Muscle Building

Whether you just started training for muscle growth or just aren't getting the results you want, the tips below will help you!

As a strength coach the question I get asked more than other by my athletes is, "Which supplements should I use?"

While quality supplements certainly play a role, the bulk of your results will always come from your training and nutrition programs. It's not sexy, cool, or new like the latest supplement, but it's a fact.

I believe this is indicative of a large issue, and that is people looking for the easiest answer to a problem. This is human nature, and supplement companies exploit this by making outrageous claims about their products.

I have used just about every supplement out there myself, and those I haven't used my athletes have.

• Amino Acids
• Creatine Esters
• Pre-workout Drinks
• Nitric Oxide
• Protein Powders
• Carb Powders
• Post-workout Drinks
• Glutamine
• Testosterone boosters
• Etc., etc.

Some of these don't work at all and some work moderately well. But I have never seen a supplement come close to giving the results of a scientifically-designed training and nutrition program.

Creatine, the gold standard in supplements, will increase your weight by 2-3 pounds and increase your strength on the big lifts by around 5% over the course of a month. Conversely, when I put an athlete on a scientifically-designed training and nutrition program I typically see muscle gains of 8-10 pounds and strength increases of 20-30% in one month!

Which would you prefer? Now it's not as easy as taking a teaspoon of powder, but the results are much, much better.

Supplements can be useful, and it's always fun to try the latest thing out there. But don't believe the hype from supplement companies telling you that supplements are all you need to pack on muscle. The marginal benefits they provide are just the icing on the training and nutrition cake.

This is probably the one of the most overlooked areas by those looking to gain muscle mass, especially the younger guys. It's been hammered into us by bodybuilding magazine that we need tons and tons of protein. While protein is a definite necessity, I find that most people are really lacking in fruit and vegetable intake. One of the main reasons for this is that most people don't understand how fruits and vegetables aid in muscle growth.

Whether it's been taught to us or simply implied, I think most of us have this belief that eating like a bodybuilder and eating healthily are mutually exclusive. This should not be the case as health is vital to building muscle at the fastest rate possible.

You see, when we are trying to build muscle we lift heavy weights. This is a huge stress on your body. Your body adapts to this stress by making your muscle bigger and stronger. This adaptation takes a lot of energy.

Unfortunately this is not the only thing going on in your body. Your body has to keep your heart pumping and all your organs working just to keep you alive. You are also constantly bombarded with bacteria and viruses that your body fights-off to keep you from getting sick.

Your body also prioritizes all these activities. First and foremost is keeping your heart and brain working. Then comes the function of your internal organs and immune system. Way, way down the list is building muscle.

When you don't give your body the nutrients to keep all of your other systems working then your body will never build muscle at the fastest rate possible. If your body has a choice of fighting-off an infection or building muscle, it's going to choose to keep you healthy every time.

By eating fruits and vegetables you supply your body with the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals necessary to keep your healthy. If you eat an adequate amount of fruits and vegetable every day then your body won't have to decide between staying alive and building muscle, since it will now have the raw materials to do both.

I've already given you a couple of tips, and many more are coming. But what are you going to do with this information? Most of you will read through it and then forget it about. Some of you will apply 1 or 2 of the tips. But imagine if you applied every single tip. Do you have any idea how great your gains would be?

So why do most people only read and not apply? I have found the simple reason is that they believe what they are reading doesn't apply to them. You may read the previous tip and think, "Finding a training partner sounds like a hassle. Besides, I'm sure I'll be fine without one." Or you may think, "I have terrible genetics, that will never work for me."

This is the attitude of someone who isn't very serious about their goals. If you really wanted to gain 20 pounds or bench 400 pounds wouldn't you do everything necessary to make it happen? If I held a gun to your head and said, "You must achieve your goals or I'll pull the trigger." Don't you think you would change some things?

Don't get caught-up in the mindset that what I am writing here doesn't apply to you. It does.

If you ask most people in the gym why they are there you will find that their responses typically get lumped into 2 categories. The first is that they simple don't have a real reason for being there. They just like to workout or enjoy checking-out the girls in the aerobics class.

In the second category are the guys that tell you they want to gain muscle, lose fat, increase, their bench press, increase their vertical jump, etc. Basically they want to do everything under the sun. While this is admirable, it's a completely unfocused way of accomplishing things.

I find the best strategy is to have one goal at a time. For most people this will either be to gain muscle or to lose fat. If you need to do both, focus on losing fat first.

Picking one of these two options is not a goal though. To be considered a true goal it needs to be measurable. After all, if my goal is to gain muscle then after gaining ½ a pound the first week I can call it quits. A better goal is to say I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle.

Once you have made your goal measurable you need to give yourself a timeline. This can be an arbitrary date that you want to achieve your goal by, but I find it works much better if you have a date that you can't change such as an event like a vacation.

Let's say my goal is to gain 10 pounds of muscle in the next 10 weeks. I can then break this down into smaller goals of gaining 1 pound every week.

Once I have that goal set I need to determine what behaviors will get me there. I know that the two main factors in gaining muscle are nutrition and training. So I identify the a couple behaviors associated with each.

For nutrition I decide that I must eat something every 3 hours and that I must take in 4,000 kcal per day. For training I decide that I must train with weights for 3 days per week and I must increase my squat by 5 pounds each week.

Now these may or may not be the correct behaviors for my goal, and there may be some more behaviors that I need to focus on, but if I've chosen the correct behaviors and I execute them throughout the week I will find that by the end of the week I have gained my one pound of muscle.

This is really a very simple and effective strategy for goal-setting and your training sessions will be much more productive if you have a goal that you're working towards.

The modern world is an increasingly stressful place to live. The pressure to work more, raise a family, make more money, etc. all affect our mental and physical health. I am sure you've gone to the gym distracted by a problem at work or at home. This never makes for a productive workout.

This illustrates how the mind and body are intimately connected. I am sure you have heard the saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Well sometimes life just sucks the will right out of you. It doesn't matter what supplement or training program you're on. If you don't have the will to give full effort you won't see results.

To help you get your mind right before a training session there are two strategies that I use:

1.Clear your mind.

You will never be able to finish everything on you have to do before a workout. You just have to deal with you can and put the rest on hold. I find the best way to do this is to make a "To Do" list. This way you don't have to constantly remind yourself of what you need to do later.

2. Take a timeout

Getting into the right mindset for a workout isn't necessarily difficult, but it does take some time. If you walk into the gym still talking on your cell phone about whatever issue you're dealing with that day (family, work, friends, etc.) then you definitely won't be in the right mindset for your first set. So turn-off the phone and listen to your favorite music on the car ride to the gym. While you're in the car visualize your workout in your head. Picture yourself being successful. This only needs to take 10 minutes of your time.

Keep in mind that these tips go far beyond helping you have better workouts. Applying the strategies above also improves your overall health and well-being.