As we move into spring, many of us run the risk of making fatal errors to our training for the remainder of the year, and of those errors program overhaul is one of them.

This is not saying however, changing things that do not work isn’t warranted, rather, when starting out, frequent changes in programs don’t allow for adaptation. The renowned scientist Hans Seyle is known for the concept “general adaptation syndrome” (GAS) which describes the three physiological stages the human body goes through while under stress. These include the alarm reaction stage, resistance stage, and exhaustion stage.

In an effort to create a sound training program, the American College of Sports Medicine along with the National Academy of Sports Medicine uses the guidelines of GAS as a means to create resistance programs for the general population to ascertain rep ranges, exercise choice, etc.

This is done in an effort to maximize muscle development. However, the work of Dr. Seyle is best suited to avoid overtraining research on GAS done by Samuel Buckner and others on potential misapplications to resistance training.

In order to understand the dilemma, Buckner did a review of Seyle’s original work and found that his work was a result of exposure to toxic levels of pharmacological agents and stimuli.

Furthermore, the everyday lifter may follow a periodization plan for muscle size and strength in which the athlete is subjected to constant stress outside of resistance training such as in sport and life. This amount of life stress and the like doesn’t account for how the athlete should adhere to a training program to maximize gains.

Resistance Training Versus Aerobic Training

Resistance training and aerobic training are different in their own respects, according to Knuttgen. Strength training performed under high intensity for greater than 20 reps isn’t feasible. Knuttgen explains that it takes a few weeks in order for one to physiologically adapt to this form of training.

However, aerobic training uses at most 20% of maximal power and thus is dependent on oxygen delivery and small organelles called mitochondria which supply energy to tissues. He further expresses that rep ranges are a more sensible conversation when referring to strength training, while time and heart rate are vastly more important in sports such as cycling.

This doesn’t mean you cannot talk about reps during aerobic training. However, it’s more useful to consider the time and type of cardio performed while allowing your body to become adapted to improve overall performance. As one advance in strength training, sets may decrease in favor of higher percentages of one’s 1RM being performed to an adjustable volume per week.

In my experience as a natural athlete, overtraining in Seyle’s definition isn’t typically reached by most general weekend warriors and focusing more on a consistent program is far more useful. In my professional recommendation, cardiovascular training should be challenging but not impossible.

Stairmaster, kickboxing, Taibo, sled pushes, battle ropes, or jump rope are some examples that help support healthy joints. Otherwise, the world is your oyster with stationary bikes, Zumba, etc. However, choose two types of cardio per week and strive for the maximum time while increasing tolerance every week. Do not begin to frequently change cardio because this along with changing strength training can become a daunting task.

My clients often have three types of cardio to complete. Most get two types done but rarely all three—and that’s alright. It’s better to increase one’s time running than worry about how many mountain climbers one completes in a minute.

Strength training, as of late, has become an atrocity on social media. It seems that everyone has the latest and greatest workout plan. Some swear by having the exact exercises needed to reach your goals.

However, exercise encyclopedias do not improve your performance. They may educate you on different movements encourage you to keep an open mind, however, the main exercises are universal.

These exercises include, but are not limited to: push up, pull up, dip, squat, deadlift, hip extension-based, knee flexion, knee extension, plank, overhead press/shoulder press, row, bench/dumbbell press, and mainly patience.

Don’t Make It Complicated

Confusing your body with stability ball renegade rows or jump squats on a half Bosu ball is a recipe for disaster, injury, and an award recognition on YouTube. In the words of Bruce Lee, keep it simple. Track your progress weekly and aim to keep eating and training as regularly as possible. For example, eat four meals a day and train each body part differently each day.

It’s important to leave your ego at the door and actively pursue function and strength not muscle confusion and gimmicky techniques that promise to help you reach your goals quickly. My parents would always tell me “what comes fast goes fast.“

For the advanced lifters, don’t skip the gym and don’t fix what isn’t broken. Form creep may happen on certain movements, indicating tightness and mobility concerns, however, don’t seek to change your program every week.

Instead, replace an exercise or two with something different. This will provide overall well-being. Operate for success while keeping in mind failure happens—and consistency is key.

The post Adaptation Is Not a Bad Word, Body Confusion Is appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As a personal trainer, most of my clients exhibit similar behavior: they train hard, but they don’t give a damn about nutrition. So the time and effort they spend on training is wasted. Why do they sabotage their own success? Because they think nutrition is complicated and want to avoid the topic.

What if I told you that you could retain or even gain more muscle mass and strength with less training? The secret lies in your nutrition.

As a personal trainer, most of my clients exhibit similar behavior: they train hard, but they don’t give a damn about nutrition. So the time and effort they spend on training is wasted. Why do they sabotage their own success? Because they think nutrition is complicated and want to avoid the topic.

But ignoring nutrition isn’t an option. Knowing how nutrition works will help you utilize it for your fitness and strength gains. This works for anyone and everyone, for general fitness maintenance or muscle mass gain.

To get you started, here is my list of the top ten foods to help you gain more muscle mass and strength.

If you’re training your brains out and eating mindlessly, you’re holding yourself back. [Photo courtesy coach Tom MacCormick]

1. Lean Beef

This should be a staple of your diet if you want to gain muscle mass. Lean beef is loaded with all sorts of things conducive to muscle growth, including iron, zinc, and B-vitamins. More importantly, it provides your body with high-quality protein (not all proteins are equal), and a high level of amino acid that works with insulin to promote muscle growth.

For those who are trying to lose weight, this should come as great news – a 3oz serving of lean beef provides roughly the same amount of protein as 1.5 cups of beans but at half the calories.

How about these recipes to help you make the most of your nutrition plans:

• Fast Fuel: Skillet Beef And Vegetables
• Transform Takeout: Homemade Beef And Broccoli For Athletes

2. Skinless Chicken

Like beef, chicken is an excellent source of high-quality protein, which is important for muscle maintenance and repair, bone health, and weight maintenance. And of course, there are so many ways you can cook and prepare chicken.

Go down to the store and you can easily find chicken meat cut into single serving sizes that can be seasoned and quickly cooked.

3. Cottage Cheese

Not many people know this, but cottage cheese is almost entirely pure casein protein.

Casein is a slow-digesting protein, which means it is perfect for muscle maintenance. This is useful especially for people who have no choice but to go long periods without eating. Cottage cheese is also an excellent source of vitamin B12, calcium, and other important nutrients.

4. Eggs

Eggs contain high-quality protein, nine essential amino acids, choline, the right kind of fat, and vitamin D.

They provide the most value for your money. And eggs are not harmful to your health, as numerous studies have already shown.

What was “bad” is good again:

• The Great Egg Debate: 4 Reasons You Need To Stop Eating Eggs
• The Great Egg Debate: Why You Should Eat Eggs, Why You Shouldn’t Not Eat Eggs

5. Whey Protein

There is a reason why whey protein supplements are the most popular supplement in the fitness industry: they provide a fast and convenient source of protein at an affordable price. Bodybuilders normally use them when they wake up, right after their workout, and mixed with some of their meals.

For the rest of us, a scoop in our shakers right after our workouts can be very effective for muscle mass gains. It’s important that you still get high-quality protein from whole foods, and use whey protein as a boost.

6. Tuna and Other Fish

Fish are high in protein, low in fat, and rich in omega-3 fatty acids. The omega-3s are essential because they aid in fat loss and ensure the proper function of your body processes, such as your metabolism.

7. Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a great source of carbohydrates due to both its low glycemic index (GI) value and the fact it is minimally processed. The benefits of a low-GI diet include:

• Better micronutrient profile and more fiber
• Increased satiety
• Decreased hunger
• Lower subsequent energy intake (second meal effect)
• Fat loss

In short, low-GI foods can enhance fat loss for those looking to lose weight, and provide a constant source of carbs for muscle preservation.

Wait, aren’t carbs bad? Not if you do them right:

• Your Complete Carbohydrate Prep Plan
• The Power of Carbs
• Eat What You Want: Your Macros And The Truth About Carbs

8. Whole Grains

Whole grains digest more efficiently and provide more nutrients than refined grains. This promotes sustained energy levels and overall health.

In particular, brown rice can help boost your growth hormone levels, which are critical for encouraging lean muscle growth, fat loss, and strength gains.

9. Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are a rich source of antioxidants, which are essential for the healthy functioning of your immune system.

They also provide tons of other nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene. Finally, your body requires the fiber these fruits and vegetables provide to aid in proper digestion and nutrient uptake.

10. Healthy Fats

I know the thought of consuming fat makes some of you shudder, but good fats are essential for muscle growth.

In fact, they play an essential role in hormone production (testosterone and growth hormones), which helps drive muscle growth and strength gains. In addition, fats are needed for many important maintenance functions.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are good fats. You can find them in salmon, other fishes, nuts, leafy veggies, oils such as flaxseed, avocados, and seeds. They are also all rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

That covers what to eat. What about how to eat and train to gain mass?

Gaining Muscle Mass Best Reads

• 3 Nutritional Strategies Every Athlete Needs
  Simplifying your approach to nutrition is the key to making positive and sustainable changes to your health and performance.
• Do Drop Sets Build Muscles?
  One of the reasons drop sets have been around so long is because they are effective. They can help you to rapidly pack on muscle.
• Fuel To Be Strong: Nutrition For Strength Athletes
  Nutrition plays a huge role in improving body composition. But as a strength athlete, you don’t need to eat for aesthetics.
• Eat Big To Get Big?
  While fat loss or weight gain are both energy-dependent processes, muscle gain is the result of the integration of training and nutritional stimuli—namely, lifting weights and consuming protein.
• Eat For Your Sport: Cutting Calories Is Not The Answer
  Long-term calorie restriction, cutting calories, and skipping meals is not the answer. Tailor your diet to your needs to achieve the outcomes you desire.

The post Top 10 Foods to Gain Muscle Mass appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

One of the most complex biological processes that human biology is privy to is inflammation. Given how important muscle is for our health, wellbeing, longevity, and quality of life, it’s impressive that inflammation was initially a background concern for people in the health, nutrition, and bodybuilding industry.

This is changing now, as many veteran athletes and coaches have begun to develop a holistic, fact-based understanding of their bodies, as well as of the underlying physiological processes that enable muscle growth. In the past, people even tried to “treat” it by taking anti-inflammatory medicine, but now we know better, as this can actually prevent the natural development of lean tissue.

The amount of available literature on the topic is enough to draw several important conclusions that will help you in your quest to attain your much-desired figure. Without a doubt, medical research has uncovered and tested enough of the inner-workings of inflammation to help coaches give sound advice to their clients.

However, particularly with veteran athletes, inflammation can become a source of concern. As you may already know, there are two types of inflammation, acute and chronic. The first is good, while the second is bad.¹ It’s more than bad; it’s downright dangerous, but more on that later.

What most of us don’t know is what each of the two kinds of inflammation does to the body, how to tell the difference between them, as well as what to do to manage the first and prevent the second.

Inflammation Is Necessary for Muscle Growth

Pain, redness, swelling, heat, and loss of function are the hallmarks of the inflammatory process.

As an immune response, inflammation is supposed to protect us from hostile microorganisms, while enabling our body to heal and repair damaged tissue. First, let’s take a look at how this process is helping us stay in good shape.

Acute inflammation, the good kind, is generally short lived. It comes on in a flash and its first job is to destroy any foreign bodies. Once this is achieved, the antibodies switch gears and start carrying away any residue, while repairing damaged cells.

