Great! You’ve come to the right place. Below is all of the info you need to start building muscle for yourself.
The Mindset
Patience, dedication, persistence. That’s what it takes to build muscle. Without these 3 things working together your wasting your time and money in the gym. I’ll go through in a little bit more detail what I mean by each.
Patience
Building Muscle takes time and lots of it, simple as that. Depending on your genetics it could take you anywhere from 1-3 months to start seeing the results you want. The key is to be patient and not expect the results and gains overnight. It’s not going to happen that fast and that’s the honest truth.
On this site, I won’t pump you up with the same crap most of the other people in the fitness industry use. Everything takes time and you just have to have the mindset to stick with it.
I recommend judging your progress based on a 12 week period. Make realistic goals for the next 12 weeks. When the 12 weeks are up, review and adjust based on your results and set out a new 12-week plan. Take progress pictures once a week to keep you on track and help you fine-tune your program. More on this later.
Dedication & Persistence
These two go hand in hand. You need to be truly dedicated to your goals to enable you to be persistent in the pursuit of achieving them. There are no shortcuts. At a minimum, if you can’t make it to the gym 3 times a week, you’re not going to be able to grow a considerable amount of muscle. Only YOU stand in your way, make your goals a priority, and go after them ruthlessly.
The Training
The first thing you need to do is find out how many days each week you can commit to weight training. Here are some examples of the different splits I would recommend however feel free to customize it to your liking, so long as all muscle groups are worked each week.
A Little Note On Abs
As you can see I believe in training abs every 2 days. Abs are like any other muscle and need time to recover as well. Your abs help to work as spinal stabilizers and if they are weak and overstressed you can easily become injured when doing compound movements. Hit them hard and give them time to heal. If they feel too sore, don’t train them and carry those exercises to your next workout.
Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. For this reason, I believe it’s best to stick with weighted exercises and perform 10-20 reps for 4-6 sets. This will help develop the muscle so it looks good when you finally burn the layer of fat in front of it. Doing hundreds of sit-ups only builds endurance and conditions the abs. If that’s your goal go hard.
Won’t I burn more abdominal fat by doing more reps of ab exercises?
This is a common myth. Your body uses energy sources (burns fat) from the easiest areas first. For most men, this is not the abs due to poor circulation in that area. The order in which your body utilizes these fat stores is based 100% on genetics. There is no way for you to “spot burn” fat. If you have further questions on this ask me here, I would be happy to elaborate.
The Nutrition
Because most of us here are recreational bodybuilders, we want to be able to go out for chicken wings or have the occasional beer. We want to continue to get gains while still living our life, this is why I suggest using IIFYM or If It Fits Your Macros. This is a great way to use flexible dieting which will allow you to drastically improve your progress and as well as stay consistent with the diet.
To Understand IIFYM you must first understand what a Macro is. There are multiple types of macros however we will only focus on 3, Fats, Protein, and Carbohydrates. First, start at a caloric goal of 2500 calories/day. Use the calculator below to see how many of each macronutrient you should eat each day. Fine-tune your Macros with the information below and remember that this is a guideline. If you are not seeing any gains, simply raise your daily calories and adjust your macros accordingly.
Here are some basic guidelines when adjusting your macros.
Fats- .40 Grams per pound of body weight (4 Calories/g) Protein 1 Gram per pound of body weight (9 Calories/g) Carbs- Based on remaining calories allowed after protein and fat calories have been subtracted (4 Calories/g)
The Supplementation
This is where most people spend way too much money on overhyped crap products. You only need the best Testosterone booster and a little discipline. If you have all the money in the world to spend on supplements then have at her, If you like the rest of us try to focus on the essential supplements first. After you have these covered, feel free to waste your money on whatever product you want.
Ask yourself this, If your baking a cake and want to make a bigger cake, do you:
Buy a revolutionary product that will magically make the cake bigger? OR Add more of the original ingredients?
Think about building your muscles the same way. The process where your body uses protein to create muscle is called protein synthesis. The building blocks that the body needs to perform this are very simple. Your muscle is primarily made up of the following. Protein, BCAA’s, and Glutamine. By leaving out any of these key pieces you are not going to be able to optimize your gains.
BCAA’s
Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAA’s, are essential amino acids needed for muscle growth. They consist of:
L-Leucine L-Valine L-Isoleucine
BCAA’s are essential for muscle recovery. I like to use BCAA’s as an intra workout. By sipping these during a long intense workout they will help to prevent muscle tissue from being broken down to be used as an energy source, this is known as a catabolic state. BCAA’s help to keep your body in an anabolic state (muscle-building state.)
Pre Workout
The holy grail of all bodybuilders, who doesn’t like a good kick start to their workout! There are many different pre-workouts available and my recommendation is to experiment with different pre-workouts, follow the label, and find what works best for you.
Multi-Vitamins
Multi-Vitamins are another key building block for your overall personal health. These will make sure you are getting enough of your essential vitamins while dieting and can aid in recovery and help prevent getting sick.
Protein
There are many different types of protein. Casein Protein is a slower digesting protein and is great for in-between meals. Whey protein is a fast-digesting protein great for post-workout consumption. If you can’t afford both I would absolutely recommend buying a good whey protein. This is the most important part of the muscle-building recipe.
