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Top Ten Strategies for DramaticMuscle Growth
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Eat!
?
I hear it all the time, ?but I alreadyeat a ton and don?t grow!? Usually after a 3 day diet log is written down, andactual calories counted, the total isn?t nearly enough for quick muscle growth.How do you know how much is enough? Well first off you have to determine yourresting metabolic rate (RMR), which is as follows:
?
RestingMetabolic Rate for Athletes (in calories per day) = 500 + 22 x fat free mass(in kilograms).
So for meat 176lbs and 8-9%BF that equals 80kg-7kg = 500 + 22 x 73 = 2100.
Not a lothuh? Well that?s if you stayed in bed all day. For a general office or schooldaily activity you have to multiply that number by 1.5. If you dig ditches allday, by 2.0. If it falls somewhere in between, you multiply by 1.7. Thisdoesn?t include your exercise sessions. So now we have 1.5 x 2100 = 3150. Nowit?s starting to add up.
Now add inyour workout activity, which is determined by this formula:
Cost ofExercise Activity = Body Mass (in kg) x Duration (in hours) x MET value. And abasic MET value would be 10 for moderate cardio and 5 for a decent weightworkout.? So for cardio and weight daysfor me that would give me:
80kg x 0.5hours x 10 = 400 calories
80kg x 1.0hours x 5 = 400 calories
So now weget a grand total of 3550 calories, and that?s just to MAINTAIN current musclemass. You need a surplus of 15% of calories to support muscle growth underintense training. This is about an extra 550 calorie surplus needed for growth.That leaves me with around 4100 calories a day needed to grow!? What?s this tell the lifter looking for rapidgrowth? Figure out what you?re typically eating now, calculate the number ofcalories you really need to pack on muscle, which the first is usually too low,and grab a fork.
?
2.???? Protein, Protein,Protein.
Mostlifters know, that protein is key to muscle growth, and many already know ofthe 1.0g/ lb of bodyweight recommendations. Well that?s a start, but for thosetraining intensely the requirement should be more around 1.2g/lb of bodyweight,so for a 200lb guy that?s 240g of protein a day. Think more is better, notalways, after about 1.5g/ lb of bodyweight, it becomes more difficult to justconsume that much, and with adequate carb and fat intake it?s just more energy yourbody will spend breaking the excess down for energy, energy that shouldn?t bewasted. Always make sure you include both fast and slow proteins. The whey vs.casein battle of which is better has been beaten to death. Which is it? BOTH!Whey only is best used post-workout to promote anabolism due to its speed ofdigestion and getting into the bloodstream to muscle tissue needing aminos forrecovery.? Casein only is best beforebedtime, when you want a slow digested protein that will prevent catabolism duringsleep. And a mixture of the two is best for protein intake during the rest ofthe day for growth to fill in the gaps when regular food intake isn?tpossible.? Always eat lean qualityprotein at every meal to give the body adequate protein. Adding in qualityplain yogurt with active cultures and a few bites of pineapple will help withprotein digestion and breakdown, especially when on a higher calorie diet.
3.???? Nutrients combinationsand timing, Massive Eating style.
Eatinghigh calories all the time at first will put on size, especially if you wereunder eating to begin with, and these tips aren?t for bulking, the train heavyand eat everything in sight to hope to gain. They?re for quality lean musclegain in the quickest time possible. So to avoid fat gain while still trying toeat to grow, a strategy taken from the Massive Eating Plan of not combininghigh amounts of carbs and fats in the same meal is used. This helps controlinsulin and fat storage, but keeps you on the road to growth. Those unfamiliarwith the concept, it?s basically eat a high amount of quality protein andeither choose a healthy fat or quality carbohydrate as a fuel source, whereeither of the two is the dominant source of energy. Those trying to gainmuscle, will primarily be eating low-fat, high quality carb meals with protein.Of the typical 6-7 meals a day needed for growth, only 2-3 will be primarilyfat and protein meals. The 1-2 meals leading up to your workout, this is tocontrol insulin, which blunts GH release if it?s in high concentrations in yourbloodstream prior to resistance exercise. This can be as easy as a proteinshake with a handful of almonds or flax oil mixed in. The other meal offat-protein, should be taken before bed. Since during sleep you primarily burnfat for energy and you?re not going to be eating for 6-8 hours, you want adense fuel source, such as fat to last that time period. It also helps slowdown the digestion and emptying of the stomach, making the protein you ingestwith it take longer to digest, staving off catabolism as long as possible. Alsoagain, having a large surge of insulin from carbohydrates before bed will bluntGH release, which during REM sleep is the highest during the day.