Depending on several factors, including the size and gravity of the lesion and whether the damage is purely physical or an immune response is also necessary, this beneficial cycle of cleansing and mending can take minutes, hours or, at most, several days.

You’ve doubtless experienced this sort of inflammation when you accidentally cut yourself, bruised a part of your body, were stung by an insect, but also after a hard workout. For me, supersets trigger acute inflammation like nothing else does.

Three main processes occur in acute inflammation. These are increased blood flow, increased permeability, and the migration of neutrophils and macrophages.

The amplified blood flow happens due to to the dilatation of the blood vessels, the smallest of which also become more permeable so as to allow blood fluid and vital proteins to move into the interstitial space. The latter, which is also referred to as the interstitial compartment, is like a bath where your tissue cells are permanently immersed.

According to their needs, the cells can exchange water and nutrients with the space around them.

Together, the larger categories of neutrophils and macrophages represent the intervention team responsible for the protection and rejuvenation of the broken tissue.

The squad arrives at the site of inflammation both through blood, as well as from fibers that are adjacent to the broken ones. This is the place where your body decides whether to enter an anabolic or catabolic state.

As a trainer, this is the part that has attracted my undivided attention, particularly from the point of view of what I can do to prevent the latter process and encourage the former.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, in general, building muscle in a healthy, sustainable, and evidence-based way is the coaching of the future.

At a molecular level, it seems that anabolic signals during inflammation are activated by hormones such as insulin, IGF-1, human growth hormone, and various androgens,¹ which tell the muscle to start using myosatellite cells (stem cells) in order to regenerate. The process is also referred to as myogenesis.

The field of molecular biology has focused a good deal of its research potential on reverting muscular dystrophy and combatting chronic muscle diseases by means of stem cell therapy. In addition, this is the reason why taking hormones helps build muscle mass very fast, as it drives your anabolic state in overdrive.

However, as I am sure you already know, the introduction of outside hormones for the sole purpose of building mass can have a serious and substantial health impact on human physiology.

Too Much Inflammation Is Bad

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, leads to muscle breakdown. Although it starts in the same way as its better half, instead of switching gears to regeneration and then gradually shutting down, it morphs into an enduring state.

Chronic inflammation, also called chronic systemic inflammation (SI) or low-grade inflammation, can persist for months and even years on end without an appropriate immune response to shut it down or when the source that triggered it in the first place is not dealt with appropriately.

As a result, the white blood cells that flood the area (the neutrophils and macrophages we discussed earlier) eventually end up attacking good, friendly tissue.

Chronic inflammation was found to be a significant contributor to a variety of diseases,³ including asthma, sarcopenia, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, peptic ulcer, Crohn’s disease, some cancers, and many others.

In recent times, an increasing number of elderly people are trying to address sarcopenia, which is the loss of muscle mass, quality, and strength associated with aging, by paying more attention to their physical activity.

We know that, for instance, physical activity can actually help the body manage inflammation better,⁴ whereas obesity, smoking, and a sedentary lifestyle tend to exacerbate it.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from IGF-1, which is the main regulator of muscle hypertrophy, we have myostatin. Also known as growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF-8), myostatin is a protein whose main role is to inhibit myogenesis.

In humans, when someone is born with a defect in the myostatin-producing gene, their muscle mass is considerably bigger and stronger than that of their peers.⁵

Currently, there’s no research to indicate the long-term effect that myostatin inhibitors would have on healthy subjects or on people suffering from muscular dystrophy.

However, several myostatin drugs are being developed, and one has been commercially available for at least three years. The fact that the latter has only four reviews does not inspire confidence to me, however.

A not-so-clinical observational study on recreational gym goers found that the group on the commercially available myostatin blocker did increase their lean mass as compared to the control group (almost three times more),⁶ but the authors acknowledged that the neural adaptation might have played a significant part in this result.

They effectively did not keep track of a host of variables that apply to recreational training, and not accounting for the initial adaptation (newbie gains as we refer to them) was a big drawback of their research.

A more potent clinical trial performed on mice found enough evidence to suggest that the anabolic impact of myostatin inhibition can actually lead to more muscle damage in healthy subjects. Despite this, the adverse effects of myostatin inhibition in subjects that suffered from any form muscle dystrophy were not as great.⁶

This suggests that myostatin blockers will likely be recommended for those who suffer from muscle diseases that gradually weakens and breaks down their lean tissue.

As is the case with hormones, messing with our physiology to such an extent without good reason is likely to have a bad outcome in the long run.

One interesting finding that I’ve come across is that creatine supplementation is actually a healthy, albeit not as effective (when compared to drugs that are designed for this purpose alone) way to decrease myostatin levels.⁷

Unlike myostatin blockers, creatine is not banned by WADA or other anti-doping agencies, which speaks volumes for its safety.

Stay Away from NSAIDs and Other Anti-Inflammatories

Ibuprofen, naproxen, acetaminophen, and even aspirin can be lifesavers for professional bodybuilders and athletes alike. They don’t usually resort to them just for muscle soreness, but also for other big culprits like elbow, knee, or shoulder pain. In my experience with heavy lifters and veteran bodybuilders, these pains can be as common as a sneeze.

Some don’t mind giving up on a week’s worth of training, but most people would rather take a pill and get their work done. While this may be necessary in remote cases, research shows that NSAIDs (non-steroidal inflammatory drugs that include the ones I’ve previously mentioned) actually prevent muscle synthesis.⁸

The main purpose of NSAIDs is to reduce the production of inflammatory and pain-signaling cells.

As you may have already surmised from knowing that inflammation is a double-edged sword, these drugs work to cancel out both the good and the bad.

Some studies of elderly populations showed that these OTC medications were beneficial towards preventing muscle loss. Luckily, however, the former study performed by the Karolinska Institutet also dealt with this hypothesis.

