Gaining muscle is a serious science. Putting the wrong food in your mouth or overlooking that one magical, body-changing exercise can make all the difference in. Whether you’re going to see the benefits of this week’s workout
1. Skimping on Shuteye
Ample sleep may be the single most important habit to help build muscle,” says Marc Perry, C.S.C.S., trainer and founder of 12-week transformation program BuiltLean. For starters, it makes maintaining all other muscle-building habits easier.
“If you get at least eight hours a night, you’ll have more energy for your workouts, be able to plan your meals more effectively, and give your body the rest it needs to repair the damaged muscle tissue from working out.”
In fact, a 2011 Brazilian study found that skipping out on sleep decreases the activity of protein synthesis, leading to muscle loss and inability to repair damage.
Plus, growth hormone is naturally released by the brain into the bloodstream during sleep, points out Richard Kreider, Ph.D., director of the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University
3. Too Many Single-joint Exercises
“All too often, I see people spending most of their workout focusing on the smaller muscle groups like biceps and triceps, using single-joint exercises such as dumbbell curls and single-arm cable extensions,” says Chris Jordan, C.S.C.S., director of exercise physiology at The Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute. These exercises can be effective, but they’re not efficient, he says.
Trade out the basics for multi-joint exercises—like a dumbbell chest press or barbell row and squat—which will work multiple muscles at once, stimulating more muscle mass gains by the end of a workout.
3. Always Lifting Heavy
You may think curling or pressing just a few reps from a crazy heavy load will help you bulk up, but in fact the opposite is true.
“Training with lower reps in the one to three range can help you break through a strength plateau. But it also makes training with enough volume to spur muscle growth difficult for someone other than a powerlifter. On the other hand, too many reps can make it impossible to increase strength,” says Perry.
It works like this: You have two types of muscle fibers—both of which are necessary to build truly strong (and well-defined) muscles: type I, or “slow twitch”, is ideal for endurance and lasting energy while type II, or “fast twitch,” fatigue quicker but are necessary for building a lean muscle mass and fueling powerful bursts (like sprinting or clean and press).
4. Wolfing Down Protein Bars
Bars, gels, and powders are great add-ons to your diet, particularly if you need fuel on the go. But the convenience of these snacks—along with their high-protein count—causes a lot of guys to go down the rabbit hole of swapping freshly cooked meals for the protein-in-a-wrapper.
Eating the right mix of protein, carbs, and healthy fats from whole food is critical in both maintaining lean body mass and fueling your body in the right way for your upcoming workout, says Pam Bede, R.D., sports dietitian for Abbott’s EAS Sports Nutrition.
Protein is crucial, but scoring it from fresh sources like chicken, turkey, beans, and quinoa also provides your body with micronutrients that help repair damaged tissue in a way no kind of powder or gel can compare to.
5. Skipping the Barbell
Most machines can get you some results, but they will not be nearly as effective as old school, free-weight exercises—particularly the barbell, says Perry. Machines tend to focus on single, isolating muscles, which, as we just learned, is limiting.
Just deadlifts, squats, and bench presses alone can help you build impressive mass since these three recruit the greatest number of muscle fibers in multiple areas of your body.
6.Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
One of the annoying facts of fitness: You have to do aerobic exercise in order to burn fat and keep your body healthy. Luckily, a bit of cardio can actually help you build muscle.
Guys who did endurance training twice a week in addition to their strength training saw greater increases in the rate of force development—what we know as explosive strength—than those who only did the latter, according to Finnish research.
The greater your rate of force development, the more rapidly you can recruit muscle fibers, and the greater the changes you’ll see in lean body mass, reports a new study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
But since no one likes running on the treadmill, you’ll be happy to know that spending too much time on it can actually compromise your ability to build muscle, says Jordan.
How? Well, for starters, the energy you exert on running or biking takes away from your reserves when it comes time to hit the weights. Plus, when you’re trying to build muscle, you have to eat enough protein and calories to foster muscle growth, Perry points outs.
If you’re logging 50 miles a week running, it’s going to be way harder to replenish those calories and score enough nutrients for an anabolic environment—your body has too much damage to repair and keep up with.
If you’re trying to bulk up, consider scaling back on your long runs and stick to two to three days of cardio under 45 minutes. Better yet: Work your weights to do double duty.
A 2010 study by the American Council on Exercise, for example, found that working out with kettlebells can burn up to 20 calories a minute, while HIIT routines both burn calories and build muscle simultaneously.
7. Fasting Before a Workout
“We’ve all experienced the unpleasant reactions of exercising after over-eating, but not eating before training can also leave you feeling sluggish or cause stomach pains,” says Bede.
While there are some studies that suggest intermittent fasting can help you shed more fat, if that isn’t the diet you routinely prescribe to, heading to the gym after work when the last thing you ate was breakfast is only going to compromise your ability to go at 100%.
Plus, a 2013 meta-analysis in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that having enough protein pre-workout is just as crucial to muscle building as scarfing the stuff after your sweat session.
The study found that you should time your pre- and post-exercise meals to be within three to four hours of one another for max muscle growth and recovery.
8. Skimping on Water
If you’re dehydrated, you’re going to be fighting fatigue, nausea, and headaches with every rep—until you give up one set short because you just can’t muster through.
“Similar to how we need certain macro and micronutrients to fuel the body, achieving the right level of fluids and electrolytes is critical for your body to function optimally,” Bede explains
9. Sticking to the Same Routine
Performing the same exercises week after week stunts the growth potential of your muscle fibers. “Muscles have varied attachments, so to optimize development, you need to rotate in different exercises that work your body from different angles,” explains Schoenfeld.
