Best beginners advice for MASS

So in all honestly I'm quite fed up with beginners giving other beginners (really
bad) advice. So here's what I've experienced myself and what worked really well-

Because I know some people are going to criticize me without reading anything of
it- this is how it will go:
If you're really that tempted to complain about my legit advice and moan about how
a PPL or 5x5 routine is better, go on (a PPL routine could work though, more about
this further in this thread). But post a picture of yourself in the same comment
showing the results of that split you followed to prove it's better than what I'm
writing here.
I'm only here trying to help and I'm done arguing with the same people over and
over again.

So, first of all, how do you create more muscle mass?

Your muscles are built out of muscle fibers. When putting stress on a muscle it
causes tiny tears in the fibers. When you're done with your workout your body will
start recovering and repairing the damage, this is the process we call protein
synthesis, if you really want a fancier word.
The result of this protein synthesis is that the body doesn't just repair itself,
but it'll create more muscle fibers than it originally had, resulting in mass &
strength gain.

What workout split and routine?+ Understanding your genetics

First things first. A workout split is the program you're following.

For PPL this would be:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders, triceps
Day 2: Back, biceps, traps
Day 3: Quads, hamstrings, calves (legs)

A routine is the specific amount of exercises you do on a single day, along with
the amount of sets (and eventually reps).
A rep is performing the exercise one time. Eg. 1 dumbbell curl
A set is performing the exercise for multiple reps after another.
So 3 sets of 10 rep dumbbell curls would be: 10 times a dumbbell curl, rest a bit,
again 10 times a dumbbell curl, rest a bit, then a final time 10 times dumbbell
curl.

This is an example of one of my leg routines.

A warmup set means an easy set with light weight, not meant to burn the muscle but
just to get them used to the movement, along with your joints.
A working set means a normal set with an x amount of reps.
A dropset means performing an exercise for an x amount of reps, then dropping the
weight so you'll be able to perform even more reps.
A superset means performing 2 exercises in a row without rest time.

What workout split should you follow?

This is where your genetics come in handy. This is predetermined and cannot be
changed, so live with them.
Some people might develop great shoulders by training them only once a week, while
other people might need to train them twice or even three times a week before
noticing a difference.
You won't know whether you have good or bad genetics until around half a year of
serious lifting, where you've probably already developed quite a bit of muscle and
might notice some weird proportions. Until that time you should follow a
recommended split of your choice (I listed some in the end of this thread+ an
explanation of why a beginner/full body workout isn't efficient).

After those 6 months:

Back is lacking? Train it more! Legs are lacking? Train it more!

Bringing us by a very important subject: personalization.

Everyone has lacking body parts. In my gym I hear nothing else than people
complaining about 'damn I wish I had better shoulders' or 'damn my legs are being
overshadowed'.
It's simple. Train it more! You'll notice differences after a couple of weeks.
Personalize your split.

Please keep in mind that:

-Muscles take at least 2 days to fully recover

-You hit certain muscle groups together with other muscle groups (eg triceps and
front deltoids with chest)

-Soreness doesn't matter BUT is an indication of a well-trained muscle

-Legs should always be trained alone, without involving other muscle groups

-It's a bad idea to train two big muscle groups together (Say no to chest & back
day, or legs & shoulders day)

-Bigger muscle groups require more sets and exercises to tear down to it's
potential towards smaller muscle groups
My personal recommendations are 4-6 exercises of 4-5 sets each for chest,
shoulders, back and triceps/2-4 exercises for biceps/1-2 exercises for traps &
calves

-A workout (without cardio) should last between 45-90 minutes

-Rest time between sets should be 30-90 seconds, depending on how you'll feel (make
sure your heartbeat and respiration has recovered)

-Keep your rep range higher than 5, but lower than 30. If you're planning on
performing an exercise for 10 amount of reps but you can do 12 or 14, don't stop
but go for it!

The same goes for your routine.

