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The Hardgainer’s Guide to Building Muscle and Strength: Hardgainer Nutrition- Part 4

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:57:38 +0000

In the last 3 parts, we talked about the strength training and work capacity aspects of hardgainer bodybuilding. Now here, lets conclude with a basic primer of mass building nutrition for a hardgainer. You can also refer to the muscle building 101 nutrition guide for a more comprehensive mass eating primer.

A bowl of seafood soup noodles provides plenty of calories

As a skinny hardgainer, you’ll have to know what and how to eat to maximize your gains to avoid wasted efforts in the gym. Bodybuilding nutrition is really very simple and easy to implement once you get the basics down.

First, the difficulty lies not in what you eat or what types of food, but rather in getting in the required and necessary amount of calories each day. The biggest problem ever for most hardgainers on nutrition is that, they’re usually not eating nearly enough to promote an anabolic response for building muscle. As you probably know, you need a calories surplus with the right macronutrient ratios to gain quality weight…lean muscle tissue while minimizing fat gain.

Calories Excess Equation

Take a look at the equation below for calories surplus,

Total Calories= Calories Intake (calories eaten) – Calories Expenditure (calories used)

Calories, in this respect, is the measured heat energy derived from food (food is the body’s fuel for function and exercise). If calories intake is greater than the amount of calories you expend, you’ll end up with a positive total calories. If you expend more than you take in, then you’ll be in deficit mode. The end of the equation will be a negative. You’ll lose weight.

Calories is energy. Total energy balance at the end of the day must be positive. You must eat more than you burn. There must be calories excess. Thats it! No way around this one. This is simple energy balance. Calories surplus/excess is the first key for quality weight gain. So whenever you’re not building muscle or gaining weight, it’s probably because your diet sucks. Eat more and build more muscle.

The amount of calories you eat to achieve surplus also needs to be over your maintenance calories requirement or the amount of food you eat to maintain your current weight. Eat more than you’re used to or normally eat.

To find surplus calories, normally my rule is to add 16 X body weight and add 500 calories to the figure. But for hardgainers with ultra fast metabolism, I recommend 18 X body weight + 500. So a 135 lbs hardgainer would need,

18 X 135 lbs + 500 = 2,930 calories

This is the recommended starting figure to work with. There’s no exact formula that will give you an exact and 100% accurate figure. What you can do is take this basic formula and adjust accordingly to your results. If you’re still not gaining muscle weight, then you simply bump up the calories, add about 200-300 more calories until you gain.

Aim for 1-2 lbs of weight gain a week for the first 3 months. If you don’t gain at least half a pound every week for the first 6 months of training, add 250 calories until you gain. I would do this biweekly. Monitor your weight on the scale for 2 weeks. If there’s no weight gain, bump up the calories by 250 and you’ll start to gain.

Eventually muscular weight gain will slow as you reach towards your potential, otherwise if you kept going 1-2 lbs, you’re either going to be 500 lbs of pure muscle or really fast. Not going to happen.

Expect some quick gains in the first 6 months of your lifting career if you’re eating the required amounts of food and pounding those weights intensely day and out. Don’t be surprised to gain 20, 30, or even 40 pounds of lean muscle weight for the first 4 months of intense training. The gains will then slow down.

Aim for 1-2 pounds of lean muscle weight every month afterwards. Factor those gains for five years and you’re looking at 50-60 pounds of additional muscle gains on top of your newbie gains. You’ll be bigger, stronger, and more muscular than 95% of the population by then. Keep this perspective in mind.

Record weight and monitor body fat % using Accumeasure body fat caliper scale (available at accumeasurefitness.com). If you dont gain at least 1/2 lb per week in the first few weeks, then add an extra 200 calories per day. Keep adding calories until you see weight gain.

An apple a day provides the essential vitamins and minerals you need

Macronutrient Balance with the 4 Rules of Hardgainer Nutrition

Macronutrient balance is the next important factor next to calories surplus. You not only have to know how much to eat, you have to know what to eat as well. To keep this brief without getting all scientific on the many different diets out there, I have only 4 rules for you to follow,

1) Eat a 40/40/20 or 50/30/20 carbohydrate, protein, fats distribution of calories from different food types. This is your c/p/f balance and the distribution of these macronutrients should make up your diet. 50/30/20 means that 50% of your calories should come from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 20% for mainly good healthy essential fats.

2) Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re 140 pounds, eat at least 140 grams of protein. Protein are the building blocks of muscles derived from the essential and nonessential amino acids. Provide plenty of building blocks for your muscle and you’re set.

3) Drink a post-workout drink within 45 minutes after a workout. Drink or eat a light meal after a workout consisting of some carbs and protein for recovery purposes since a hardgainer generally has poor recovery abilities. After a tough strength workout, insulin sensitivity is high at its peak. Your muscles needs fuel after a tough workout so give it what it wants. This initiates anabolic activity for immediate repair and growth of muscle cells. As a base, use ice, skim milk, yogurt, and whey and/or casein protein powder to make your shake. Add in fruits like bananas, peaches, berries, applies as preferred and poor into blender. Blend all the ingredients well, pour the contents into a shake bottle and drink. Each shake you make easily adds 500-600 calories.

4) Eat 5-6 smaller meals every day rather than 3 large meals. This increase in meal frequency makes it easier to eat all those calories especially if you’re not used to eating a lot. Most hardgainers do not have big appetities. Break down the 6 meals into 3 larger meals and 3 smaller meals/snacks. Break it down any way you want as long as you get the required number of calories and meal frequency. Better yet, eat something every 3-4 hours of your waking hours. Don’t let you stomach go empty for more than 4 hours (with the exception of sleep). Eat a little bit of carbs, protein, fats for each meal. It’s also a good idea to eat a light meal/snack before bedtime.

Don't forget to eat your veggies!

This ensures you have something in your stomach every 3-4 hours during the day to prevent catabolism (breakdown of muscle tissue which is detrimental to muscle growth). The body is always in shifting states, either anabolic (where body repairs and grows) or catabolism( body burns off fat and lean muscle tissue). This is the nature of your metabolism throughout the day. The trick is to minimize catabolic activity and shift towards the anabolic state by the end of the day so you can build muscle and strength.

The bottom line: more frequent meals will keep you in a positive anabolic state with a positive energy balance to lean mass growth, provided you eat a lot and have caloric excess. Below is a list of my recommended food choices.

Food Choices

Carbohydrates

Complex carbs are the number one source of energy for all bodily functions and muscular exertion.

all kinds of fruits and vegetables; (green beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, lettuce, onions, cucumber, berries, tomato, beet, string breans, asparagus, green peas, pears, apples, oranges, pears, mangos, etc.) you’ll also get your fiber with veggies and fruits

whole grain breads and cereals

whole wheat pastas

oatmeal

brown rice, wild rice

beans

yam, pumpkin, squash

sweet potato

corn

raw nuts, lentils

papaya

plain, non-fat yogurt ( I like Dannon and Yoplait)

kashi

wheat pasta

dry barley

honey

baked potato

black beans

red kidney beans

Protein

Protein are the building blocks of muscles. Your muscle fibers are made up of actin and myosin protein filaments so it only makes sense to feed your muscle with more protein.

lean cuts of red meat and poultry (chicken, turkey, ham)

all types of fish, especially tuna, cod, salmon, halibut, and swordfish

seafood and shellfish

diary products; low fat skim milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, powdered eggs

plain or low-fat yogurt

egg whites, egg beaters, egg yolk

low fat cheese 2%/cottage cheese

whey, soy, and casein protein

Fats

Fats help regulate metabolism, bolsters the immune system, recovers your muscles, cushions the vital organs, and keeps you in tip top shape for the gym. They also reduce the risk of heart disease while lowering bad cholesterol and raising good cholesterol levels. Stick mainly with the essential good fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats) and reduce saturated and trans fats intake (the fats you find in overly-processed, junk, friend, and fast foods).

flax seeds, flax oil

fish oil

all types of fish

egg yolk

avocado

dry roasted almonds

low fat mayo

peanuts

sunflower seeds

fat free margarine

enova oil

So take these food choices and use either 50/30/20 or 40/40/20 macro ratio as discussed above to come up with a diet. As a hardgainer, you don’t have to eat 100% clean with all healthy foods. A big mac or two a week can help add calories if you have trouble eating a lot even though the nutritional value of that junk is low. Though it might not be too healthy over the long term but one or two meals won’t be too bad.