Their conclusion was that, in cases of chronic inflammation, NSAIDs will quite often prevent age-related muscle loss, since the latter mainly happens due to inflammation gone haywire.

This will not be the case when chronic inflammation is not present, though. Some even take anti-inflams prior to exercise. Needless to say that this practice is very dangerous.

When chronic SI is not present, taking pills often means inhibiting the very means that will help you achieve lean tissue growth. NSAIDs are actually cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors.

Some of them are quite long-lasting, with effects lingering for up to 12 hours from just one dose. The problem is that COX enzymes are conductive to muscle growth, so much so that administration of COX inhibitors is detrimental to myofiber rehabilitation even after atrophy.⁹

These recent findings have determined many physicians to re-examine patients’ post-intervention treatment. The fact is that, if you can work through the pain and the latter is not chronic, there’s a good chance that you should do so despite the discomfort.

More importantly for all of you athletes and go-getters, using these medications to train through the pain will worsen your condition.¹⁰

And you don’t even need to be a doctor to realize what’s going on—you take a pill and push to get through whatever it is that you’re doing, but the very drug you’re taking for a short-term benefit is stopping the process that’s supposed to heal the damaged tissue. At the end of the day, instead of being able to recover in a few days, the aggravated injury will bench you for a week or more.

Opiods (such as codeine, morphine, fentanyl, methadone, oxycodone, etc.), albeit unconnected to any of the drawbacks that are associated with lack of good inflammation, can be much worse. Excessive use of the latter is significantly linked to addiction, which tends to happen in 2 out of 3 cases, as was shown by a survey of over 600 former NFL players.¹¹

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t risk my physical and mental health on 30% odds, not if I have anything to say in the decision at hand.

Treat Inflammation Naturally

Body pain, constant fatigue and insomnia, weight gain, frequent infections, and gastrointestinal problems such as acid reflux and diarrhoea are common signs of chronic inflammation.

If you have these symptoms, it may be a good idea to undergo some blood tests to see if you can get a better picture of what’s going on.

Although there are no highly effective lab measures for chronic SI, there are two relatively inexpensive blood markers that will show some signs if this is the case.

These are high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and fibrinogen. Another common examination you can perform is serum protein electrophoresis (SPE), which is still affordable.

You can try to detect specific pro-inflammatory cytokines, like IL-6, IL-8, TNF-alpha and IL-1bet, but these are not standardized and they won’t come cheap.

Still, if you’re suffering from chronic inflammation, they might be worth it as the cytokines will give your more specific information about what’s causing the inflammation.

For me, the best part about inflammation is that it can be managed and reversed with diet and lifestyle changes. A meta-analysis of 40 case-controls, clinical trials, and cross-sectional studies has definitively confirmed that dietary patterns are intrinsically linked to inflammatory biomarkers.¹²

The foods that were found to elicit inflammation responses from our bodies are meat, dairy, eggs, alcohol, and processed, fried foods. Generally, it was those foods that had high amounts of sugar, fat, and salt that were positively associated with inflammation. On the other hand, diets that were rich in fruits and vegetables considerably reduced oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation markers.

The Mediterranean eating pattern, the DASH (dietary approach to stop hypertension) eating regime, as well as the whole-foods, plant based (WFPB) diet were the most successful at combating inflammation.

This is a major reason why many athletes have switched to plant-based diets, as they were shown even by the most rigorous studies to significantly reduce systemic inflammation.¹³

There’s enough evidence to warrant each and every one of us to give the WFPB a try, as it has been linked to improved mood, overall health, training, recovery, and even athletic performance for a number of professional athletes.¹⁴

Do What’s Best for You

Throughout this article, we’ve uncovered some of the more complex aspects of inflammation and its crucial role in muscle building.

We’ve seen how it helps to have it, how it can be detrimental to continue having it after a certain amount of time, as well as what you can do to deal with persistent, low-grade inflammation in a healthy and effective way.

An often exaggerated aspect of medicine is to treat symptomatically, an approach which continues to be prevalent in many medical systems. This means that, if something hurts, you’ll most likely take something to get you through the pain.

What we haven’t really been paying attention to and has been recently proven right is that some pain is instrumental towards proper healing. This is not to be confused with medical advice, although I do believe it is not only healthy, but necessary to question why we take certain medications in the same way I often question why we eat certain things because we think it helps with building lean tissue.

At the end of the day, it seems that some of the diet and lifestyle changes can go a long way towards dealing with the feared inflammation biomarkers, while enabling us to train better overall.

References:

1. “Understanding Inflammation, Harvard Medical School Guides”
2. “Role of Inflammation in Muscle Homeostasis and Myogenesis”
3. “The inflammation theory of disease. The growing realization that chronic inflammation is crucial in many diseases opens new avenues for treatment”
4. “Strength Training Decreases Inflammation and Increases Cognition and Physical Fitness in Older Women with Cognitive Impairment”
5. “A Very Muscular Baby Offers Hope Against Diseases”
6. “Muscle hypertrophy induced by myostatin inhibition accelerates degeneration in dysferlinopathy”
7. “Effects of oral creatine and resistance training on serum myostatin and GASP-1”
8. “Anti-inflammatory drugs can inhibit muscle growth”
9. “The COX-2 pathway regulates growth of atrophied muscle via multiple mechanisms”
10. “Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for athletes: An update”
11. “Injury, pain, and prescription opioid use among former National Football League (NFL) players”
12. “Dietary Pattern and Macronutrients Profile on the Variation of Inflammatory Biomarkers: Scientific Update”
13. “Anti-inflammatory Effect of Whole-Food Plant-Based Vegan Diet vs the American Heart Association – Recommended Diet in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease: The Randomized EVADE CAD Trial”
14. “Six Reasons Athletes Are Running Toward a Vegan Diet“

The post Muscle Growth and Inflammation: How Much Is Too Much? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As a hardgainer who coaches other hardgainers, I like efficiency in the gym. Doing too much training and failing to spend enough time recovering is one of our biggest stumbling blocks. As such, I try to program exercises that get the most muscle building stimulus on a rep by rep basis.

