Hang around any fitness site long enough and the question of weight gain, or more specifically, muscle gain, will be raised. If you frequent the bodybuilding sites, the question, “How do I gain muscle?” will put you in the company of everyone from the pre-pubescent to the peri-andropausal; in other words, everyone. Make the desire to gain muscle known around a fitness-oriented site and you may be met with equal parts disdain and confusion: disdain because it’s obscene to want to gain muscle (most equate this desire with purely aesthetic motives) and confusion because few people have a solid understanding of how to gain functional muscle mass.

The question of how to gain muscle mass, whether for aesthetic or performance reasons, is one of the most common in sporting and athletic circles. The only close runner-ups I can think of are, “How do I get lean?” and, “What’s the proper form for a reverse curl?" The answer to the lean question can be complex and is beyond the scope of this article, but the reverse curl answer is simple: perform the movement in the middle of a busy street so you will be removed form the gene-pool and neither sire nor bear demon spawn who also desire to “curl”. Where was I? Oh! Gaining muscle. The simple answer to the mass gain conundrum: perform some resistance exercise, eat prodigious amounts of food, and rest adequately. Trips to Tijuana can be an effective solution to this universal problem, but that can also leave one with “huevos como pasas” or as the guest at a federally sponsored sleep-over program called “Da Big-House”. What’s a poor skinny dude/dudette to do if your last name is not Fragoso, Twardokens or Savage? Well, you need to get smart and use the best of what’s available.


Le Programme
Or for non-French Speakers, The Program

As I mentioned above, the key elements of gaining muscle include resistance training (notice I did not specifically say weight lifting—various gymnastics movements can be quite effective in adding size and strength), nutrition and lifestyle. We have put together a training template using Olympic lifts and O-lift derivatives with a few gymnastics moves. Nutritionally we are offering several approaches, starting with the Zone and Cyclic low carb, and incorporating elements of intermittent fasting to optimize hormonal response. Finally, we will crawl up your lifestyle hoo-ha (metaphorically, of course) to ensure you are doing everything possible to optimize recovery and growth.

Let's take a close look at the training first, work our way through the nutrition, and wrap it all up with lifestyle.


Train, Train, Train… Train of Fools

I want to make a point here, and some of my own training experience makes that point pretty well. For several years when I was powerlifting, I had floundered with my training as I took every workout, virtually every set of every workout, to huevo-busting levels of intensity. I screamed, yelled, shook… and made very little progress. I had very poor sleep, a racing pulse and constant irritability. Yes, I was going through puberty, but my already dicey mental state was made far worse by my lame program and chronic overtraining.

Two guys who were former world champion powerlifters, either out of kindness or a desire to have peace in the gym, decided to apprentice me in the sport of powerlifting. My training was simple: move heavy weights and use looooong rest periods between sets. It was normal to rest 3-5 minutes between sets when we were in a peaking phase.

Although most people would consider the training archaic, we used a simple linear periodization model of higher reps and lower weight cycling down to low rep, high weight work. Monday was squat day. Most of the year I squatted using an Olympic-style high-bar, narrow stance, ass-to-ankles squat. This type of squatting was very demanding and made the competition powerlifting squat seem like cheating! On Monday I also did some accessory movements for the bench press, abs and basic bodybuilding stuff. I benched on Wednesday and did pull-ups, rowing, shrugs and tripe like that. On Friday I deadlifted, but early in the cycle, I performed lots of power cleans to work speed off the floor. I used the same linear periodization on the bench and deadlift. The only other nifty stuff I can think of was using the power rack to target sticking points with isometric work.

The results? At 19 years of age, 5’ 9” and 181 lbs, I had a 565 lb squat and deadlift and 345 lb bench. The only supportive gear I wore was an Inzer lever belt for squats and deadlifts. No hydraulic bench shirts or poly-metallic alloy exoskeleton. Now, I was not FIT by any stretch of the imagination. Walking up a flight of stairs put my heart near redline, but I was pretty strong and could dunk a tennis ball standing flat footed under a basketball hoop. My nutrition was abysmal… high carb and low fat, and that put my body fat at about 15%. With what I know now, both with regards to nutrition and general physical preparedness, I could have been the same bodyweight with almost 20 lbs more muscle!

This trip down memory lane does have a point. The time in my life that I was the strongest and heaviest was when I had a VERY conservative training program that focused on putting more weight on the bar from workout to workout. I was also absolutely sure I had adequate recovery form one session to the other. If you are at all a hard-gainer and/or have difficulty with recovery, a stripped-down program is critical to success.