The farmer's market is the bodybuilder's best hangout place

If you veer off for a few days, don’t worry. As long as you stick to eating correctly 90% of the time, you’ll see great results. In addition, drink plenty of water. I recommend at least half a gallon a day. Keep your muscles well hydrated. It’ll improve your performance in the gym with better concentration and alertness.

A lot of people walk around half dehydrated and they don’t even know it. You don’t have to feel thirsty to be dehydrated. When thirst comes, you’ve already been in the dehydrated state for an hour or more. So drink up.

I want to re-emphasize eating as very important. You can have the best training program, but if you don’t eat properly or enough to grow, you’re not going to gain an ounce of muscle. All the training you’ve done will be waste. You will recover poorly without the necessary nutrients.

Supplements

Finally, we have supplements. For newbies and starters, I don’t recommend you use a lot of supplements from day one. Rather, eat whole foods. Real foods. Supplements are there to “supplement” a good muscle building diet. They shouldn’t replace it. Here’s a short list of supplements that I do recommend,

whey protein powder

casein protein powder

egg protein powder

creatine

multivitamin; any will do, I use centrum

For a more detailed guide on supplementation and nutrition, check out Will Brink’s “Bodybuilding Revealed” ebook.

And this concludes the hardgainer primer. As a hardgainer struggling to build muscle, it all comes down to training with heavy weights using progressive overload (constantly adding weight, reps, sets to the bar and making the workouts more challenging and intense through the training cycles), eating a ton, and getting adequate rest and sleep. Don’t make things more complicate than it is. It takes consistent training and eating to see results.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

Feel free to send me an email at ZQH245@gmail.com or leave a comment below if you have any questions.

photo credits:
ssour
zawezome
Mauricio Pellegrinetti
Pink Sherbet Photography

The Hardgainer’s Guide to Building Muscle and Strength: Building Work Capacity- Part 3

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:43:27 +0000

After a strength foundation, a hardgainer should be aiming to improve his/her work capacity. The work capacity is the ability to workout with heavier poundages and weights longer and harder at a higher intensity. By harder, this involves using more exercises and/or increasing the amount of days you work out in a week or training cycle, or increasing the frequency of workouts.

Increasing work capacity is a primary way to improve your recovery which also gives you a more functional body in the long term. Once you improve your recovery abilities, you can switch to more high volume and/or high frequency workouts. Further, it improves both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Training each muscle group more often allows for more growth phases out of the year. This leads to faster progress and greater gains in strength and muscle mass.

You Can Train More Often than You Think- Overreaching

Some gurus will tell you that your recovery ability as a hardgainer is limited since you had the short end of the stick in the genes department at birth, but I strongly disagree. I’ve seen guys and girls who can barely train each muscle once a week to training as often as three times a week (with some modified intensity) once they mixed in some progression and frequency schemes/changes to improving work capacity.

Yes, you can program your body for a higher level of performance as long as you provide new challenges and increasing stresses. It depends on how you organize and structure your volume, intensity, and frequency of training.

In other words, you’re able to train your muscles more often than you realize. A hardgainer with improved work capacity is able to train each major muscle group at least twice a week with multiple sets of 6-12 reps with 2 or more compound exercises for each muscle or movement patterns without overtraining or running the risk of overtraining.

The key is in structured overreaching. Starting out with low volume and intensity (intensity with respect to weight or a percentage of your 1 RM for a given lift), you ramp it up over the course of a training cycle, let’s say 3-4 weeks, and then back off with reduced volume again so as to let the body recover and catch up to the training stimulus. This is what strength coaches call “overreaching” and is rooted in the fact the dual factor theory of exercise, as opposed to the single factor theory of overcompensation.

So essentially, you’re able to train harder and push further than you’re used to for a short amount of time, then back off and let the body recover.

But why is an improved work capacity important, especially to hardgainers?

Because it contributes to your body being able to handle more weight with more exercises. The result is more tension placed on the musculature.

More tension = higher muscle fiber recruitment= more microtrauma = more growth phases with the increased frequency = more muscle growth.

More Growth Phases

Let’s say you’re only able to train each muscle group once a week in a 6 month period. You have trained a total of 24 times for each muscle group which comes out to 24 growth phases. But if you adapted to a high frequency workout and you can only do so if you have the conditioning and work capacity to keep up with high frequency workouts, you can structure your program to train each muscle group twice a week directly in 6 months, give you 48 growth phases, twice the amount of chances to build muscle and grow.

Now some trainers will say that you could easily overtrain working each muscle too often. But that’s the whole point of improving work capacity. Your goal is to build up to being able to work out more often with heavier weights without entering overtraining mode. You’re overreaching, not overtraining.

Further, you’ll be developing different strength qualities as you build that strength foundation and work on improving your work capacity. Each workout will focus on different aspects of strength: strength endurance, basic absolute strength, speed/explosive strength. You will be using a variety of rep/set ranges. Your training will not get stale.

There are 5 basic ways in which you can improve work capacity,

1) 3 day/week full body workouts with more sets

2) 4 day/week horizontal push, horizontal pull scheme

3) 4 day/week double upper/lower body workouts

4) split routines training 4-6 days, splitting body part or movement patterns and working them on different days

5) GPP- short general physical preparedness circuits

3 day/week full body workouts with more sets

Training your entire body three days every week with a higher set/rep scheme has to do with increasing the frequency of each muscle group worked. The traditional recommendation for a hardgainer is to do 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps for one compound movement when starting out. That’s a total of 16-36 reps per workout for one compound muscle group. You can throw in more sets but manipulate the volume and intensity by reversing the set/rep scheme.

For example,

8 sets of 3
12 sets of 2
6 sets of 4
5 sets of 5
9 sets of 4
7 sets of 4
10 sets of 3

The above schemes range from 24-36 reps utilizing more sets but with reduced reps. This is still in the volume range of what a hardgainer can handle. However, the amount of weight you can handle will be higher because the repetition range is reduced, which allows for higher intensities (intensity with respect to weight). For progression, you can apply various progressive overload methods. An effective method is repetition progression.

Take 10 sets of 3 for example. Week one will start out with 10×3 (sets x reps). For week 2, add an extra rep to every other set. On week 3, add the extra rep on all sets to make it 10×4. And continue on until you get 10×5. Increase the weight by 2-5% once you get all 10 sets of 5 for the compound movements. If you have more than 6 months of serious, hard, and consistent training, you can swap the typical 3x 12 set/rep scheme for any of the above with your 3-day a week workouts.

4 day horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, vertical pull scheme

You can also increase the frequency of training sessions by splitting the body into movement patterns of horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pulling days. You also include quad dominant and hip dominant days into any one of the movement patterns. Each movement pattern represents the major muscle group and corresponding compound exercise that best works that muscle.

The push muscles are the chest, triceps, and shoulders. The horizontal pushing movements include any compound or isolation lift that involves the body in a horizontal position: bench press, dumbbell press, dumbbell fly, lying tricep extension/skullcrusher. The vertical pushing movements involves the body in a upright/vertical: standing db shoulder press, military press, overhead tricep extension, dips.

The pull muscles are the back and biceps. The horizontal pulling movements include any compound lift that involves the body: barbell bent-over row, dumbbell row, bench row, sitting db curl, concentration curl. The vertical pulling movements involves the body standing upright/vertical position: deadlift, pullups/chinups, lat pulldown, upright row, barbell/db curl, high incline db curl, hammer curl.

Quad dominant (squats) and hip dominant (deadlift) days can be assigned to either of the 4 days as preferred. I like to put quad dominant day on vertical pushing day and hip dominant day on vertical pull day. It’s all up to you and whatever is convenient. Training with movement patterns in this respect ensures that you get a more balanced workout. You can further specialize with isolation exercises since you’re not training the whole body in one session. This leaves room for more volume and higher intensities if you choose to use the rep schemes recommended above.

Go with a 2 days on, 1 day off schedule. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are training days. Wednesdays and weekends are off days.

4 day/week double upper/lower body workouts

This works in a similar manner to the horizontal and vertical 4-day program except you don’t have to separate training sessions into movement patterns. You simply split the body into upper and lower body twice in one week each and train accordingly.

Compared to ABA split I outlined in the previous article, you’ll be training the upper body and lower body each twice a week, rather than three times a week, one day extra but you’ll incorporate a greater variety of exercises to further tackle the muscles and stimulate them to grow.

