Building muscle is just about every red-blooded man’s main goal in the gym…gain size… or, to gain strength!

And for good reason….Looking after yourself by staying in shape, building your physique and improving your health should be a major priority in everyone’s lives.

Why?

To be a man means to build!….Build the body you want….build a business….build your home…build your family….build you life the way you want to live it!

To build self confidence, to look good and feel good about yourself. To stay at your peak, we should always strive to be the best versions of ourselves. To be healthy, and to inspire others to be healthy too.

I bring you the first part of the best guide to building solid gains in the gym!

Follow these principles to ensure you gain muscle at the right pace without slogging away in the gym wasting your time, seeing zero results!

This guide is generally intended for men, however, many of the core principals are relevant to female lifters too!

Finally, don’t cherry pick these principles, follow each and every one like an obsessive compulsive and you’ll be piling on solid muscle in no time!

Keep your lifts compound

Utilise mostly compound lifts during your workouts!

What are compound lifts?

Compound lifts are exercises utilising multi joint movements, recruiting large, multiple areas of muscle mass.

These movements differ to say an isolation exercise, which only primarily target the agonist muscle (muscle controlling the contraction phase), e.g. a triceps rope pulldown is an isolation move because you’re only exercising the prime mover, the triceps, during elbow extension, when pulling the rope down vertically.

Compound moves recruit much more muscle area to perform the movement because the movement requires multi joint synchronisation of action.

Let’s take a Deadlift for example…lifting the bar from the ground to the top of the movement requires movement from the knee, hip, shoulder and ankle joints. i.e. a multi joint movement.

This exercise requires the Glutes, hamstrings, mid and upper traps, rhomboids, quadriceps, calfs, abdominals, obliques and lower back muscles all to work in concert to produce a controlled movement.

Muscles used during a Deadlift;

• Gluteus Maximus: (Butt)
• Quadriceps: (Upper Front legs)
• Adductor Magnus: (Inner Thigh)
• Soleus: (the Smaller part of your calf muscle)
• Hamstrings: (Upper back of legs)
• Gastrocnemius: (the bigger part of your calf muscle)
• Erector Spinae: (lower back)
• Trapezius, upper: (upper neck muscles)
• Trapezius, middle: (middle neck muscles)
• Levator Scapulae: (the muscle from your jaw to your shoulder)
• Rhomboids:  (upper inner back muscles right below your neck)
• Rectus Abdominis: (abs)
• Obliques: (side abs)

So why is it best to utilise compound lifts?

Simple…..

Greater muscle area worked = one KEY BENEFIT…….Increased hormonal response!

Big moves = More hormones released = BIG GAINS

Compound moves which challenge many large groups of muscles together causes the body to release/ produce more testosterone and growth hormone, elevating levels in the blood!

Both of which are androgen steroid hormones the body produces to initiate growth… to build body tissues, namely muscle.

Testosterone (T) is the main androgen steroid hormone our body produces which is responsible for building muscle tissue.

Compound exercises can increase your T levels by up to 40% and growth hormone (GH) by over 1000%.

Studies have proven testosterone’s relationship with muscle growth, showing that when administered via injections to subjects, testosterone increases lean muscle mass and strength in a dose dependant manner, i.e. the more testosterone in the bloodstream, the greater its effects at building muscle and strength.

In addition to causing the release of greater hormones, because you’re exercising large areas of muscle you’re also burning more calories….

more muscle used= more energy needed to produce the movement= more kcals burnt

Keep the eccentric tempo slow and controlled

To build muscle you need to cause micro damage to the muscle fibres.

Micro damage is achieved through mechanical stress…. lifting weights.

(You don’t need to lift ridiculously heavy weights to achieve mechanical stress to the muscle. Intensities of 50-75% 1RM are sufficient. )

One of the most effective ways to do increase stress is by increasing the muscles time under tension during an exercise/movement…..