If one has a goal of gaining muscle mass, a key point needs to be kept in mind: Stimulate, don’t annihilate. In practical terms, we want to send ENOUGH of a stimulus to ensure a favorable adaptation. A workout that sidelines us for 3-5 days is in the annihilation category.

The stimulus should ideally have two features. The first is a mild-moderate amount of protein degradation caused by training volume. The second is to try to add resistance to each movement in a consistent manner. This ensures development of the neurological aspects of strength and it encourages growth of muscular contractile elements, not satellite cells and edema due to excessive volume. These factors considered, our training plan includes alternating mesocycles of moderate weight, moderate volume hypertrophy-specific training and moderate-high volume, heavy strength work. We are including a dash of metabolic conditioning and active recovery not only to enhance performance, but to also make those long climbs up two flights of stairs a little easier.


The Little Things

The training program is fairly straightforward. It's based on 1-week microcycles, each of which belongs to either a hypertrophy or strength mesocycle, each of which ends in an unloading microcycle. A single 7-week macrocycle consists of 3 hypertrophy microcycles, 1 unloading hypertrophy microcycle, 2 strength microcycles, and 1 unloading strength microcycle. 1RM testing is built into the schedule for both the measurement of progress and calculations of training loads.

Let's address some details:


Set/Rep Notation

The sets and reps when following a weight or percentage are in the order of reps x sets, e.g. 90% x 2 x 10 means 10 sets of 2 reps of 90% of the 1RM load. If a load prescription is absent, the format is the conventional sets x reps, e.g. 3 x 10 means 3 sets of 10 reps.


Prescribed Loading

Training loads are prescribed by percentage of 1RM. Most are based on the 1RM of that movement itself, but some are based on the 1RM of an associated movement—this is noted where applicable. Not a single rep in this entire training program should be taken to failure—don't do it. During the first hypertrophy microcycle, in fact, the loads should feel almost too light.

The template calls for the addition of 2%/week to the loads. What increases are actually possible is dependent on a number of variables, so it will range greatly both among individuals and movements. This will be something that requires some flexibility and experimentation by each individual. Some may find that greater increases are possible, and others may find 2% far too large of a jump. In the case of the latter, bump up the weight as little as your equipment will allow and/or perform less than all prescribed sets with this increased load, then drop down to the last microcycle's load for the remaining sets.

The loading percentages listed in the descriptions of microcycles are the percentages for the first microcycle. For example, the hypertrophy microcycle description lists 60% x 6 x 6. This is for week 1. Week 2 would be 62% x 6 x 6, and week three 64% x 6 x 6. If you find the initial percentage too heavy for a particular movement, drop it. Remember, if you're approaching failure in the first sets during the first microcycle, you're going to struggle to make it through. Start lower and make sure you're increasing the load each week.


Interset Rest

During the hypertrophy phase, rest between sets should be 1 minute, except when performing circuits, in which case rest should be limited to only that which is necessary. During the strength phase, longer interset rest is appropriate, from 1-3 minutes. You should feel well-recovered before jumping into the next set.


Abs-Back Circuit

In both the hypertrophy and strength phases, the prescription calls for "Abs-Back Circuit". During the hypertrophy phase, this should be higher volume work, such as a circuit of an ab movement, such as GHD sit-ups, hanging leg raises, knee-to-elbows, etc., and a back movement, such as GHD back extensions, reverse extensions, etc. During the strength phase, this work should drop in volume but increase in intensity—that is, where applicable add weight to the movements and perform fewer reps. Or this can mean using a movement like the hanging leg raise, of which you may be capable of only doing 5-6 reps unweighted. During the unloading microcycles, this circuit should follow the same format, but with about 50% of the volume used during the rest of the mesocycle.


Push-Pull Circuit

On Fridays of the hypertrophy microcycles, you'll see "Push-Pull Circuit." Like the abs-back circuit described above, this is a circuit of one pushing movement with one pulling movement performed in moderate to high volume. An example would be alternating between 10 kipping pull-ups and 10 clapping push ups as many times as you can in 10 minutes. Change this circuit each week for variety and try increasing the volume each week.


Strength Cycle Max Days

The strength cycle is based on Coach Mike Burgener's training template. Saturdays are contest days; that is, you'll work up to your heaviest snatch, clean & jerk and front squat. Remember, these are your maxes for the day; you may not always get a new record.


Unloading

Unloading microcycles appear at the end of both the hypertrophy and strength mesocycles—these lower volume and lower intensity weeks will allow you some periodic recovery while preventing detraining.


Rest Days

Rest days should include some active recovery efforts such as light sled pulling, wheel barrow walking, boxing technique work, o-lifting technique work with PVC. This work should be non-taxing—no lactic acid production, vomiting, tunnel vision or anything related—keep in mind, this is rest. Follow it if you can with a cold plunge.


Testing Days

Testing days are scheduled at the end of unloading microcycles. This is when you'll determine your 1RMs to calculate your training loads for the following cycle. Remember, you're testing 1RMs for the movements you'll be using in the NEXT cycle—not the one you're finishing.


Record Keeping

Record keeping will be a critical component of success with this plan. Because it's predicated on consistent load increases, knowing the loads you've used from cycle to cycle will be important. Unless you're Rain Man, don't make the mistake of thinking you'll remember all the numbers. Pens are neither expensive nor difficult to find (Speak to your local pharmaceutical rep for complimentary writing implements).


Good Eats!

If you want to grow you will need to eat… an amazing amount. That may be an enjoyable scenario if pizza and donuts are your main food groups, but we actually care about body composition and health a little, so expect to get the preponderance of your foods from meat, fruit, nuts, oils and yams. If you are in a serious hurry, you can use the Ido Portal method that we will look at later. I have some trepidation with this approach as it involves some serious insulin spiking… but it does appear to work very well. Before we get to that, let's look at how to use the Zone and cyclic low carb to best effect. Put on your feed-bag!


The Zone

The advantage of the Zone is that you know EXACTLY how much food you are eating and thus can assess your situation critically and subsequently make informed decisions. You can dial up or down protein, carbs or fat to run as lean or hot as you like. This regimentation virtually guarantees success, as you will be able to alter you nutrition to continue to move towards your goals. For an in-depth how-to for the Zone, you can check out issue two (http://www.performancemenu.com/backissues/index.php?show=issue&issueNum=2) of the Performance Menu or you can get help with the calculations directly from Barry “I Don’t Follow My Own Diet” Sears (http://www.enterthezonediet.com/learn/zone-diet-calculator.html).

As an example, I weigh 173 lbs and am about 8% body fat. That means I have 159 lbs of lean body mass. My activity level is about a 0.8 considering I O-lift, kickbox a little, and do about 2-4 WODs per week. That 0.8 multiplier leaves me with a unit-less number of 127, which I divide by 7 to get my block allotment of 18 blocks. So that is:

173 lbs x 0.08 BF = 13.8 lbs fat
173lbs - 13.8 = 159 lbs LBM
159 x 0.8 = 127
127 / 7 = 18 blocks

If that process doesn't make sense, check out the Issue 2 Performance Menu and/or the link to the Zone website for a more patient and thorough discussion.

So my base Zone is 18 blocks, but to support my activity level, I have ratcheted up the fat content by a multiple of 5. Since our goal is mass gain, an appreciation of how many calories we are taking in might be helpful. Each Zone block has approximately 90 calories (trust me), so that puts my base level caloric intake at 1640 calories. Pretty skinny, and that’s why people on the base Zone drop fat like crazy. That’s also why I need to ratchet up my fat content so my energy intake approximately matches my output. When I have ratcheted up my fat blocks to 5X, I am taking in 2610cals per day. That is some pretty serious eating, but again, that is a maintenance level. If you want to add muscle, you will need to eat more! The easiest way to do that is to add another block… or two. If you are at 5X for your fat multiplier, add 1 block every 2 weeks. That represents approximately a 200 calorie increase. Even if your fat multiplier is 2-3, it might be a good idea to just step things up one block every 2 weeks. This will allow your digestion to adapt to the increased food intake and it provides you an opportunity to monitor your progress.

This brings up two digressions. The first digression relates to the ability to digest fat. Some people have reported they do not handle the ramped up fat content very effectively. These hearty souls have mentioned digestive problems and the condition “steatorhea” (http://www.diagnose-me.com/cond/C634635.html). If you actually read that link you likely understand that if fat absorption is an issue, a high-fat diet can be, shall we say, unpleasant. One can investigate what the issue is, such as potential parasitic infection or lack of adequate bile salts from the gall bladder, or just eat less fat! If you find the ramped up fat level to be too much, simply find the fat level you are comfortable with, typically baseline to 2X, and then add 2 blocks every 2 weeks instead of 1 block every 2 weeks for the 3-5X fat crowd. Ok, that’s digression number one.

