There are thousands of products, newsletters, and books out there that promise to show you the secret of how to "gain muscle fast" and they ALL want your money but I'll give you the secret for free - lift weights and eat right! Gaining mass, is really simple but it takes a LOT of work.
What do you need to buy to bulk up and gain muscle?
A $10 used set of dumbbells from a garage sale is perfect, your muscles dont know if they are lifting used rusty old dumbbells or new, expensive, shiny, chrome ones! If you cant find a used set then you can buy a new
weight set but don't pay more than $1/lb!. If you have lots of money and very little space then consider these adjustable
powerblocks, but they are really expensive (I wish I had them!). Supplements required to bulk up? The billion dollar supplement industry would have you giving them your entire paycheck, do you need to? No!
There is no reason you cant bulk up and gain muscle with good old fashioned nutrition and real food. If you dont have the time for 6 real meals a day then
optimum nutriton 100% natural whey can be used to get the protein you need without all the fat of a fast food meal.
There is a LOT of bad information out there and people have a very warped view of what are reasonable expectations for putting on muscle thru weightlifting. Lets talk about teens and growth first, during the ages 16-22, teens are growing fast. In this time they are getting taller, adding body mass, and getting stronger all as part of the normal growth process without lifting a single weight. The reason this is important is that many times you hear anecdotes of teens who add 20lbs in one year lifting weights, well the truth is that they would have added 15lbs anyway thru the normal growth process, only the last 5lbs was actually muscle was actually added thru the weightlifting.
So what is a reasonable expectation for how much muscle you can add in a year thru weightlifting? Well if you lift with intensity 5 days a week for an hour a day all year long AND have proper nutrition (more on that later),
you can expect to add 5lbs muscle per year if you are a hard gainer and 10lbs muscle if you are one of the gifted few. Doesn't sound like a lot you can do this year after year and slowly those slowly 5lb gains really add up. Picture yourself a decade later with 50lbs muscle on!
OK, now lets discuss how to gain muscle, as I said before you need to lift weights and have proper nutrition. Lets talk about resistance training first. You have to lift weights to get stronger and gain muscle. Mass follows strength, you cant get bigger without getting stronger. Here are workout plans for:
beginner
http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/schedbeginning.htm intermediate
http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/schedintermediate.htm advanced
http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/schedadvanced.htmNow lets talk about the dedication required. You cant add muscle by flitting around the gym now and then. Remember I said that you could expect to add 5lbs muscle (10 if you are lucky) if you worked really hard? Well this is the "work really hard part" - it means 5 days a week of intense lifting. Just being IN a gym an hour a day does nothing, chatting your buddies while standing near weights doesn't make your muscles grow - you need intense, focused workout sessions. Check out my section on "Focus" to see what I mean by that.
Believe it or not, lifting weights is the EASY part of gaining muscle, nutrition is the hard part.
The #1 reason bodybuilders have poor results is not because they don't work out hard enough but because their nutrition sucks. It can take up to FIVE days for the muscles to rebuild after a workout and during that time you need a constant intake of protein. Your body can't store protein up so just having a huge steak with dinner will not work if you want to gain muscle, you need to take your protein in 6 small, even doses spread evenly through out the day to insure your recovering muscles always have the amino acids they need to rebuild. Nobody said bodybuilding was easy. If you can't eat 6 real meals a day then protein powder mixed in milk or water can make a quick and inexpensive meal replacement in a pinch, remember though, real meals are always better! The first thing you need to know about nutrition are some numbers. How many calories do you need in each meal and how many grams of protein do you need in each meal, the below chart shows this:
BODYWEIGHT CALORIES PROTEIN
280lbs (127kg) 700cals x 6 meals = 4200 46g x 6 meals= 280g protein
260 lbs (118kg) 650cals x 6 meals = 3900 43g x 6 meals= 260g protein
240 lbs (109kg) 600cals x 6 meals = 3600 40g x 6 meals= 240g protein
220 lbs (100kg) 550cals x 6 meals = 3300 36g x 6 meals= 220g protein
200 lbs (91kg) 500cals x 6 meals = 3000 33g x 6 meals= 200g protein
180 lbs (81kg) 450cals x 6 meals = 2700 30g x 6 meals= 180g protein
160 lbs (72kg) 400cals x 6 meals = 2400 26g x 6 meals= 160g protein
140 lbs (63kg) 350cals x 6 meals = 2100 23g x 6 meals= 140g protein
Eating more than this will not make your muscles grow faster, you will just get fat!!! This is really important so I'm going to say this gain. Eating more than what this chart shows will NOT make you stronger or give you bigger muscles, it will just make you FAT. This is the bulking myth - you don't need to get fat to get strong. As long as you are getting your six evenly spaced doses of protein as shown my this chart, your muscles will have the building blocks they need to grow bigger and stronger-- eating more will not help.
Here is a 10 minute video explaining the basics of how to gain muscle:
