Disclaimer
Be inquisitive
The information in this program is for
informational purposes only, and only to use
at your own discretion. Keep in mind there are
inherent risks associated with participating
in any form of physical activity, including
everyday activities like jogging.
We highly encourage you to ask lots of
questions! Take advantage of the community
and coaching to fast-track your results.
The activities set-out herein may be dangerous
if performed incorrectly, and may not be
appropriate for everyone. Not all nutritional
information will be relevant depending on
personal health, genetics, body-fat levels,
diseases, etc. As such, you should seek the
counsel of a competent and professional
physician prior to acting on any information.
The choice of what you do with your
body is yours, and yours alone. While the
information inside is obtained from sources
believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee
accuracy or completeness.
Please don’t share this
With the three of us combined, we’ve spent
decades studying in university, attending
seminars, interning at sports performance
centres, sifting through dense meta-analysis’s
on nutrition and muscle-building techniques,
and coaching in-person and online. We’ve put
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Have a sister, female friend, or a girlfriend/wife
interested in building feminine muscle?
We’ve got our sister program Bony to
Bombshell! It is a weight-gain program
specifically designed for women looking to
build feminine curves through muscle.
For a special deal for having already bought
this program, email us for a coupon code at:
us@bonytobombshell.com
Click here to launch Bony to Bombshell
Published by Foxhound Ltd.
User agrees to indemnify, defend and hold
Foxhound Ltd, Bony to Beastly and its partners,
attorneys, staff and affiliates harmless from
any liability, loss, claim & expense, including
reasonable attorney’s fees.
First published in 2012
Second Edition—Release Candidate 1.0
Copyright © 2016
All Rights Reserved
Polowick, Jared. Duquette, Shane.
Walker-Ng, Marco.
Bony to Beastly—The Muscle-Building Program
for Skinny Guys
Typeset in Futura & Tisa
This system, including this eBook, is fully
copyrighted and does not come with giveaway or
resale rights. In other words, you may not sell or
redistribute this. No part of this program may be
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or electronic form without permission.
Please do not participate in, or encourage piracy
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Your support is appreciated!
3
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CONTENTS
10
GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
WELCOME TO B2B
The “Ideal” Physique?
Twenty Pounds of Hearty Muscle
The Importance of Gaining Leanly
The Benefits of Building Muscle
How Permanent Are Muscles?
Can You Improve Your Muscle-Building Genetics?
…But How Much Do You Need to Eat?
31
THE QUICK-START GUIDE
HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
The “Before” Assessment
HOW TO LIFT WEIGHTS
How to Warm Up
What Weight to Start With
The Three Rules of Weight Selection
Which Routine to Begin With
How Much Can You Gain Each Week?
Summary
HOW TO EAT FOR GAINS
Calories: How to Gain Weight
Protein: How to Build Muscle
Summary
5
HOW TO STICK WITH IT
Sticking With It, Even When It’s Tough
Action Steps To Get Started
Summary
Muscle-building FlowChart
64
TIER
DOING ENOUGH
PRIORITIES & PYRAMIDS
The Tiered Pyramid
LIFTING ENOUGH
How Heavy To Lift
Warm-Up Sets
Periodized Volume
Recovery
EATING ENOUGH
Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Stomach
The Basics of Appetite Manipulation
How to Hack Your Appetite
Summary
ADHERING ENOUGH
Motivation
Accountability
Choosing Good Habits
The Wrap-Up
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TIER
DOING IT WELL
LIFTING WELL
Posture Matters
Cues For Rock Solid Posture
Putting The Cues Into Action
The Five Main Movement Patterns
Summary
6
EATING WELL
Optimizing Macronutrients & “IIFYM”
How to Count Macros
Optimizing Micronutrients & Fibre
Summary
RESTING WELL
Stress Isn’t Bad—But Chronic Stress Is
Pressing The Reset Button on Stress
Sleep Is The Big Bouncer That Kicks Stress Out
How to Get to Sleep, Stay Asleep & Wake Up Energized
Summary
155
TIER
SUPPLEMENTS
IF, WHAT, WHEN & HOW
Buying Supplements Safely
Understanding Supplements
The Five Beastliest Supplements
Supplements For Guys Who Like Supplements
SUPPLEMENT PROTOCOLS
The Beastly Workout Shake
Pre-Workout Shakes
Daily Supplements
188
TIER
MODERN SCIENCE
OPTIMIZING YOUR LIFTING
We Three M’s: How Muscle is Built
Power: Can It Be Used to Gain Size?
Resting Between Sets: Laziness or Cleverness?
Bodybuilding vs. Powerlifting
Cardio: Can it Help Build Muscle?
Postural Restoration: Curing Chronic Pain?
Periodization: Destroying Plateaus
Summary
7
OPTIMIZING YOUR NUTRITION
Optimal Workout Nutrition
Optimal Meal Frequency
Carb & Calorie Cycling
Is a Calorie a Calorie?
Understanding Insulin
How to Maintain Gains on Fewer Calories
Summary
220
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
YOU ASKED, WE ANSWERED
Beginner Questions
Aesthetics Questions
Lifting Questions
Nutrition Questions
Bulking Lifestyle Questions
8
GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
WELCOME TO B2B
Introduction Written by Shane Duquette
First off, welcome to the program. You’ve just taken a pretty huge step towards
dramatically changing nearly everything. In a few weeks you’ll be handsomer,
healthier, hunkier and happier.
The first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you’re doing this. Why
do you want a powerful physique? Why do you want to be healthier? What’s it
worth to you? Those questions opened up a whole can of worms for me.
When I was a teenager, my parents were always telling me that they were
worried about my health. Not knowing how to fix it, they would tell me to eat
more and play more sports.
My friends thought of me like their skinny kid brother. They’d playfully
tease me and push me around. They were nice to me, but they didn’t respect me
like they respected each other.
On dates it became a common thing for a girl to jokingly tell me that she
would protect me if we got into any trouble. And wow, when I was single I wanted a
strong and masculine body more than ever. That’s when I was the most motivated
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
to change, thinking that it would help me attract the girl of my dreams.
Now that I’m in a longterm relationship, I want to be a strong, masculine
guy so that I can be sexy for her. That’s important. More than that though, she
truly sees me as a strong and capable man. That’s something I was never sure I
could accomplish, and it’s worth the world to me.
So I’ve had a lot of reasons. I desperately wanted to change. But no matter
how much ectomorph anguish I was feeling, I would usually take the defensive
route, telling whoever asked that I liked being skinny.
To make matters worse, I’d even tell myself that I liked being skinny. We’re
supposed to accept the things we cannot change, right? So I convinced myself
that it was out of my control. I was desperate to feel confident in my body, so I
was easy to deceive.
But I still secretly wanted to be muscular, and that probably wasn’t as
much of a secret as I hoped…
I spent nearly a decade wavering between periods of motivation to change
and acceptance of how I was, but eventually it got to a point where I decided I
was going to change no matter what.
I’m hoping you’re at that point too, because if you are, I can guarantee
that it is possible. I’m not saying this just based on personal experience, or
even based on the fact that I’ve seen thousands of guys gain 20+ pounds. The
most thorough muscle-building genetics study found that skinny guys are
able to build muscle more quickly than anyone else (study). Some of the study
participants added more than two inches to their arms while doubling their
strength in just three months.
Whaaat?! That goes against everything I thought I knew. All of my failed
muscle-building attempts had been proving the exact opposite. I’d eaten until
I felt like throwing up and still failed to gain weight. I’d done fitness challenges
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
with my friends and seen them explode into muscularity while I worked my ass
off, literally.
Just kidding. I didn’t have an ass to begin with.
Anyway, every time I decided to change I would tell my parents that I was
trying to be healthier, like I knew they wanted. I would tell my friends that it was
something I was trying out for fun, since I was too embarrassed to admit how
important it was to me. I would tell the girls I was dating that it was an interesting
three-month “experiment,” since I thought that calling it an experiment would
make my muscle-building goals seem academic, not pathetic.
All of those reasons were true (and the “experiment” line actually worked
really well at getting people intrigued instead of skeptical, so you’re welcome to
use it). The real truth though is that while all of those reason were true… they
weren’t the whole story. Not even close.
I wanted to feel like a man around other men, not like their scrawny kid
brother. I wanted to fit properly in t-shirts, and I wanted to look strong when I
took those t-shirts off. I wanted to inspire raw physical attraction in women. I
wanted the girls I was dating to feel safe around me. I wanted to be able to carry
my girlfriend down the hallway without my muscles shaking, clumsily banging
her into doorframes, and then trying to hide the fact that I was out of breath. I
wanted her to feel light and feminine in my arms, not like a bulky behemoth. I
wanted my body to be a symbol of virility, manliness, strength and health—not
of an unhealthy lifestyle and an inability to accomplish my goals.
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
The “Ideal” Physique?
So I had a goal—a goal that I wanted more than anything—but it still wasn’t a
very clear one. How many inches did my arms need to grow before men thought
I looked strong? How much weight did I need to gain before people would stop
thinking of me as skinny? How powerful a physique did I need to build before
the woman I loved would feel safe and feminine around me? How broad did my
shoulders need to be to command respect when I walked into a room?
I wanted all of these things, but I was spending hours hunched over in front
of the computer researching and speculating instead of actually accomplishing
anything. How could I get started though? Not knowing the answers to all of
those questions made it really hard for me to strive towards a specific outcome,
and not having a program to follow made it really hard to know where to start.
So the first thing you’ll need is a goal.
We’re here to help you accomplish it.
That true underlying reason that we want to build muscle is often a hard
thing to come to terms with. Turning that reason into a specific goal is no piece of
cake either.
Maybe we can help.
As you’ve likely heard before, women love Brad Pitt’s Fight Club physique.
Hell, maybe they even like beefy dad-bods. Regardless of the specifics, that’s
very different from the “more muscle the merrier” attitude that many bodybuilder
bros have. Women are invariably drawn to bodies that exude strength, health
and masculinity—bodies that are big and strong without being obsessively lean
or comically muscular.
This type of body is considered ideal by most men out there too. They’ll
respect you for having it while wishing that they were blessed with your
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
genetics—because who wants to admit that this kind of thing may be achievable
for them as well?
Perhaps the best thing about being a guy with one of these bodies is that
you can actually be strong and healthy. The reason these physiques look so
good is because they are so good. They live longer, run faster, lift heavier, have
the healthiest kids, suffer from fewer diseases, and communicate ambition
and self control.
If you ask a professional bodybuilder, he’ll likely tell you that the ideal
male body is four times that size and twice as lean. That’s okay too. The truth
is that women won’t really dock you many points for getting bigger, stronger
and even more masculine than the big, strong and masculine guys they dream
about. Just keep in mind that the reason bodybuilders come to prefer these
physiques is usually because they’re frequently exposed to the physiques of
other bodybuilders (and superheroes, action figures, pro wrestlers, etc). This
preference tends to be conditioned, not natural. Since most men and women
aren’t conditioned that way, most prefer more realistic bodies.
So figure out what you want from your body. Whether you want to look
like an actor, athlete or the burliest dad on the block, any of those options will
be more than enough to get the woman of your dreams, more than enough to
be considered manly by other men, and more than enough to have you living a
long, strong and healthy life.
This is still kind of vague though. What’s the specific goal to strive for?
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
Twenty Pounds of Hearty Muscle
Casey Butts, a leading muscle-building genetics and aesthetics researcher,
found that a BMI between 23 and 26 was optimally attractive. The caveat here is
that you also need to be lean. As a rule of thumb we could say under 14% body
fat, i.e., with at least the faint outline of your abs visible when you’re flexing in
the bathroom mirror with those flattering overhead lights. Putting aesthetics
aside for a second, a BMI in that range is also perfectly ideal for your health
(again provided that you’re lean).
To help you better visualize that, here’s Jason going from a BMI of 20.5 up
to a BMI of 24, which is considered ideal.
So if you’re a typical 5’10 dude, that would mean getting up to a lean 170 pounds.
This is all well and good if you’re 5’10 and 150 pounds, where 20 pounds will
bring you right into the ideal range. However, this presents a problem for the
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
very skinny. I was 6’2 and just 130 pounds. That’s a BMI of just 17. Trying to gain
the whopping 55 pounds that I needed to get up to a BMI of 24 (185 pounds) would
be ridiculous. Not ridiculous in the longer term—I’ve been happily fluctuating
between 180 and 200 pounds for a couple years now—but ridiculous as a goal
when I first got started.
So I’m going to propose moving up in twenty pound chunks. That’s
something that you can accomplish in a matter of months, it will produce a very
dramatic visual change, and it may even get you up above a BMI of 23, at which
point you start looking pretty manly-manly—especially if you stop shaving.
Imagine a pound of lean red meat from the grocery store. It’s likely a
fair bit bigger than your fist. Now imagine twenty of those strategically added
to your body. Add enough of those hunks of meat to your shoulders, biceps,
triceps, chest, glutes, thighs and back and you’ll have a drastically transformed
physique, both in terms of athletics and aesthetics.
Best of all, most of the members in the Beastly community are able to
gain over twenty pounds within the first three months—when they’re just over
halfway through the program. While that may sound crazy, especially if you’ve
tried and failed in the past, that’s less than two pounds gained per week—a
very reasonable pace for a skinny guy. This may sound controversial, but this is
also reflected in the research when factoring in how far away from our genetic
potential we are (study). You obviously won’t be able to consistently gain 1–2
pounds of muscle each week for years, but by the time your gains slow you’ll
likely already be in that ideal BMI range.
Having this specific, concrete goal means that every week you’ll step on
the scale and see that you’ve gained another pound or two, bringing you that
much closer to your goal. If you don’t gain that 1–2 pounds, we’ll help you tweak
and adjust so that you do better the following week.
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The Importance of Gaining Leanly
During one of my college muscle-building attempts I finally managed to gain
weight, gaining twenty pounds over the course of just a couple months. I was
thrilled beyond belief! Unfortunately, I seemingly did it without gaining a
single pound of muscle. I looked just as skinny as ever, except now with pudgy
cheeks and a little pot belly.
Jared, my roommate at the time, called this my “fat Shane” phase. To make
matters worse, my other roommate, a naturally athletic guy named Willem,
was half-heartedly following the exact same plan as me. He was skipping half
the workouts, always seemed to have a powdered donut in his mouth, and every
day he was looking more and more like an Olympic wrestler. When I admitted
to myself that I had gotten fat, I was bummed. When I realized that Willem was
working half as hard and actually building tons of lean muscle, I was devastated.
To me, this was proof that my genetics were to blame. Surprisingly, this
was relieving, because it freed me from needing to try. I gave up and went back
to my regular skinny-boy lifestyle. However, after a year of complacency I was
back to my familiar skinny self and feeling that familiar urge to get bigger.
That’s when Jared and I decided to bulk up together. Jared had witnessed
first hand how poorly my previous bulking attempt had gone, but I assured him
that this time we would do it properly.
We took the time to learn the science of building-muscle nutrition, and
we got a lifting plan that we thought was incredible. (The lifting plan wasn’t
actually all that great, but we met Marco halfway through and he made us a
far better one.) We even set up a system that punished us for skipping meals/
workouts, allowing us to be nearly 100% consistent for four straight months.
We succeeded, gaining 20–30 pounds each and appearing leaner than when we
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started. This successful lean bulk from two such obvious ectomorphs is what
gave us the internet fame that encouraged us to create the Bony to Beastly
Program with Marco.
Anyway, in the muscle-building world, my accidental fat-gain routine is called a
“dreamer bulk,” where you bulk ambitiously, with dreams of quickly becoming
muscular… but wind up looking fatter rather than more muscular. I know how
much that sucks, and we’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.
Luckily, as people who aren’t naturally prone to obesity, I’ve since learned
that it’s pretty easy to get and stay lean, even when building muscle. This is one of
the advantages to being a “hardgainer.” If we bulk properly, we’re able to build
muscle more leanly than any other body type (study). Later on in the eBook
we’re going to discuss some strategies for keeping your gains very lean, and for
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skinny guys like us, these strategies are very effective.
These are not the strategies you see fitness models talking about on
YouTube and whatnot, where they gain 1–2 pounds of muscle per year while
maintaining a very low body fat percentage. We’re talking about how, as a
skinny guy, you can gain 1–2 pounds of muscle per week to help you quickly get
up to a more ideal BMI without getting soft.
We believe that on laundry day you and your family should always be able
to use your stomach as a washboard—even mid-bulk.
FOR THE NATURALLY SKINNY-FAT / FORMER DREAM BULKERS
We have a specific guide to help you lean out while still building
muscle. Click here.
The Benefits of Building Muscle
First, the bad news. Over the course of four months I went from wearing
slim-fit medium t-shirts to a slim-fit extra-larges. Jared went from being too
small to wear a small to comfortably fitting into slim-fit larges. There's a good
chance that'll you'll be no longer able to fit into your favourite clothes by the
end of this program, but the local clothing charities will love you. Most of the
news is good though:
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A LEGITIMATELY STRONG, ATHLETIC PHYSIQUE
If you’re concerned about your strength and athleticism, you’ve got to build
a balanced muscle structure—one that works as a system. “Coordination” is
how good you are at moving your body naturally through various movement
patterns, and how quickly and reactively your muscles are able to fire. Because
of this, a good weightlifting program is the absolute best way to improve your
coordination and athleticism.
Many of the best weightlifting programs are built around lifts like
squats, deadlifts, bench presses, chin-ups and curls. This is good, as these are
all incredibly effective lifts. However, all of them involve moving up and down,
frontwards and backwards. These are two-dimensional lifts. Mario could do
them on your retro GameBoy.
The problem is that training in just one movement plane can lead to
imbalances and injuries. So in addition to those big big compound lifts, we also
need to lift in the frontal plane (out to the side, like with a lateral raise), and in
the transverse plane (anti-rotation, like one-arm bench presses). This will not
only build a physique that looks more badass, it will allow you to perform feats
of real world athleticism safely and effectively.
Athleticism is just one benefit of building muscle. The more obvious
benefit is the immense increases in strength and power. I’d expect anywhere
from a 30–300% increase in strength, and this strength will transfer directly
into power and speed. The skinnier you are now, the more rapid your strength
gains will be.
Being able to put a few 45 pound plates on either side of the barbell when
you set up for a deadlift will seem surreal, and your newfound strength will be
enough that you’ll notice it in your day-to-day life as well, whether you’re moving
couches or moving people. Having a muscular body is one thing, but you’ll notice
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that having the strength and athleticism to match it is surprisingly satisfying.
So feel free to monitor your progress (aka flex your pecs and ‘ceps in the
mirror), but keep in mind that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This program will
have you leaping higher, running faster, carrying further and punching harder.
MORE CHARISMA
Olivia Fox Cabane, executive “charisma coach” to Fortune 500 companies and
author of The Charisma Myth, defines charisma as power combined with warmth.
According to her, one of the biggest indicators of power is physical power.
Size, strength and posture is surprisingly important. Can we be
charismatic without being strong? Of course, but being physically strong will
make it a helluva lot easier. Just by building up strength and size you’ll be
mastering that magic component of charisma that’s so ellusive to so many of us
naturally skinny guys.
CASUAL LEANNESS
It may or may not be easy for you to maintain your abs right now. If it’s already
easy, great, it will continue to be. If it’s not already easy, don’t worry, it will
become easier and easier with every pound of muscle you gain.
There are two reasons for this. First, the habit of weightlifting increases
both testosterone production and insulin sensitivity (study). Second, having
more muscle mass also increases insulin sensitivity (study). Combined with
our natural hardgainer genetics, most of us naturally skinny guys are able to
casually maintain a pleasantly lean physique year-round.
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POSTURE
Despite my shoulders caving in and my stomach sticking out, when I first
started out I was so eager to build muscle that I didn’t care about posture at all.
Little did I know it plays a huge role in how good we look and feel. Once you
correct your posture you’ll stand taller, feel healthier and look more confident.
Good posture can also improve testosterone output, your mood and, even your
actual confidence levels. The more you learn, the cooler it seems.
We designed our exercise plan to strengthen your core muscles and get them
firing properly, getting rid of the protruding “ecto-belly” that so many of us
have. This will also fix the “forward head syndrome” we tend to develop.
In the community we can help you deal with the other postural issues
we skinny guys often struggle with: a Quasimodo hunch, a raised shoulder,
internally rotated shoulders, hamstrings that feel too tight, pecs that won’t
activate/grow, and whatever else you may be struggling with.
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LIFELONG MUSCLE
Many young guys have a good metabolism and a bit of muscle mass because we
walk around, bike, play sports, or skateboard with friends. As the decades roll
by, most of us slowly abandon physical activity. As a result, our muscle mass
and strength gradually wither away… to be replaced by a little skinny-guy gut.
The largest study looking into muscle-building potential found zero
difference in the ability to build muscle between the youngest (18 years old) and
oldest (40) participants in the study. The researchers suspected that this would
hold true up to the age of sixty! Droopy skinny-fat physiques and low energy
levels don’t necessarily have as much to do with our ages as our lifestyles.
The point I’m trying to make here is that if you can develop a healthy
lifestyle now, you’ll be in total control of your body all through your life. You
can build larger muscles, denser bones, stronger ligaments and tendons, better
cardiovascular health, improved insulin sensitivity, etc. You’ll be a beast while
you’re dating and getting married, you’ll be a beast as you raise your kids—hell
you’ll even be a beast of a grandfather!
THE MANLY MAN’S V-TAPER
A 2003 study in Archives of Sexual Behavior concluded that men with shoulders
that were 40% wider than their waists were rated as the most attractive by
women. Now, you could curse or bless your genetics… or you could work with
what you’ve got.
Jared went from being shaped like a skinny egg to having a V-shaped body
by building up his shoulders and back, resulting in a huge change in the overall
appearance of his body’s silhouette. With the right workout and diet anyone
can pack slabs of muscle onto their upper and lower body while keeping their
waist the same. V-shape here we come.
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ATTRACTIVENESS
The science of attractiveness is incredibly fascinating. Some bodies create gut
level attraction, and the research into that topic has advanced to the point where
there are some very clear answers to exactly how to trigger that. We’re going
to cover eaxctly how to build an optimally attractive physique a little later in
the eBook—including specific workouts, and taking into account where you’re
starting at. For now, a picture speaks 1,000 words:
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How Permanent Are Muscles?
One of the biggest fears our members have is that they’ll work hard to build
muscle, work hard to maintain it, and then life will happen. They’ll get sick,
they’ll go on vacation, they’ll become too busy to train, and they’ll deflate back
into their skinny former selves.
It’s easy to see where this fear comes from. Let’s say you start going to
the gym, you gain twenty pounds over the next few months, and then you go
on vacation for a couple weeks. Let’s be real here. You’re a naturally skinny guy.
After the first week you’ll have dropped a good couple pounds. Maybe as many
as five pounds. Enough to scare you.
So we start thinking that our gains are ephemeral—that as soon as we
stop holding onto them for dear life they’ll fade away.
That’s not how muscles work.
Muscles do atrophy, but not very quickly, and they won’t completely atrophy
unless you’re actually literally starving to death. If you lose a few pounds while
you’re on vacation or while you’re sick, you’re not experiencing muscle atrophy.
So why will you lose 2–5 pounds when you take a week off from the
gym? This is just your weight fluctuating down because you’re taking a break
from your routine. Your stomach isn’t packed full of food, your muscles aren’t
inflamed with blood as your body turns muscle damage into muscle growth,
and your muscles aren’t bloated full of glycogen (sugar and water). You’ve also
probably lost a little bit of fat.
You may find that when you come back from your vacation you’re lifting
a little lighter, but that’s just because you’ve fallen out of practice, not because
you’ve become weaker. Your muscles will re-inflate with glycogen as soon as
you start lifting and eating (especially carbohydrates) again, bringing them
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back to full pre-vacation size.
Building muscle is not like sculpting a fragile ice sculpture that will
quickly melt away. After building twenty pounds of muscle your body will be
more robust than ever!
And the reason for this is kind of fascinating:
Can You Improve Your Muscle-Building Genetics?
Once you’re lifting and eating for muscle growth, how quickly and easily you
build muscle depends largely on how many myonuclei are in your muscle cells.
You can think of these myonuclei as little builders, maintaining or building
your muscle mass. Genetically gifted guys have a lot of these myonuclei, so they
build muscle very quickly and very easily.
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These myonuclei will happily idle around doing as little as possible
(maintenance), but as soon as you tell them to build muscle (with training) and
give them the materials they need (calories and protein), they’ll get to work
building muscle.
If you stimulate enough muscle growth, eventually your myonuclei won't
be able to keep up with the workload of building more and more new muscle.
That's not a problem though. When your muscle fibres start needing more
myonuclei, they fuse with the surrounding satellite cells, stealing theirs.
You could say that as we build more and more muscle our “genetics” improve
because, as you can see, this muscle-building process creates muscle fibres that
are identical to the muscle fibres of the guys who are naturally muscular. All
that remains is the question of permanence—of whether this creates a change
that will last the rest of our lives.
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Researchers used to think that the benefits of lifting were temporary.
That if we stopped lifting these myonuclei would die off. That we'd be right
back where we started. There are a lot of old biology textbooks describing this
"de-training" effect in this way.
All current research is proving that this is false (study). When we take a
break from lifting, we might not be using our "builder" myonuclei for anything
more than maintenance, but they'll gladly idle around. They won't die, and they
have nowhere to go—the satellite cells that they came from are already gone.
This is why guys who were previously muscular can gain weight very leanly
at a ridiculous pace. This is why guys who were once on steroids build muscle
more easily for the rest of their lives. This is why you see muscular guys doing
non-muscle-buildy things (callisthetnics, HIT, slow lifting, martial arts, jogging,
low protein diets, paleo diets, etc) and remaining super jacked.
The non-muscle-buildy stuff is not what got them jacked, but it’s enough
to keep them jacked. That’s why guys who have built 20, 30, 40+ pounds of
muscle remain casually—“naturally”—more muscular for the rest of their lives.
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
Did Tony Horton get muscular by doing P90X? No, he was a bodybuilder first.
But P90X sure kept him impressively muscular.
This also solves the mystery from earlier. This why my damn roommate Willem was able
to casually bulk up even though we were following a really stupid bulking protocol that
shouldn’t have worked for either of us.
…But How Much Do You Need to Eat?
Another big fear our members often have is that they’ll need to eat like a beast
for the rest of their lives. In order to build muscle, yes, we do need to eat a lot
of food. Furthermore, as we eat more and more, our skinny-boy metabolisms
increase even more in an attempt to prevent fat gains. This adaptive metabolism
is both a blessing and a curse, and it’s something unique to us hardgainers.
Anyway, by the time we finish a bulk we’re eating more than we want to be
eating. There are strategies to make this easier, and we cover all kinds of appetite
manipulation tricks a little later in the eBook, but no matter how easy we make
your bulking diet, it’s not exactly something you’ll want to keep up forever.
Fortunately, you don’t have to! To maintain your weight you need to eat a
maintenance diet, not a bulking diet. Right now you’re probably staying about
the same weight every week. You’re already eating a maintenance diet. I bet it
feels pretty natural too. Most appetites naturally cue us to eat at maintenance.
With every pound of muscle you build your metabolism will go up by a
little bit, but not by much. You’ll burn about six more calories per day for every
pound of muscle you build. I’ve gained about fifty pounds of muscle, so I burn
around 300 more calories per day. That’s a couple glasses of milk, or a slightly
larger dinner, or some ice cream for dessert. Not that big of a deal, and that’s
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
after gaining fifty pounds of muscle.
For another example, consider Patrick. He gained forty pounds, raising
his metabolism by 240 calories per day. His appetite will increase to match his
new needs, so he may find himself craving an extra cookie or two after dinner.
This is all to say that once you actually build a hearty amount of muscle and
learn how to live a casually beastly lifestyle, you’ll be able to maintain your
muscle much much more easily than you expect. I promise.
To make this easier though, we have a section at the end of the eBook about how to “reverse
diet” out of a bulk, maintaining your muscular gains while deliberately reducing your
metabolism. Once you collect your gains, just follow the reverse dieting guide to switch gears
into maintenance.
Okay, enough of the “why.” Let’s switch gears and move onto the “how.”
30
THE QUICK-START
GUIDE
02
QUICK-START: INTRO
HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
Building muscle is kind of like breaking up with a girlfriend that just isn’t
right for you. Skinny is kind of cute, sure, and things are okay when you’re
with her, but by now you’ve realized that you’d be happier with another body.
Staying with her is safe and comfortable, but you know you’re ready for more,
and now that you’ve made the (right) decision, you’ve got to break the news.
It’s time to gently let her know that your love affair is over, put all her
things in a box—you know, the chips, juice, Ramen and Kraft dinner—and
send her on her way, box in hand. Re-stock with some chicken, eggs, olive oil,
milk, yogurt, cheese, potatoes, rice, beans, oats, fruits and vegetables and start
re-building your life in a burlier way.
We're not going to sugarcoat things. This initial adjustment period can
be exciting, but also overwhelming. Some things will be harder than you think,
some things won’t go as smoothly as you expect, and sometimes you’ll have
moments of low motivation.
Being without skinny can be really tough, especially if all of your friends
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are in unhealthy relationships with physiques like her (or her best friend chubs).
Frankly, the more of those people you know, the more challenging this change
will be. But going out gyming on Wednesday night to try and meet a new body
is damn hard, especially if all your friends are back home on the couch eating
chips with chubs, never living up to their full potential.
Even if you man up and start down this wholesome path, at some point
you might crave skinny again. You might be tempted to take her back. She’s
been calling, promising you that things will be different this time around. Right
now things are a mess, so in your lowest moments that familiarity might appeal
to you. We’ve all been there.
With her, things were comfortable, safe, easy. Building muscle isn’t. It
isn’t comfortable. It isn’t easy. However, it isn’t impossible either. Hell, it doesn’t
even need to be unpleasant.
Still, in your moments of doubt, you might find that you long for that
comfortably complacent life that you once had with skinny, even if you know
you weren’t happy with her. Remember that time you skipped breakfast
together? That was kind of romantic, wasn’t it?
If you can resist temptation and stick with your decision, you’ll soon find
the physique of your dreams. If you keep having one too many protein shakes at
the gym and you keep working on your pick-up technique, sooner or later you’re
going to meet a new body. If you can resist temptation and take the right path—
the harder but more rewarding path—then soon you’ll be with the physique of
your dreams.
And things will be pretty fantastic. Not only is this new physique smokin’
hot, she’s also energetic, lively, wholesome, full of confidence and just great for
you in every way. You’ve got to be a better man to have her, but boy is she ever
worth it. This is a physique you could raise a family with.
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Now, on that wholesome note, before you break up with skinny once
and for all, it’s time to take some half-naked photos of her and post them on
the internet.
The “Before” Assessment
While posting revenge nudes is something you should absolutely never do,
taking before photos of yourself when you begin this program is something
you absolutely should do.You also need to weigh yourself, take a few key
measurements, and track your strength gains. This isn’t one of those programs
where you just train as hard as you can and eat as clean as you can for twenty
weeks, hoping for the best. Even with the best lifting and nutrition program,
that relies on a certain amount of luck, and as skinny guys, we don’t tend to get
lucky with these things.
If you don’t know if you’re progressing each week, how will you know
that the sum of those twenty weeks will get you where you're trying to go? That
would be like looking at a map, closing your eyes, and trying to walk to your
destination. Your map may be good, but since you aren’t keeping track of your
progress very well, you may very well go down the wrong path and have no way
of knowing it.
Those programs are about input—about how hard you’re trying. We care
about output—about how good your results are. In fact, if you can make great
progress with a minimal amount of effort, great. The easier this is, the more
likely you are to succeed when life gets stressful or busy.
So we take a strategic and adaptive approach to this. We’re going to track
your progress in the gym by measuring your strength gains each week, and
we’re going to track your weight gain progress with a weekly weigh-in. Using
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this information we can then strategically adjust your protocol to guarantee
that you’re getting results every single week. Your nutrition will cause the
weight gain, and the workouts will help ensure that those gains are lean. That
lean weight gain will then guarantee that you show up to your next workout
bigger and stronger. And so on and so forth. Fully optimizing this cycle is what
building muscle is all about, and this process relies on knowing exactly how
and when to adjust the input to get the output that you want.
In addition to these small weekly check-ins, every five weeks we’ll be
taking measurements and photos so that we can assess how lean your gains
are, where your problem muscle groups are, and where you’re growing the
most. For example, after five weeks we’ll know if you’re limb dominant or torso
dominant, and thus what accessory lifts you’ll benefit the most from.
Here’s how to get started:
1. YOUR BEFORE PHOTOS
Peter Drucker, the famous business writer, is often paraphrased as writing,
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QUICK-START: HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
“What gets measured, gets managed.” This must be the first step, and it must
be taken now. Once you begin the program, your body will be changing quickly.
We recommend taking photos of yourself from all angles, weighing
yourself, and taking measurements. These three things will give you an
objective way to gauge your size gains. Here's how to best do that:
1.
Get into some freshly laundered tighty whities, jorts, or your kid
sister’s short shorts. The goal here is to show some thigh. Try not
to make the same mistake Jared did, where you opt for the cool
"manly" gym shorts and wind up with mystery thighs. Just this
once pretend you’re like Shane and go for the Daisy Dukes, where
the more visible your thighs are, the better. But choose wisely!
This is your Beastly uniform from here on out.
2.
Next, find an area with a white-ish wall and some half-decent
lighting. Overhead light works well to highlight musculature,
which is why bathrom muscle selfies are so popular. Also, try to
pick a spot that you’ll be able to re-use for future progress photos.
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QUICK-START: HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
3.
Take a relaxed front view, a flexed front view, a flexed side view
and the infamous “back-double-bicep”. If you only have manly
shorts, add in a photo of your thigh by provocatively lifting up
your short leg a bit. Feel free to add in a couple extra flexing
photos for good measure, and perhaps a photo of yourself in some
clothes that you plan on exploding out of—hulk style.
2. YOUR BEFORE MEASUREMENTS
Grab a tape measure and take some circumference measurements. There are
a few specific measurements that are particularly useful for measuring your
progress. These are girth measurements, so just wrap the measuring tape all
the way around.
1.
Waist at the narrowest point. I know the pop culture saying
is, “abs are built in the kitchen.” That’s true for most, as most
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QUICK-START: HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
people are overweight. We skinny guys need to build our abs
in the gym by training our abs, obliques and spinal erectors.
This measurement should go up. (Also keep in mind that your
stomach will soon be full of food.)
2.
Shoulders at the widest point. It’s no coincidence that broad
shoulders are a sign of masculinity. Men have a lot of androgen
receptors in their shoulders and upper back. You’ll likely gain
more here than in your waist, upping your shoulder:waist ratio.
3.
Biceps, flexed. (Muscles are always measured flexed.) Gaining
even an inch here is a big deal. Celebrate every hint of progress.
4.
Chest. This will keep track of your chest and upper back growth.
Measure this one right at nipple height.
5.
Hips at the widest point. This isn’t just to improve your
assthetics. Glutes are also important for athletics and injury
prevention (especially in your lower back).
6.
Thighs. Being totally massive in the lower body is more of a
bodybuilder thing. Most guys want a masculine V-taper, not the
bodybuilder X-taper, but keep in mind that wimping out on leg
day will literally make you look like a chicken.
7.
Calves. If you’ve seen Marco, you know that the smaller your
calves are, the better you’ll look. Juuust kidding. Calves should be
about the same size as your upper arms though, so I suspect that
your arms need to gain a few inches before you start stressing
about your calves. Still, measuring them is wise.
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QUICK-START: HOW TO TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
If you want to track your symmetry improvements, you can also measure both arms, thighs,
and calves. This is optional, as symmetry can also be monitored fairly well via strength.
3. YOUR STARTING WEIGHT
We recommend weighing in once a week, keeping the timing consistent. The
best option would be to wake up, pee, and then immediately weigh yourself for
consistency. Which day you decide to measure on is entirely up to you.
You can also weigh yourself daily, adding up the numbers and dividing by seven at the end
of the week. This becomes more useful as your weight gains begin to slow. An advanced
lifter will often only want to gain around 0.5 pounds per week, for example, and this
requires far more precision. With this method, you would measure daily but still analyze/
adjust just once per week.
4. SAY HELLO IN THE COMMUNITY
Don’t feel like you need to do this alone. Take advantage of the community,
where you’ll be surrounded by the Beastly brothers who will be with you
through thin and thick.
Post your starting photos, measurements, weight, and height in the
progress section. You can include a little intro about yourself and your goals too.
When you post your before photos on the forum we can answer any questions
you have, deal with any unique circumstances you’re in, and give you some
pointers about getting started. This is also a great time to say hello to other guys
who are posting their own introductions and updates.
If you’re feeling a little shy about posting your skinny before photos in your
sister’s short shorts, that’s understandable. Post them anyway. Everyone else in the
community has, so you’ll hardly be the odd man out. While you’re at it, take a
look at some of their transformations. We really hope to see you in there!
39
03
QUICK-START: LIFTING
HOW TO LIFT WEIGHTS
Now that you’ve documented your skinniness, there’s no longer any need to
stay that way. It’s time to muscle away your skinniness as quickly as possible.
Weight gain is caused by eating in a calorie surplus. However, if you
just started eating Beastly, you'd be leaving it to your genetics to dictate the
percentage of fat and muscle you’d be gaining… with the average person
gaining around 67% fat. Us naturally skinny guys tend to do a little bit better
than that—our leanness means more testosterone and less estrogen, we don’t
have a ludicrous amount of fat cells, we’re insulin sensitive, and we’re nowhere
near our genetic muscular potential. But still, you’d be dreamer bulking. I’ve
been there. You don’t want to be there.
So we need to tell your body to store muscle mass, not fat mass. This is done
by lifting weights. The better the quality of your weightlifting program, and the
more consistently you follow it, the more doggedly your body will fight to add
muscle to your frame.
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QUICK-START: LIFTING ESSENTIALS
There are a lot of factors to optimize. Exercise selection, exercise variety,
using a variety of rep ranges, performing the right number of total sets per
muscle group per week, improving your lifting technique, etc. If you’re totally
new to this, you don’t need to consciously worry about any of that. Simply
getting under some heavy weights every couple days will stimulate muscle
protein synthesis, directing nutrients towards your muscles. However as you
become more advanced (which should take as little as a couple months) these
factors begin to become incredibly important. They become the difference
between getting fat and getting strong.
We’ll explain all of that in greater detail later on in the eBook. Right now
you don’t need to consciously understand all the fine details though. If you just
follow the workout sheets you'll be doing a fully optimized plan.
Let’s go over how to follow them.
How to Warm Up
The typical warm-up involves getting your heart rate up a little bit, some
stretching, and… that’s it. Remember though: if you want typical results, do a
typical program.
Getting your heart rate up before a workout isn’t a bad idea, especially
if you train first thing in the morning or show up at the gym freezing cold. For
most people though, it’s not needed. A couple light practice sets with some
weights will allow you to get plenty of blood flowing into the right areas.
Stretching is a bad idea, yet no matter how much research comes out
disproving its benefits, it remains surprisingly popular. When your muscles
stretch too far your body signals pain, worried that you’ll cause damage if you
stretch further. Doing this over and over again teaches your muscles that it’s safe
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QUICK-START: LIFTING ESSENTIALS
to relax a little bit because stretching won't actually cause damage. However,
stretching does not physically lengthen your muscles (no growth takes place),
it just increases your pain tolerance while stretching. Unfortunately, this
flexibility doesn’t translate very well to movement, just stretching. Lifting
weights isn't about being loose and relaxed though, it's about being strong
and forceful. Every study looking into pre-workout stretching has found that it
reduces your muscles’ ability to forcefully contract, reducing your gains (study).
However, there are some very effective ways to warm up. We’ll be doing
something called a dynamic warm-up. There are two reasons for this:
#1: MORE MUSCLE
Countless studies have shown that, unlike stretching, a dynamic warm-up
increases vertical leap, sprint speed, and maximum strength output (tested via
squat). It will also loosen up tight areas and activate certain muscles, allowing
you to achieve the positions needed to lift with proper technique. If you have
trouble squatting, for example, the dynamic warm-up will help you loosen your
hips up so that you can squat deeper, and turn on your glutes and quads so that
you can lift heavier weights. This stimulates more muscle growth.
#2: FEWER INJURIES
Cold muscles are less flexible and pliable, and thus tend to be injured more
easily. Warming up will get them ready to lift while the loading is still low
enough to be safe. This reduces your chances of getting injured.
That covers why we recommend this type of warm-up routine. With stuff like
this it’s much easier to teach you with videos, so follow this link here for the
how-to. You can practice this warm-up routine at home right now if you like.
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What Weight to Start With
With barbell lifts I’ll always have someone start with just the bar—45 pounds.
This allows you to see how heavy the bar feels. After you know how heavy
the bar is, throw some ten’s on, do 2–5 reps to see how it feels, and then go up
accordingly. Same thing with dumbbells. Start with a light, 20-pound dumbbell.
During your first week of the program, there are only 2 “work” sets for
each exercise. However, I recommend doing several “feeler” sets beforehand to
determine the proper weight. When you become good at this you’ll only need
to do a couple reps to see if it’s a good weight. For now, you might need to do all
the reps on the sheet before realizing that you aren’t even close to failure—that
the weight is too light. That’s okay. Just count it as a bonus warm-up set.
During your first week, keep the weights light so you can really practice your
technique. Then, as your technique solidifies itself more and more, you can
start pushing your boundaries little by little. Going to failure every set and
using improper technique will sap your body of energy and ingrain bad habits.
That can limit your success in the long run. That being said, the set should still
be challenging and you should actually need the allotted rest period.
Many trainees select big, sexy weights that make them feel like a beast
instead of picking reasonable weights that will make them a beast. For many,
this will be their first time lifting seriously or following a program. This is when
you need to take the time to develop good lifting habits—to learn what it feels
like to lift well until it becomes instinct.
The boundary between training hard and training smart is a thin line, and
difficult to define at times. I do not expect you to find the balance right away.
Don’t be scared of trying new weights; instead be honest with yourself about
where you are and how your technique is.
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The Three Rules of Weight Selection
DON’T COMPROMISE FORM.
If you’re new to this, your form won’t be great right away. But
the weight shouldn’t be the reason for that. If the weight is
making your form worse, the weight is too heavy.
YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO FEEL THE CORRECT MUSCLES WORKING.
This won’t always be true with heavy compound lifts, but during
Phase Zero you should always be able to feel the target muscles
working. If you can’t, you must adjust your technique. If you still
can’t feel it, it could be because the weight is either too heavy or
too light. If you don’t really feel anything and the weight feels
easy, up the weight!
YOU NEED TWO REPS “IN THE TANK”.
This means if you’re doing rack pulls with 135 pounds for 12
reps, you should actually be able to do 14 reps. This allows your
technique to stay clean, and it will also help you recover faster,
allowing us to give you more training volume—which will speed
up muscle growth.
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Which Routine to Begin With
Now it’s time to pick a routine and get started lifting.
BEGINNER ROUTINE
If you’re new to lifting, we recommend starting with Phase Zero. (Clicking
that link will take you to the workout sheets, exercise videos, and a more
detailed description of how to get started in the gym.) You’ll be building
muscle very quickly while we teach you the basics of squatting, deadlifting,
bench pressing, chin-ups, bodybuilding, and posture.
INTERMEDIATE ROUTINE
If you’re already familiar with the gym, we recommend starting with Phase
One. You’ll still be building muscle fairly quickly, but we’re assuming that
you’re already competent at squatting, deadlifting, benching, chin-ups and
maintaining a rock solid neutral spine while lifting.
How Much Can You Gain Each Week?
Combining the best of strength training and bodybuilding in this way is very,
very effective. If you’re still skinny, you can realistically expect to gain 8–12
pounds in the first five weeks. Some members have even gained as much as
20 pounds in that timeframe—leanly. However, forcing your weight up at a
too-rapid pace by consuming too many calories will cause those extra calories
to be stored as fat. It is very rare for someone to be able to gain more than a
pound or two per week leanly, even as a beginner.
As we become more muscular we build muscle more slowly, so if you’re
already looking pretty fit, you may want to aim for “just” a pound or so per
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QUICK-START: LIFTING ESSENTIALS
week. You’ll be gaining 4–6 pounds in the first phase, and something like 16–24
pounds over the course of the the program. More than enough to have you
looking like a beast by the end of this.
BEGINNER OR NOT, WATCH THE EXERCISE VIDEOS.
Lifting with improper or reckless technique is bad for two
reasons. First, when things get heavy, you tend to revert back
to instinct. This is good.… provided you’ve already developed
good instincts. If you use sloppy form now, you’ll be ingraining
potentially dangerous compensation patterns (where you lift
with the wrong muscles). Second, your muscles, tendons,
ligaments and bones have not yet adapted to the point where
they’re bigger, stronger and denser.
Injuries can range from something as trivial as a muscle strain
to something as serious as a mouthfull of barbell. And muscles
don’t pair well with a trailer-park smile.
Good luck, man! Now, after the chapter recap, Shane’s going to teach you how
to consistently gain weight each week by adjusting your diet.
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Summary
•
While eating in a caloric surplus is what allows one to gain
weight, lifting weights helps prevent your body from storing
around 67% of that weight as fat. So before you eat big, lift big.
•
Dynamic warm-ups help you lift heavier weights with more grace
and less chance of injury. This will lead to more consistent gains.
•
Weight Selection Rule #1: You must use proper technique for
every single rep. Lock your ego in your gym locker.
•
Weight Selection Rule #2: You must feel the correct muscles
working on every lift while doing Phase Zero. During later phases,
you must feel the correct muscles working on all the lifts that go
above 8 reps (all the “bodybuilding” lifts).
•
Weight Selection Rule #3: At the end of a set you should be able
to do two—but only two—more reps before your your muscles
fail. We call this “leaving two reps in the tank.” We don’t expect
you to be amazing at this right away. Just do your best.
•
Use “feeler sets” if you are not sure which weight you should use.
Do as many of these as needed. Your first real set is the one that
brings you close to muscular failure (within a couple reps).
•
If you are a new to lifting, start with Phase Zero. If you’re
confident with squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, chin-ups
and maintaining neutral spine, begin with Phase One.
47
04
QUICK-START: NUTRITION
HOW TO EAT FOR GAINS
Muscle-building nutrition can be a little overwhelming at first. How much
should you eat? What foods are considered clean? Should you be carb cycling?
Why are paleo and vegetarian guys both healthier than average despite having
seemingly contradictory dietary restrictions? What supplements should you be
taking? When should you be taking them? Do you even need them?
Luckily, nutrition can also be pretty simple if you begin by focusing on
just the highest priority factors. There are just a couple factors that make the
difference between gaining 0 or 1 pound over the course of the next week,
but there are hundreds of things that make the difference between gaining 1 or
1.1 pounds. If you focus on the hundreds of small details you risk trying very
hard yet making progress that is too insignificant to even be noticed.
So this chapter is about going from gaining 0 pounds per week to gaining
1 pound per week. Building muscle becomes harder and harder as you get more
and more advanced, so I recommend learning everything eventually, but there’s
plenty of time to explain all of that later—once you’re already building muscle.
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Right now you just need to worry about those two important factors:
calories and protein.
Calories: How to Gain Weight
Food contains energy—calories. When you consume fewer calories than your
body needs, you lose weight because your body is forced to burn fat/muscle to
get the missing energy. When you consume more calories than your body needs,
you gain weight because you store the extra energy as fat/muscle.
Calorie surplus = weight gain
Calorie balance = no change in weight
Calorie deficit = weight loss
So “being in a caloric surplus” simply means “eating enough to gain weight.”
This makes weight gain simple. Not easy, but simple. If you’re not gaining weight
as quickly as you’d like, you need to increase your calorie intake. This gives your
body extra calories that can either be stored as fat or used to build muscle.
If you gain 20 pounds while eating a regular diet and doing regular
exercise (e.g. jogging) research shows that you’ll gain something like 7 pounds
of muscle and 13 pounds of fat.
We can do better.
You’re following a muscle-building routine in the gym, and thus your
muscles are now desperately trying to grow. If your weightlifting program is
good enough, and it is, that might be all you need to make great muscular gains.
We’re going to talk about keeping those gains lean, but first and
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foremost, how many calories should you eat in order to build muscle at an
optimal pace?
You probably need to eat something like 18–22 times your bodyweight in
pounds (40–50 times your bodyweight in kilos) in order to gain around a pound
per week. Gaining a pound per week is enough that you’ll build noticeable
amounts of muscle quickly, but not so quickly that you’ll also gain a lot of fat.
So if you’re 130 pounds/59 kilos, you’ll want to consume 2400–2900
calories per day. That’s a rough guess though, as even within our subgroup
(naturally skinny men) metabolisms can vary. How much you need to eat will
depend on how active your lifestyle is, how much you fidget, how much body
heat you produce, how lean you are, and even what you eat!
What we used to do at this point was give you a calorie calculation
algorithm so that you could get an ever so slightly more precise number. Still a
guess, but the best guess that researchers have discovered so far. Over the years
we have discovered a better approach:
The Lean & Eager. If you’re naturally very lean and/or unafraid
of gaining a tiny bit of fat, aim high—start with bodyweight x 22
(or x50 if you’re using kilos). Adjust as necessary each week to get
into the gaining golden zone of 1-2 pounds per week.
The Soft & Cautious. If you’ve got a body fat percentage of 15%
or more (no visible abs), aim low—start with bodyweight x 18 (or
x 40 if you’re using kilos). Adjust as necessary to get into the lean
gaining golden zone of 0.5–1.5 pounds per week.
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CUSTOMIZABLE MEAL PLAN
If you want a clearer idea of what a muscle-building diet
might look like, check out this customizable meal plan. It’s
an ideal diet for muscle growth that’s optimized for appetite,
convenience and budget while still being flexible enough for
your individual lifestyle and preferences.
There’s a third approach too. If your diet is already somewhat healthy, fairly
consistent, and if your weight is staying about the same every week, you have
the option of simply adding calories in. This is very effective, since your lifestyle
will hardly need to change. Fewer changes, more willpower left for other things.
The Add-Man. Since your weight is holding steady each week,
you’re currently in neither a calorie deficit nor a surplus. To get
into a hearty calorie surplus simply add 500 extra calories to what
you normally eat.
We’ve got a section on how to deal with your skinny-boy appetites, metabolisms
and stomach capacities later on in the eBook. For now let’s keep things simple.
If you eat three meals per day, you could add 500 calories by:
•
Increasing each meal by 170 calories. Perhaps you do that by
adding a glass of whole milk to your meals. Liquid calories are
fairly easy on the appetite, so this should be fairly achievable.
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•
Adding in a couple 250 calorie snacks. Snacks have been
shown to instinctively cause people to eat more, and they will
allow you to keep your main meals reasonably sized. These snacks
could be as simple as a homemade protein bar split in half, a
handful of trail mix, or a Quest bar.
•
Adding in a fourth meal. Maybe a small fruit/protein smoothie,
a whole grain peanut putter and banana sandwich, or some muesli
cereal with milk and frozen berries. All of these options are quick
to prepare and consume, rich in fibre, contain a fruit or vegetable,
and contain enough protein to spike muscle protein synthesis.
Hell, if you already eat a pretty healthy diet made up mostly of whole
foods, perhaps you could just have a 500 calorie dessert after dinner.
Bonus points if you make the dessert yourself. Here’s a great recipe for nutritious homemade
chocolate fudge brownies.
Any of these approaches should make it a little easier to gain weight. Your
appetite is no fool though! If you hit your calorie goal one day, you may forget
to eat breakfast the next. This is your body’s attempt to restore balance—to
eradicate the surplus you worked so hard to create. Don’t let this happen.
Be mindful of how much you’re eating all week long, and make sure to carry
around some emergency calories (like trail mix or protein bars).
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ADVANCED FLEXIBLE DIETING GUIDE
If gaining weight is already easy for you but you’re gaining more
fat than you’d like, we’ve got a very advanced nutrition protocol
here. This would be more similar to what a pro-bodybuilder or
fitness model would use to make sure that their gains are as
steady and lean as humanly possible. Be warned: this is almost
certainly overkill, especially if you’re new to bulking.
Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, we always recommend building a diet
out of foods that you already eat and you already love. Our beastly recipes are
here to make things easier, healthier and better for building muscle, but that
doesn’t mean you can’t eat anything else. Feel free to eat tons of foods that
aren’t explicitly mentioned in this eBook!
To make things easier though, we’ve got recipes as simple as strongman
cereal, as seasonal as sweet muscles eggnog, as portable as homemade
protein bars, as delicious as chocolate fudge brownies, and as efficient as fiery
skinny-boy chili—prepared twelve servings at a time.
There are many effective, research proven ways to make your gains
leaner, but we can worry about that a dozen pounds from now. As a beginner, I
would emphasize ease over perfectionism when it comes to your food choices.
However, there’s still one component of your diet that you do really need to
focus on, especially as a beginner.
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Protein: How to Build Muscle
Weightlifting will get your body trying to build muscle, and getting into a calorie
surplus will allow your body to gain weight. Muscle can only be constructed out
of protein though, so you also need to make sure that you’re giving your body
not just the energy it needs to gain weight, but also the building materials that
it needs to build muscle.
Eating enough protein will make your gains much leaner.
Thankfully, eating enough protein to build muscle is very realistic. There
are some studies showing a potential muscle-building benefit to consuming
as much as 1.5 grams per pound bodyweight (3.3 grams per kilo), but most
research shows that muscle is built optimally with around 1 gram per pound
bodyweight (2.2 grams per kilo).
Muscle doesn’t take much protein to maintain, and over time we become
better at digesting and using protein. This means that in the future you can
reduce your protein intake by quite a bit. However, right now you’re going to
be building muscle at a rapid pace while also being rather inefficient at turning
that protein into muscle mass. So I would try to stay above that gram per pound.
We’ve got a section on timing your protein intake to accelerate muscle
growth, and another section on workout nutrition. For now just focus on
spreading your protein somewhat evenly between meals.
Having 30+ grams with breakfast, lunch and dinner is pretty great.
Perhaps 40 grams with breakfast + 50 grams with lunch + 60 grams with
dinner to hit 150 grams total. That’s a pretty normal way to take in enough
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protein to grow, with breakfast being vegetarian and dinner having some
meat in it or whatnot. If you have more meals than that, try to have 30+ grams
of protein in those as well. For instance, 30 grams + 30 grams + 30 grams + 30
grams + 30 grams.
If you have fewer than three meals… consider eating more meals!
Intermittent fasting, whether it’s forgetful or deliberate, is not appropriate for
rapidly trying to build muscle mass. (More on that later in the eBook.) When
rapidly bulking, 3–7 meals per day with most of them containing 30+ grams of
protein is ideal. Some of those meals can be snacks.
There are lots of great protein sources: chicken, fish, milk, yoghurt,
cottage cheese, eggs, beans, peas, red meat, grains, soy, etc. This makes eating
enough protein pretty easy if your diet has no restrictions. If your diet does have
restrictions though, or eating enough protein is still a struggle, I’d recommend
getting some protein powder.
Whey protein is cheaper than chicken, fantastic for building muscle, and
quite nutritious. However, there are many great types of protein powders. For
example, pea + rice protein powder (like SunWarrior) is great for people who
have problems with dairy or animal products.
That covers everything you need to know: calories to gain weight, protein
to build muscle. Not that difficult to understand, but quite difficult to execute—
especially as the days and weeks roll by. We’re going to discuss strategies that
will make bulkier easier in the next section of the eBook (Tier One). First though,
Jared’s going to cover some strategies that will help you get off to a strong,
consistent start.
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Summary
•
Make sure you’re lifting before going gung-ho with calories.
•
18–22x your bodyweight in pounds (or 40–50x your bodyweight in
kilos) is a good starting point for most skinny guys.
•
18x is a more cautious approach, and may need to be adjusted up
if you don’t gain weight in your first week.
•
22x is a more eager approach, and may need to be adjusted down
by a couple hundred calories if you gain more than 1–2 pounds in
your first week.
•
If your diet is already made up mostly of whole whole foods, it’s
fairly consistent, and your weight stays about the same each
week, then you don’t need to start from scratch. Adding 500
calories to what you’re already eating is a simpler way to get into a
calorie surplus.
•
Your overall caloric surplus for the week is what will determine
how much weight you gain that week, but the leanest gains are
from small, consistent daily surpluses, not under-eating by 500
calories one day and overeating by 1,000 the next.
56
•
Eat 1 gram of protein per pound bodyweight (2.2 grams per kilo).
•
Eat the foods you already love, just add more calories & protein.
•
Don’t fret about advanced nutrition techniques until this is easy.
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QUICK-START: LIFESTYLE
HOW TO STICK WITH IT
We’ll be honest. It’s not an easy job to sell you the importance of “adherence.”
Even the word itself—adherence—sounds boring, clinical, and not the least bit
related to building muscle.
Getting the point across that adherence matters to a newer lifter is like
trying to explain the importance of saving enough money for gas when buying
a new car. To a young guy who’s buying his first car, he wants to know how the
car handles corners, how fast it can go from 0–60 MPH, about the beautiful new
paint job. But if there’s no gas in the tank, he won’t get anywhere.
The same is true with this program. We know right now your motivation is
probably high, but like any new challenge, building muscle will be tiring. There
will be times when your motivation is low, and when consistency becomes very
difficult. The fancier you make your routine, the less time and energy will be
left to focus on the fundamentals. You need to develop a routine that is not only
effective, but also efficient on gas—efficient on willpower. This will allow you
to keep succeeding even when you become tired, stressed and demotivated.
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You won’t need to worry about this forever. Soon your body will adapt,
and once your fitness improves to meet the challenge, you’ll even begin to crave
it. Soon this lifestyle will become habitual, and it won’t be draining anymore.
But during your first month you’ll be laying down the foundation of a
new habit. There’s evidence that it takes an average person 66 days to form a
habit (as little as 18 days and as much as 254 days, study). This will make that
first month quite difficult at times.
Dr. Baumeister is a famous researcher for looking into topics like
willpower, habits, etc. He writes in Willpower (2012) that best way to gain from
your current motivation right now is to invest that energy into developing
habits rather than using it as a huge burst of energy to go gung-ho for two weeks
before you collapse.
This is normally what people do during New Years Resolutions or boot camps, which is not
only punishing, but also doesn’t work.
Many new lifters make the mistake of deciding to change everything in
their lives—throwing out everything in the cupboard, switching to a completely
new diet, working out every day, etc. Their motivation is high, so they want
to do everything. Eventually when their motivation fades—and it will fade—
something will need to be dropped from their too-intense new lifestyle. The
energy-draining new activities, like working out, will inevitably be dropped.
So your goal for right now is to introduce small changes into your life.
Since the changes are small, they won’t be overly draining, and you’ll be able to
handle them. After some time they’ll become ingrained as habits, and at that
point you’ll have some new energy to add in your next new change. This is when
we recommend progressing to the next part of the eBook.
When talking about lifestyle there are so many ways to improve your
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ability to build muscle leanly: improving your sleep, limiting chronic stressors,
improving your recovery abilities, and much more. We’ll cover these things a
little later. Right now though let’s focus on adherence—the most important
factor of all.
Sticking With It, Even When It’s Tough
When Shane and I first started working out together in May 2010, I weighed 130
pounds, and had never lifted properly before. We were in the midst of starting
our graphic design business, and we were reading lots of business books about
how to manage yourself and your energy at work. One of our favourite authors
was Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke and MIT, who studies human behaviour. He
wrote about the Ulysses contract. The idea is that when you’re full of energy and
vision, you can act in your future best interest and make a self-binding contract
for the future—for when you know you’ll be tired and weak. Inspired, we came
up with a plan.
What we did was very simple, and it worked very well. We made a bet
with each other that would last until the end of the month. We put a big mason
jar in the living room, and had to put $10 into the jar for missed a workout, and
$5 into the jar for every missed meal (or even if a single bite of food was left on
the plate).
It’s easy to rationalize that you’re too tired to hit the gym after work. To
tell yourself that you’ll do it tomorrow. But for us, laying on the couch resting
would cost $10! I was broke at the time. Actually, I had a lot less than nothing—I
was in thousands of dollars of debt. $10 was a lot of money to me. It was more
than enough to motivate me to hit the gym when feeling tired. We’ll talk a bit
more about accountability later.
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The workouts and nutritional guides in this program are top tier, but they
won’t give you results without consistent adherence. The exciting part is that
while your genetics will play a part in what you can achieve, it will primarily
be your work ethic that determines the quality of your results! Take ownership,
be consistent, be patient, take advantage of all the resources you have at your
disposal, and you’ll do great.
Action Steps To Get Started
1. SET A REALISTIC, SPECIFIC, AND CONCRETE GOAL.
Gain 20 pounds in 5 months (20 weeks at 1 pound per week). Add 5” to my
shoulders. Get as specific and objective as possible when setting goals. Be
realistic too. If you’re working long hours, maybe committing to 3 hours a week
of training is too much. 2 hours a week isn’t 100% optimal—but it’s something,
and if that helps you build consistency and progress, then plan for that.
2. MAKE A BET / ULYSSES CONTRACT.
There’s amazing psychology behind using your current, full-energy self to make
plans for your future, tired self. The idea is that if you make the pain of losing
a bet higher than the pain of going to the gym exhausted, even when you're
exhausted you’ll go to the gym because it’s the less painful of the two options.
Make sure to have an end date, and once you reach the end of the bet you can
celebrate and then create a new bet.
If you’re well-off financially, you’ll need to increase the intensity by
betting more than $10, making sure that the pain of losing is still high enough.
It also helps to prepay so that you don’t rationalize or cheap out on paying
up if needed. Give $50 to a friend or neutral party that you trust, and say if you
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don’t reach your goal they can spend it however they want (except on you).
When you succeed a month later, they give the money back.
Here are a couple ideas.
•
Hit the gym fourteen times in the next five weeks. That would be
3x a week for five weeks with one slip-up allowed.
•
Gain at least four pounds during these five weeks, aiming for one
pound gained per week + one week to track and adjust.
•
Reach your weekly caloric goals for these five weeks. (This is
much harder than it sounds!)
3. KEEP EATING FOODS YOU ALREADY LIKE TO EAT, WHILE SLOWLY
ADDING / SWAPPING IN MUSCLE-BUILDING FOODS.
If you cut out all the junk food now, you could be losing calories which you’ll
need to build muscle. Make small additions for now to what you’re currently
eating, such as having protein powder. It’ll be much better to transform your
diet into a muscle-building and healthy one more slowly, to help you stick with
it. Shane will cover more about this in the nutrition tiers.
5. REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU SLIP UP, YOU DIDN’T FAIL.
If you missed working out for a few weeks or didn’t gain any weight this week,
you did not fail. It was just a setback, a small piece of your eventual success
story. That is normal, and that is human. Start working out again today. Start
eating big again the moment you leave the gym. And keep moving forward
from wherever you currently are in your journey.
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Remember: take ownership, be patient and consistent, be happy
that you’ve got a healthy body and the resources to build up your
body, and you’ll do great.
Summary
•
Building new muscle requires consistency.
•
Bet on your success with accountability—you know that you’re
capable. Give your friend $50 bucks to hold onto for a month
while you commit to this first 5-week challenge.
•
Continue to eat the foods you love while adding in new foods to
help you eat enough calories to gain weight, and enough protein
to build muscle.
•
If you fall off track, don’t beat yourself up & pick right back up
where you left off as soon as possible.
•
Introduce yourself and join the community for encouragement,
accountability, and to pass on your own tips & tricks that are
working for you.
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Muscle-building FlowChart
63
TIER ONE: DOING ENOUGH
64
06
TIER 1 INTRODUCTION
PRIORITIES & PYRAMIDS
Eating enough calories is simple, effective and difficult. There’s no doubt that it
works, however, there’s nothing marketable here. Nothing glamorous. Nothing
revolutionary. What skinny guy wants to hear that he has to eat more? Not us,
that’s for damn sure.
Beta-alanine, on the other hand, has some potential. It's experimental
and exciting. It's something a lot of us haven't heard of before. It’s expensive,
but just maybe it could provide the shortcut we’ve been desperately searching
for—a chance to quickly and easily rewire our genetics.
Unfortunately, even if we take every muscle-building supplement under
the sun and spend every waking hour lifting, if we fail to hit our calorie targets
we’ll gain a whopping zero pounds. That’s not an exaggeration to make a point,
that’s straight up science. No calorie surplus, no gains.
This means that we need to get our priorities in order, ranking the things
we’re doing from most important to least important. This lets us invest our
time, money and energy into the things that will actually get us the best results.
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TIER 1 INTRODUCTION: PRIORITIES & PYRAMIDS
The Tiered Pyramid
To help with this, we're going to be organizing the program into a pyramid
structure. (We got the idea to organize the program in this way from the muscle
researcher Eric Helms.) The stuff at the bottom—the foundational stuff—is
the important stuff that will give you the majority of your results. As we move
further up the pyramid, into the finer details of lifting and nutrition, things get
more controversial, more cutting edge, more exciting. However, no matter how
advanced you get, remember that everything rests on top of that foundation.
We've already laid out the bare, bare bones of muscle-building in the Quick-Start
Guide, so the first tier of the pyramid has already been covered. Kind of. We told
you what you had to do, but we didn't explain all that much about why, and we
didn't give you that many strategies to help make it easier.
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TIER 1 INTRODUCTION: PRIORITIES & PYRAMIDS
So in the first tier of this ebook we’re going to cover how to lift enough.
We'll teach you what lifting volume is, and teach you why it's the single most
important thing to focus on in the gym. In fact, stimulating muscle growth
basically boils down to getting lifting volume high enough. Mastering this
will allow you to get more consistent results than you ever thought possible.
Then we'll cover how to eat enough. We begin by going over how your
appetite works, why your stomach gives you so much grief when you try to
bulk, and how to manipulate your appetite so that you don't feel like napping
all day. We hope this will finally make bulking feel realistic.
That will give you all the information that you need to do this—to gain a
good twenty pounds. But most guys don't fail because they lack information,
they fail because their adherence isn't high enough. They fail because they get
distracted by something else going on in their life and fall off the wagon. They
fail because their motivation eventually wanes and they move on to other
things, only to wish later on that they hadn't. They fail because our irrational
minds inevitably invent weirdo, bizarro rationalizations and then convince us
that they're true. So we're also going to do our very best to equip you with the
best mental tools available. Hopefully that will be enough to defeat your brain
for long enough to get into the swing of things.
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07
TIER 1 LIFTING
LIFTING ENOUGH
To stimulate muscle growth in the gym we must disrupt skinneostasis—our
bodies' natural mechanisms that keep us perpetually skinny. At the heart of
weightlifting lie two key variables that you may use to disrupt this skinneostasis.
These two variables are volume and intensity.
Volume is how many sets and reps you do each workout, and how many
workouts you do each week. Simply said, volume is the amount of lifting you
do each week.
There’s a lot of talk about minimalist workouts in the mainstream. The
fact is that these workouts neglect volume. This is foolish, because volume
has been proven time and time again to be one of the largest contributors to
muscular development. As the research currently stands, there is not a single
factor that is more important than volume. The more volume you do each
week, the more you will grow—to a point. If your lifting volume is too high,
your body will be hard pressed to even simply repair the damage.
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This is why helping a friend move once every year will not make you
bigger or stronger. Your body has been hit with an onslaught of work, and
you'll be sore for days as your body repairs the damage. However, in situations
like this your body will often rebuild the muscle at exactly the same size.
You may be lifting quite a lot of weight that day, but it’s so infrequent
that your body sees no need to adapt. It will just recover and go back to normal.
This is why a workout routine is a must if you want to build large amounts of
muscle quickly. Your body needs to realize that it needs to adapt because this
is a stressor that will relentlessly keep on coming.
Volume = reps x sets per week. Bodybuilding programs tend to be fairly high volume because
each set will have many reps, whereas strength training tends to be lower volume because
there are fewer reps in each set..
However, for that volume to count you also need to be doing those sets
and reps with enough intensity. Otherwise they are just warm-up sets. They
are just practice.
Intensity sounds like it may be referring to how loudly you’re grunting
and how much misery you can sustain. This is not the kind of intensity we are
talking about. That has nothing to do with building muscle.
When we talk about weightlifting intensity it is not about your attitude,
it is about how heavy you are lifting in relation to how strong you are. If the
most you can lift for one rep is 200 pounds, then we would say that 200 pounds
is extremely intense for you.
The most you can lift for a single rep is called your one rep max (1RM). The closer you are
to your one rep max, the more "intense" the lift is. Powerlifting is thus very intense, since
the rep ranges are low. Bodybuilding is less intense, since the rep ranges are high. Both are
intense enough to stimulate muscle growth.
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You have to cross a certain line of intensity (percentage of 1RM) to
stimulate growth. When you lift heavy enough, you are sending signals to your
body’s adaptation machine. You’re telling it that it’s not strong enough—that
it needs to grow stronger. This kickstarts the process of strengthening your
muscles, and your body strengthens your muscles by increasing their size.
Unless you are barely strong enough to perform a bodyweight squat, a
bodyweight squat is simply not enough weight to force your body to adapt. You
are already strong enough for that activity. Your body will see need for growth.
The intensity is too low.
This is why activities like jogging, swimming and yoga will not make you
more muscular. You may be doing a lot of volume, but the intensity is so low
that your body sees no need to add muscle. You already have enough strength
for those activities, so your body will invest in other adaptions instead.
Strength coach Joel Jamesion calls intensity the signal for muscles to grow,
and volume the signal amplifier. While the signal tells your muscles to grow,
without the right amplitude, you will be less likely to make significant progress.
If you did your program and were using the right intensity but only did
1 rep of each exercise, yes, your body would be sending the signal to grow, but
there wouldn’t be enough of a signal amplifier to elicit a good response.
You need a certain amount of intensity to send signals, and then you need
plenty of reps and sets to get your body to pay attention to the signals you are
sending it.
A bodybuilding set will have many reps, meaning lots of volume. A strength training set will
be very heavy, meaning lots of intensity. Both of these sets will elicit a similar overall growth
response. When doing a program like ours, which mixes powerlifting and bodybuilding, you
could say that it is the "total number of challenging sets" that determines growth. (Easy sets,
or sets that do not get within 2 reps of failure, are not counted, as those will not cause growth.)
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When you are a beginner, your intensity and volume thresholds are very
low, so you do not need a lot of weight or volume to stimulate growth. As you
continue with a training program, your threshold increases and you will need
ever higher intensities. Your work capacity will increase as well, allowing you
to train with greater volume and greater intensity.
This is how you will become a beast.
For this reason, some advanced bodybuilders spend a tremendous amount of time in the gym
doing very long and intense workouts. However, it is usually best to use as little volume and
intensity as needed to achieve results. This means that you should save the more advanced
loading schemes and methods for when you really need them.
How Heavy To Lift
We like to use the “leave two reps in the tank” method. If your hypothetical
tank was how many reps you could do before your muscles became so fatigued
that you were no longer able to lift with proper technique, you would stop two
reps before that happened. This ensures good, safe technique while still lifting
intensely enough to send a signal to your body to adapt. It is also light enough
so that you can recover in time for your next set, and for your next workout.
Each workout you can use your warm-up sets as a way to gauge whether
or not you should increase your weights for the day. Not every day will feel
amazing, and you don’t need to break a personal record every workout. However,
it is important to consistently work to increase your intensity threshold.
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Warm-Up Sets
For your first two exercises, do at least two warm-up sets of each of the two
Circuit A exercises. Earlier in the program, take some light weights and do
your warmup sets with a lower intensity. For example, for your first day doing
dumbbell sumo deadlifts, start with a 50 pound dumbbell and test the water.
Perform around eight reps for around two sets. Use this to gauge how much
weight you may want to use in your first real set.
As you get stronger you can use heavier weights in the warm-up sets,
doing fewer reps. For example, you may perform a light set with eight reps, then
a heavier set with just three reps. These should still be well shy of failure, but
you will still be getting your muscles warmed up by lifting fairly heavy weights.
When gauging how heavy your first real set should be, err on the side of
going too light. Then, if you misjudge the weight for your first set and finish
with more than two reps in the tank, simply count that first set as an extra
warmup set. Increase the weight on the bar, try again.
Periodized Volume
As far as volume goes, we have you starting small, with a relatively high
frequency of lifting. You will have three days of full body workouts. This
ensures that your muscles have adequate recovery time between workouts
while also giving you a hefty dose of growth stimulus.
The volume progressively increases as the phase goes on, with the last
week being a very high volume workout. This is an overreaching week, and
we're intentionally serving you more than you can realistically recover from.
The next phase then begins again with a lower volume week. This
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is a deload week. This deload week gives you a chance to catch up on your
recovery. Because the stimulus from the previous week was so intense, this
deload week will often yield the most muscle growth.
Besides, you will also be learning new exercises during this deload week,
and it’s best to learn new exercises with less weight and volume. Too much
volume and intensity combined with learning new exercise progression will
mean you’ll be spending the week hobbling around.
We then begin the process of increasing the volume again, except this
time you will be lifting more weight and doing more advanced progressions
of the lifts. Your body will also be bigger, stronger.
Recovery
Research shows that muscles need about 24-48 hours to fully recover. If you’re
new to lifting they will need closer to 48 hours, whereas if you’re a seasoned
lifter you’ll be able to recover more quickly. This can vary depending on volume
and intensity, but it’s a good rule of thumb.
However, the central nervous system (CNS) will always need about 48
hours to fully recover. This means that once you’re fit, non-intensive CNS work
can pretty much be done daily, whereas heavy lifting should still be done every
other day.
This is one reason that we have chosen to divide up the ideal weekly lifting volume into three
full body workouts per week. This lets your individual muscle groups finish growing between
workouts, and it also lets your central nervous system fully recover.
I wouldn’t worry about this stuff too much for a while. This program will
work your CNS and muscular systems extensively, however, if you follow the
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guidelines for weight choice, you should be fine. Our volume and intensity
protocol is well within what you should be able to recover from. That is, unless
you decide to neglect recovery!
In order to recover properly from your workouts you need to be eating
plenty of protein and calories, since that is what provides your body with the
energy and materials that it needs to invest in growth.
That growth happens while you sleep. There is a reason puppies sleep
about 20 hours a day. 20 hours might be a stretch for you, but 7-9 hours seems
to be the gold standard for humans who are eager to build muscle.
Note from Shane: Marco just got a puppy, so you'll find a few enthusiastic puppy references
scattered throughout the eBook.
At this point I am going to pass the torch to Shane and Jared. They are
going to go into more depth about how to feed and rest your body so that you
can take full advantage of the growth stimulus that my workouts provide.
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08
TIER 1 NUTRITION
EATING ENOUGH
Your body is going to make it very hard for you to eat enough to gain weight.
That’s not just because you’re skinny, it’s also because you’re healthy. Even
a naturally chubby person would be hard pressed to gain 20 pounds over the
next couple months, especially when you take away the junk food that makes
gaining weight so easy for them. Some research shows that most overweight
people aren’t even gaining weight in their everyday life. Instead, they gain most
of their weight during the holidays, when they feel free to eat triple-size meals,
indulge on desserts, skip the gym, and snack on all day long.
Your body is a finely tuned machine with overlapping mechanisms that
pressure you into eating exactly enough to stay the same weight. This means
that if your weight is holding steady that isn’t a sign that your appetite and
metabolism are broken, it’s a sign that they aren't broken.
So the problem isn't that you’re able to instinctively maintain your weight,
the problem is that you’re maintaining a skinny physique, not a buff one.
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This is a real problem for us. If most people are only able to get fat by binging
on junk food during the holidays, how are us naturally skinny guys supposed
to get buff on low calorie health food? After all, if we use McDonalds and ice
cream as bulking crutches, we’ll just get fat.
We haven't even talked about the fact that we naturally skinny guys have
smaller stomachs, smaller appetites, and bigger, more adaptive metabolisms.
What I mean by an bigger, more adaptive metabolism is that when we’re in a
calorie surplus our metabolisms grow, turning us into a perma-full human
furnace, expending tons of energy in the form of body heat and fidgetting.
When you consider all of these facts, it’s no wonder that most skinny guys
who have tried to gain weight have been surprised at how difficult it is. That's
why telling you to tough it out for the next few months won’t work.
“Man up, eat more.” Yeah, yeah. You probably already know that. Hell,
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you've probably already tried that. I did.
That advice is stupid not because it's wrong, but because it's assuming
that you have a bottomless pit of willpower. That in your laziest, fullest moments
you'll somehow be able to force down another three grilled chicken salads.
During the very best of times you can power through it—you can will
yourself to eat more—but as soon as you become tired, busy or stressed you
won’t be able to find any motivation to make yourself eat.
This is also why the “eat less, move more” movement is failing so hard for
the mainstream, overweight population. That’s what they need to do, yeah, but
that advice doesn’t actually help them do it. It does such a poor job of accounting
for hormones and psychology that the advice becomes useless.
This is why simply telling a skinny guy to “eat more” is such bad advice
that it borders on insulting.
We need a better strategy, not tough love.
So in this chapter we’re going to discuss appetite hacks—ways to trick
your body into thinking that the food you’re eating doesn’t contain as many
calories as it does. We want your bodyweight regulation system thinking that
everything is totally normal… meanwhile you’re secretly gaining a pound of
muscle each week.
These tricks aren’t perfect. Your body will eventually begin to suspect that
you’re in a calorie surplus. So eating enough to build muscle will always take a
little extra willpower and planning. But the easier we can make this, the higher
your chances of success are.
When you’re tired, stressed and busy you won’t have a dietary mountain
that you need to will yourself to climb. Just a little hill.
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Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Stomach
Most of the population is trying to lose weight, and as a result most researchers
who are studying appetite manipulation are studying how to eat less, most
nutritionists are designing meal plans that help people lose weight, and most
health-oriented articles are written with the assumption that you're trying to
stop overeating.
This would be okay if they were clear about it, but they aren't. Someone
will say that a food is "healthy" when what they really mean is that a food is low
in calories. The only reason that it's "healthy" is because it will help a morbidly
obese person bring their bodyweight back into the healthy range. Things like
lettuce and celery and whatnot. For a skinny guy, it would be more accurate to
call these "unhealthy" foods, since they don't provide calories efficiently enough
to allow us to thrive in our bodies.
Things get more confusing still, because a lot of people writing about
building muscle don't realize this. They just regurgitate what they're hearing in
the mainstream literature.
The result? Most bodybuilding diets are full of appetite reduction hacks,
like eating unseasoned lean chicken breast and broccoli for dinner, or grilled
chicken salads with no dressing for lunch.
So before we talk about bulking hacks, let’s first make sure you aren’t
using any weight loss appetite hacks.
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:
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DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST
One effective way to lose weight is to limit serving sizes. Instead of having a
1,200 calorie dinner, they switch to having a 700 calorie dinner. This creates a
deficit of 500 calories for the day, and a deficit of 3500 calories for the week. For
most, this will result in losing about a pound of fat.
That's all well and good in theory, but for a beefy dude who's used to
eating 1,200 calories for dinner, this means stopping while his stomach is
still growling. He's going to spend the night trying fighting the urge to eat the
chocolate ice cream his wife bought last week—the ice cream that's just a few
feet away from the couch where he's watching TV.
Some nights he might have the willpower to behave, other nights he'll eat
the whole 2,000 calorie tub of ice cream, cancelling out the deficit he fought so
hard to create the four previous nights.
This is a well known problem, and recently guys like Martin Berkhan
popularized a way to solve it—intermittent fasting. Berkhan's particular form
of intermittent fasting is called LeanGains (aka 16/8 fasting), where you fast for
sixteen hours of the day and feed for the remaining eight. More simply put, you
skip breakfast.
Zero calories at breakfast means more calories left for later, meaning
that the beefy dude can replace his 500 calorie Starbucks Frappuccino with a 0
calorie Starbucks Americano, have his regular lunch, and then have that 1,200
calorie dinner that leaves him feeling nice and satisfied. No growling stomach,
no late-night ice cream binges, and finally some consistent weight loss.
This method works well because ghrelin, the hormone that causes us to feel hungry, is lower
in the morning than at night. As a result, many people find it easier to restrict calories at
breakfast than at dinner.
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Because we're aggressively bulking, we’re going to be eating to fullness
at every meal always, so skipping a meal is not helpful at all. Moreover, because
meals spike protein synthesis, not only will it make it harder to eat enough, it
will also reduce the amount of meals that will stimulate muscle growth. We
recommend adding meals to your day, not subtracting them.
I know the name of his intermittent fasting protocol (LeanGains) has made it popular to
attempt to build muscle while fasting, but this is because he's a guy who enjoys binge eating
who is also at an advanced level where he's gaining weight at such an incredibly slow pace (a
fraction of a pound per week) that he hardly even needs a calorie surplus to grow. When guys
are close to their genetic potential they don't "bulk," they simply eat enough food and enough
protein to support strength gains in the gym. They gain 0.25 pounds per month or whatnot
and that's enough to creep three pounds closer to their genetic potential each year.
DON’T AVOID CARBS
Avoiding carbs is great for weight loss for a couple reasons. First, it makes it
very hard to eat junk food, since most junk food is a combination of carbs and
fat. Second, starchy carbs tend to be pretty delicious, making them pleasant to
eat in large quantities.
When trying to lose weight many people have a lot of success when they
switch from sugary/starchy carbs to fibrous carbs. Instead of rice, peas and
croissants, they have cauliflower, broccoli and onions. These foods take up a lot
of space in the stomach because of their high water content, and they're slow to
digest because of their high fibre content.
For us skinny guys, whole food carbohydrates are a delicious and
nutritious source of muscle-building calories. Feel free to eat plenty of bread,
rice, potatoes, oatmeal and fruits. We want to fill our stomach up with lots of
nutrients and fibre and whatnot, but also calories.
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DON’T AVOID FAT
Lower fat diets are less common these days, but you still hear about them
sometimes in plant-based communities. Low fat diets encourage weight loss
in a similar way to low carb diets: because most junk food is a combination of
fat and carbs, avoiding either of these macronutrients makes it very hard to eat
junk food. And like carbs, fat can be pretty damn delicious, making it easy to
eat in large quantities.
There's something else about fat though. Per gram, fat has more than
twice as many calories as carbs or protein. Carbs contain four calories per gram,
fat contains nine. As a result, you can fit a lot of fat calories in your stomach.
While a high fat diet combined with a calorie surplus can cause excess fat
gain, we also don’t want to be on a lower fat diet, since that can mess with our
hormones and make it hard to eat enough.
A moderate fat diet will serve us well. 20-30% of calories coming from
fat is about right. That should let you eat the staple muscle-building foods
that make buildng muscle easier (e.g. eggs, fatty fish, whole milk), while also
allowing you to add high calorie seasonings to your food: potatoes baked in
olive oil, dark chocolate in your cereal, nuts sprinkled on top of your salads,
peanut butter on your toast, and butter on your corn on the cob. This should
make your food taste better, allowing you to more enjoyably eat more of it.
YOU DON'T NEED TO EAT LIKE A CAVEMAN
Humans have a natural inclination to favour what’s natural. Sometimes things
like protein powder, genetically modified foods, microwaves—they can seem
scary because they’re modern and “unnatural.” It doesn’t matter how many
decades of research there is showing that they’re safe, they just feel wrong.
Some diet fads, like the paleo diet, take this to an extreme by rejecting
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everything that came along with modern agriculture. This is an incredibly hot
topic, so if you want to eat organic, avoid potatoes, and throw your microwave
out your window, I’m okay with that (so long as I’m not standing under your
window).
However, if you don't have the budget or the inclination, you don’t need
to stress out about eating non-organic foods, using a microwave, or eating
grains. After several decades of research these things are now considered safe
by medical and health organizations worldwide. The only modern foods you
need to avoid are the heavily processed “junk” foods. A better rule of thumb
is to get the majority of your calories (80% or more) coming from minimally
processed whole foods.
The cheapest bananas at your grocery store that don't have an organic
label on them? Probably good. The expensive organic industrially processed
crackers? Probably not so good.
YOU DON’T NEED TO EAT A SUPER HIGH PROTEIN DIET
There are tons and tons of studies looking into protein’s effect on appetite,
including a study that served the participants tuna milkshakes. Yum. They’re
all pretty unanimous: protein is pretty much the magic food for feeling full and
satisfied because it causes a hearty spike in insulin followed by a long-lasting
feeling of fullness.
Darnit.
If you put someone on a high protein diet they tend to feel pretty full, eat
less, and lose fat (while maintaining a good amount of muscle). That makes
sense, as eating 1,000 calories of skinless chicken breast in a single sitting,
however deliciously spiced, is very difficult, and the resulting fullness would
last for an exceptionally long time.
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Recently, research has been showing that most of the benefits of lower
carb dieting for fat loss comes from the higher protein intake, not the lower carb
intake. This higher protein intake is what's responsible for preserving muscle
mass while causing feelings of fullness with fewer calories.
Unfortunately, when trying to build muscle we do need to eat a fair bit of
protein. I would recommend sticking closer to the 1 gram per pound (2.2 grams
per kilo) that will have us optimally building muscle, not the massive amount of
protein that bodybuilders are known to eat. (They will regularly eat twice that
much.) This will have the added benefit of keeping your bulking costs as low as
possible, since protein tends to be the most expensive macronutrient.
YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO EAT "CLEAN"
There’s a lot of fascinating psychology surrounding food—about how we
worship certain foods while demonizing others. During just the past couple
years there have been massive movements demonizing various food groups—
gluten, grains, carbs, fat, coffee, fruits, meat, dairy—with very little scientific
evidence to support their claims.
As a result, everyone has a different idea of what clean and dirty foods
are. To a vegan, fruits are considered clean whereas fish is considered dirty. To
a paleo guy though, fruits are dirty and fish is clean. Scientifically, both fish and
fruit have been shown to improve many health markers. So as you can see, the
word clean is very arbitrary.
Why is this “clean” approach to eating bad for gaining weight? Because
these restrictions make eating a wide variety of food more difficult, and that
makes it harder to eat enough to gain weight. It also makes it hard to be healthy!
The more restricted your diet, the more likely you are to suffer from nutrient
deficiencies. This is why many people who begin a "healthy" diet will run into
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more problems with nutrient deficiencies than they did while eating whatever
they wanted.
An unrestricted diet made up mostly of minimally processed whole foods
will likely be the best for your health. This will also make grocery shopping
cheaper and easier, and it will leave lots of room for personal preference and
personal convictions, such as avoiding olives because you think they're gross,
or avoiding animal products for ethical reasons.
Now that you know how to avoid suppressing your appetite, let’s talk about
things you can do to boost it. To set the groundwork for understanding appetite
manipulation, let’s take a look at a study ranking foods by how filling they are
on a per-calorie basis (study):
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The Basics of Appetite Manipulation
Some of the stuff in that satiety index (previous page) is pretty obvious. Most of
us know that eating 1,000 calories of junk food is pretty easy, whereas you’d be
hard pressed to shovel down 1,000 calories of broccoli, no matter how hungry
you were.
In fact, if you were forced to survive solely on junk food you may live to 60 while struggling
with poor health and then die young of a heart attack or whatnot. If you were forced to survive
solely on broccoli you'd die within a few weeks, unable to get the basic calories or macronutrients you need to survive. I wouldn't recommend either.
Some of the stuff might surprise you though! Would you have guessed that 250
calories coming from potatoes was nearly four times as filling as 250 calories
coming from peanuts? Even more impressively, potatoes are seven times more
filling than a croissant. Potatoes are also pretty damn nutritious, making them
pretty much the best weight loss food ever. Weird, eh?
This brings up a very important question: does how full we feel actually
affect how many calories we eat? In this case, yes. They found that with these
250 calorie meals, for every 100 point difference on the satiety scale there
was a corresponding 50 calorie difference in how much was eaten in the next
meal. That means that if you ate a croissant (47 satiety) for lunch you might
eat an 800 calorie dinner, whereas if you ate a potato (323 satiety) you’d eat a
650 calorie dinner.
Does that matter? Hell yes. If you started eating a potato for breakfast
instead of a croissant you’d slowly get skinnier. Horrifying, I know. And now
you’re probably going to have nightmares about being served a boiled potato
for breakfast. I'm sorry for that.
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Anyway, this stuff is pretty cool when you start thinking about how it
could help you bulk. I know this chart only shows a few foods. We don’t want
to look at these specific foods, we want to see the patterns and learn how these
principles apply to all foods.
SO WHAT MAKES A FOOD MORE FILLING THAN ANOTHER FOOD?
Three things: high protein content, high fibre content and high
water content.
If you wanted to feel full and satisfied you’d eat a diet that’s rich in whole foods,
which will tend to combine a bunch of foods that have a balance of all three.
So looking at the satiety index, maybe you decide to eat rice instead of
potatoes along with your dinner. Or, considering the underlying principles,
maybe you slice up the potatoes, slather those slices in olive oil, salt, pepper,
cayenne, and onion powder, and bake them in the oven. The baking would
remove a lot of the water, the spices would boost the flavour profile, and the fat
would add a ton of calories.
A couple little strategic changes like that and you might find yourself
instinctively eating 500 more calories each day. For some of us switching from
a natural maintenance diet to a natural bulking diet may really be that simple.
Pretty cool, right? And we can expand that example to cover a whole
meal, and then a whole diet. To illustrate this, let's take a basic meal and hack it
for our ecto-muscle-building purposes:
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CLEAN FOOD
Here we've got a fairly basic clean meal: grilled chicken breast served with a
baked potato and some steamed broccoli. This is all wonderfully nutritious
stuff, and the calorie content is quite high because of the sheer volume of it, but
damn is it ever filling.
Unfortunately, the very things that make it great for building muscle also make
it awful for appetite manipulation. This meal is very high in protein, very high
in fibre, very high in water. The broccoli alone is twice the size of my stomach
yet barely contains a calorie.
You can see that this presents a dilemma. A classically healthy meal is
great for building muscle but far too filling to make weight gain easy. When
people try to get fit they often swap out the unhealthy meals for healthy ones,
but this cuts their calorie intake in half. For most people that’s great, but for us
it’s a disaster.
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JUNK FOOD
Here's the exact opposite. The chicken and potatoes are deep fried in industrially
processed fat, dipped in sauces made of refined sugar, and served alongside a
sweet and acidic soda to make it all go down easier.
The foods that are the least filling are the ones that combine fat with refined
carbs (carbs with the fibre processed out). This essentially pre-digests the food,
making it pass through the digestive system quickly and with few calories being
lost in the process. These meals are also designed to taste amazing, combining
tons of different flavours and textures so that we want to keep eating even after
we start feeling full
Because of all this, you’d need to consume an absurd amount of calories
(3–7 times as many) to get the same amount of satisfying fullness that you’d get
from a clean-style meal. Unfortunately, the very things that make this meal easy
on the appetite also make it awful for building muscle leanly.
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BEASTLY FOOD
Here's a meal using a few appetite hacks. I've taken a fresh potato, chopped it up,
coated it in olive oil, cayenne, salt, pepper and onion powder. The olive boosts
the calories in a very nutritious way, the spices make it delicious. Ketchup is too
processed to be rich in micronutrients, but the sweet, fresh and acidic taste, like
a Coca Cola, will balance out the flavour profile.
The chicken is coated in breading, spices and a couple eggs then baked alongside
the potatoes. I made a few servings at once, putting the rest in the freezer for an
easy meal later. Lean meat is pretty filling no matter what you do, so there's a
little bit less of it here. I've used some milk to boost the protein content instead.
And the protein content is intentionally high, meaning I don't need as much
protein with breakfast, lunch, and snacks.
Then, for the fibre and micronutrients, I threw some kale in the oven too.
Baking removes the water, making them take up almost zero stomach space.
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How to Hack Your Appetite
Alright, so we've just discussed how the very things that make whole foods
so damn filling are also the things that make them so damn nutritious. Fibre,
protein, vitamins and minerals are both incredibly important when it comes to
your health and body composition. So, sadly, we can’t just rev up our calories by
eating a bunch of junk food.
We gave one example meal, but that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to appetite manipulation. Here we're going to cover all the best ways to hack
your appetite. You don't need to use all, or even most, of them. Just experiment
with the ones that you think jive best with your lifestyle.
DAIRY
Dairy is great for any goal because it’s so versatile. It tends to have some protein
in it, making it fairly filling, but when it’s liquid or higher in fat, it can also
be very calorie dense. For example, low fat greek yogurt is very filling (high
protein), cheese is moderately filling (high fat), and cream isn’t all too filling at
all (liquid and high fat). Depending on what kind of dairy you choose it can help
you either lose or gain weight. Dairy is quite nutritious too. The calcium and
protein in dairy make it very effective for improving bone density, and the rich
amino acid profile makes it fantastic for building lean muscle.
It’s no coincidence that whey, milk, Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese are
four of the most popular bodybuilding foods.
A whey protein shake makes a great snack, a glass of milk goes well with
most dinners, you can dip your Dorritos in Greek yoghurt, and you can sprinkle
cheese on top of your chilis.
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STARCHY CARBS
These are another very versatile group of foods as far as appetite is concerned.
Potatoes, grains, legumes, fruits and most other whole food carbohydrates
are packed full of nutrients and fibre. Starchy carbs also cause insulin to go
up (although not as much as protein), and thus result in that nice pleasantly
satisfied feeling. Most (minimally processed) carbs sit somewhere in the middle
as far as appetite goes, but you might want to lean more towards potatoes and
porridge if you’re trying to eat less, and more towards rice and beans if you’re
trying to eat more.
Now, you might be thinking, isn't rice processed? Yes, but like freshly baked
bread, rice isn't industrially processed. These somewhat processed carbs are a
little different from things like high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil.
When you process these carbs, yes, you strip the fibre out of them and they
lose a lot of their micronutrients, but they also stop being very filling. They aren’t
unhealthy or fattening, per se, at least for people who are not obese, as our insulin
sensitivity is high, and our bodies handle them well. For us, not being very rich in
vitamins or fibre is pretty much the extent of their evil.
Moreover, weightlifting, calorie surpluses and carbs like one another
very much. Carbs are excellent muscle fuel, and they aren’t easily stored as fat
when you go into a calorie surplus. This makes it okay to load up on the white
rice, bread, maltodextrin and fruit juices, so long as you have them alongside
nutritious meals.
This means that rice is a great bed to rest your dinner on, orange juice can
be a good companion for your omelette, starchy treats make for good desserts.
This will not only make bulking easier and more enjoyable, but also much, much
more affordable.
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FRUITS
Fruits are full of vitamins and fibre, and they’re pretty versatile on the appetite
front. Some of them, like apples, oranges, watermelons and berries are
incredibly filling and great for cutting. Others, like bananas and grapes, are
more calorie dense and great for bulking.
GRAINS
A meta-analysis of all studies looking into grains and weight loss/gain found that
adding more whole grains into a diet resulted in a tiny amount of fat loss and
an itty bitty bit of muscle gain. Nothing to write home about, but if you tolerate
them well then grains are definitely something you should eat plenty of.
Muesli cereal makes for a great bulking breakfast. So does oatmeal. You
can even add oatmeal to your chilis to cheaply bulk up the carb, fibre and protein
content. And never shy away from a peanut butter and banana sandwich on
whole grain bread.
KEEP IT SIMPLE, SKINNY (KISS)
The more convoluted your diet, the harder it will be to stick to. You may be really
into cooking fancy meals or shopping for exciting weight gainer supplements,
but don't abandon the bulking basics. This can be simple.
For example, Dan John, the high school football coach who became a
famous strength writer, would bulk up his high school football team by giving
them peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Cheap, easy, simple, and between
whole grain bread and real peanut butter (not the crap with soybean oil and
sugar in it) you actually get quite a lot of protein and fibre in there. Want even
more protein? Have it alongside a glass of milk. If you want to add in more
vitamins and phytonutrients, swap out the jam for a sliced up banana. I use a
banana and jam (because I like to live on the edge).
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LIQUID CALORIES
Our brains don’t seem to understand that liquid can contain calories. This is one
of many reasons why soda and juice are so demonized by weight loss gurus. We
aren’t trying to lose weight though, and this is exactly the kind of thing we’ve
been looking for. There’s absolutely nothing even remotely unhealthy about
whole food, liquid calories, so this presents a real lean bulking opportunity.
ENTER SMOOTHIES:
Fruits, veggies and berries + nuts or coconut milk + dairy or
water + protein powders + something frozen. That’s a super
duper healthy and easy way to down a ton of calories without
your stomach exploding, and you’ll probably find that you can
eat another big meal shortly afterwards.
AVOID FASHION MODEL FOODS
Some foods—like broccoli, carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach—are full of fibre and
phytonutrients but pretty much impossible to get calories out of. You’ll run out of
stomach space way before you find any gains.
When bulking I recommend opting for equally nutritious foods that are
more calorically dense. Fruits and veggies like bananas, peas, sweet potatoes,
quinoa, grapes, avocados, etc.
When in doubt, ask yourself, "Would Julia Bergshoeff eat this?" (WJBET?)
If the answer is yes, remind yourself that you don't even know who that is, so
you certainly don't need to eat like her. (You don't need to google her either.)
This is b2B, not Vogue.
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DRIED FRUIT
One of the best ways to eat more food is to eat very calorically dense foods, and
right at the top of the list of calorically dense foods are dried fruits. Water is one
of the three main things that make a food filling. Removing the water will turn
an everyday fruit into a weight-gain superfood. All the calories and nutrients of
an entire fruit packed into one tenth of the size.
When trying to build muscle there’s no shame in raiding your
grandfather’s prune cabinet. He'll understand. He was young once too.
CHEESE, CHOCOLATE AND NUTS
It’s easy to overeat fats because they’re so calorically dense, so now is pretty
much the perfect time to have some delicious cheese, dark chocolate and
peanuts. If there’s enough cacao in your chocolate—70% or more, let's say—
then hell, you can even count it as a whole food.
SNACKS
Snacking causes us to eat fewer calories in our next meal, but not by as many
calories as the snack contains. So if we have a 200 calorie snack we may eat 100
fewer calories at dinner, resulting in an overall 100 calorie gain. So in general
snacks are a good tool when trying to eat more.
Good snacks include: cheese, fruits, yoghurt, nuts, trail mix,
whey shakes, smoothies, dark chocolate.
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STEAL TRICKS FROM WEIRD BODYBUILDERS
Bodybuilders do all kinds of weird things in order to eat more. You know,
swallowing raw eggs like Rocky—that kind of thing. They also make “protein
pudding” by mixing whey protein into pudding. Anyway, you can get creative.
A cup of cottage cheese with a spoonful of strawberry jam is a surprisingly
delicious high protein snack. So is Egg-J, where you beat four raw eggs into a
cup of orange juice with a fork.
Okay, so maybe I invented that last one. Try it though. Not bad, right?!
MAKE TIME IN YOUR LIFESTYLE FOR EATING.
One of the biggest contributors to obesity is apparently the fact that people get
bored and want something to do with their hands while watching TV, sitting at
their desk or socializing. So I put Quest Bars beside my desk, banana chips and
chocolate in front of the TV, and I try to eat all the cheese and crackers at parties.
You know that person who always needs to get snacks before going to the
park or the beach? Who always needs interrupts long walks by stopping for a
burrito? Who eats two of every sample at the grocery store? Who seems to be
eating an apple every time you speak with him on the phone?
You can become that person.
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Summary
•
It’s hard to gain weight, and your appetite will fight you. That's
normal. Healthy, even. We need to approach this strategically.
•
Eat the foods you already love. There’s no need for a dietary
revolution. You just need more calories, more protein.
•
Don’t skip breakfast, don’t avoid carbs (even simpler carbs like
rice and bread), and don’t worry too much about eating clean
yet—this isn’t the time to eliminate the foods that are the easiest
to eat. Dessert is encouraged while bulking.
•
There are several types of food that bodybuilders will use with
great success to build muscle leanly: smoothies, protein shakes,
milk, greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, cheese, rice, beans, whole
grain bread, bananas, dried fruit, dark chocolate, nuts, peanut
butter, trail mix, fruit juice.
•
There are several very healthy foods that will sabotage your
attempts to eat more: broccoli, lettuce, celery, carrots, apples,
watermelons, cucumbers—the watery fibrous stuff.
•
Do weird bodybuilders things. You know how Rocky would drink
raw eggs? That’s actually a thing. Or put a spoonful of strawberry
jam in your cottage cheese
•
Eat more often. Put some trail mix on your desk, some peanuts in
front of your TV, and some protein bars in your glovebox or murse.
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ADHERING ENOUGH
Right now you’re at Point A, trying to get to Point B. Point A is okay, it's your
home—but it's also Point A. Point B, though, is great. It’s a super lush, beautiful
spot, and there are many brand new empty condos there with great views.
Regardless of how good Point A may or may not be, Point B is much nicer, and
you've decided that you want to get there. The problem is that the road between
Point A and Point B hasn’t been built yet. You know the direction that you need
to go, but the path hasn’t been paved. In fact, at one point there's a forest so
thick that you entirely lose sight of which direction Point B is.
You aren't alone in your desire to get there. Every year motivated people
will leave on an expedition from Point A to Point B. In fact, at the beginning
of every January a large group of people all decide to leave at once. They’re
so excited, they mark the start off their journey with a kiss and an Instagram
update, and then they start sprinting there as quickly as they can. Point B feels
so close, and they just can’t wait to get there.
But they were so motivated, so optimistic, that they didn’t think to pack
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a tent, or food, or water. Their legs are not used to sprinting—they have not
trained for this—and a couple miles in, they are starting to get tired. So they
slow their pace to walk. Unable to catch their breath, they start panting. They’re
not feeling so good, and they’re not prepared to keep moving forward. By the
time they get to the deepest part of the woods—the part where they can no
longer see Point B—they’re exhausted.
With no food, no water, no hope, they realize that Point B isn’t a place they
can get to. Their motivation turns to frustration, then hopelessness. They crawl
back home to Point A—feeling defeated. On their way back home they see a
group of people marching forward with tents, maps, water, machetes to clear the
way, and one man is even carrying a tub of strawberry flavoured protein powder.
The lesson here is that people can’t sprint as far as they can walk. That’s
okay. The trek from Point A to Point B was never intended to be a race, it was
a journey, and no amount of motivation could possibly carry anyone that far
without an equal amount of preparation.
As the original group crawls back home, feeling defeated but slightly wiser,
the group of people with maps and machetes draw nearer. They realize, hey, that
man with the strawberry flavoured protein powder—that's you.
You were smart. You found people who had already made the journey—a
trio of sherpas. They've given you a map, as well as a compass, and even a
satellite phone so that you can reach out to them if you get lost. That way they
can get you back on the right path. This is how you came to be the man sipping
the strawberry flavoured protein shake, map in hand.
We are the trio of sherpas, and the satellite phone is the community forum, just so you know.
And that forum is full of the other people marching to Point B right alongside you.
This won't make it easy, but as you see all these people crawling back the other
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way, you'll realize that being prepared has made it possible.
I’ll be honest, hanging out at Point A is easy. Trying to get to point B is
not. But when you arrive there, the hard part will be done. You can rest. You can
go back to just hanging out, but it’ll be in a much better place.
After you hang out at Point B awhile, you might feel the itch for another challenge. Looking
back you may realize that the hike from Point A wasn’t all too bad. Maybe you even enjoyed
the challenge of the journey. At that point we can help by giving you another map to another
amazing place a little further up ahead—Point C.
