How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle
So you wanna put on some lean muscle mass. And you want to do it within the context of the Primal Blueprint, but aren’t sure where to start. It’s a common question and it’s about time I addressed it head on.
As I’ve made pretty clear, our ultimate goal is to achieve positive gene expression, functional strength, optimum health, and extended longevity. In other words: To make the most out of the particular gene set you inherited. These are my end goals, and I’ve modeled the PB Laws with them in mind. But that doesn’t mean packing on extra muscle can’t happen with additional input. After I retired from a life of chronic cardio and started living Primally, I added 15 pounds of muscle, while keeping low body fat levels without really trying, so it’s absolutely possible for a hardgainer to gain some. The question is how much and at what expense?
I’d be the first to tell you that lean body mass is healthier than adipose tissue. Generally, the more lean mass a person has, the longer and better they live. But to increase mass at the expense of agility, strength, or speed is, in my opinion, counterproductive. What would Grok do – go for enormous biceps or the ability to haul a carcass back to camp? Unless you’re a bodybuilder (nothing wrong with that, mind you; it’s just not my focus), I can’t advise simply packing on size without a proportional increase in actual strength. Those bulging biceps might look good on the beach, but then again, so does the body that comes with keeping up with the younger guys, knocking out twenty pull-ups in a row, and lifting twice your bodyweight. Form is best paired with a healthy serving of function. The two are quite delicious together, and, luckily, following the PB allows us to get both without sacrificing either.
Of course, we’re all built a little differently. The basic building blocks are the same in everyone, but sexual reproduction (as opposed to asexual reproduction) has the funny habit of producing unique genetics and small variations that affect the way we respond to our environments. It’s why some people are short and some are tall, or why some of us respond better to carbohydrates than others. Even though we all pretty much operate the same way, there IS a range of possible outcomes that is proscribed by your direct ancestors. By that same token, some people just naturally have more muscle mass. They’re usually innately more muscular than the average person, and putting more on through resistance training is often an easy task. Then there are those who can’t seem to gain a pound: the hardgainers. They might be increasing strength, but it doesn’t seem to translate into visible muscle mass. Now, my initial advice for a hardgainer is this – don’t worry too much about it! As long as you’re getting stronger, you’re doing it right.
Let’s face it, though. You’ve probably heard that enough already. It’s fun being the lanky guy at the gym who can lift more than most, but you’re dead set on bulking up (who doesn’t like a bit more muscle to go along with that strength?), and you want to do it in a Primal context. Besides, continuing to increase strength will eventually require increasing size. To do so, you have to target the very same anabolic hormones that others use to get big, only with even more enthusiasm and drive. Like I said, we all have similar engines, but some require more fuel and more efficient driving (sorry for the corny analogy). Activating these hormones will work for anyone, provided they work hard and eat enough food.
The main hormones that contribute to muscle anabolism are testosterone, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). A little more about each and how to utilize them:
Testosterone
Crazy bodybuilders don’t inject themselves with anabolic steroid hormones that are based on testosterone for nothing. Among other roles, testosterone is an important muscle-building growth factor that favorably affects protein synthesis in addition to working with other hormones (like GH and IGF-1) to improve their function (more on this later). If you want to increase strength and build muscle, testosterone is absolutely required (don’t worry, though: no injections necessary!).
Growth Hormone
It’s right there in the name, isn’t it? Growth hormone. It helps muscle grow and, perhaps more importantly, it burns body fat. After all, leaning out is a big part of building muscle (or else you’ll just look puffy) and GH will help you do it.
Insulin-like Growth Factor 1
IGF-1 is extremely similar in effect to GH, as it should be – GH stimulates IGF-1 production in the liver. In fact, it’s suspected that IGF-1 is actually responsible for most of the “growth-promoting effects of circulating GH.”
Anabolic hormones all work together. In fact, to maximize their muscle-building potential, you must have all three present. Testosterone increases IGF-1, but only in the presence of GH. GH promotes skeletal muscle cell fusion independent of IGF-1, but the two are most effective in concert. Luckily for you, the types of exercises that stimulate the secretion of one will generally stimulate the secretion of the others. Funny how that works out, huh?
Enter The Central Nervous System
In order for your body to start pumping out these delicious anabolic hormones, you must first give it a reason to do so. I might even say you should give your genes a reason to express themselves. The most effective way to do this is by notifying the central nervous system. Now, the CNS can be a stubborn bastard, but he’s all you got when it comes to interpreting stimuli and relaying messages to the rest of the body. He’s not easily perturbed, and he won’t bother if you aren’t serious. If you insist on doing nothing but light aerobics or tiny isolation exercises, your CNS will barely notice. If you want to get your CNS’ attention, pick up the intensity. Run some sprints or do some heavy lifting. When you do an exercise like the squat with a heavy weight, all hands are on deck. Your CNS realizes that some serious exercising is going down and notifies the hypothalamus, which in turn talks to your pituitary gland. This tiny – but vital – member of the endocrine system is the gland that dispatches luteinizing hormones to tell the testicles to secrete testosterone. It’s also the gland that synthesizes and secretes GH. IGF-1 is mostly produced by the liver, but its production is facilitated by the presence of GH, so we can see that it all comes down to CNS stimulation. Chronic cardio doesn’t affect your CNS in any meaningful way, so that’s why we tend to avoid it; vigorous sprints, hard and heavy lifting, and anaerobic output will get its attention, so do plenty of these to maximize muscle growth.
Cortisol: A Hormone to Avoid
Promoting muscle and strength growth also requires avoiding excess amounts of catabolic (muscle wasting) hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is the major stress hormone, and it exists for a very legitimate reason (dealing with “flight or fight” incidents, inadequate sleep, anxiety), but in large amounts cortisol increases serum amino acids by breaking down muscle, inhibiting protein synthesis and reducing amino acid uptake by the muscles – all awful things for muscle growth. Compounding the problem even further, the broken-down muscle is converted into blood glucose, which then raises insulin secretion and increases insulin resistance while promoting fat storage. And we all know how great those muscles look with a nice layer of adipose tissue covering them up! On a serious note, most people following the PB already minimize cortisol by getting plenty of sleep and reducing stress, but if you’re preoccupied with building muscle mass and engaging in extended workout sessions to achieve it, avoiding excess cortisol can get tricky: excessive exercise without enough recovery time actually increases cortisol. It makes sense (think of it like your body’s telling you it needs a day or two off), but the desire for more muscle mass drives many to work out to the point of counter-productivity. Just be careful, and give yourself at least a day of rest after a particularly grueling session.
Lift Really Heavy Things
If you haven’t figured it out already, you’re going to be doing some heavy lifting in order to put on lean mass. The foundation of your routine should be the big compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, presses (bench and overhead), pull-ups, rows, dips, snatches, power cleans, clean and jerks. These engage multiple muscles while triggering your hormonal response systems. Bodyweight stuff, while valuable, simply isn’t going to get you the strength and mass increases you’re looking for. Testosterone, while useful, only gets really anabolic when you start lifting. You need to get under some decent weight, enough so that your CNS and endocrine system are blasted, but not so much that you can’t maintain proper form.
