interviews/articles at:

Gaining muscle: http://www.sixpacknow.com1
One of my routines: http://www.sixpacknow.com2

For gaining weight, slow and steady progress is the key to achieving lean muscle mass. Eating everything in sight will not help you ‘bulk up’ you will simply become overweight.

My approach would be to take it slow. A weight gain of 0.5-1lbs a week gain is a good target.
To get a grip on the amount of calories you need to be consuming to gain mass, take your calorie maintenance level – the amount of calories you do not gain or lose weight on – and up them by 500 calories daily for the first few weeks of bulking up.

When the weight gain of 0.5lbs to 1lb s a week stops, up the calories by another few hundred daily. Monitor the weighing scale once a week and adjust your calories higher or lower as needed.

* Eat 5-7 small meals throughout the day, every 2-3 hours to keep your metabolism working hard and to curb hunger.

* Aim to eat 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight per day.

* Eat meals high in protein, moderate in complex carbohydrates (see below), and moderate healthy fats (omega 3, 6, 9) for gaining lean muscle mass without increasing bodyfat..

* Get the majority of your carbohydrates in the morning, before and after training and in the afternoon. Cut back on your carbohydrates in the evening. If you are a hard gainer, you will be able to consume carbohydrates a little later into the evening.

* Cut down on, but not completely, saturated fats. Consume more healthy fats – Omega 3, 6, and 9’s.

Below is a list of the macronutrients/food sources we need to keep us functioning to our best.
Protein is the muscle builder, carbohydrates are our energy support, and healthy fats help our hormones and body function correctly.

Protein: Lean meats, sliced meats, fish, canned fish, cottage cheese, eggs (whole & whites), and Whey protein.

Carbohydrate: Whole grain breads/cereals, oatmeal, vegetables (especially green), salad, sweet potatoes, yams, baked potatoes, fruits (1-2 pieces a day), wholewheat pasta, and brown rice.

Fat: Fish oil, flax seed oil, natural peanut butter, and almond butter.


(Combine the above food sources into meals you enjoy eating. For example - chicken and brown rice, salmon and salad, etc).

One method people always ask about regarding my nutrition and dieting is 'Carbohydrate Cycling' - a method many people use to keep lean muscle while burning fat and/or gain muscle at the same time. I have had great results with this method.

We do this by having days where we consume very small amounts of carbohydrates and then 2 days or so a week where we 'carb up' - a term to describe consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, much larger amounts than on low carbohydrate days.

The idea of carb cycling is that for 3-4 days you will deplete carbs by eating fibrous carbohydrates, using up muscle glycogen and burn bodyfat. The next 3 days after that, you load up on starchy types of carbohydrates and thus replenish muscle glycogen.

It is best to workout your lagging (less built up) bodyparts on days where your carbohydrates are high because you will have more energy for your workouts.

An example 'Carb Cycle' routine:

Monday: Low carb - Cardio
Tuesday: Low carb or High carb- Weight lifting
Wednesday: Low carb - Weight lifting
Thursday: Low carb - cardio
Friday: High carb - Weight lifting
Saturday: High carb - Weight lifting
Sunday: Low carb - Weight lifting

Carbohydrates to consume on Low Carb days - fibrous carbs:
Green beans, broccoli - Green vegetables in general, Salads and green leafy vegetables, green/red peppers, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms- Anything none starchy.

( Our digestive system has difficulty breaking down fibrous carbs.  The majority just pass through our digestive system. However, they provide bulk (fill us up), they benefit us by also speeding up the digestive process and take a considertable amount of water with them.)

Carbohydrates to consume on High Carb days - starchy carbs:
Oatmeal, wholegrain cereals, sweet potatoes, yams, baked potatoes, wholegrain/none highly processed breads, small amounts of fruit.

By eating fibrous carbs for 4-5 days and then switching to the starchy carbs, we keep just shy of ketosis and prevent the body from going into a catabolic state (muscle wasting, where the body begins to eat at the muscle tissue to get its energy from the protein in the muscles).

 
Cardio is done on the first 3 fibrous carb days, as you burn more bodyfat and consume more muscle glycogen. During the starchy carb days you replenish that muscle glycogen and give the muscles a fuller, harder look, and also notice less bodyfat covering them. 

Because you do not want to risk going into a catabolic state, and also because we are dieting and decreasing our calories, cardio should be performed at a low intensity. We do not want to be burning protein (our muscle) as fuel! 
Do any high impact, running cardiovascular training on high carb days.