Gain lean muscle mass

As the owner and primary writer for one of the main questions I get asked is how to eat for gaining lean body mass.

That is, what kind of diet should one be using in order to get stronger, bigger, and leaner. If you're an athlete, weight trainer, body builder or into fitness, gaining body mass is something that allows you to move more weight in terms of weights, and to appear “larger”.

Well, my answer is something most weight trainers don't really understand.

I guess it's very understandable because the answer is the least understood topic in weight training. Actually, when I look back at my earlier training habits, it's one that I didn't understand until I had two solid years of training under my belt (And I'm still learning!).

You see, when I started out, there was no lack of motivation on my part. I lived to go to the gym and it seemed (At that time) like the only place where I was the most comfortable. I trained hard and heavy, hitting the weights like a madman. However, if there was one thing that I wish I knew at the time was how to really, I mean really, pack on the muscle mass. What I'm talking about is a well structured nutritional program.

I'm going to be quite honest here, and if you're interested at all in building hard, lean, muscle mass, you might want to listen up. To truly add hard and lean muscle mass, you have to understand the magic of quality nutrition. Only a quality nutrition program that's geared for mass, will you be able to get super strong, get over training plateaus, and get that huge, hard ripped look.

Whether you're an athlete, body builder, or training for fitness, gaining body mass is a food game. Yep, it's all about the food you choose to put into your body that will determine how big, strong, and lean you get.

Have you ever wondered why some people go to the gym, day in and day out, train hard and heavy but never, ever seem to grow? I'm gonna tell you now that it's not a lack of motivation or ambition, but a lack of nutritional understanding and how to implement those nutrients in order to grow.

Let me give you a personal example of my “old bad days” of training. This was my grade 11 schedule:

• 7:00 AM - Bowl of high sugar cereal;
• 12:00 PM - 2 slices of pizza and a pop (Or whatever was cooking up in the cafeteria);
• 4:30 PM - Whatever my mom was cooking up - Usually something high in carbs.
• 6:30 PM - Weight Train;
• 9:00 PM - Some sort of snack food, usually not very nutritious;
• 10:30 PM - Bed.

All in all, I was probably taking in about 2, 000 calories per day. At the time, I was about 165 pounds. My training routine was crazy. I’d show up to the gym, six days a week, and train for 2 hours doing about 15 to 20 sets per body part.

This is absolutely backwards and it is no wonder that I didn’t gain a pound using this type of weight training program to gain mass. Also, I was using a protein powder very sparingly, which I took once every two or three days (I didn’t know any better). Using this type of weight training program, I injured myself and lost weight.