A popular routine is the 5×5 method. Popularized by programs like StrongLifts and Starting Strength, doing compound lifts for five sets of five reps allows you to strike a balance between strength building and superficial muscle hypertrophy. Done this way, your hypertrophy won’t be purely sarcoplasmic, which results in fluid-filled muscles that look big but don’t see a corresponding increase in actual strength. Instead, the 5×5 method promotes myofibrillar hypertrophy: hard, dense muscle fibers that increase strength and size (with no puffiness). That’s real muscle that would make Grok proud.
If you’re lifting heavy and lifting hard, keep your workouts spaced at least a day apart and don’t lift more than 3x/week. Three exercises per session should be perfect. That may not sound like much, but it’ll be plenty if you do it right. Remember, you’re doing big compound movements that will really shock your system, with an emphasis on intensity and power. You don’t want to overwork yourself, release a bunch of cortisol, and set yourself back a few weeks.
Squats and deadlifts are absolutely required. No excuses. They engage the most muscles and produce the biggest hormonal response. They will be the bedrock of your mass building campaign. Most programs recommend doing squats every session, and I tend to agree. You can handle it. Deadlifts are a bit more taxing and so should be relegated to every other workout. So, one week you’ll deadlift once, the next week twice. You can also sub in power cleans for the occasional deadlifts (or do them in addition) if you’re comfortable with such a complex movement. Presses are paramount, both overhead and bench. I’d alternate both types of presses every session. Pull-ups are great, but weighted pull-ups are even better. Same goes for dips. Just try to get one pulling, one pushing, and one squatting exercise in each session.
An example for beginners, with sets coming first in the sequence:
A
Squat 5×5
Pull-ups 5xFailure (add weight if “Failure” is becoming more than 12 reps)
Overhead Press 5×5
B
Squat 5×5
Deadlift 1/2/3×5 (your choice; deadlifts can be incredibly taxing, and with exhaustion comes poor form, so be careful; sometimes it’s better to do a really heavy load for a single set)
Bench Press 5×5
C
Squat 5×5
Pull-ups 5xFailure
Overhead Press 5×5
Do this sequence every week (maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and steadily increase the weight each session. Once you’re making progress, feel free to add in other exercises like dips or more Olympic lifts. For more mass, more lactic “burn” (and more GH secretion), reduce your rest periods between sets or even superset them. If you feel like doing some cardio, stick to sprints once weekly, or even a Crossfit-style metcon (metabolic conditioning) workout, maybe some Tabata burpees. The key is conserving strength and giving your body time to rest and recover for the next round of squats, deadlifts, and presses.
This “program” can be tweaked and altered. Just make sure you’re doing big movements while maintaining extreme intensity and great form. Oh, and always make sure to squat and deadlift. Always. They produce the most testosterone, GH, and IGF-1.
Eat Lots (I Mean Lots) of Plants and Animals
No one would ever call the Primal Blueprint a protein-sparing plan, but you’re going to have to eat even more than before. Stuff yourself. I always say that body composition is 80% diet, and that goes for putting on mass as well as losing fat. You need to provide plenty of protein for all those hormones to synthesize, after all.
- Never let your protein intake go lower than 1g/lb of body weight when you are aiming to add long-term muscle. It’s the building block of muscle, and your body is going to be starving for it.
- Eat plenty of saturated and monounsaturated fat. Fat blunts insulin secretion while increasing testosterone production. Insulin may be useful for stuffing your muscles full of glycogen, but that’s not what you’re going for… right?
- Dietary fat, in conjunction with all the GH you’ll be producing, also spares muscle wasting.
- You may have heard of the popular GOMAD method – Gallon of Milk a Day for easy mass-building. It undoubtedly works, but a gallon of milk isn’t exactly Primal and I can’t recommend it. Instead of milk, why not a dozen eggs a day? ADEAD? If you can manage it, eating them on top of your regularly scheduled meals is a great source of affordable protein, fat, and vitamins (Vitamin A in particular may have pro-anabolic effects).
- Eat often. If you’re going for pure size and strength, fasted workouts and skipped PWO meals may not be the ticket. You’ll burn more fat with the extra GH secretion and existing muscle will be spared, but you may be missing the chance at prime protein synthesis when you fast. A PWO meal of protein and fat will still blunt the insulin secretion and provide fuel for your muscles.
- Increase caloric intake. You’re going to be expending so much energy on the lifts (and you’ll continue to burn through it even on rest days) while eating clean, Primal foods (and keeping insulin low as ever) that fat accumulation shouldn’t be an issue at all. Eat!
- On those days when you do expend a ton of energy – maybe on your metcon or sprint day – having a Primal-friendly starch, like squash or sweet potato, is a decent way to replenish depleted glycogen stores.
- Eat a big piece of fatty meat every single day. Steak, whole chicken, lamb leg, organs, whatever. Just eat a solid piece of animal flesh for a powerful protein infusion on a daily basis.
- A hardgainer is often someone who doesn’t eat enough. Sure, genes play a role, but you can ultimately have a significant say in how those genes rebuild you. To a point. Eat more and lift harder to grab the reins.
I’m a firm believer in the body’s natural ability to achieve proper homeostasis, provided we supply the right environment and the right foods. For some of you, that might mean lower body mass, lower than you’d like. In my opinion, that amount of muscle is probably “right” for you and I wouldn’t recommend going above and beyond to achieve more of it… but I also wouldn’t condemn it, especially if it’s pursued in accordance with the Primal Laws. As for me, I am comfortable where I’m at and tend not to seek added mass (I’m also at a point where lifting heavy increases my risk of injury, and I HATE downtime). But if you are a hard-gainer looking to add a few, as long as it’s not just show muscle and you can actually lift some decent weight and at the very least manipulate your own body weight comfortably, eat those dozen eggs and gain that weight.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
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Great article, Mark! Lots of great links to read through later. I’ve spent many years trying to get strong with heavy lifting and it’s only in the last year or two that I’ve realized the value of focusing on just a few lifts.
What’s your opinion on circuiting sets in combination with heavy lifting? For example, a set of squats, a slight rest, then a set of pull-ups, a slight rest, then a set of presses, then repeat for the desired number of sets for each exercise.
It’s a constant balancing act; I’m always bouncing up and down within a five pound range, aiming for maximum speed and strength with minimum bulk.
127 seems to be my sweet spot. Any less and I start losing strength; any more and I start slowing down, not to mention that I don’t want to look like a fireplug. (Which, as a 5′4″ inch female, is a definite possibility.)
As an avid follower of your blog and an amateur strongman competitor, I’m thrilled to read your opinions on weight training.
