How to actually gain muscle... put simply.

1) Calorie Surplus:  This means your calorie intake should be more than the calories you need to maintain your current physique. Calculate your maintenance using the Harris-Benedict formula. Also eat much more than this.

2) Eat good food. No junk food. Junk food has nothing in it which can benefit you, yes it has calories but the damage done is much more than the good done from simply consuming calories.

Recommended foods:

Oatmeal
Brown rice
chicken
salmon
tuna steak
muesli
bananas
apples
garlic
onion
peppers
spinach
steak
milk
whey protein
nuts (like brazils)

if you eat these types of foods throughout your eating period to go way beyond your maintenance then you will gain weight and if you exercise properly too.... it will be mostly lean mass.

3) Weights and HIT training.  Yes do cardio... but HIT is a different type of cardio it is high intensity and high impact. Studies indicate that HIT training produces more testosterone and increases the bodies ability to burn fat. I do 1 minute high and 1 minute low for 30 minutes on the stepper nearly everyday in the gym.

With weight training, split your muscles but don't be too strict! If your triceps feel like they can do more sets even though you did them yesterday.... kill them again until you feel it the following days. So have chest, leg, shoulders, back and arm day but activate some other muscles during those days just to ensure muscle fibre damage.

Never count your reps or sets. Do drop sets and do each set to failure. E.g.   bench i do say 100 kg then drop to 90 kg. Do it again. Then as I tire I go from 90kg to 80kg ..... i keep doing this until I end up with 40 kg or less. This forces usage of all fibres in the tissue. Apply this to all sets in all muscle groups.

4) Rest. Have at least 1 full day of rest but only rest when you cannot activate anymore muscles... one day you will feel like everything is fucked.

5) Don't be too precise. This can lead to failure. Just ensure you are way above your caloric maintenance, you are eating lots of good food, going to failure using drop sets (volume training). You will see progress in 2 months maybe more. Keep going, just keep going.

6) Welcome to obsession. After a while you will become an addict, this makes things easier as you will automatically go to the gym. Just ensure that you are doing it for yourself so you reap the benefits.


GET BIG OR GO HOME!