4.???? Cycle in a Low-CarbDay
A secondstrategy to promote primary muscle gain over bulking is to cycle in a low-carbday into the mix. Low carb is for dieting right? At first the surplus incalories will promote growth, but after about the 10-14 day mark, your bodytends to adapt and where at first it was mostly muscle gain, it will becomemore a 50/50 muscle/fat gain. Just like in dieting for fat-loss where you havea cheat day or re-feed to prevent leptin drops and a slow down in fat-loss. Theopposite can be true, by having a constant high intake of calories and carbohydrates,your muscles can become insensitive to the constant surges in insulin and yourfed-state from leptin will become less sensitive, making it harder to be hungryenough to keep eating to grow. So cycling in a low-carb day, where the bulk ofyour carbs will only be consumed post-workout, can be used. Even better, isscheduling this day on your rest day, and just eating carbohydrates forbreakfast for energy for the day. What this does, is give your body a breakfrom high insulin, start to deplete your glycogen stores and if any excesscarbs are starting to be converted and stored as body fat, that process ishalted. You?ll also be more primed to your hunger signals with Leptinmanipulation. This doesn?t mean to cut your calories for the day. Though it willbe a lower calorie day with your carbs going from 400g down to less then 200gfor the typical lifter, they will be made up with healthy, calorie dense fatsand protein can be boosted to 1.5-2.0g per lb of bodyweight for the day. Thisprimes your muscles to soak up the next day of high calorie and carbs, andstarting the anabolic environment again. The low-carb and lower calorie day,gives you a day to also do some light cardio and burn a little extra fat thatyou may have gained so far, since insulin is low for the whole day. How oftenshould this happen??? Well it depends on how easy you tend to put on fat, sothe slower metabolisms, this can be done about every 4 days, or 1-2 times aweek, which usually will fall into the off/rest days of most mass buildingworkouts. For the leaner hard-gainer, once a week or 1-2 low-carb days every 12days to finish out an eating to grow 2 week period.
5.???? The More Often, theBetter.
In orderto grow, you have to train the body as often as possible. This goes againstmost bodybuilding theories, that you need lots of rest to grow, which is true.Especially when training to failure all the time, which causing a great deal oftrauma to muscle, requiring a lot of rest to recover. This may incur growth,but it also hinders how often you can train. By not going to failure andtraining to give enough stimulus for growth, but not so intense that you haveto wait a week for recovery, you can squeeze in extra workouts and moreopportunities to stimulate muscle growth. By not training to extreme failure,you also keep the nervous system from becoming overstressed, hindering recoveryand the frequency that you can train (i.e. overtraining). Training everythingtwice a week is the goal. This can be obtained with a two-day split, an upper-bodyday and a lower body day, done back to back with a day of rest in between theseries. If you?re sore too much, that?s more from not eating enough carbs andprotein, then from training too often.
6.???? Make Each Rep Count
Toadequately stimulate a muscle, you need to flex your muscles from the beginningof the rep to the end of it. This creates a maximum hypertrophy stimulusthroughout the entire range of motion of the exercise. When doing isolationexercises, a peak contraction technique can be used, which is holding the peakcontraction for a total of 2-3 seconds on every rep of the set. This type ofcontraction increases the intra-muscular tension during the set, allowing moreforce to be generated during regular, sub-maximal sets. These techniques willhelp ensure all reps performed are of high quality. Try and do endless repsusing these techniques, you won?t last long, which leads us to the next tip.
