ok, heres whatcha need to do. Lifting weights is the only thing that will add muscle size to you. The only thing. dont listen to anyone else who says different. i was a strenth and conditioning coach for 3 years so i think i know what im talkin about. granted i am a weak fat piece of shit now, but that is besides the point. i will skip past the break in phase where you lift lightly to get your body ready for what you are about to put it through. when you are ready to start lifting to get big, which will take you about 2 months, heres what to do.
there is a thing called muscle failure. what that means is that when you are working out, you will hit a point during your movement where your muscles will literally give out on you, what you will want to do is use weight that makes you hit muscle failure after 6-8 reps. 6-8 reps is what will bulk you up. 10 reps is what most people do, which is a good all around #. 10 reps will help you get a lil bigger, and cut some fat at the same time. 15 to 20 reps will cut you more, and give you more muscle endurance, but wont make you that much bigger. however long it takes you to learn how to work a muscle properly do it. what i mean is, concentrate on the muscle you are working. think about how it feels when you do it. experiment with going through different planes of movement. Alot of weightlifters call this "being in the groove". there is a certain 'groove' that you will want to be in. after you have lifted for a few months, you will learn to know when you are doing it right. dont let everyone at the gym tell you how its supposed to be done. ask for tips on lifting, but keep in mind that just because one guy is huge, doesnt mean that his way will work for you, everyone is different. however the basics always remain the same.
dumbells will help you to be more functionaly strong that straight bars or machines. the dumbells force you to use tiny stabilization muscles that machines and straight bars dont. remember, dont start lifting real heavy until your body is ready for it. your ligaments and tendons need to strengthen up as well before hitting heavy weight. you dont wanna try to lift heavy without having some ligament and tendon strength first. otherwise you may tear a ligament like a rotator cuff for example. rotator cuffs are in your shoulder. shoulders are the most injury prone bodypart when it comes to weightlifting. ask someone to show you what rotator cuff exercises are. if they dont know, then you dont want them trying to teach you how to lift, because they dont know enuff to try and be teaching someone.
ok, so now you are ready to lift for real. remember 6-8 reps using a weight so heavy that after 8, you cant do another one. monday do chest and triceps, tuesday do back and biceps, wednesday do legs, thursday do shoulders. after about 4 months of that you can bump you intensity level up so that you are really blasting each muscle group when you lift. when you hit that point, you can start lifting for one muscle group per day, everyday. also know that muscles do not build when you are lifting, they are actually being tore down. your muscles build after you are done lifting, during the recovery phase, so make sure you let each musclegroup rest a few day befor hitting that particular muscle again
some muscles you can train everyday. your stomach, and forearms are those 2 that you can do everyday. they recover fast enough to hanlde it. arms 'biceps and triceps' you can do every othr day. chest and back need 3 days of rest. shoulders and legs, give em 4 days to recover. also, dont neglect your legs. working your legs will help you get big all over, trust me. if you are going to lift seriously, you will need protien to help the muscles recover and build. protien supplements come in all diff types. get whey protien. also the best time to ingest protien is right after you work out.
also the positive portion of the movement is not what builds. its the negative part of the movement. an example of this would be the following... you are lying on a bench doing bench presses. when you push the weight up away from you, that is the positive part of the movement. when you get to the top, and start to let the weight back down, that is the negative part of the movement. when you are letting the weight back down, go slowly controlling the weight. this is called a negative. dont be impressed by jackasses doing the movement all fast. the faster ya do a movement, the easier it is. that is because they are letting momentum do the work for them. they take super heavy weight and throw it around to make themselves feel better. if they try to 'control' the weight, they wont be able to lift it.
there is a time and placefor 'throwing' heavy weight around to help you get some funtional 'brute' type strength. by the time you are ready to do it, you will be teaching your friends how to properly workout. also, you can build explosive strength, meaning that you can develop fast twitch muscle fibers by lifting a certain way. building explosive strength will help in athletics, such as boxing wrestling and so forth. this will make it so that you can hit alot harder or grab ahold of someone so hard that they will think a fucking gorilla just snatched thier ass!! to build explosive power what you will want to do is when you are doing the positive portion of the movement you will want to literally explode with your muscles when you first start to push the weight. try to move as fast as you can when you first start to push that weight. but only do this right at the beginning of the push. dont do it all the way through the movement or you will hurt yourself by overextending, and fuckin up your joints.
by the time you get to this point you will know exactly what im talkin about. by then you will be an experienced weightlifter... good luck to you bro, and dont give up.
...... damn, now ya got me wantin ta go to da gym.