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So often run into other guys who want to put on muscle. They express their frustration about lack of progress and use lame phrases like "I'm a hard gainer" , "I have bad genetics" or my favorite "I've tried everything and am about ready to get on steroids.
After listening to them rant on why they can't gain weight I usually ask two things:
1. Give me an overview of your training program
2. Give an overview of how you are eating
100 percent of the time when they lay these things out for me there are more holes in their methods than swiss cheese. Their methodology for gaining muscle just plain sucks and here is why:
They aren't willing to put in the work with their eating and training necessary to add lean mass.
So I'm going to lay it on the line here. What makes me such an expert? You might say. Back when I first started lifting weights I was 150 pounds soaking wet at 6 feet tall. Basically a pencil neck you might say.
Anyway through proper eating and training I went from that as a sophomore in high school to a 270 pound offensive lineman in college. Now I wasn't ripped not too many offensive lineman are but I did put on a lot of lean mass in the process. And when I peeled off the bulk after football for bodybuilding there was a lot of muscle there.
So no I'm not a physiology professor and I don't have PHD in exercise science but I do have real life experience combined with the science of the human body. I also made enough mistakes to tell you what doesn't work too.
So here are some fundamental concepts needed to truly add muscle. This week I'm going to cover nutrition and next week I will cover training.
#1 -Eat enough to gain mass. Too many guys want to stay really lean and aren't willing to gain a some bodyfat. Higher calories help your body stay in a positive nitrogen balance, raises anabolic hormone levels(insulin, IGf-1, testosterone). Generally you want to shoot for around 30% more calories than your maintenance level. So if you need 2,000 calories to maintain you need 2,600 to get this effect. You cannot I repeat cannot be worried about gaining a little fat. It goes with the territory. Generally about 60-65% of the weight you gain will be lean mass and you can peel the fat off by adjusting your diet and cardio. So if you gain 10 pounds after a mass building phase 6-6.5 pounds will be solid lean mass.
As with cutting you do not wan to skip meals. You have to keep your body in an anabolic state at all times to maximize recovery which equals more muscle gain.
As far as food goes I love to eat things like pancakes/waffles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, beef, and throw in some fat as well(butter, nuts). By doing this you will create a great anabolic environment fore growth. This doesn't mean eat fast food all the time. Focus on eating quality with your quantity.
Once again don't worry about maintaining washboard abs. That isn't the focus of this phase. The focus is adding lean mass so stick to the focus. We'll talk about the abs later.
Here is an example of what I do
Breakfast: 4:30am
8 eggs 4 whole 4 whites
1-2 large bowls of cereal or oatmeal
1 piece of fruit
Post-Workout 7:30am : Recovery shake from advocare
Snack 9:30am
2 Meal Replacement Bars
Lunch 12:30pm
Omelet with cheese
3-4 pancakes with butter and syrup
Potatoes or hash browns
Snack 3pm
Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich
1 Protein Bar
Dinner 6:30pm
8 oz beef
pasta
salad
nuts
Evening snack 9pm
Greek yogurt
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
#1- Take a good post-workout recover shake within 30 minutes of finishing your workout-
After giving your body the beat down it is screaming for nutrients and is in a primed state to absorb them. Kind of like a dry sponge in the middle of a bath tub. So you need to take full advantage of this short window of time which is essential for your body to switch from catabolic(breaking down) to anabolic(building up). You should take in a good post workout shake which contains high quality whey protein which has a full spectrum of amino acids as well as carbohydrates to refill taxed glycogen stores and prevent your body from breaking down protein(muscle) for energy. The protein provides branch chain amino acids leucine, valine and isoleucine as well as glutamine to help enhance growth and repair of muscles damage from intense training. Carbohydrates can be higher on the glycemic index to spike insulin which will increase of nutrients into the muscles cells an enhance absorption.
A few products I recommend are Max ARM from max muscle or Adovcare's post recover mix. You can also throw together your own mix using whey protein powder with fruit and juice or yogurt blended up. I choose liquid because it gets into the system faster. Timing is crucial when it comes to nutrition.
Take protein in just before bed
At night it essential to get quality sleep as well as stay in an anabolic environment where muscles grow and recover so it just makes sense to take in protein before turning in for the night. This is for two reasons.
1. Give your body something to digest throughout the night which will prevent it from going into a catabolic state. If you don't eat after 6pm like a lot of "experts" preach and you get up at 6 am then you have gone 12 hours without feeding your body forcing it into a starvation mode which will cause it to break down protein and is counter productive to muscle growth.
2. Keep blood sugar stable so you stay in deep REM sleep cycles where growth and repair occurs. One of the big reasons people wake up is low blood sugar which can interrupt sleep patterns that are essential to you recovering from training. Carbs tend to break down quickly(20-45 minutes) but protein takes much longer(1-4 hours) thus holding blood sugar stable for much longer than carbs would.
There are three solid eating tips that will put you on the way to gaining muscle. Whether you are eating to gain muscle or lean out 70-80% of the battle is eating to match your goals so take this part seriously and you will see serious results.
Next week I will discuss training concepts for putting on muscle mass.
