bruising and weight gain (HELP ME!)

[triskellin]

hi everyone. ok here's my situation... i've been training in kung fu for 4 yrs, but i'm really skinny and bruise easily. i'm 20, 172cm (5'7), and weigh 45-50kg (last count was 45kg, but i swear it's wrong cause i weighed 50 a few mths before that, and it's just too scary to think i could weigh any less! :( ) i'm convinced if i gain weight i'll bruise less, and even if i don't, i need to gain weight anyway! so, i was told by my sihing a few mths ago to take some protein drinks to help repair the muscles, therefore bruising less. but i saw some tablets made by musashi called muscle repair, so i was thinking of taking those instead. then i saw some weight gain mixes, and thought i might as well take those... add in my training, i'll have gain weight and have muscles. i'm not really caring about making muscles though, just getting fatter and bruising less in the meantime. but the musashi muscle repair tablets probably won't add any bulk onto me, so it's a toss up between protein mixes, or weight gain mixes. which one should i take?? i also bought 1000mg vitamin c tablets (guy at the store told me to buy those when i told him my situation, and no i don't think he was trying to rip me off, cause he also told me to get whey protein, but try the vitamin c [cheaper] first). those are meant to repair tissue as well, but i don't really know anything about these supplements, so any help would be great! :) thanks

[Ford Prefect]

Hey bud,

I wasn't quite as skinny as you, but I was pretty lean. I couldn't put on weight for the life of me besides an andro-cycle I did in college. Finally what it came down to is me cutting cardio for 3 months and upping my diet to 5,000-6,000 calories/day. After the few months were up I had gained 35+ pounds. Since then, I've weaned away the extra flab that I had picked up for a total of gaining about 30 lbs all together. The diet was the key:

3 meals a day
2-4 candy bars a day
4-6 meal shakes a day (including one right before lifting and one right after)

For meal shakes I used "N-Large" from Pro-lab. There's 600 calories, 50+ grams of protein, and plenty of BCAA's and other Amino Acids in each serving.

My wallet took a hit for a couple months, but I feel it was worth it. I was a lean and cut 155, and now I'm a lean and cut 185. I'm going to try it again starting next week to see if I can make it to 200.

[Repulsive Monkey]

Please domt take this as me having a dig at your Sifu, but from a chinese medicine point of view what he said will not guarantee as a remedy to your bruising question. Bruising easily is a common occurence that within Chinese Medicine is due to to a Spleen disharmony. So if this is the case (mind you im just saying IF!!!) then it may also explain why you are under weight oo as in CM the spleen more so than the stomach governs eating habits and assimilation of food in the body in general.
It might be more heathier to seek out some advice from a Chinese Doctor instead.

[wushu chik]

Hey Girl!!
I am with repulsive...he's got a point. I told you a long time ago to go get checked at the Dr's because some of the stuff we were talking about didn't seem quite right!! I hope you do it, because consistant bruising, especially severe, isn't good...and it means that theres something more wrong! Just bite the d@mn bullet and go see the doc. Anyways, hope everythings going well!
Love, Wen

[prana]

I was 58kgs and I'm about 180cms. When I was training, my body fat measured at around the 8% mark. It doesn't really matter.

But you should seek medical attention for your brusing.

[triskellin]

thanks ppl. but it wasn't my sifu who told me to take protein drinks, that was my sihing. i haven't talked to my sifu about the bruising, he'll just say to train harder! :p he has a mix of djj for the bruising, but that only heals the bruise, rather than stopping it from happening at all. and i am naturally skinny, it's always been that way. runs in the family!

i haven't gone to see a GP yet, i'm afraid he's going to draw blood for some kind of test :( and i need all the blood i have thanks very much! hehe. well i'll probably go see him soon, but yeah... everyone's telling me to eat lots of carbs and natural protein. but i do believe i have strong bones, i've always liked calcium foods, so delicious! but no meat round the bones!

[xiong]

I'm in the same boat as you. I bruise pretty easily and it's a bummer for training. I find that massage and Dit Da Jow on bruises are a necessity. You also have to modify your training so that you are not putting bruises on top of bruises. In my old school the made me sit out during Sam Sing if my arms still had bruises from the last week.

The weight thing is also a real problem for me. If you want to gain weight you have to increase your calories, period. The meal replacement shakes (protein,carbo, whatever) are a good way to get the calories you need without having to be constantly eating. I am 5'10 and 160 Lbs (sorry I can't do simple arithmatic to tell you how many cm and kg) and have a hell of a time gaining weight without just gaining fat.

As far as vitamins go they can only help. The water soluble vitamins, B and C are great and you can not overdose on them, you'll just excrete them if you eat too much. The Fat soluble vitamins, A and D in particular you need to be more careful about, those can get to toxic levels in your liver if you over do them.

Invest in a good multivitamin and the Vitamin C and go for some kind of shake to up you calories.

I take a Multivitamin, extra B vitamins and a protein shake after my workouts to combat mucle soreness. I also take some glucosamine/chondroitin tablets beacause my joints are starting to grate. Hang in there you can overcome this stuff, but you are probably never going to be 200Lbs of muscle.

[No_Know]

Eating lessoften might gain you weight. when you're hungry don't eat then when you feel that you'd really like to eat, don't. The third hunger pang Eat (eat whatever). after 1 hunger pang your body takes from your body store. After two hunger pangs your body would hord your intake under the programming that you're not getting nutrients so keep what it gets. Do this for several meals worth should begin to bulk~. Some such perhaps, it's a start.

Microwave a damp towel apply that to the bruises--heat might should disperse the dead blood.

[David]

This is my first post of the year so Happy New Year everyone. Live Long and Prosper!

There are 3 people close to me who bruise easily and exaggeratedly and two of them have problems with thin skin (ie cuts and scars). The two with the thin skin are on medications which cause it. One of those medications is to counter even worse side-effects of another medication.

I can't think of of Trisk's problem except as a medical issue requiring attention. But I wouldn't go to a Western doctor about it because they just load you up with side-effects in this area... Maybe it's spleen. Whatever, go check it out.

If you are bony then impacts on your flesh will likely bruise more because the flesh is between a punch and a hard place (bone).