I suggest hardgainers only attempt these training schemes of increased frequency and set/reps after 6 + months of hard training with the basic routines outlined in the previous workout section of this hardgainer series.

The first upper body can be a heavy workout. The second upper body session may be a light session. The same goes for the lower body sessions. This gives the intermediate lifter new to increasing frequency workouts or anyone who’ve been working each muscle group directly only once per week time to adapt and adjust to the workouts. An example upper b ody/lower body 2x routine will look something like this,

Upper Body 1

standing military press 3x 4-6

barbell rows 3x 4-6

flat db bench press 2x 8-10

weighted chinups 2x 8-10

weighted crunches 3x 12-15

plank hold 3x 30 seconds hold

Lower Body 1

squats 6x 3

single leg db stiff leg deadlift 6×3

leg press 2x 8

standing calf raises 2x 15

Upper Body 2

flat bench press 4x 8

db rows 4x 8

db fly 2 x 15

barbell shrug 2x 12

weighted v-up 2x 12

side prone 2x 45 seconds hold

back bend/superman 2x 20

Lower Body 2

front squat 5×5

lying leg curl 5×5

db walking lunge 3x 10, each side

seated calf raise 2x 20

Notice that rep ranges are varied for each upper and lower body session throughout the week. This prevents the body from stagnating quickly if you offer varied loads and, exercise selection, and volume ranges. Use a 2 on, 1 off schedule: Monday and Tuesdays will be workout days, Wednesday as an off day or light cardio day, and Thursday and Friday as the second upper and lower body workout days. Additionally, you can also throw in some isolation exercises in the 8-15 rep ranges to specialize in a certain body part.

More frequent training also increases muscle tonality, giving you the slightly pumped look even if you’re relaxed and not flexing (you’ll have that “athletic” look so people will realize you actually work out when shirtless (for the guys….and ladies too )…talk about an ego boost.

Body Part Split Routines

Body part split routines involve working each major muscle group directly only once per week but more attention can be focused on each muscle per day (since each session focuses on 1-2 muscle groups). You can easily specialize on bringing up weak muscle groups and lagging body parts with split routines. However, it is easy to overdo the volume and do endless unproductive sets of exercises if you’re not careful. Intensity, with respect to weight and load, is what builds muscle and strength, not necessarily volume.

Volume is secondary to intensity. When doing 20-30 sets for just once muscle group, you can easily overtrain if you keep it up for weeks without any growth in muscle and strength.

You can structure split routines into 4-6 days schedule. Again, load and volume (rep ranges and sets) can be varied throughout the weeks or for each muscle. Here are some examples of body part splits you can use. I don’t recommend attempting body part splits if you’re new to strength training. Build that foundation first with upper body/lower body and full body workouts and then after 6 months, you can transition into split workouts.

Split option 1

day 1: chest, shoulders, triceps

day 2: back, biceps

day 3: rest

day 4: legs

day 5: accessories: calves, forearms/grip, abdominal

day 6 and 7 are rest days

Split option 2

day 1: quads, biceps

day 2: chest

day 3: back

day 4: rest

day 5: hamstrings, shoulders

day 6: abdominal, forearm/grip, triceps

day 7: rest

Split option 3

day 1: legs

day 2: back

day 3: rest

day 4: chest, shoulders

day 5: bis, triceps

day 6: forearm/grip, abdominal

Split option 4

day 1: chest/back

day 2: legs

day 3: rest

day 4: arms, forearm/grip

day 5: shoulders

day 6 and 7 are rest days

GPP- General Physical Preparedness

GPP workouts may also be incorporated to improve your conditioning. This especially applies to athletes and sports-specific conditioning that places heavy focus and demand on the cardiovascular system. To improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity, you can use a series of body weight drills mixed with sports-specific skill activities into a high intensity workout.

To put it simply, GPP is just varied training using light weights/loads, body weight movements, and unconventional equipment like tires, sleds, kettlebells, sandbags, etc. String a series of 5-10 exercises into a circuit with minimal rest in between each exercise, then repeat the circuit several times. You can make the circuits short or long depending on your conditioning and energy levels. They can range any time from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Do them on rest days or at the end of your strength workouts as a finisher.

When done consistently, GPP workouts improves all aspects of strength: strength endurance, limit strength, explosive strength, and speed strength. You may use body weight movements for high rep sets, weights (dbs, kettlebells, sandbags) for explosive movements and maximal strength training, or use do some running, jumping rope, or biking for cardiovascular endurance.

Here’s an example of a light GPP workout utilizing body weight exercises, db movements, and a stationary bike,

db clean and jerk 5 reps

burpees 8 reps

plank hold for 45 seconds

body weight chinups 8 reps

hop on stationary bike and do bike for 20 seconds intervals/rest for 60 seconds, repeating 4 times

The above workout is done in a circuit with each exercise done back-to-back with minimal rest. Repeat the entire circuit 3 times (so you’ll be doing 20 s intervals for a total of 12 times in the entire session)

Here’s another similar routine that uses a density approach,

bodyweight squats 30 seconds, do as many reps as you can in that time

elevated pushups (elevated from legs), 30 s, do as many reps as you can in that time

ring pullups (can be done on any set of rings, I recommend the Elite Rings), 30 s, do as many reps as you can in that time

weighted v-up 30s, do as many reps as you can in that time

superman/back bend 30s , do as many reps as you can in that time

Again, you’re doing the above routine in circuit format. You’ll need to keep track of the 30 seconds time for each exercise. I recommend the GymBoss interval timer. Now, using a variety of movements, you can come up with your own GPP routines for some workout fun. A simple format is to pair upper and lower body- 6 total movements with 1-3 ab movements, 3 circuits with 1 min. rest in between, 15-20 minutes total, sometimes even less to 10 minutes

Here’s a very basic body weight only GPP session,

squats 20 reps

pushups 20 reps

walking lunges 12 reps each leg

chinups 12 reps

weighted crunches 12 reps

back bend 20 reps

Now, a full body db drill using GPP template using explosive weighted lifts can look like this,

db front thrusters 5 reps

db power clean 5 reps

db push press 5 reps

db calf raises 8 reps

Do 4 circuits and rest 1 minute between each circuit.

Here are some articles to check out for more information on GPP,

Increase General Physical Preparedeness for Recovery and Fat loss

Are You Down with GPP- Benefits of GPP Training

GPP: The Missing Link in Strength Training

General Physical Preparedenss: If You’re Strong but Out of Shape, Listen up!

Use GPP to Drag Your Butt into Shape: GPP for Westside Lifters

A word of caution: keep your intensity in check when doing these workouts. You may either do them at the end of your regular strength workouts or on off days but do not go insane and crank out sets and reps for hours on end. I recommend a load of 50-60% of your 1 RM for weighted movements. Keep the number of reps for body weight exercises to 20 or under. Do not go to total positive muscle failure on any movement.

Keep all GPP sessions to under 20 minutes. You’re trying to instill some good and somewhat challenging work into your body to build your work capacity and even speed recovery, not totally demolish your muscles. That’s left to the main strength workouts during the week.

feedback and monitor to how body responds to increased training load, if too much, scale back and add slowly.

Finally, let’s conclude this series with part 4 on muscle building nutrition for the hardgainer.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

Feel free to email me with any questions or comments at ZQH245@gmail.com or leave a message below.

The Hardgainer’s Guide to Building Muscle and Strength: A Strength Foundation- Part 2

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:43:06 +0000

In the first part of this hardgainer series, I introduced 3 of the most important goals a hardgainer needs to look at to see progress in muscle and strength (fitness-wise). Here, we’ll go further in-depth on these 3 goals and show you how to first build that strength foundation for life-long fitness success.

Heavy lifting is where it's at!

One of the 3 most important things for a hardgainer to focus on is building that base of strength…that basic strength foundation allowing you to lift heavy weights with good form. Consequently, getting that strength foundation is a hardgainer’s first step to improving work capacity. An as you read in part 1, improving work capacity is the third goal for a hardgainer and must be achieved if you want to see astounding gains in muscle an strength.

The Strength Foundation

So this is a step-by-step and methodical process of first building a base of strength allowing you to handle heavier and heavier weights, and then use that to your advantage to develop a capacity for working out more often, harder, and longer. The results are compounded and synergistic. Think of the biggest, most muscular, and ripped guy you see or know. Is he weak? I doubt it. It is absolutely necessary to get stronger first before you get bigger.

