1. Do you suggest eating as much as possible? assuming it's all healthy food
Maybe not eating as much as you can, but you should definitely have to start eating more protein and lean meats and stuff if you're exercising more. Just eat when you're hungry but don't overstuff yourself or anything.
2. It is not necessary to do any cardiovascular activities to gain muscle mass?
To gain muscle mass... no. However i still recommend it. Doing cardio and stuff will help keep your heart in shape, which is very important once you start upping the protein and muscle mass, you hear a lot about pro weightlifters having heart problems (though some are from steroids). Doing cardio will also help make your muscles more flexible as well as strong. One thing about cardio though... it does you no good to just sit on the bike for a half hour, you have to PUSH YOURSELF at all times... obviously backing off if you're starting to get hurt. But if you solely want to bulk up, i'd say focus more on weights, but don't phase out cardio all together
3. what type of reps, the basic concept behind weightlifting do you support? For instance i usually do 3 sets of 10, increasing in weight each time till i can't do anymore.
If you've been doing those types of reps in the past, they might not be working enough for you. A couple suggestions: one way to help build strength and endurance is to go to failure on each set. This means on set 1 you might start off lighter and do 18 reps, set 2 add some weight and only to 10 or so, and set 3 you might only get to like 6. If you can't do at least 6 reps on a certain weight, go down a little, you won't get much out of doing 3 reps of something. Another option would be to rotate exercises multiple times. Say you do bicep curls with 3 sets of 10 or whatever. Go do some leg press, triceps, leg extension, pullups (or lat pull downs), then go through the cycle again, you might have to lower weight the second time around. Obviously if you really want to do it right, going through everything twice is going to take a while, especially if you're doing lots of exercises. But if you leave a good 20-30 minutes in between doing a set of something, your muscles will have a slight chance to recover.
4. Is there some point where i have to build up on the lower body before i can go any bigger on the upper body?
thanks for the help.
Not that i'm aware of, but most people will put portions of both into their workout. For legs, you can do squats, leg press, leg extensions, curls, lunges, wall sits, jumps / jumprope.... there's lots to choose from. Even if your main focus is upper body, still throw in a set of leg exercises here and there to give your upper body some rest while keeping your body proportional.
One word of caution that i meant to say in my first post. ESPECIALLY if you haven't lifted much before, take it slow. Your muscles won't be used to working this hard, and you shouldn't jump into going to the gym for 2 hours every day or you're going to get seriously hurt. Build on your exercises, adding another set here or there, another exercise, and slowly increase your workout time.
One other note, don't forget your abs and core. Do pushups, situps, crunches, and all sorts of ab exercises in your workout. They're a great supplement to working the larger muscle groups.
If you're dedicated to your workouts, you will start gaining weight and muscle mass, but don't expect it to happen in the first week or two. It might take a month or more until you start to see visible results, but you'll be feeling stronger and more active long before then.
Good luck and don't get hurt
