Just an invitation to share with the online community.  What works for you when you are trying to achieve your goals?  How did you gain muscle?  How did you achieve that lean midsection?  Fill us in and give us tips that we can use to achieve similar results!

Building muscle requires enough rest (sleep and muscle group rest), enough of the right kind of food and relatively low reps (start at 5 or 6 reps with a new weight) with continual increase in weight every 1-3 weeks.  That basic recipe has helped a lot of people get started so they can start seeing a size increase.

For a lean mid-section, your belly can really show what (and how much) you eat... you could be ripped, but if you have belly fat covering up hard-earned ab muscles, no one will know.  Basic sound nutritional habits of not eating 4 hours before you go to bed, eating a breakfast with carbs and protein every day, and keeping your calories in line with your goals can do wonders .  And remember, don't starve yourself; if you do - your body will tend to store more of what you eat as fat when you do eat.

Once you have the basics down - you can tweak to what works for you. Personally, for me, it's mostly about the calories and enough sleep.

I've put on a lot of muscle by with a five-by-five protocol and big full-body lifts like the deadlift, hang and snatch, hang clean and press and squats.  I had to start light with plenty of support exercises, but the progress has been steady and dramatic.

My personal recommendation is to get weight training books from the library and read up.  Throw out all of your preconceived ideas about lifting, design an evidence-based six-month plan, buy a notebook and track every single lift!