Your body isn’t going to allow you to pack on 20 pounds of muscle if your bones, joints, and connective tissues are weak. And to strengthen those bones you will have to get stronger first. This is a set point handicap that the body puts you on to prevent and reduce chances of further future injuries.

The skeletal components of the musculo-skeletal system needs that base frame of strength first before it’ll allow your muscle fibers to adapt to the training loads. The core of your strength comes from strong bones and joints. If you have a weak structure, how do you expect to lift heavy weights without hurting yourself or feeling pain?

The body isn’t going to allow that. It’s keen to protect itself first. That’s why you’ll need to think in terms of building absolute strength, using good form, and applying some type of progression scheme into your workouts for muscle building success.

Further, muscle is very expensive to build and maintain because it burns a lot of calories every single day. One pound of extra muscle on your body burns an additional 40-50 calories more than one pound of fat. Now this is an added bonus for those looking to lose fat. More muscle = faster fat loss. But your goal is muscle gain, not fat loss or muscle loss. You’ll need to lift in a way that preserves your muscles. This is achieved through heavy lifting.

Lightweight!

If you can squat 300 lbs, bench 250 lbs, and deadlift 400 lbs, then you would definitely have a decent physique to match the strength level. And imagine if you could handle even heavier weight for multiple sets of 5, 8, or 10 reps, would you still doubt you would be muscular?

Strength and muscle are not mutually exclusive. So here’s how a hardgainer should go about building a strength foundation and getting stronger.

1) Use compound exercises

Because a hardgainer has poor work capacity, it isn’t too smart nor efficient to assign single exercises to each specific muscle group. Hardgainer training should be kept brief and short. Not to mention there’s really no exercise that isolates each muscle 100%. Compound exercises are your best bet as they work multiple major muscles at the same time. They also allow you to use much heavier weights. They’re multi-jointed exercises involving more than one, usually two, three, or four major muscle groups at once during the execution.

They’re efficient, saves time, and allows you to use real heavy loads. This also means more muscle fiber stimulation and greater gains in strength and mass as a result.

Here’s a list of compound exercises with variations and the muscles worked (this list is not exhaustive but these are the tried and proven lifts that work for building muscle and strength),

squats, front squats, hack squats, overhead squats, box squats, db squats, single leg squats: legs, buttocks, core/abs, lower back, traps
deadlift, rack deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, db deadlift, dimel deadlift, suitcase deadlift: hamstrings, quads, buttocks, lower back/core/abs, traps, biceps, grip/forearms
military press, db shoulder press, db arnold press, push press: triceps, shoulders, grip/forearms, core/abs, lower back
barbell or db bench press in incline/decline/flat position: chest, triceps, shoulders, grip/forearms, core/abs, lower back
chinup/pullup (can be done on elite rings or rope): grip/forearms, core/lower back, entire back, biceps
barbell or dumbbell row: works the same as chinup and pullup but in a horizontal pulling position
dips: same as barbell/db bench press but in a vertical pushing position

At the bare minimum, a hardgainer should be focused on 7 of the main compound exercises. These are the squat, deadlift, military press, bench press, chinup, barbell row, and dip. Variations can be used for each of the main movements as well. But as long as you focus on these big mass building lifts, you’ll do exceptionally well in getting stronger and more muscular.

A hardgainer’s routine should include most of the 7 main lifts. No questions about that. In fact, if you just take the squat, deadlift, and bench press together, you already have a well-rounded full body strength workout. Applying weight progression, imagine being able to squat 400 lbs, deadlift 500 lbs, and bench press 350 lbs. You’ll sure be looking jacked if you can lift that amount of weight for all three movements.

This is why the squat, deadlift, and bench press are called the “Big 3″ in powerlift-speak. Powerlifters put most of their focus on getting the big 3 up because the competitions involve seeing who can bench, dead, or squat the most weight for one rep. And these powerlifters are huge, jacked guys after years and years of perfecting form and consistently moving heavier and heavier poundages.

Progressive weight lifting

Machines aren’t necessarily bad but the tailored resistance they provide reduces recruitment of stabilizer muscles, which reduces neural recruitment of neighboring muscle groups. Show me one natural bodybuilder who has gotten big from training with machines ONLY and I’ll hand a million bucks in a fruit basket. Free weights are absolutely superior to machines for building a strength foundation for maximum muscle gains at the beginning of your bodybuiding career!

To round off the routine, throw in 1-2 isolation movements for each major muscle group. I’m talking exercises like barbell/dumbbell/cable curls, calf raises, abdominal movements (crunches/reverse crunches/situps, v-ups, side bends, ab wheel, plank holds/bridge/superman/back bends, leg raises, wrist roller, wrist curls, grippers, finger extensions, etc.

But remember, the bulk of your workouts should include multi-jointed (working more than one major muscle group in one go) compound exercises, exercises that allows you to move the most weight and recruit the most muscle mass.

2) Focus on weight progression

Progression is just basically lifting heavier and heavier weights with more reps, sets, frequency, or lifting speed. The workouts have to be harder over time with progressive overload. That’s what strength-based training is all about here. Your body will have no reason to get stronger and bigger if you don’t provide a challenge by using heavy loads from workout to workout. You have to do it in a systemic way using a series of progression methods. The progression methods include,

1) adding more weight while keeping sets and reps constant

2) adding more reps while keeping weight an sets constant

3) adding more total sets while keeping weight and reps constant

4) reducing the rest periods between sets of the same exercise

5) increase the lifting speed of each rep of an exercise; good for building explosive and speed strength for athletic and sports pursuits

6) increasing the frequency of workouts or the amount of times you work out each muscle per week

So these are the 6 main progression schemes available in fitness training. Hardgainers, however, should place emphasis on weight progression and repetition progression, that is, strive to add more weight to the bar and doing more reps per exercise.

Above, we talked about squatting, deadlifting, and benching huge amounts of weight. This is what weight and rep progression will do. It’ll help you do more reps and use heavy weights if you apply them to your strength workouts.

Basically, it works by first setting a rep range target to achieve for each movement for several sets. The goal is to strive to hit that top rep number from the rep range assigned for each exercise. Once you’ve reached the target number of reps in all sets, you add weight to the bar and continue the rep and weight progression until you get stuck.

Eventually you will get stuck unable to add more weight or reps to the workouts so you’ll have to take a short one week break. Then you cycle back down using lower weights and build your way back up again using the same progression schemes.

This could go on and on for years and help you get extremely strong and muscular if you do it right. And this model is perfect for hardgainers since it’s simple and direct to the point. Just add reps, then weight, and repeat.

Repetition and Weight Progression

Here’s how it works by applying weight and rep progression together,

For example, take bench press for 3 sets of 8-10 reps, combining weight progression and rep progression would look like this,

workout 1: 100 pounds 8 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, you only did 8 reps for all 3 sets, your goal is to get 10 reps for all 3 sets before adding weight, so

workout 2: 100 pounds 9 reps, 9 reps 8 reps

workout 3: 100 pounds 10 reps, 9 reps, 9 reps, still not there yet

workout 4: 100 pounds, 10 reps, 10 reps, 10 reps, you finally hit the target so add weight for the next workout, 5 pounds will do,

workout 5: 105 pounds 8 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, and then work your way back up to 10 reps for all 3 sets

workout 6: 105 pounds 9 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps

workout 7: 105 pounds, 10 reps, 9 reps, 9 reps

workout 8: 105 pounds, 10 reps, 9 reps, 9 reps, you stalled but don’t worry, just keep at it for a few more workouts and you will likely break away

workout 9: 105 pounds, 10 reps, 10 reps, 9 reps

workout 10: 105 pounds, 10 reps, 10reps, 10 reps, bingo! you’ve hit your target again, now add 5 pounds again

workout 11: 110 pounds, work your way back up to 10 sets of 3 again

This is the most basic linear model for combining weight and rep progression into your hardgainer routine. If you stall on a weight, keep that weight for 2-3 more workouts and try to progress from there, if you still stall or plateau, then cycle back down to a weight that’s slightly higher than when you started, so taking the example above, if you get up to benching 125 pounds and plateau, then start the cycle again at 105 or 110 pounds instead of 100 pounds.