SETTING GOALS
Moving beyond the metaphor, Point B is the goal you’re striving for. Maybe
it’s gaining twenty pounds, gaining six inches on your shoulders, or being
able to carry your wife in one arm and your kid in the other. Whatever you
define Point B as, it needs to be clear. If it’s not clear, you won't be able to find
it on the map, and you’ll have no idea how to get there. This is what’s called
setting a concrete, tangible goal.
In our program we recommend starting with a goal that can be achieved
fairly quickly. Your first journey shouldn't take decades, or even years. At most it
should take a few months, and with several checkpoints along the way to make
sure that you're still headed down the right path. Perhaps you decide to gain
twenty pounds over the course of twenty weeks, with small adjustments every
week, and full progress updates every ive weeks.
Twenty pounds in twenty weeks is one pound gained per week. Simple,
measureable. If you don’t gain a pound in your first week, you know exactly what
you need to address. This is only possible because your goal is concrete.
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A FEW IDEAS FOR CONCRETE GOALS:
•
Gain twenty pounds in twenty weeks
•
Burn ten pounds of fat in ten weeks
•
Upgrade your shirt size from small to medium
•
Build 14” biceps
•
Squat and deadlift your bodyweight
It’s better to have smaller goals that are more achievable, so if you have
10" biceps, as I did, start by aiming for 11" biceps. When you reach your goals be
sure to celebrate in your own way. That could be as simple as renting a movie
with some friends, or going out to dinner to celebrate. You should post an
update in the community too, showing others that yes, it is indeed possible for
someone like them to make it to Point B.
Then set a new goal.
Motivation
Right now you’re full of motivation. Motivation could be defined as your
willingness or desire to do something. So far you’ve been motivated enough to
research building muscle, and you were motivated enough to put some money
on the line to buy this program. Now it’s our job to help you put what’s left of
your motivation to good use before it runs out.
Today your motivation is likely a burning furnace. You’re looking for a
way to burn right through whatever is in your way. You’re looking to put gasoline
on this fire. Light it up big.
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Well, here I am—but not with gasoline. I am humbly standing in front
of you with an offering of slow-burning hardwood. White birch, if you were
wondering. As a seasoned muscle-building hobbyist lumberjack raised in a
small Canadian town, part of my job is to tell you that gasoline would be the
wrong choice. We’re not looking for a big explosion of heat, burning bright
but burning quick, leaving us with nothing a few moments from now. We’re
looking for consistent and steady heat to keep us warm throughout the night.
A huge part of knowing yourself is knowing you’re not always going to
act in your own best interest. There is a future version of yourself that will retire
one day, and between now and then you'll surely run into some unexpected
expenses, but your present self is probably finding it extremely hard to save.
I have to give you credit. I can promise you that there is indeed a stronger,
bigger, and healthier version of yourself. By researching how to bring that side
of yourself out, you’re doing exactly what you should be doing for your future.
Right now you're doing exactly what you should be, but we still have to be
realistic. The motivation that you feel right now won’t last forever. Eventually a
tired version of yourself will take the reigns. I am not writing this to be a downer.
I am writing this so we can be smart. So that we can plan for this inevitable day.
So that you have clear instructions to give to that tired version of yourself. A
plan so good that even he can help you reach your goals.
How?
In the Quick-Start Guide I mentioned Baumeister, the famous willpower
researcher. In his book, Willpower, he writes that the best way to use your
current motivation is to use it to set up habits.
Habits don’t require motivation, they just happen. Can you imagine
if you just automatically ate well and lifted weights three times per week
without even thinking? Without even thinking, you’d be continually getting
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bigger, stronger, healthier, beastlier.
How exactly do you do that? Research shows that habits take an average
of 66 days to become established. Some people can do it more quickly, some
more slowly.
To ensure the foundation for those good habits is laid down, we need to
use our motivation (our willingness or desire) to kickstart the process.
Will your motivation last 66 days?
If you pour gasoline on your motivational fire, it might last a few weeks.
The Wall Street Journal wrote an article that claimed the flurry of January gym
visits start to dwindle just a few weeks in. That’s not long enough.
We need that slow burning white birch that I was offering you earlier. We
a steady, gradual change. We need some habits.
Don’t approach change like an explosion, training until you’ve spent
every last bit of energy, stuffing yourself to the brim, buying every supplement
that you can afford, and eating as clean as you possible can. Instead, we
recommend using a steady supply of energy, making small and slow changes
that will establish good habits in the longer term.
Will small and slow changes get you to 66 days? If you do it small and
slow enough, yes. If you’re not confident that you can make it that long, you
need to make the changes even smaller. You need absolute certainty that you
can stick with this.
If you’re not working out at all, maybe hitting the gym three times each
week for an hour is too much to commit to. Right now you might be in gasoline
mode, itching to train five times per week. But be realistic. Consider that future,
more tired version of yourself. The version that's stressed, busier than expected,
and low on sleep.
Even though hitting the gym twice a week is not quite as ideal for building
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muscle, it’s still infinitely better than nothing at all and will still be enough
to build muscle. Once hitting the gym a couple times a week is a habit, then
you can add some more exercise in. Maybe one day even the most tired, lazy,
stressed version of yourself will be able to train five times per week.
There's no benefit to training five terms per week instead of three times per week, but you get
the idea here.
If you’re someone who is disappointed to learn that you should dial your
intensity down, you’re normal. This is not exciting to hear. Even though I'm
offering you slow-burning birch wood, it might actually feel like I'm handing
you a wet blanket.
Researching and trying expensive and experimental supplements
is exciting. Trying brutally challenging workouts that beat you to a pulp is
exciting too. So is searching for that one nutritional trick that will make your
gains twice as lean. We are wired to think that the more challenging or risky
the task is, the greater the reward.
Leave it all in the gym.
Pain is just weakness leaving your body.
Unfortunately, none of that is true. It makes for great marketing, for
great humble bragging, and it may get you lots of shares and likes. It certainly
makes people a lot of money. But it won’t help you achieve your goals.
So don’t rely on a huge explosion of motivation. Not only will it not last, it
won't even necessarily improve your short term results. As Marco explained in
his lifting section, lifting too intensely will just stimulate recovery, not growth.
The stress will be too intense to even produce a benefit. You will be better
served by relying on small, progressive changes that gradually accumulate into
something truly impressive—even in the short term.
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This is all to say that you don’t need to change your lifestyle as dramatically
as you may think to get the dramatic changes that you’re looking for.
Accountability
So what do we do to help establish habits? We use a trick called accountability.
We use our clear-headed, and highly motivated versions of ourselves to make
binding agreements for the future when we know we won’t feel this way. It’s
called the Ulysses Contract.
In the Quick-Start Guide I wrote about how Shane and I used accountability in our muscle building experiment. Every skipped meal or workout
meant putting money in the jar. Without that jar, I’m sure I never would have
understood how enjoyable lifting and eating can become… once you’re through
the hard habit-building part. In the moment, lifting was hard. Eating enough to
get into a calorie surplus was painfully uncomfortable too. And it was a hassle
to change my lifestyle and schedule. All those things added together made for a
pretty challenging month.
You know what was worse than all of those things? Losing $10 when
you’re already way past broke. So I kept up with the lifting, the eating, and
switching my life around even when I didn’t feel like it. At the end of the
month, when I emerged 22 pounds heavier, stronger, and fitter than I’d ever
been before—I loved it. I chose to extend the challenge for another 30 days,
and in that second month neither of us contributed to the jar. The habits
were already starting to solidify. After that second month we didn’t even need
the accountability anymore because our habits were effortlessly carrying us
through. The last two months of our four month challenge were a breeze, and
we successfully made it to Point B. Those 60 days of accountability was all
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that we needed to develop a habit that’s lasted over half a decade.
If you’d rather not use a negative motivator because you’re a positive
person, I hear you. But research seems to be hinting that we as humans are
twice as motivated by the fear of losing something as we are by the benefit
of gaining something. It’s called loss aversion. You might notice this in kids.
Sometimes they won’t care about a toy until another kid picks it up, creating
the fear of losing that toy. You might argue this is why some people hoard stuff.
Or why older parents really dislike downsizing after they don’t need the space
anymore. As we grow up we try to bury this instinct further, but it’s still there,
and it’s still one of the strongest motivators that we can access.
Use a friend or a neutral party to be a referee. It needs to be someone with
enough of a backbone to keep your money if you fail your goal, even if you try to
ask for the money back. If you don’t have total confidence that your friend will
carry through, then there’s no legitimate fear of losing something.
The pain also needs to be high enough to work as a motivator. Not so high
that it could ruin your life or put you into financial jeopardy, but high enough
to be effective. When it’s too high-risk, don’t be surprised if you start cheating.
Ultimately, the accountability is only there to help you reach automaticity,
otherwise known as a habit. It’s like scaffolding on a new structure. Once the
building is complete, it can be removed.
Choosing Good Habits
You’ll almost always hear people talking about bad habits rather than good ones.
We just sort of “fall” into our habits. Most of our habits haven’t been conscious
decisions to help us do the things that we want to do.
Research says we spend about 45% of our day mindlessly executing
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habits—time spent without thinking about what we’re doing.
Don’t waste your motivation. Pour it into developing a habit of lifting, and
a habit of eating a big healthy diet with enough protein and enough calories.
The results will come.
Another trick for consciously developing habits, from Chip & Dan Heath
in their excellent book Switch, is called shaping the path. Essentially, you just
make it easier to make the right decision. It’s easier to stay on the path if it’s the
most direct route, and it’s paved.
This is why we recommend cooking meals in bulk when you’re high energy,
and have the day off. Every day after work, and you’re super tired, it’s going to be
hard to make a delicious meal that’s suitable for building muscle. But if you’ve
got a delicious and muscle-building meal waiting in the freezer that will be ready
in 5 minutes in the microwave—you're setting yourself up to win.
You can shape the path everywhere. If you build a home-gym, you’re
making it easier to workout since it’s literally a few steps to your garage or
basement. If you go to a gym, pick a gym close to work, or close to home so it’s
easy to get to.
If you feel too tired to work out late at night, work out in the morning
before you need to work, or study, so that it’s easier to fit into your day.
Marco invested in his kitchen prep to help make it easier for him to cook
meals. This is what works for him:
•
Buy a non-stick and wooden cutlery to eat out of them to cut
down on doing dishes.
•
Organize your kitchen for easy preparation and cleanup like
having your tools hanging on hooks for quick access.
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•
Buy extra shaker cups so you can always be ready for a protein
shake. Mason jars work well, just watch out for the post workout
jitters, they are a bit sensitive to drops.
The Wrap-Up
This section has been about how to get the results you want, by being consistent
with your nutrition and workouts. If you aren’t doing the program consistently
enough then you won’t get the results you’re looking for.
In the next lifestyle section we’ll discuss how to accelerate and improve
your results by developing your “lifestyle”—the things you do outside of the
gym and the kitchen. We’ll talk about how you’re screwing up your sleep, why
it matters, and then how to sleep like a beast. It’s rarely discussed, but this will
allow you to make leaner gains. We’ll also talk about some additional lifestyle
tips and tricks, like how light exposure can give you a bigger energy boost than
caffeine, how sleep regulates your mental energy, how to further bulletproof
your habits with rewards, and more.
But for now, don’t go overboard with your routine. Focus on the first
tier of the pyramid until you’re doing it automatically. We want to use your
motivation right now to bind your future self to a goal with a time period that’s
long enough to lay down a habit—and start seeing the benefits that you’ve been
working hard for. I’d start with a 30 day block, reach your goal, then set a new
one that’s a little more advanced.
Good luck!
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
TIER TWO: DOING IT WELL
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LIFTING WELL
Lifting well is an incredibly important aspect when gaining muscle, since
it ensures using the correct muscles, as well as safety. Being a healthy lifter
ensures consistency, which is needed to gain a significant amount of muscle.
We want you to be able to enjoy lifting. We want you head to the gym
with all the fervor in the world, and I want you to be able to maintain that
passion your whole life. While that may sound like a tough order, if you lift
well I believe you can accomplish it. If your reality is one of chronic pain or the
inability to touch your toes, that may seem like a fairy tale. While I would always
recommend someone to seek a qualified professional in person if they have any
serious injuries, lifting well can remedy many little aches and pains.
Lifting Well = Moving Well = Balanced Muscle Length = Good Posture
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In the equation above you can see how all of those work hand-in-hand.
A muscle’s ability to fire properly is based on its length, so someone who has
a posture that is too far from optimal will develop imbalanced muscle lengths
and have trouble using them properly. That means poor coordination, weaker
lifts, less ability to build balanced musculature, and a less aesthetic posture.
Our modern lifestyle has many communalistic, so what we typically see
is something like this:
This body lacks the muscular strength to keep the posture strong and stable. With
these weakened muscles, the stress falls on the skeletal structure instead. There is
going to be significantly more pressure going through each joint.
Our gut instinct is to stretch the muscles that are tight and to strengthen
the muscles that are weak. That instinct isn’t bad, but there are some issues.
First, the research looking into the effects of stretching has shown
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the results to be underwhelming. There are numerous studies showing that
stretching does not in fact lead to any significant long term gain in flexibility.
Second, when a muscle feels tight, is that because it’s too short and in
need of stretching, or because it’s already being stretched too far? Both would
give you a feeling of tightness, after all.
Third, oftentimes when people think they are stretching a tight muscle
they are actually stretching a ligament and creating further instability.
Finally, our bodies have adapted to moving in this new posture.
Haphazardly stretching certain muscles might move you out of a posture where
you’ve grown strong.
One of the most important parts of lifting well is ensuring your muscles
are at more balanced lengths before you lift. This allows the exercises you’re
doing to actually stimulate the right muscles. Not only will getting into a
better position improve how much weight you can lift, this will give you the
predictable, aesthetic and balanced muscle growth that you’re looking for.
Keep in mind you may need to use lighter weights again while you build up
a stronger lifting foundation in this new position. New muscles will be bearing
the load, and those muscles may not have developed the strength they need yet.
However, focusing on these muscles will improve the look and function of your
body, so these lighter loads will still be accomplishing encouraging things.
Great posture has benefits outside of being able to properly lift big weights.
Strong, confident posture has significant effects on your mental well-being as
well as your internal state. Standing in power poses has been shown to increase
testosterone, and a proud posture is a potent non-verbal communicator.
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Posture Matters
To make your posture rock solid we will be doing some asymmetrical exercises,
designed by the Postural Restoration Institute, aimed at tackling your body’s
natural tendency to favour right sided dominance. Asymmetry for symmetry,
you could say. These exercises are aimed a repositioning your posture so you
can engage the weakened and restore balance. If you take a look at the pictures
below they show how common this pattern is. A more forward left pelvis, more
flared left ribs and weaker right glutes. We expand on this topic a bit more in
the next lifting section.
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Cues For Rock Solid Posture
NEUTRAL SPINE
Neutral spine is usually referred to as a position where your spine has curves in
all the right places. Many trainers will have their clients perform their weight
lifting in this position because it has been shown to be the safest. However,
it is not always easy to achieve this position. When you begin lifting you are
going to feel pretty awkward, and it is going to feel quite forced. The warm-up
routine we have you going through should help, but the thing that will help the
most is getting into the gym three times each and every week and putting in
your practice.. If you learn to recognize the feel, you’ll be able to do it intuitively
while lifting, and also elsewhere in life. The benefits of this are great.
While lifting with a neutral spine is perhaps the most important cue, there are
some other cues we will use to help you make your lifts safer and more solid.
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GET TALL AND EXHALE
Imagine a string pulling up on the top of your head. Then exhale in this position,
forcing all your air out. You should begin to feel the sides of your abs engage.
Learning how to get tall and exhale is a great way to fix a lot of technical
issues without having to focus on too many things at once. If you hear me say
it often, it’s because learning to lift intuitively with good technique is very
important. We’re going to make things harder at first so that they can be easier
in the future. Then you can train harder, heavier, more safely.
KNEE OVER SECOND TOE
It's common for guys to let their knees cave in when the weight gets heavy.
We actually want your knees going ever so slightly outwards when you lift. 15
degrees or so. You can think of it this way: when your knees go out they should
always be gliding out over your second toes.
NEUTRAL WRIST
When you throw a punch your knuckles should be more or less in line with your
forearm bones. This allows proper transfer of force without your fist buckling
inwards or outwards. The same is true with lifting, where you want to be able to
push a weight without any power being lost.
Try to push through the whole hand, but be especially aware of the heel
of the palm. This position ensures that your have a strong connection with the
bar, and that you are avoiding hyperextension of the wrist. This is especially
important during the bench press, where a floppy hand will result in a huge
loss of lifting power.
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FEEL YOUR WHOLE FOOT
Don't balance on your toes, but don't balance on your heels either. When doing
all standing lifts, this concept is important to keep your balance and give you a
solid base to push from.
To accomplish this when squatting, you want to feel the weight being
pushed through your whole foot, however always being aware of your heels in
the ground. There can be a tendency to push into the front of your feet, but it's
often better to think of pushing through your heels to balance this out.
When deadlifting, there can be a tendency to shift all the weight back onto
the heels which can cause the toes to come up you to lose balance. To remedy
this, feel the whole foot, but concentrate on the heel and big toe staying down.
Putting The Cues Into Action
To learn something new, you must go through four steps: unconscious
incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and finally
unconscious competence.
If we use picking something up as an example, the first stage is when
you instinctively pick up a box on the floor incorrectly. You don’t know that
you’re doing it poorly… but you’re doing it poorly. You’re incompetent, but
unconsciously so.
The second stage is when I tell you that you should stop lifting with your
lower back—that you should use your back muscles to keep your spine strong
and stable, but that the lifting should be done with your legs and glutes. You
give it a try and you can’t do it yet. You’re still incompetent, but now you’re
conscious of it.
The third stage is when, after some practice, you’re able to do lift up the box
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with good technique. You need to concentrate while doing it, but you can do it.
You’re competent, but you need to be consciously focusing on your technique.
The fourth and final stage is when, after much more practice, you’re able
to lift up the box instinctively. You can chat with a buddy while casually lifting
boxes with great technique. You’re competent, and you can do it unconsciously.
Take your time and enjoy the blissful ignorance of the first phase, the
harsh reality of the second, the building of confidence in the third, and then
the cool, calm, relaxed demeanour that can only be built from overcoming
adversity and accomplishing something worthwhile.
You’ve bought this program, that blissful bubble of ignorance has likely
already been popped, so let’s get to work on getting you out of that harsh reality
period where everything feels all awkward and overwhelming.
The Five Main Movement Patterns
Here are the main patterns you will focus on in your training. They are essential
for a balanced and high functioning body. To do these exercises well your
whole body needs to work well. By mastering these exercises you’ll learn how
to instinctively coordinate the firing of your muscles in unison to accomplish
a given task. This will make you more coordinated and powerful in everything
you do. That means you can lift heavier weights and build bigger muscles.
Furthermore, maintaining a neutral spine throughout these exercises
leads to not only a strong core, but a core that has endurance as well. Neutral
spine endurance is incredibly important, as it is usually a lack of core endurance
that leads to back injuries.
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THE SQUAT
The squat is any sort of lower body lift that has a lot of emphasis on hip and
knee movement. The most famous of the squat movements is the aptly named
barbell back squat, often simply called “the squat.”
Magic happens when you hold a weight and squat. Your butt becomes
more effective than the best of belts for holding your pants up. Women will
enjoy it when you wear shorts in the summer. They’ll enjoy it even more when
you bend down to tie your shoes.
While the squat is a lower body-centric exercise, it will still heavily recruit
the muscles around the spine. Keeping a neutral spine during this exercise is
very healthy for the spine. This makes it superior to the leg press for all around
muscular development.
THE HINGE
The hinge involves any sort of deadlift variation, swing, or movement with lots
of hip movement and less emphasis on knee movement. Deadlifting done well
is very healthy for the body and will throw muscle onto your body from your
head to your toes. Keeping proper technique while a lot of weight tries to break
you is an excellent way to strengthen your spine and your posture, and it will do
this in a way that is surprisingly different from the squat. By using both you’ll
get the most balanced development of your lower back musculature.
This pattern is notoriously difficult, at first because it’s hard to coordinate
your muscles, and later because of the sheer poundage of your lifts. However it
is perhaps the most practical of all of the patterns. It will allow you to learn to
use hundreds of muscles in unison, developing coordination and stimulating
growth throughout your entire body. It will also help you develop explosive
athletic power and a big back, butt and pair of hamstrings.
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THE PUSH
The push pattern will involve any sort of pushing movements, like the push
up, bench press or shoulder press. This pattern is one of the main upper body
patterns used to grow the chest, arms, shoulders and neck. For balanced growth
you’ll want to perform a mix of horizontal presses (e.g. bench presses) and
vertical presses (e.g. overhead presses).
THE PULL
The pull pattern is the other upper body pattern, and a very important one at
that. This one helps keep your shoulders healthy. Modern day posture has made
it easier for our head to move forward, as we are hunched over desks taking
down notes, looking down at our phones, or looking at a laptop on a desk. When
the head moves forward, the rest of the body tends to follow. One thing that
can happen is the upper back rounding too much and the shoulders moving
forward. This can weaken the muscles of the upper back and strong upper back
is necessary to lift big weights in all your lifts, as well as to keep your head well
supported so that you can keep your head held high. This is a large focus early
on, and will stay with your throughout the program.
As with the press, for balanced muscular development you’ll want to do a
mix of horizontal pulls (e.g. rows) and vertical pulls (e.g. chin-ups).
LOADED CARRIES
This is another pattern designed to add muscle everywhere. Carrying heavy
things for distance is an incredible core endurance workout and will work every
muscle in your body. It also develops real world strength so that when you shake
someone’s hand they will remember you because your calluses scratch them.
Carries are a foundational lift in strongman and athletic training, but a
lot of bodybuilders will omit this movement. You may not see it often if you
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train in a commercial gym. This is not because it’s ineffective, this is because
it’s a difficult workhorse of a lift. This exercise really challenges your postural
muscles as the heavy weights in your hands will try and pull you down into
a slouching position. You will have to try your best to remain upright, thus
bolstering your grip, traps, shoulders and hip muscles. If you care about looking
and feeling your best, never skip the carries.
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Summary
•
If you are in pain, check in with a local doctor or physical
therapist. Weightlifting will probably be able to help, but don't
take our word for it.
•
Lifting well means can you lift with the right muscles through a
healthy range of motion (ROM). If you have certain ROM limits, it
is important to stay within those limits to avoid injury while you
simultaneously work to improve your mobility.
•
If you are pain free and have good posture, think of that as a green
light. Still, make sure to keep your technique clean.
•
Get tall and exhale to keep your spine neutral and activate more
stabilizer muscles.
•
Keep your wrists neutral, push the ground away with your whole
foot, and keep your knees in line with your second toe.
•
Focus on mastering the squat, hip hinge, push, pull and carry. If
you can get good at these, you'll be great at lifting anything.
•
Learning proper movement takes time. Don't be too hard on
yourself, and be patient.
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EATING WELL
If you’re gaining weight and things are going well, it may be time to make
things a little more interesting with the hopes of improving your health, body
composition, and bicep circumference.
But wait. Before eagerly going into all this advanced stuff, be sure to have the
fundamentals mastered. Upgrading to 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets
when you don’t even have a bed yet is a very poor way to get a better night sleep.
Similarly, moving on to advanced nutrition principles before having mastered the
process of gaining weight would be a foolish way to go about building muscle.
If things are going well though and you’ve got a little room on your plate
for more, let’s look at some of the nutrition tricks that elite athletes, fitness
models, bodybuilders, and powerlifters use to max out their gains. If you want
people privately asking you where you got your steroids, this is for you.
By the way, the correct answer to the steroid question is: “My dear friend or enemy, Bony to
Beastly is the true path to muscledom, not steroids.”
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Anyway, here we’re going to be talking about things that can improve the
rate that you build muscle, reduce the amount of fat that comes along with it,
improve your energy levels and mood, and improve your overall health.
You're already eating enough calories. Now let’s talk a little more about
where those calories should come from. A good rule of thumb when bulking is
to get 80% of your calories from nutritious whole foods. The other 20% should
be optimized for enjoyment and lifestyle.
When we’re talking about a food being a “nutritious” whole food we
mean a few things. First and foremost, that it contains the macronutrients
(macros) that you need, i.e., that it fits into the amount of protein, fat and
carbohydrates that you need. That assures that you have the energy you need
to gain weight, the fat you need to regulate your hormones, the amino acids
that you need to build muscle, and the exact proportions of each that will
allow for the leanest gains.
Second, we want to make sure that you have the micronutrients (micros)
that you need. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients and such. This will keep your testosterone pumping at full force, help
prevent illnesses, boost performance, and improve almost everything.
Third, you need enough fibre. This will keep your digestive system
working well, help regulate blood sugar, improve your heart health and all sorts
of other great things.
Once we’ve covered that triad of nutritiousness, we’ll have the quantity
and quality of your nutrition down pat, and that will take care of 95% of what
you need to look like a young strongman for the next 100 years. Then we can
dig into the even more advanced stuff, like supplements and fiddling with when
you eat things. Those little details pale in comparison to your macro, micro and
fibre intake though.
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Optimizing Macronutrients & “IIFYM”
In the muscle-building world, optimizing macronutrients often devolves
into the If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) way of thinking. This is the idea that if
you just optimize your calories and macros that you’ll be able to get absolutely
incredible results without really even needing to worry about much else. This
is a sort of rebellion against a lot of mainstream dogma that advocates eating
clean, avoiding sugar, avoiding junk food, etc.
IIFYM originated when the pro-bodybuilding and pro-athlete dietitians
were constantly being asked by their clients if certain foods (potatoes, rice,
bananas, flour, etc) were allowed to be consumed as part of an optimal diet.
Frustrated by the fact that these people weren’t understanding that total
perfection isn’t needed and that most whole foods are nutritious, they started
answering: “yes, you can eat that food—so long as it fits your calories/macros.”
For example, ice cream’s got some carbs, some fats, and an itty bitty bit of
protein, so if you want to eat some ice cream, you’d just fit it into your calorie/
macro allotments for the day. No stress, optimal results.
Because of its solid scientific roots and its incredible effectiveness, the
mantra caught on in the various fitness communities. Whenever someone
would say “can I eat ____”, people would respond: “if it fits your macros, bro”.
Soon, however, people started forgetting about the underlying foundation that
it was built upon—an overall nutritious diet made up primarily of whole foods.
That’s when it became problematic. IIFYM was never supposed to be a
diet fad, it was supposed to mean that if you enjoy bananas you can eat some
bananas… so long as you realize that bananas contain carb calories, and that
you need to eat a certain amount of carb calories in a day if you want to progress
towards your body composition and performance goals. It was supposed to
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mean that if you wanted to put some cream in your coffee that you absolutely
can, so long as you realize the cream contains fat calories, and that you need a
certain amount of fat calories in a day. It wasn’t supposed to mean that calories
and macros are all that matter, and it wasn’t supposed to mean that you should
eat a diet entirely composed of junk food.
... But so long as you don’t take it to stupid extremes and you keep the
overall quality of your diet high, simply upgrading your calorie/protein
tracking to include carbs and fat is the most effective strategy out there for
further improving the pace that you can transform your physique. Just keep in
mind that all the old rules still apply. 80% of calories should be coming from
nutritious whole foods.
So how do you do it? Usually you’ll see macronutrients broken down into
percentages. 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fats, and then abbreviated like so:
40/30/30. Dividing up your intake into percentages like that can be helpful, but
that isn’t really how our bodies work. It’s a very simplified approach based on a
stereotypical bodybuilder’s body type, lifestyle and goals.
To illustrate this, let’s imagine that you’re the typical 200 pound
bodybuilder trying to maintain his muscle mass while dieting down to get lean.
You’d need 200 grams of protein to build and maintain muscle mass. You’d also
need to be in a calorie deficit, consuming, say, 2500 calories per day. In this case
200 grams of protein would make up that classic 30% of your overall calories.
200 grams of protein at 4 calories per gram = 800 calories. That’s 32% of 2500 calories.
Now let’s say you’re a 150 pound professional swimmer and you burn
6,000 calories per day. As an athlete who’s concerned with strength and power
you’d still be well served by that grams per pound of protein per day, but with
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the huge amount of food you’d be consuming 150g of protein is now just 10% of
your calories.
Since caloric demands can vary so greatly—even between professional
athletes—percentages can be tricky. Given that you’re a naturally thin dude
who’s going to be lifting weights with the goal of building muscle as rapidly as
possible, I’d guess that your percentage breakdown would be more like 50%
carbs, 30% fat, 20% protein.
We’re going to go into a little more detail than that though so that you
get a more solid understanding of how things will change when you’re trying to
build muscle, trying to lose fat, taking a break from building muscle, etc.
If this seems complicated, well, don’t worry about it too much. Admittedly,
this is rather advanced stuff. Most people who go into this level of depth with
their nutrition are earning a living from their bodies. Just keeping track of
grams of protein and total calories is quite effective.
However, there have been a lot of technological advancements recently
that have made tracking your macros much easier. Crowdsourcing and online
calorie/macro trackers have made it so that you don’t need to carry around
tupperware, a food scale and a calculator.
Curious? Let’s break down the macros one by one.
PROTEIN
If you want to max out your gains you need around 0.8 grams of protein per
pound of bodyweight (1.8 grams per kilo). Some guys need a little more, some a
little less. Just to be on the safe side, let's call it one gram of protein per pound
bodyweight (or 2.2 grams per kilo).
You already know why protein is so incredibly important for building
muscle, so let’s jump right to some nutritious examples of where to get it from.
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There are many nutritious sources of protein, these are just some examples to
get some ideas flowing.
•
Fish
•
Poultry
•
Red meat
•
Game meat
•
Whey protein
•
Pea/rice protein powder
•
Greek yogurt
•
Cottage cheese
•
Milk
Plenty of other fatty/carby foods have some protein in them as well: eggs,
cheese, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, edamame, etc. Don’t forget to count those
little bits of protein towards your macros, as they will quickly add up.
DIETARY FAT
To maintain great health and hormone function, you need a minimum of 0.4–1
grams of dietary fat per pound bodyweight per day (or 0.9–2.2 grams per kilo).
Your body uses fat for a number of purposes. Many vitamins are fat soluble
(A, D, E, K, etc), meaning that in order to digest them you need to be eating
quality fats. Dietary fats also have a lot to do with your hormone regulation.
Hormones are your body’s communication system. They tell your body
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whether it should be storing fat, building muscle, spiking blood sugar levels,
stressing out, or maxing, relaxing all cool. Fats will also help control free radical
damage and inflammation, which are pretty key when lifting weights.
That's one reason why fish oil is a popular supplement—for reducing delayed onset muscle
soreness (DOMS)!
As far as your health is concerned, it appears that your body can function
optimally with a pretty wide range of fat intakes. Some people get 20% of their
total calories from fat, some get 60% of their total calories from fat. Anywhere
in this range can be optimal, depending on the person and their goals.
When we’re talking about skinny-dude muscle-maxing, and we are, we
can be a little more precise. To gain weight you need to be in a calorie surplus,
and when you’re in a calorie surplus your body is vulnerable to storing fat. Any
surplus calories not used to build muscle will either be burned off as body heat
or stored as body fat. Fortunately, the more of a hardgainer you are, the more
likely your body will be to burn off those extra calories.
However, there are other things we can do to further minimize fat gain.
Limiting dietary fat is one of those things. We do this because dietary fat can be
directly stored as body fat, whereas protein and carbs need to undergo a very
calorically costly conversion process to transform them into storable fatty acids.
This conversion process is so inefficient that most of the energy will be expended
as body heat. For example, a recent study by Rising et al found that 76% of the
calories coming from carbohydrates were burned off as body heat, whereas
100% of the calories coming from fat were stored as body fat.
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IS IT JUST ME OR IS IT HOT IN HERE?
If you want to get hotter instead of fatter, a diet high in protein
and carbohydrates is far more effective than a diet high in
protein and fat.
So, given that we're bulking, we need to be a little more more mindful of going
overboard on the fats. Sticking close to the low end of the recommended fat
intake would be a good goal.
For an example, a 150 pound guy would want to be eating 60–150 grams
of fat per day. Since fat has 9 calories per gram, that translates to about 540–1350
calories from fat. Since he’s trying to bulk leanly, he might want to keep his fat
intake under 900 calories, or a little less than 30% of his total calories.
As always, if you can spend most of those fat calories on a wide variety of
whole foods, great. Keep in mind that vegetable oils, like canola and sunflower
oil, are industrially processed. They’re about as processed as a food could
possibly be, and arguably one of the main reasons that junk food is so unhealthy.
You can still eat them on occasion, but since they’re not whole foods they’d fall
into your discretionary 20%.
Some examples of nutritious whole foods containing dietary fat include:
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Eggs
•
Fatty fish / Fish oil
•
Dairy (cheese, yogurt, kefir, milk, butter, etc.)
•
Minimally processed oils (cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil,
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virgin coconut oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, etc.)
•
Nuts and peanuts (“and” because peanuts aren’t actually nuts!)
•
Avocados
•
Chocolate, or at least the 70%+ stuff.
•
And the stuff from the health food aisle of your grocery store—
the flax, chia, miso and whatnot.
If you wanted to get really particular, you would want around 1/3 saturated
fat (meat, coconut oil, chocolate, butter, etc), 1/3 monounsaturated fat (olive oil,
avocados, eggs, nuts), 1/6 omega 6’s (nuts, fatty vegetables, etc), and 1/6 omega
3’s (fish oil, algae, flax). This would assure that you aren’t overdoing it on the
vegetable oils or saturated fat, which can in some instances be problematic,
depending on your genetics. However you probably don’t need to take it that far.
CARBOHYDRATES
You don’t need carbs. Unlike with fats and protein, you won’t die if you don’t
eat enough of them. However, when it comes to athletic performance, feeling
amazing, building muscle and lifting big weights, around 1g / pound bodyweight
would be a good practical minimum whether bulking or cutting. That’s not set
in stone, and will depend on how many calories you’re eating and what your
personal preferences are.
When we’re talking about building muscle we really want to crank
that carb intake high though. You’ll probably want 2–3g of carbs per pound
bodyweight. Essentially, after you’ve estimated your protein and fat needs, you
want to fill up the rest of your calories with as many carbs as you can. You don’t
have to—lots of wiggle room here—but if it were me I’d eat plenty.
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Carbs are the primary source of energy for all of your bodily functions,
and they can even provide some of the structural components for the growth
and repair of tissue.
This section might seem a little weird. The mainstream fitness industry
is being pretty hard on the carbs right now, and here we are recommending that
you pretty much fit as many carbs as you can into your daily calorie intake.
