The
Ten Commandments of Building Muscle Mass
It
seems like the one burning questions all guys have is how do I build
muscle mass and lose body fat? There are thousands of muscle
building diets and body building diet programs on the Internet. Trying
to find a sensible muscle building plan and a means to reduce body fat
can be frustrating and overwhelming. We hope this article sheds a little
light on the intelligent way to formulate a diet to promote building
muscle mass. It is always okay to individualize and personalize your
diet plan, just don't stray too far from the fundamentals.
How
Much, What & When to Eat
Every time I’ve had a client tell me he can’t put on muscle
mass, I’ve given him a homework assignment: "Between now and
the next time I see you, I want you to keep a log of everything that
goes in your mouth. I want to know what you’re eating
and drinking, how much, and what time you’re doing so."
Any guesses what I typically see when I check their food journals? They’re
lucky to be taking in 1,500 calories a day. They’ll skip breakfast,
eat a big lunch, feel full all day, and then eat a big dinner. Their
individual meals may be large, but they’re not getting many calories
because they’re not hungry. You’re not going to build much
mass that way.
1. Thou shalt eat enough to promote growth.
A good rule of thumb is that if you’re trying to bulk up, your
daily calorie intake should equal your weight in pounds times 18. So
if you’re 125 pounds, you should be taking in 2,250 calories. If
you weigh 150, you’re looking at 2,700. If you’re playing
sports or otherwise highly active, you may well need more.
2. Thou shalt eat at least five times a day.
Obviously, it’s going to be tough to get as many calories as you
need in a day in just two or three meals. You’ll get sick, and
all those calories are going to come right back up. That doesn’t
do anyone any good. 2,700 calories becomes manageable when you split
it into 5 meals, though. That’s just 540 calories a meal.
That’s 6-7 eggs, a protein shake with a double serving of oatmeal,
a couple of turkey sandwiches, etc. We’re still talking about good-sized
meals here, but they shouldn’t be so big you feel stuffed for six
hours. Basically, you want to be eating every 3-4 hours.
Even if you could get enough calories in 2-3 meals, though, you’re
better off spreading it out more. First, more frequent feedings keep
your body in a state of positive nitrogen balance, meaning that you’re
packing on muscle rather than burning it. Second, blood sugar is better
controlled by splitting your food intake into smaller, more frequent
meals. This means you’ll have more energy and store less of the
excess as fat. Finally, your metabolic rate rises for a couple of hours
every time you eat. Frequent metabolic spikes also help keep you from
storing the excess calories as fat.
3. Thou shalt eat the right kinds of foods.
Pizza Hut and MacDonald’s make it easy to get a lot of calories,
and you’ll see lots of people building big bodies on their fare,
but that’s not the kind of big body you want. Certain foods have
no place in the building of a healthy body, and fast foods and sodas
are high on the list.
What should you be eating?
First of all, you should be eating about one and a half grams of protein
per pound of bodyweight. That’s going to seem like a lot of protein,
but that another place the minimum of five meals comes in. Assuming
you weigh 150, we’re talking about 225 grams of protein a day,
which comes out to 45 grams per meal.
Second, you should be eating good, low glycemic carbohydrates. Beans,
whole wheat products, brown rice, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, and fat-free
dairy products are all good choices.
Third, you should be getting quality fats. Eggs, lean meats, fish oil,
flax oil, olive oil, and mixed nuts are all good choices.
Now, the tricky part is how to combine them. I recommend splitting things
up so you have two kinds of meals: protein plus carbohydrates and protein
plus fat. Try to avoid combining carbohydrates with fat, as this combination
is more likely to put fat on you than any other.
Sleep, Recovery, Training Each Body Part
4. Thou shalt get enough sleep.
You’ll notice that we’re in the fourth of our ten commandments
and haven’t mentioned anything about what you’re supposed
to do in the gym yet. That’s because muscle is built outside the
gym, when you’re eating and when you’re resting.
All your training does is provide a stimulus for growth. At the table
and in bed are your make-or-break times. Seven hours of sleep is a bare
minimum if you’re serious about getting bigger. You need that time
to repair the muscular damage you do in the gym, and your body releases
significant amounts of growth hormone while you sleep. Cheating your
body of sleep is cheating it of growth, period.
5. Thou shalt recover between sessions.
This one is related to the previous commandment. While sleep is important
to muscular growth, so is properly applied laziness. Minimize your cardio
if you’re looking to put on mass. Also, take adequate time off
to recover between workouts. Under no circumstance should you be training
the same muscle group twice in less than 48 hours, and you’ll frequently
find you need more rest than that. As a rule of thumb, if the soreness
isn’t gone and the muscles still feel the slightest bit tired,
you’re not ready to train them again yet.