7.???? Hit All Your Fibers
Maximumgrowth in the shortest amount o time can only be done if you every fiber type. Sinceevery muscle is composed of both fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers you have totrain both types to incur maximum growth. This can be easily accomplished byusing a heavy day/ light day training style, with set and rep totals remainingconstant. Meaning with a set/rep scheme total of around 30, you either choose a5x5 for heavy days and 3x10 or 2x15 for light days. What?s this mean? You caneither train heavy or long, but you can?t train heavy AND long (i.e.overtraining). So high volume/low reps, or low volume/high reps. With the 2 daysplit of upper-body lower body as an example, the following can be used to hitall fiber types:
DAY 1 ?Upper Body (Heavy) - 5x5
DAY 2 ?Lower Body (Light) - 2x15
DAY 3 ?Off
DAY 4 ?Upper Body (Light) ? 2x15
DAY 5 ? LowerBody (Heavy) ? 5x5
You alsohave to structure your workout to hit the deep reserve fibers, to fullystimulate the muscle tissue. To accomplish this, a stretch movement should beincluded in your workout. By doing this, the nervous system will activate moremotor units. Thus more muscle fibers will be recruited and research has shownthis to be a muscle hypertrophy and even hyperplasia (cell splitting) stimulus.Stretch exercises, where the muscle is in a stretched position at the beginningof the exercise are best used after compound movements to further recruit motorunits after most have been recruited in the large compound movement.
8.???? Focus on the Pump
Arnoldsaid it was better then sex, well the jury is still out on that one, but thepump is still a major signal of growth. It?s not the end all be all of musclegrowth, but for fast gains, you want as much blood pumping nutrients into yourmuscle fibers. This is the basis of all the NO2 products on the market. BeyondArginine-AKG, exercise is still the best pump promoter. This can beaccomplished by either doing agonist/antagonist muscle group supersets, or bydoing triple sets as a finisher on the last set of a specific body part. Thisis done in two ways. Either by doing an extended set of 5 reps in good form,resting 10-15 seconds, doing 5 more, rest and 5 more, or by dropping the weightwith no rest in between each of the 5 rep portions of the set.
?
9.????The Power of H2O andSupplements
Yes,everyone knows you?re supposed to drink more water. It?s even more importantwhen trying to gain maximum muscle size, since it?s needed for every chemicalreaction in the body, including growth. Also, with the high amount of protein,which has a mild diuretic effect, extra water is needed to maintain hydration,and keep catabolism at bay as much as possible. Other non-androgen supplementsthat can boost muscle growth are R-ALA taken before high carb meals other thenpost-workout to shuttle nutrients into muscle tissue. CLA is also beneficial togain muscle. That?s a fat burner you say? Well actually it?s a nutrientpartitioner that shuttles nutrients to muscle and away from fat. So CLA hasmore of a benefit taken during a high calorie diet, to prevent excess fat gainfrom the extra calories, dosing of 3-6g a day is best. Of course there?s theking of all mass building supplements, creatine. A 2-5g daily dose of creatinemonohydrate is enough. Buffered Kre-Alkyln and creatine malate allow forgreater creatine absorption. BCAA?s pre and post workout help promoteanabolism, since they are directly metabolized in the muscle tissue. HMB ametabolite of is a beneficial mass builder for the new lifter that has lessthen 6 months of training.
?
?The Post Workout Window
?
The one hour period following anintense workout is a critical period. Muscles are in a high catabolicbreakdown, but are also primed to be very anabolic if key factors are involved.No other period is more important then the 60 minutes following a workout andup to 3 hours after. During the first 60 minutes easy to digest protein and keyaminos combined with high glycemic carbs are essential. High glycemic carbssuch as dextrose and maltodextrin are best used to replenish glycogen storesover fructose or high-fructose corn syrup. This will stimulate a large insulinresponse causing an anabolic state storing carbs as muscle glycogen and drivingprotein and key aminos into muscle tissue for repair and growth. Whey isolateand hydrosylates are best used post workout for their easy assimilation andquick entry into the blood stream. A formula for a post-workout drink is a 2:1or up to 3:1 carbohydrate: protein ratio of the drink that will harness thepower of insulin and drive nutrient delivery. The following 2-3 hours after aworkout are a high growth period and if the carb and fat rules are to berelaxed, this is the time. The key focus is quality calories and protein, up toa full third of your total day?s calories and protein should be consumed withinthis 3 hour period. This will saturate the body with nutrients for a largeanabolic surge. So the time to go to the all you can eat buffet is during thistime, but try to watch the fat, carb combos if you can.
?
?
Well there are 10 key strategies to promote the fastest growth ofmuscle possible and minimizing fat gain. In the end, consistency is truly thekey and sticking to well planned diet and workout plan will be the differenceof reaching your physique goals.
