18-yr. old in search of weight training tips. PLEASE HELP!

First off welcome to AZ.
Now your not gonna be able to put on the mass you want and keep ripped. For the most part you need to Bulk then cut. So if you've hit a platue I'll tell ya it's in your diet.
Whats your diet like? We need to know your stats. weight;hieght. How much protine are ya taking in every day?
And yes you should Do mass excersizes; squats; bench; dead lifts; but you're also gonna have to do more.
Write out what your workout routine is like for us also!
This might not have been much help yet but we need more info. OK?

diet and rest are the main factors. put up what your diet is like and we can help you out with it. also make sure you get full 8 hours of sleep a night.

We need more information on your diet, and your routine. Other additional information such as height, weight which Doug mentioned would be helpful as well.

Welcome to AZ.

I'm making a habit of this but yet agian I agree with Doug!

We need more info on diet and stats. Stick mostly with big mass exersises and just add in a few isolation movements. Looks like you have had a good start and you are now definately in the right place.

Wobble

Welcome to AZ.

I'm making a habit of this but yet agian I agree with Doug!

We need more info on diet and stats. Stick mostly with big mass exersises and just add in a few isolation movements. Looks like you have had a good start and you are now definately in the right place.

Wobble

See reading all those muscle magazines is paying off for me! LOL

First off, I'm 5'11, 165 lbs. My diet consists of choice carbs (bread and pasta; I'm Italian), meats 3/4 times a week, and I choose to stray away from large quantities of junk food. I drink a lot of water, milk, and juices, and I try to take in the recommened amounts of food daily. I also take multivitamin supplements as well as calcium pills. I've been told to start taking amino acid pills (I've been told they are an all-natural suplement if you don't eat as much protein as necessary). My routine consists of mainly different bench varieties (2 sets of flat bench, 10 reps/1 set incline, 10 reps/1 set decline, 10 reps), inclined curls (Zottman stlye), hammer curls, overhead tricept presses, tricept pressdowns, and 3 max sets of pullups. I also do squats. I think my routine is all screwed up. I switch it up, but those are a lot of my mainstays. I've been doing those for a while now and that's what helped me gain much of my mass. How frequently should I be maxing out? What sort of exercises should I be performing, etc., etc. Now that I have my diet and routine posted, I'm hoping you can help more. I'm looking more than anything to gain all over mass, upper body and legs, in particular arms, chest, and back (that "V-ed" back that experienced lifters have is awesome), and if anyone has any good ab routines hook me up, too! It's winter over heer in Ohio so I'm more concerned with bulking up on muscle during the time being, not ripping it.

Hey Bro, I'm a hard gainer and about your size. Couple of simple things to do:
1) Eat 6 times per day. Small meals of course, keep your diet clean you want to bulk but not just gain a ton of fat. Whey protein is your best buy in a supplement. It's easy to chug down a couple protein drinks w/a bananna for potassium and fiber. That's how I get in 6x / day. allthewhey.com has whey for like $40 for 10 lbs. It has all the amino acids you need and lots of them.
2) Stick to the basic compound exercises for the large muscle groups. Don't worry about doing exotic odd exercises for small muscle groups, they're for the pros who are already huge and are sharpening up for competition. Add weight whenever you can- those 2.5 lb plates are your best friend in the gym. Throw a couple on whenever you can.
3) Like everyone says, get plenty of sleep. It's essential to any sustained growth.
4) You're doing the right thing. At your age and stats you can make MUCH progress naturally.

Good luck.

Welcome to AZ Bro! I also train naturally and have made great progress I have to give a big bump to harleyez his advice is strong but I got a good work out routine that first made me swell up and will pm it to you tomorrow.

Welcome to AZ geezer,

First off well done on your continuing dedication to train these past two years. Coming here is obviously a sure sign your still committed.

Bump the guys on their advice and as they said, providing us with some more details would be advantages so we can set our advice to suit your requirements.

Also, I'm happy to hear your not thinking of using the chemical enhancements such as gear....at your age test is flowing freely and your hitting the age where with help, you will grow outwards rather than upwards.

You will need to firstly choose a good training routine one which is solid and doesnt involve thousands of different exercises, keep it simple. Strict slow form is the key and pushing yourself everytime will initiate growth. Keep to using basic compound movements, such as, deadlifts, bench press, squats, biceps curls, tricep pushdwons and dips, less machines and more press work on bars and dumbells.

There must of course be the second major important factor in place. You MUST train your stomach! When I say this, I refer to eating. Eat a minimum of 6 meals a day, and eat as much in those meals as you can, but, clean food. When using gear I find you can get away with the less clean diet. Training naturally, you must eat with caution. If you don't eat enough or correctly,....don't bother training, growth will be slow if not non-existant.

Also, sleep and rest. don't overtrain and drink plenty of H2O. Begin using protein or weightgainer supplements but try to use them as supplementation to your meals rather than meal replacements....but if you only got time to down a shake then don't miss that op'. Add, oatmeal to your shakes and blend it up, nice and smooth. Also add some olive oil to it, good quality stuff, two or three tablespoons...extra calories. Try some creatine?

Goodluck...