Out of the Box Muscle Building
You CAN change yourself.
When I first started weight training
Crazy.
When I finally stopped training like a madman, I started making gains.
Huge gains.
The less I trained, the more strength and size I added.
Life is a big conflicting and confusing and counter-intuitive thing, right?
When I was a skinny hardgainer, I was lifting every day, doing many sets of many exercises. I ate all damned day long.
After all, that’s what all the bodybuilding mags
After years of frustration, I took a different approach.
- I cut out cardio.
- I lifted 3x a week.
- Heavy.
- Few sets.
- Low reps (3-6) for upper body.
- High reps and HEAVY weights for legs (15-25), like Tom Platz.
That year I did that, I gained 60 pounds and was still under 6 percent body fat.
Don’t ever let anybody tell you that’s impossible. I did it. I know you can, too.
No steroids, either.
If you want to – but you must think out of the box.
Like I did.
If it ain’t working, stop doing it. Try something else.
After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
1
Building Muscle is the Name of the Bodybuilding Game
Or Is It?
Everybody knows that bodybuilding is all about building muscle, right? Getting ripped is only done so that spectators and fans alike can see the muscle beneath the skin.
There are a lot of ripped guys and gals in the world. Just look at so-called “fitness models.” They’re very lean and sport very muscular bodies.
However, they’re not bodybuilders. Nor do they want to be.
When I was growing up, guys like Franco, Arnold, and Louie dominated the bodybuilding scene. Building the biggest muscles possible is what they wanted to do and they did it. However, they built their massive size to go along with the other, more aesthetic appeal of bodybuilding, which was symmetry, balance, proportion, striations, and a relatively healthful appearance.
However, times have changed and today’s champions are truly comic book here HUGE. Guys like Cutler and Coleman are bigger than what most of the super heroes of my time could ever dream. If Arnold imagined his biceps to be mountains, then Coleman must imagine his arms as Mt Everest on HGH, steroids, and TNT.
I’m not knocking these guys (and gals). They are pursuing the near-impossible and succeeding. They are not trying to impress anyone but themselves. To take your body from “normal” to “para-normal” is a feat in and of itself. They are truly giants of the sport and deserve at least kudos for blazing a trail that most of us would never even try to undertake.
But I’m also not saying that I like the look. I don’t. I like the rugged look, where the bodybuilder not only looks strong and tough, but also athletic.
I don’t know for sure, but I doubt any of these guys could beat Franco Columbu in a WSM competition. But I could be wrong. I remember thinking – when I first saw him – that there was no way Tom Platz could touch his toes, but then I saw not only that but he could touch his elbows to the ground.
What a flexible specimen. And have you seen those legs? Out of this world, even by today’s standards.
Nope, when people talk about competitive bodybuilding, they’re talking extreme cases where the individuals involved are not typical human beings. These folks are into building muscle on an extreme basis. They don’t want to be better than the old-timers; they want to be HUGELY BIGGER than these guys and for the most part, they’ve been wildly successful.
I won’t get into the drug aspect of all of this. It’s hard for me to believe that any of the top professional bodybuilders in the world are drug-free. But I don’t know for sure. And I certainly blew it when making predictions about flexibility and tremendously huge thighs!
No, I won’t travel that path again! Undoubtedly some do, some don’t. I have no idea who’s who though. I do know this:
Building muscle is what bodybuilding is all about. Always has been. Always will.
If you want to learn more about building muscle, then look no further than Muscle-Build.com!
1
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
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
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