Disregard this if it's your doctor who is indicating otherwise. For example, with epileptics an
extremely low carb (ketogenic) diet can be effective at minimizing the occurrence of epileptic
seizures. Your doctor knows your situation best.
A couple decades ago your neighbourhood Richard Simmons would
have been anti-fat. Right now your neighbourhood CrossFit box is probably
anti-carb. It’s not that carbs are bad, it’s just their turn to sit on the hot seat.
There isn’t any scientific evidence to suggest that they’re bad for your health or
bad for leanly building muscle. Far from it. All of the longest living cultures in
the world eat higher carb diets. Rice in particular is a staple food in several of
the healthiest cultures, and oatmeal gives whey protein a run for its money as
being the most popular bulking food in the world.
If carbs scare you, remember that virtually every centenarian on the
planet gets the vast majority of their calories from carbs, and virtually every
successful bodybuilder will spend most of the year bulking on a high carb diet.
There’s a reason why carbs are so healthy and effective. Carbs are where
you get your fibre, which keeps your digestive system healthy. They contain
tons of vitamins and minerals, preventing nutrient deficiencies. They contain
incredibly healthy and poorly understood nutritional powerhouses like
polyphenols and antioxidants and whatnot.
They’ll also keep your energy levels high and your metabolism raging
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and roaring, since a carb-heavy surplus will boost your metabolism instead of
causing fat storage. They’ll improve your performance in the gym. They’ll help
you build muscle. And they won’t make you fat.
If you’re getting fat the problem is probably too little protein, too many calories, or too many
of those calories from fat. It’s very unlikely that it’s due to too many carb (unless too many
carbs is what's causing the overly high calorie intake).
Then comes the question of good carbs and bad carbs.
Is there such a thing?
Sort of. There are carbs that contain sugar or starch, and those are the
ones that tend to get vilified, especially if they’re heavily processed, low in
micronutrients and don’t contain fibre (like high fructose corn syrup). These
carbs aren’t bad in moderation, but they should probably stay within your
discretionary 20%.
You should get the bulk of your carbs from a wide variety of fruits, veggies,
grains, dairy, legumes and other plants. The wider and more balanced your carb
intake the better. Here are some ideas, but feel free to eat whatever you fancy.
Great carbs to eat if you’re trying to eat more calories:
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Grains (whole grain bread, muesli cereal, quinoa, etc.)
•
Potatoes* (white, sweet, yellow, yukon, etc—they’re all healthy)
•
Higher fat dairy (whole milk, 2% greek yogurt, kefir, etc.)
•
Legumes (beans, refried beans, lentils, chick peas, hummus)
•
Dense fruits (bananas, mangoes, grapes, etc.)
•
Dried fruits (raisins, prunes, figs, dried cranberries, etc.)
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•
Honey and maple syrup (in moderation)
•
Flour and floury things (in moderation)
Good carbohydrate sources if you’re trying to eat fewer calories:
•
Vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, green beans, broccoli, lettuce,
peppers, peas, etc)
•
Potatoes* (white, sweet, yellow, yukon, etc—they’re all healthy)
•
Oatmeal (and buckwheat)
•
Juicy and fibrous fruits (peaches, plums, pears, watermelon,
apples, oranges, etc)
•
Berries (raspberries, goji berries, cranberries, blueberries, etc.)
•
Lower fat dairy (skim milk, 0% greek yogurt, etc)
I put potatoes on both lists because they’re filling and satisfying yet
most people still love to eat them when building muscle—myself included. As
we discussed before, there's plenty of room for creativity here. Slicing ‘em up
and baking them in the oven can remove some of the water and make them
less filling. Adding olive oil or butter can increase the amount of calories they
contain. I thus recommend slicing them up, covering them with a bit of olive
oil, and tossing them in the oven.
Oatmeal is another weird one. It’s extremely popular with bodybuilders
who are trying to build muscle leanly, since it's a very cheap, easy to prepare
and a nutritious carbohydrate source. It's really filling though, and it's much
easier to eat a big bowl of rice than a big bowl of oatmeal.
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So feel free to eat from both lists, being mindful mindful of how filling
the different foods are to help you accomplish your individual goals.
How to Count Macros
We’ve broken down your diet into calories and macronutrients, but we fully
realize that you don’t pop open the cupboard and select pre-measured serving
sizes of different macronutrients.
Professional bodybuilders and athletes are extremely strict, counting
their macros down to the gram. They’re often living within very tight ranges at
all times, with only perhaps 5 grams of leeway for every macronutrient. Every
food must be placed on the food scale, and tupperware containers must be
brought to social events. You don’t need to be anywhere close to that accurate
unless you’re a type-A kind of dude who enjoys that kind of challenge.
With modern technology though it’s a lot easier to be anal than it used to
be. Bodybuilders used to calculate out their meals with a food scale, a calculator
and a spreadsheet. Now you can just use a website that does all of the work
for you. Tracking your calories online can be free, fun and stupid easy. Here’s
our guide for tracking your calories online. If you want totally optimal and
consistent results and you aren’t afraid to work a little harder for it, this is what
I’d recommend. With weightlifting, calories and protein mastered, this is the
best way to further upgrade your results.
You don't need to do it forever either. If you calculate out even just a few
days of what you’re eating, you’ll be able to see what your typical macronutrient
breakdown is. From there just make some changes to improve it a bit. Switch
whole milk for skim milk, trim down the oil here, add a banana there, toss in
a handful of trail mix—whatever gets your macros in order. You may find you
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have room for more steak, beer and ice cream, or you may find that you need to
cut back and eat more veggies.
Focus on the big picture and moving things in the right direction. Several
weeks from now do another round of assessments and adjustment again. If
you’re going to all this trouble, I also recommend writing down some notes
about how you feel. Macros are highly individual, and you may find you feel
better or worse as you switch up your carb and fat intakes.
Remember that your body doesn’t need perfection! Your body can draw
energy from all of the different macronutrients, so there’s some flexibility here.
Whatever you do, don’t go making rigid and unnatural meal plans. This isn’t a
competition to see who can follow the most OCD diet, this is a muscle-building
program. You want this new approach to nutrition to closely resemble your
natural and preferred way of eating. The main difference between this and how
you were eating before should be the results that your diet gives you, not how
much fun eating is.
Also, if this ever gets overwhelming, feel free to ditch the calorie counting.
Big deadline looming at work? No worries, just go back to focusing on protein/
calories. You’ll still make fantastic progress that way.
Optimizing Micronutrients & Fibre
There are very few foods that actively harm your body when eaten as part of a
balanced diet. Even things like high fructose corn syrup aren’t harmful when
eaten in moderation. The reason processed foods shouldn’t make up the bulk of
your diet is twofold: first, they don’t tend to be rich in fibre or micronutrients,
and second, sometimes they don’t affect hunger how they should.
Some heavily industrialized foods, like industrial trans fats*, well, that’s
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another story. Eaten in even relatively small quantities those can actually
be actively bad for you, and that’s why in some countries they aren’t even
considered a food source. You could make a similar argument against processed
vegetable oils.
*Natural trans-fat foods like the making of butter where the liquid oil emulsifies into a solid
are fine. Anything else by wary of because the manufacturing goal is an extended shelf life,
not your life.
Generally there are also some advantages to making your own desserts.
Cookies made out of sugar, flour, eggs, oats and chocolate chips are a treat, sure,
but there’s nothing all too awful in there. Cookies that are mass produced to be
as cheap and everlasting as possible? Well industrialized soybean oil, boatloads
of preservatives and trans fats are probably not something you want to be eating
that much of.
Same deal with things like french fries. You can make your own by slicing
up some potatoes, tossing them in olive oil, onion powder, cayenne powder and
salt, and then popping them in a 350° oven for half an hour or so. Those fries are
pretty nutritious, even if you have them with a side of ketchup. But the potatoes
that are double deep-fried in processed vegetable oil at McDonalds are not.
MICRONUTRIENTS
Given that a lot of people do get a lot of their calories from foods that aren’t
rich in vitamins and minerals, micronutrient deficiencies can be quite
common. A recent study published in the Journal of the International Society
of Sports Nutrition found that people following the four most popular weight
loss diets—Atkins, South Beach, DASH and Best Life—were on average 56%
deficient in the essential nutrients they analyzed. Not good. Goes to show
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that this stuff isn’t easy.
The only reason micronutrients are buried this deep in the eBook is
because if you’re eating a non-restrictive diet that includes a variety of different
types of foods and you’re getting most of your calories from whole foods, well,
chances are you’re already doing pretty swell in the micronutrient and fibre
departments.
We’re a weight gain program with a very non-restrictive approach to
nutrition, so we’ve got a huge advantage. We want you eating a bigger variety
and greater quantity of food. Since we’re more or less putting you on the
exact opposite of a typical weight loss diet, the risk of running into nutrient
deficiencies is much smaller. Great variety of food means greater variety of
micronutrients, and more food means a great amount of those micronutrients.
This is our sneaky way of trying to keep you healthy without burdening you
with tons of little details about vitamins and minerals.
As soon as you start restricting things like carbs, gains, gluten, animal
products, etc., you risk running into the vitamin and mineral deficiencies that
those food groups provide. For some people these restrictions are unavoidable.
A healthy diet is one that takes into account your allergies, intolerances, moral
convictions, and, obviously, what your doctor is telling you. So when removing
things from your diet you just need to be conscious of them. As soon as you
yank out a broad food group you need to make sure you’re getting a good
replacement in there.
…But you do probably have a vitamin D deficiency if you don’t get a lot of
sun or if you live in a higher-latitude country, and there’s not much you can do
about that with your diet, since the best way to get it is from sunlight. Since we
don’t all live that close to the equator and don’t all spend that much time in the
sun, a D-ficiency is pretty unavoidable. For more on vitamin D supplementation
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you can jump the supplement section, but keep in mind that this falls under the
purview of your doctor.
FIBRE
Fibre (fiber, for Americans), are large carb molecules that aren’t broken down
by our digestive systems. Some are soluble (can be dissolved in water) and some
aren’t. The soluble fibres can slow the speed of digestion due to their thickness,
and they’re also great for the health of our arteries. Insoluble fibres don’t affect
the speed of our digestion, but they’re great for our gut health.
When we’re trying to get our systems digesting food impressively well
and building all kinds of muscle, it’s incredibly important that we give our guts
what they need to take care of business.
How much is enough? About 10 grams per 1000 calories. So if you’re
bulking on 3000 calories per day you’d want at least 30 grams of fibre per day.
If you’re using something like an online calorie tracker it will probably
calculate fibre out for you. If you’re doing this by hand, you may want to track
your fibre intake for a few days by looking at labels and whatnot. A simple
guesstimation is fine.
Some great sources of fibre include:
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Veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, celery, spinach, onions, etc)
•
Fruits and berries
•
Mushrooms
•
Beans and legumes
•
Whole grains
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Too much fibre?! Believe it or not, that’s a thing too. You can go a fair
bit above the minimum, but beware if you’re noticing that your fibre intake
is double or triple the minimum. This can lead to abdominal pain, bloating,
diarrhea or even constipation. Too much fibre can also be detrimental to your
digestive health and get in the way of nutrient absorption. And since fibre is so
filling, this also makes it hard to eat enough to build muscle.
So yes, you can eat too clean! This is actually more common than you’d
think, especially among bulking vegans.
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Summary
•
Get 80% or more of your calories from whole foods, and build
your diet out of convenient and affordable foods that you enjoy.
•
Variety is good. No black and white restrictions are necessary
(except based on allergies, moral convictions, etc).
•
Protein. Try to eat at least one gram of protein per pound
bodyweight per day (or 2.2 grams per kilo).
Good proteins sources include: whey protein, eggs, fish, chicken
breast, milk, greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, pea/rice protein
powder and a little red meat. Whole grains, beans, soy and nuts
have smaller but still significant amounts of protein in them too.
•
Fat. Limit your fat intake to about 0.6–0.7 grams per bound
bodyweight per day when bulking. This will probably be 30% of
total calories or less. This will help keep your gains lean. However,
fat is also essential for your body to function, so don’t ever drop
your fat intake lower than 0.4 grams per pound for extended
periods of time, even when cutting.
Good fat sources include: eggs, fatty fish, dairy, nuts, avocados,
cold-pressed olive oil, virgin coconut oil, avocado oil, macadamia
nut oil, chia seeds, flax, dark chocolate, and fatty meat in
moderation. The fats to avoid are trans fats and heavily processed
vegetable oils—canola oil, soybean oil and such.
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•
Carbs. Carbs aren’t essential, but for most skinny guys trying to
build muscle they’re extremely beneficial. You probably want to
eat as many of them as possible. When bulking 2–3 grams per
pound is great (or about 50% of total calories). This will help keep
your gains lean.
Good carb sources include: rice, whole grain bread, oatmeal, potatoes,
beans, fruits (blended too), fruit juices, veggies, honey, etc.
•
Fibre. Aim to get around 10g fibre for every 1000 calories you
eat. If you eat a decent amount of fruits, veggies, grains and/or
legumes this should be fairly easy.
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TIER 2 LIFESTYLE
RESTING WELL
In the first tier of the lifestyle sections we covered how to make musclebuilding a priority in your life (at least for a small period of time). And that
being consistent with your workouts, calories and protein will be enough to
get you started building muscle.
We also covered how to use your current motivation to strategically set
up good habits to build a truly muscular physique that can only be attained
through dedicated training. This will allow you to reach your long term goals
even when your motivation waxes and wanes.
We encouraged you to use accountability to force you to do the hard stuff.
Stuff like lifting when you’re tired, or eating more food when you’re full. This
will improve your odds of following the plan long enough for habits to develop.
However this doesn’t make the program easy. When you introduce
something challenging into your life it’s going to sap your energy faster than a
Quebecer can collect maple sap.
In this case your body will get stressed from working out. Your body will
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also be working on digesting a lot more food. You’ll be using energy to process
all this new information. You’ll be trying to transfer things you understand in
your head into bodily movements. And it'll feel a little awkward, just like that
one and last time you went dancing on a Friday night.
Adding all of these new things into your lifestyle at once can leave you
feeling pretty overwhelmed. Eventually you’ll need a break from all this new
stress—a chance to recover.
If you’ve been hitting the gym and eating big consistently, you may have
already dropped some other things from your life to prevent burning out. For
example, I was using an app on my phone called Duolingo to learn French so
that I could communicate better with my wife’s family in their own native
language. I really do want to learn French and it really is an important goal of
mine, but any time I start a new challenge I “forget” to use the app. I don’t mean
to forget, I just notice it happens, in hindsight, every single time I try to improve
my lifestyle.
There’s no urgency to learning French. No accountability system forcing
me to put it at the top of my priority list. It’s important to me, but there isn’t
anything forcing me to do it now. This means that when anything urgent or
exciting comes along… there goes my consistency.
Et voilà pourquoi mon chat Jerry parle mieux français que moi.
This is normal. And this may be happening to you too. Maybe you’ve
noticed that a couple things have mysteriously disappeared from your
schedule. That’s okay. You can bring them back into your schedule once this
lifting and eating stuff is no longer a stressor—once it has become a part of
your regular routine.
If you’re still having trouble lifting and eating consistently though,
I have a question for you. Do you want to build muscle and reap all of the
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rewards—size, strength, looks, health, energy, mood, etc—more than any of
your other short-term goals?
If the answer is yes, add in some accountability.
Stress Isn’t Bad—But Chronic Stress Is
Our culture has a negative view on stress. This is totally understandable,
especially given how exhausted many of us are, however stress is a totally
normal response in the body. When it comes to lifting we stress our muscles,
ligaments, tendons, and bones with heavy weights. Our body recognizes that
stress, so it sends in some help to relieve it. With regular stress of the right
intensity, we can even cause beneficial adaptations. This allows us to better
handle that type of stress in the future. This is how we build muscle.
Stress elsewhere in your life is totally fine too. Putting in some long hours
to get a big project launched in time is great. Once it’s launched, working a little
less intensely to catch up on rest is totally fine.
Maybe you could tell your boss that companies like 37 Signals do 4-day workweeks in the
summer, and work a little harder in the winter.
However stress can also be harmful, if it’s too much at once or there’s
no relief. Stress is best done in similar to short little sprints. Sprint then rest,
sprint then rest, etc. You don’t want to run a stress marathon. Your body can’t
go that long without having a moment to recover. When you hear people
talking about the dangers of stress, this is the type of stress they’re talking
about—chronic stress.
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Pressing The Reset Button on Stress
There’s a great stress illustration that starts with a bucket representing your
ability to handle stress. Water begins flowing into the bucket from a faucet
above. This water represents all of the stress in your life constantly flowing
in. This could be a mix of things: financial stress, long work days, relationship
struggles, general anxiety, upcoming tests or work projects, health issues,
working out, adjusting to a new routine, traffic, etc. Even just reading that list
might be adding to the amount of stress in your bucket.
These things don’t always have to be “bad”. In fact, many of them are noble
stresses. Perhaps you’ve been putting in a lot of time at work lately to finish up
a project that you’re passionate about. Maybe you met someone amazing, and
you’re wondering if they like you as much as you like them. Maybe you just
started lifting weights—that’s a stressor too.
None of those things are bad, but nonetheless the bucket is filling up
quickly. The more full the bucket becomes, the more it will weigh you down. If
the bucket is too full for too long it can cause a whole bunch of problems.
The good news is that you can drill a hole in the bottom of the bucket.
The better you are at relieving stress, the bigger the hole you can drill. If you
can drill a hole big enough to match the water flowing in from the faucet above,
the stress will never have a chance to accumulate.
This begs the question: how can you drill a humungous hole into the
bottom of your stress bucket? Nutrition, exercise and sleep. These are the
fundamentals that your body needs to relieve stress. We’ve written a lot about
nutrition and exercise so far, so that just leaves sleep.
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Sleep Is The Big Bouncer That Kicks Stress Out
Do we really need to talk about sleep? I mean—do we not just walk over to our
bedroom, shut off the lights, and fall asleep? After all, we do get sleepy. So much
so, that almost all of us will fall asleep every night. But in the same way that we
get hungry but don’t always eat well or eat enough, even though we all get tired
we don’t always sleep well or sleep enough.
Getting a good night’s sleep is so incredibly important in so many ways,
but our modern lifestyles are sabotaging our bodies’ natural ability to sleep well
every single night.
Give me a few minutes of your time to convince you that you should put
a tiny bit of effort into sleeping better, to improve your muscle-building and
overally energy levels. My goal is to motivate you to sleep so much, that by the
end of the chapter you’ll be sound asleep.
WHY YOU NEED BETTER QUALITY SLEEP
Because without enough sleep…
•
You’ll have a harder time building new muscle (study).
•
You’ll gain fat more quickly (study, study, study).
•
You’ll have less willpower to make good decisions and to manage
your mood (Willpower, 2012).
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•
Your skin will age faster (study), and you’ll look worse (study).
•
You’ll be less morally aware (study).
•
You won’t be able to learn new things as well (article, study, study).
TIER 2 LIFESTYLE: RESTING WELL
•
You’ll be less creative (study, article).
•
Your risk increases for a ton of diseases, such as: strokes, obesity,
heart attacks, and cancer.(study, study).
•
Your immune system will be weakened (study, study).
How to Get to Sleep, Stay Asleep & Wake Up Energized
Sleep experts define a good sleep as when you fall asleep quickly, don’t wake up
during the night, and wake up feeling refreshed. Feels like a dream come true,
doesn’t it? So how do we get to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling energized?
Exercise is a good place to start. If you’re already following the program
then you’re already doing this. If your exercise is starting to become routine, you
may have already noticed that you’re beginning to sleep better. People rarely
talk about it, but exercise is the most inexpensive and simple way of improving
your sleep quality (study, study).
GET OUTSIDE EARLY IN THE DAY—AND FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN
Daylight helps regulate the hormones that keep you alert during the day. These
same hormones will go through a chemical conversion process that then helps
us become sleepy and fall asleep at night. If you’ve ever gotten up bright and
early to go camping or fishing, you may even have been ready to pass out as
early as 8pm. Just don't get sunburnt.
Many researchers studying this field claim that we’re living in a daylight
deprived society. If you live in a higher latitude city that has less sunlight than
normal, you may even want to supplement with extra light (like the Philips Go
Lite) and some vitamin D (talk to your doctor). This is especially true during the
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winter, when we have less sunlight.
SLEEP ENOUGH ON WEEKDAYS SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO SLEEP IN
ON THE WEEKEND
As the lifting philosopher Dom Mazzetti once preached, you shouldn't have any
weekdays, just strong days.
Sleeping enough every single night will improve your life in a few ways.
First, you won’t feel tired during the week. Being tired, grumpy and mentally
sluggish are some of the short term downsides of sleep deprivation. Second,
when the weekend comes around, you’ll get to enjoy two full days off, rather
than two half-days off. Third, you’ll always be able to fall asleep at the right time.
Most people start off Saturday and Sunday late, then stay up late into the
night because they aren’t tired at the right time, then wake up tired on Monday
because they couldn’t get to sleep on time.
With a regular sleep schedule you’ll naturally start getting sleepy at the
right time always. And you’ll naturally want to wake up at the right time always.
This prevents the vicious sleep debt cycle from ever gathering momentum.
SLEEP AT LEAST 7.25 HOURS, BUT TRY OUT SLEEPING UP TO 9 HOURS
Researchers can’t give a broad recommendation for the optimal amount of
sleep, since it varies so much between individuals. However, the vast majority
of people need at least 7 hours of sleep each night. In this study, where the
participants were exposed to a proper amount of sun during the day followed
by an appropriate amount of darkness at night, they wound up sleeping far
longer than usual.
Many experts recommend going to sleep and waking up without an alarm
clock. You get up out of bed when you feel well rested and then see how long
you were sleeping for. You may find that you feel well rested after 7 hours… or
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perhaps closer to 9. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute writes that
people given an unlimited time to sleep are usually sleeping between 8–8.5
hours a night, and that some people required up to 9 hours of sleep.
Some research shows that your genetics determine how much sleep
you need. Dr. Neil Stanley, an expert on sleep, writes that your sleep time is
similar to a shoe size. Most people have fairly average sized feet, but if you’re
someone with larger feet than average, trying to fit into size seven shoes will
lead to a lot of avoidable grumpiness.
However, there’s no firm consensus here. Sleep neuroscientist Jim Horne
says that everyone should start with 7.25 hours. He likens excess sleep to excess
food for those overweight. You need a certain amount to thrive, and having an
extra Coca Cola or hour of sleep might feel fantastic, but that doesn mean it's
doing you any favours. Start with 7.25 hours if you're not getting that much yet,
and try out sleeping a bit longer and keep track of how you feel.
GEAR DOWN AT NIGHT
It takes most people a little bit of a cool down period before they can sleep.
There are no black and white rules here, the wind down is up to your own
personal preference. Be honest with yourself though. Going to an Alexisonfire
concert, getting a Destiny Merciless Medal in the crucible (do people still play
that game?), or watching the newest intense crime series on Netflix might not
have the same effect on you as having a hot epsom salt bath, drinking warm
peppermint tea, or reading a novel with the lights dimmed.
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DIM THE LIGHTS, DITCH THE PAD
Your body has a few ways to figure out what time of day it is. The main way
is by seeing how much light you’re exposed to. Bright and constant lights tell
our body that it’s daytime. The light from iPads, phones, and computers are
specifically designed to showcase vivid & accurate colours. They use a “blue”
coloured light that mimics the colour of daylight.
This colour temperature renders colours most accurately to our eyes. This is great while we’re
at work, since it helps keep us alert and awake. This is awful at night for the very same reason.
Studies have shown that reading a physical book allows you to get to sleep
faster, stay asleep, and wake up more rested compared to reading on the typical
blue-coloured-light iPad by up to an hour!
If you can’t—or don’t want to—avoid screens, you’ve got some options.
F.lux is a free app that changes the hue of your devices to a much less aggressive
amber/yellow colour, and can dim the screen for you. This mimics candlelight
or firelight instead of daylight. Our bodies understand that these colours and
brightness levels are nighttime light sources, so if you let Flux adjust the colour
of your screens to line up with sunrise and sunset, this allows your body to
understand what it should be doing. This should help you to start getting sleepy
at the right time.
As of writing this, Apple is finally developing a night time mode called Night Shift for their
mobile devices. But there are still no real options for TVs—aside from becoming a bit weird
and buying Gunnar glasses. Android users already have a handful of options.
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KEEP YOUR BEDROOM COOL, BUT NOT COLD
Research has been showing that you’ll fall asleep more easily if your bedroom is
cool enough to use at least one sheet (and possibly a blanket). There’s no exact
ideal temperature since our own genetics, health, age, body-fat levels, and
the humidity of your bedroom all play a role. However, one study found that
keeping your bedroom between 16–19C (60–66 Fahreinheit) is a good starting
point. That’ll probably allow you to sleep with sheets and blankets.
Those sheets and blankets protect you from environmental temperature changes, and this
allows you to stay “in the zone” to stay asleep longer, and have a more restful sleep.
BLACK OUT YOUR BEDROOM
If you can make out the stuff in your room when you open your eyes at 3:00am,
it’s too bright. If you live in the city, I can almost guarantee you that you’ll need
to black out your bedroom. Light pollution is still being studied, but it seems
like it could negatively impact our health on top of affecting our ability to get
to sleep—even though I swear, I’m not trying to stress you out more with this
chapter. Blacking out your room is super important for sleep quality but it
does present a problem in the morning, since you won’t be able to let the sun
gradually and pleasantly wake you. If you wake up by an alarm, you can simply
roll out of bed and open the blinds. If you want more of a gradual and enjoyable
wake up, you could use a lamp that slowly adds more light to your room like the
Philips Wake-Up Light or the Philips Hue lighting system. The best, however
probably unrealistic, would be able to afford motor-controlled blinds with a
timer that opened them at sunrise.
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PRACTICE GOOD SLEEP HYGEINE
Ideally you won’t use your bed for anything else but sleep and sex. We know
this is pretty unrealistic if you live in a tiny apartment, but it’d be better to not
watch TV in bed (which is especially troublesome because of the blue light), and
definitely don’t eat chips in bed (unless that’s one of your bulking tricks). You
can also make your bed in the morning to keep dust out of your sheets.
BUY A GREAT MATTRESS AND PILLOW
Buying a great mattress and pillow doesn’t need to be expensive, even though
you’ll spend 1/3 of your life sleeping on them. Check out SleepLikeTheDead.
com for the latest breakdown on everything sleep related. New companies like
Tuft and Needle can ship you next-level beds in a small box for a few hundred
bucks.
Summary
It’s important for you to find balance. Muscle craves consistency. It’s good to start
off strong with tons of motivation and energy. But it’s important to quickly find
a way to fit lifting, eating well, and quality sleep into your daily life with balance.
And we know that melting away all that daily stress with a deep sleep will
allow you to reap a heap of muscular gains.
Try experimenting with some of these stratagies:
•
Get enough sleep to reset stress. This will be somewhere
between 7.25 and 9 hours for almost everyone.
•
Keep a regular sleep schedule throughout the whole week. If
your work forces you to be up early during the week, try to get up
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early on weekends too.
•
Use lighting cues to feel your best. Get lots of sun and bright
light during the day, dim and/or change the hue of your lights as
the day ends, and total darkness at night.
•
Take it easy before bed. When your bedtime is approaching start
gearing down and start relaxing.
•
Your bedroom is for sleeping/sex in your bed. Do other stuff in
other places.
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
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IF, WHAT, WHEN & HOW
Now that we’ve covered the basics of training and nutrition we can venture into
the mysterious and taboo realm of supplements. Before giving you our highly
curated list of the most powerful supplements on the market, a cautionary tale.
At a bony 130 pounds I was embarrassed to even be considering
supplements. But at a bony 130 pounds I was certain that supplements were my
only hope in hell. So I decided to make a deal with the devil.
This may sound a little dramatic, but I was so far outside of the gym
culture that I hadn’t even heard of anyone who was taking supplements.
In fact, my roommate was an outdoorsy mesomorph who sometimes
spoke about how dangerous, overpriced and pathetic supplements were. People
who took supplements were cheaters who were willing to pay absurd amounts
of money and jeopardize their health for the sake of vanity.
He was naturally jacked, I told myself. He didn’t get it. He wasn’t coming
from a place of scrawny desperation, so of course the idea of muscle-building
supplements didn’t resonate with him.
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All of my other friends were out of shape and full of excuses about why
they should stay that way. They were artsy and intellectual sorts who thought
that fitness was for vain people, even though on some level I'm sure they knew
that they would have benefitted from it.
So I really didn’t want my friends finding out that scrawny little me was
considering taking the supplement of supplements: creatine.
Creatine?! Yikes. Even the word creatine scared and excited me. After having
secretly read about it online I thought it was the barely legal version of steroids.
Nowadays a lot of the longer term health benefits of creatine are scientifically established. It’s not just a supplement for ambitious bodybuilders and
athletes anymore. It’s even being researched as a way to prevent brain issues,
like depression and Alzheimer’s.
However, I had no idea about any of this. To me, creatine was the legal
version of steroids.
After doing a little bit of research I snuck off to a health food store. I really
did sneak off. I waited until my roommates were both at a 4 hour university
lecture so that I could take the hourlong bus and subway trip to the mall, get my
creatine, and get back home before them. I didn’t want to have to answer any
questions about where I had gone.
The supplement store was in the hallway connected to the mall’s subway
stop. I had passed by it dozens of times, always tempted to go in. This time I
wasn’t tempted—I didn’t want to go in at all. But I knew it would be worth it.
I walked in as if I knew what I was looking for, making sure to avoid
making eye contact with anyone. I really didn’t want to explain to the guy with
biceps the size of my head that I was looking for creatine.
Somehow he noticed the sweaty skinny guy in the corner. I tried to look
the other way, but I think he took my lollipop physique as a call for help.
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I nervously told the guy what I wanted: micronized creatine monohydrate,
preferably Japanese, and preferably the Creapure brand. He seemed a little
bewildered by my extremely specific request, but that didn’t deter him. He
told me that micronized creatine monohydrate was a thing of the past. He
explained that what I really wanted was, you know, effervescent creatine ethyl
ester magnesium chelate that’s been pre-mixed with a proprietary blend of
glutamine, ribose, sugar and protein to improve absorption and harmonize
with my training.
I may be exaggerating a bit here—the truth is that I didn’t understand a word of what he was
saying and definitely can’t remember it.
A $30 tub of creatine would have lasted me a few months. What he was
suggesting was $150 for a single month.
“No no,” I replied, my voice cracking. “I just wanted micronized creatine
monohydrate.” I had read online about all these crazy concoctions and I knew
that they weren’t any more effective than a simple creatine monohydrate. They
also had none of the longer term safety guarantees.
So what did I walk out of the store with? A $60 tub of NOxplode. An
arginine supplement. It didn’t help me at all in any way and isn’t even remotely
similar to creatine.
You might be confused as to how I wound up buying a completely
unrelated supplement. He had told me that it was pretty much the same thing
as creatine, but far more effective, ultra-modern, and a top seller.
However it was also completely useless.
I then went to a department store, bought a couple pairs of boxers, hid the
supplement at the bottom of the bag, smuggled it home, and hid it in the back of
my closet. Before going to the gym I’d take it out of its hiding place, secretly have
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a serving, and then head off to the gym, confident that I’d be making extra gains.
This happened to be the transformation attempt where I got fat, but for
the next couple months, before Jared started calling me “fat-Shane”, I thought I
was doing pretty well.
This is because supplements are a waste of money without a proper diet
and exercise plan in place. Think of supplements as the equivalent of having
extra construction workers to build your muscle skyscraper. If you have a
wrecking ball come through to clear a construction site (from the gym) and
a huge pile of bricks to build with (from the kitchen), then extra workers can
work wonders and help you build your skyscraper much faster. However, if you
don’t have a cleared construction site and you don’t have a huge pile of bricks,
well, all you’re doing is paying extra workers to stand around.
In an effort to keep you from the same fate, this is our supplement
guide. We’ve got absolutely no financial motivation to endorse or discredit any
supplements. We’ve personally tried all of them, all of them are based on good
research, all of them are legal (at least here in Canada), and as far as we can tell
they’re perfectly safe.
In fact, a lot of these supplements, like creatine, actually come with health
benefits as side effects. Still, if you don’t feel comfortable taking them though,
feel free not to. We certainly aren’t doctors. And keep in mind that you don’t
need a single one of them to reach your goals.
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Buying Supplements Safely
BUY FROM REPUTABLE BRANDS
This isn’t the time to go bargain hunting. The big brand names you recognize
actually produce better stuff here, since their products are constantly being
tested by third party labs. They have a lot to lose, both in terms of credibility and
from lawsuits, so their products are actually quite reliable. Smaller companies
often can’t afford testing, aren’t big enough to be tested by third parties, and
don’t have much to lose as far as credibility and lawsuits go.
AVOID PROPRIETARY BLENDS
When you see “proprietary blend” the goal is to have you think “ahhh, this is
fancy and experimental” but what it really means is “we cheaped out, didn’t
include much of the expensive/effective stuff, and we don’t want you to know
how little of it is in here”.
LOOK AT QUALITY RESEARCH
The gold standard here is the Journal of the International Society of Sports
Nutrition (JISSN). If there are no studies showing that it’s effective there, the
supplement probably isn’t even remotely effective.
CONSIDER THE MAGNITUDE OF EFFECT
Lots of supplements “work” in that they produce a positive effect, but it’s rare to
find a supplement that works well enough to produce a noticeable effect. If you
don’t see a supplement on this list chances are it’s just not worth mentioning
because the magnitude of effect is so small that the supplement is essentially
worthless. Feel free to ask us about any supplements you’re curious about though.
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ALWAYS CLEAR ALL THIS STUFF WITH YOUR DOCTOR
This is a disclaimer, but it’s also a legitimately good idea. Some medications and
supplements don’t go well together, some medical conditions and supplements
don’t go well together. Be safe. Check first.
Understanding Supplements
We’re going to tell you the most powerful supplements out there, along with
their pros and cons. Before that though, here’s a quick breakdown of the
different types of supplements. This should help you understand how they
would fit into your lifestyle, and whether you’d benefit from them or not.
MACRONUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTS
Some supplements replace macronutrients that you can get from whole food.
Whey protein is a lean protein source like chicken, maltodextrin is an easily
digested starchy carbohydrate like rice, and fish oil is the healthy fat found in
fatty fish.
You can get these from foods, but supplements make things easier. The
main way that these supplements help you build muscle is by helping you hit
your macronutrient targets more easily.
MICRONUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTS
You could also call these vitamins, and they’re designed to help you deal with
vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Deficiencies can reduce your energy levels
and testosterone production, so fixing deficiencies can bring your ability to
build muscle back to baseline.
A multivitamin is supposed to plug any weaknesses in your diet, ZMA is
supposed to give athletes the vitamins that they lose by sweating excessively,
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and vitamin D helps people who don’t get enough sun.
PERFORMANCE SUPPLEMENTS
These "ergogenic" supplements improve your performance in the gym.
Performing better in the gym can allow you to better stimulate your muscles.
Most of the ingredients you’d find in a pre-workout supplement or energy
drink are performance enhancing supplements. Caffeine is perhaps the best
all-around performance enhancing supplement, both in terms of effectiveness
and safety.
MUSCLE-BUILDING SUPPLEMENTS
These are usually the exciting ones, since they offer you something beyond
what a good healthy lifestyle can give you. Even with plenty of sleep, plenty
of sun and plenty of good food, these supplements will still allow you to build
muscle more rapidly.
Creatine is the most powerful legal muscle-building supplement
currently on the market. It’s safe, healthy and extremely effective. Beta-alanine
and HMB are other good examples.
If you’re already a fit guy with a good diet who spends a lot of time outside,
you’ll likely get the most benefit from a muscle-building supplement like
creatine. If your diet and lifestyle are less than awesome, you might get the most
benefit from supplements that address your macronutrient and micronutrient
challenges first, like whey protein, fish oil or vitamin D. If you train first thing in
the morning or you feel like your energy levels are limiting your performance
in the gym, you may get a lot of benefit from something like caffeine, which
will banish those feelings of fatigue.
We'll go over the various supplements and talk about the pros and cons
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of each. All of them are optional, and whether you choose to take them or not is
entirely up to you and your doctor.
The Five Beastliest Supplements
There are lots of somewhat useful supplements on the market, so it all comes
down to what your goals are, how much money you want to spend, and how
much you enjoy taking supplements.
These are the very effective supplements that line up perfectly with our
goals—building muscle very quickly and leanly in a healthy way. You could
consider these the “official” Bony to Beastly supplements.
CAFFEINE
Caffeine is the world’s most commonly consumed psychoactive drug, and with
good reason—the stuff is seriously badass at improving mental and physical
performance. It used to be banned by the Olympics because of how potent a
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performance enhancer it was.
What kind of benefits can I expect? When it comes to weightlifting, caffeine
can help you eek out an extra few reps, you won’t tire as easily, and you won’t
feel like you’re trying as hard (study, study). Performing more reps will stimulate
greater increases in muscle protein synthesis and lead to better muscular gains.
Are there any downsides? Drinking a cup or two of coffee every day is mildly
beneficial as far as your longer term general health goes (study). However keep
in mind that caffeine and coffee are not synonymous, and it's coffee that's
associated with better health. This could be because of the caffeine, but it could
also be because of the other nutrients founds in coffee.
But while coffee is beneficial and caffeine is quite safe for people in general,
this may not be true for you in particular. Some people metabolize caffeine
slowly and poorly, other people metabolize caffeine quickly and well. Plus,
everyone has a slightly different hormone and neurotransmitter makeup, and
when it comes to things like caffeine even small differences can be significant.
Caffeine makes some people feel superhuman and others feel twitchy, anxious
and weird. It’s not for everyone. If you like it, use it. If you don't, don't.
Caffeine also interferes with sleep quality when consumed within a few
hours of your bedtime. If you lift at night, caffeine will likely do more harm
than good.
The Classic Protocol: Keep it simple. Have a coffee before
working out. You'll be doing what guys have been doing for
centuries, consuming a delicious drink that's rich in nutrients and
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a potent all-around performance enhancer. It varies, but each cup
of coffee may contain something like 100mg of caffeine. If you
need an extra boost, put an extra shot of espresso in there.
The Chemist Protocol. Caffeine is structurally the same in tea,
energy drinks, pills and powders, so you can pick your favourite
source. If improving your workout performance is your goal,
and your doc is confident that you are robust enough for it, the
benefits of pre-workout caffeine cap out at 200–400mg. If you
also consume that much caffeine on rest days your body will
acclimatize to it and you'll lose the performance benefits.
PROTEIN POWDERS
There’s nothing all that magical about protein powders. They’re primarily just a
convenience thing. If you get enough protein from whole foods then you don’t
even need them. Most guys who eat meat, eggs and dairy will be able to hit their
daily protein goals quite easily.
Why are protein powders so popular if most guys don’t need them?
Because the convenience benefit really is significant. Protein powders are often
cheaper than chicken, easier to prepare, quicker to consume, and easier on your
appetite. Some protein powder marketers even claim that protein powder tastes
better in smoothies than canned tuna. Plus, if you’re a vegan or if your diet is
naturally lower in protein, protein powder can be a gains-saver.
So which powder do you choose? Whey protein is a classic for a reason.
It’s the oldest and most thoroughly researched protein powder, and in every
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category it tops the charts: it's easily digested, it's quickly digested, it's extremely
anabolic because of its high leucine content, it contains calcium and other
micronutrients, it's cheap, and it's minimally processed. It's a by-product when
making cheese. Dairy farmers used to consider it waste and toss it out. Now it's
dried and fed to the best athletes, bodybuilders and bikini models in the world.
Here are your options:
Whey Protein Concentrate. It’s 80% protein by weight and contains a few
dairy leftovers. That isn’t bad. In fact, that means there’s some calcium and
stuff in there. A 30 gram scoop would have about 24 grams of protein and 6
grams of carbs. Since we aren’t trying to avoid carbs, that's perfectly fine. If
you’re looking for bang for your buck, this is your best bet.
Whey Protein Isolate. Isolates are made using a more sophisticated process to
isolate the protein, meaning it has fewer dairy leftovers. A 30 gram scoop would
have 27 grams of protein in it and just 3 grams of carbs. It’s more expensive
though, so you’re paying a premium for a 3 gram difference, and you aren’t
exactly on a low carb diet here. Still, if you’re looking for quality, this is your
best bet.
Whey Protein Hydrolysate. This is a totally different beast. It’s essentially
pre-digested whey protein. It’s heavily processed, very pure, very quickly
digested, very expensive, and it tastes awful. However, since there are virtually
no dairy leftovers, it’s also hypoallergenic. If you don’t handle diary well or have
immune problems then this could be for you.
No Whey, Man! If for some reason whey doesn’t float your boat—allergies,
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veganism, you don’t like the taste—there are a few different types of protein
powder on the market. None are as cheap or healthy as whey, but they’re all
fairly effective nonetheless. A rice/pea protein blend is always a good choice.
With low protein meals: A 30 gram scoop of whey taken with
a lower protein meal will guarantee that you maximize muscle
protein synthesis.
To hit your daily protein goal: Take however many scoops you
need at the end of the day to hit your daily protein goal.
In a workout shake: One or two scoops of protein powder works
well in workout shakes. This guarantees that you get optimal
muscle protein synthesis at the time where it will have the most
impact. You can combine the whey with maltodextrin for added
benefits. You could sip on it while working out or chug it at the
end of your workout.
CREATINE MONOHYDRATE
I know we started this supplement section off with a story about me failing to get
creatine, but I did eventually manage to get my hands on some. Unfortunately,
that's where the story ends. I'm what's called a "non-responder," meaning the
benefits aren't as obvious for me. I used it for a month, didn't notice any change,
and stopped using it. I went on to gain 50–60 pounds without it. Probably a poor
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choice on my part. Just because I didn't notic anything doesn't necessarily mean
it wasn't working. If I were to start over again I’d take creatine. Here's why:
It will make you bigger. It will draw water into your muscle cells, causing them
to increase in size. That extra water retention will be inside your muscles, not
under your skin so you won't look bloated. This isn’t why people take creatine
though. People take creatine because once your creatine levels are heightened
you can build new muscle more quickly.
What kind of gains can you expect? If you build zero pounds of muscle
without creatine, with creatine you’ll still build zero pounds of muscle. If you’re
already building muscle though, it’s very effective. It may initially increase
the rate that you build muscle by as much as 50%. Instead of gaining, say, six
pounds of muscle over the next couple months, you may gain nine pounds of
muscle. These accelerated gains will eventually slow back down, but you’ll still
gain at an accelerated pace.
Will you lose muscle when you stop taking it? Yes and no. As your creatine
levels slowly go back to normal over the course of a couple months you’ll very
slowly stop holding onto that extra water. All of the extra muscle you built while
taking creatine will stick around though.
Oftentimes guys will immediately gain a few pounds when they begin
taking creatine, build muscle at an accelerated pace for a little while afterwards,
and then not lose a single pound when they stop taking it.
Creatine is the broccoli of muscle. This isn’t one of those supplements hidden
behind the counter and covered in warning labels because it’s so mysterious,
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experimental and extreme. It has more in common with broccoli than steroids.
I’m not even kidding. It's the muscle-building supplement that’s so
wholesome, so healthy and so effective that you should probably get your whole
family on it. I know that might sound crazy, but let me explain.
It reduces blood glucose levels, it increases physical conditioning, it
reduces fatigue, it increases strength, and it increases lean mass. All of these
things are fantastic for your general health. There are other benefits as well.
One study found that suffering from a creatine deficiency reduces brain
performance, and other studies have been pointing to creatine as a way to help
prevent Alzheimer’s and treat depression.
Learning about all of that surprised me. I remember being scared of
it. I’m not sure where the stigma against it came from though, since it’s not
supported by any evidence whatsoever. Maybe there's a stigma about it because
it's “too good to be true,” or because it could seem like an unfair advantage (like
caffeine). Some gurus have speculated that it could cause kidney damage, but
decades of research haven't found any proof of that.
The only downside that seems proven is that if you take too much of it
without also consuming enough water you can get a stomach ache. Not in a
scary way though—this stomach ache would be harmful in the longer term or
anything. Just an indigestion sort of thing. To prevent it, you'd drink more water
or split up your dose into two.
Oh! And this concern came up in the community a couple of times:
it’s also possible that it make make balding people bald a little more quickly.
This hasn’t been shown in any studies, but creatine does increase the same
masculinizing testosterone hormone (DHT) that causes some guys to go bald.
This provides a possible mechanism for creatine to accelerate baldness in
people who are already balding. We've had a few balding guys decide against
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it for this reason.
Athletes take creatine to improve their performance, bodybuilders take
it to improve their gains, and it seems like in the future people may even take it
for their general health. In fact, many have already started!
Which type of creatine is best? The most thoroughly researched type of
creatine is creatine monohydrate. Despite many clever marketing attempts,
none of the other various forms of creatine have been shown to be more
effective. It also happens to be the cheapest and most common, so opting for
simple creatine monohydrate is a no-brainer.
The Caretaker Protocol. 5 grams per day along with breakfast.
You can mix it with water, milk, coffee, your workout shakes,
smoothies, eggnog, etc. So long as you get your 5 grams in each
day it will work its wonders. This is what I would do.
The Enthusiast Protocol. 20 grams per day divided up into 5
gram doses. This would get your levels up to max in a month
instead of a week, since you’d be taking it four times as often. After
that first week you’d take 5 grams once per day to maintain your
elevated levels. This is a popular approach, however there’s no
reason to think it’s more effective than loading up steadily.
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VITAMIN D
Vitamin D is very intriguing. Depending on your situation, it could either do
absolutely nothing for you or be a total game changer. This is because it’s the
prototypical vitamin sort of supplement that only works if your diet/lifestyle
isn’t adequate.
If you’re deficient, then bringing your vitamin D levels back up to the
optimal level can significantly boost your testosterone production and insulin
sensitivity, improve your cardiovascular health, increase your bone density,
improve your mood, and improve longevity. This becomes a muscle-building
powerhouse.
Vitamin D is the “sunlight vitamin,” and we synthesize it naturally when
our skin is exposed to the sun. While we’re ‘supposed’ to get it from the sun, we
can also get small amounts from eggs, fish and dairy. The problem is that what
we get from food usually isn’t enough to make up for the fact that most of us
live like vampires.
You’d need to drink 20–30 glasses of vitamin D fortified milk per day to get the
recommended dose.
If you don’t spend a significant amount of your week kickin’ back on the
Caribbean beach in a speedo, chances are you’ve got a D-ficiency. The vast majority
of people in North America (79%) and Europe have a vitamin D deficiency.
Here in Canada it’s recommended to supplement with 800–4,000 IU
each day. This can be especially helpful in the winter, when the days are short,
we spend our times indoors, and when we're outside we’re shielded from the
sun by our snowsuits and balaclavas. Most of the research shows the healthy
upper limit to be closer to 10,000IU/day, so even the high end of that recommendation is conservative.
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Since this is highly situational, we recommend going to your doc, getting
your levels tested, and supplementing accordingly.
Sample Protocol: 3,000 IU of vitamin D taken with breakfast
during a cold Canadian winter.
MALTODEXTRIN
This is one of those supplements that doesn’t get a lot of attention because
it’s only useful for the 3% of people who are actively trying to gain weight. If
you’re trying to gain weight, you’ve surely seen the marketing for it. I know this
supplement may sound unfamiliar, but this is usually the primary ingredient in
weight gainer and meal replacement supplements.
Most weight gainer supplements are packed full of maltodextrin, and
most weight gainer supplements are loftily priced and covered with wild claims.
You'd think maltodextrin was something crazy and expensive, but it’s actually a
little alarming how cheap it is. It's so cheap that you may think you were buying
a tub of flour… and you’d be correct!
Maltodextrin is a glucose polymer. It’s made up of many glucose units
bound together. It’s a starch, like flour, rice and potatoes. Unlike flour, rice and
potatoes though, it can be added to protein shakes and consumed in liquid
form. This makes it easier to consume in large quantities without your stomach
feeling like it’s going to explode. It’s also very low in fibre, so it’s easy on the
appetite and will clear out of our stomachs relatively quickly.
I know this is the supplement that sumo wrestlers have been dreaming
about but, perhaps surprisingly, if you take it at the right time it can actually
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minimize your chances of getting fat. If you have it while lifting weights your
muscles will be very insulin sensitive, if you have it alongside whey you'll
be spiking a huge amount of muscle protein synthesis, and even in a calorie
surplus carbs aren’t very easily converted into body fat.
Yes, you could add a little bit to smoothies and whatnot on rest days, and that wouldn’t be so
unlike having a smoothie with a side of rice. Not a bad idea, but adding an extra fruit or some
oats instead would in many cases be a little better for you.
Just to make sure we weren't missing anything, we asked the leading
nutrition researcher in this particular field, James Krieger. He answered,
”post-workout carbohydrates shouldn’t cause you any trouble in the long-run
as you are extremely insulin sensitive after training. As long as you maintain
a good diet, good activity, keep your body fat low, and your fasting blood sugar
remains normal, then you should be fine.”
The Tester Protocol: Begin by using 30 grams of protein powder
(about one scoop) and 60 grams of maltodextrin (about two
scoops, if you use the protein scoop). This shake is 360 calories.
The Beast Protocol: If you do the Tester Protocol for a week and
feel fine, you have unlocked the option to use a double dose: 60
grams protein powder + 120 grams maltodextrin. This shake is
720 calories.
The Sumo Protocol: After another week, you have unlocked the
option to use a triple dose (90 grams whey + 180 grams of
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maltodextrin). This shake is a whopping 1,080 calories, and only
for the true hardgainer.
Supplements For Guys Who Like Supplements
If your goal is to build muscle as rapidly as possible, we’d recommending
stopping with those five beastly supplements above. Those will do a fanastic
job of helping you pack on the pounds. However, if you like the idea of taking
supplements and you have some extra time and money, here are some more!
BETA-ALANINE
Studies show that it’s moderately effective at improving the rate that you can
build lean muscle. Like creatine, it’s also being researched as a general health
supplement. (study, study) Beta-alanine is actually sort of like creatine’s bratty
younger brother. It’s not as powerful but far more desperate for attention. With
that said, it’s a lso far from worthless—it’s actually quite promising when it comes
to increasing anaerobic muscular endurance in the bodybuilding rep ranges
(8–12), which can then carry over into stimulating greater muscle growth.
When it comes to building muscle the research is pretty young but pretty
badass. Guys who were college level football players or wrestlers were put on
an eight week workout program with the goal of gaining muscle mass and
strength. The placebo group gained a pound of muscle, while the beta-alanine
group gained two pounds of muscle. (study)
It could potentially have applications when it comes to maintaining lean
mass while burning fat, too. In that same study, healthy male college wrestlers
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were put on an eight week workout program with the goal of losing weight
while gaining strength. The placebo group lost a pound of muscle, while the
beta-alanine group gained a pound of muscle.
The other human studies were done into women doing high-intensity interval training. They
gained modest amounts of muscle too … but we can’t really infer much from that.
If you’re living the rap video lifestyle—lots of money to throw out the
window of your escalade— then beta-alanine is a cool supplement to toss some
bills at. Otherwise, stick to the basics.
Sample protocol: Like creatine, you simply take it every day at
any time. The athletes in the study above took 4 grams per day,
which seems to be a safe and effective dose.
FISH OIL (OR ALGAE)
You don’t need to supplement with fish oil if you eat a lot of fatty fish and
already get a lot of omega 3’s, EPA and DHA in your diet. If you eat fatty fish a
few times per week you’re covered. But, as with vitamin D, it’s very rare to find
people who actually get enough of this stuff without supplements.
As far as body composition goes, fish oil performed well in studies
on mice, so it was moved forward to human testing. Human studies are now
finding that fish oil may help increase muscle size. It may also help us stay lean.
The research is still young.
However, fish oil does have very well researched and potent health
benefits. (Several hundred studies.) The research shows that it reliably
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increases feelings of wellbeing, it’s incredibly good for your cardiovascular
health, it effectively reduces inflammation, it helps prevent cancer, it can
improve intelligence, and it can reduce symptoms of depression. It seems to
make anti-social male prisoners nicer too.
It’s considered one of the healthiest supplements out there but, as with
everything, it’s always wise to check with your doctor. This one is anti-inflammatory, so it can interact with some medication.
If you want to improve your health while getting some extra fat calories,
fish oil is great. I wouldn’t take it with the goal of improving muscle size
though because, err, if they can’t even tell if it helps, well, the effects are not
very dramatic.
There are a few different types you could take. There’s “fish oil” , which
is oil from sardines, mackerel, anchovy, salmon, cod, etc. There’s also krill oil,
but it’s expensive. And there’s seal oil, however seals are very cute due to their
large-eyed baby-like faces. This gives us a biological imperative to look after
their wellbeing, as you would a baby, puppy or kitten.
Sample protocol: 3 tsp NutraSea + D taken first thing in the
morning. Arguably the two healthiest supplements bundled
together, and by a reputable company to boot. That gives you
3,000IU of vitamin D combined with optimal amounts of omega
3’s, DHA and EPA.
If you’re vegan go for Vegetarian DHA.
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MULTIVITAMINS
It usuall makes more sense to eat a nutritious diet that includes a wide variety of
foods. With that said, if you’re not confident that you’re eating a wide and varied
diet you may want to grab one of those basic vitamins you’d see at the pharmacy.
While they often under-dose, and while they may not necessarily help in any
significant way … they’ll probably help more than they hurt. They’re actually
really are pretty good at reducing common vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
ASHWAGANDHA
A crazy new study just came out in a very credible journal about an anxiety
supplement that seems to be able to produce better gains than creatine (study).
Ashwagandha is a relatively new supplement that’s typically used to
reduce feelings of stress, but a November 2015 study has just come out showing
that the stress reducing effects of ashwagandha (Indian ginseng)—an increase
testosterone production and a reduce cortisol production—can increase
strength, limit fat storage, and accelerate the pace that your body can build
muscle. To give you an idea of the magnitude of these effects, the study found a
15% greater increase in testosterone and a 44 pound greater increase in bench
press strength compared to the placebo group. Even when factoring in the error
rate the differences are still quite significant.
These findings are remarkable, but given what’s known about its effects
on cortisol and testosterone… not unexpected. The researchers chose to study
this supplement in a muscle-building context precisely because it seemed well
suited for it.
What’s also interesting is that most of the muscular gains were in the
upper body. The ashwagandha group saw huge gains in their chest and arms,
almost no gains in their legs.
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If this study can be replicated, and this supplement proves safe in the
longer term, ashwagandha could become a new staple muscle-building
supplement. There have been some longer term studies showing that
ashwagandha is safe, however one study participant in one longer term
study became more interested in sex and started having hallucinations. More
research is needed.
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SUPPLEMENT PROTOCOLS
Without a doubt there are five supplements that stand above the rest: caffeine,
creatine, protein powders, maltodextrin and vitamin D. There are some other
useful supplements out there too—beta-alanine, fish oil, multivitamins—but
most of the supplements you'll run into won't help you. They're for people trying
to lose weight, there's no evidence to support the claims, or they're unsafe.
So now that you know which supplements work, you may still be
wondering how exactly all this stuff fits together. Do you put creatine in your
workout shake or in your morning coffee? How do you make this stuff taste
better? What should you pick up at the supplement store? At the grocery store?
Let’s say you’re a guy who’s interested in building muscle as quickly
and leanly as possible, you’ve cleared this stuff with your doctor, and you have
a little bit of discretionary income to spend on supplements. Here are some
supplement protocols that you may enjoy.
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The Beastly Workout Shake
This workout shake is the single most effective nutrient timing and supplement
protocol combined into one. We rolled out the “the classic” workout shake
when we launched the program. It's a miserable drink that produces wonderful
results. Since then, members have been eagerly trying to refine the drink to
make it a little less miserable, a little more wonderful.
Most of these shakes provide 720 calories from protein and carbohydrates,
however you can cut the amount of protein and carbs in half if the drink is too
much to bear, or increase the dosage if it helps you hit your daily calorie, carb
and protein targets.
For all of them, simply mix the ingredients up with a bit of water and sip
on it while you rest between sets. That sounds simple, but even preparing this
drink is surprisingly tough. If you don't shake the drink well enough the powder
will form into clumps, creating nasty little powder bombs in your drink. This is
a common issue, and there are workout shake bottles with little whisks built
into them. These are great, but even an empty pickle jar will work in a pinch.
If you're having trouble breaking up the clumps, try rotating your hand very
quickly and forcefully with your forearm muscles instead of using your biceps
to shake the bottle up and down.
As for what to put inside your shaker, pick one of these:
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THE CLASSIC
60 grams of flavoured protein powder + 120 grams of maltodextrin + 5 grams
of creatine monohydrate. The protein will help you hit your daily protein goals
while guaranteeing that you maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
The maltodextrin will help you hit your daily carb goals, and it will also create
a beneficial carb/calorie cycling situation. Creatine can be taken at any time,
but it's especially well absorbed when taken alongside quickly digested protein
or carbs. These ingredients all work together synergistically, combining into
something that's more powerful than each taken individually.
4 grams of beta-alanine could be added as well.
Flavour: 0.25 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 5 / 5
THE HIGH SCHOOLER
A litre of low fat chocolate milk. Admittedly not as fancy as a bunch of
supplements. It's also not quite as high in calories. However it is still extremely
effective—especially if your mother buys your groceries.
Flavour: 5 / 5
Muscle: 4 / 5
Appetite: 2 / 5 (fewer calories)
Health: 4 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
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THE VEGA-BEAST
Combine 60 grams of pea/rice protein blend, 120 grams of maltodextrin, and 5
grams of creatine. Vegetarian protein powder is usually a little more expensive,
bulky and processed, but it's still extremely effective. Most importantly, no
beasts were harmed in the making of this beastly drink.
Flavour: 0.25 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 4 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 3 /5
THE SWAMP BEAST
Combine 60 grams of unflavoured whey, 120 grams of maltodextrin, 5 grams
of creatine, and 10 grams of spirulina. This tastes awful—like a swamp that
a Sasquatch just finished bathing in. The spirulina adds in some extremely
nutritious micronutrients while improving your ability to process carbs though.
This is Shane's personal favourite variant.
Flavour: [error: 1587]*
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 4 / 5
Budget: 3 /5
*It seems like using a negative value broke the code. We're working on fixing this.
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THE HIGH ROLLER
50 grams of unflavoured whey protein, 120 grams of maltodextrin, 5 grams of
creatine, a scoop of wonderfully flavoured BCAAs (7g or so). This is actually
somewhat delicious and provides a possible slight muscle-building benefit, but
at the cost of being far more costly.
Flavour: 1.5 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 1 / 5
The theoretical possible muscle-building benefit is tiny enough that I'm guessing this variant
only rose to popularity because of the pleasant flavour boost. This gave rise to…
THE KOOL-BEAST
Combine 60 grams of unflavoured whey, 120 grams of maltodextrin, 5 grams
of creatine, and a serving of Kool-Aid or Gatorade to improve the flavour. This
makes the Kool-Beast taste a little bit better than most of the options.
Flavour: 2 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
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THE AUSTRALIAN BEAST
Combine 60 grams of chocolate flavoured whey, 120 grams of ground up oats*
and 5 grams of creatine. This makes the workout drink nutritionally similar
to having a bowl of oatmeal—very nutritious, but not as easy on the appetite.
Marcel, our highly successful down-under member, popularized this approach,
and it caught on with a few other Australian guys in the community.
Flavour: 1 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 3 / 5
Health: 4 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
*You can grind the oats up using a coffee bean grinder if you can't find pre-ground ones.
THE LAZY BEAST
Buy a pre-made weight gainer. Serious Mass or something—maybe cookie dough
flavoured. It might cost a little more and not be quite as customizable or pure, but
it’ll taste a little better and reduce your kitchen clutter.
Flavour: 2 / 5
Muscle: 5 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 2.5 / 5
Budget: 2 / 5
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THE VITA-BEAST
Combine unflavoured whey, 120 grams of maltodextrin, 5 grams of creatine,
and a flavoured multivitamin powder. (Our favourite is Citadel Nutrition’s
Multivitamin Powder.) This will boost the micronutrient profile of the drink
while also improving the flavour.
Flavour: 2 / 5
Muscle: 5.1 / 5
Appetite: 5 / 5
Health: 5 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
Spirulina can be added to this for bonus points.
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Pre-Workout Shakes
JUST COFFEE
This supplement protocol doesn’t have a fancy name because you are not a
fancy person. Simply have a mug of black coffee before hitting the gym. The
caffeine will perk you up, the coffee is quite nutritious.
Flavour: 5 / 5
Energy: 4 / 5
Health: 5 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
HYPHY MUD
This drink was popularized by the infamous bodybuilder Kali Muscle. He made
it out of non-supplement ingredients… because that’s all he could get in jail.
This also works well for high school kids who need to get their “supplements”
at the grocery store. Combine 1–3 teaspoons of instant coffee with a cup of
Coca-Cola.
Flavour: ???
Energy: 4 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 4 / 5
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THE ENERGY ADDICT
Buy a premade pre-workout drink powder or energy drink. Tier One is the highest
quality and most evidence-based pre-workout supplement on the market while
also being reasonably priced, but any pre-workout or Red Bull sort of energy
drink will work well. These are usually pretty expensive and don’t contain any/
many calories. Considering they don’t provide a large muscle-building benefit
over coffee, this is really only for guys who have some money lying around.
Flavour: 5 / 5
Energy: 5 / 5
Health: ??? / 5
Budget: 1.5 / 5
THE MUSCULAR STRAIGHT-EDGE RAVER.
Take a caffeine pill or two half an hour before you go to the gym. Very cheap,
very effective. Make sure to drink water!
Flavour: n/a
Energy: 5 / 5
Health: 3 / 5
Budget: 5 / 5
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Daily Supplements
You may want to have 5 grams of creatine every day to boost muscle growth, a
tablespoon of fish oil to improve general health, and/or a 3000 IU serving of
Vitamin D to help optimize testosterone production. You'd have all three with
breakfast every morning.
If you have any questions, you’d like to discuss any supplements that aren’t
mentioned here, or you want to see what other Beastly dudes are taking, here’s
the place for that.
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
TIER FOUR: MODERN
SCIENCE
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TIER 4 LIFTING
OPTIMIZING YOUR LIFTING
Now that you’ve been in the gym trenches for a while, labouring away, we figure
you may enjoy learning more about further progressing and further optimizing
your training. In this section, for your literary and muscle building pleasure,
I’ll be discussing the finer details of lifting like a true beast.
Some old lifting techniques have stood the test of time, others have
crumbled under the scrutiny of modern research. Some new lifting techniques
are allowing lifters to become bigger and stronger than ever before, others are
ineffective, transient trends.
In this section we’ll be giving you some tools that you can use to improve
your results in the gym, debunking some common lifting myths, and discussing
some exciting new weightlifting research.
First, we’ll begin by explaining exactly how and why a muscle grows.
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We Three M’s: How Muscle is Built
There are three ways a muscle adapts to stress. Since each begins with an “M,”
these have become known among hypertrophy researchers as the three M’s of
muscle. It’s important to start here, as these terms allow us to talk about the
pros and cons of different routines.
MECHANICAL TENSION
Lifting a weight through a given range of motion. This is the true heart of
weightlifting. The more weight you can train your body to lift through a larger
range of motion, the bigger and stronger you will become. The biggest, strongest
men in the world know this, and this is why their training revolves around
their heavy strength lifting. This is true for classic lifters like Arnold, who was
winning powerlifting contests before he even began bodybuilding. It’s true for
modern natural bodybuilders like Layne Norton as well, who holds powerlifting
world records. It’s even true for untested Olympians like Ronnie Coleman, who
is known for how much he can squat. Across every muscle-building category,
the best lifters are those who are strong at the big lifts.
MUSCLE DAMAGE
Muscle damage is when you cause small micro-tears in your muscles by doing
a relatively high volume of resistance exercise. For the inexperienced trainee,
just a couple goblet squats can lead to a severe decrease in stair climbing
performance, making it difficult to even return home. For the experienced
trainee, it might take far more sets of far heavier lifts. Eventually a lifter may be
dedicating and entire workout to training just a single muscle group in order to
get enough muscle damage to produce a hint of soreness.
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METABOLIC STRESS
If you keep constant tension on the muscle long enough, keep your rest times
between sets strict, feel the burn, and emphasize building up a muscle ‘pump’—
this is called metabolic tension. Metabolic stress causes an acute hormonal
response and it will stimulate muscle growth. It does it pretty well, too.
That burning “pump” is the buildup of metabolites and lactic acid. Since
metabolic stress lets you really feel the burn, you really feel your muscles
working, and it’s really great for building up a mind-muscle connection . It will
also cause the body to put more workers and fuel in the muscle cell so that those
cells can do more work, and this will also lead to a size increase.
Keep in mind, within every style of lifting all three M’s will occur. However,
the emphasis will be dictated by the method you choose. Strength training will
emphasize mechanical tension, bodybuilding will emphasize metabolic stress,
CrossFit will emphasize muscle damage, and a fully optimized routine will
strategically optimize all of them.
Power: Can It Be Used to Gain Size?
It has been said that lifting explosively is a fantastic way of developing your
fast twitch muscle fibres, the ones with the most potential for growth. Studies
have now show that most of the benefit of lifting comes from the concentric
action, especially when done with vigour. This means that time spent lifting
the weight explosively will lead to more muscle gain, making time spent during
the eccentric phase less useful for the pure purpose of muscle building.
Long eccentrics can be valuable when initially learning a lift, or retraining
a movement, however, once your form is solid, lifting with faster eccentrics and
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explosive concentrics is the best way to stimulate muscle growth.
Here are some guidelines when applying this to your training:
•
Be sure you have no history of unstable joints, or serious
injuries with the exercises you choose. If you do, we
recommend adding postural exercises into your warm ups until
you are sturdy enough to undertake some riskier training.
•
While you are lowering the weight quickly, be sure to
maintain control. You are guiding and controlling the weight as
you lower it, not recklessly throwing it down.
You can utilize this tempo with any of the three M’s. For example, you can
start the workout with 3 heavy sets of 5 to stimulate Mechanical Tension (e.g.
heavy deadlifts), then 3 moderately heavy sets of 12 with an exercise that causes
more Muscle Damage (e.g. walking lunges) then finish with 3 sets of 15–20 to
stimulate Metabolic Stress (e.g. kettlebell swings).
Godspeed, my son!
Resting Between Sets: Laziness or Cleverness?
Since muscles are best built when stimulated maximally during the concentric
phase, it makes sense that we want to rest enough to allow this to happen.
Especially with big lifts like the squat, bench and deadlift, where your fuel
supplies are drained in a hurry. While resting longer is the best way to make
progress, as well as ensure a safer workout, it has also been shown that supersets
can improve lifting performance. The important part here is to make sure you
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do a lift that uses a different set of muscles, so not to fatigue the muscles used
in the first lift. Here is an example:
A1: Deadlift
A2: Bench Press
Even though you do use the same muscles in each lift, the degree to which
you use your lower body versus your upper body is different enough to allow a
complementary effect.
Take your time, destroy your reps.
Bodybuilding vs. Powerlifting
By now it should be clear that heavy weightlifting is a required to build muscle.
As you move from the anaerobic muscle-building rep range into the aerobic
range, your body stops building muscle and starts improving blood flow instead.
But “heavy-ish” encompasses both bodybuilding training (bodybuilding) and
powerlifting training (strength training). So which is best for building muscle,
and which is best for building strength?
There’s a myth that strength training doesn’t yield as much growth as
bodybuilding. That’s not true. If volume is equated, strength training provides
just as much growth as bodybuilding. Dr. Schoenfeld’s 2014 study proved this
(study). The reason strength training isn’t optimal for developing size is because
you’d need to perform several times as many sets, and those sets would be way
heavier and harder on your body. To equate volume, after all, a powerlifter would
be doing ten sets of three reps (thirty reps), and a bodybuilder would be doing
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three sets of ten reps (thirty reps). The bodybuilder would be done inside ten
minutes and have a nice muscle pump to show for it. The risk of injury would
be super low, and he’d recover quickly.
The powerlifter would have a rough time though. He has far more sets
to do, and since his heavy sets are so incredibly taxing on the body, he’d need
to rest several minutes between each set. It would likely take over an hour to
finish even just that one exercise, the risk of injury would be higher, and it
would be very difficult to recover from. The Schoenfeld study proved this also.
The powerlifters were training for far longer, were feeling far more burned out,
and were running into issues with joint pain.
So you can see that the bodybuilder could finish a full workout inside of
an hour and be ready to lift again a couple days later. The powerlifter would be
spending his entire day in the gym, and he’d be a wreck for days afterwards.
While they might technically get the same amount of muscle growth, it’s easy
to see why bodybuilding is best for developing muscle size.