Unlike a split a routine can be personalized after around a month after you began
lifting. Why? Because you'll almost directly notice if it works or not. The first
weeks your body still needs to adjust to the new physical activities and not every
exercise will feel quite as good as another. Give it at least a month before
starting to adjust your routine.
An exercise feels well? Keep on doing it! You don't feel the muscles working or you
feel the wrong muscle working? Abandon it. Bodybuilding.com offers a big arsenal of
different kinds of exercise for each specific muscle group, feel free to
experiment! http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

Now we got that let's hop to nutrition!

Your body has three kinds of 'main nutrients' it needs to recover your muscles:
Proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is a group we call macros.
Now you might be suprised and even disagree with me, but it's the truth:
don't.bother.tracking.your.macros. The only time you should do this is for fun or
checking if it has the right proportions:
Fats<Proteins<Carbohydrates

I will tell you this: it won't be that easy. You will have to make a difference
between carbohydrates and carbohydrates.
Sugar from candy is also considered 'carbohydrates' but aren't beneficial to your
body and recovery process. So this is what you'll do: abandon chips. Abandon candy.
Abandon every 'bad' food if you really want to get serious. Of course you're a
teen, so on occasional activies or events (birthdays, parties, whatever) or one
time a week you have a bit of a cheat meal (if you really need it). But most of the
time you should stay consistent with the 'good' kind of food and make sure your
body has all the nutrients it needs. I rather eat too much than too less.

For skinny people: DON'T slow down on the food! Eat as much food as you can and/or
want as long as it has good nutrients for your body. You won't get fat, as this
'healthy' kind of food contains a lot less calories.

For the skinny fat people: Don't slow down on the food as well, really. What you
should do though it keeping intensity high every workout and doing 15-20 minutes of
cardio post-workout. As long as you don't cheat on your diet and only eat food
beneficial for your body you will decrease in fat & increase in muscle mass.

You DO NOT want to aim for an increase/decrease of weight! You want to aim for an
increase of muscle mass and a decrease of fat mass. Weight loss IS NOT the same as
fat loss! Doing too much cardio will burn muscle instead of fat.

Recommended splits for complete beginners (before personalization):

PPL (Push, Pull & Legs)
Day 1: Chest, shoulders & triceps
Day 2: Back, biceps & traps
Day 3: Quads, hamstrings & calves

You can take one rest day now and repeat the split, or repeat the split twice
before taking a rest day, it depends on how your body recovers. If you're still too
sore just take as much time as you need to completely recover, you don't want to
overtrain.

The 4 day split I started with and still do today:

Day 1: Back, biceps & traps
Day 2: Shoulders & triceps
Day 3: Quads, hamstrings & calves
Day 4: Chest
Day 5: Rest day
Repeat

This is almost the same as the PPL split, but push day is split up in 2 days. Feel
free to swap muscle groups between day 2 and 4 depending on your focus. (You'll see
my version of this split below)
Again, take the fifth day off if you want or if you feel good repeat the split
twice and then take a day off.

I do NOT recommend full body workouts! Obviously you'll see results but it doesn't
matter what you do, you'll see results anyway the first couple of months of
lifting.
With full body workouts you barely damage the muscle fibers enough to gain muscle
mass, because you train too much at the same time thus perform less exercises &
sets for every muscle group.

I also don't recommend a 5x5 program as this is for strength, not muscle mass.

Personal
THIS IS PERSONAL! Don't take this as advice or don't copy everything that's below
this sentence.

Here are my macros I've kept myself to from the moment I started lifting (1 year
ago):
3230kcal
56g fats
411g carbs
221g proteins

By not eating any single cheat meal I consume a significant small amount of fats
while my carb and protein intake definitely shoots above average.

This is my split:
Day 1: Back & biceps
Day 2: Chest & triceps
Day 3: Quads, hamstrings & calves
Day 4: Shoulders & traps
Day 5: Rest day

In one year I dropped my fat percentage with 2% and gained more than 28lbs of lean
muscle mass.

So yeah, good luck and I can only wish you all good gains. ^^