So your first assignment is to stockpile your fridge with food an you will need a lot of it as well as get yourself a good protein supplement for night time and post workout formula for optimize recovery.
After listening to them rant on why they can't gain weight I usually ask two things:
1. Give me an overview of your training program
2. Give an overview of how you are eating
100 percent of the time when they lay these things out for me there are more holes in their methods than swiss cheese. Their methodology for gaining muscle just plain sucks and here is why:
They aren't willing to put in the work with their eating and training necessary to add lean mass.
So I'm going to lay it on the line here. What makes me such an expert? You might say. Back when I first started lifting weights I was 150 pounds soaking wet at 6 feet tall. Basically a pencil neck you might say.
Anyway through proper eating and training I went from that as a sophomore in high school to a 270 pound offensive lineman in college. Now I wasn't ripped not too many offensive lineman are but I did put on a lot of lean mass in the process. And when I peeled off the bulk after football for bodybuilding there was a lot of muscle there.
So no I'm not a physiology professor and I don't have PHD in exercise science but I do have real life experience combined with the science of the human body. I also made enough mistakes to tell you what doesn't work too.
So here are some fundamental concepts needed to truly add muscle. This week I'm going to cover nutrition and next week I will cover training.
#1 -Eat enough to gain mass. Too many guys want to stay really lean and aren't willing to gain a some bodyfat. Higher calories help your body stay in a positive nitrogen balance, raises anabolic hormone levels(insulin, IGf-1, testosterone). Generally you want to shoot for around 30% more calories than your maintenance level. So if you need 2,000 calories to maintain you need 2,600 to get this effect. You cannot I repeat cannot be worried about gaining a little fat. It goes with the territory. Generally about 60-65% of the weight you gain will be lean mass and you can peel the fat off by adjusting your diet and cardio. So if you gain 10 pounds after a mass building phase 6-6.5 pounds will be solid lean mass.
As with cutting you do not wan to skip meals. You have to keep your body in an anabolic state at all times to maximize recovery which equals more muscle gain.
As far as food goes I love to eat things like pancakes/waffles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, beef, and throw in some fat as well(butter, nuts). By doing this you will create a great anabolic environment fore growth. This doesn't mean eat fast food all the time. Focus on eating quality with your quantity.
Once again don't worry about maintaining washboard abs. That isn't the focus of this phase. The focus is adding lean mass so stick to the focus. We'll talk about the abs later.
Here is an example of what I do
Breakfast: 4:30am
8 eggs 4 whole 4 whites
1-2 large bowls of cereal or oatmeal
1 piece of fruit
Post-Workout 7:30am : Recovery shake from advocare
Snack 9:30am
2 Meal Replacement Bars
Lunch 12:30pm
Omelet with cheese
3-4 pancakes with butter and syrup
Potatoes or hash browns
Snack 3pm
Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich
1 Protein Bar
Dinner 6:30pm
8 oz beef
pasta
salad
nuts
Evening snack 9pm
Greek yogurt
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
#1- Take a good post-workout recover shake within 30 minutes of finishing your workout-
After giving your body the beat down it is screaming for nutrients and is in a primed state to absorb them. Kind of like a dry sponge in the middle of a bath tub. So you need to take full advantage of this short window of time which is essential for your body to switch from catabolic(breaking down) to anabolic(building up). You should take in a good post workout shake which contains high quality whey protein which has a full spectrum of amino acids as well as carbohydrates to refill taxed glycogen stores and prevent your body from breaking down protein(muscle) for energy. The protein provides branch chain amino acids leucine, valine and isoleucine as well as glutamine to help enhance growth and repair of muscles damage from intense training. Carbohydrates can be higher on the glycemic index to spike insulin which will increase of nutrients into the muscles cells an enhance absorption.
A few products I recommend are Max ARM from max muscle or Adovcare's post recover mix. You can also throw together your own mix using whey protein powder with fruit and juice or yogurt blended up. I choose liquid because it gets into the system faster. Timing is crucial when it comes to nutrition.
Take protein in just before bed
At night it essential to get quality sleep as well as stay in an anabolic environment where muscles grow and recover so it just makes sense to take in protein before turning in for the night. This is for two reasons.
1. Give your body something to digest throughout the night which will prevent it from going into a catabolic state. If you don't eat after 6pm like a lot of "experts" preach and you get up at 6 am then you have gone 12 hours without feeding your body forcing it into a starvation mode which will cause it to break down protein and is counter productive to muscle growth.
2. Keep blood sugar stable so you stay in deep REM sleep cycles where growth and repair occurs. One of the big reasons people wake up is low blood sugar which can interrupt sleep patterns that are essential to you recovering from training. Carbs tend to break down quickly(20-45 minutes) but protein takes much longer(1-4 hours) thus holding blood sugar stable for much longer than carbs would.
There are three solid eating tips that will put you on the way to gaining muscle. Whether you are eating to gain muscle or lean out 70-80% of the battle is eating to match your goals so take this part seriously and you will see serious results.
Next week I will discuss training concepts for putting on muscle mass.
So your first assignment is to stockpile your fridge with food an you will need a lot of it as well as get yourself a good protein supplement for night time and post workout formula for optimize recovery.
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