If you’re a creature of habit, go old school and follow one routine for six to eight weeks, then trade it out for an entire new routine. But if you want optimal results, fast, try adding a little variety to every workout, suggests Jordan.
Trade your usual front squat for a back squat, a bench press for an incline dumbbell chest press. Or switch up the way you split your days—instead of bis and tris, try whole upper and whole lower body days or push/pull splits.
Your body will adapt to anything it’s unaccustomed to, Jordan adds, so keep it guessing for optimal gains.
10. Not Tracking Your Workouts
The gym rats who scribble on a notepad after every set may seem a little too into their workout—but that may actually be the reason their biceps are bigger than yours.In fact, a recent study from the American Psychological Association found if you are trying to achieve a goal, the more often you monitor your progress, the greater the likelihood that you will succeed
8 RULES TO FOLLOW FOR GAINING MASS
If training is the hard part of bodybuilding and resting is the easy part, then eating should be the fun part. Yet for most hardgainers, eating is simply an exercise in frustration.
They carefully follow a champ’s menu, measuring their oatmeal and weighing their skinless chicken breasts, but still struggle to gain even a pound. The problem for the thinnest hardgainers is that they’re eating like a bodybuilder, but weighing in like a model.
RULE #1: EAT MORE, AND OFTEN
If you’re a thin hardgainer and not growing on your current diet, increase your daily caloric total. We recommend a boost of 20-30%.
Do this gradually over seven to 10 days to allow your body time to more effectively convert some of the extra fuel to muscle instead of merely storing all of it as bodyfat. Eat six or seven times per day. If possible, add another meal to your current schedule.
Drink at least a gallon of water daily, because water consumed throughout the day is essential for growth and health.
Emphasize protein, complex carbohydrates (such as oatmeal, yams and brown rice) and unsaturated fat. Hardgainers trying to boost bodyweight should consume at least 1.5 grams (g) of protein per pound of bodyweight daily (a 150-pound person, for example, should take in a minimum 225g of protein).
Ingest at least 3g of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight daily.
Don’t restrict fats, but emphasize healthy unsaturated fats and minimize saturated and trans fats.
RULE #2: DRINK UP
For hardgainers, particularly, it is generally easier to drink protein and calories than to eat them. Utilize powdered shakes that contain a minimum of 30g of whey or casein protein. Weight-gain powders are an especially effective means for ectomorphs to quickly boost protein and calories.
Milk is also an excellent mass producer. Once a staple of bodybuilding nutrition plans, it has fallen out of favor in recent decades largely because of its lactose (sugar) content.
Still, many champs including the original Mr. Olympia Larry Scott have made it a regular part of their weight-gaining plans.
A single cup of 2% milk has 120 calories, 8g of protein and nearly 5g of fat; nonfat milk has 90 calories, 9g of protein and less than 1g of fat.
RULE #3: BEEF IT
To gain weight, don’t focus only on the lean and clean bodybuilding basics of fowl, fish and egg whites. Many people find that the high protein levels and the higher fat content in beef naturally boosts muscle gains.
Eat steak, lean ground beef or a beef alternative, such as buffalo, as frequently as your budget allows.
RULE #4: CUT CARDIO
Cardio and calorie restriction go together on a weight-loss diet. To gain weight, you’ll want to flip this rule and do the opposite.
Ectomorphs should restrict the amount of cardio work and stressful activities they perform, because these burn the very calories you want to store.
Focus on maximizing your rest time to fully recuperate and grow from weight training.
RULE #5: LET YOUR ABS GUIDE YOUR LIMIT
Use a scale and a mirror as your guide. A gain of two to three pounds per month is reasonable.
Always remain vigilant against dramatic fat increases, and never stray more than two to three inches from your leanest waist measurement.For many bodybuilders, abdominals are a good yardstick: If they completely disappear, it’s time to slam on the brakes.
Decide for yourself how much fat you’re comfortable accumulating, but never become too comfortable with fat.
FINAL RULE: GROW, MAN, GROW
Don’t lose sight of the big picture. Bulk is the clay you’re packing on now to chisel down to a work of muscular art later. It’s OK for an ectomorph to strive to look like a burly “before” photo now.
Bulking up is generally a good strategy for those whose metabolisms rev so fast that they struggle to gain any weight. Still, while pressing the weight-gain accelerator, you must remain alert to hit the brakes before you become more fat than fit.
Once you’ve bulked up enough and no more fat is desirable, reduce your caloric levels gradually over a week as you return to a more typical bodybuilding nutritional plan.
Then you can begin plotting your course toward the “after” results
SAMPLE BULK-UP MENU
BREAKFAST
4 eggs
6 ounces (oz) lean ham
100 grams (g) oatmeal
1 pint milk
Vitamins and minerals
MID-AFTERNOON SNACK
Fruit
1 protein bar
1 pint milk or weight-gain drink
Lunch
Turkey or chicken sandwich
1 potato
6 oz mixed vegetables
1 cup yogurt
MID-AFTERNOON SNACK
100g oatmeal
Fruit
1 protein bar
Creatine
PRE-WORKOUT
Whey protein powder drink with 40-50g protein and 40-100g carbs
POST-WORKOUT
Whey protein powder drink with 20-40g protein and 40-80g carbs
DINNER
12 oz beef
1 potato
Whole-grain bread
1 pint milk
LATE-EVENING SNACK
Protein shake.