If you just seriously started lifting weights in this simple manner, you’ll find that you will get a hell lot stronger in your first year of real and serious/committed lifting.

Stack on that weight!

3) Limit strength workouts to 3 times per week and 45 minutes maximum per workout in the gym, due to your low work capacity potential in the beginning

Check out the 3×5/5×5 Back-to-Basics strength routines for a detailed look at how hardgainer’s should train initially to build that foundation. There are a number of different routines you can do as a hardgainer but I’ve found the most efficient routine can be structured around full body workouts done three times a week, with a limit of 40-45 minutes per session.

You want to be in and out of the gym in under one hour flat. If it takes you more time, then you’re either resting too much or fooling around and not concentrating on your workout. Studies indicate that catabolism (body process of breaking down muscle tissue due to stress) increases

Exercise programming for a hardgainer

The programming is simple for this hardgainer workout.

1) You’ll have two separate workouts, workout A and workout B. Alternate workout A and B every other day and leave weekends free from weight lifting. So workout A is done on Monday, workout B on Wednesday, and workout A again on Friday. Tuesday, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays are rest days. Train 3 times a week.

2) Assign 3-4 compound exercises an 1-3 isolation exercises to workout A. Assign a different set of 3-4 compound and 1-3 isolation movements for workout B. You may also throw in another 1-3 exercises for your abs and lower back/overall core. Each workout, you’re doing different movements and you will be repeating those movements alternately since the scheme is A B A B A B A B and on and on.

3) Use a rep scheme of 6-8 reps, 8-10 reps, or 10-12 reps on compound exercises depending on your fitness and strength level. If you’re new to lifting, go with 10-12 reps so you can get your form down. If you’re a little more experienced, try 6-8 or 8-10 reps. For isolation exercises, any rep range from 5-15 will do.

Additionally, you can use a separate rep range for each workout. For example, use 8-10 reps for workout A compound exercises and 6-8 reps for workout B compound exercises. See the example routine below.

4) Limit the number of sets per exercise to 4 sets maximum. 3 sets is a nice balance. This goes for both compound and isolation.

5) Use repetition and weight progression, as outlined in the example above. Progression is where the magic is. Use it.

6) Rest 2-3 minutes between each set and 3-4 minutes between each exercise.

Wow! strong kid!

Taking these 6 rules into account, here’s a sample routine (with workout A and B) that’s very basic but highly effective hardgainer routine for strength and size, You can use this same template and substitute exercises but make sure they’re compound movements,

Workout A

squat 3 sets of 8-10 reps

military press 3 sets of 8-10 reps

one arm dumbbell rows 3 sets of 8-10 reps

weighted crunches 2 sets of 15 reps

hammer curls 2 sets of 10-12 reps

Workout B

deadlift 3 sets of 6-8 reps

pullups 3 sets of 6-8 reps, do them weighted with a belt or weight vest if body weight becomes too easy

dips 3 sets of 6-8, do them weighted with a weight belt or weight vest if body weight becomes too easy

db shoulder press 2 sets 6-8 reps

glute ham raise or lying leg curls 3 sets of 12-15 reps

v-up 4 sets of 12-15 reps

For more information on how to properly design a hardgainer workout routine, I strongly recommend you buy Stuart McRoberts “Beyond Brawn” and “Brawn” titles. ( you can pick it up at amazon.com for a cheaper price). He goes through all the basics of eating for mass, training, and proper exercise form. The Brawn series also list dozens of different examples of hardgainer workouts you can use for strength and mass.

Follow the 6 rules and apply the progression schemes into your workouts. Train with consistency and eventually you will start seeing results. The next step is to increase the amount of work you do by improving your work capacity. You’ll be able to train more frequently with a higher intensity allowing for more gains. Let’s move on to the next part on building your work capacity for even better gains.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

If you have any questions, comments or input you want to add to this article, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

photo credits:
jontunn
jontunn
jontunn
jontunn
ladyb

The Hardgainer’s Guide to Building Muscle and Strength: A Hardgainer’s Dilemma- Part 1

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:42:33 +0000

In this 4-part hardgainer series, you’ll get a basic but effective plan to build muscle and strength as a self-described hardgaining ectomorph. The first two parts focuses on defining what it means to build a strength foundation for muscle-building success.

Then I’ll show you how to properly program the workouts and routines for maximum strength results by improving work capacity. In the last part, probably perhaps the most important factor of bodybuilding for hardgainers, you’ll read all about successful muscle building nutrition.

I’ll keep all the information as basic, simple, and practical as possible so you’ll know what to do, but more importantly how to do it…how to build real muscle and strength the proper way as a hardgainer.

No fluff, no bullshit, just a straight practical guide for bodybuilding success. Let’s get to it!

A Hardgainer’s Dilemma

I’ve found that most people who label themselves in the category of “hardgainers” have never really trained and eaten properly to grow. When they don’t see the results they want, they immediately throw their arms up in the air and subscribe to blaming their genetic makeup and parents for being born “that way” or “this way” as if they’re some sort of freak.

This is a victim mentality that will not do you any good if you’re after results. Shed that thinking away and stay positive. What’s the point of over-indulging the self with negative beliefs if it’s not going to improve on the situation? It’s pointless. Rather, you should be looking at what other things you can do to overcome the problem. If the current diet and routines you’re doing isn’t working, then try something else! Don’t repeat what doesn’t work. That’s just insanity, in its pure definition.

For every perceived problem, there’s always a solution. And it’s often right under your nose if you take a step back and go back to the fundamentals of training and nutrition. Because that’s what fitness is all about: training and nutrition.

Yes, you’re born with certain advantages and disadvantages physically, socially, and mentally but we can truly make the best of what we have by constantly trying to improve ourselves each and every day in all imaginable ways through goal setting, planning, behavior changes, and most importantly taking action with consistency and dedication to accomplishing a positive result.

I don’t particularly like the term, “hardgainer” because each letter spells excuse, excuse, and more excuses. If you’re a hardgainer, then so be it. You can still get freaking strong, muscular, solid, and built, if you play your cards right. Let’s move on to how we do that. First, understand the hardgainer profile.

The Hardgainer Profile

The definition of a hardgainer…. one who is naturally tall, has lanky long limbs with mostly slow twitch muscle fibers (the ones used for endurance activities), narrow waist and shoulders, weak joints, small boned with far muscle insertion points, and low strength levels.

They have a very fast metabolism thinking it’s impossible to gain any weight. However, once you actually see a hardgainer’s diet and training program, you’ll figure out why the hardgainer is not building any strength or muscle.

Jonas Brothers as ectomorphs

For example, a hardgainer weighing 135 lbs at 6 feet tall eats a 2,800 calories diet, trains 2 hours a day 3 days a week with 4 sets of barbell curls, bench presses, and crunches every workout. Look at that crap routine. That hardgainer workout sucks! No wonder he isn’t gaining any weight or building muscle. Both the training and eating plan is wrong. Too wrong.

It’s a real mistake to put categories, classifications, and labels to your self because often it limits the potentials of your ability. You’ll constantly think you’re a hardgainer as you build a low confidence radar while avoiding setting high goals for yourself. You’ll admit falsely on your ability to build muscle. Negative thinking. It doesn’t help you at all. We’re all capable of building lots of muscle and strength no matter our body type and current state of fitness/physical condition.

So hardgainers have low absolute strength capabilities and average or poor endurance (if they’ve never exercised or played any sports seriously). Their joints are also relatively weak if they’ve never trained with weights in the past. They are also not used to eating a lot, much less go on bulking diets to gain muscular weight and build muscle.

Goals of a Hardgainer

So there are really just 3 top goals for a hardgainer to build muscle. First, you’ll need to work on building a basic strength foundation to strengthen the joints and connective tissues surrounding the muscles. Then you’ll concentrate on improving work capacity so you can adapt your body to higher intensity strength training workouts and more frequent workouts.

Finally, you’ll need to start eating more, way more than you’re used too. You have to learn how to eat more than traditional bulking diets, which is normally 500 calories above maintenance calories requirement. 800-1000 calories is needed instead. Don’t worry about gaining fat since a hardgainer hardly has any fat on them. Most hardgainers can get away with eating a lot of junk and crap foods low in nutrient values but above all else, calories is what matters at this stage of the game.