“Squats and deadlifts are absolutely required. No excuses.”
That pretty much sums it up!
Nice article Mark! From personal experience, I think this is great advice only for people who really are hard gainers. I know you mentioned this in the article several times, but I don’t think it can be emphasized enough. One really needs to be careful about this, otherwise the results can be disappointing.
The thing is that I have been following a similar plan for about a year: eating hearty primal meals (still nowhere near a dozen eggs a day. More like a dozen a week!), with my only departure from strict primal fare being the sensible vices (more or less, the 80/20 rule has looked more like 95/5 for me); doing crossfit workouts 2-3 times a week which involve a lot of heavy squats, deadlifts, olympic lifts, dips, pullups while mixing in tabta sprints etc.; and also doing a lot of low-level aerobic activity for good measure (like tennis and yoga).
In the past year, I went from 155lbs to 185lbs. However, I always had some deposits of flab around my stomach, and those deposits never disappeared through all the effort and discipline. I looked puffy (and I still feel I look more puffy than I would like). And, whats worse, I don’t think my functional strength increased significantly: I could only do very few pullups, could not do hand stands, could not even imagine L-sits, and other such exercises which required great core body strength.
So in the past month or so, I changed my approach. I kept the activity levels up, but cut down my food consumption: no cheese, less meat and veges per meal, more fasting, fewer nuts, less alcohol, much less fruit (infact I only restrict myself to a few berries a day now).
And as a result, some real positive change has occurred: I can do many more pullups, my sprint times are dropping, I can hold an L-sit for a second, I can get into a hand stand more easily, I have dropped 5 lbs, my pant-size has dropped, and my stomach is certainly showing more shape.
The moral of the story is that one needs to pay close attention to what is happening with your body. It is very easy to stick to advice which is not appropriate to you simply because it is widely recommended. One needs to be diligent and ready to change things up if things are not working out in your context. And one must be clear about ones goals.
Personally increasing strength, power, balance, speed, agility, flexibilty, endurance, and coordination are my goals. The program outlined in the article was simply not getting me there (particularly the recommendations for the quantity of food intake).
I just wanted to sound a word of warning to others like me (those who tend to put on weight fairly easily) who might venture on the same path.
Apurva
It’s good to hear from you, Apurva. It’s been awhile. I’m glad to hear you’ve found something that works for you. Stay in touch.
Hey Mark, I have been visiting every day. Just not posting that much. This place sure has become a lot more popular lately. Congratulations
APurva
Amen Brother!
Mark,
This is absolutely what I’ve been needing – spot-on! I’m 6′0 and went from 165-170 down to 145-150 by eliminating the grains, starches, etc.
I’ve been going to the gym for a while and can see some definite body composition gains and strength gains, but muscle mass development has been sorely lacking. Based on your advice, I can tell I simply have not been eating enough, and I really need to increase my squat/deadlift days from just 1 of each per week.
One follow-up question – I play softball and basketball approx. 1/week, and between 3 days w/ weights, 2 days w/sports and 1 day w/ sprints that’s just one day of rest. This seems overly ambitious – what can I cut out so that I can maintain the pace for months? Is sprinting during b-ball/softball enough? Can I gain muscle mass w/ just 2 intense weight workouts?
This is great – thanks!
OK Mark, a question for you. Would you change the advice in this post at all if you were talking specifically to a female? I’m still in the fat burning stage but more muscle is an ultimate goal of mine (and why can’t I do both at teh same time
. Should I be doing anything different than the above? How about for a woman over 40?
Thanks much.
Me too…Avid crossfitter over 40..anyway to avid excess cortisol production on top of rest??
Thanks Mark Great site!
Mark-
Great post! What you mention across the board is what people usually avoid and/or do wrong. And the suggestion of Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength is spot on. Mark has a DVD to go along with (read that again: go along with!) the book which I recently received and is a great help for folks not sure about their form on the lifts.
http://www.aasgaardco.com/store/store.php?crn=210&rn=323&action=show_detail
Best-
Craig
phenomenal article, mark!
i was wondering, though, what would be your advice to someone (like myself) interested solely in strength to weight ratio, concerned primarily with continually increasing strength in the major bodyweight movements and holds (the planche, the L-sit, the handstand, pull-up, etc.) as far as diet, workout frequency, etc? maybe you could address the flip side of this coin in a future post?
great work as always!
Great article, this really lays down the law on this subject. One of which I’ve been trying to get across to a co-worker for a long time. Once he reads this it will affirm my speeches and get him gaining!
Mark,
You hit the nail on the head for me.. The key is eating & hitting those compound movements.. I do like the fact that you don’t recommend introducing the starch (maybe a squash or sweet potato occassionally), but the bottom line is increase protein & fat.. Good fat is so undervalued in our Western Diet, & often misunderstood.. Fat carries the calories needed for growth, without the inflammation that would come from heavy starches & carbs.. How about going heavy on the fruits to gain some weight as well?
Thanks for the article.. I do appreciation your time & insight.. What a great site..
Brian..
Nice one, Mark.
I’ll have to change things up this month in regards to the eating then – I’ve been doing fasts on the days that I do strength training (Tuesday, Friday). I don’t eat until about 2 hours AFTER the workout in the evening (after not eating at all that day).
Maybe I’m stifling some of my gains by doing so…
Thank you, vj – how would this how-to change for a female audience? Especially one of varying ages?
Again, this post is directed at hardgainers. I’ll be addressing other groups (females, extremely overweight, teens etc.) and goals as they relate to Primal Blueprint Fitness in coming weeks. Thanks for all your questions. I’ll try to answer them all soon! Thanks!
I’m really looking forward to your female-oriented posts!
Excellent article Mark. Very detailed and correct. Highlighting the need for Vit A was good too, this is overlooked. Thanks, Andy.
Thanks Mark for all of your great information and research. I’ll be looking forward to more about this in the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and dedication.
vj
Mark: I am a true hardgainer. I am currently doing kettlebell/functional training twice a week and lifting once a week. Should I be switching this around to lifting twice and kettlebells once, or even lifting three times and treat kettlebells as cardio as you suggested for Crossfit?
Have you seen improvements doing what you’re doing? If so, stick with it until you don’t. If not, give my suggestions above a try for a couple months and see how it works for you.
Perfect timing Mark! This was broken down well. I’ve read a lot about most of this, but really was looking for some simple answers to a few of these questions.
can’t wait to see something for the more endo/mesomophic types…I can put on wait and plenty of muscle almost overnight, but that almost always comes with fat gain
Mark, appreciate you putting this article together…I’m the typical hardgainer. I’ve gotten a lot more strength, but no size to go with it. I have no desire to be the body builder type, all about functional fitness, 10-15 lbs would be good (up from 155lb currently. Just need to up the intake as you said! I have noticed more strength throughout the workouts in the 3 weeks of eating primal, even after a year of intense workouts (but was based on higher carb intake). Thanks Again!
