Maximize Your Muscle Gains with 10 X-Factors and Build Muscle Fast with a No Bullshit Approach
To gain muscle mass, what do you think sets a good training program apart from a bad one? What bodybuilding workout routines provide the fastest way to build muscle? Why are some muscle-building programs more effective than others?
photo credit: RightIndex
The reasons and answers are simple. It’s because all result-producing programs contain the essential “ingredients” necessary for real progress. I call them the X-Factors that will help you build and gain muscle mass fibers and pack on serious pounds all over the body. After recently re-reading “From Scrawny to Brawny: The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way” by John Berardi and Michael Mejia, I was reminded of the most important factors to bodybuilding success.
Usually, X-factors are unknown values and quantities that are only uncovered after a successful prescribed process. In our case, the process is bodybuilding and we want to gain as much muscle mass as fast as possible. Most gym rats do workouts randomly without paying attention to short and long term goal setting. They go pump out sets of curls and bench presses haphazardly without any thought to proper planning or progression.
You have to know certain muscle building principles in order to maximize muscle gains and build muscle fast. You have to dial in certain variables to get a training effect desirable to your goals. Our goal here is continuous mass muscle gains. We’re often not aware of what we have to do to acquire a certain skill set or result. With bodybuilding workout routines, most are ignorant of what makes a successful training program. This is why you must know and apply the X-factors to your current regimen. Avoid wasting time with fruitless and unbalanced exercise routines and nutrition plans.
If you’re creating your own personal workout and nutrition program to gain the most muscle mass as possible, be sure it includes these 10 factors. We’re all after results. Know and learn them. To gain muscle mass be fully conscious of them.
The best mass muscle gain programs contain these 10 X-Factors:
1) Eat a surplus of calories above maintenance levels
This is the number one important factor in a bodybuilding program to gain muscle mass. You may have the best workout programs working with the best trainers but if you don’t eat a surplus of calories, you won’t gain muscle mass. Calories surplus, calories surplus, calories surplus...get that concept into your head! The body is a homeostatic “machine.” Homeostasis is the body’s natural mechanism of resisting change. Muscle mass is extremely energy intensive. It takes a lot out of the body to maintain and build muscle mass. Give the body an “excuse” to maintain and build muscle.
Noticed how your muscles look flat and deflated if you go more than 10 hours without a meal or after a good night of sleep. Muscles are constantly shifting from deficit to maintenance. By starving yourself, your muscles will be deficient in energy. Food is fuel for muscles. Provide that fuel and you’ll build muscle. It’s a simple fact that many people miss.
You must eat more than you burn in calories. Eating more and following a sound mass eating nutrition plan ensures proper recovery, repair, overcompensation, and growth of muscles. Now, a good rule is to eat at least 500 calories above your caloric maintenance level daily, especially for hardgainers and skinny guys with ultra-fast metabolisms.
Check out Dr. John Berardi’s Mass Eating guide at JohnBerardi.com for an “enlightened” perspective on muscle-building nutrition. Recognize that to gain muscle mass; you must be in a positive caloric balance by consuming more than you expend.
Take note of this formula:
Calorie Intake + Calorie Expenditure = Total Calories
Total calories must be positive (+). On the contrary, if your goal is to lose weight, your total calories must be negative(-).
Here is a simple and general formula for figuring out your total intake requirements:
To find maintenance and surplus levels
Male- Weight (in pounds) x 14 = maintenance, then add 500 to that figure for surplus.
Female- Weight (in pounds) x 12 = maintenance, then add 200-300 to that figure for surplus.
For example, a 160lbs. male would need 2,240 calories to maintain his weight (160 X 14). He would then need 2,740 calories to gain weight (2,240 + 500).
Now this isn’t the end-all-be-all formula. It’s just a rough guideline to start a bulking diet. You’ll most likely need to eat more than the suggested amount of calories from the formula. This formula doesn’t take into account daily activity level, basal metabolic rate, height, and age. However, it is a good starting point. The most important fact to keep in mind is the surplus necessity for gaining muscle mass. There are more elaborate and accurate formulas if you google “calorie needs calculator.” I’m just using the above formula to illustrate the concept. I recommend checking out fitday.com and register for a free account to get a more accurate calculation. They also provide free logs and journals so you can keep track of your workouts. You can also use Dr. Berardi’s formula from the “Massive Eating” article series.
The “secret” rule is that if you don’t gain after a few weeks of staying with a figure,increase calories by 100 every week until you see a result (weight gain or weight loss depending on your goals). Aim to gain at least 1/2 pound to 1 pound of weight per week. Anything more than that will be a sign of gaining too much fat. With a calorie surplus, fat gain is unavoidable and inevitable.
The trick is to eat just enough to maximize muscle mass gains and minimize fat gain. If you’re really dedicated, keep a food journal and record what you’ve eaten daily along with the number of calories.