There’s another “myth” that bodybuilding doesn’t yield as much strength
as powerlifting. This depends on how you define strength. Let’s look at the
legendary squat competition between Tom Platz, the bodybuilder with the most
impressive legs ever, and Dr. Fred Hatfield, who can squat over 1,000 pounds—a
world record. Tom Platz, from a career of bodybuilding, has far far larger legs.
Dr. Hatfield looks like a chicken next to him, but has spent his entire career
developing his powerlifting strength. Who wins?
You’d think that the powerlifter would win, right? After all, he holds
a world record in the squat. And you’d be right. Mostly. If it’s a one rep squat
competition, Hatfield should win (and he did). However, if it’s a twenty rep
squat competition, Platz should win (and he did).
You can see that bodybuilders can be “stronger” than powerlifters, just
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with higher rep ranges. This is a good example of how bodybuilding actually
does develop strength incredibly well. Just a different kind of strength. It’s also
a good example of how strength training is required to fully develop your max
strength, potentially allowing you to become stronger than guys who are far
larger than you—at least in lower rep ranges.
So even with the goal of getting big and strong, the intensity with which
you lift can change the type of strength you develop, and the ease with which
you put on size. This raises a good question. Do you want to get good at lifting
heavy things once, like a powerlifter, or do you want to get good at lifting
moderately heavy things a few times, like a bodybuilder?
There’s a bit of a false dichotomy there though, because training for both
is best. Bodybuilding is best for developing muscle size quickly and safely, and
developing larger muscles gives you far more strength potential. Strength
training is fun and athletic, and best for developing max muscle strength.
That strength and athleticism can then help you lift heavier loads with your
bodybuilding, improving the amount of muscle mass you can gain. That extra
mass then improves your strength potential, making you a better powerlifter…
and so on and so on. So you can see that both intensities work together
synergistically.
This isn’t just theoretical, it’s been shown to be true in randomly
controlled trials as well. González-Bodillo found that powerlifters who switch
out some of their heavy sets for lighter bodybuilding sets see greater strength
gains (study). This should also make their workouts not just more effective, but
also shorter and safer, too.
This is why we begin each workout with strength training, but keep the
strength training volume fairly low. We then spend the rest of the workout
getting our extra volume from bodybuilding. This makes us optimally big,
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strong, athletic and versatile without needing to spend all day in the gym or
destroy our joints.
Cardio: Can it Help Build Muscle?
Over the years, cardio training has gotten a bad rap. It was cast away into the
shadows, with the thought that any cardio training would instantly kill muscle
and strength gains. Fortunately it is making a nice comeback as people have
finally realized that a well functioning circulation system can actually help you
build more muscle. The reason being that your aerobic system is the system
that fuels your anaerobic system. When you lift heavy weights, you are using
a combination of 3 energy systems, the alactic, lactic, and aerobic systems.
When using lower reps, your alactic system is in charge, as the reps increase,
your system runs out of ATP (energy) and starts to use the lactic system to
produce more energy. The lactic system produces the burn in your muscles. The
aerobic system is the one in charge of refuelling these two systems. Therefore
a well functioning aerobic system allows you to not only recharge faster during
workouts, but also recover faster after workouts.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR CARDIO TO COMPLEMENT YOUR GAINS
Doing substantial cardio training after lifting weights can actually lead to a
decrease in muscle protein synthesis, so it is definitely better to do your cardio
on separate days. The simplest way to improve your aerobic system is the cardiac
output method, this method entails doing a sustained activity for 30–90 min
with a heartrate of 120–150 beats per minute. This method will improve your
hearts ability to take in more blood with each stroke, if your HR is too low, you
won’t get enough blood to stimulate a change, and if it is too high, you will start
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working on how fast your heart can contract (which is still useful but a different
method) instead of how much blood it can take in.
It also helps to do more frequent training sessions to make improvements.
FREQUENCY
2–3 specific sessions last 30–90 mins keeping HR at 120–150bpm.
TYPE OF ACTIVITY
Anything you enjoy doing—walking, stair climbing, hill sprinting, dancing,
jogging, skill work for sports, shovelling snow, swimming, ice skating, etc.
DURATION OF PHASE
8 weeks is good to see some progress, check your resting heart rate first thing
in the morning, then re-check at the end to see your improvement, it should be
lower. If you have a HR monitor, it gives you more freedom to do different things
because you can keep track of your HR.
Postural Restoration: Curing Chronic Pain?
When it comes to rehabing posture, we often recommend the techniques
developed by The Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) in the early 1990’s.
While still relatively new to the scene, their methods have become popular
among physiotherapists and sports performance experts. Since people’s faulty
movement compensations can cause them pain, their goal is restoring natural
movement—movement without compensation. Because modern society often
creates specific compensation patterns, much of their work revolves around
fixing flared rib cages and forward pelvises.
Their theories revolve around the fact that muscles need proper
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positioning so that they can fire properly. This means that if you have flared
ribcage, it may be difficult to see progress in your chest or upper back because
the supporting muscles are in weaker positions. Therefore, you may benefit
from intentionally repositioning your ribcage before lifting.
For example, one of their techniques combines a 90/90 hip lift (lying on
your back with your knees in the air) with the act of blowing up a balloon. The
goal is to teach your body how to instinctively breathe properly while lifting.
This technique is based in scientific theory, there are many anecdotal success
stories, and researchers consider this technique promising, but it's still too early
to know for sure how effective it is (study). It’s still a hypothesis.
All of their rehab exercises aim to restore balance and stop certain
overworked muscles from being perpetually “turned on.” Adding some postural
restoration exercises to your warm-up routine may be beneficial if you deal with
any of these symptoms:
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•
Sore knees
•
Shoulder pain
•
Hip pain
•
Tight lower back
•
Tight hamstrings
•
Abdominal pain
•
Neck stiffness
•
Tendinitis
TIER 4 LIFTING SCIENCE
Want to discuss restoring your posture? Do it here.
Periodization: Destroying Plateaus
This is when you get out your spreadsheets out to start planning how you are
going to get from point A to point B. It tends to involve cycling different styles
and intensities of training with the goal of reaching a specific objective. Getting
strong for your next powerlifting meet, developing more power for your next
football season, or gaining lean mass for your next bodybuilding competition.
In this program, we use it to speed up the rate that you can build muscle.
For example, intuitively many people assume that focusing just on
strength training would be the best way to gain strength for your next
powerlifting competition. That would be a good way to gain strength, but the
best way would be to alternate between periods of gaining new muscle mass
(bodybuilding), learning to use that muscle mass with maximal loads (strength
training), getting used to very high volumes (overreaching), and then finishing
by emphasizing recovery so that you show up to your powerlifting meet feeling
fresh (a deload).
A periodized plan can be broken up into macro cycles (yearly plans),
mesocycles (monthly plans), and microcycles (weekly plans), with durations
being different for each sport. It is rooted it Hans Selye’s model of General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), where an organism will go through three stages
in response to a stressor:
ALARM STAGE
This is the initial shock that lifting has on your system. This is that initial period
of reduced performance, where you may feel beaten up, tired and sore.
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RESISTANCE STAGE
This is when you body decides to take up arms against the weights and start
a muscle revolution. During this stage, your body responds to the stress by
adapting to it—building bigger and stronger muscles. This creates a new level
of ability, and explains why someone can gradually lift heavier and heavier
weights as time goes on. This is known as super-compensation.
EXHAUSTION STAGE
This is when the stress placed on the body is too much for the body to adapt to,
and the body begins breaking down. This is why beating your body to a pulp
once a month might not cause any beneficial adaptations at all, nor would
training intensely every single day. The amount of stress applied to your body
must be strategic in order to produce solid gains.
The goal with periodization is to organize training so that there is a reduction
of stress near the end of the resistance stage, before exhaustion can set it. Most
good training programs are strategically designed to stay out of the exhaustion
stage. This will allow the individual to recover, adapt and go beyond their
original set point.
With some advanced athletes, coaches will sometimes have them
training in an exhausted state, then have them take a longer amount of rest
with the hopes of achieving even greater super-compensations (gains). This
can be effective, but is reserved for elite athletes under the direct supervision of
a professional.
Periodization is typically used to ensure continuous progress by going
through periods of heavier and lighter loading while avoiding overtraining
which will help you avoid both plateaus and feeling wrecked.
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Just like a dog needs structure and consistency to be happy, not total
freedom, our muscles need a consistent stimulus in order to adapt. If you are
constantly throwing mixed signals at your body by doing too many things
at once or not lifting enough, you will not adapt beyond a beginner level.
Periodization helps by giving your training focus and structure.
We use something called linear periodization, focusing primarily on
progressive overload. We start with the easiest variations of the basic patterns
(e.g. the goblet squat), done with lighter weights for higher rep ranges. Then, as
the phase goes on, you try to use more and more weight while also adding more
and more sets. Over the course of the month your training volume (how much
total weight you lift) increases, with the final week having the highest volume.
This ensures that the demands placed on your body are constantly increasing
whether or not you're adding much weight to the bar. This ensures progress
even as strength gains are harder and harder to come by. As a beginner this is
effective, and as you progress it becomes essential.
These phases are five weeks long because five weeks is the time it takes for
you to start adapting to a new program. When that five week phase is finished,
you advance right into the next one, keeping the gain train going.
Your first week of the next phase has more advanced exercises (e.g. the
front squat) but a significantly lower volume (e.g. just two sets). This is known
as a deload week, and it is designed to allow you to recover from the previous
phase while getting comfortable with the new lifts. This deload week, since it
is a recovery and growth week, will often yield the most muscle growth as your
body recovers from the intense stimulation from the previous week.
Super-compensation in practice!
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Summary
•
Cardio isn't necessary for building muscle leanly, but it can be
used to improve your work capacity.
•
Lift heavy weights explosively while just focusing on moving the
weight (lift powerfully), but lift lighter weights in a controlled
manner while focusing on feeling the correct muscles working
(feel the burn). Rest plenty between sets.
•
If you have pain, go see a doctor or physiotherapist. It may also
be beneficial to address your compensation patterns, alleviating
stress from overworked muscles. We have a guide for this here.
•
When planning your training, try to focus on 1–2 things for five
weeks at a time. Here are some qualities that go well together:
Strength / Aerobic work (can be done on the same day)
Muscle Maintenance / Aerobic work (done on different days)
Strength maintenance / Anaerobic conditioning
Power / Strength
•
It is best to maximize the aerobic system before going after the
anaerobic conditioning system. It is also not smart to try to
improve both at the same time.
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TIER 4 NUTRITION
OPTIMIZING YOUR NUTRITION
What you eat tends to be more important than when you eat. That’s a good rule
of thumb, and a good place to start. However, there are many exceptions. For an
obvious example, if you start drinking your wine in the morning and your coffee
right before bed, you’re going to have a pretty hard time becoming employee of
the month. (Unless you’re on a reality TV show.) On the other hand, if you have
your coffee in the morning and your wine with dinner, no problem.
Many people have had cocktails with brunch and then a Red Bull before
going out at night. You probably learned very quickly that the breakfast cocktail
led to an unproductive afternoon, and the nighttime caffeine led to a less than
stellar sleep.
Unfortunately, muscle-building nutrition myths are not so easy to test. It
can a long time before you notice that your abs have disappeared in the mirror.
And even if you are getting some results, how do you know if they’re as good as
they could be?
What if this whole time you’ve been accidentally doing the bulking
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equivalent of having wine with breakfast? Or the fat gain equivalent of having
coffee as a midnight snack?
When it comes to building muscle there are indeed some nutrient timing
strategies that can allow you to build more muscle more leanly. Unfortunately,
there’s also a lot of nutrient timing mythology that muddy up the truth, and
these myths are evolving so quickly that it can be hard to keep up.
A few years ago your typical bodybuilder was dogmatically eating every
3 hours on the dot. Since a good protein-filled meal will spike insulin and
muscle protein synthesis, this would be boosting his muscle growth potential
throughout the day. He may even set an alarm clock to go off at 2:00am so that
he can chug the protein shake that he had left beside his bed.
Nowadays that same type of bodybuilder is experimenting with intermittent
fasting to boost his growth hormone production. The idea here is that humans
have evolved to go long periods without food, and that we can take advantage of
numerous health and hormonal benefits if we go back to a more primal eating
schedule. One of these benefits is an increase in growth hormone secretions.
Another is that we may burn fat during the fasting period, build muscle during
the eating period. This could lead to fat loss while building muscle.
Which approach is right? They both sound fairly convincing and have
research to back them up.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg—we haven’t even made it past
breakfast yet! There are theories about needing to avoid eating carbs before
bed, about whey protein boosting muscle growth if consumed right after
training, about “cheat days” allowing you to eat junk food without gaining fat,
and reverse dieting to alter your metabolism.
Is any of it true?
Going based on personal preference and anecdotes, it’s extremely
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hard to tell. Many of the guys using the wrong approach are still getting
good results because nutrient timing isn’t as important as the quality of
what you eat or the quality of your training program. Their fundamentals
may be strong enough that they’re progressing in spite of whatever bogus
theory they’re meticulously executing.
In the past couple of decades researchers have been evaluating all these
myths scientifically and discovering legitimate, proven techniques that allow
you to build muscle more leanly. Many of the most popular theories have
been proven wrong, and many of the effective techniques aren’t mainstream
knowledge yet.
Without further ado, let’s dig in to the modern science of musclebuilding nutrition.
Optimal Workout Nutrition
When trying to build muscle the primary things you need are protein, calories
and weightlifting. To work on all three at once you can sip on a calorie-heavy
protein shake while lifting weights. Or perhaps between sets.
Let’s talk a little bit about why this approach can be so effective.
In January 2013, two very important researchers, known for their
sports nutrition and muscle-building research, teamed up to review all of
the workout nutrition studies previously published. In January of 2013 their
official meta-analysis was published in the Journal of the International Society
of Sports Nutrition, which is arguably the most prestigious journal for sports
nutrition research.
As far as protein goes, you’ll see optimal results if you have a protein-rich
meal within a couple hours before training, and another within a couple hours
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after training. To get more specific, you’d want at least 20–40g of protein in
both those meals. More specifically still, you’d want 0.2 grams of protein per
pound bodyweight.
The easiest way to do that is to just sip on 60 grams or so of protein at
the gym. That fully covers you, and there isn’t a single conceivable health,
performance or muscle-building downside to doing it.
If you train in the morning this becomes especially useful, as there wouldn’t be time to digest
a meal beforehand.
For carbs, eating them pre-workout have been shown to boost
performance, and anything that improves your lifting performance will
improve your ability to stimulate muscle growth during your workouts.
Carbs are especially helpful if you’re doing long workouts (or running
a marathon) while on a lower carbohydrate diet. As ectomorphs eating a
high calorie high carb diet, we tend to be among the subset of people whose
performance won’t be much affected by pre-workout carbs.
However, you probably want 30–50% of your overall daily calories coming
from carbs, which means that we should jump on any opportunity to eat more
carbs. This is one such opportunity.
ENTER THE B2B WORKOUT SHAKE:
Protein powder + carb powder + creatine and whatever else.
Liquid calories are easy on your appetite, the insulin sensitivity in your muscle
cells skyrockets when you’re weightlifting, carb powders are quickly and easily
digested, having protein in your system when training improves muscle protein
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synthesis, and protein and carbs aren’t efficiently stored as fat when in a calorie
surplus. (study, study) This is an opportunity to spike yourself into higher-thannormal calorie surplus that will build extra muscle without the added risk of
storing extra fat.
If you want a blanket recommendation, 60g of protein and 120g of carbs
would be appropriate for most skinny guys trying to build muscle (and would
contribute 720 calories towards your daily totals).
If that drink is too intense, start with 30 grams of protein and 60 grams of
carbs (360 calories). If you need more calories, go up to 90 grams of protein and
180 grams of carbs (1080 calories).
We’ll talk more about supplements later, but these calories can really
come from anywhere. You could blend up bananas and oats with milk, or
combine whey protein and maltodextrin powder. The main thing we’re after
during this anabolic window are protein, carbs and calories.
This means that you can skip the shake entirely and have a pre-workout
and post-workout meal instead. Keep the fat low, the carbs and protein high.
Those carbs can come from white rice, oatmeal, potatoes—whatever. And then
any lean protein source will do—chicken, egg whites, cottage cheese, skim
milk, white fish or something.
The rules here are fairly loose, but make no mistake—optimizing your
workout nutrition is one of the best ways to improve the quality of your results.
Of all the nutrient timing opportunities out there, this is the most powerful.
If you want to further boost your ability to build muscle leanly, we strongly
recommend that you take advantage of this.
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Optimal Meal Frequency
This is also known more simply as how many times to eat each day.
Researchers have looked into eating as few as one meal per day and as many
as fourteen. While most relatively normal schedules are perfectly fine, some
health issues seem to start coming up the more extreme you get. You’re going to
start running into issues with glucose regulation, hunger and fullness when you
start eating fewer than three meals per day or more than 6 meals per day.
Since building muscle is your goal, another thing to keep in mind us that
spreading out your protein intake over the course of the day can help as well.
You’ll maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis with a balanced meal that
contains 30g of protein or more. Having a few meals spread out over the course
of the day (4–5 hours between meals) that each maximally stimulate muscle
protein synthesis should yield the most muscle growth possible.
So to fully maximize your results from a meal frequency standpoint,
eating four or five relatively evenly spaced meals per day with a decent amount
of protein in each of them would be incredible.
That could be as simple as three meals and a big snack—no need to get crazy here.
This isn’t super strict though, so long as you stay away from the extremes.
If you’ve got a particularly small stomach or a particularly large calorie goal feel
free to add in a couple more meals, or snacks between meals.
Trail mix, milk, jerky, raisins & pumpkin seeds make great snacks.
There are a lot of myths out there about taking daily nutrient timing
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further. About eating more fats at breakfast to increase your fat burning
potential throughout the day, or about breakfast being the most important
meal of the day, or about the dangers of eating carbs (or calories) before bed.
None of these really matter for a healthy guy trying to build muscle. As the
research currently stands, these are either myths or only applicable to a very
specific subset of the population.
We would instead focus on what has you feeling best. If a big breakfast
gives you tons of energy or wakes up your appetite—great, eat a big breakfast.
However, if having a big breakfast leaves you feeling tired and lethargic, have
a light breakfast instead. If you’re unsure of what to try, a moderate amount
of complex carbs and protein works well for most people. This will stimulate
muscle protein synthesis while giving you a good amount of energy. Something
like oatmeal and a protein shake, some fruit and some cottage cheese, or even a
Quest bar and some carrots if you’re lazy or in a rush.
Before bed just make sure to get all your calories in, ideally without
triggering any acid reflux or anything. Some people handle giant pre-bed
meals better than others. If you’re sleeping poorly, waking during the night, or
having acid reflux then perhaps shy away from eating a large meal before bed.
Otherwise there shouldn’t really be a problem, especially as far as building
muscle leanly goes.
Carb & Calorie Cycling
Now we’re into the weekly stuff. How can you spread out your calories out over
the course of a week for the meanest and leanest gains possible.
Lots of guys get this calorie cycling stuff miserably wrong.
It’s popular these days to have a “cheat day” or whatever. Every Sunday
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you take a break from dieting and eat a bunch of junk food. Junk food tends
to be high calorie, which is fine when bulking, but with most of those calories
coming from fat… which is not fine when bulking. If you have a “cheat day”
where you go into a calorie surplus by binging on high fat foods you will gain a
disproportionate amount of fat. If, to make up for that calorie surplus, you then
need to lower your calories on the other days of the week, you can then limit
the amount of muscle you’re going to build those days. This will reduce your
muscle gains while increasing your fat gains. No bueno.
Let’s take a step back for a moment. Is there any research showing
an advantage to cycling your calories and carbs over the course of the week?
Maybe! We don’t really know for sure—it’s still a very understudied topic. But
since your muscle cells are so insulin sensitive after training, and since they’d
be less sensitive on rest days, it’s arguably beneficial to pack more calories/carbs
around your workouts and keep your calorie surplus lower on rest days. You
could yank out a couple hundred carb calories from your rest days and pop ‘em
into your workout days, if you wanted to give that a shot. The workout shake we
recommend tends to make this adjustment pretty easy.
To be more specific still, you could have more carbs and calories in the
few meals following your workouts, and then taper back in the few meals
leading up to your next workout. So if you train Monday night, perhaps you
have a larger and higher carb dinner that night, and then again at breakfast the
next morning.
If you keep those higher calorie days/meals within about 24 hours of
your workout you’ll be doing well. This is when your muscles are primed for
growth and soaking up calories. You don’t want to deprive your muscles of
calories when it wants them, just as you don’t want to binge on calories when
your muscles haven’t been stimulated.
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Another thing worth pointing out is that there’s also very little downside
to strategically fiddling with your calories on a day-to-day basis so long as your
weekly totals add up. Maybe you find it especially tough to hit your calorie
goals on weekends, for example. In that case, you can drop your calories down
to maintenance. Don’t drop down into a deficit, however tempting that may
be, but feel free to drop down into maintenance for a couple days per week. To
make up for dropping your calories lower on some days, you’d bring up your
protein and carb intake on other days—perhaps workout days. A hefty protein/
carb workout shake is a great way to do this.
And always keep in mind that the best strategy is the one that most easily
allows you to finish your week with all of your calories crushed.
Is a Calorie a Calorie?
Is it really that simple? That’s debatable. Not debatable in the sense that there
are good points on both sides of the argument, but debatable in the sense that
it’s a contentious topic that lots of people like to argue about. The body of
evidence is actually really quite clear, yet you even have the odd scientist here
and there arguing against it.
Simple nutritional science dictates that if you eat a surplus of calories
above what your body needs your weight will go up, and if you eat a deficit of
calories your body weight will go down. However, there are a whole slew of
factors that we also need to consider. Here are three:
1.
The amount of calories that you put in your mouth might not be
the same amount of calories that you digest. If the food you’re
eating passes right through you, well, then it won’t have the same
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effect. Our digestive system is impressively effective though, so
this is rarely an issue. Barring a diagnosed medical issue we don’t
need to worry about this.
2.
Your body processes different macronutrients in different ways.
For example, protein provokes a greater TEF (thermic effect of food)
than carbohydrates and fat, resulting in about 20% of its energy
being converted to heat. Things get even more confusing with
alcohol, since your body treats it like a poison. If you deviate from
the macronutrient suggestions in this eBook you may find that
your metabolism goes up or down by a few percentage points.
3.
Eating 4000 calories a day of cake will probably make your weight
go up, but I doubt you’d feel very good, especially about how you
look in the mirror.
Understanding Insulin
Insulin is one of the prime drivers of appetite. When you eat a meal your insulin
levels will go up by a certain amount depending on what you eat, how much you
eat, and how sensitive to insulin you are. As your insulin goes up, your appetite
goes down. This creates a nice comfortable feeling of satisfaction, letting you
know that you can stop eating. For example, a chicken breast will cause a hefty
spike in insulin, then a similarly hefty feeling of satisfaction and fullness.
Being sensitive to insulin tends to mean a combination of two things.
First, our insulin levels rise eagerly in response to food: in goes food and up
goes insulin. Second, we don’t require a big increase in insulin to feel satisfied:
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up goes insulin, up goes fullness. Both of these things make it a whole helluva
lot easier not to overeat.
For someone who’s less insulin sensitive (or has chronically elevated
insulin) it takes a lot more food to cause a surge in insulin and they require
a lot more insulin before feeling satisfied. That means in goes food, in goes
some more food, in goes even more food, and, eventually, down goes appetite.
In extreme cases this can make it very hard to get satisfaction from eating
reasonable quantities of food.
So in the context of getting and staying lean, being sensitive to insulin
is a very good thing. As skinny guys we hit the genetic jackpot here. There are
also a lot of lifestyle factors that come into play too: already being lean helps,
weightlifting helps, eating well helps, etc. Successfully combine all of those
factors with a genetic predisposition for it, and it’s very easy not to overeat.
Whatever your goals, this is good. We aren’t trying to replace one
problem with another, and you probably don’t want to go from struggling
with being naturally skinny to struggling with being diabetic. Having great
insulin sensitivity is closely correlated with our overall health too, and it also
allows us to properly enjoy food.
So don’t avoid weightlifting and eat junk food all day long.
Exercising, eating well and being decently lean (under 17% bodyfat or
so) are all great ways to optimize insulin sensitivity* ... and if you’re already
sensitive to insulin just count your blessings and keep it that way!
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How to Maintain Gains on Fewer Calories
Metabolic adaptation is a very very new idea being pioneered by Dr. Layne
Norton. He’s been conducting research into metabolic adaptions for a couple
of years now, but his first big review paper on it was just recently published.
It’s a very hot and widely debated topic, and with good reason—it’s a very
new and interesting idea. He’s essentially coming up with a totally new way of
explaining the concept of “metabolic damage”, which many experts previously
believed was just a myth.
What Dr. Norton is interested in is what happens when dieting down to
extremely low body fat levels. The types of metabolic adaptations that people
make when dieting down to go on stage at a bodybuilding competition.
As they diet down to lower and lower body fat levels, their daily caloric
needs decrease to adapt to the new amount of food they’re eating.
Those diets are pretty damn extreme, and some wild stuff can happen
when these guys step out of the spotlight and start eating like normal people
again. They get really fat really quickly—sometimes a dozens pounds of fat in
just a couple of days because their body is used to much less energy coming in.
Norton’s research is all about finding a way to reverse those metabolic adaptions
so that these extremely lean people can go back to eating a normal amount of
food without gaining ridiculous amounts of body fat in the process. A “reverse
diet” is his proposed way of doing that.
After an intense cut they would slowly increase the amount they’re eating
week by week, month by month until they’re eating a normal amount of food
again. By adding nutrients back in gradually their metabolism adapts as they
go along and there’s never a huge calorie surplus that would lead to all kinds
of fat gain.
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What does this mean for us? When bulking, the opposite happens. Instead
our metabolisms becoming damaged we turn into metabolic powerhouses—
our bodies start becoming very metabolically inefficient because we’re rolling in
extra calories that it wants to spend. So we start producing more body heat, we
start fidgiting and moving more, etc. This is especially pronounced in those of
us who struggle to gain weight, since we tend to be the ones with very adaptive
metabolisms. It’s those pesky adaptive metabolisms that do such a good job of
keeping our bodyweight so damn low.
Just like with cutting though, these metabolic adaptations aren’t forever.
An annoyingly enormous metabolism isn’t an unavoidable consequence of
being a beast. A pound of muscle only burns about six calories per day at rest,
so if you’ve gained, say, twenty pounds of muscle over the course of doing this
program, that extra muscle is only burning a measly 120 calories per day. No
biggie. The problem is that oftentimes over the course of a bulk our metabolisms
have revved up so high that we need to consume ridiculous amounts of food in
order to even just maintain our gains.
As a result we often run into the exact opposite problem that these dieters
were running into. Sometimes we finish our bulk, suddenly go back to eating a
normal amount of food, and since our metabolisms are so crazy high, we then
lose weight. Admittedly, most of the weight we lose is gut contents and fluid
(glycogen and water retention), but we can also lose some muscle too, especially
if we let our protein intake fall apart or we stop lifting.
Enter the reverse beastly diet, where you slowly start consuming fewer
and fewer calories to intentionally bring your metabolism back down to a more
reasonable level. Begin by reducing your intake by 500 calories, bringing you
out of a bulk and back to maintenance. During the first week you'll lose some
gut contents and water retention, which is fine. Then each week you eat 75–150
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calories fewer than the week before, you keep your strength up in the gym by
training as consistently as ever, and you keep an eye on the scale to make sure
you aren’t losing more than a couple pounds (which would likely be fat) as you go.
Ideally you eventually get to a point where you’re eating a comfortable amount
of food—the amount of food that your appetite is naturally telling you that you
should be eating. This is where life should be lived, after all—we can’t always be
in rapid transformation mode.
We should point out that I’ve never seen a reverse diet like the one we’re
proposing used anywhere else. Hell, even reverse cutting diets are a new thing.
The point that many of us get to—eating a ton of calories and still not gaining
fat—is actually considered a good thing by most people. Most people love eating
tons of food, so having a huge metabolism helps keep them healthy by keeping
them out of a calorie surplus. They get to indulge in their favourite indulgences
without needing to worry about things like diabetes.
We’re rare in that we don’t always want to eat ridiculous amounts of
food like that. As such I’ve never seen anyone intentionally try to bring down
their metabolisms. The three of us do it though, and it allows us to put this
muscle-building stuff on the backburner once in a while to focus on writing,
illustration, coaching you and others in the community, helping our wives have
children, or taking up new hobbies.
That “reverse diet” way of easing into and out of cutting and bulking
seems to work pretty well at keeping us lean and keeping us strong, but use it at
your own discretion—as of now there’s still very little research into it.
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Summary
•
Fundamentals first. The overall quantity and quality of what
you eat is still paramount. Focus on calories, protein (or macros),
and consuming mostly whole foods before you worry about
nutrient timing.
•
Workout shakes are helpful but optional. To capitalize on
workout nutrition all you need to do is have a balanced meal in
your stomach from a few hours earlier still digesting away while
you’re training, and then consume another balanced meal within
a few hours after training. If you’re an ectomorph trying to rapidly
build muscle though… it can be very helpful, cheap and easy
to consume a workout shake though. We recommend 0.2–0.6g
protein combined with 0.4–1.2g carbohydrate.
•
Eat a moderate number of meals each day for max muscle
growth. Consuming 4–5 meals per day each with at least 30g of
protein in them is ideal. Feel free to add in more snacks or meals
if you struggle to hit your calorie goals though.
•
Try “Reverse dieting” in and out of calorie surpluses /
deficits. If you want to gear into maintenance mode and take
an extended break from constantly being stuffed to the gills,
you might find it helpful to gradually reduce your calorie intake
over the course of a few weeks to give your metabolism time to
adapt. You could try dropping your calorie intake by a couple
hundred calories per week until your intake starts to become nice
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and comfortable. Keep lifting heavy weights while you do it. If
you lose a couple pounds that’s okay—it’ll probably be fat/fluid
anyway—but if your weight continues going down week after
week you’ve dipped your calories a little too low and you might
want to bring them up a little.
•
For all intents & purposes a calorie really is a calorie. However
some nutrients have a large thermic effect of food (especially
protein) and some calories are more easily stored as fat (especially
fat). So long as your macros are decent this shouldn’t matter much.
•
Supplements are not necessary. However, they can be quite
effective and quite safe. They can even be cheap!
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PREFACE: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
YOU ASKED, WE ANSWERED
We’ve answered tens of thousands of questions in the community over these
past few years. So don't worry, this isn't some lame made-up FAQ full of
questions that make the three of us look good. No, this FAQ is full of questions
that will make you look good.
Hopefully most of your questions have already been answered. When
making this version of the eBook we tried to take all the most common
questions and build the answers into the Quick-Start Guide. So pretty much
everything here has also been covered earlier on. However, this eBook is long.
If you skimmed it so fast that you not only missed our best jokes but also the
answers to your questions, don’t fret—we've tried our best to sum up everything
important here.
Don't see your question here? Hop into the community and ask us there.
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Beginner Questions
How do I get started?
Read the Quick Start Guide. That should cover the basics of lifting, calories and
protein well enough for you to start building a solid pound of muscle each week.
Once you’ve read that Quick-Start Guide you can take your time working your
way through the rest of the eBook. The more advanced stuff isn’t needed until
you’ve done at least a couple months of training, so you’ve got plenty of time.
How many days of rest do I need between the days?
We’d recommend a day of rest between the workouts. Most guys like training
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Do I need rest time between the phases?
Rest time between the phases? Yes! But that doesn’t mean that every sixth week
you get to spend your gym time watching the Good Wife instead. No sir, you still
need to be in the gym doing your tri-weekly lifting. However, you'll notice that
the first week of every phase features far fewer sets per lift. Fewer sets means
that recovering from those workouts will be quick and easy. You can consider
the first week of a new phase as a deload or “growth” week, not a stress week.
Weird, eh? You grow most on rest days, not training days. You grow most during deload week,
not during the crazy intense lifting week.
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Should I do cardio?
Your body can only make so many adaptations at once, but it can very easily
maintain adaptations that you’ve already made. This means that a muscular guy
can do all kinds of cardio while easily keeping his muscle. Similarly, a fit guy
can do all kinds of bodybuilding while still keeping all of his fitness.
However, a sedentary guy who wants to become both muscular and fit
should probably pick one goal to focus on first. This is not the kind of guy who
will be able to handle adding cardio into his lifting routine, however he's exactly
the type of guy who will grow fitter just from lifting.
TO CARDIO OR NOT TO CARDIO
If you’re already fit, feel free to stay fit. If that means playing
sports, great. If that means jogging with your dog, also great.
If you’re not already fit though, hold your horses. Just lifting
alone will do wonders for your general fitness. If you finish the
program 20–30 pounds hunkier and feel like a lumbering hulk
instead of a nimble Tyler Durden then you can gear into some
fitness training. In fact, we can even help you with that!
If you try to bulk up while using this program while secretely sneaking off to do
marathon training while we aren’t watching… you’ll only sacrifice about 20%
of your gains. Instead of gaining 20 pounds during the next 10–20 weeks, you’ll
gain 16. Not bad.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where do I find dumbbell alternatives for cable exercises?
Yeah, Marco really loves his funky cable exercises—especially with our older
workouts. They’re pretty cool, but fortunately dumbbells are more than enough
to build muscle wonderfully well. There are dumbbell alternatives for every
exercise both on the workout sheets and at the end of all the exercise videos.
Even if your setup is simple, you won’t miss out on a single gain.
I feel like I’m not making any progress. What do I do?
First of all, ask yourself the Boston question: is this more than a feeling? Put
on a familiar song to start your day, hop on the scale, bust out some measuring
tape. Are you making measurable gains? If you are, don’t worry—as you wander
on, your gains will become as clear as the sun in a summer sky.
But let’s imagine your worst nightmare is indeed coming true. You’ve
diligently followed the program for a week and you eagerly hop on the scale to
greet your gains… only to find out that there are no gains “weighting” for you
on the scale.
This is not in any way a sign that things are even slightly hopeless. This
simply means you haven’t consumed enough calories this week. Add 200
calories to your daily diet and see how the scale greets you next week.
We know, we know. You’re already perma-full. Maybe busy and stressed too. One does not
simply add 200 calories to his diet. This doesn’t need to be a huge hassle though. It can be
as simple as having a pint of milk with dinner, having a handful of nuts as a snack, having a
whey protein shake before bed, an extra brownie for dessert, or increasing your serving sizes
ever so slightly.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I’m getting heavier… but what if it's all saggy fat?