Time under tension refers to the length of time in which the muscle or group of muscles are contracting to control the movement. By slowing a movement down during the eccentric phase (lowering phase/return phase) you’re increasing your time under tension….

Causing the muscles to work harder, keeping them fired up, releasing energy, for longer….. inflicting greater stress…

Compare this to an uncontrolled movement…. Like when you see people flopping around like an electrocuted fish…using their whole body to do a biceps curl! Swaying and jolting like a loon!!

Keep it slow and controlled throughout the full range of motion!

Follow the 3C’s of building muscle

What are the 3 C’s of building muscle?

• Caffeine
• Casein (Whey protein)
• Creatine

Why are these nutrients so important to building muscle…. Let’s explore…

Caffeine

Caffeine is a strong central nervous system stimulant, its effects include; increasing; blood flow, resting heart rate, cognition, alertness, mood, focus and drive.

Increasing alertness, focus and drive basically results in a strong buzz… setting you up for a solid lifting session ahead!

Especially if you’ve slogged away at work all day, get a strong coffee in you to fire you back up!

Interestingly, as well as setting you in the right mindset to pump weights! Caffeine has a host of other benefits for boosting your workouts…

Muscle contractions are controlled by the nervous system…. every individual muscle fibre within a muscle (muscles are composed of groups of hundreds of individual fibres packed tightly together) is controlled by a nerve ending which signals it to fire (contract) or relax.

The nervous system controls all of these hundreds of nerves across a muscle connected to individual fibres. When we contract a muscle, these nerves need to communicate together harmoniously to contract/fire at the right time to produce the desired muscle movement at the right intensity.

Greater stress (lifting heavy weights) requires recruiting more fibres to be fired simultaneously together to act against the force and lift the heavy weight….

Increasing stimulation of the central nervous system enhances this process resulting in increases in strength and endurance when exercising…

ALLOWING you to workout harder, for longer, inflicting more micro damage to the muscles.

How much caffeine should you take??

Roughly 200-300mg or two tsp of instant coffee will do the trick!

You can also purchase caffeine tablets if you’re not a fan of coffee/tea etc. They normally come in 200mg capsules, pretty handy for a quick hassle free pick me up!

I wouldn’t bother with energy drinks…. They cost a fortune…Spend your money on something else!

Casein (Whey Protein)

Casein is the most abundant composition of proteins in whey protein or protein obtained from cow’s milk.

Whey protein is an incredibly convenient means of getting a good supply of proteins into the body to aid recovery following a hard workout session!

Whey protein manufactures often add other essential amino acids into the blend to improve its amino acid profile and bioavailability.

Proteins are the macronutrient responsible for growth and repair of body tissues.

We need to supply the body with adequate protein to start repairing and recovering from weight training.

Overwhelming research supports consuming protein within an hour or so of training to begin the repairing process of damaged muscle tissue.

Whey protein in its powdered form, makes it so convenient to have straight after your session…chuck a scoop in a shaker…. add milk or water….shake….consume.

Easy!

No cooking….no preparation….

1 scoop (22-25g protein) + milk or water (300-400ml) is all you need.

It’s cheap….it’s convenient…it starts the recovery process…get it down your neck after each and every session.

Creatine

Creatine, often purchased in the form of Creatine Monohydrate is an energy source the body utilises to regenerate/produce ATP, the bodies energy currency.

Creatine is one of the most extensively studied supplements on the market, it’s research proven to aid in the development of building lean tissue.

Creatine is converted into ATP during short bust, high power output exercise, typically 0-10s in duration, e.g. during a 100m sprint, shot put, javelin, long jump, power lifting, swimming sprints etc

We struggle to get adequate creatine from our typical western diet (its contained mainly in fish and red meat)…

Therefore…Supplementing creatine builds up the bodies stores of creatine to fuel your muscles during weightlifting at lower repetitions.

Creatine allows you to lift slightly heavier weight than without it, or push out that all important additional rep or two to ignite growth.

It’s been proven to increase maximal strength and power by 5-15% and increase exercise volume by up to 30%, meaning you can workout harder for longer!