3 Main Goals a Hardgainer Must Work On

1) Build a strength foundation

Why is a strength foundation so important to a hardgainer? It’s simple. Imagine being able to deadlift 400 pounds raw, bench 300 + pounds, and squat 250 + pounds. Do you think you’ll look like a weakling then? Try to work on the other compound movements like military presses, shoulder presses, chinups, and dips. If you can use a lot of weight on those lifts, do you think you’ll still have small arms, legs, shoulders, and back?

Take the chinup for example. Now a normal chinup using just your body weight done for 12 reps is impressive for most people (since probably half of the population under 50 can’t even do 5 perfect reps), but try wearing a weight vest or a weight belt and strap 90 pounds to it. Then perform the chinup for 12 reps straight. If you can, you’ll have big biceps and a really strong grip to go along. The chinup is an excellent mass building compound lift that involves the entire back, forearms, and biceps throughout the movement.

Strength foundation on a bowflex?

Strength does not directly equal more muscle but there is still some relation. Just look at some of the guys who squat 500 pounds. Do you seriously think their legs don’t look big? Strength and muscle are not mutually exclusive. As you get stronger, you’ll get bigger, provided you eat a lot and have your diet dialed in correctly for gaining muscle.

Also, if you work up to handling heavier and heavier weights with progressive training, you’ll strengthen your joints and muscles while increasing bone density allowing the body prime opportunity for greater muscle gains. This is performance-based training. You work up to getting stronger and the muscles will catch up nicely.

Building a strength foundation also allows you to focus on using good form, which aids in injury prevention for the rest of your lifting career. Stronger joints, stronger bones, stronger tendons, stronger connective tissues, and stronger everything surrounding the muscles gives you an overall healthy strong body.

A hardgainer workout is simple and basic. No complex conjugate or undulating periodized programs that leaves most of us confused.

2) Improve work capacity

A hardgainer, when he begins working out, tires easily due to a lack of energy and work capacity. Work capacity is the ability to work out at a certain of time with measured intensity. If you have low work capacity, especially while starting out training with weights for the first time, you’ll have to take time to build that up.

With low work capacity, you can’t train at a high intensity level for a long period of time, nor can you train very frequently. Your workouts will be unproductive as you tire easily. Your physical fitness does not allow your workouts to be efficient. You have to build up and let your body adapt to the training loads an stresses first.

Hardgainers are generally not very athletic and they run out of breath easily. They’re unable to handle a lot of high intensity and high impact work loads. So the goal for a hardgainer would be to improve his athletic potential and work capacity which allows him to work out longer and harder.

You’ll have to place emphasis on building up slowly the number of reps, exercises, sets, and frequency of workouts over time. And your efforts will be compounded. You start with a moderate intensity (intensity with respect to weight) set/rep volume and low frequency, then gradually add in more exercises, sets/reps/total volume, and frequency as the weeks progress and you get stronger.

You progress based on how your body responds to the training. This is a step-by-step gradual progression. Not complicated.

3) Eat more food

Hardgainers make the mistake of thinking they’re eating a lot when they’re not even close to eating enough for building muscle and gaining weight. They may think at first they’re eating a lot but once you break down the calories per meal, they’re not actually eating nearly enough to satisfy the muscle building engine in the body. If you’re not gaining muscle, the most likely culprit is in your diet.

This is simple thermodynamics. You must eat more than you burn in calories every day if you want to gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you do the opposite. A hardgainer is looking to build muscle. He must eat a hell lot more than the average non-trainee or couch potato. No way around this one.

A hardgainer diet involves eating a lot. If he eats only 2,000 calories, there’s no way he’s going to gain any weight, much less muscle weight.

Despite what many nutritional experts and authorities say about calories…calories in and calories out still counts to changing the way your body looks. The other factors like macronutrient ratios (how much protein, carbs, and fats you eat), meal timing, meal frequency, and supplements still matter but you must get the basic rule of calorie counting and consumption right first if you want results.

There must be that surplus, a number of calories above what you normally eat, or above maintenance requirement.

We’ll go over the best foods in the recommend proportions for building muscle and strength as well as supplements you can take to “supplement” not replace your diet.

Chicken steak with mushrooms! yummm...

Factors of Muscle Building Nutrition

1) surplus calories consumption: the number of calories you eat to gain muscular weight, not fat weight, to gain lean mass you have to eat above maintenance (no way around this one, you must eat, eat, and eat some more, but this doesn’t mean you pig out and get to eat all the garbage junk you want)

2) macronutrient ratio balance: the distribution of protein, carbs, and fats that make up your diet, in number of grams.

3) increased meal frequency: eating 5-6 smaller meals per day to increase nutrient partitioning benefits and keep you having a greater appetite (makes it easier to eat more when you split your meals into smaller portions and plates), it doesn’t have to be 5-6 full meals, usually a combination of 3 full meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and 2-3 smaller snacks in between the big meals works best for many people’s busy schedules

4) supplementation: not as important as you’re led to believe by bodybuilding magazines and mass market advertising by supplement stores and brands, supplement companies are only out for one main goal: the bottom line in profits (most supplements suck, they don’t work, total waste of money)

In each of the next 3 parts of this series, I’ll go over, in detail, each of the above goals. You’ll find out all the methods and principles to apply them into a total training and eating program for your hardgainer’s body. I’ll also list out some hardgainer tips for you to excel much faster than the average trainee.

Check out this video by a fellow hardgainer offering his top 3 tips to gain muscular weight. After reading the complete series, go back to this video and it’ll make a lot more sense,

Now let’s move on to The Hardgainer’s Guide to Building Muscle: how a hardgainer should train in part 2 of this guide.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

If you have any questions, comments or input you want to add to this article, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

photo credits:
jetalone
Zepfanman.com
Girl.in.the.green.scarf
JasonRogersfooddoggiraffebee

Build Bigger Biceps

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:57:53 +0000

Picture your arms, specifically your biceps busting the short sleeve of an extra large t shirt as you give a double back biceps pose. Chances are if you’re reading this article, you may not have the massive biceps and peaked yt with some time, dedication, and lots of effort and training you can beef up tose flat bis to impress Jane from next door and turn heads at the beach

Bicep training seems to be a lost art one by since the days of Larry Scott and Vince Gironda. Walk into the gym and rarely will you see a guy with biceps that stand out. Most guys who train the “mirror” muscles will do dozens of high repetition sets of concentration curls, barbell curls, dumbbell curls, you name it. Endless sets and reps of curls and they still don’t have biceps that make you jealous.

Doing curls alone just isn’t going to cut it. If only curls worked by itself, we’d all be sporting 20 inches pythons. There are 4 sure-fire tactics to help you build bigger biceps. Use them in your bodybuilding program and you’ll guarantee yourself results. Biceps can be a very stubborn muscle group if you don’t know how to train it and make it grow the right way.

Eat More

Eating big to get big still holds true, true for any body part of muscle group. The body likes to grow proportionately with weight gain. Rarely will you see a 225 lbs plus at 10% bf or under with small biceps. From thousands of empirical case studies and evidence and bodybuilding observations, it’s estimated that for every 10 lbs of muscle you gain, you will gain a 3/4 to an inch on your arms. And since about 2/3 of your arm is triceps, that translates into a 1/3 to 1/4 inch on your biceps for every 10 lbs of muscle gain.

You can’t grow bigger muscles if you’re not gaining muscle weight. And to gain muscle weight you’ll have to eat a lot. And you want to gain weight if you’re not eating enough for that calories surplus.

Get Stronger

What makes your muscles grow in the first place? What is the stimulus or drives of growth for any muscles of the body? Microtrauma, and to create microtrauma you have to lift weights. The connection between muscle growth and light weight boils down to how much microtrauma you can create in a given workout. The stronger you are, the heavier the weights you can handle, and the more microtrauma you create for muscle growth.

Now, in science speak, this process isn’t exact. Take a look at the real world. How many guyys you see who can bench 400 plus pounds and have small arms and chest? On the contrary, have you seen a 130 lbs. kidwith hardly any muscle deadlift or squat 500 plus pounds?

Greater strength, more muscle built. You have to have the strength foundation to build more muscle. More muscle results in greater strength gains. Greater strength gains results in more muscle built. One condition would not exist without the other. Even pure neural training with powerlifting techniques and programs have their limit.

So the bottom line is that if you want big biceps muscles, you have to get stronger. If you can strap 2 45 lbs plates to your waist and do 10 reps of chinups or pullups on multiple sets, do you think you will still have small biceps?