If you’re gaining a modest pound per week but you’re concerned that the weight
you’re gaining is mostly fat, that’s actually quite a complex issue. It could be
that you’re not lifting close enough to failure, that you’re not being consistent
enough with your training or nutrition, that you’re not hitting your daily protein
targets, that you’re overly stressed, that you aren’t sleeping well, etc.
Don’t worry, we leave no bony behind. We can work with you on that
individually in the community—that’s what we’re here for. Make a post on the
forum and we'll get to the bottom of this :)
I’m so, so, so sore after working out. What can I do?
You may be especially sore because you were a little eager in the gym. If you
leave a couple reps in the tank and do the prescribed number of sets and reps,
the first week of training shouldn’t be that bad.
But it can still be bad.
People who aren’t used to lifting weights can really suffer when they first
get into it. You can also find solace in the fact that the soreness will fade, and
when it returns, it won’t be as intense. As your body gets used to the stress of
lifting your body will learn to interpret that feeling differently. Debilitating pain
will begin to feel more massage-like.
That doesn’t help you now though. For right now, avoid Advil. You aren’t
sore because your muscles are damaged, you’re sore because your muscles
are healing and growing. Your muscles are inflamed by all the nutrient-filled
blood that your body is packing into your muscles. Advil will reduce this
muscle-building inflammation. Tylenol would be a better choice if you must
use a painkiller. An even better choice would be fish oil. Fish oil, like Advil, is
also anti-inflammatory, but for whatever reason the net effect it has on body
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composition seems to be positive? We can’t explain this one, but research has
clearly shown that it works.
Foam rolling works wonderfully too.
How do I find a good gym? What do I look for?
Really any gym will do in a pinch. If you aren’t in a pinch, pretty much any gym
other than Planet Fitness will do. They have this “non-judgemental” anti-bodybuilder stance. I don’t know how being against bodybuilding makes you nonjudgmental, but whatever—you’d think that would actually be pretty nice for
a skinny guy who doesn’t want to be surrounded by bodybuilders… until you
realize that you can’t do any bodybuilding there.
How are you supposed to build muscle if you can’t do any of the lifts that
build muscle?!
Ideally you want to look for a gym with dumbbells that go up to around
100 pounds, adjustable benches, olympic barbells that you can load up with
weight plates, and squat racks where the barbell isn’t attached to the rack. These
things aren’t mandatory, but they will sure make building muscle easy.
Beyond that, find a gym where you can see yourself one day digging
the culture. For example, most colleges have two gyms. One is for the college
athletes (great for getting amazing lifting advice) and the other is for regular
people (great for people who don’t enjoy being around jocks). You can pick the
gym culture that you prefer.
Jared and Shane were once training around the University of Toronto and chose the jock gym
because they had a better squat, deadlift and bench press setup. They got a ton of good advice
too, since the people there could tell we were new to lifting.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Aesthetics Questions
How can I guess my body-fat percentage?
This is notoriously difficult to guess with any degree of precision, so we’re
going to talk about ways to roughly guess. First of all, don’t buy one of those
scales that claims to be able to measure body fat (a BIA scale). Oh man those
things are truly awful. Buying one of those scales is like hiring a person to call
you fat once per week.
If you want a better way to measure your body fat percentage go for skin
fold callipers, but even just guessing based on what you see in the mirror is
good enough for all our muscle-building intents and purposes.
If you can always see your abs you’re probably around 10%. If you can
only see your abs when you flex them in the best lighting conditions (probably
your bathroom mirror) then you’re more like 15%. If you cannot see your abs at
all but don’t have a super mushy gut then you’re probably around 20%. If you
have a soft stomach you are likely over 20%.
If you can find a way to see your abs (under 15%) then you are lean enough
to aggressively bulk, aiming to gain around a pound per week—especially if
you’re still fairly skinny. If you’re already fit looking then you can aim to gain
0.5–1 pounds per week.
If you can’t see your abs even when flexing in the bathroom then you may
want to consider not posting so many bathroom flexing photos on Facebook.
Once that habit is under control, you may find that you benefit most from a
cut right now. If you’re still somewhat skinny you’ll definitely be able to build
muscle while you cut. You’ll also be able to bulk more quickly in the long run
because lowering your body fat percentage will improve your insulin sensitivity
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and heighten your testosterone production.
Bulking isn’t very fun when you’re conflicted about whether you should be building muscle
or losing fat first.
If you are over 20% body fat then you should definitely cut. Bulking wouldn’t
be the healthiest choice right now, and your gains won’t be the leanest, since
your insulin sensitivity will be (slightly) impaired. Plus, you'll have a fairly easy
time building muscle even in a calorie deficit while losing fat, so why go into a
calorie surplus and risk gaining fat? If you need guidance on how to transition
into a cut, post a new thread in the community so we can help!
What’s the golden ratio? How big should my shoulders be?
Some guys talk about how it looks amazing if your shoulders are 1.618 times
the size of your waist. For example, a 32” waist and 52” shoulders. However,
this isn’t something you need to focus on consciously. Because you are a man,
building muscle leanly will give you a disproportionate amount of muscle mass
in your chest, shoulders and back. Your waist will grow as well, but not by nearly
as much as the muscles around your shoulders.
At first your waist will grow a large amount because of all the extra food in it, but this issue
will disappear as soon as you stop bulking.
So even a balanced lifting program will improve your shoulders:waist ratio. Extra
shoulder, chest and upper back exercises don’t hurt though, and who doesn't
want to look even manly-manlier? So we’ve already added them to the program.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How much weight should I gain over the course of the program?
If you’re quite lean and skinny you can gain 1–2 pounds during the first 5–10
weeks of the program before slowing down to a more modest 1 pound per week
pace. By the end of the program you can expect to gain 25–30 pounds.
If you’re already pretty fit looking (or you’ve already built some muscle)
then just aim for that 1 pound per week right from the get-go, just to make sure
your gains are pleasantly lean. So that means over the course of the program
you can expect to gain 20 pounds.
We get the rare guy who can gain 20 pounds in just a few weeks, which
is ridiculous, but most truly skinny guys will gain a still-fairly-ridiculous 20
pounds within the first three months.
How do I get “hard” muscles?
Muscles are hard. If you build muscle leanly, your body will become harder. If
your muscles are “soft” it’s usually because your body fat percentage is higher.
As for some types of muscle being harder than others, that’s something
that hasn’t been studied very well yet. Does strength training (myofibrillar
hypertrophy) build harder muscles than bodybuilding (sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy)? Nobody knows.
While further studies might shed more light on this, this means that the
differences would be so small as to be unnoticeable from casual observation.
For now you can think of lean muscles as being hard muscles.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I have never seen my abs. What does that mean?
It means that your body fat percentage has never been under 15%. It could also
mean that your ab muscles are small. Perhaps both. If abs are a priority right
now I would recommend solving both issues at once by cutting. This means
you'll be eating plenty of protein and following our lifting program to develop
your ab muscles, while being in a calorie deficit to reduce the fat covering your
abs. Our cutting mini-guide is here.
How do I fix my slumpy posture?
Lift weights, and don't ever skip the farmer carries! Your muscles lack the
strength necessary to hold your bones in the proper position. Simply building
muscle and strength will greatly improve your posture… provided that you
don’t just lift by grooving your compensation patterns. You really want to
focus on lifting with ever improving form. That will not only give your muscles
strength and size, but also give the right muscles the strength and size they
need to function optimally. And this should go without saying—but never skip
the farmer carries.
Beyond that, Marco has a great guide for improving your posture here.
This is advanced stuff, so I would only start into that once you have finished a
phase or two of the program.
How do I build bigger arms?
More volume, i.e., more sets and reps per week that focus on your arms.
Chin-ups are great for your biceps and bench presses are great for your triceps,
but you also want to include plenty of curls and pushdowns and whatnot. We
know you want bigger arms, so we’ve already included the extra arm volume
necessary to optimize arm growth. No modifications are necessary.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I’m skinny and I desperately want to bulk, but I want to lose fat too :(
Most guys in the world feel this way, but trying to find a program that will allow
you to bulk while losing fat is like trying to find clothing that will be good for
both skiing and swimming. You might be able to find something, but your
skimsuit probably wouldn't be ideal for either sport.
This is because muscle is best build when there is a surplus of calories,
whereas fat is best lost when there is a deficit of calories. You can sort of waver
in and out of surpluses and deficits, but this just makes your progress hard to
measure and discouragingly slow. Maybe you’ll look fit in time for the annual
swimsuit competition at your retirement home.
However, we would argue that it's best to pick a main goal for now. If
you aren’t very muscular yet, cutting is probably your best bet. You’ll build a
little bit of muscle while you do it, and you’ll be able to make leaner gains when
you switch to bulking because being lean improves insulin sensitivity and
testosterone.
Most guys doing this program want to build muscle though. So if that is
what you’re excited to do—go for it.
My right shoulder drops and my left pec is bigger?
Everyone has this issue. Well, nearly everyone. Everyone who hasn’t consciously
focused on improving their posture for several months in a row. We’re all born
asymmetrical: one hand is dominant, our heart is on one side, our lungs expand
to different degrees, etc. We can make ourselves visually symmetrical though,
which has both aesthetic and performance benefits. Marco has a great guide for
that here.
I want to get shredded.
Let's do it! We’ve got a mini-guide for this here.
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Lifting Questions
Do I have to go to the gym?
No, but you do have to lift weights. You can build a home gym with some heavy
adjustable dumbbells (around 100 pounds each) and an adjustable bench.
That’s all you need for fully optimal results.
My form doesn't feel right and lifting feels really awkward.
We know you might feel awkward, but don’t be super hard on yourself. You
know those first few steps a baby horse takes right after being born? That’s
how you should look when you first start lifting. Awkward, clumsy, but eager to
improve. You’re new to this. It takes time to develop coordination. Remember
that the goal is gradual improvement, not lifting like a wizard on your first day.
One good way to improve your technique is to practice with light weights
in front of a mirror. Another good way is to film yourself, post it on Vimeo or
YouTube as privately as you like, and then send it along to us for feedback.
I love playing sports. How does this affect things?
You're developing your ability to do basic movement patterns under load,
improving your strength, coordination and mobility, so the program will almost
certainly directly or indirectly make you better at the sport you’re playing.
Okay, but how will playing sports affect your ability to build muscle? That
depends on the sport! Sports are usually just fine alongside a muscle-building
program, but sometimes you might want to reduce the number of workouts you
do per week just to make sure you can recover from everything. Let us know in
the community and we can help you figure it out.
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I’ve got a previous lower back injury. What precautions should I take?
It would be wise to get cleared by a sports doc or physiotherapist before you start
lifting weights. Other than that, we already start with safe progressions that
involve less spinal loading. We begin with a dumbbell sumo deadlift instead of
a barbell deadlift, for example. If anything causes your back to flare up though,
or if you’re worried about any lift in particular, just let us know and we’ll help
you figure it out.
My knee’s are a mess, what should I do?
Let Marco know and he can help you work around it. In the meantime, just avoid
any lifts that irritate it. Squat variants will probably irritate your knees because
of the knee emphasis in squat movements. Deadlift movements probably will
not, since they’re more of a hip dominant lift
How do I find my starting weight for an exercise?
Start with a light warmup set, then gradually grab heavier and heavier weights
to see how they feel. When you find a weight that seems a little too light, do
the indicated number of reps and see how many reps you can bust out. If you
finish the indicated number of reps and you aren’t very near failure, count it as
another warmup set and grab some heavier weights.
For isolation exercises, if you finish a set and you think you might be
close to failure but you really don’t know, bust out a few more reps and see
what happens.
We wouldn’t recommend this with the form-intensive exercises like the squat and deadlift
though, where going all the way to failure can be dangerous for beginners.
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Do I go to failure?
The closest you should go to failure during this program is lifting until you
cannot lift another rep with proper technique. When your technique crumbles
and you need to use all kinds of funky leverages, momentum and inappropriate
muscles to finish the lift, you’ve gone beyond technical failure. That’s a little
more dangerous and it also means you’re practicing and internalizing poor
technique. This is not the path to becoming a great lifter.
For optimal results though you might want to stop a rep or two shy of
technical failure. This will still build muscle just as well, it’s safer, and it’s easier
to recover from. Make sure you aren’t stopping three reps shy of failure though,
or the muscle-building stimulus will be lower.
How come I’m not supposed to go to failure?
Going to failure is a little more dangerous but provides a slightly better growth
stimulus in the short term. In the long term though lifting close to failure allows
for more growth. This is because a workout with greater training frequency
per muscle group and greater volume per muscle group allows for much more
growth. When you go 99% of the way to failure you recover much faster than if
you go 100% of the way to failure. By leaving a rep or two in the tank you greatly
increase your ability to recover from the lift, allowing you to do more good sets
with that muscle group per week.
How do I know when to add weight to an exercise?
You always want to be very close to failure. In order to keep that same intensity
you’ll need to increase the weight or number of reps you’re doing pretty much
every week if you’re a relative beginner. If you aren’t sure if you’re close enough
to failure on a heavy compound lift (Circuit A), that's okay, err on the side of
safety and try to lift a little more each week. If you aren't sure if you're close
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enough to failure on an isolation lift though (Circuits B–D), try going all the way
to technical failure to see how many reps you actually had in the tank.
My chest won’t grow. What am I doing wrong?
It’s pretty common to primarily use your pecs or your triceps when bench
pressing, rather than your chest and your triceps. Shane's longer shoulder
bones give his pecs better leverage in the bench press, so he easily activates his
pecs but struggles to activate his triceps. Jared has the opposite problem.
To activate your pecs more you can practice with lighter weights, higher
reps, a wider grip, and flared elbows (flared out to 80* should do the trick while
still being safe). Really focusing on feeling the contractions in your pecs. Try
to work up a burn there. Bodybuilders call this establishing a “mind-muscle
connection.”
Powerlifters often just train the dominant muscle even harder, furthering the imbalance but
improving their strength more quickly.
You can also experiment with dumbbell flys, machine flys, cable flys, pullovers.
See which variant stimulates your pecs more and learn what it feels like to have
your pecs contracting. Get a nice burn going, pump them up. As you do more
volume with these isolation exercises your pecs will grow, and they will learn to
activate more readily in the bigger compound lifts.
As you improve your bench press technique you’ll get more pec activation
too. If you try to get your shoulder blades nicely in your back pockets and
pressed tightly against the bench it can make it easier to use your pecs. As you
improve your range of motion it can make it easier to use your pecs too.
One day you’ll have so much control over your pecs that you’ll be able to
do a pectoral dance performance for your friends and family.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What’s the best time of day to work out?
The best time to work out is when you have time to work out. If you can work
out at any time, then just choose your favourite time. If you like all times
equally, then around 6pm is a good default recommendation. Your muscles are
all warmed up, you’ve probably gotten some good work done that day, it’s early
enough that it won’t interfere with your sleep, and testosterone is typically nice
and high at that time.
First thing in the morning is another good time. It’s a great way to start the
day. Wake up, have some coffee, have a warm shower to warm your muscles up,
lift, then have another shower so your coworkers don’t give you a sweat-themed
nickname.
How come there are no calf raises?
Because your calves get a somewhat decent amount of work with all the
compound lifts. It’s true that your calves won’t grow a great amount, but that
would be true even if you did tons of calf raises. Calves are not really a muscle
group with a ton of growth potential for most guys. If your calves do have a lot
of growth potential, they’ll look gnarly with or without calf raises. If they don’t,
calf raises won’t much help.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unless you’re a bodybuilder, calves
aren’t really a super aesthetic body part. Ideally they’re about the same size
are your biceps, and chances are right now your biceps are a few inches behind
your calves. By the time your biceps catch up I bet your calves will have grown
a teensy bit too. Athletically calves aren’t that important either. You’re better
focusing on the athletic movement patterns (as we do) and then allowing your
body to grow accordingly.
Part of the reason calf growth is difficult is because men have the most
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androgen receptors in their upper body.
However, you can still feel free to add a couple sets of calf raises to the end
of every workout. 8–12 reps, 2–3 sets. That will get you a fairly optimal amount
of growth out of your calves, but don’t get your hopes up too high.
What are supersets. Are they different from circuits?
Supersets are usually sets performed right after you finish a set of a different
exercise. So if you do a set of chin-ups, you might immediately superset that
with a set of bench press.
We have rest between every set, even when switching exercises. You
could call this supersets or circuits or whatever you prefer. We do this because
muscle is best built when you are well rested enough to lift with good support
from your stabilizer muscles and to fail based on muscle strength, not being out
of breath or whatnot from not resting long enough.
How long should I be in the gym?
That doesn’t really matter, but most guys finish the workouts in about an hour.
I’ve got some tightness in my muscles. Should I stretch?
Probably not. Stretching won’t help, and just because a muscle is tight doesn’t
mean it needs to be lengthened. If your hamstrings feel tight, for example,
it might be because they are always stretched due to poor posture—more
specifically your hips tilted forward, pulling them tight. Stretching them more
would just worsen the problem. Well, actually it probably wouldn’t, since
stretching isn’t very good at actually lengthening muscles.
A better way to improve mobility and posture is to develop strength and
work on your exercise technique and range of motion. If that doesn’t work,
Marco has a more advanced posture guide here.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I don’t feel much burn. Am I doing it wrong?
Feeling the burn is a sign that you’re stimulating your muscles via metabolic
stress. That’s good. That’s one way that muscles grow. It’s not important when
compared with metabolic tension though—how much weight you lift through
what range of motion how often.
Still, in higher rep sets (10+) it can be good to work up a burn, pump
your muscles up, make Schwarzenegger proud. With anything less than 8 reps
though not having a pump is fine.
I want to work out 4–5 days a week. Why shouldn’t I do this?
You can! Just split up the Bony to Beastly workouts in half. Do the lower body
lifts one day, the upper body lifts the next. Your week could become: upper body
day, lower body day, upper body day, lower body day, rest, full body, rest, rest—
something like that.
This provides no advantage over working out three times per week
though. We already have the program optimized for total number of sets per
muscle group performed per week. We also have frequency optimized—how
often you hit each muscle group (3x per week).
You can break up the workouts in this way because it affects neither the
weekly volume nor the weekly frequency per muscle group. It also leaves at
least a day of rest before lifting with the same muscle group again.
I can’t do circuits at my gym. Are they crucial?
Nope! Circuits just make the workouts more efficient while giving you a bit of
a cardiovascular workout. Not doing the circuits will yield the same muscular
gains. Just rest a little longer. 2–3 minutes between sets instead of 1–2 minutes.
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Nutrition Questions
How do you track calories & protein?
Just a guesstimation is often more than enough. You can look at labels of the
food you buy to see how many calories and how much protein is in each serving.
You can google anything that doesn’t have a proper label. If you’re not totally
precise it’s not the end of the world, since your weekly weigh-in will tell you if
you consumed enough calories that week or not. If you want to be more precise
though, we’ve got a detailed calorie and macro tracking guide here.
I’m having trouble eating enough protein.
The easiest solution of all is getting some protein powder. But you could also
buy some greek yoghurt or cottage cheese. Shane loves his cottage cheese with
a side of strawberry jam. You also buy some Quest bars. Or use more meat in
your meals. Or have some skim milk alongside your meals.
After a couple days of bulking I’ve got a big stomach already.
Is your stomach mushier? If yes, then there is fat on top of your stomach.
However, after just a couple days of bulking, chances are that fat was already
there. Noticeable amounts of fat are not usually gained in a couple of days,
especially if you haven’t gained 5+ pounds on the scale.
Is your stomach bloatier? If yes, it might be because you’re intolerant to
or unable to fully digest something that you’re eating. For example, if all of a
sudden you’re eating far more protein than you’re used to, you might wind up
with a bloated stomach. And some really unpleasant gas. Slowly increasing
your protein intake over the course of a couple weeks should solve this issue.
Spreading your protein intake out over the course of the day could help too.
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Did you eat recently? If yes, it might be a food baby. When eating very
large meals you can expect to look like you’re expecting. If this is unpleasant or
unsexy, eating more modestly sized meals more frequently might work better
than eating just a couple very large meals.
Can I bulk on a high fat diet?
It’s easy to bulk by eating a lot of fat because fat is very very calorically dense. A
gram of carbs or protein has just 4 calories whereas a gram of fat has 9—more
than twice as many calories per gram. If you consider bacon, butter, ice cream
and/or pizza delicious, you know that high fat foods can also taste pretty good.
However, dietary fat is very easily stored as body fat. If you bulk by eating
a lot of fat you will wind up gaining a lot of fat. You will do better by keeping
your fat intake to around 30% of your calories tops. Go wild with carbs and
protein instead, you foxy paleo beast.
Can I do paleo?
Sure! Dietary restriction makes things a littler trickier on the lifestyle side of
things, but if you so desire you can totally align this diet to suit your preferences
and interests. If paleo is your preference, have at it.
I’m a vegetarian. How do I build muscle?
Just like everyone else. Not everyone eats everything, and not eating meat
isn't a huge issue. Yes, dietary restriction makes things a littler trickier on the
lifestyle side of things, but you can still build muscle just fine so long as you hit
your daily protein targets. Fortunately, a vegetarian diet is not very restricted.
Getting enough protein is not that unrealistic. It just might mean more beans,
nuts, grains, dairy, eggs, or some vegetarian protein powder.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I’m a vegan, how do I build muscle?
A vegan diet is quite restricted, which can make it more difficult to eat in social
settings, especially when you can’t just opt for the pasta or whatnot because
there’s not enough protein in pasta. So being a vegan can create a need to choose
restaurants based on what dishes are available, and it can mean keeping some
protein powder on hand for when you cook up a meal that isn’t rich in protein.
You can still build muscle just as well as any omnivore though, it just takes a
little more planning to get in enough protein to reach your goals.
Can I exercise in the morning before breakfast?
Sure! Have a coffee, have a warm shower to get some blood flowing in your
muscles, hit the weight room, shower again, have some breakfast. If you feel
that showering twice would fully strip you of your masculine musk, you can
skip the pre-gym shower and just spend a little time warming up before your
warmups. This will get blood flowing. A full song spent Richard-Simmonsing
should do the trick, or 5 minutes on a stationary bike.
Can I do intermittent fasting? I heard it’s good for lean muscle stuff.
Meh. It’s okay for cutting, since it’s a novel and effective way to pleasantly reduce
calorie intake while still getting to eat indulgent dinners. Cool as a lifestyle
experiment too. So when cutting feel free to try it.
When bulking you want to find a diet to pleasantly increase calorie intake
instead. This usually means eating more often. Plus, eating more often means
more frequent muscle protein synthesis, which means more muscle growth. This
caps out at 4–5 meals per day, so no need to go wild here. 3–5 meals per day is best.
6–7 is fine too if you really struggle to eat enough due to a small stomach.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What brands of protein are the best?
Most big brands that sell whey protein isolate do a pretty good job. Whey
protein is cheap to produce and the industry is quite well established now. It’s
not new or trendy or daring or edgy or anything. Whey is the potatoes of the
supplement industry. Easy to make, easy to sell. If the marketing makes it seem
like more… it’s probably just hype so don’t pay it any attention.
We're hesitant to recommend a brand, but we can say that Jared and
Shane use and enjoy AllMax Unflavoured “IsoNatural”. It’s just straight up
plain old whey protein isolate. It doesn’t even have any flavouring in it. When
looking for a plant-based protein powder we opt for SunWarrior.
Do I need to have a huge post-workout meal?
If you have the whey/maltodextrin workout shake that we talk about in the
supplement section you do not need to stress about workout nutrition at all.
That beast of a drink has you totally 100% covered. Beyond that, you just want
to make sure to hit your daily calorie and macro targets.
As a general rule of thumb though—and especially if you don’t have the
Beastly workout shake—you’ll want to have a fairly hearty post-workout meal
that’s carb and protein dominant.
How soon after lifting can I have a drink?
Ideally you'll finish up your compound lifts first. Nothing much can go wrong if
you’re a little tipsy while doing your bicep curls, but you wouldn’t want to risk
being clumsy during a deadlift. So after circuit A—or even circuit B if you want
to play it safe.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How much can I drink?
Having a drink or two per day is fine. Maybe three sometimes. This won't
reudce your gains, make you fat, etc. However, binge drinking isn't great for
building lean muscle, and being hungover doesn't make for a good workout.
Also, anything that gets in the way of eating good food is an issue. So basically
just drink like a healthy, responsible man and you'll be totally fine. Anything
bordering on reckless or unhealthy won't be great for your gains.
The workout drink tastes like death. What can I do about this?
Try some of the other flavours in the Supplement Protocol section. Or plug your
nose and think of the Queen. (Americans might prefer to think of the Founding
Fathers.)
Can I use mass gainers?
Yep! Use them in the same way that we recommend using our workout shake—
have it while training, or right after training.
If you absolutely must, you can even have a weight gainer on rest days.
It’s not the end of the world, and it can allow you to hit your calorie and macro
goals more easily. Just be warned that it’s also not the healthiest choice in the
world. You want around 80% of your calories coming from nutritious whole
foods and having a weight gainer each day makes this not very realistic.
However, weight gainers are low in fat and easy on the appetite. Gains
will be made, gains will be lean. So if you must, you must!
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My appetite isn’t growing, what can I do?
You don’t need to bulk forever. You’ll be done bulking and you can go back to
eating an amount of food that aligns with your appetite. However, while you
may not be bulking forever, it may seem like you’re bulking forever. A few
months can be way too long to force yourself to overeat. You’ll surely run out of
willpower before accomplishing your goals.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a break. Reduce your calorie
intake by around 500 calories for a few days. Keep training, keep eating well,
but take a break from gaining weight. When your stomach is happy again and
your willpower is recharged, add those 500 calories back in.
Or, if you simply can’t spare a few days—if you want to keep the gain
train chugging—then maybe check out this sample meal plan. It has some
suggestions for creating a diet that allows you to eat more calories more
comfortably.
Are you sure the calorie formula works? I’m not gaining weight.
The basics of weight manipulation are very well established. People lose
weight in a deficit, gain weight in a surplus. This is basic science. However,
when researchers instruct study participants to eat a certain amount, science
seems to fall flat on its face.
Let’s say you’re running a study looking into body temperature changes
with calorie restriction in 30 year old overweight men. You instruct all your
participants to eat 1200 calories per day, which is cutting their daily intake
in half. You check in with them periodically over the course of the study, and
everyone reports that they’re doing just fine. A month later you have a problem
though. Everyone claimed to be eating these itty bitty amounts, yet surprisingly
their weight didn’t budge.
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This is a well known phenomena, and at first glance it can be very
confusing. This is why many studies are done in a setting where calorie intake
is controlled directly by the researchers. See, when there’s no subjectivity
in calorie tracking, no sneaking in snacks, no guesstimating the meal at the
restaurant—then calorie intake leads to very predictable weight loss. There’s
some individual variation, and different metabolisms will respond differently,
but the weight loss is still very predictable.
You could say that the lesson here is that people aren’t very good at
tracking their calorie intake. This is true. The average overweight dude will be
off by a whopping 47%. That isn’t necessarily his fault, it’s just really tough to
properly track calories. You might accidentally snack on a 1000 calories of nuts
while watching a movie but log 300 calories because it didn’t seem like much.
Similarly, you might log 1000 calories after eating this enormously huge salad
with grilled chicken on top… which might only be 300 calories.
I would argue that the bigger lesson here is that our feelings of hunger
and fullness are imperfect. Sometimes we need to watch what we eat a little
more closely. For us skinny guys, we might skip a breakfast one day without
realizing. That might put us in an 800 calorie hole that we don’t make up for.
That can have a big impact on our weekly weight gain, or lack thereof.
If you’re sure that you’re eating enough but your weight is not budging,
then you aren’t in a calorie surplus yet. We'd recommend eating an additional
200–300 calories per day. That could be an extra glass of milk with lunch or
dinner, a serving of trail mix as a snack, or slightly larger portion sizes. Continue
increasing calorie intake like this each week as needed.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I’m having trouble eating enough protein.
People often miss an opportunity to build muscle by having a small or lower
protein breakfast. You might want to buy some protein powder and make
yourself a fruit/protein smoothie (or just mix it with water and have it alongside
your first meal). You can have a couple scoops of the stuff, which will add 60 or
so grams of protein to your breakfast and help you kick your day off properly.
Now, if you wanted to really build muscle super quickly, you might want
to split up your protein intake more evenly over yours meals so that you’re
maximally stimulating muscle protein synthesis several times per day, but
that’s pretty advanced stuff.
Can I have juice?
Juice can be pretty processed, depending on what type you get. It can have some
nutrients in it too though, especially if it’s 100% fruit juice. Liquid calories are
a good way to help boost you into a calorie surplus too. I have no problem with
you drinking juice, especially if you’re having it alongside a whole food meal.
Okay. What about juicing tho?
Steroids? When used under the supervision of a doctor steroids can be safe. If
your doctor prescribes some sort of hormone replacement therapy or whatnot
to treat an issue then that won’t interfere with this program at all.
It might not help, either. Unless your testosterone levels are ridiculously high they won’t
have a large impact on the rate that you can build muscle. A doctor would prescribe you an
amount to make you healthy, not Arnold.
If you’re talking about illegally taking steroids, then, err, that’s probably
a bad idea. There are the larger social issues of buying illegal drugs—a lot of
the rape and murder in Latin American, for example, is financed by North
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Americans buying illegal drugs for their own personal benefit—but taking
steroids can also be a bad idea on a personal level. You’ll have no doctor
managing the effects. No one making sure you don’t wind up with boobs, acne,
infertility, heart issues, a dysfunctional hormone system, etc. You don’t even
have a guarantee that the drugs you’re taking are actually steroids!
I’ve just started the program and my stomach is already huge.
You may have discovered an intolerance. You may also be eating more food, and
thus more sodium, and thus holding onto more water. Water retention from a
higher sodium intake will usually self-resolve as your body adjusts to your new
intake. You may even become more tolerant to the thing you’re having trouble
digesting, producing more digestive enzymes to digest the protein and lactose
in the extra milk you’re drinking, for example.
However it's more likely that the bulge is either due to more food in your
stomach or tired abdominal muscles. More food in your stomach will make you
look a little pregnant. So too will loosey goosey abdominal muscles that don’t
hold your stomach and pelvis in a proper position.
Food babies are okay. You could try eating smaller meals more frequently.
Same amount of calories, smaller meals. This is not really an issue though,
since it will be gone as soon as you stop eating like a monster.
The weaker abdominal muscles are trickier. If you do the program
properly—including the warmups and constantly trying to improve on your
technique—over time your posture will improve and your abs will become
stronger. This will help hold your pelvis in a better position, putting your abs
in a more favourable position to contract. Your abs will also be substantially
stronger. So that will solve that issue. It’s not a quick fix, but it will be worth it.
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So i’ve been feeling...
gassy.
Are you all of a sudden eating a heck of a lot more protein than you’re used
to? This is your body saying, “whoa look at all this nutrition! We aren’t used
to processing this much amazing and wholesome protein!” Unfortunately,
your body’s way of saying thank you is with particularly potent gas. This is very
temporary. Your body will start producing more digestive enzymes and soon
you’ll be digesting protein like a pro.
However, if your significant other is starting to complain just slowly ramp
up your protein dosages over the course of a couple weeks instead of all at once.
Bulking Lifestyle Questions
How long should I sleep every night?
This varies, but something like like 7.5 hours is good for most people. More can
be considered indulgent, but some people legitimately do need it. As someone
who is bulking, you may become one of those people who legitimately needs it.
So sleeping for 8 or even 9 hours per night is not a horrible idea if you have the
time for it. Or maybe you save the longer sleep sessions for after deadlift day.
I missed a few workouts—Where do I start?
Right where you left off! Or, if by a “few” workouts you mean, like, 2 months,
then restart at the beginning of the phase that you left off at. Halfway through
Phase Two? Begin at the beginning of Phase Two.
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I just feel… tired.
Are you sleeping enough? Are you tired after you eat humungous meals? Are
you training all the way to failure even though you we warned you not to? Are
you doing extra exercises? Do you have a super active lifestyle? Are you on
medication? Or stressed out by something else?
Let us know what’s up in the community and we can help you out.
My schedule is busy, any tips?
Working out three hours per week and eating fairly decently is pretty
reasonable. No matter how busy you are, you will eventually be able to find
time for this. However, this may be a new thing. It doesn’t have a place in your
schedule yet. And right now it’s not part of your routine, it’s something extra—
it’s something that requires willpower.
However there’s also the issue of eating a lot. Eating a lot of food can take
a lot of time and energy if you aren’t smart about it.
Check this post out. It’s got some ideas for crafting a very simple diet that
makes it easy to eat a lot without taking up a lot of your time.
As for the working out, if you don’t have time to go to the gym, you may
be able to build a gym at home.
What should I do during vacation?
We wrote a blog post about this that you might like. Basically though, if your
holiday is only a couple weeks long don’t even worry about it all that much.
Maybe pack some Quest bars so that you have a pleasant tasting fairly nutritious
high protein snack (or breakfast) in a pinch. Choose dishes on restaurant
menus that contain some protein—you know, the fish or chicken dish, not the
vegetarian pasta. And finally, try to eat enough to neither lose nor gain weight.
That will help make sure that you don’t lose muscle or gain fat, since you won’t
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
be training or eating a totally ideal muscle-building/muscle retention diet.
You don’t need to work out. Two weeks won’t result in any muscle loss.
However, you may want to keep in the routine of training a few times per
week. Bodyweight workouts 3x per week are good for this. We’ve got a gymless
workout program here.
I’m stoked on my results, but can I take a break from bulking?
Reduce your calorie intake by around 500 calories per day. You can reduce your
protein intake by a little bit too if you want—maybe reducing it by around 30%.
Keep lifting weights and keep active, but just a good solid workout or two
per week is enough to maintain your gains. However, there are many many
health benefits that come along with more physical activity. So if you aren’t
inclined to take up cardio or sports, we’d recommend that you keep lifting a
good 3x per week.
What if partway through through the program I have too many dates
to have time to continue doing the program?
Wear baggier clothes. It’s not a perfect solution, but it should help.
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SEE YOU IN THE FORUM
A BIG THANK YOU!
WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT
Bony to Beastly was founded in 2012 by Shane Duquette, Marco Walker-Ng,
and Jared Polowick. Since then they’ve had the opportunity to help thousands
of skinny guys on their journey to build muscle—despite spending so much of
their time writing in the third person.
To date they’ve written dozens of completely free articles on their website
www.bonytobeastly.com, which you should definitely share with your friends.
Thank you very much, we—err— they owe you one.
Lastly here’s a plug to their sister program Bony to Bombshell, a musclebuilding & weight-gain program for women, which launched in 2013.