5 Simple Tips To More Muscle
Posted on 17 April 2009
1- Workout Less
I know this sounds contradictory but its the truth. Our muscles need time to grow and repair when we are out of the gym. After reading work from Dr McGuff in his book Body by Science its clear our muscles only need a certain amount of stimulation to trigger growth. What’s optimal? I would say lifting heavy weights with intensity once or twice a week is more than enough….
Body By Science Review – TTP
If you want to keep busy on other days engage in sports, body weight circuits, Sprints or long walks. Have you ever noticed some of the biggest guys hit the gym with intensity once every couple of weeks and keep active the rest of the time……
2- Knowing When To Quit
If you have been reading any of Chad Waterbury’s stuff recently you will know that when form and rep speed of your movements slips its time to quit the set and rest up. I like going for 25 reps for a body part keeping weight fairly high and rest under 60 seconds. Go through as many sets as you need to achieve roughly 25 reps with the selected weight. Just remember to stop as soon as your lifting speed slows down or you loose that spring, lift explosively and do the negative slowly.
The same goes for Sprinting. When doing sprints it is time to stop once you loose your explosiveness and your legs start to feel heavy. For me this is normally after 5-7 sets with about a 1 minute rest.
- Try 8 sets of 3 reps
- A Simple workout of 5×5 Squats and Pullups
- Make sure you try to progress with the weights you are pushing
The reason for stopping the set once your rep speed slows is to do with muscle fibers firing, there is no need to go any further as it will only cause injuries and overstraining of the tendons rather than muscle growth and adaptation.
3- Intensity
This is key for me. Keeping things intense in the gym not only makes things fun but it’s the best way to workout. Make sure you workout with little or no rest this is great as it kills two birds with one stone. You will not only be working out your muscles but you will get a cardiovascular workout as well.
The beauty of this is that you will empty out your muscle glycogen stores during the workout plus you will increase your EPOC throughout the day which means you burn more calories over the next 24-72 hours plus you improve nutrient partitioning allowing your muscles to act like sponges soaking up what you eat and putting it to good use.
How CrossFit/Intensity Works
CrossFit is great at this. Their MetCon workouts usually take less than 15 minutes, they are fun and intense and provide real benefits in a short amount of time. Check out SimpleFit for no equipment workouts or the BrandX scaled CrossFit workouts for some pointers.
4- Adequate Nutrition
In order to grow more muscle you need good nutrition. This doesn’t mean eat as much as you like and try to force feed your way to muscle growth. Just eat when you are hungry and stick to wholefoods. Another tip I like is to keep eating away from bedtime. This works in two ways it stops fat gain (from experience trust me it works) and it improves HGH release through your sleep as you won’t be tied up digesting your food during the first few hours of your sleep.
Keep you’re protein fairly high and eat lots of good fats (Fish Oil, Avocado’s, Coconut Oil, Salmon, Sardines, Eggs, Nuts etc) this will not only keep you full but these foods are harder for your body to breakdown and therefore provide you with satiety and energy throughout the day.
Snack on things like Carrots, Strawberries and other fruits and veggies. For dips when snacking I love a homemade Guacamole or Salsa use some cut up peppers or carrots to achieve the crunch factor.
5- Rest
How do you know if you’re not getting enough sleep? Check out this post I did on sleep a while back it outlines some of the signs of a tired mind and how to get better sleep.
You don’t need to be getting 9-11 hours of sleep every night to grow or recover but the more solid 7-9 hours of solid sleep you get per night the better. Do whatever you need to in order to get off to a good nights rest. If that means reading a book, watching some TV before bed or even having a small glass of wine after a stressful day then go for it. It’s not only muscle growth that you get out of a good night you will also function far better mentally the next day. Chances are if you have had a day recently in which you were easily irritated or more on edge than normal it was down to a tired mind and lack of sleep.
So get plenty of rest and relaxation. If you can afford it going for a neck and back massage once a week is a great way to promote relaxation and break away from stress. I also find a bit of old fashioned running or swimming a great way to relax on an off day. Sometimes I will just grab my running shoes and hit the road for 20-30 minutes combined with a good playlist of music I always come back feeling refreshed and relaxed.