One of the core concepts I use to achieve this is to match the resistance profile of an exercise to the strength curve of the target muscle. This means you can stimulate a muscle across every inch of every rep to obtain the most powerful growth stimulus you can get.

Resistance and Strength Profiles

Matching resistance and strength profiles is quite simple on some exercises. For example, extension exercises (e.g. squats and presses). The use of accommodating resistance (e.g. band or chains) does this perfectly.

For isolation exercises with free weights, things can be a bit more complicated, but by manipulating your body position it is usually quite easily achieved. Pulling exercises, however, are much more problematic.

Pulling exercises have a descending strength curve. This means you are strongest at the beginning of the rep and get weaker as you approach the peak contraction. Most exercises used to train the pulling muscles have completely the opposite resistance profile. They tend to be easy at the beginning at hardest at the peak contraction.

A case in point is the single arm row. During the lift, the mechanics of the lift make it harder as you lift because the lever arm increases throughout (the distance between your shoulder and arm relative to gravity). At the start, the hand is under the shoulder and there is no lever arm.

As you begin to lift and the elbow bends the hand starts to travel away from its alignment with the shoulder. This distance creates a leer arm and means the muscle have to work harder. Throughout the rep this distance continues to increase until it reaches it maximum at the top of the rep.

So, you are limited by what you can lift at the weakest point. This means a large portion of the lift is very easy and only as you reach peak contraction is it genuinely difficult.

We cannot fix this issue by adding bands or chains as they would just exaggerate the issue and make it even harder at the top. Adjusting body positon also fails to fix things.

So, what should you do?

My favorite strategy is to use the double-barrel technique. This allows you to perform targeted partial reps to fully challenge the muscles. Specifically, quarter reps at the top and bottom of the lift. To get the most from these quarter reps you need to do them in a logical order.

The peak contraction is the weakest part of the lift so, when you are fresh you target that. Then, as fatigue sets in you switch to focus on the strongest part of the lift (the start) and hammer that.

To do this you row back for a normal rep, lower the weight a quarter of the way out, then row it back to peak contraction. This annihilates the fully shortened range when you are freshest. Then, when fatigue kicks in you switch your quarter reps around.

Instead, do them at the beginning of the movement where you are strongest. While you may be completely fatigued in the final quarter of the range you still have plenty left for the earlier portion of the lift. By doing a quarter rep along with every normal rep you can obliterate the muscle in this range, too.

Hey, I hope you are enjoying this article and find value in utilizing these concepts to build lean muscle. Writing about this stuff is a hobby for me. What I do all day, every day is coaching people. Both in-person and online. Evaluating, researching, and refining my craft to provide more value to my clients. If you’d like to work with me then, please get in touch here to find out about my coaching services.

The post Double Barrel Rows to Build Muscle appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The days of spending an hour slaving away on the stair stepper, then another hour and a half working out with weights, are over. Most normal people with jobs, kids, school, amongst other things, don’t have time for that. It’s simply just not smart. There’s a smarter way to build muscle and lose body fat.

For everyone reading, actual training in the gym comes down to two categories—volume and intensity. In this article, I will cover both of those concepts and give you things to consider when thinking about each in regard to your training.

Doing More Isn’t Always Better

Volume is essentially broken down into how many minutes of cardio you do, how many sets you do, and how many reps you do—the total amount of work you do when you are in the gym. In my opinion, too much volume is the killer for most people.

The more cardio you do, the more weight you lose. Why? Is it because you “burned more calories”? As a trainer, I would much rather you take that hour of cardio you’re doing, cut it down, and use it towards meal prepping or researching what carbs do to your blood sugar.

Most people just burn more calories without taking into consideration what it does to their body. Little do they know they’re putting their body in starvation mode, and actually making them gain weight in the long term. But that’s a different topic for a different article. If you would like an overview on that leave a message in the comments or reach out.

The more sets you do or reps you do builds more muscle and burns more fat. Again, why is this? Take into consideration your recovery. If you just keep bashing your muscles with a chest day of seven exercises with 4 sets of 15 reps each exercise, twice a week, how is your body recovering from that? That’s just one body part. Total the amount of work your body endures over a week span and evaluate the amount of time you spend in recovery—it’s eye-opening. Trust me.

You must give your body adequate time to recover from the work you’re doing to it. When there’s too much volume your body can’t recover enough to adapt, and instead gets beat down consistently. This leads to all sorts of problems, including exhaustion, higher stress, brain fog, poor sleep quality, and lack of appetite, just to name a few.

Increase Your Intensity

Intensity is the other variable that goes into training that we talked about earlier. In simple terms, this is how hard your body is working and how much you’re pushing yourself to 100% maximal effort, every time.

Now you might think that if you’re doing all those sets and reps, you’re pushing myself. Okay, let me ask you if you’re doing all those reps and sets, are you really pushing yourself as hard as you can? Are you really pushing yourself to a point of exhaustion during every one of those 12 reps? Save the thinking, I can answer that no, you’re not. You’re going through the motions chasing the “pump” or following a certain workout because that’s what some Instagram person put out.

If I told you to do two sets of squats, one set of eight and one set of 12, you’d look at me like I had three heads, and none of them had a brain. But I urge you to find a weight for those two sets that are within the rep range of 6-12 (the rep range for hypertrophy and muscle growth) that challenges you. I want you to be challenged you to the point where you either come close to failure, or hit failure, and once you complete those two sets, move onto the next exercise.

By increasing your intensity, you will approach sets with a mentality to really push yourself and maximize your body’s output, rather than just trying to hit a number of reps and sets. Do this week after week, and I can guarantee you will see progress, which should be the sole standard to measure an effective workout.