Creatine is cheap….It works…..Its convenient, just simply add it to your shake post workout…BOOM!

You need to consume creatine in two separate phases, a loading phase, followed by a maintenance phase.

Firstly, you need to “load” it for the first week, consuming ~20g per day in x4 5g doses spread across the day. This phase saturates the muscle, filling its stores of creatine.

After the initial loading phase drop down to a maintenance phase of 5g per day…

FOREVER.

Only buy creatine monohydrate, claims of greater benefits from other forms of creatine are complete BALONEY…..They only claim this to take more of your money.

Perform a movement with good technique through its full range of motion

The importance of correct technique is fundamental to mechanically induced stress (lifting free weights) adaptation.

In order for the working muscles to adapt and perform movements with increased load (more weight) the movement pattern (neurological) must first be learned, mastered then increased through progressive overload (progressively adding more weight to a specific exercise over weeks once you’ve mastered the basic movement correctly).

Adopting and practising correct, strict technique through the full range of motion embeds the foundations of efficient communication between the brain and contracting muscle fibres.

If correct technique is not practised, the involvement of irrelevant muscle groups will be recruited and assist in the movement, thus inducing the development of muscle imbalances, where surrounding muscle other than the prime movers will be used to assist in the movement.

This leads to the development of postural imbalances and SLOWER strength/growth progression.

Performing an exercise through its full range of motion with correct technique reduces your risk of injury, improves your strength quicker, causes a good volume of muscle damage…to the right muscles!

You’ll progress quicker….

AND GET BETTER RESULTS!

Don’t be the FOOL in the gym doing partial reps of every exercise and wondering why he never progresses!

Get your testosterone in check

Testosterone is THE KEY steroid hormone produced by the body for initiating muscle growth.

Without testosterone, we cannot build muscle. SIMPLE.

Today’s modern world has played havoc on modern man’s testosterone levels, global testosterone levels have fallen by a STAGGERING 20% over the last 20 years!

That’s insane!

In ONLY 20 years man has lost 1/5 of what it means to be a man!

We need to make a conscious effort to reduce the negative effects our lifestyle, environment, food exposure and habits can have on our circulating testosterone levels.

Everything from food packaging, plastics exposure, chemical exposure, pesticides, alcohol, inactivity, laziness, reliance on pre-packaged and prepared food for nutrition, poor choices, drug use etc severely diminishes your circulating testosterone levels.

We’ve already learnt that utilising compound exercises can increase testosterone, so what else can?

Follow this link to a previous article I wrote to understand how to optimise your testosterone levels naturally

Eat the right amount of protein every day

Protein is THE essential macronutrient for building muscle, being responsible for growth and repair of all tissues of the human body. Proteins are made up of amino acid.

Amino acids are the foundations of proteins, there are 21 different types of amino acids which form proteins in different variations of these 21 amino acids. Of the 21 amino acids, 9 of them are termed essential amino acids, essential because they cannot be produced by the body unlike the other 12, making them essential to obtain from food sources.

Different sources of proteins provide variations of these 21 amino acids.

For example, a beef steak is composed of a specific profile of different numbers and quantities of the 21 different amino acids. A chicken breast has a slightly different combination of the 21 amino acids compared to a beef steak, giving it a different profile.

Because of these variations, certain sources of protein are more “valuable” to the body than others, because they will contain greater quantities of the essential amino acids.

What is the right amount of protein for muscle growth?

People will tell you different stories of how the body only needs minimal protein to function or that you can get adequate protein from plant-based sources…. YEAH…..OK…..Whatever.

I call these people ill-informed.

The TRUTH is…..If you want to BUILD MUSCLE…. You need protein from animal sources. And you need the right amount of protein to ENSURE you are ACTIVATING GROWTH.

It’s better to obtain your protein from animal sources mainly because; they are richer sources of protein, they have a better amino acid profile (variation of proteins) and they additionally provide the body with ESSENTIAL FATS and CHOLESTEROL which the body needs to create hormones…Namely TESTOSTERONE.