Comment by Marco
17 April 2009
Great tips to follow! I have a question on eating before bed. My goal is to be lean, with definition. I usually eat 1/2 cup cottage cheese and a tbsp of peanut butter about 1h before bed. Should I stop this?
@ Marco: I would say give things a try. I prefer to eat a slightly bigger dinner 3 hours before bedtime and skip the pre-bed snack. I find that I sleep better and stay way leaner. Saying that if the pre-bed snack is working well for you and you are getting the desired results then stick to it. As for getting lean giving dairy a skip would be a good idea….. try having an apple and some nuts as a pre-bed meal instead and see how things change. I also like Nut butter spread on carrots and celery as a slow digesting/high fiber snack…..
Comment by Methuselah - Train Now Live Later
17 April 2009
Nice post – I too have been inspired by Dr McGuff and have been doing twice weekly, all-body one-set routines. This has led to some strength gains. I am going to try for another few weeks and see where it takes me. Very refreshing, at any rate.
Comment by Jeff
17 April 2009
Hey Chris,
I have read both Chad’s book and Body by Science(BBS) and have tried both exercise protocols. I am recently doing HIT the body by science way and taking the advice to workout less(2x/wk).
Have you tried the super slow, one set to failure method as described in BBS? From an intensity perspective I have found the BBS way far more intense than doing the Huge in a Hurry way. In 12 minutes I am absolutely wiped and I sense this is a really good, high intensity stimulus you are referring to. I was just curious if you tried it and what your thoughts were.
jeff
@ Jeff: I haven’t tried the BBS exact protocol yet but I plan to in the next few weeks. In the past I have done Ellington Darden’s HIT with superb results along with very exciting workouts, that being said its imperative you push yourself really really hard on that one set……
Comment by Dusan Vlahovic
17 April 2009
Nice tips, i almost always don’t eat before sleep, and i woke up feeling much better.
Comment by ken
17 April 2009
hey how many calories would you need to build ten extra pounds of muscle if i am 170 lbs. Also, what is a good workout routine to do 3x a week to build muscle. Thanks
@ Ken: I am not big on going by/counting calories. I would say just experiment with your body…….Eat real food when your hungry (Loads of Meat, Veggies and good fats) Workout intensely and try and get stronger week by week. Results will come.
Comment by Yan Zhu
19 April 2009
A couple of things I do –
(I am not a bodybuilder, just trying to live healthy)
1) Eat a satisfying dinner.
2) Never go to bed hungry, or full.
3) Try to eat dinner before 6:30 PM.
4) Meditate before bed.
5) Drink water first thing after getting up.
6) Try to go to bed no later than 11.
7) A little light reading before turning off the light.
@ Yan: Some really good pointers here. I pretty much try to practice the same principles.
2) Never go to bed hungry, or full. is a great way to put it!
Comment by Justin from GymJunkies.com
21 April 2009
Nice post Chris. I think the biggest thing for me was when I upped my intensity.
I never knew how much it made a difference, but thats when I started seeing the best gains.
UP THE INTENSITY!
- Justin
Comment by Steve
30 April 2009
Chris,
really enjoy your blog.
as an ectomorph, I have to work very hard for every ounce of muscle I’m able to gain. proper nutrition, as I’ve been learning over the past 2 yrs, is key. the other thing that I find works for me is to keep the intensity high.
keep on blogging!
Comment by Liam | fitness trainer
1 May 2009
Really great advice! I think most guys are capable of getting the intensity up, but so many struggle to find the self-discipline to workout less and not overdo it. For me that’s the real skill – being able to pace yourself.
Comment by Brenda Asheim
2 May 2009
I am so passionate about CrossFit that I just published an article about it at: Why Crossfit is right for you?
@ Brenda: Really cool post thatnks for sticking the link in. I editing the link so it goes straight to your article….
Comment by Lose Fat & Build Muscle
7 May 2009
Absolutely correct with the “less is more”. The body doesn’t need hours and hours. Hit the weights hard and at a high intensity!
Comment by Ralph Jean-Paul
26 May 2009
Nutrition is key. I saw on Youtube a video about how Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds trained for Blade three and they both talked about how the nutrition factor made the major difference. Thanks for this!