5 Reasons Why Your Muscle Building Program Sucks

His results speak for themselves. What about yours?

Building muscle has always been a passion of mine.

The #1 goal of the majority of my clients is to build as much muscle as possible.

If you want to build significant muscle, you need to start taking it seriously. Below are 5 reasons why you're not making the gains you should be making.

1. You wing it.

You need a plan.

Do you think Washington just yelled “Charge!” during the Revolutionary War?

Hell no.

Do you think Tiger won the 2000 US Open by 15 shots by simply “Grippin & Rippin” it?

Hell no.

Do you think Dorian Yates won 6 consecutive Mr. Olympia's without a plan?

Hell no.

So, what makes you think you can build large slabs of muscle without a plan?

You can't.

So pick a muscle-building split and stick with it for the next 3 months.

2.  You are focusing too much on isolation exercises.

To get big you need to lift big.

You wanna know how Arnold got huge?

He picked up heavy shit and moved it.

What a genius, right?

Relying mostly on curling 20 pound dumbbells and doing leg extensions ain't gonna do anything for you.

Try doing 50 pull ups, 50 dips, and 50 squats a week and see what that does for you.

3.  You are trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Look, unless you can re-write the universal laws of thermodynamics, you cannot build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

You know who can do that?

Those that take steroids and/0r are genetic freaks.

I'm talking the top 1%.

That is not you.

You need to gain weight.

Gain weight, but don't get fat.

There is a difference.

When dudes try to gain muscle they eat anything and everything.

The result is that they gain muscle and a ton of fat.

Don't do this.

You cannot force feed a muscle to grow.

4.  Your form blows.

Your form when performing exercises doesn't need to be perfect, but it can't be terrible.

Strive for “solid” form.

Whenever possible, lift in front of a mirror so you can see what you are doing.

5.  Your recovery blows.

The key to building muscle fast is frequency.

That is to say, the more often you can stimulate a muscle, the more a muscle will grow.

But, frequency depends on recovery.

You can train a muscle whenever it has fully recovered from its previous stimulation.

Increased Recovery —–> Increased Frequency —–> Increased Muscle Growth

Things that affect recovery ability

• nutrition
• sleep
• stress
• booze
• smoke

What can you do to enhance your recovery?

• Make sure you are eating healthy.
• Make sure you sleep about 8 hours a night.
• Try to limit stress.
• Limit your boozing.
• Dont' smoke, dummy.

So, there you have it — 5 reasons why your muscle building program sucks and what you can do about it.

Which do you fall victim to? Tell us in the Comments.

photo credit:  PUMPING IRON – TWO

My 5 Favorite Muscle Building Exercises

I love building muscle. It's what I'm most passionate about. It's what I think about when going to sleep and what I think about when I wake up.

Most experts will agree on the best muscle building exercises. I think it's important to use the ones that you enjoy doing.

For example, deadlifts are an amazing muscle building exercise, but I hate doing them because they just are not fun.

So I don't do them.

There is nothing wrong with that.

My advice is that instead of picking a great exercise and performing it half-ass, you should pick an exercise you like and perform it with 100% intensity.

That's my philosophy.

I also believe that you should focus on just a few compound exercises and try to constantly improve on these by either increasing the weight and/or the reps.

My 5 Favorite Muscle Building Exercises

1 – Lat Pulldowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxellR7exJ0

Lat Pulldowns are a great back exercise. I recommend these for most people over pull ups because I feel that most people can create a better mind-muscle connection with lat pulldowns.

2 – Seated Cable Rows

Seated Cable Rows are another great back exercise. I prefer these over 1-arm dumbbell rows simply because I feel it more in my back when I perform the cable rows.

Again, it's the mind-muscle connection that is critical for muscle growth.

3 – Weighted Pushups

As most of you know, I hate the barbell bench press. They destroy the shoulders and are more of a front deltoid exercise than they are a chest-building exercise.

Pushups are the most under-appreciated muscle-building exercise in existence.

Once you can bang out more than 20 push-ups then you should add weight.

4 – Dip Machine

The dip machine is great for the chest and triceps. I prefer these over bodyweight dips.

I feel like I have much more control and I like that I can manipulate the load.

5 – Goblet Squats

Squats are awesome. There are barbell back squats, barbell front squats, hack squats, and goblet squats.

I love goblet squats.

You can use a dumbbell or weighted vest or both.

A Perfect Split with the above exercises

Monday

1a) Lat Pulldowns  5 sets x 12-15 reps

1b) Weighted Pushups  5 sets x 12-15 reps

2)  Goblet Squats  2 sets x 15-20 reps

Tuesday – off

Wednesday

1a) Seated Cable Rows  5 sets x 8-12 reps

1b) Dip Machine  5 sets x 8-12 reps

2)  Goblet Squats  2 sets x 15-20 reps

Thursday – off

Friday

1) Goblet Squats  2 sets x 8-12 reps

2a) Lat Pulldowns  2 sets x 8-12 reps

2b) Weighted Pushups  2 sets x 8-12 reps

3a) Seated Cable Rows  2 sets x 8-12 reps

3b) Dip Machine  2 sets x 15-20 reps

Saturday & Sunday – off

If you follow the above split, keep records, and try to increase the weights consistently, you will make huge gains in muscle.