Focus on Back Exercises

This goes back to getting stronger with chinups, pullups, and deadlifts. In all back lifts, your biceps come heavily into play. Take the barbell row for example. When you pull the bar up to your stomach, you recruit your biceps, especially if you’re using an underhand grip. Any movement that involves you to pull your body or a weight resistance up recuits the bicep muscles, like chinups, pullups, deadlifts.

Work up to using heavy weights with these compound back movements and your biceps will grow,

Here are some of the best pulling exercises,

barbell and dumbbell rows, both overhand and underhand grip

chinups and pullups, do them weighted, on rings and on ropes

upright rows,

deadlift

Exercise variations, include curls

Putting it together

So now you know that you have to get stronger and use compound back lifts that involves both the back and biceps in a pulling motion, you need to know how to put together a bicep routine with that basic framework. Here are the rules,

Put focus on barbell or dumbbell rows, chose 1 main movement, 4 sets of 5-8 reps, then pick 2 supplementary exercises like barbell and db curls, 2-3 sets of 10-12,

if setting a body part split routine, work the back and biceps together on its own day.

focus on weight progression (link) and give example,

this covers all bases of strength foundation and rest pause (link to shock article) and post fatigue, give examples of both, use shock techniques only once a week,

use exercise variations to rotate different exercise when you hit a plateau

Eventually your back and biceps will get bigger and stronger. Your work capacity will increase. This means that you can work biceps more often for even more growth. The results are compounded.

Build Bigger Chest Muscles

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:57:04 +0000

Building a bigger chest seems to be a problem for a lot of people who have much stronger triceps or shoulders. Often the tris and shoulders overpower the chest muscles in compound pushing lifts like bench press and dumbbell press. If you’re tricep dominant, those muscles will tire out first before your chest muscles are sufficiently stimulated.

Instead, your pecs are under-stimulated. It’ll always be lagging behind your shoulder and triceps. And that’s not what you want to happen if you’re looking to build a bigger chest.

One solution is to use the post fatigue super sets (see shock article). Using post-fatigue super sets, you’ll combine a compound and isolation exercise together. You’ll do the compound lift first, then apply a chest-specific isolation lift that limits the shoulders and triceps to further work your chest in creating more microtrauma. The compound lift will leave some fresh muscle fibers needing more work.

The idea is to recruit more muscle fibers. More recruitment and activation means ore muscles worked, more growth. The compound lift will leave some fresh muscle fibers needing more work. And that’s where the isolation exercise comes in.

Combine a low rep and high rep approah. For example,

flat barbell bench press 3 sets of 6-8 reps

dumbbell flies 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Do one set of bench press first, then immediately more to dumbbell flies, without taking more than 20 seconds of rest, and crank out a set of 10-12 reps. Do 2-4 sets of this once a week and you will start seeing better gains.

Mix this with other body parts of do it on its own chest day, if you’re on a body part split program.

Use heavier weights

weight progression but cycle weights down and up

ex of weight cycling

recommend picking up pavel PTP for examples of different weight and load progression schemes with cycling, includes linear cycling, step cycling, ladder cycling

The approach of cycling weights is old school lifting, getting back to basics. A lot of muscle and strength is basically built through generations with this type of lifting.

Use dumbbells instead of babells

Exercise variation is important. Even with using weight progression as a means of progressive overload, there will come a time where you will stop getting stronger and plateau. The solution would be to swap exercises.

Use different exercises or variations of the main movements. Use dbs instead of barbells. You can do bench preses with 2 dumbbells instead of an olympic barbell. Here’s a list of the alternate list,

db bench press in flat, incline, decline positions

single arm db press- increases core balance and stresses the stabilizer muscles. You will find you will be able to handle more weight.

Build Bigger Leg Muscles

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:55:14 +0000

More than half of all lifters and gym-goers never train or work their legs in the gym. If your primary goal is to build massive amounts of muscle, then you have got to train your legs, specifically your entire lower body. This includes abs, lower back, quads/thighs, hamstrings, and calves. The single squat movement works over 200 muscles in the body. You’ll be neglecting half your body if you don’t train your legs. Build muscle in your legs and you’ll bump up in body weight.

Leg training also stimulates more natural growth hormones, HGH release, and that allows you to build more muscle all over your body. This is where the idea of squats building biceps comes from.

Don’t be one of those guys in the gym who only does bench press and curls. Train your legs. Train your entire body as a single unit. So here are 3 rules to pay attention to if you want to build bigger legs and gain lower body strength,

1) Use Compound Exercises

These exercises include squats, deadlift, and their variations. Here’s a list of what I believe to be the most effective lower body exercises for building muscle and strength,

squats, hack squats, db squats, box squats, front squat, single leg squat

deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, rack deadlift, sumo deadlift, trap-bar deadlift, suitcase deadlfit, dumbbell deadlift

glute ham raises

leg press

Your leg routine, if you’re relatively new to lifting, should focus on either the squat or deadlift.

2) Progressive Overload

Like any exercise or workouts you do, you have to progressively overload your body and make your body work harder and harder over a period of time (see progressive overload article). The best way to do this is to use repetition and weight progression. Let’s take the squat as an example,

Starting weight at 150 lbs or squat for 2 sets of 5-8 reps. Your goal is to get both sets of 8 reps using rep progression first with 5 reps being the minimum, then increase the weight by 5 lbs through weight progression and work your way back up to 8 reps for both sets.

workout 1- 150 lbs 8, 6

workout 2- 150 lbs 8, 7

workout 3- 150 lbs 8, 8, you did 2 sets of 8, now add 5 lbs or the next workout

workout 4- 155 lbs 8, 6

workout 5- 155 lbs 8, 7

workout 6- 155 lbs 8, 8

So in 6 workouts you went from 150 lbs with 8, reps to 155 lbs with 2 sets of 8. This is just a hypothetical example and your workouts might not go as smoth since you might hit a stumbling block and it might take you a little longer than 5 workouts to add 5 lbs to the bar. But the idea is the same. Use both weight and repetition progression for your lower body workouts.

Repetition Schemes

And you can take the progressive overload methods and use it with multiple rep ranges. If you’ve just starting out, go with 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps or 10-12 rep schemes. Then when you’ve adapted to the exercises, us ea heavier 5-8 or even 3-5 rep range.

A common but basic program used to build up the legs and lower body is the 5×5 program (link to 5×5 article) since each day focuses on squats and deadlift.

Build a Thicker and Wider Back

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:54:24 +0000

Most casual lifters don’t spend the same amount of time training their back then they do their chest and biceps. And that’s a big mistake if you want a proportional muscular body because an impressive wide and thick back..It increases your chest circumference measurements and gives you that “power” look from the side and back. You don’t have to walk around flaring your arms out anymore if you have a decent-sized back to match your chest proportionately. So learn how to train it correctly and build a bigger back.

The back muscles comprise of 3 main sections; Latissimus Dorsi (middle back), Trapezius, and Rhomboids. Together they are responsible for the pulling motion of resistance through your arms as the primary extension involved. So when you do a dumbbell or barbell rows, you are really pulling the weight over a distance. Your biceps activate and contract to initiate the pulling movement over that distance and the back bears the brunt of the load as the primary mover, when the exercise is done correctly.

So training the back and biceps isn’t mutually exclusive. This is why it’s recommended you build up to using the big poundages with back compound lifts if you want bigger biceps (see bigger biceps article). And if you’ve paid attention to the body part series, you will know to focus on compound lifts.

There are 2 different types of back exercises, categorized into vertical pull and horizontal pull back exercises.

Vertical Pull

Vertical pull are exercises that involves you to pull the weight while standing up or hanging in a vertical position from a bar or lever. The exercises include

upright rows

chinups and pullups

lateral pulldown

deadlift

You will find that you’re able to handle less weight with these movements because you have no platform or weight bench to support your body. Your body is the support itself. Deadlifts, chinups and pullups can also be considered full body movements.

Horizontal Pull

Horizontal pulling exercises require bending over or lying on a support, like a weight bench, or being suspended horizontally with rings, so the torso is parallel or near parallel to the floor. Exercises include,

dumbbell and barbell rows

t-bar rows

bench rows

body rows on rings

These 8 exercises are the primary horizontal pull and vertical pull lifts for getting a bigger and thicker back. Your back routine should consist primarily of these main movements or variations of these lifts for building a strong and muscular back. Use different rep schemes within the bodybuilding ranges, 5-8 reps and 8-12 reps. Alternate reps of 5-8, 8-10, and 10-12 reps and even going heavier to 3-5 reps on occassion through different training cycles.