These are great tips that I used; and they worked. A little caution if you are a little advanced like me (42 years): your joints will ache! I gained about five pounds in about 3 weeks, but I finally reverted back to Mark’s advice: eat Primal, do your workouts and your genes will do the rest.
I’m 6′ and 162lb, can deadlift over twice my bodyweight and do the 20 pullups; and it is fun to see the big guys watching the boney guy! If it’s looks you want, go for it; but if it is function and strength you want, go the simple route… Primal!
Cheers!
I know what you mean…I as shocked when I would go to the gym in the past and was doing what some bodybuilders were doing!
I’ve put on a lot of weight and muscle with the PB, and this post is DEAD ON. I would have written something exactly like it (but not as good).
But note that you can lose it just as quick as you got it. I’m in that rut right now, as 4th of July festivities slowed things down, work has dominated me, I had an injury, and I dropped weight for a triathlon — of which I never got much back.
This weekend I begin the journey of starting over, and this post is exactly how to do it.
Nail on Head. **BAMM** Now if only people would stop looking for some overly complicated solution and just stick with the basics for a minimum of 12 weeks…..and then see real results!
As I like to say….calling oneself a “hardgainer” is just an excuse for not doing things the right way. We don’t all have to be 250lbs and ripped…but we can all have a good lean mass build.
If you haven’t seen this yet…here’s an out-take from possibly the best “bodybuilding” article on the internet:
“Sansone understood the importance of flesh foods, including animal fats and organ meats. He wrote extensively on nutrition for bodybuilders and recommended nutrient-dense “foundation” foods such as milk, eggs, butter, meat, vegetables, fruits, and some whole grains, in that order. He also stressed the importance of organ meats such as liver, kidney, heart and cod liver oil and recognized the need to drink whole raw milk instead of pasteurized and skimmed.”
http://www.westonaprice.org/men/splendidspecimens.html
I’m not super on board with the training specifics but I love the nutrition portion of this post. Speaking of eggs, just gobbled down a dozen myself fried in coconut oil =).
-Anthony
when you say “Never let your protein intake go lower than 1g/lb of body weight” are you talking about total body weight or your lean body mass, as an overweight guy that can be alot of protein
Lean body mass, yes. Thanks for pointing that out. Of course, this post was designed especially for hardgainers so body weight is going to be similar to (or the same) as lean body mass for this crowd.
Nice and logical.
Great article. A lot to digest. I have been doing hot yoga for about one year. This has been a great help but I also would like to work with weights more. Biggest problem (or fear) is that I have had back surgery four times. This is why I started with yoga. Do you have any specific ideas for people with such injuries? I do have (in FDA study) two artificial disc’s. This has eliminated 16 years of chronic pain and allowed me to start exercise. Over the course of two years (just after last surgery) I have been able to lose 60 lbs with a huge diet change. I am always learning more and love the site.
Thanks for all you do.
I eat 4 eggs per day and around 2500 kcals just to maintain 71kgs at 6ft1. I have never gone above 73kg even on 4000kcal per day. I think I need more food and more intensity.
But, due to a herniated disc I cannot do squats or deadlifts
Instead I do 1 legged squats which are very intense and hopefully stimulate the CNS sufficiently.
1 leg squat form: hands out in front, 1 leg raised. Lower yourself under control ALL the way down until your calf touches your hamstring. Push up ENSURING your heel doesn’t lift off the ground. 1 rep is challenging but I have worked up to 10 reps on a bosu.
Great exercise for those who can’t do regular squats, but please drop the boso ball and pickup a weight to add resistance.
All the bosu is doing is limiting the amount of weight you can use because you’re constantly shifting around to keep your balance. It’s a cool trick, but it’s not building muscle.
I beg to differ. Holding a small weight in front actually makes the exercise easier as it counter balances you. Holding a heavy weight out in front off-balances you, and for me personally, places too much strain on my back injury.
The only safe way would be to wear a weighted backpack and hold a small weight out in front.
As I dont have a backpack in the gym, I do them on the Bosu as this really works the core and ankle stabilisers. Even with no weight added, 10 reps is extremely challenging to the body. (have you actually tried 10 1 legged squats?)
I do plan to use a weighted backpack soon though.
I can’t reply to your reply, so it’s up here…
You’re missing the point of the squat. You’re doing good stuff, but 10 reps on something unstable is a huge difference from 5 reps on solid ground.
It’s possible that something that you can only lift 5 times is too risky for your disks, but then I’d question if it’s a good idea to do something so precarious as a pistol on a wobbly surface. Sudden jolts and torque can be as dangerous as a weight ON the spine.
If it’s the heavy weight on your back that’s the concern, there are other one legged exercises that your can try. Lunges, reverse lunges, split squats, bulgarian split squats, step ups, etc. are all good exercises. It’s possible to hold a weight (even to the chest or dbs in hands) and add resistance. Can this safely get you to 5×5? I don’t know, but maybe discuss the options with your doctor or physical therapist.
its hard to get to 5×5 as heavy weights compromise my herniated disc. I usually do lubges whilst holding 16kg dumbells and can still do 8-12 reps easily.
Point taken about sudden jerks with instability on the ball.
I want to emphasise the point that a 1 legged squat with no weight puts the same intensity on each leg muscle as a normal squat with my own body weight on the bar.
I have nevertried Bulgarian split squats so will do, maybe holding dumbells overhead?
Solid post, plan to cross post to my blog.
Thanks.
Jay
I’ve got 3 words for fellow”hardgainers”
dinner for breakfast
What if you can’t do squats? It hurts my shoulders to hold the bar behind my head (old rotator cuff injuries) and my knees already grind when I squat down.
Aveshnea, front squats should relieve the shoulder pain and are arguably safer for your back anyway.
For the knee grinding, doing some self massage on your legs with a foam roller (or any other tool) and deep bodyweight squats beforehand may help.
Can I do leg presses instead of the squats? They don’t seem to bother me knees as much.
You won’t get remotely the same benefit. Squats move the body through a longer range of motion, utilize the body’s natural mechanics for full muscle engagement and demand tremendous core stability because the weight is supported on the rigid torso. Squats are basis for mass-gain for a reason: Very few exercises can put so much beneficial stress on the body. If you can’t squat, consider heavy deadlifts as a substitute, but you’ll need to find another way to get some quad work in. Avoid machines as much as possible until much later in your lifting career.
Leg presses are OK, but they don’t tax your body as much as full-on squats. a squat works your upper body, abdominals, and legs, while the leg press works from the leg down. So while leg presses can be good initially, once you feel comfortable you should switch.
Also, squats are tricky. It may be that your form is incorrect. Start with a lighter weight and focus on form, or have a trainer/experienced lifter at the gym help you.
I have quite a bit of weight to lose (140+ lbs). So I think I’ll stick with the presses and dead lifts until I lose a good chunk of it. Probably safer on my knees.
