The straight truth and nothing but the truth about gaining muscle part 2



When it comes to training let's face it there are a lot of weenies out there.  They make a lot of noise and draw a lot of attention but their training is weak. 

I've talked to many so called hard gainers but really the other problem aside from poor nutrition is a weak training plan. 

So here are some fundamentals you need to have in place if you want to see muscle gain.

Train your legs. Make them a priority.
Doing the leg extension machine supersetting with leg curls does not count.  That's the poser workout.  Do you want to be the stereotypical guy with a big upper body and tooth pick legs.  This means you do squats and I mean real squats not smith machine squats and or hack squats. Real get under the bar , gut buster squats.  No they won't hurt your back and knees if you do them right.  A good flexibility and mobility warm up will make you squat better and safer.

When I was first lifting weights I was 150 pounds soaking wet. My first year I tried to do leg extensions and leg curls with leg press. Yeah I know pathetic. Anyway I gained 15 pounds mostly in my upper body and still had toothpick legs.  I got smart and added squats in my second year of training. I gained 4 inches on my thighs and 25 pounds of solid muscle. 

Squats also stoke up your anabolic hormones in your body.  So you promote muscle growth all over.  Also throw in some unilateral leg work such as single leg- leg press or split squats.  Stiff leg deadlifts are good for hamstring and glute development as well.  I also like to do some plyometrics like hops on one leg holding  a dumbbell along or box jumps for calf development.  After all those things then you can throw in some leg extensions and leg curls as icing on the cake.   Train your legs hard and you'll see your whole body change you will also be able to wear shorts without looking like an asymmetrical freak.

Use split days that promote recovery not overtraining
Another thing that is counterproductive is training back one day and then biceps the next or chest one day and shoulders the next day.  Really your delts get taxed with chest work as do your triceps do so do them all on one day so that they can recover together. 

Remember muscle gain is about putting the hurt on your muscles and allowing them to recover.  Work your biceps with your upper back and delts and triceps with your chest so you are not tearing them down the next day.

Here is a split I like to use:

Day 1- Push(Chest, Delts, Triceps)
Day 2-Legs(Remember make them a priority so give them their own day)
Day 3-Pull(Back, Biceps, Throw in abs as well)


Prioritize Compound Movements Over Isolation Movements
Always start with multi joint movements such as squats, presses, rows and finish with single joint isolation exercises like bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, leg extensions etc.

Increase Training Volume Workout To Workout
Volume is the key to muscle growth to accomplish this use 3-4 sets and 6-12 reps for each exercise.  Keep a training log so you make sure you are always increasing the total volume of the workout.

Here is how you figure out volume for each exercise
Sets x reps x reps= volume for that exercise

Example  Bench press 200 lbs 3 sets of 10=  6,000(total volume)

Add up the total exercises so you can figure out the total volume per exercise. Every workout you should see this number increase.


Limit Cardio
Keep focus on what the goal is. Muscle gain. Don't rob Peter to pay Paul. Too much cardio will work against your muscle development efforts.  If you must do cardio limit it to 3x/week for 20-30 minutes keeping the heart rate under 120 beats per minute.  Intense cardio will break you down and interfere with your body's ability to recover


There you go those are some solid tips to get started. If you need more guidance on setting up this type of  phase you can email me at info@puravidafitness.com  I'll be happy to lay out a routine for you. 

The bottom line is train hard,  allow time for recovery and don't try to skate around the tough exercises. The hardest exercises yield the best results.

Next week I will go over the X-factors in part three of this blog series.