?
?
Eat!
?
I hear it all the time, ?but I alreadyeat a ton and don?t grow!? Usually after a 3 day diet log is written down, andactual calories counted, the total isn?t nearly enough for quick muscle growth.How do you know how much is enough? Well first off you have to determine yourresting metabolic rate (RMR), which is as follows:
?
RestingMetabolic Rate for Athletes (in calories per day) = 500 + 22 x fat free mass(in kilograms).
So for meat 176lbs and 8-9%BF that equals 80kg-7kg = 500 + 22 x 73 = 2100.
Not a lothuh? Well that?s if you stayed in bed all day. For a general office or schooldaily activity you have to multiply that number by 1.5. If you dig ditches allday, by 2.0. If it falls somewhere in between, you multiply by 1.7. Thisdoesn?t include your exercise sessions. So now we have 1.5 x 2100 = 3150. Nowit?s starting to add up.
Now add inyour workout activity, which is determined by this formula:
Cost ofExercise Activity = Body Mass (in kg) x Duration (in hours) x MET value. And abasic MET value would be 10 for moderate cardio and 5 for a decent weightworkout.? So for cardio and weight daysfor me that would give me:
80kg x 0.5hours x 10 = 400 calories
80kg x 1.0hours x 5 = 400 calories
So now weget a grand total of 3550 calories, and that?s just to MAINTAIN current musclemass. You need a surplus of 15% of calories to support muscle growth underintense training. This is about an extra 550 calorie surplus needed for growth.That leaves me with around 4100 calories a day needed to grow!? What?s this tell the lifter looking for rapidgrowth? Figure out what you?re typically eating now, calculate the number ofcalories you really need to pack on muscle, which the first is usually too low,and grab a fork.
?
2.???? Protein, Protein,Protein.
Mostlifters know, that protein is key to muscle growth, and many already know ofthe 1.0g/ lb of bodyweight recommendations. Well that?s a start, but for thosetraining intensely the requirement should be more around 1.2g/lb of bodyweight,so for a 200lb guy that?s 240g of protein a day. Think more is better, notalways, after about 1.5g/ lb of bodyweight, it becomes more difficult to justconsume that much, and with adequate carb and fat intake it?s just more energy yourbody will spend breaking the excess down for energy, energy that shouldn?t bewasted. Always make sure you include both fast and slow proteins. The whey vs.casein battle of which is better has been beaten to death. Which is it? BOTH!Whey only is best used post-workout to promote anabolism due to its speed ofdigestion and getting into the bloodstream to muscle tissue needing aminos forrecovery.? Casein only is best beforebedtime, when you want a slow digested protein that will prevent catabolism duringsleep. And a mixture of the two is best for protein intake during the rest ofthe day for growth to fill in the gaps when regular food intake isn?tpossible.? Always eat lean qualityprotein at every meal to give the body adequate protein. Adding in qualityplain yogurt with active cultures and a few bites of pineapple will help withprotein digestion and breakdown, especially when on a higher calorie diet.
3.???? Nutrients combinationsand timing, Massive Eating style.
Eatinghigh calories all the time at first will put on size, especially if you wereunder eating to begin with, and these tips aren?t for bulking, the train heavyand eat everything in sight to hope to gain. They?re for quality lean musclegain in the quickest time possible. So to avoid fat gain while still trying toeat to grow, a strategy taken from the Massive Eating Plan of not combininghigh amounts of carbs and fats in the same meal is used. This helps controlinsulin and fat storage, but keeps you on the road to growth. Those unfamiliarwith the concept, it?s basically eat a high amount of quality protein andeither choose a healthy fat or quality carbohydrate as a fuel source, whereeither of the two is the dominant source of energy. Those trying to gainmuscle, will primarily be eating low-fat, high quality carb meals with protein.Of the typical 6-7 meals a day needed for growth, only 2-3 will be primarilyfat and protein meals. The 1-2 meals leading up to your workout, this is tocontrol insulin, which blunts GH release if it?s in high concentrations in yourbloodstream prior to resistance exercise. This can be as easy as a proteinshake with a handful of almonds or flax oil mixed in. The other meal offat-protein, should be taken before bed. Since during sleep you primarily burnfat for energy and you?re not going to be eating for 6-8 hours, you want adense fuel source, such as fat to last that time period. It also helps slowdown the digestion and emptying of the stomach, making the protein you ingestwith it take longer to digest, staving off catabolism as long as possible. Alsoagain, having a large surge of insulin from carbohydrates before bed will bluntGH release, which during REM sleep is the highest during the day.