Digression number two has to do with fat gain. I have in the past endorsed the plan to get as lean as possible before trying to gain muscle. The argument for this is that with a low body fat level, one will tend to partition excess calories to muscle instead of fat. If one is at a lower body weight, the amount of testosterone that is aromatized to estrogen tends to be minimized. Sounds like good stuff, and for certain I am not advocating the classic powerlifter approach to mass gain: 1 gallon of chocolate milk and 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches IMMEDIATELY before bed! The reality, however, is that when one is gaining muscle, it is fairly normal to gain some fat in the bargain. Your abs may soften up for a while, but there is a reality that a higher body fat level CAN be a highly anabolic environment due to elevated IGF levels. My main point is that if you REALLY want to gain a significant amount of muscle, you may need to temporarily take a small hit with regards to body composition. A common obstacle for people trying to gain mass is the inevitable meltdown they experience at the realization that their body fat level has increased (although usually nowhere near as much as they believe), and their consequent cessation of increased eating—this results in a lot of time wasted in a 1-step-forward, 1-step-backward routine. The way we are structuring our programming, you should be able to keep fat gain to a minimum, and the smart use of intermittent fasting may help to keep insulin sensitivity rocking. More on that later.

Something you are likely wondering is how much do you increase your food intake? That is difficult to say. For some people muscle gain may come in a fairly linear fashion. Add 2 blocks, and a month down the road they will have gained 1-2 lbs of lean body mass. Other people will add 3-4 blocks at 5X fat (600-800 calories) and still not see change in the scale, performance or measuring tape. A good standard is to increase your intake approximately 5 blocks (1, 000 cals) and stay at that point for at least a month. See how your body reacts to this, and if you need to add more weight to reach your goal, you can start this process again. If you are gaining too much body fat, you might try dropping 25% of the carb blocks and replace each carb block with 3 blocks of fat. Don’t multiply that fat by 5!! Just add in another 3 blocks of fat for every carb block you delete.

Ok, let's shift gears and look and another approach to this whole process!


CLC: The Revenge

If the Zone is not to your liking, you can use a cyclic low carb approach. The strength of the Zone is that you know exactly how much food you are taking in, but there is no reason we cannot have that precision with other approaches. Let's look at my situation again as an example. If you recall, my maintenance level Zone is 18 blocks at 5X fat. That means I am taking in 18 blocks (126 grams) of protein, 18 blocks (162 grams) of carbs and 90 blocks (135 grams) of fat in a given day. Most cyclic low carb programs recommend somewhere between 20-60 grams of carbs per day. The Metabolic Diet recommends that you ratchet your carbs up to match your recovery needs, plus occasional high carb days. That seems like a good approach, and it looks a bunch like following the Zone, but it does appear that a caloric excess more from fat than from carbs will likely result in less fat gain. Sounds good to me, so let's run with this.

Since a block of carbs is 9 grams, you can dial in your carb level pretty easily. And for every block of carbs you delete, just add 3 fat blocks to your day's total. So let's say that I am doing a fairly liberal carb level and am taking in 7 blocks of carbs. Keep in mind all of your carbs should come from multi-colored, low-glycemic-load vegetable matter. That leaves 18 blocks of protein since we have not altered that, and since I have deleted 11 blocks of carbs, I need to add 33 blocks of fat to my daily total, which puts me up to 123 blocks of fat. Let's see what that looks like with regards to both calories and grams.

18 blocks protein = 126 grams protein = 504 calories
7 blocks carbs = 63 grams = 252 calories
123 blocks fat = 184 grams + 27 grams in protein = 1899 calories
Total = 2655 calories

This is almost identical to my ramped-up Zone calorie level. Another way to do it if you are deleting 11 blocks of carbs is to add 5 blocks of protein and 18 blocks of fat (11 – 5 = 6; 6 x 3 = 18 blocks fat). A nice way to step up the calories is to add 2 blocks of protein and 11 blocks of fat every 2 weeks. One additional carb block every month would likely be fine as well.

Since we are discussing cyclic low carb, we need to look at the carb load phase, which can be approached a few different ways. The first way is to have a full day of high carb intake with a total of 300-500 grams of carbs every 3-5 days. Alternatively, you can simply do 1-2 meals every third or fifth day and again take in 300-500 grams of carbs. Choose sources like yams, sweet potatoes, turnips, berries, melons and grapes. These sources are all either starchy or have a high glucose:fructose ratio and thus will preferentially fill muscle glycogen. You can also drop protein intake on your carb load day to very low levels: this will allow more room to accommodate your carbs and it makes your system a bit more thrifty with regards to protein usage. Make sure to keep fat intake low (base Zone block levels) on your carb load day or at least for high carb meals.


