"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don't nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights"
- Ronnie Coleman
Before I proceed further, I'd make two points-
1. I came from 62.8kg on Jan 2nd to 65.5kg on Jan 25th.
2. I started my 20-rep squat program at 75kg for 20 reps on Jan 2nd and ended at 90kg for 17 reps (Gave up on the 18th rep) on Jan 23rd. (Fortunately, I thulped that night at Daawat... Nothing better than loads of chicken after a heavy squat session).
The two things happening together was NOT a coincidence. If you think gaining 2.5kg in 3 weeks is very easy, this post is not for you. I am a Weightlifter ( actually, the sport is called Olympic Weightlifting) and I do Olympic lifting atleast 2 days a week. The Olympic lifting routine doesn't help much in mass gain. The effective mass gain workout I did was only for 2 days a week. And I gained mass at the rate of about 100g a day. And I can still see my abs so a significant amount of the 2.7kg I gained was muscle.
This post isn't about what I did, a lot of info on my routine is in my previous post. This is for junta who go to the gym everyday and want to gain a lot of muscle and mass. That my routine worked for me is too obvious from the numbers I put. I see a lot of junta working out in the gym, with a couple of dumbbells, lifting them in every arbitrary angle they want to and looking into the mirror after every set, expecting their arms to grow by a couple of inches. Junta do a lot of crunches and look back in the mirror expecting a 6-pack. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way. When I started this blog I put in a lot of posts about how to workout, but I'm doing this again.
First, I'll write about 2 things that everyone should know about getting a ripped body, especially the abs.
1. The abs
The abs, or abdominals, is a muscle group that every one has. There are two layers of fat above and under the muscle, called the subcutaneous and visceral fat. The abs can be seen only if the subcutaneous fat is reduced. When the body stores fat, it first start storing it over your abs. When you try to cut fat, first the fat deposited in all other parts of the body is last and finally fat over your abs starts decreasing. So, the only way to visible abs is fat loss. If you try doing a lot of crunches or leg raise, you only build the abs, which is the muscle inside. The size of the muscle grows, but the fat over it still remains. Your tummy gets bigger because of increased abs, but it doesn't get ripped because of the fat.
2. Fat loss
There are only 2 healthy ways to do this- 1. Diet control and 2. Cardio.
Diet control: Carbs and fat are used mostly as energy. When you don't use the calories you eat, the extra carbs and fat get stored as adipose tissue (which we call fat). Protein is mostly used for building muscle, though it is also used for producing energy. When you have higher protein content and lower carb content in your diet, the amount of unused carbs and fat will be lesser, hence less adipose tissue. The amount of protein consumed by the body as energy will be lesser than your protein intake and hence your muscle size either remains the same or grows. Fats found in oils, cheese,etc.. are useful for the body. Taking them is totally important, but you shouldn't take too much of them.
Cardio: When I say cardio, it means any endurance workout, anything that lasts continuously for more than 20 minutes or so. When the blood glucose in your body is used up, it turns to stored fat (the adipose tissue) and the stored protein (the muscle) for energy production. Blood glucose is exhausted only after you do cardio for a significant time, say 10 minutes. The rate at which fat is converted to glycogen is slow, hence you cannot keep jogging at a high speed. The body consumes a higher percentage of fat and a lower percentage of protein. If your only aim is to lose fat, like that over the abs, cardio is the best thing to do. But the side effect- muscle loss because of burning protein is always there, so it's not a good idea to do cardio if you're trying to build muscle. But this can be negated by eating protein (such as egg whites, meat, etc.. ) before and after workout.
You cannot lose fat and build muscle at the same time.
Now getting into the actually secrets of mass gain. To put it simply in a single line, it's the first line in this post. You've grown into what you are depending on your genetics, your diet and the lifestyle. The first thing is something you cannot help. The diet and lifestyle can be changed. If you want your muscles to grow, the only thing you can do is to make them grow. They should have no other option. This can be done in only one way, load them up to a point where the muscles know they cannot take that load unless they get bigger and stronger. So, everytime you go into the gym, you must lift more than what you lifted the last time. Even an increase of 1kg or 1 rep is sufficient, but the increase must be there, or else you're going no where. For mass gains, you need to do these 4 things:
1. Compound exercises: The almighty squat, the deadlift, bench press, military press, pushups, pullups, bar dips and barbell rows, all in proper form. No half squatting, no cheating in presses, no dancing in pullups. If you do it, you do it properly. Compounds involve more muscles at the same time since the weight has to be stabilized and pushed, and this induces a higher hormonal response which results in greater gains. Also, the entire system, joints and the bones also feel the weight. The movements are more natural as opposed to the stuff you do on the useless machines you find in the gym.
2. Rest and recovery: Just remember this. Workout for only 3-4 days a week, only 1 hour a day, only 4-6 exercises per session, 2-4 sets per exercise and only 5-12 reps per set. Sleep for atleast 8 hours a day.
3. Diet: The only way to gain mass is to eat a lot more. Eat a lot of 'healthy' food. No chips and pizzas and burgers. Eat healthy food, maintaining a high protein content. Never miss breakfast or lunch or dinner.
4. Intensity and progression: Don't work at your maximum intensity. You must go through a progression. If your max is 60kg bench press, start at around 50kg for 3 reps. The next session, go for 52kg of 3 reps, after that 54kg for 3 reps, keep going like this till you stall. Say you stall at 58kg, you could do only 2 reps. Then start again at 54kg or 55kg for 3 reps. Go for 2 kg or 2.5 kg more in the next session. Only when you keep progressing in each session, you can expect a regular gain.