Exercise When Sick? Yes or No?

It depends!

This is one that often baffles even the most-seasoned athlete – should I train if I'm sick?

Well, it depends. But our training and nutrition expert, John Berardi, put together a very handy infographic that gives us specific recommendations based on your symptoms and “day into” your illness.

Give it a look.

Should you exercise when sick? [Infographic]

Interesting Perspective on the History of Ironman Magazine

I apologize in advance if you can't read what's below, as it's an embed from a Facebook post from a friend of mine (Ken O'Neill), talking specifically about how the magazine just let go another friend of mine (Jerry Brainum).

You should see the post right above. If you can't read it, go follow Ken on Facebook and login.

Lean Bulking: 5 Ways to Gain Muscle Without Getting Fat

Winter is my favorite time of year. Why?

Because it's bulking season. You know – eat, lift, eat.

Guys love bulking season, but most make the same huge mistake (no pun intended).

What's the mistake? They become fat.

In their attempts to gain muscle, they eat everything in sight which leads to excessive fat gain. You cannot force-feed muscles to grow. It does not work that way.

So, after the typical 6 months of bulking, they need to diet for 6 months to lose all that fat they gained. During those 6 months of dieting, they lose most of the muscle they gained–if not more.

Back to square one.

So, what's the solution to building muscle without getting fat?

Well, I came up with 5 of them.

Implement one or all of them at once.

5 Ways to Gain Muscle Without Getting Fat

1 – High/Low caloric intake days

I love this strategy. It's simple. It works.

The idea is to eat a high amount of calories on your weight training days and a low amount of calories on your non-weight training days.

Your body needs more calories for energy and muscle building when you train.

I would recommend consuming 500 calories over your maintenance on your high days and consuming your maintenance on your off days.

This strategy will help you keep the fat gain at bay.

2 – Get lean first prior to starting your bulk phase

Yea, yea, yea, I know you want to get big.

But, you gotta listen–the leaner you are, the more likely your body will add muscle versus fat.

Conversely, the fatter you are, the easier it is for your body to gain fat.

If you are a man, get under 10% body fat before you start bulking and never ever let yourself get above 20%.

If you are a woman, get under 20% body fat before you start bulking and never ever let yourself get above 30%.

3 – Cyclical Bulking

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You bulk for 3-6 months, get fat, then cut for 3-6 months and you end up looking the same as you did when you originally started 6-12 months ago.

This is known as “traditional bulking.”

I don't know about you, but the hardest part for me is psychologically having to cut for 3-6 months.

That sucks.

I had to do it when I competed in my bodybuilding contest.

It's a long time to be miserable.

I've got a better idea–cyclical bulking.

Focus on building muscle for 4-8 weeks then follow that with a short cutting phase of 1-2 weeks.

Each bulking cycle will leave you with a little fat to burn off in those 1-2 cutting weeks.

Shorter cutting weeks leads to less muscle loss.

Plus it's easier psychologically to only have to diet 1-2 weeks at a time versus 3-6 months.

4 – Consume the majority of your daily carbs around your weight training sessions.

You can stick to the traditional 3-6 month bulking phase if you want. Try consuming the majority of your carbs immediately after your weight training sessions.

Your body craves carbs post-workout. Carbs will be stored as glycogen which is a source of energy for your muscles. Your body will not store carbs as fat post-workout.

Carbs are beneficial post-workout. This is the only time I recommend consuming simple sugars as well.

Implementing this eating strategy will help you pack on muscle without getting fat.

5 – Perform your damn cardio

I fall victim to neglecting my cardio during bulking season. I mistakenly think that cardio will “burn up my muscle,” or something ridiculous like that.

Let's say you burn about 700 calories a week performing cardio. That's not a lot. Probably like 3 moderately intense 30 minute sessions. That adds up to about 3,500 calories a month or 1 pound.

That's 1 pound of fat less that you do not have to diet off once you start your cutting phase.

So, if your bulking phase is 6 months, you will start your cutting phase with 6 pounds of less fat than you normally would have had you neglected your cardio sessions.

So, do your cardio when bulking.

Ok, so forget about traditional bulking. It's dead. You need to start bulking smarter. Think about gaining muscle while minimizing fat gain.

You'll thank me when summer rolls around and all the fat guys are sweatin' bullets because they have to drop all that fat that accumulated during their dirty bulking phase.

You, on the other hand, will be able to coast to single-digit body fat.