Also, there’s NO way I’m doing pull ups..I weigh 315 lbs!
Maybe lat pull downs instead of the pull ups? or what do you all recommend?
Mark, I received your book about two weeks ago( greatest investment ever made ). When I finished reading it I thought about my goals, more towards the bodybuilding end. Nothing crazy just a little more muscle while maintaining the same level of body fat.
So having the book ( the philosophy) ,I was able to determine what changes to make to the PB (albeit minor).Well, your article confirms all the things I thought needed to be tweaked. POINT OF STORY: Primal Blueprint provides all of the philosophy needed to achieve your goals no matter what they are. One final note, it’s ucanny how you covered every specific detail in this article that I was wondering about as applied to muscle building.
Thanks
Mark,
A couple of things I have learned through the years:
Add at least two warm-up sets of 10-15 reps (light and not to exhaustion) before 5X5’s. (Avoiding injury is #1 on my priority list.)
And no matter how much you eat, you have to have enough rest days between workouts. Error on too much rest when in doubt.
I know Bill Starr and others suggest squatting 3 times a week… I could never do more than 2.
I lift in the over 300 when doing 5×5 and 250 – 275 when doing 20 rep squats. Going at that 3 times per week never gave my body, CNS and mental faculties the time to recuperate.
Squatting twice or even once per week, if done heavy and intense, will result in great gains.
I gotta’ agree with this. I could NEVER squat 3X a week. Ok, I don’t mean I physically couldn’t, but my reps would go down each subsequent session. I’d never make progress that way. No way. Even eating 6000 calories a day, my body wouldn’t keep up with it. I make gains on once/week. “If it ain’t broke!”
Mark – great article. Glad you advocate low reps and big lifts to build real muscle!
Have any of you gained muscle mass without a gain in BF? I’m 55 years young and am at 11.6% BF. about 6′ and 154 lbs. Trying to lose newly gained BF which was found/tested in the stomach area only. Have increased muscle mass in chest and thighs. Am a “hard gainer”.
So, I’m trying increase muscle mass lost in the last 8 years (been PB for 11 months) or so (cardio and mass carbs)and decrease BF in stomach area. I keep carbs to approx. 100 to 120 g a day but have increased fat intake.
Anybody going through similar challenges…like to share your thoughts and trial and errors?
Avashnea,
I’d recommend bodyweight squats. At the very least, you’ll still be pushing some decent weight (not for long, though!). If bodyweight squats feel okay, you can move on to just the bar. I’d second the other guy and stress that leg presses simply aren’t the same, and that the actual squatting motion is too crucial to avoid.
If you can’t do pullups, lat pulldowns are fine – just make sure to keep trying each week to get an actual pullup.
Thanks for the info. The stupid trainer at the gym told me in her ignorance that beginners should NEVER do squats or deadlifts and you NEED cardio to lose weight. Of course, her head almost exploded when I told her I eat 60-70% fat lol
The amount of ignorance and misinformation in your spouted out by “professional” trainers is astounding.
If I’m doing Starting Strength 3 days a week, how would you recommend filling the rest of my days exercise wise?
Shaz, I always use “off days” to do sprints. Just go outside for 15 minutes and sprint as long as you can, walk until your body says it’s ok to go again.
Seems reasonable. Will try that.
One suggestion I have regarding deadlifts is a great tool called the “trap bar”.
Its a hexagon shaped bar, that you step inside of, plates are loaded on the outside and deadlifts are performed via this great bar. With traditional barbell the load is in front of the body, whereas with the trap bar the load travels “through” the body.
Much, much better on the lower back and shearing forces there. For anyone who suffers some lower back problems and desires to deadlift HEAVY this bar can be the answer! I picked one up on craigslist for $75 and it has been a truly great purchase.
Mark, your nutrition advice is 100% correct, but I would limit exercise with heavy weights 5×5 to 3 days a week, where one day would be upper body push movements, then 2 days later upper body pull movements, then 2 days later legs. Your tendons/ligaments will have a hard time recovering from 3 days a week of the same movements, especially natural.
This would follow the workouts of bodybuilder legend Frank Zane, who still looks good after the age of 65 following a low carb diet.
This is right on. I accumulated a good deal of lean mass and lost a lot of fat when I started doing pretty much only compound movements while eating primally and left behind my obsessive daily routine of over an hour of cardio per day. One acquaintance at the gym complimented me recently by saying, “You do really well at walking that tight rope that is being both big and lean.” That felt good, because I was not a strapping guy in my teens or early 20s. I was a McDeath glutton with my value meals.
As always, nice post. Putting on muscle has always been a struggle for me. The only way I could do this was to eat 6x a day, but as soon as I stopped, every pound gained would disappear. Now that I’m more “mature”, I’m trying to focus on functional abilities rather than simple weight gain. My question is whether the hard earned muscle will stick around once I go back to a “maintenance” level? After all, I can’t keep eating all this food the rest of my life. Just trying to find a nice, long-term way to say healthy and increase muscle size.
Stephan
Stephan,
How tall are you, what is your age and weight?
How long have you been lifting? What is your highest 1RM that you have achieved in squat, deadlift and bench?
What type of workout are you using to gain your muscle?
As Mark points out in the article heavy lifting in the 5×5 style of strength training, as opposed to a more hypertrophy only style (4×10, etc), builds a different type of muscle and I believe a longer lasting type (quoted below for convenience).
You don’t see many powerlifters who lose their muscle size even when dropping to a maintenance level of food.
Quote:
“A popular routine is the 5×5 method. Popularized by programs like StrongLifts and Starting Strength, doing compound lifts for five sets of five reps allows you to strike a balance between strength building and superficial muscle hypertrophy. Done this way, your hypertrophy won’t be purely sarcoplasmic, which results in fluid-filled muscles that look big but don’t see a corresponding increase in actual strength. Instead, the 5×5 method promotes myofibrillar hypertrophy: hard, dense muscle fibers that increase strength and size (with no puffiness). That’s real muscle that would make Grok proud.”
Toolman:
Thanks for the reply. I’m 42 now, 6′1″ and 154 lbs. I’ve been trying to use the PB diet and was able to reduce by BF levels to a point where the abs are visible now. It’s been a while since I’ve done max reps due to some injuries and a focus on more “cardio” and bodyweight exercises. I did shoot up to about 190 lbs once, but that required 6 large meals a day (lots of carbs, mind you). I just didn’t see myself eating like this until I’m 80!! Maybe this training (or Body by Science) would create long lasting physical changes.
Stephan,
Yeah, I can understand not doing max rep singles. I do them VERY rarely myself, but there are several calculators on the WWW that will allow you to calculate, pretty closely, your 1RM. Here is 1 example:
http://www.nsca-lift.org/fly%20solo%20program/onearm.asp
You can build muscle mass without eating 6 meals per day though you will have to eat “large”, can’t build muscle tissue without fuel.