The Takeaway

To take some tangibles away, this is what I would suggest for volume for strength workouts.

• For larger body parts (chest, back, legs, shoulders) eight to ten working sets will do you well.
• For smaller body parts, (bicep, tricep, calves) six to eight working sets should work.

As far as cardio, that all depends on your current body fat, nutrition, and a whole lot of other things. Generally speaking, 3-4 days a week of about 20 minutes should be a good gauge to see if you need more or less. Push yourself more mentally and physically with what you have, as opposed to trying to pile more on top of things that aren’t working already.

The post Spend Less Time In the Gym appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Most skinny guys think building large amounts of muscle is an impossibility. They spend their time blaming genetics. They believe that their fate is already sealed, and they resign themselves to a scrawny, not brawny, existence. Other dudes, often more muscular ones, simply think that genetics are irrelevant and that it is all down to hard work. So, who is right? Both.

Want to win the Mr. Olympia title, play international rugby, be the NFL MVP, or win the 100m at the Olympics? You’ll need some phenomenal genetics (and a lifetime of hard work).

Want to stand out as a muscular guy when compared to the average Joe or simply be stronger than 90% of the population? Hard work and smart training can do that for almost anyone.

If you were not blessed with Usain Bolt, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Phil Heath-esque genetics don’t worry. There is still hope—and much that you can do to transform your physique. Follow these 11 rules and you will become a bigger, stronger version of yourself.

1. Get Your Mindset Right to Grow Muscle

Control what is controllable. Your parents are your parents. Your genetics were done and dusted well before you were old enough to read this. So why worry about them? Focus on what you can do. You are 100% in control of your lifestyle, training, sleep, nutrition, supplementation, consistency, dedication, work ethic and motivation. If you make positive changes in these areas, then you will develop bigger, stronger muscles.

Once your mindset is on point, then you can take control of your situation. You can optimize your training, nutrition, and lifestyle to build your best version of you.

2. Keep the Goal the Goal

The goal is to build muscle. Everything you do should be geared towards this. Don’t get distracted by some new training fad or suddenly start crash dieting because your beloved abs are beginning to become a little soft.

All too often skinny guys trying to pack on muscle lose focus. Rather than sticking to their training plan, eating a heathy surplus of calories, and recovering well, they start to worry about their six pack. They worry about their conditioning, and whether they should use intermittent fasting, or not, and about half a dozen other things. This is a big mistake.

Prioritize your goals and make sure your actions match those goals. The long term reward will be well worth it.

3. Patience and Consistency Build Muscle

You have now picked your goal and have a laser like focus on achieving it. You want results and you want them fast. The problem is that building muscle is like watching paint dry. You will need to be patient and consistent.

Then you get people like me telling you more volume is better. You want to see rapid results so, naturally, you want to get in the gym and smash crazy workout after crazy workout. I admire that mindset but, you need to play the long game. Rome wasn’t built in a day and a great physique isn’t built overnight. If you suddenly double your training volume when simply adding one set of squats would have been the minimum effective dose (MED) then you have far less room for increased volume in the future. Don’t sabotage long-term gain for short-term gratification.

Time is the only thing we can never get back, so if you are training four hours a week now and rapidly jump that to six, then you might need eight hours a week to see progress in a couple of years. Chances are you won’t have eight hours a week free. So, tread cautiously and get the most from the least while trying to always gradually do more.

4. Your Network Is Your Net Worth

Surround yourself with like-minded individuals. Hang out with people who want to achieve the same goals as you. Even better, spend time with people who have already achieved what you want to.

You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Spend time with people you aspire to be like, people who lift you up rather than drag you down. Find some big, strong, muscular people to hang out with. Better yet, train with them. Being around people who have achieved what you want to will fast-track your progress.

This network of mass seeking buddies will help to keep you motivated and on track. Chances are they have been through whatever you are going through and can offer guidance and advice to help you navigate any bumps in the road. They will have high expectations of themselves and you. They know what it takes to get results and will hold you accountable along with pushing you to work harder than you would on your own.

As hard as it might be to accept, if most of your mates don’t train, prefer to watch football, get drunk, and eat pizza all day, every day, then you need to find some new friends.

5. Hardgainers: Get Over Your Irrational Fears

When I was starting out with my weight training journey I read a book by Stuart McRobert called Beyond Brawn. He emphasized that overtraining was the enemy of hardgainers. In many respects, he was right. Overtraining should be avoided. The problem was that his programs were so low in volume and frequency that progress would be slow, and perhaps even non-existent for most.

This kind of writing has created an irrational fear of overtraining for many trainees and has held back large numbers of self-proclaimed hardgainers. Perhaps it was just the wimpy training programs and not genetics to blame after all.

Is overtraining real? Yes. Is it as common as some writers suggest? Hell no.

The body is an adaptive mechanism and will, within reason, adjust to the demands placed upon it. If you try and follow the plans of your favorite pro bodybuilder will you overtrain? Possibly. If you work your ass off following a well-structured progressive training plan will you overtrain? Almost certainly not.

Get over your fear of overtraining and get in the gym and work hard four days a week. Four days of training is enough for most beginner/intermediates to see good progress and still allows for three full days of recovery. If you do this you won’t overtrain and instead you will see great results.

6. Lifting Heavy is Very Important

This rule emphasizes the previous point. I was concerned about doing too much work in the gym for far too long. Too many sets and reps were eating into my recovery. I thought that I just needed to focus on lifting heavy with the proper rest involved and then a physique like Arnie’s would be mine.

I was wrong.

Lifting heavy is very important to gaining muscle, but a certain amount of volume is essential to create maximal muscle gain. In fact, volume of work done is highly correlated with increases in strength and muscle mass. Doing sets in the 6-12 range (sometimes even higher) is the most efficient way to increase training volume. Sets in this rep range create the metabolic stress and damage required to stimulate growth.

