Gain muscle mass Workout Plan

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For those of you looking to kick start your body into crazy growth, I’ll detail exactly what I did for a routine and diet. This was accomplished many years ago, and since then I’ve become more knowledgeable. This is just a “diary” of sorts to what I did exactly to go from 162 lbs to 180 lbs in 30 days. Now that I’m older and wiser, I would recommend a healthier approach.

So, keep reading at your own risk for my exact diet and exercise routine.

Please note: this is one of the first articles I wrote for Nerd Fitness, and I would recommend a healthier diet and exercise routine to any future clients.

Please check out this article or the Rebel Strength Guide if you have any interest in putting on weight the right way.

Diet

I am a picky eater. I don’t like eggs. I don’t like fish. This means my options for protein are severely limited, as these two sources are the best in the business. Because protein is the building block of muscle gain, it is an absolute necessity. I knew I needed to eat at least 30 grams of protein every 3 hours. I ate 6 times a day, so I had at least 180 grams of protein every day. Yeah, this is a lot of protein. It works.

However, all the protein in the world won’t help a skinny man unless he eats complex carbs and healthy fats for energy. Without these things, the body will break down the protein for energy…and no muscle will get built.

Here is my normal routine. I didn’t change much, because I’m a creature of habit. The more of a routine you can get on, the better your body can process it, the more efficient you will be. Also note, I was working a job 5 days a week where I had to be at the office at 6:30AM, hence the early start time. For the rest of you, just adjust the time to whenever you wake up. NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST!

6:00 AM (Meal 1)

Two cups of 1% Milk (200 calories, 24g carbs, 16g of protein)

4 Scoops of Muscle Milk Collegiate Edition ( 580 calories per serving, 40g of protein, 89 grams of carbs…it’s not the best thing for you, however, when you need INSANE amounts of calories very quickly and cheaply, you have to do what you can)

9:00 AM (Meal 2)

Met-RX Big 100 Colossal Bar – Super Cookie Crunch (420 calories, 32 grams of protein, 43 grams of carbs. It’s the calories, protein, and carbs that I needed). Working my job didn’t give me access to a kitchen, and I couldn’t take lengthy breaks, so I had to find ways to eat a lot of calories quickly and easily.

12:00 PM (Meal 3)

Spaghetti and Meat Sauce (Angel Hair Pasta, Prego Sauce, A LOT of Ground Beef – calories, protein, carbs…sensing a trend here?)

3:00 PM (Meal 4)

Two peanut butter sandwiches on wheat bread (decent amount of calories and carbs, 20 grams of protein)

4:30 PM -Workout, Surf, or Relax, depending on the day

6:00 PM (Meal 5)

Two cups of 1% Milk

4 Scoops of Muscle Milk Collegiate Edition ( 580 calories per serving, 40g of protein, 89 grams of carbs) Tons of carbs and protein again, IMMEDIATELY following my workout. This is when you need it the most…your muscles are destroyed, and they need to be rebuilt. Your body is tired, it needs to be refueled. The carbs will refuel the body, the protein will rebuild the muscles. Everybody is happy!

9:00 PM (Meal 6)

Two 90% lean ground beef hamburgers cooked on the George Foreman Grill, and a BIG glass of milk. Protein and carbs before bed. When you sleep, your body isn’t expending energy, so it can use those nutrients to just build muscle. Note, if you eat like I did, and don’t work out, you WILL get fat. When you constantly exercise, your body will need all the nutrients it can get to get bigger and stronger.

As you can see, I drink a LOT of whole milk.

I’d say the most important meals are Breakfast (you spent all night using the previous night’s meal to rebuild muscle…breakfast will get the body started on the same path. Plus, at this point you won’t have eaten for 7 hours), the post workout meal (this is when your muscles are broke down and desparate for nutrients), and right before bed (when you sleep, it’s prime muscle building time!)

Workout

This workout is not for a beginner. In fact, looking back on my routine, I think it was far too complex and could have been done much easier (just concentrating on presses, squats, deadlifts, pull ups, and chin ups).

Now, if you are going to attempt a workout like this, I fully recommend training with a partner, or having a personal trainer to help you out. You build the most lean muscle and are most efficient when you are taking each exercise to the verge of muscular exhaustion (where your muscles literally cannot do one more thing).

Obviously, attempting this with squats, dead lifts, and bench presses is EXTREMELY dangerous unless you have somebody to spot you, help you complete the final rep. etc.

Secondly, I did a LOT of Supersets. A superset is a time saving device in many cases, and in my cases, it was used to develop my muscles more completely. . When you read my exercise log, look at each exercise, and see what it’s superset with.

For example, I superset a normal bench press exercise with push ups on an exercise ball. This means, I will do a set of bench press, followed IMMEDIATELY by 10 push ups on an exercise ball. Because you’re already worn out, and doing this exercise on a ball, it will be difficult to stay in balance…you’ll feel a lot of twitching in your chest as you try to do those push ups. This is because your chest has to use every little tiny stablizer muscle to stay in balance.

These exercises will solidify each muscle, and help promote strong healthy growth. After the 10 pushups, I would wait approximately 2-3 minutes between restarting the “circuit” with the next set of bench presses.

Looking back, with a few years of fitness experience under my belt, I’d simplify this routine considerably, chopping out some of the supersets as they seem like overkill and my muscles were getting beyond overworked I think. Still, I’ve reproduced the exact routine I followed for those 30 days just to show you what I did exactly to get the results I did.

Monday (Chest and Biceps)

• 1) 5 Min Treadmill Warm up – jumping jacks, other exercises to get the body warmed up.
• 2) Bench Press – 1 warm up set, 3 sets – 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps – increasing weight by 10 lbs each time. Aim for exhaution on each set.
• Superset the Bench Press with pushups (3 sets of 10 reps) on an exercise ball – up and down slowly (works your stablizer muscles)
• 3) Barbell bicep curl – 1 warm up set, 3 sets (10, 8, 6) – increasing weight
• Superset with Dumbell hammer curls standing on one leg (3 sets of 10 reps, light weight) – again, for stability.
• 4) Incline Bench – Dumbell Press (3 sets, 10, 10, to exhaustion) – same weight for the first 2 sets, 80% weight on third set, go until you can’t do anymore.
• Superset Incline Bench dumbell presses with dumbell flys on an exercise ball.
• 5) Incline Dumbell Bicep Curl 3 Sets (12, 10, 8 )
• Superset with one legged rope curl (3 sets of 10)
• 6) Core Exercises (v-sit ups, superman extensions, side planks, etc.) and STRETCH, especially the two muscle groups you just worked out…they’re all broken down and contracted…stretching them out will allow them to breathe, and get started more quickly on the road to recovery (and increased size).