Workout and Diet for Gaining Muscle

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One of my good friends is a personal trainer who used to wrestle in college and now owns his own nutrition store. I told him I want to weigh 205 lbs and asked him if he had any advice. I told him I had gained about 10 pounds in the last few months, but the last 10 pounds has been rough. This diet and workout is probably for hard gainers like me and less for guys who need to lose weight.

As far as this relates to dating, I can tell you that once you start working out and seeing results you will feel more confident and of course it’s free points. Why not cash in and get all the free points you can get? Besides that it makes you feel great and keeps you healthy. I lift weights 5 days per week and do something exercise related 7 days per week. If you haven’t worked out in a long time, than it can be rough in the beginning, but trust me if you can get over the hump of doing it for that first month, than it will be a habit and you will feel worse when you miss.

Take a picture of yourself in the mirror right now and then take another one in a month. If you get on a good workout and a good diet, you won’t believe how much you can change your body in a month.

If there is one thing I have learned over the years of working out and playing sports, it’s that diet is more important than anything. Whether you are skinny or over weight…diet is king. I used to lift my ass off, but didn’t eat enough calories and protein and I would get ripped, but remain frustratingly skinny. If you are overweight, than you need a different kind of diet, which does not entail starving yourself. That is a common misconceptioin that will actually make your body react by storing fat because it thinks you are starving.

If you are skinny, fight hard to gain 10 pounds of muscle. Try using heavier weights and lower reps. Try to add 1,000 extra calories per day and pump up the protein.

If you are fat, fight hard to lose 10 pounds and increase your muscle. Reduce the carbs, the fat, and increase the water and protein. (This all needs to be done at the right time and in right percentages).

There are a million good websites for this and some of you who know better than I do, please leave comments below and clarify).



Letter From my friend,

Contained herein is information that I have used and compiled over the years through training with professional athletes, research, education and trial and error purposes. Remember this information is for your own benefit and the diligence required to grow or reach your potential goal is in fact in your own discipline and Routine, not like you did not already know this, but at a health professional it is my job to lay down the facts. Below are tips and information from studies and professionals that I think could really benefit your goal.

Lets break down protein real quick. It is used by the body to build, repair, and maintain muscle tissue, like I have already explained. Your Pro7ein Synthesis is strictly a nourishing tool, but to take it even farther I will explain some proteins that you can use in cooperation with your shakes to be above the game.

Food % Protein By Weight %Net Protein Utilization
Eggs 12 94 The best net protein utilizer besides whey protein( which is a derivative of milk, of course refined but it was created for that purpose)

Milk 4 92 – Milk in fact does a body good!
Fish 18-25 80
Cheese 22-36 70 – Unless you a really trying to go I would still stay light on the cheese because be aware it is loaded with fat! and is in all of the bad foods we love.

Brown Rice 19-31 70
Meat and Chicken 19-31 68
Soybean Flour 42 61

Food Protein Rating
Eggs(whole) 100
Fish 70
Lean Beef 69
Cows Milk 60
Brown Rice 57
White Rice 56
SoyBeans 47
Whole grain wheat bread 44
Peanuts 43
Dry Beans 34
white potato 34

Eating to Gain muscle requires 4 key things

1. stimulating muscular growth by heavy, intense, consistent body building training
2. Eating a sufficient amount of protein to fill the demand for amino acids created by the training
3. increasing overall calorie intake to a sufficient degree to support the demands for intense exercise, but not so much as to create an unwanted gain to body fat
4. keeping your aerobic training to a healthy minimum, no more than 30 minutes a day, 4 or 5 days a week.

Below is 3 Levels of championship training diets that were formed by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.

Level 1
Breakfast
2 eggs, preferably poached, but any style okay
1/4 pound meat, fish, or fowl
8 ounces whole milk
1 slice whole-grain toast with butter
(protein = approx 52 gram) also do your shake too! thats over 100 grams of protein we are lucky to have the technology they did not have back in the day.

Lunch
1/4 pound meat, fish fowl, or cheese
1 or 2 slices of whole grain bread
8 ounces 2 percent milk or juice
(protein approx) 43 grams again do with your shake, because you will want to use the super saturation theory in regards to your upping of protein since you are so active and want to grow.

Dinner
1/2 pound meat, fish, or fowl
baked potato with butter or sour cream
large raw salad, light dressing
8 ounces of whole milk
Protein= ( approx 48 grams)

Night – shake before bed

I kinda tweaked this Routine, with the shakes, but arnold wishes he came across this technology 30 years ago. I will leave the other two eating plans out this time, but if you want them let me know. This level one is probably already a lot of food your thinking haha, and level 2 and 3 is double lol.