Adjust your calorie intake upwards as you gain muscle mass. A 3,000 calorie diet may be sufficient to get you from 150 to 170 lbs. but will not work to get you from 170 to 190 lbs. An increased body weight requires increased calories to gain more muscle mass. Recalculate calorie requirements on a monthly basis.
2. Eat more protein.
Proteins are the building blocks of muscles. They repair and supply the necessary fuel for muscle growth. After all, your muscle filament fibers are composed of protein blocks made up of water and amino acids. At least 40% of your diet should come from protein sources. A gram of protein is 4 calories so do the math. 40% of a 2,000 calorie diet is 800 calories. That’s a total of 200 grams of protein. Another good rule is to eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.
For example, if you weight 160 pounds, eat at least 160 grams of protein every day to gain muscle mass. Protein is also essential after a workout since the muscles are screaming to be fed and repaired. The bulk of protein should come from whole foods: containing complete proteins. The list includes lean red meats,/beef, chicken breasts, peanut butter, nuts, tuna and fish. If you want to really pack on lean muscle tissue and build muscle fast, eat protein, and eat lots of it. It’s as simple as that.
3) Eat a meal 20-30 minutes after a workout (post-workout meal) or a post-workout drink consisting of at least 20-30 grams of protein and 30-40 grams of carbohydrates.
photo credit: kteague
A post workout meal full of protein and carbs will help your muscles repair and reduce cortisol levels. Cortisol is your number one enemy after a workout. Elevated levels of cortisol that lingers for days is detriment to your muscle building progress. You want muscle repair and growth to occur immediately after you leave the gym. Don’t skimp on this.
The body is also especially receptive to nutrients after an intense workout due to increased insulin sensitivity. Insulin helps shuttle and transport the rquired nutrients into bodily systems within muscle cells for repair and recovery. Dr. John Ivy elaborates further on the merits of a proper post-workout drink with solid lab and empirical research in the book, “Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition.”
Check out the bodybuilding.com nutrition articles archive and pre/post workout articles for more information on how to make a post-workout drink to gain muscle mass. Your first priority after a workout is to have a quick meal or shake.
4) Eat a small meal every 3-4 hours to keep metabolism up and the body recycling nutrients.
After a hard workout your body needs constant nutrients. Don’t let yourself go hungry for more than 8 hours without food. Smaller meals eaten with greater frequency also speeds up metabolism aiding the thermogenic effect to burn more fat and preserve muscle mass. Remember that you’re after maximum muscle gains with minimal fat. With increased meals, the body becomes more efficient at cycling and shuttling nutrients through the cells for faster recovery.
Eat 5-6 small meals a day rather than the usual 3 large meals. If you don’t have time on a hectic schedule, ensure you eat at least 4 small meals with several small snacks throughout the day.
5) Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.
There’s just no way around this one. The body grows and repairs while you sleep. Your muscles grow larger and fuller through overcompensation during sleep. Don’t skip on adequate uninterrupted sleep. If you can’t sleep a full 8 straight hours a night, take several small 10-minute naps throughout the day. Sleep should be a priority. 8 hours appear to be optimum for most people. Sleep is also the only no-effort process to your muscle mass gaining journey. Sleep significantly contributes to gaining muscle mass. Enjoy your sleep.
6) Focus on compound, multi-jointed free weight lifting exercises and movement
This includes variations of barbell, dumbbell, and weighted bodyweight movements. They include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, shoulder and military presses, weighted dips, weighted chin-ups, and barbell rows>
Compound movements stimulate the most muscle mass in the least amount of time. They also allow you to use heavier weights so you can work those muscle fibers for more growth and to gain muscle mass quickly and fast. Stick with compounds and grow. Be sure your current bodybuilding workout routine contains some of these weight lifting compound exercises listed here:
- squats, front squats, dumbbell squats, hack squats, manta ray bar squats, single leg weighted squats/pistols
- deadlift, rack deadlift, suitcase deadlift, trap bar deadlift, dumbbell deadlift, straddle deadlift, one-arm deadlift
- bench press; close-grip, wide-grip, dumbbell press, incline, decline, flat variations (includes dumbbell variations)
- dips; weighted with dip belt, or use body weight (both parallel bar and v-bar)
- chinups/pullups with weight belt or body weight
- barbell or dumbbell bent-over rows, bench rows/bench-supported row, T-bar rows
- dumbbell or barbell shoulder press, arnold press, dumbbell/barbell push press, reverse grip shoulder press
- barbell or dumbbell clean and pressCheck out bodybuilding.com’s Exercise Database for a full description of the many isolation and compound movements you can do to build and gain muscle mass.
photo credit: A of DooM
7) Use free weights over machines.