Low Carb by the Seat of Your Pants

The previous was a very detailed plan and perhaps a bit stifling for some. Here is a seat of the pants approach for the free spirits: 4-7 meals per day, each meal containing 20-50 grams of protein, loads of fibrous, nutrient-dense vegetable matter, and as much fat as you can stand. Every third to fifth day, implement a carb load as per the recommendations above. Pretty damn simple, no? This is the method I have typically gravitated towards. It does not provide one the level of detailed information to follow progress, but it works remarkably well. This is the first time I have mentioned meal frequency but I need to look at that topic separately… so let's get to it!


Fast and Grow Big

Sorry about that heading. It either sounds like very bad grammar or some kind of oxymoronic-hippy, but the smart implementation of intermittent fasting may be a key to success in your Mass Plan. If you are interested in a detailed account of intermittent fasting (IF), you can check out Issue 6 (http://www.performancemenu.com/backissues/index.php?show=issue&issueNum=6) and Issue 16 (http://www.performancemenu.com/backissues/index.php?show=issue&issueNum=16). If you are not interested in the details of IF, shame on you, and here is a minimalist explanation: Brief fasts appear to enhance insulin sensitivity, decrease inflammation, enhance performance, improve anabolic status, favorably alter nutrient partitioning… and possibly increase lifespan. There are two main methods that have been employed: alternation of fasting and eating days—fast day 1; eat like crazy day 2; repeat—or compression of daily eating into a 5-9-hour window (eat all your meals in this time frame and fast the remainder of the day).

Intermittent fasting is in stark contrast to the standard bodybuilding dogma that advocates 6-8 small meals per day and even waking up in the middle of the night for one extra slug of nutrients. That method undoubtedly works, but at what price, and is it really optimal? If one can get that same number of calories in during a six-hour feeding time, are there benefits? We think so. Several people have reported gaining a significant amount of muscle mass on this approach. These same people have had limited success on the “eat all day” plan. You might consider a hybrid approach in which you intermittent fast every second or third day. The benefits of improved insulin sensitivity are remarkable. Give some consideration to this technology.


The Last Straw

This final approach is a recommendation from our good friend, Ido Portal. Ido is an amazing strength coach and a hell of an athlete: he boasts a low 3 minute Fran, 3X BW deadlift, 5% BF level, planche push ups and does workouts like 130 standing back flips for time—he knows what he is doing. Ido’s plan involves using the seat-of-your-pants low-carb approach: protein, fat and greens at every meal, carb load every 3-5 days. Protein at a level of 2-3 g/lb of body weight/day… that’s a lot! And one small tweak: Ido recommends a post-workout shake that includes 150ml of grape juice, 40g of branched chain amino acids, and 40g of protein powder, preferably whey protein isolate. It’s not paleo, and it may spike insulin to amazing levels, but he guarantees its efficacy. Ido is NOT a fan of IF, so he recommends many meals throughout the day. I think IF could improve this situation due to its effects on insulin sensitivity, but Ido is frankly aghast at the idea. The bottom line is that plan is effective—but it requires participants recognize and accept potential consequences of regular, enormous insulin spiking. It's not the healthiest approach, but as a temporarily means to an end, it will likely not kill you before you reach your weight goal.


Lifestyle

Recovery is something that is generally dismissed as inconsequential, but I find that those who ignore this topic are either gifted themselves or focus their efforts on those who have extraordinary natural recovery. What about the genetically average?
I saw this in the Capoeira group I was formerly a part of. Super long classes, late hours, after practice parties… Lots of fun to be sure, but what this selected for was the young and the strong. If you were a little older or of average recovery, you were burnt to a crisp by this schedule.

Stay tuned for a thorough accounting of recovery in a future issue, but for now here are a few things to keep in mind:

Sleep: Get 8-10 hours per day if you can. If it gets you fired or divorced, go for less, but try to awake sans alarm.

Fish Oil: Take 3-10 grams per day with meals. Keep capsules frozen to prevent oxidation.

Cryotherapy: Fancy term for sitting in a cold body of water. Eva Twardokens got clever and bought us a watering trough used for livestock. Fill it with cold water. Jump in. If you want it to be very effective, dump a bag of ice in with yourself. Jump in as soon as you can post workout and stay in as long as you can stand. Do not pass out. Do not drown.

Stress: Don’t do it. It’ll kill ya.


Wrap It

All right, folks, there you have it. A training plan and four different nutritional approaches. Even some help with your rambunctious lifestyle. Remember that this is a long term commitment to make significant progress, and that you may need to temporarily sacrifice some aspects of your fitness like extreme metabolic conditioning to save energy for growth and repair. Once this process is over, however, and you find yourself heavier and much stronger, you can shift gears and see what you can do with that bigger engine.


Training Program

Please download the article PDF to view the training program.