Lets start you off with the level 1 exercise program

workout workout workout workout workout workout Sunday
#1 #2 #3 #1 #2 #3 Rest

Workout #1

Monday and Thursday

Chest

Bench Press
Incline Press
Pullovers
Dumbell Flys

Back
Chin Ups (do as many as you can until you reach a total of 50 reps)
Bent over Rows
Seated Rows

Power Training
Deadlifts, 3 sets, 10, 6, 4 reps to failure

Abdominals

Crunches, 5 sets of 25 reps

Workout # 2

Tuesday and Friday

Shoulders

Barbell Clean and Press
Dumbbell Lateral Raises

Power Training

Heavy Upright Rows, 3 sets of 10, 6, 4 reps to failure
Push Presses, 3 sets of 6, 4, 2, reps to failure. These can be done (on a shoulder machine)

Upper arms
Standing Barbell curls
seated dumbbell curls
Close grip press (for triceps preferably on a bench)
Stand Tricep extension with barbell

Forearms

Wrist curls
Reverse wrist curl with barbell

Abs

Reverse crunches, 5 sets of 25

Workout 3

Wed and Sat

Thighs

Squats
Lunges
Leg curls

Calves

Standing Calf raises, 5 sets of 15 reps each

Lower Back

Straight leg deadliest 3 sets, 10, 6, 4 reps to failure
Good Mornings 3 sets 10, 6, 4 reps to failure

note: although these power movements work the lower back directly, they also involve the traps and the leg biceps and help to develop overall strength.

Abs

Crunches, 5 sets of 25 reps

-Braddock

That's some useful info.

I, personally, use to train others (which included a 1st place winner in a bodybuilding comp. and a Tae Kwon Do instructor) while I lived in the Seattle area but changed jobs after moving to LA. Yet, I still have all of the knowledge in my head.

As of now, here's what I do....

1) Since vascularity is more important to me than gaining muscle mass, I've split my work-out in two increments with cardio in the AM and weights in the PM. I'll do this for 4 days, then one day of rest. A 5-day work out w/ the weekend off is too spread out for me. A 3-day rotation is too short and I notice fatigue spreading over to the next rotation. So a 4-day works perfectly for me.
Day 1: Shoulders, Forearms, Abs
Day 2: Back, Biceps
Day 3: Chest, Triceps, Abs, Forearms
Day 4: Abs, Legs

2) Carbs are the main thing I change. If I'm gaining mass, I increase my carb intake. If I'm slimming, I decrease carbs. Obviously, I cannot completely remove carbs or else the thyroid might be at risk, but minimizing carbs helps bypass your body's natural function and allows you to slim up faster. It's the same method used by professional bodybuilders. I aim for 4-5 meals per day and 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. My protein is aspartame-free because tests have found that it caused cancer it lab rats. I don't use any anabolic supplements and recommend those who do make sure you research them carefully - ever since so many were outlawed, the black market is full of crap.

3) My cardio is H.I.I.T. (high intensity interval training). I do short sprints at full effort rather than medium-paced jogging because sprints burn roughly 9 times the calories and take less time. Other idiots are walking on the treadmills reading, talking, watching tv, etc. They're not getting nearly enough exercise. 1:30Min of sprints followed by 2:00 rest - repeat 5-10 times. If done properly, you should be panting for air after the first sprint.

4) Vegies are very important and more often than not they're overlooked. Dark greens (spinach, cucumbers, green beans, broccoli, etc.) all help. The more variety you have with vegies, the better you'll be. If you don't take many now, try introducing them and take note of the higher energy level you get as a result. Other useful foods include lean meats and fish, eggs instead of cereal, and plenty of water. Avoid processed foods and try to feed yourself once every 2 hours.

5) Consistent sleep is crucial. On top of regular work outs and a good diet, sleep is the third leg of the tripod. Progress is far more noticeable when you're routinely getting about 8 hours of sleep around the same time each night.

6) Switching up the work out is crucial too. I typically do 2-3 weeks of high rep/low weight. Then I switch to low rep/high weight for another 2 weeks. If you work out alone, you can always do burn-outs (do as many reps as you can until failure), drop sets (once you fail, drop weight and repeat) and negatives (after failure is reached, start lift at point A and see how long you can hold it up). Shock your muscles because they will adapt.

7) Read "The New Encyclopedia for Modern Bodybuilding" by the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's full of tons of info. You might also check out the forum on bodybuilding.com. Plenty of specifics there.

It's late and that's all I can think of right now. Hope it helps.