Sounds to me that a change to training style, more like what Mark describes in this article, is part of what you are missing.
If you aren’t lifting heavy, on a consistent basis and eating appropriately then, yes, muscle gain will not happen. If you apply this type of training with appropriate diet then the muscle will be more likely to remain once you resume a maintenance level of eating.
The low rep scheme seems to be the most “Primal” way of exercise. If you look at how ‘Grok’ would have exercised, it would seem to be with short duration, intense to moderate exercise – whether during the kill phase of hunting or possibly more commonly in play or general life.
Fatigue would have been avoided; it would place the individual at great risk from predators. There’s a reason you only see fatigued animals in the wild right before they are eaten. Plus fatigue is unpleasant; it’s not something our bodies encourage us to do. And in the end, what matters is listening to our bodies. Grok would have done a few short sprints, wrestles, a few heavy lifts just playing and/or making its tools. He would have stopped when he started getting tired, or when it stopped being enjoyable. This being an important assumption.
He wouldn’t develop DOMS (something unpleasant) to any significant degree, he wouldn’t have overuse injuries, he wouldn’t have significantly raised cortisol levels, he wouldn’t have tight muscles and imbalances from performing lots of one exercise and would be ready to go almost all the time as he doesn’t have or need rest days (maybe not after his kill and a huge meal – like every other animal).
Nowadays, a run and jump down the street or climbing a tree is seen as something a crazy person would do, and is socially unacceptable, people just don’t do this regularly in everyday life. Rather than having the whole day as a possible workout or stimulus for growth, we structure 1 hour to push all our lifts in. I would recommend doing one or two heavy lifts or intense exercise every waking hour for truly primal and positive exercise.
So my advice is if you feel like jumping, then jump, if you feel like running then run, and the same for squatting and any other exercise, do it how intensely you feel you want to and for how long you feel you want to. Let your body decide, treat it as play. Sometimes you just feel powerful in one movement today or feel like a big heavy 1RM deadlift.
If you let your mind decide, you’ll be doing the conventional 3×15 reps, and maybe getting your desired results in terms of muscle growth, but be getting a lot more undesired results.
This requires some imagination to fit into may people’s sedentary (other than a one hour workout, *rolls eyes*) lifestyle though – and after all, sedentary definitely isn’t primal.
Nicely put. I seem to do pretty well fitting things into my everyday life rather than “doing exercise”.
It’s most noticeable when I stop though, I’ve spent far too much of the last week sat at my computers and sat in my car. Time to do some Extreme Housework, move some boxes around in the attic and turn over one of my compost piles. Er well, when I’ve finished this coffee and reading MDA of course . . .
I went to the gym today and wanted one of the trainers to show me proper form for squats and dead lifts. What I got was a near argument with the owner who THINKS he knows all about fitness. Idiot trainer quotes of the day- 1)squats and deadlifts are advanced exercise and are unsafe. Machines strengthen and stabilize you.
2)low carb/primal (I had to explain what primal was) is unsustainable and unhealthy..it’s all about moderation for a healthy diet
I’m seeing a different trainer tomorrow. He LIKES heavy lifting like lunges, deadlifts and squats and is pro- low carb.
“Crazy bodybuilders don’t inject themselves with anabolic steroid hormones that are based on testosterone for nothing.”
Why do you need to put them down if you know that this is the only way for them to compete at the level at which they do? What if they get the best possible medication and support from one or more doctors; is it really *that* crazy in such a case, especially if you take into account that testosterone-based medication is being used throughout “normal” health care for various purposes as well (for those that are inclined to answer this rhetorical question: “No, it isn’t *that* crazy.”)? To each his own, I would say. At least give them *some* credit; after all, they are possibly more of an expert at “gaining weight and building muscle than you are”, regardless of whether or not you approve of their methods.
What I’m furthermore wondering about (apart from the fact that the majority of the advice in the article is actually pretty good, I must say) is whether or not the Primal BluePrint program – which seems to sport quite a couple of (pseudo-)scientific claims – has actually been proven to work by means of a controlled user study that is scientifically sound and repeatable. Do you have a reference to a scientific journal or conference paper in which this is detailed, or is all of it based on anecdotal evidence (”success stories”) at the moment?
I think the craziest part about bodybuilding is that they take roids for the purpose of looking better than other men in a glorified homo-erotic beauty contest
To the guy getting all defensive about bodybuilding: are you trying to sound smart or something? Do you believe everything that has a ’science’ label is true? You know, you’re probably right. Insulin plays no role in body composition, pasta is good for you and fat makes you fat.
Hi..I really enjoyed this article and I really like it..especially the point on
Eating Lots of Plant and animal…
I have a question on reagarding to this that…
Should I eat potatoes with milk…after workout or before workout..as I know that it have lots of carbohydrate and fats…..????
Where does the testosterone come from if you’re a girl?
In women, testosterone is produced half in the ovaries and half in the adrenal glands.
I love the article Mark! I think the 5×5 workout makes a lot of sense. I’ve also had good results from the HIT notion of lifting where you load the weight with as much weight as you can only perform 7-8 repetitions with, where the 8th rep is failure and going further would dip into the realm of negatives. With this method you only have to do 1 set and move quickly onto the next lift. This way you get all the muscle damage you need to grow bigger, the stress hormones are minimalized, and the workouts themself are brief but intense. Very primal, GROK ON!
Great Post. To gain weight & build muscle requires a lot of tough exercises
“To gain weight & build muscle requires a lot of tough exercises”, NO brief but intense workouts are key. if you work intense enough 30 min is adequate. initially 3 times per week, then down to 2 at the end of the cycle.
3 sets of 5 reps for the Squat, Bench press, and Press is plenty. For the Power Clean you do 5 sets of 3 reps and for the deadlift 1 set of 5 reps
Increase the weight every time you train
5×5 is too much volume.
Not neccessarily. There are a ton of people who have made incredible gains off 5×5.
I’m all for low volume training but 5×5 is not high volume. Each person has to figure what their body responds best to (imagine that, people are different) and 5×5 is a tried and true method that has proved itself a great tool for many, many people.
Yeah wel; my advice would be to read two books about strenght training and that is: Startingh Strenght II edition and Practical Programming for strenght training both by Mark Rippetoe.
5×5 is for intermediate trainees not for novices to strenght training like most of us are
Regards
The difference is likely trivial.
Mark suggested 2 days a week with 5×5. Rippetoe suggests 3 days a week with 3×5.
I love Rippetoe’s stuff and believe it valuable information but I was simply responding to your general comment that 5×5 is too much volume, which simply is not true. Some may respond better to other lesser or great volumes but that is something that has to be personally determined.