- Ronnie Coleman
Before I proceed further, I'd make two points-
1. I came from 62.8kg on Jan 2nd to 65.5kg on Jan 25th.
2. I started my 20-rep squat program at 75kg for 20 reps on Jan 2nd and ended at 90kg for 17 reps (Gave up on the 18th rep) on Jan 23rd. (Fortunately, I thulped that night at Daawat... Nothing better than loads of chicken after a heavy squat session).
The two things happening together was NOT a coincidence. If you think gaining 2.5kg in 3 weeks is very easy, this post is not for you. I am a Weightlifter ( actually, the sport is called Olympic Weightlifting) and I do Olympic lifting atleast 2 days a week. The Olympic lifting routine doesn't help much in mass gain. The effective mass gain workout I did was only for 2 days a week. And I gained mass at the rate of about 100g a day. And I can still see my abs so a significant amount of the 2.7kg I gained was muscle.
Disclaimer:
I'm no professional bodybuilder. I'm still a beginner and that too an Olympic lifter. All the bodybuilding I do is only for our insti competition. Most stuff I talk about is from the research I do on the net, from what I see from others, what makes sense to me and what I learnt from my experience. I do all this out of my passion for the sport and not for money, so you can trust what I say.
This post isn't about what I did, a lot of info on my routine is in my previous post. This is for junta who go to the gym everyday and want to gain a lot of muscle and mass. That my routine worked for me is too obvious from the numbers I put. I see a lot of junta working out in the gym, with a couple of dumbbells, lifting them in every arbitrary angle they want to and looking into the mirror after every set, expecting their arms to grow by a couple of inches. Junta do a lot of crunches and look back in the mirror expecting a 6-pack. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way. When I started this blog I put in a lot of posts about how to workout, but I'm doing this again.
First, I'll write about 2 things that everyone should know about getting a ripped body, especially the abs.
1. The abs
The abs, or abdominals, is a muscle group that every one has. There are two layers of fat above and under the muscle, called the subcutaneous and visceral fat. The abs can be seen only if the subcutaneous fat is reduced. When the body stores fat, it first start storing it over your abs. When you try to cut fat, first the fat deposited in all other parts of the body is last and finally fat over your abs starts decreasing. So, the only way to visible abs is fat loss. If you try doing a lot of crunches or leg raise, you only build the abs, which is the muscle inside. The size of the muscle grows, but the fat over it still remains. Your tummy gets bigger because of increased abs, but it doesn't get ripped because of the fat.
2. Fat loss
There are only 2 healthy ways to do this- 1. Diet control and 2. Cardio.
Diet control: Carbs and fat are used mostly as energy. When you don't use the calories you eat, the extra carbs and fat get stored as adipose tissue (which we call fat). Protein is mostly used for building muscle, though it is also used for producing energy. When you have higher protein content and lower carb content in your diet, the amount of unused carbs and fat will be lesser, hence less adipose tissue. The amount of protein consumed by the body as energy will be lesser than your protein intake and hence your muscle size either remains the same or grows. Fats found in oils, cheese,etc.. are useful for the body. Taking them is totally important, but you shouldn't take too much of them.
Cardio: When I say cardio, it means any endurance workout, anything that lasts continuously for more than 20 minutes or so. When the blood glucose in your body is used up, it turns to stored fat (the adipose tissue) and the stored protein (the muscle) for energy production. Blood glucose is exhausted only after you do cardio for a significant time, say 10 minutes. The rate at which fat is converted to glycogen is slow, hence you cannot keep jogging at a high speed. The body consumes a higher percentage of fat and a lower percentage of protein. If your only aim is to lose fat, like that over the abs, cardio is the best thing to do. But the side effect- muscle loss because of burning protein is always there, so it's not a good idea to do cardio if you're trying to build muscle. But this can be negated by eating protein (such as egg whites, meat, etc.. ) before and after workout.
You cannot lose fat and build muscle at the same time.
Now getting into the actually secrets of mass gain. To put it simply in a single line, it's the first line in this post. You've grown into what you are depending on your genetics, your diet and the lifestyle. The first thing is something you cannot help. The diet and lifestyle can be changed. If you want your muscles to grow, the only thing you can do is to make them grow. They should have no other option. This can be done in only one way, load them up to a point where the muscles know they cannot take that load unless they get bigger and stronger. So, everytime you go into the gym, you must lift more than what you lifted the last time. Even an increase of 1kg or 1 rep is sufficient, but the increase must be there, or else you're going no where. For mass gains, you need to do these 4 things:
1. Compound exercises: The almighty squat, the deadlift, bench press, military press, pushups, pullups, bar dips and barbell rows, all in proper form. No half squatting, no cheating in presses, no dancing in pullups. If you do it, you do it properly. Compounds involve more muscles at the same time since the weight has to be stabilized and pushed, and this induces a higher hormonal response which results in greater gains. Also, the entire system, joints and the bones also feel the weight. The movements are more natural as opposed to the stuff you do on the useless machines you find in the gym.
2. Rest and recovery: Just remember this. Workout for only 3-4 days a week, only 1 hour a day, only 4-6 exercises per session, 2-4 sets per exercise and only 5-12 reps per set. Sleep for atleast 8 hours a day.
3. Diet: The only way to gain mass is to eat a lot more. Eat a lot of 'healthy' food. No chips and pizzas and burgers. Eat healthy food, maintaining a high protein content. Never miss breakfast or lunch or dinner.
4. Intensity and progression: Don't work at your maximum intensity. You must go through a progression. If your max is 60kg bench press, start at around 50kg for 3 reps. The next session, go for 52kg of 3 reps, after that 54kg for 3 reps, keep going like this till you stall. Say you stall at 58kg, you could do only 2 reps. Then start again at 54kg or 55kg for 3 reps. Go for 2 kg or 2.5 kg more in the next session. Only when you keep progressing in each session, you can expect a regular gain.
