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By Anthony Ellis
In part 1, I touched on general weight gain rules and reasons
why you can't gain weight. Now it's time to get into workout
specifics...
WORKOUT RULES
4. Stop listening to every ridiculous piece of advice you hear
in the gym or read on a message board.
Recently a client of mine informed me that someone in the gym
stated that he was training all wrong and he needed to train
5-6 days a week, and aim for more reps during his workout.
Somewhere in the range of 15-20 reps per set.
The person giving the advice was quite confident about his
recommendations, and he had an impressive physique that
typically elevates him to the elusive "listen to me if you
want
to look like me" level in the gym. He was bigger than my
client,
so even though my client's "intellectual" mind knows that
advice
is absurd; his "unrealistic dreamer" mind took this
information
very seriously. So seriously that he changed his program and
didn't inform me until a week or so later. This particular
person had been making great progress on his current program,
yet he allowed this one person’s comment to overshadow that
progress and convince him that his program was inadequate.
This
is a mistake and it showed in his lack of further progress.
In addition, don't judge the validity of what a person says by
how they look. Just because the guy is huge doesn't mean he is
spewing pertinent advice for you. Many people that have big
physiques are big despite of their training, not because of
it.
I know some huge guys that know very little about training and
dieting correctly. They can do whatever and still gain muscle;
unfortunately we are not that way, so we much approach things
in a more intelligent way.
5. Workout Infrequently
This is the most difficult concept for many to grasp simply
because it involves less action, instead of more. When we get
motivated and start a new program, it’s natural to want to do
something. We want to train and train and train. Thinking all
along that the more you train, the more muscle you will build.
Unfortunately, this could not be farther from the truth.
More training does not equal more muscle growth. Understand
that the purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle
growth. That takes very little time. Once that has been done,
the muscle needs to be repaired and new muscle needs to be
built. That only happens when you are resting. You do not
build
muscle in the gym, you build muscle when resting! If you never
give your body any essential “non active” time, when will it
have a chance to build muscle? Think about that.
Now, add in the fact that you have a difficult time gaining
weight and the importance of rest increases. Individuals who
are naturally thin and have difficulty building muscle tend to
require less training and more rest.
6. Focus on Multi-Jointed Lifts
Multi-jointed exercises are those that stimulate the most
amounts of muscle fibers. Unlike isolation exercises which
only
work individual muscles, multi-jointed lifts work many
different
muscle groups simultaneously. For those needing to gain
weight,
this is ideal because these lifts put your body under the most
amount of stress. This is the stress that will shock your
nervous system and cause the greatest release of muscle
building hormones. This results in increased muscle gain all
over the body.
You can still do some isolation work; however it should not be
the focus of your workouts, and should only come after your
multi-jointed lifting is complete.
7. Focus on Using Free Weights
Free weights are preferred over machines for many reasons, but
most importantly because they allow the stimulation of certain
supporting muscle groups when training. Stimulating these
stabilizer and synergistic muscles will allow you go get
stronger, and ultimately build more muscle faster. Yes, some
can most likely still build large amounts of muscle using
machines, but why make it more difficult if you already have a
difficult time gaining weight?
8. Lift a weight that is challenging for you
Building mass involves lifting relatively heavy weight. This
is
necessary because the muscle fibers that cause the most amount
of muscle size growth (called Type IIB) are best stimulated by
the lifting of heavy weight. A heavy weight as one that only
allows you to perform 4-8 reps before your muscles fail.
Using a lighter weight and doing more reps can stimulate some
Type IIB fibers, but again if you have a difficult time
gaining
weight, why make it more difficult? You need to try and
stimulate as many as you can with the use of heavy weights.
9. Focus more on the eccentric portion of the exercise.
When you lift a weight, it can be divided into three distinct
periods. The positive, the negative and midpoint. The
concentric or “positive” motion usually involves the initial
push or effort when you begin the rep. The midpoint is
signaled
by a short pause before reversing and returning to the
starting
position. The eccentric, or “negative” portion of each lift is
characterized by your resistance against then natural pull of
the weight.
For example, when doing push-ups, the positive motion is the
actual pushing up motion. Once you have pushed all the way up,
you hit the mid point. The negative motion begins when you
start to lower yourself back down. Most would simply lower
themselves as fast as they pushed up, but I recommend
extending
and slowing down this portion. Slowing down the eccentric part
of the lift will help to stimulate more muscle growth. It
actually activates more of the Type IIB fibers mentioned about
in Rule 7.
10. Keep your workout short but intense.
Your goal should be to get in, stimulate your muscles and then
get out as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to do
large
amounts of exercisers per body part trying to target every
muscle and hit every “angle”. This should only be a concern of
someone with an already developed, mature physique who is
trying to improve weak areas.
If you have no pec, don’t concern yourself with trying to
target inner, outer, upper, lower or whatever. Just work your
chest. You should do no more than 2-3 exercises per body part.
That’s it. Doing more than that won’t build more muscle,
faster. In fact it could possibly lead to muscle loss. Long
training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise
dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking
down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. While at the same
time, long training sessions suppress the hormones that
actually build muscle.
If you don’t want to lose muscle during your workouts, I
suggest limiting your sessions to no more than 60-75 minutes
MAXIMUM. Less if you can.
11. Limit your aerobic activity and training
Honestly, I do not do any aerobic activity when I am trying to
gain weight. This is mainly because it interferes with the
important “non-active” time my body needs for muscle building
and recovery. I do understand that people have lives and other
activities that they don't want to give up, so it must be kept
to a minimum. It won’t hurt your progress as long as you don’t
over do it. If you find that you are doing more aerobic
activity weight training, that’s overdoing it.
I also don’t recommend it because people tend do it for the
wrong reasons. Many start aerobic activity because they
believe
it will help them to lose fat. While that is true, it won’t do
so on a high calorie mass diet. To lose fat, you need to be
eating fewer calories.
12. Don’t program hop
Here’s how it usually happens. You’ve just read about a new
exercise or workout that is supposed to pack on the mass. Now,
even though you had already started another training program a
few weeks ago, you are tired of it and really want to start
this routine instead because it sounds better.
I call these people, “program hoppers”. They are very
enthusiastic when starting a new program, but they never
follow
it long enough to actually see any results. They are easily
distracted and love to drop whatever they may be doing to
follow the latest "hot" workout or exercise.
My advice is don’t do it. This is a bad habit that never leads
to a positive outcome. Understand that it takes time for any
program to work. To be successful, you must follow your
program
consistently. Yes, there are many different training methods
and
interesting routines out there, but you can’t do them all at
the
same time and jumping around won’t allow enough time for any
of
them to actually be effective for you. Pick one that is
focused
on your current goal and stick with it. There will be plenty
of
time to try the others later, but NOT NOW.
In Part 3 of this article, I will cover your eating rules and
guidelines to MAKE SURE you know how AND what to eat to build
muscle mass.
About The Author: Former "skinny guy" Anthony Ellis is the
creator of the most widely used weight gain program in the
world. This unique program designed to help people gain weight
and build muscle, is currently being used in over 90
countries.
For more information on how to gain weight and build muscle,
check out his website at www.fastmusclegain.com
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