Gaining Lean Muscle Mass

Well here it is my first post.
I know why you’re reading this. It seems like everything you try to do to gain weight isn’t working. By weight I mean lean muscle mass. No one wants to put on fat. I know how you feel, I’ve been there. In high school I never topped the scales at more than 168lbs. At 5’10” that’s thin for a football player. No matter what I ate, drank, how hard I worked out it seemed like I couldn’t put on the extra muscle I wanted.
Until about a year ago. At the time I was injured, (I had a torn ACL), depressed and pissed. It was January 2009. I had to make it through the spring semester to get my reconstructive surgery. I knew that after my surgery from muscle atrophy I was going to lose a lot of weight, but more importantly muscle mass. Not only that in the months prior to my surgery I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything physical, except one thing; weight train. From February-May 10th I went from 154lbs to 178lbs. My squat increased by 125lbs and my bench press by 60lbs. I put on 24lbs of lean muscle mass, oh and I kept my six pack.
I set up a program with a list of goals and followed it religiously.
MY GOALS
1. To Gain 1-3lbs a week
2. To gain strength
3. To be in the best shape possible for my surgery.
MY PROGRAM
The main thing I really stressed in my program is that as important as my work outs were they were NOT the most important aspect of my training. Seeing results, whether its gaining lean muscle mass or losing weight, there is 3 parts that are equally important Nutrition, Exercise and Rest.
1. I ate 6-7 meals a day. 2 of the 6-7 were 12oz shakes that I took before and after a workout. Every meal I tried to eat as much as possible.
2. Rest I forced myself to get at least 8hrs of sleep a night. So I was normally in bed by 10-1030pm.
3. I worked out during the week 4-5 days focusing on specific muscle groups using compound exercises. 3x a week I did Core circuits.
4. I never let a work out go over 2 hours.
I have no intention of trying to sell any of the information that works for me. I’m using this as a motivator and a personal outlet. The other reason because if I had know what I know now in High School I wouldn’t have always been so worried about my weight I could get the results I wanted. Hopefully my information will help you out.
I’m not going to hold out any secrets and there wasn’t any special formula beside what I stuck to in my program. I’ll be trying to update my blog every 2 weeks. I’ll upload all of the information from my first tour at gaining weight as soon as I can then I will start blogging about my current goal.

Edit: I crossed out the lean muscle mass after stating I gained 24lbs. For a few reasons but yes I gained 24lbs. Yes, I kept my six pack. But I kept my BF% the same. What that means is explained in a more recent post found here.