Can you do too much? Yes, of course, but for rapid progress you will want to do the maximum without exceeding your ability to recover. This is known as your maximal recoverable volume (MRV).

An individual’s MRV is, wait for it, individual. As such, finding yours will take some trial and error. I would suggest gradually adding volume over time and keeping good records of your progress in the gym and how you feel. This will help you assess what is too little or too much and identify your sweet spot.

By the way, your MRV will increase over time. Doing what you did when you first started training won’t result in progress today. Likewise, simply repeating today’s training to get improvements in five years doesn’t make logical sense. Remember, there needs to be progressive overload in the long run to see big improvements.

With all that said, this doesn’t mean you suddenly should go in the gym and churn out marathon sessions of 19 exercises with 11 sets of each with drop sets and forced reps thrown in. You should apply the MED to create progress.

For example, if you start out close to your MRV lifting three days a week, doing 3×5 for two big lifts, and 3×10 for two smaller ones, then you can very gradually build volume into these sessions over weeks or months before then progressing to four days a week.

A practical example of how to incrementally increase volume throughout a training block would probably be helpful:

• Pick a rep range to perform an exercise in. For this example, let’s go with 10-12.
• Begin using a weight you can do 3x the lower end of the rep range (i.e.,3×10).
• Aim to increase this to 3x the top end of the range (i.e., 3×12).
• When you hit the upper end of the range for 3 sets, then add a set.
• Work to increase the reps on the final set so that all sets are at 12.
• Add weight, and start the process over at stage 1.

For the more visual amongst you, here it is in table form:

7. Train Hard and Recover Harder

This ties in with the above two points on overtraining and increasing volume. As I said, the more you can do without exceeding your ability to recover, the better. There are two sides to this equation—your training and your recovery.

Too often we fall into the trap of focusing on the sexy stuff (training is sexy, right?!), and we forget the boring stuff (recovery). Most hardgainers they don’t overtrain, they under-recover. Hardgainers often have hummingbird-like metabolisms and turn over muscle tissue at a rapid rate. As a result, if they don’t have adequate recovery strategies in place then they can easily lose their gains (easy-losers).

Sleeping and eating are the two key opportunities for recovery. Do you sleep enough, eat enough, train smart enough, or rest enough to recover from a decent amount of work?

If you’re not sure, then follow these guidelines:

• Be in bed by 10 pm and aim and for 6.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
• Eat a minimum 16 times your bodyweight in pounds. (e.g., A 200 pound man would eat a minimum of 3200 calories, 16×200=3200, to gain muscle.)
• Have complete rest days, not days playing 5-a-side with your mates or doing some intervals to keep your abs in check.

Many hardgainers (easy-losers) neglect the above guidelines and start to experience overtraining-like symptoms. The assumption is they’re doing too much in the gym. This is correct, but if they addressed their recovery, then they would find they could do this level of work and see awesome progress.

Don’t get caught up in the vicious cycle of under-recovery. It is a fast track to failure and disillusionment. Instead, give yourself a chance to improve by taking care of both sides of the equation.

8. Use the Scale to Your Advantage

Many hardgainers think they are doing everything they can to gain muscle, yet they overlook the simplest feedback tool they have. The scales.

If you want to gain muscle, then your weight needs to be going up. During a mass gain phase, if your body weight hasn’t changed noticeably, then little to no muscle has been built.

How much should you gain and how quickly? Here are some general guidelines for you:

• A mass gain phase should generally last 3-4 months.
• Aim to gain 0.25-0.5% of body weight per week.
• Any more than the above means you are likely gaining excess body fat.
• Any less is tough to track accurately.
• When progress stalls, raise calories by 250-500 per day. Use the lower end of that range if you are a smaller or shorter individual and the higher end if you’re bigger in size.
• Adjust based on scale weight rather than some arbitrary weekly adjustment.

9. Don’t Major On the Minors

Want to pack on slabs of muscle? Doing triceps kickbacks, leg extensions, and cable flys isn’t going to get it done.

You need to build a solid foundation on the big lifts. Over time, add weight to the bar and aim to drive the numbers on these lifts up. Have you added 30kg to your squats, doubled the number of chins you can do, and taken your deadlift from 3 to 4 wheels? Yep, you got stronger and added muscle.

10. Isolation Exercises Are Your Friend

Contrary to what the above point might lead you to believe, you do need isolation work, especially for your limbs. This is even more important if you are a typical long-limbed hardgainer.

Take it from me, just focusing on the big compound lifts can be hugely frustrating for the long-limbed lifter. This is especially true for the upper body. You can add significant weight to the bar and decent size to your torso, but still have arms resembling linguini.

Now don’t get carried away and ditch the big lifts. Remember, they are your foundation. They also work well as indicators of progress. They do, however, need some assistance. This is where isolation exercises come in. You can really target a lagging muscle and bring it up. For many tall, skinny hardgainers, that lagging muscle group is the arms. So, I am here to tell you it is a good idea to chase the pump and throw in a few sets of curls at the end of a session. Just don’t do them in the squat rack.

11. Carbs Are Not Evil

The body’s glycogen levels are linked to muscle growth, signaling through a feedback loop. If levels are chronically low, then muscle growth won’t be priority for the body.

Essentially, this means gaining appreciable muscle growth on a low carb diet is making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. I should know, I’ve tried. And guess what? I hit a long ass plateau with no real size gains.

Glycogen is the dominant fuel source for high intensity activities like weight training. Do yourself a favor by fueling training sessions and muscle growth by eating sufficient carbs.

As a rule of thumb, if you train hard with weights 4-5 days a week, then you should consume a minimum carbohydrate count of 1.5g per pound of body weight per day. See how you progress. If you are not gaining, then bump it up to 2g. If you train multiple times a day you may even need to go as high as 3g. Research has shown that the requirements for strength athletes are often in the 1.8-3.2g per pound of body weight range.