4.???? Cycle in a Low-CarbDay
A secondstrategy to promote primary muscle gain over bulking is to cycle in a low-carbday into the mix. Low carb is for dieting right? At first the surplus incalories will promote growth, but after about the 10-14 day mark, your bodytends to adapt and where at first it was mostly muscle gain, it will becomemore a 50/50 muscle/fat gain. Just like in dieting for fat-loss where you havea cheat day or re-feed to prevent leptin drops and a slow down in fat-loss. Theopposite can be true, by having a constant high intake of calories and carbohydrates,your muscles can become insensitive to the constant surges in insulin and yourfed-state from leptin will become less sensitive, making it harder to be hungryenough to keep eating to grow. So cycling in a low-carb day, where the bulk ofyour carbs will only be consumed post-workout, can be used. Even better, isscheduling this day on your rest day, and just eating carbohydrates forbreakfast for energy for the day. What this does, is give your body a breakfrom high insulin, start to deplete your glycogen stores and if any excesscarbs are starting to be converted and stored as body fat, that process ishalted. You?ll also be more primed to your hunger signals with Leptinmanipulation. This doesn?t mean to cut your calories for the day. Though it willbe a lower calorie day with your carbs going from 400g down to less then 200gfor the typical lifter, they will be made up with healthy, calorie dense fatsand protein can be boosted to 1.5-2.0g per lb of bodyweight for the day. Thisprimes your muscles to soak up the next day of high calorie and carbs, andstarting the anabolic environment again. The low-carb and lower calorie day,gives you a day to also do some light cardio and burn a little extra fat thatyou may have gained so far, since insulin is low for the whole day. How oftenshould this happen??? Well it depends on how easy you tend to put on fat, sothe slower metabolisms, this can be done about every 4 days, or 1-2 times aweek, which usually will fall into the off/rest days of most mass buildingworkouts. For the leaner hard-gainer, once a week or 1-2 low-carb days every 12days to finish out an eating to grow 2 week period.
5.???? The More Often, theBetter.
In orderto grow, you have to train the body as often as possible. This goes againstmost bodybuilding theories, that you need lots of rest to grow, which is true.Especially when training to failure all the time, which causing a great deal oftrauma to muscle, requiring a lot of rest to recover. This may incur growth,but it also hinders how often you can train. By not going to failure andtraining to give enough stimulus for growth, but not so intense that you haveto wait a week for recovery, you can squeeze in extra workouts and moreopportunities to stimulate muscle growth. By not training to extreme failure,you also keep the nervous system from becoming overstressed, hindering recoveryand the frequency that you can train (i.e. overtraining). Training everythingtwice a week is the goal. This can be obtained with a two-day split, an upper-bodyday and a lower body day, done back to back with a day of rest in between theseries. If you?re sore too much, that?s more from not eating enough carbs andprotein, then from training too often.
6.???? Make Each Rep Count
Toadequately stimulate a muscle, you need to flex your muscles from the beginningof the rep to the end of it. This creates a maximum hypertrophy stimulusthroughout the entire range of motion of the exercise. When doing isolationexercises, a peak contraction technique can be used, which is holding the peakcontraction for a total of 2-3 seconds on every rep of the set. This type ofcontraction increases the intra-muscular tension during the set, allowing moreforce to be generated during regular, sub-maximal sets. These techniques willhelp ensure all reps performed are of high quality. Try and do endless repsusing these techniques, you won?t last long, which leads us to the next tip.