BTW – Mark Rippetoe was trained by Bill Starr (coach who is synonymous with 5×5 strength training). Here is Rippetoe’s description from his web page:
“I have doing the [clean and jerk and the snatch] as a part of my training since 1979. I was a competitive powerlifter, but we snatched and c&jed as a part of training with Bill Starr. I have snatched 82.5 and C&Jed 105 as lifts that were not my competitive sport. My best clean was 275 many years ago — power, I believe. I have been coached by Bill Starr, Tommy Suggs, Jim Moser, Dr. Kilgore, Glenn Pendlay, Angel Spassov, Harvey Newton, and many fellow lifters. I have never claimed to be a good weightlifter, but I have coached the lifts since 1984.”
The article is great…but the only problem is the diet. How am I supposed to fill my fridge up with all that food every day? I’m living on a tight budget and I really want to gain lean muscle. I can only spare enough money to buy the cheapest foods out there (potatoes, rice, ground meat, etc.) so getting all those healthy and diverse products is difficult for me…Maybe it’s just a personal problem, but the meals and such seem too unrealistic for the average working guy to follow..
Some of my staples are the following:
Ground beef
Eggs (cheap!)
Chicken
Talapia fish
Spinach salad
carrots
canned veggies
Frozen berries
I also have a smoker and routinely buy pork shoulder or brisket and smoke it on weekend and have meat for 2 weeks.
None of this is overly expensive and actually quite economical. I buy in bulk from Sam’s alot also.
I bought a Seal-a-Meal so I can buy large packages of meat when it’s on sale and seal it up to freeze. I just bought 8 lbs of drumsticks! I also eat LOTS of eggs.
Through my teenage years I spent all my yime doing weights and got no-where. I am a textbook hardgainer.
So i took a different path and spent the last few years fighting in Muay Thai which meant cutting weight for fights and trying to be lean etc.
I’ve decided to go back to weights and put on size, I’m 24 now, but think i’ve stuffed my body up as i can’t put weight on past 84kg and im 6′2. i want to crack 90kg but it’s impossible.
I eat more than anyone on Earth haha!!
I think genetics sometimes can’t be broken…
Justin,
How much weight can you squat for a single rep? How much for 5 reps?
How much can you deadlift for a single rep? How much for 5 reps?
Let me know and then we can move on from there to some helpful suggestions.
Unfortunately I have a groin injury that needs rest, so I’m only doing chest, back, shoulders and arms.
My squat form is ordinary, so wouldn’t be too much.
I work out each weekday as follows
MON Chest & Back
TUES Arms
WED Chest & Shoulders
THUR Arms
FRI Chest & Back
SAT Boxing
SUN Rest
I appreciate the response and the info but none of that really answered the questions I asked
How much weight can you squat for a single rep? How much for 5 reps?
How much can you deadlift for a single rep? How much for 5 reps?
You can give the numbers you had prior to your groin injury. Once we have those the we can give some helpful suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Justin, you should log/track your food intake with fitday.com for a while. Not saying you don’t truly eat a lot, but I’ve found that a lot of people (hardgainers) are eating a lot FOR THEM, but still not a lot.
Hopefully you can track things for a while and let us know.
Sure I will try that site. Thanks.
But yes I definately eat alot.
I never miss breaky and can’t go 2 hours without hunger.
I can easily nail a family size pizza in a sitting.
The missus cooks for 3. (2 for me)
I snack alot and try to eat alot before I go to bed. I also try to eat alot of carbs in afternoon/night!
If you’re truly a hardgainer, stop doing cardio. Cardio is the anti-muscle. Seriously. You said you’re training Muay-thai…. well that’s probably why you can’t hold any muscle mass. I’m a surfer, and can’t put on ANY muscle in the summer and fall when I surf regularly. When I stop cardio’ing myself senseless, I can slowly add a couple pounds. Conventional wisdom keeps you in that trap, leading you to believe you use cardio to lose fat. It’s just not true. DIET off the fat, diet and lift to add muscle. NO CARDIO.
you are dead right buddy. since my post i have cut ALL cardio. its very hard i feel like a lazy slob….but im stacking on the kg….up to 89kg and i was 74kg in dec for my last fight!!!
I would love to find that perfect mix of cardio and size/strength
Cardio is not anti muscle! Cardio is good for the heart. if you want to add muscle while doing cardio you need to eat more to make up for the deficit.
Mark, great article, great website.
I’ve been incorparating the work of Pete Sisco into my weightlifting workouts and let me tell you, this stuff really gives the CNS a wake up call. He even has a specific routine called the ‘CNS Workout’. Although I generally use a combonation of his Power Factor and SCT workouts.
You should check out some of his literature(The ebook TrainSmart mostly), and although I don’t subscribe wholly to everything he says, a lot of his general strength gaining principals ring true with me.
Oh, and thanks for increasing my knowledge of many things. Much appreciated.
How can I increase my arm strength without putting on weight to compromise agility? (Agility as in, jumping high/long)
heavy weight, low reps, low sets and 2 – 5 min rest in between sets. example:
3 x 3
boxing mate
12 eggs a day! I’m definitely not eating enough protein – nuff said! :O
Dear Mark or any who have input,
I’m trying to gain muscle.
But, I am certain I am not like most.
First of all, I’ve been training and for some time competing at a high level in powerlifting and sprinting for 10 years.
Sometimes fun competitions like highland games, strongman or even Crossfit-get-togethers with friends are done.
Some of my best accomplishments are, all at a bodyweight of 165-168lbs:
550lbs conventional deadlift
517lbs back squat, competition depth
418lbs olympic deep squat
235lbs push jerk
100 meters sprint: 10s97h
(I don’t feel I need to prove myself for these numbers, but some of them are on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/Leeuwer
Shameless attention plug, check!)
None world-class, but I worked very hard for these numbers and managed to keep my weight and bodyfat percentage within a “reasonable” throughout.
Gaining muscular weight has always been a problem though. I can gain weight, easily, but most of it fat …which I would diet off later … with the end result being me at the same size but with some added strength. This is good to a certain extend as a competitor, but at a certain point I felt I needed to gain more muscle and weight, without increasing my bodyfat percentage too much, to continue to improve.
Now … I’ve adopted a paleo/primal eating plan for the obvious reasons, however, … now it seems I CAN’T gain weight.
I’ve added half a gallon of raw whole milk after workouts on training days, I’m now eating at least 12-14 eggs a day, several spoonfulls of natural nut butter, several large servings of meat, fish or fowl and some fruit(and of course my veggies), but it seems like I’m actually losing weight. I do have to note it seems to all be fat, about which I’m not complaining.
Of course, being in the iron game long enough I know the answer to this problem: “SIMPLY EAT MORE!” or “SQUATS AND(raw)MILK!”
But, besides that, has anyone any tips or experiences on how to gain weight? I’m looking for people who have somewhat of the same starting point.
Kind regards,
Bert
Bert, if you’re not gaining ANY kind of weight (fat or muscle), then you’re not eating enough calories.