Free weights allow a greater range of motion, ROM, throughout all exercises increasing flexibility while stimulating more muscle fibers to work. The result is long term growth. Machines restrict ROM and are less effective at strengthening the connective tissues and stabilizing muscles.
Weight lifting exercises that uses free weights should first be used by beginning lifters to build a strength foundation with the core compound lifts. You’re able to recruit for muscle fibers with free weight movements. The entire back, legs, and core/abs/lower back makes up roughly 80% of the body’s musculature. They’re targeted and recruited most efficiently by big compound lift movements like barbell squats, deadlifts, and a variety of standing and sitting presses.
It only makes sense that the bulk of your strength training and bodybuilding workout routine should focus on using free weights over machines to target all muscles.
8 ) Ensure there is progressive overload every workout or every other workout in the long term.
This is a basic universal principle that states you must apply ever-increasing stress through a given training cycle. You must give a reason for the body to grow and gain muscle mass. If you don’t, the body will not adapt and build muscle. Your muscles need increasing stresses over periods of training cycles through progressive overload. In other words, you will have to get stronger and/or do more work in terms of total volume to gain muscle mass.
Make your workouts more difficult over time with systemic progression. Apply progression to your bodybuilding workout routines to build maximum muscle gains with any one of these methods:
- increasing the amount of weight used on one or more sets of each exercise
- increasing the number of repetitions per set for one or more exercise, increasing overall training volume
- increasing the number of total sets for each exercise or muscle group, increasing overall volume for the training session
- increasing the number of exercises per muscle group or workout, ex. do 3 sets instead of 2 sets for each movement
- reducing the resting time between sets of the same exercise, ex. instead of resting 2 minutes between sets, try resting only 90 seconds
- using more difficult variations of compound exercises; ex. from pushups to weighted dips, from body weight squats to barbell back squats
- increasing the frequency of workouts; train each muscle group more frequently or train the entire body more frequently per week/training cycleYou can even increase the frequency of each muscle worked for all workouts. For example, instead of working each main muscle group once per week, you can increase it to twice per week. You could even choose to replace the current exercises with more difficult variations. Progression is a must. Without systemic progression, the body has no reason to adapt and improve.
9) Warm up properly by doing a few sets of very light weights to “prime” the body for working sets
You don’t want to be “cold” going into your working sets using heavy weights. A proper warmup will ensure you are loose and ready enough to handle heavier weights. Warm up properly to “prime” your muscles for a hard workout. Use 30-50% of your top working set in the 8-12 rep range for warmups. Do 2-3 warmup sets before jumping into the first working set.
For example,
Let's say you're aiming to do a working set for bench press with 200 pounds for 5 reps:
- warmup set #1 for bench press: 60 pounds for 8 reps
- warmup set #2 for bench press: 80 pounds for 10 reps
- warmup set #3 for bench press: 100 pounds for 12 reps
* now proceed to working set with 200 pounds
Gaining muscle mass is about putting full intensity into each working rep, set, and exercise. To gain muscle mass, you better be real sure you’re ready for each set. Do warmup sets to prevent injury and “wake” the body for an intense muscle building workout.
10) Give priority to lower body training, specifically the quads, buttocks, and hamstrings.
In other words, don’t neglect working your legs. They’re the largest muscle groups of the body. When worked intensely, growth hormones from the neuro-endocrine system gets released into the blood stream allowing for overall growth throughout the body. Much of the body’s core strength comes from the legs. Leg strength and power gives you the total strength to lift more weights with every exercise.
Focus on the number one leg exercise, squats. Get strong at regular barbell back squats, front squats, hack squats, and even single leggged varations of dumbbell squats(pistols) to gain muscle mass all over. The best weight lifting exercises are mass compound movements that targets both the upper and lower body.
That’s it. The above 10 X-Factors must be applied to every workout program for maximum mass muscle growth. All successful bodybuilders, both professional, amateur and weekend recreational warriors apply all ten essential ingredients to maximize their gains. And it’s just easy stuff to apply daily in your workout and diet regimen to build and gain muscle mass fast.
I’m sure many of you already know these 10 rules in the back of your head, especially if you’ve been reading a lot of informative and “how-to” articles on the internet about weight lifting, strength training, and bodybuilding. But somehow you still haven’t implemented the most important elements into your muscle mass gain program for long term success and results. Now is the time to remind yourself of what you have to do to build muscle and just take action.
Bodybuilding doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it's not complicated when you first start.
There are no secrets to gain muscle mass or bodybuilding. Just do what works and do them right. You’ll see results if you take a no bullshit approach to building and gaining muscle mass by applying proven principles that have worked for many.
This is all about sticking to the proven variables of effective training. Once you dial in each of these factors, you’ll experience exponential gains in strength and muscle growth. The best bodybuilding workouts are armed with substance and knowledge expected from the individual. Gain muscle mass by training intensively and smart.
Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.
Feel free to contact Me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or seeking additional advice.
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