6. Thou shalt train thy entire body.
Certain body parts seem to be more glamorous than others. Everyone wants
big pecs and biceps, along with ripped abs, but all too many people
neglect their legs and backs. If your goal is to be big, though, not
training some of the largest muscle groups in the body is pretty much
taking careful aim and shooting yourself in the foot. The legs and back
have incredible potential for growth, and they help balance out a physique.
No matter how impressive your pecs, abs, and biceps are, you’re
not going to impress anybody if your legs look like pencils and you
disappear from the side or back.
Training your legs and back also result in larger releases of testosterone
and growth hormone, the hormones that make you big. Thus, your pecs,
biceps, and even abs will benefit indirectly from training your legs
and back hard and heavy.
7. Thou shalt focus on multijoint exercises.
Arm curls are fun, but they won’t even pack much meat on your arms,
let alone the rest of your body. If you want to get bigger, remember
that the exercises that involve the most muscle are going to help you
build the most muscle.
Look at the routines of powerlifters, bodybuilders, football players,
and wrestlers--some of the biggest athletes around. Although the demands
of their sports are different and their workouts have some significant
differences, you’ll see the same group of exercises popping up
again and again: squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, bench presses,
bent-over rows, pull-ups, dips, military presses, etc.
All these exercises involve using several muscles in unison to move
a heavier weight than you can handle with any one muscle, and all of
them will put size on you. Do you have to do them all in one workout
or routine? Of course not. At the same time, though, at least 80% of
any given workout should consist of these multiple joint exercises.
If you still want to do curls, go ahead and do them at the end.
8. Thou shalt not waste thy money on supplements.
There are two exceptions to this commandment: protein powder
and essential oils (fish oil and flax oil). I consider them both
food, not supplements, though, so the rule applies. Aside from these
two exceptions, though, there’s no supplement out there that will
help you gain mass as well as the food you could buy with the same amount
of money.
Creatine? It’s a useful product, but you’ll get more
bang for your buck from real food. Fat burners? Don’t even think
about it while you’re bulking. Food is pretty much the most anabolic
thing you can put in your body--even steroids don’t work without
it--and it’s cheaper than any supplement that won’t do one-tenth
as much for you.
9. Thou shalt keep a journal of what goes in thy mouth.
I can’t stress this one enough. If you’re estimating how many
calories you’re taking in, or how many grams of protein, carbs,
and fat you eat in a day, you have no real idea what you’re eating.
When your progress slows down or stops, it’s hard to make intelligent
changes if you don’t have a solid idea where you’ve been.
The more accurate your records are, the easier it becomes to troubleshoot
your diet. For people trying to gain weight in particular, a food log
provides a certain degree of accountability that you really will eat
all those calories spread out over all those meals.
10. Thou shalt keep a journal of thy training.
Just like the food log, the workout log is non-negotiable. Your log
lets you track your progress and see yourself getting stronger. You
can also see where certain routines worked or didn’t work for you,
helping you know what kinds of routines you respond best to in the future.
You don’t have to remember how much weight you were planning on
using, or, worse, go into the gym with no plan at all about how much
you’re planning to lift. The workout log also does a wonderful
job of providing accountability. You’ll be less likely to skip
your workouts if you’ve got a physical notebook to record them
in.
Obviously, these don’t cover everything there is to know about
gaining mass, but if you follow these ten commandments religiously,
you will reap the rewards of increased muscle and strength!
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"Half the battle is fought amidst iron and sweat. You
fight the other half with a knife and fork." -Chris McClinch
Chris McClinch is an Arlington, VA-based bodybuilder and personal trainer.
He won the middleweight title at the 2001 International Natural Bodybuilding
Federation's collegiate national championships. As a trainer, he specializes
in physique transformation and sport-specific strength training preparation.
Chris started out as a wrestler in high school, competing at 125 pounds
at the age of 18. In college, he got serious about hitting the iron
and putting on quality mass. Reading everything he could find about
training and diet along the way, he won his collegiate national title
at 160 and now weighs 185 with single-digit bodyfat, a natural 60 pound
lean muscle gain in under 7 years. His secrets? Focusing on the basics
and learning how to eat.
Chris has a BA and an MA in English Literature from Virginia Tech.
You can contact Chris via email at: Christopher.McClinch@ngc.com.