7.???? Hit All Your Fibers
Maximumgrowth in the shortest amount o time can only be done if you every fiber type. Sinceevery muscle is composed of both fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers you have totrain both types to incur maximum growth. This can be easily accomplished byusing a heavy day/ light day training style, with set and rep totals remainingconstant. Meaning with a set/rep scheme total of around 30, you either choose a5x5 for heavy days and 3x10 or 2x15 for light days. What?s this mean? You caneither train heavy or long, but you can?t train heavy AND long (i.e.overtraining). So high volume/low reps, or low volume/high reps. With the 2 daysplit of upper-body lower body as an example, the following can be used to hitall fiber types:
DAY 1 ?Upper Body (Heavy) - 5x5
DAY 2 ?Lower Body (Light) - 2x15
DAY 3 ?Off
DAY 4 ?Upper Body (Light) ? 2x15
DAY 5 ? LowerBody (Heavy) ? 5x5
You alsohave to structure your workout to hit the deep reserve fibers, to fullystimulate the muscle tissue. To accomplish this, a stretch movement should beincluded in your workout. By doing this, the nervous system will activate moremotor units. Thus more muscle fibers will be recruited and research has shownthis to be a muscle hypertrophy and even hyperplasia (cell splitting) stimulus.Stretch exercises, where the muscle is in a stretched position at the beginningof the exercise are best used after compound movements to further recruit motorunits after most have been recruited in the large compound movement.
8.???? Focus on the Pump
Arnoldsaid it was better then sex, well the jury is still out on that one, but thepump is still a major signal of growth. It?s not the end all be all of musclegrowth, but for fast gains, you want as much blood pumping nutrients into yourmuscle fibers. This is the basis of all the NO2 products on the market. BeyondArginine-AKG, exercise is still the best pump promoter. This can beaccomplished by either doing agonist/antagonist muscle group supersets, or bydoing triple sets as a finisher on the last set of a specific body part. Thisis done in two ways. Either by doing an extended set of 5 reps in good form,resting 10-15 seconds, doing 5 more, rest and 5 more, or by dropping the weightwith no rest in between each of the 5 rep portions of the set.
?
9.????The Power of H2O andSupplements
Yes,everyone knows you?re supposed to drink more water. It?s even more importantwhen trying to gain maximum muscle size, since it?s needed for every chemicalreaction in the body, including growth. Also, with the high amount of protein,which has a mild diuretic effect, extra water is needed to maintain hydration,and keep catabolism at bay as much as possible. Other non-androgen supplementsthat can boost muscle growth are R-ALA taken before high carb meals other thenpost-workout to shuttle nutrients into muscle tissue. CLA is also beneficial togain muscle. That?s a fat burner you say? Well actually it?s a nutrientpartitioner that shuttles nutrients to muscle and away from fat. So CLA hasmore of a benefit taken during a high calorie diet, to prevent excess fat gainfrom the extra calories, dosing of 3-6g a day is best. Of course there?s theking of all mass building supplements, creatine. A 2-5g daily dose of creatinemonohydrate is enough. Buffered Kre-Alkyln and creatine malate allow forgreater creatine absorption. BCAA?s pre and post workout help promoteanabolism, since they are directly metabolized in the muscle tissue. HMB ametabolite of is a beneficial mass builder for the new lifter that has lessthen 6 months of training.
?
?The Post Workout Window
?
The one hour period following anintense workout is a critical period. Muscles are in a high catabolicbreakdown, but are also primed to be very anabolic if key factors are involved.No other period is more important then the 60 minutes following a workout andup to 3 hours after. During the first 60 minutes easy to digest protein and keyaminos combined with high glycemic carbs are essential. High glycemic carbssuch as dextrose and maltodextrin are best used to replenish glycogen storesover fructose or high-fructose corn syrup. This will stimulate a large insulinresponse causing an anabolic state storing carbs as muscle glycogen and drivingprotein and key aminos into muscle tissue for repair and growth. Whey isolateand hydrosylates are best used post workout for their easy assimilation andquick entry into the blood stream. A formula for a post-workout drink is a 2:1or up to 3:1 carbohydrate: protein ratio of the drink that will harness thepower of insulin and drive nutrient delivery. The following 2-3 hours after aworkout are a high growth period and if the carb and fat rules are to berelaxed, this is the time. The key focus is quality calories and protein, up toa full third of your total day?s calories and protein should be consumed withinthis 3 hour period. This will saturate the body with nutrients for a largeanabolic surge. So the time to go to the all you can eat buffet is during thistime, but try to watch the fat, carb combos if you can.
?
?
Well there are 10 key strategies to promote the fastest growth ofmuscle possible and minimizing fat gain. In the end, consistency is truly thekey and sticking to well planned diet and workout plan will be the differenceof reaching your physique goals.
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