How to build true muscle mass
Get it dialed, and you'll look like it's dripping off you
This is a topic which I'm commonly approached about. I'm fortunate to possess the genetics that enable me to put on slabs of muscle naturally. However, I wouldn't suggest that this is entirely the doing of my genetics alone; I've trained every day for two hours a day for the past eight years.
That’s alot of effort and commitment.
But the project manager in me will not let this pursuit be inefficient. If I'm going to that amount of effort, I want to make sure that every minute in there counts and there is no wasted time nor effort.
I'm fortunate that the results seem to speak for themselves. But in the interest of helping a few others out, I'll share the practices that have given me the most mileage building true muscle mass, which will give a solid foundation for literally any fitness pursuit you desire.
Think of your body as a burning fire. You’re going to walk into the gym, and you need to get the fire burning. It’s exactly the same principle as you’d apply if you were lighting that fire in the real world. You’re going to start with a little kindling to spark and get it going - that’s the warm up. Then you’re going to slowly keep adding logs onto it - that’s the main training sets. And finally, once you’re warm and ran out of wood, you’ll let the fire die down to just it’s embers. That’s your cue to go home, but to continue to reap the benefits until you let it go out - and that’s when you sleep. Similar to a fire, you should feel hot. You should sweat. It should be hard, and it should be uncomfortable. Build the fire well enough, it should get so hot that it starts to burn you - you’ll know if you’ve achieved that if you’re muscles are sore and aching the next day.
The fire metaphor works for nutrition aswell.Think of your metabolism as that fire. If you put bad fuel on that fire, it will go out. Equally, if you put too much fuel onto the fire, it will go out. The best fire is fed good, quality would little and often. It's exactly the same with your nutrition. Good quality food, broken up, roughly evenly spaced throughout the day. The best quality food from hypertrophy is going to be:
Protein
Some carbs for general energy
A few fats
You should never attempt to cut any single food group out as you will develop a deficiency and also a slow intolerance to them. All macronutrients are important. Some vitamins and minerals are only soluble in fat, so cutting fat entirely out of your diet will have negative effects on your health, not positive.
The mechanics of nutrition can get extremely complicated, but for ease's sake, the most mileage comes from portion control and calorie control rather than a specific diet or food group. If you eat little and often, you'll remain satiated for longer because as soon as your hunger starts to kick in, you have another small amount of food to keep you going. This also stabilises your metabolism and keeps it burning continuously throughout the day.
I never even recommend cutting out sugar entirely, as you need to be able to live amongst it without craving it. It’s in many things these days - so you need to develop the control to choose something else if you can, but know you’re fine with it if there’s no alternative. Noone likes the person that won’t participate a piece of birthday cake because of their diet. Your health your augment your life, not alienate you from the experiences and community that makes it.
Use the 5-7-10 rule to know when you’re slacking. Typically, for most working sets, it would be suggested for you to do 10 repetitions for 3 sets. When you can do 10 repetitions for 3 sets at a certain weight, that is your cue to then go up and add more weight or more resistance in some form.
If on the new weight you can only get 5 reps, you've added too much weight, so drop it down until you can do 7.
If you can only do 7 reps, that's absolutely fine. Every time you now do this exercise, you will continue to lift that weight until you can eventually progress to 10 reps. This may take a week, it may take a month, and may take a year in some exercise cases it can take many years. Ultimately, that's going to depend on how close the weight you are lifting is to your genetic and natural potential.
When you finally get to 10 reps, that's your cue to move up, and we repeat this cycle.
So that is a 5-7-10 rule. The exercises should require a good amount of effort to get 7 reps. If you can get up to 10, go up; if you can't do 7, go down. And that's it. This means you'll never get stuck walking into the gym and doing the same exercise every time at the same weight every time, and this hard bakes-in progressive overload into all your training sessions.
The time you put in dictates how easy the rest of your life is. These days, I rarely count calories at all, and I find I can eat pretty much whatever I like. If I do over-eat on one day, I try and compensate for the rest of the week.
But ultimately, I train an a lot. And when you train a lot, you can eat an a lot.
However, if you're only turning up to the gym once a week, your margin for error will be much lower. I personally find it significantly easier to stay disciplined by doing the exact same thing every single day. I'm not suggesting that is going to be applicable or suitable for everyone. But the idea of having a routine that works for you and knowing what kind of person you are is critical. Establish that routine; don't deviate from it, and everything else will fall into place.
No shortcuts. By now, you will have likely heard all the advice that's been going around on the internet surrounding this topic. There's plenty of people with incredible physiques that offer all of their insights for free, but ultimately anyone who does achieve it has done the basics very very well; and very very consistently.
That's just not turning up to the gym - that's their diet, that's their sleep, and that's their recovery as well.
I always found it easier to accept that there was never going to be a finish line. This is a lifestyle, it's a pursuit that lasts for the rest of my life. And when you see it that way, you stop putting pressure on yourself, and you find that it's much easier to stay on task.
TH