The opposite of fat loss advice for you — move less, eat more. The milk is good, and try to add other high calorie foods like nuts and seeds, dressing, oils and fats, more fruit than veggies, maybe? More winter squash and root veggies vs lower cal veggies, too. There’s probably no need for more protein, since after a certain minimum amount of P, it’s simply calories that are needed to add to your weight.
Aggressive lifting should take care of “heart health,” so cut out superfluous cardio, take the elevator, and park closer to the door.
I think you know how to lift for muscle gain, and I’m sure it will come with the food.
You’re strong. Impressive!
Hey Roland,
Thanks!
Yep, especially the move less thing might be a good way to go. I’m now taking a deload week and next week I’m cutting about 10-15% off my total weekly volume.
I was already taking the elevator and walking a lot on top of “some” light cardio(one 20-30-minute session a week), but I might cut down on that now too.
I’m adding in more fruit as well. Seems I hit a ceiling what concerns more fat and protein intake, like you said as well,and eating 4 pieces of fruit now daily might help more.
Thanks again for the help!
Chad Waterbury gives the following advice on rep ranges for hypertrophy in his “rep bible” article:
Reps – 36-50
Load – 70-80% of 1 rep max
Rest between sets – 60-120 seconds
Sessions per week per muscle group – 2-4
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_setrep_bible
If you are not gaining in muscle size it’s usually 1 of 2 things (or both) improper training technique (for desired goal) or lack of calories for growth.
It’s sounds like you are very well trained at strength. That doesn’t always equate to hypertrophy though, especially if one is concentrating on max singles and volume is on the low side.
Design a routine with the above numbers as your guideline and eat and rest appropriately and you should be able to gain. If you are doing that and not gaining add calories to your diet each week until you do start gaining.
Hey Toolman,
Thanks for the help!
I’m familiar with all writings of Chad Waterbury and my general strength is very good in all areas … both maximum strength, repetition strength, endurance strength as speed-strength(power).
The calories will be the biggest factor!
Sounds good.
Increase those calories with some fats. It’s easy to get alot more calories by just adding a bit of heavy cream, olive oil, fish oil and nuts. As I’m sure you know a gram of fat has double the caloric density of either a gram of protein or carbohydrate… so have a big old bowl of blueberries and heavy cream and slip a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil into your salad.
Good luck!
I will say it again, cardio is the ANTI muscle. I don’t know how much cardio you’re doing a week, but if you’re lifting and eating appropriately to gain, but then doing lots of cardio…. you’ll never get anywhere. Look at marathon runners, pro cyclist like Lance Armstrong, those guys have very low muscle mass. Contrast that with Olympic sprinters. Are you training more like a sprinter or a marathon runner?
Read my first post on this topic, if you will.
I have always trained like a sprinter.
The only cardio I did weekly was a single 20-30 minute relaxing bout of stepping or something alike, for the simply reason that it makes my joints feel better, who’ve taken quite a beating after 10+ years of training heavy and fast, like I should.
I do not believe it will have a lot of impact on my gains.
Bert,
Have you tried creatine?
You pulling my leg?
Of course … also all the other stuff throughout the years… glutamine, CLA, BCAA’s, etc … now creatine does work, but it is not steroids.
Thanks for your help though guys. I’ve gained another 2,5(lean)pounds in the meantime, just by forcing myself to eat more.
it’s not anti muscle you just have to compensate by eating the additional calories that you burned doing the cardio.
it’s not anti muscle, you have to compensate by eating the additional calories that you burned doing the cardio. other wise you’ll be in a calorie deficit.
you can’t force yourself to add muscle by over eating you gain muscle because of anabolic hormones. focus on creating the ideal anabolic environment and you’ll grow.
Hi Mark-
I am so thankful for this post. I am a Crossfitter and trainer and have been working with my 16 year old on his fitness and his diet. It is complicated to try and gain mass at this age (although he is a lean 6′ 195# kid) as a Type 1 diabetic. This post is powerful for him and his other athlete friends who refuse to cheat for the sake of size (pro-hormones etc.) Keep the good stuff coming, looking forward to receiving my copy of your book and how it will help me, my family and my clients with their nutrition/diet/eating!
kre alkalyn Kre-Alkalyn is the top most creatine supplement on the market. It does work, sharing my experience..
First day of PB. Cant wait to retrain!
Hi everyone,
I was looking at some articles on the net that talked about the old conventional wisdom that you need carbs to build muscle and gain weight (I know, I know I’m sad for even reading the things through) but one comment left me wondering. A person said that if one is in ketosis, one cannot build muscle and gain weight. Their reasoning being that “ketosis is a catabolic state and therefore anabolic processes like building muscle cannot occur.” (I read that and just thought wow! how knowledgeable you must be to use the words anabolic and catabolic) While I know the emphasis of the PB is to hit the “sweet spot” rather than go for a full blown ketogenic diet I was wondering is it possible to gain weight and build muscle whilst in ketosis?
Thanks guys!
Why would you want to be in Ketosis? Carbs give you the energy to progressively lift heavier and heavier weights. muscles won’t grow unless adequately stressed. PROGRESSION IS KEY! You need fuel for progresseion. It’s a scientific fact that when you are in a calorie deficit you will burn stored fuel. you folks all want some kind of blanket workout routine and diet. it doesn’t work like that. you need to experiment we are all different. start with 150 grams of carbs per day and in 2 weeks check your progress. use your strength in the gym to determine if you need more or less
Has anyone worked with/tried a strenght training format/philosophy called “escalating density training”, which was developed by Charles Staley? It seems that it would be very “Grok” friendly, since it would appear to develop the type of strenght that primative man would have naturally gravitated towards…strenght without frivilous bulk coupled with muscular endurance.
Anyone given it a shot? I am seriously looking into trying it.
EDT is the bomb and definitely works. There are so many ways to incorporate the EDT principles into a good program. There are tons of ideas on the net and a research mission is well worth it.
Mike Mahler has some good ones here:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler72.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler51.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler35.htm
nice website.. great information, this site also has awesome info
This article was better than I expected (I tend to expect the worst…so much crap in this industry). I agree with much of what you wrote.
However, I’d like to add that fasted training may not be that bad at all. New studies show it might even be superior to fed state training if you look at the compensatory boost in some myogenic growth factors as a response to proper post-workout nutrition.
If someone is interested, I’ve written a bit about this here -
http://leangains.blogspot.com/2009/12/fasted-training-boosts-muscle-growth.html
Increasing your lean muscle mass will actually enhance your speed, agility co ordination and strength when using proper training principles, not disadvantage them.
One major concern is surrounding flexibility as the muscles become so conditioned to contracting they can end up shortening. This is why a strong focus should be on flexibility when weight training as well as using your full range of motion during exercises.
Awesome post, have it printed out and ordered your book a few days ago on amazon, can’t wait to get it. Keep being awesome.