YOU NEED 2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight.

That means that If you weight 80kg…. You need to consume 160g of protein each and every day!

Don’t miss days…Don’t have low days or high days…. Get it into your body EVERY DAY!

Any professional who knows what they’re talking about will advise you to consume 2g per kg/bw for growth (or weight loss), anyone who tells you to consume less is a FOOL.

Proteins are best obtained from meat, fish, seafood, poultry, dairy produce, nuts and seeds.

Good sources of protein include;                      

Steak (Sirloin)                     125g steak                25g protein

Eggs                                       x2 eggs                      14g protein

Whey protein                     1 scoop                    ~19-25g protein

Salmon                              125g fillet                    25g protein

Chicken breast                   100g                         31g protein

Cows Milk (semi)              1 pint                        18g protein

Prawns                                 125g                        25g protein

(Not beans/pulses)…Don’t listen to the BS about getting protein from beans and pulses. Beans and pulses as well as being poor sources of protein compared to its animal counterparts, additionally contain ANTI NUTRIENTS, which rob the body of its nutrition from foods.

Focus on getting your protein from animal sources and nuts & seeds.

If you have ambitions to become mentally & physically weak…. or retarded…. follow a solely plant based diet.

Training each major muscle group twice a week works best

To promote good growth from a weight training regime you need to be hitting the major muscle groups of the body at least twice each week!

Major muscle groups of the body include; the quadriceps group, hamstrings group, gluteus group, pectorals, Latts, traps, deltoids, triceps, biceps, abdominals, obliques, lower back muscles etc

How you train each of these different major muscle groups will depend on how often you can get into the gym every week.

If you can only commit to 2-3 sessions per week, this can be achieved by working the “full body” during every session.

Or, if you can commit to 4+ times each week, you could split the body up into groups, e.g. having separate upper and lower sessions, or, legs & abs and back, chest, shoulders & arms, or separate push sessions and pull sessions.

Any option will work great, just ensure that you are hitting the major muscle groups of the body twice each week!

Your weekly routine could be split up just like this if you can afford x4 sessions per week…

Upper body / Lower body split routine…

Monday- Legs & core

Tuesday- Chest, back, shoulders and arms

Wednesday- Rest

Thursday- Legs & core

Friday- Chest, back, shoulders & arms

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- Rest

If you can only commit to x3 days at the gym each week I would stick to “full body” type sessions.

Monday- Full body

Tuesday- Rest

Wednesday- Full body

Thursday- Rest

Friday- Full body

Saturday- Rest

Sunday- Rest

Generally, structure your sessions to flow from lower body moves first to upper body (chest, back, shoulders) finishing with arms & abdominal moves.

Stick with compound moves like deadlifts, squats and lunges for the lower body and bench presses, pull ups/pull downs, dips, standing shoulder presses, bent over rows etc for the upper body.

Hit fatigue each and every set!

You need to be fatigued during your last few repetitions of EACH and EVERY set of every exercise!

If you’re conducting a “warm up set” of an exercise you don’t need to reach fatigue on this particular set.

However, for the rest, YOU DO.

Just be careful…

Don’t confuse fatigue with failure.

Fatigue is the burning sensation you feel building up in the muscle. Once you start to experience the burn… it’s beginning to become uncomfortable, now, push out a final 2,3,4 repetitions and you have reached fatigue.

Failure….Is where you push the muscle further…and further….and further beyond this point, until you cannot physically do another repetition after lowering the intensity (dropping the weight) several times, because your muscles are on the verge of exploding.

YES….You do have to work hard to build muscle…

You aren’t going to damage your muscle tissue if you’re prancing around with flimsy weights, coasting through every exercise whilst dreaming about the girl next door.

Follow these principles meticulously and you’ll be on the right path to building muscle in no time!

Part 2 coming soon….

Thelakescoach,

Empowering you!