Use shock techniques (see shock article). Use controlled and good form. Lift explosively on the concentric or “up” phase but keep it controlled on the eccentric or “down” phase of any back lift. Focus on squeezing and contracting your back muscles as you pull up.

Progressive Overload

The back responds very well to heavy weights. Look up to barbell rowing with good form using 300 lbs or deadlifting 400 lbs and I guarantee you’ll have a big back to match your strength.

4 Easy Ways to Build Muscle

admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:34:18 +0000

No matter how you train using whatever methods and techniques to build muscle, the number one rule is to stay consistent with maintaining a high level of intensity. Unless you’re training at a high intensity level (over the long term), maximum muscular growth cannot be accomplished and you will not reach your potential for strength and size.

To build muscle mass, you must sustain a level of intensity conducive to growth. But maintaining high intensity workouts will eventually lead to overtraining so be sure to get adequate sleep, rest, and eat tons.

Manage Fatigue

Once you manage fatigue, you can start experimenting with intensity techniques to supercharge your muscle building efforts. Here are 5 “easy” ways to build muscle mass faster and more effectively. These 4 techniques are designed to flush the muscles through the feel-good “pump”. The pump is considered to be the number one important motivator for most professional bodybuilders. If they experienced a good pump in their workouts, they’ll know they’ve gotten a good workout. They will build muscle mass.

1) Increasing volume

Volume is defined as the number of sets times the number of reps per set times the amount of weight used. You can increase volume by either increasing the weight used, increasing the number of reps, or increasing the number of sets per workout. Increasing volume is a method of progression. An example would be to go from doing 3 sets of 8 reps to 5 sets of 8 reps.

2) Use negatives

Negatives are the lowering phase of an exercise. When lowering a weight in an exercise, lower it very slowly. Make sure it lasts at least 4 seconds. For example, when doing dips, count from one to five as you lower to the bottom position until upper arms are near parallel to the floor. While emphasizing the negative will greatly reduce the amount of weight you can use, your target muscles (chest, triceps, and shoulders for dip example) works harder, which ultimately will result in better gains. Less weight, more gains.

3) Use drop sets

Drop sets allow you to squeeze a little more intensity out of your movements. When you reach positive failure on an exercise for a set, strip off some weight from the bar, take 3 deep breaths and continue doing reps until failure again, then drop some more weight and do another set to failure. Do 3-4 drops per drop set. Drop sets allow you to fatigue muscle fibers which may have been missed during the regular set.

4) Use compound free weight lifting exercises

Compound free weight lifting exercises are multi-jointed movements that work more than 1 major muscle group at a time. Examples include mass building exercises like the bench press, deadlift, squats, military dips, chinups/pullups, and dips. The main movements also includes the variations.

Here’s a list of compound variations:

Bench Press: incline, flat, decline, floor

dips: rings, parallel bar, v-bar, muscle-up addition

chinups/pullups: width grip variations (close, shoulder, wide grip), rings, rope, one-arm, muscle-up addition

deadlift: rack dead, dimel dead, suitcase dead, finger dead, one arm dead, SLDL

military press: barbell, db, arnold press

rows: bench rows, bb rows, db rows, one arm bb or db rows, t-bar rows

And why work each muscle group separately when you can work 2 or more groups at the same time. You are also able to handle heavier weights with compound movements. Lift more weights and build muscle mass. It’s as simple as that.

These 4 methods aren’t actually “easy” by strength training means but they’re easy in the common sense of training. Try them today.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

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Get No Nonsense Muscle Building, the #1 best selling skinny guy muscle building e-book which teaches you how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without supplements or drugs. Learn from a Canadian Fitness Model champion how to defeat ‘muscle unfriendly genes’ and build a body you can be proud of by visiting http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

Selecting a Bodybuilding Program for Gaining Muscle and Building Strength

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:17:18 +0000

You can find a lot of bodybuilding programs online and in muscle magazines and fitness books. But how effective are they? How do you know what to look out for before deciding to following a bodybuilding program or routine. There are really just 4 main things to analyze and decide if that bodybuilding program is right for you.

These are methods of strength training progression, type of training split for weight workouts, strength exercises used, and a proper bulking nutrition plan. By evaluating these 4 criterias you can decide if a strength training program for building muscle and strength is effective.

1) Methods of progression

Progression is extremely important for building muscle. If a program doesn’t have an outline or offer a method of progressing through the workouts, stay away from it. Progression means that you must continually make your workouts harder over time. This is an absolutely necessary since it is used to first build strength. The body is a machine of adaptation. It adapts fairly quickly to repeated stresses. The stress applied is weight lifting. If you’re lifting 100 lbs now, would you expect your body to continue building strength and muscle 6 months from now if you’re still lifting 100 lbs? Of course not.

If you use the same weight, your body will not adapt any further and get stronger. It has no reason to since you’re still using the same weight. Habituation to the same workouts results in a plateau. You have to continually challenge your body with either of the following progression methods,

increasing weight of each exercise

increasing frequency of workouts for each exercise and/or muscle group

increasing volume by increasing the number of sets and reps you do each workout

decreasing the rest periods between each set

If the bodybuilding program doesn’t have at least one of the following progression method, stay away from it.

2) Type of training split

There are 3 main training splits you can use for maximum muscle and strength gains in a routine. These 3 splits are perfectly suited for all beginners and those new to weight lifting,

full body split where you train the entire body at least 2-3 times a week using compound exercises; every muscle group is then trained 2-3 times weekly which gives it plenty of stimulation for strength and muscle mass gains

body part splits where you focus on 1-2 muscle groups per workout, training each muscle once per week; each muscle group is trained at least once per week allowing for more direct stimulation and exercises used per workout

upper and lower body splits where you break the entire body into halves and work the upper body on one day and the lower body on another day

Overall, there should be a good balance between training each muscle group about one to two times a week. The maximum times to train each muscle is twice a week for beginners. Three times a week is fine for beginners doing a full body routine.

3) Exercises Used

An effective and result-producing bodybuilding program will incorporate mainly compound free weight lifting exercise movements into the workouts. Compound exercises are free weight lifts that uses barbells and dumbbells to work more than 1 major muscle group at the same time. These multi-joint movements will allow you to move heavier weights to building a good basic strength foundation. By building that foundation you’ll be good to go on building more muscle later on. I’ve never encountered a muscular guy who was weak on the major compound lifts. Focus on heavy mass compound exercises. Get strong on them. Lift heavy and you’ll build muscle.

Here’s a list of the most effective compound exercises,

* squats, front squats, hack squats
* deadlifts, suitcase deadlift, rack deadlift, stiff leg deadlift
* bench press, dumbbell bench press, close grip bench press
* parallel bar dips
* chinups and pullups
* military press, dumbbell shoulder press, dumbbell arnold press
* barbell bent press
* barbell and dumbbell rows

4) Muscle Building Nutrition

Muscle building programs will require you to eat a lot, at least 300-500 calories, and sometimes even more, over maintenance to gain some quality muscle. If the program does not factor this calorie surplus in their laid out diet plan, you’d have to adjust the diet to meet the energy demands of lifting weights. Eating more than your burn off is actually the one of the most important part of building muscle. So make sure you do slap on some calories above what you’re currently eating.

You have to eat a lot to gain a lot of muscle. Eating a lot should be made a priority. Without that calorie surplus, you will not have a positive energy balance. And without being in a positive energy state by the end of the day before you go to sleep, you will not grow. It’s as simple as that.

Food is fuel and the catalyst for building muscle mass. The engine is your body. If you don’t provide that fuel, the engine won’t respond. The body will not grow new muscles. So keep a proper muscle building nutrition in mind. 500 calories above maintenance or what you currently eat is recommended by worthy bodybuilding programs. Many hardgainers and especially those with ultra-fast metabolism often require much more than a calorie surplus of 500 calories. They might need over 800 more calories to build muscle.

So these are the 4 main factors you can use to judge whether a bodybuilding program is worthy of doing. The training programs I recommend here all follow these 4 factors to help you get real world results in muscle growth, strength gains, and overall improvements in physical fitness.

Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com