DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 18, just graduated from high school and want to build a better body. If you saw me, you’d say I was scrawny. Everyone does. My father is on the large size and has always been a good athlete. He’s encouraging me, and says I can have half the garage to use for a gym.

I plan to buy a set of barbells and dumbbells, but I don’t know much about building muscles. Will you give me some pointers? — R.J.

ANSWER: The best tip I can give you is to buy, if the cost is not too steep, a book called Encyclopedia of Muscle and Strength, by Jim Stoppani, Ph.D. The publisher is Human Kinetics. No, wait. First visit your local library and see if it has a copy. It clearly describes the physiology of muscle-building, and has great photographs of how to perform a large number of exercises.

Start your program with weights you can comfortably lift eight times consecutively. Each of those eight lifts is called a repetition, or rep, and the eight lifts together constitute a set. Rest for two minutes, and then perform a second set. Take another two-minute break and do a third set. When you can do with ease three sets of 12 reps, increase the weight and go back to eight reps.

Vary your program by adjusting the rest time you take between sets. After five minutes, your muscles have regained 99 percent of the energy they need. After two and half minutes of rest, they have regained 95 percent of their energy. After one minute, they’ve regained 75 percent of the energy they just expended. Two minutes is a good rest time. However, you can vary your program by decreasing or increasing the rest time or by increasing or decreasing the weight load. It’s good to do this after two months of one program. Your muscles need to adapt to a different regimen in order to stay challenged and to grow. You even can decrease the weight and greatly increase the number of reps. That kind of program builds endurance.

You also have to adopt a different diet to support this new demand on your body to support muscle growth.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I’m 79 years old, and I have indulged in weight training off and on for more than 50 of those years. I still manage to work out three or four times a week. Obviously I cannot manage the weights I used to use, and I shun free weights now in favor of the machines.

Recently I have been apprised of a health drink with HMB. It’s ballyhooed to renew muscle building in older people. What is your take on it? — J.B.

ANSWER: My reflex response to most muscle-building and performance-enhancing supplements is one of skepticism.

HMB, hydroxyl methyl butyrate, is alleged to slow muscle protein breakdown and enhance muscle protein synthesis. Some scientific evidence supports this claim. I don’t find any serious side effects from the substance.

If you want to try it, go ahead. It won’t hurt, except for the cost. How about writing me back in two months and letting me know the results?

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: As an early-morning distance runner, what kind of meal should I eat before running? And I have heard that eating soon after running is a healthy thing to do. Is it? — W.W.

ANSWER: How “early” is “early morning”? If you have a full hour before the run, eat a small meal, with emphasis on carbohydrates — fruits, whole grains and beans. Don’t eat fatty foods or fiber. It takes them longer to exit the stomach.

Within 30 minutes to an hour after your run, take in 75 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of protein. An 8-ounce glass of chocolate milk or a cup of yogurt-containing fruit will be fine. Protein is more readily incorporated into muscles at this time, and carbohydrate stores are more readily replenished then.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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