Put These Guidelines to Practice

There you have it. Eleven rules to help you become the biggest, strongest version of yourself. Simple and effective. Now, get to work implementing all 11, and you’ll soon have forgotten you used to blame your genetics for being skinny. In fact, you’ll probably have others telling you how they could look like you if they had your genetics. Just smile and pass on these guidelines to help them out.

The post 11 Rules for Hardgainers to Live By appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So while I spend my days daydreaming about bread, my fiancé spends his eating his way through the family-sized cooler we pack for him every morning. Given that we don’t have an endless budget and that he does have a job – aside from eating – we try to keep his food easy to consume and easy on the wallet. This means he doesn’t eat at restaurants during the workday, but rather slowly works his way to the bottom of his cooler. (In addition, he doesn’t have a microwave at work, so some of you may have more options than he does – like heating up healthy leftovers from dinner.)

Here’s what inside the magic cooler, along with our tips for how to feed a hard gainer without going broke. Beware: if you are a hardcore paleo eater you might cock your head at some of the suggestions on this list. Strict paleo is not realistic for the typical hard gainer. (By the way, many of you have a hard gainer in your household, you just refer to them as a “teenager.”)

Protein:

Sandwiches

Canned tuna and canned chicken are pretty darned affordable and chock full of protein. We typically make two sandwiches by mixing about 8oz of canned meat (two regular-sized cans) with mayonnaise and putting it on gluten-free sandwich bread.

Pro Tip: We make these so often that our cat now recognizes the can opener when we pull it out of the drawer and he starts meowing. So if you own felines, take heed.

Protein Shakes

My fiancé goes through four or five of these every day. They are cheaper and more convenient than “real food,” and eating that many calories of chicken would be just kind of insane.

Depending on your price point, here are some possible options:

• Optimum Nutrition: If money is your main issue, then this is a good option. According to one Reddit user’s testing, it’s more likely than many other proteins to actually be what it claims.
• True Nutrition: The amazing thing about this site is you can build your own powder from scratch. You can choose the flavor, the sweetener, and even the packaging, and still at a good price.
• DotFit: Another good option if you’re on a budget, but make sure to read all the ingredients in case there’s anything in particular you’re excluding from your diet. DotFit tests all their ingredients and their end result to make sure it really is what it is, so you can be sure you’re not wasting money with this one.

Pro Tip: You might want to buy more than one flavor of protein powder. If you’re consuming one or more shakes every day it’s easy to grow tired of a single flavor.

Cottage Cheese

If you can tolerate dairy, cottage cheese is a great resource for protein. The protein in cottage cheese is casein, which is slow digesting and great for days when you’re not working out or if you want to jam some protein in before going to sleep at night.

Pro Tip: I make sure I buy a brand with no carrageenan. It’s seriously slimy and perhaps not so healthy, either. That can ratchet up the cost, but will also likely ratchet up your enjoyment. Some brands also have live cultures, which are great for your guts, so getting a more expensive brand might be worthwhile.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Protein doesn’t get much easier than this, not to mention all the great omegas that come with eating eggs. I boil up a dozen eggs on Sunday and we’ve both got snacks to grab all week long. It’s easy to burn out on hard-boiled eggs though, so I’d recommend not using them as your predominant protein source or after a week you’ll hate every egg you encounter.

Pro Tip: A way to keep things interesting would be to make egg salad sandwiches out of them periodically, although your cat might be seriously disappointed by this turn of events.

Carbs

Rice

Yes, I know those of you who are paleo are presently aghast, but sometimes rice is the answer. While our household is 100% gluten free, it is not grain free. Remember those stories of Michael Phelps eating piles of pancakes? Someone who burns a lot of calories needs a lot of calories. Rice is particularly easy calories to both purchase and consume. In addition, the sugars in rice clear the human body pretty quickly, so the impact on your system is short and, well, sweet.

Pro Tip: Since gluten-free bread gets expensive, but even organic rice is cheap (especially if you buy bulk), recently my fiancé started just mixing tuna and mayo together, and eating it with a side of rice. This saves us sandwich-making time, too.

Fruit

Apples, bananas, and oranges regularly make it into my fiancé’s cooler. Easy to eat, full of calories, but jam-packed with awesome nutrients as well.

Pro Tip: Never stash a banana in your gym bag.

Fats

Heavy Cream and Butter

I had a friend a few years back who resorted to carrying around a bottle of olive oil and drinking straight from it to get in all his calories. This is not recommended, but lots of good fats are a good thing for hard gainers. If you can tolerate dairy, put heavy cream in your coffee in the morning. This same aforementioned friend also used to slice up sticks of butter and eat it as if it were cheese. So, you know, you can always pack a stick of butter in your cooler.

Nuts

Buy a few packages of mixed nuts and keep them stashed everywhere you or your hard gainer goes – the car, the office, the gym bag, and the cooler.

Now you have some ideas on what foods are good choices for a hard gainer, but you’re still left with making sure enough gets eaten. One tool my fiancé uses is a calorie counter app in his phone. In the mornings when we measure out his portions and pack up his cooler, he builds his day of food in the calorie counter. As things go in the cooler they get entered in the app. Once the app shows he’s hit his calorie goal (leaving aside an allotment for dinner) we stop packing food. Now he knows that all he has to do is eat everything in the cooler and he’ll make his mark. No thinking, no counting – just eating.

Having a hard gainer in the household can be a project. It’s not necessarily fun for the person in question to have to eat all day, so the more variety you can sustain and the more enjoyable the food is, the more likely it will actually be eaten. Keeping up that amount of food isn’t always easy on the budget either, so hopefully this list has helped you brainstorm some new ideas on how to feed a hard gainer despite a busy, modern lifestyle.

The post How to Feed a Hard Gainer on the Cheap and on the Go appeared first on Breaking Muscle.