by Bill Davis

Building muscle fast (bulking up) requires really heavy lifting, but it also requires smart work-outs and meal plans. We’ll go over each of these in the following paragraphs.

A muscle grows only when it has to. Muscles grow as a consequence of overloading them and then allowing them sufficient rest and providing them sufficient nutrition so that they can adapt to the stresses put on them. As a practical matter, this means that you should exercise each muscle group a maximum of twice per week. When you really stress a muscle, you may even want to work out once per week. Muscles need a lot of time to recover after High Intensity Training (HIT) of this nature.

Here’s the work-out routine:

Day 1

* Squats, 4-5 sets, 10-12 reps. Slow and deliberate. Full squats.
* Hamstring curls, 3 sets, 15 reps.
* Calf presses, 3 sets, 20 reps.
* Tricep extensions, 3 sets, 10 reps.
* Barbell curls, 3 sets, 10 reps.

That’s it for Day 1. Day 2 is rest.

Day 3

* Bench press, 4-5 sets, 6-10 reps. No bouncing (EVER).
* Bent Rows, 4-5 sets, 6-10 reps. Feel the weight. Round the shoulders at the bottom, really squeeze the shoulder blades together at the top.
* Shoulder press, 3 sets, 10 reps.

Day 4 is rest.

Day 5

* Repeat Day 1. You can substitute stiff-legged deadlifts for the hamstring curls and you can do variations on the arm exercises.

Days 6 & 7 are for rest.

Day 8 (Day 1 of the following week)

* Repeat Day 3. You can substitute Lat pull-downs for the Bent Rows.

Day 9 is for rest.

Day 10

* Repeat Day 1.

And so on. This routine is merely alternating “Arm and Leg day” with “Torso day,” with each getting in at least one work-out per week. This program gives you the opportunity to really blast your torso in the first week, since you’re only training it one day for the entire week. You can also train really heavy on your squats, which is the most important exercise you can do.

In fact, if you only did one exercise at all, it should be the squat. Squats stimulate not only the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, but they also stimulate muscle growth throughout the body. There are so many stabilizing muscles that are directly stressed by squats that you’d be hard-pressed to find a better overall exercise. Additionally, it’s been shown that heavy squats actually trigger a muscle-building response in the body. In short, you’ll gain muscle all over simply by doing heavy squats.

That’s the exercise program. Each of these routines should take no more than 30-45 minutes to complete.

Now, onto the nutrition program. Vince Gironda, the “Iron Guru,” held the belief that bodybuilding was 85 percent nutrition. I won’t go that far. But I will say that training without good nutrition is pointless, just as good nutrition with no training is useless!

You CAN, however, trigger an anabolic response with proper nutrition. The key is keeping a positive nitrogen balance in the bloodstream. This means that you have to eat high-protein, low carb meals every 2-3 hours. DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE FAT. You’ll also need to take in a LOT of supplements. There are a whole host of supplements that you need to take to effect this anabolic response. Remember, your muscles only grow if they have to. You can help this along by supplying them with the nutrients they need. Here’s the program:

Breakfast

* Mix up 4-6 eggs
* 8 oz half and half
* 8 oz whole milk
* 8 oz steak or other beef

Snack

* Mix up 4-6 eggs
* 8 oz half and half
* 8 oz whole milk
* MetRx packet

Lunch

* 1 pound hamburger
* Mixed green salad or raw veggies
* 4 oz cheese

Snack

* Mix up 4-6 eggs
* 8 oz half and half
* 8 oz whole milk
* MetRx packet

Dinner

* 1 pound steak or roast
* Steamed veggies
* 4 oz cheese

Snack

* Mix up 4-6 eggs
* 8 oz half and half
* 8 oz whole milk
* MetRx packet

Supplementation (with every meal and snack)

* 10 dessicated liver tablets
* 5 yeast tablets
* 4 raw orchic-tissue tablets
* 6 amino acid tablets (ariginine and ornithine)

As you can see, this is a super-high protein, low carb meal plan with a LOT of supplementation! All of this is geared toward putting your metabolism in an anabolic (muscle-building) state. You should follow the exercise and meal plans laid out above for no more than 4-6 weeks.

You can see gains in as little as 2 weeks on this program!

Generally speaking, once you gain 2-5 pounds of muscle, you’ll want to go on a less extreme diet plan and change up your exercise plan to do a few more sets per body part, with more reps per set. Why? Your body adapts to each type of stress you put upon it. Constantly changing things up “confuses” your body and, because it always seeks to adapt to the stress, continuously grows. Also, by switching up the exercise regimen, you’ll be promoting different aspects of muscle growth (Muscles grow in various ways: The parts of the cells grow in number and in size, both require different training stresses).

In summary, then, you will constantly cycle through this extreme training and diet plan, you’ll move off it after several weeks, then you’ll go to higher volume but less intense work-outs for several months and a more traditional (“balanced”) diet, then you’ll return to this muscle-building phase. It’s a cyclical, or phased, approach. I call it the “Stair Step Method.”

Here’s to your bodybuilding success!

Bill Davis has been building muscle through bodybuilding since he was 12 years old. He has used his body as a lab, testing all sorts of muscle-building principles, and openly shares his methods at Muscle-Build.com. Mr Davis can be reached at billspaced@muscle-build.com.

Originally published on SearchWarp.com for Bill Davis Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Article Source: How To Bulk Up and Get Ripped

By The Muscle Nerd, Jeff Anderson

Don’t be a victim to “weak genetics”! Here’s a simple way to defeat the “hardgainer” curse!

Are you a “hardgainer”?

You know…someone who is reeeeeally skinny and has a hard time putting on muscle mass?

If so, then this hardgainer bodybuilding tip is just for YOU!

The “Hargainer Problem” (well…ONE of them!)

There’s no doubt that “hardgainers” have the odds stacked against them!

And one of the big problems they have is that the don’t have a hormone system that processes the “testosterone chain” as efficiently as other guys.

Sucks, doesn’t it?!

But here’s a little trick you can try that is guaranteed to kickstart some new gains…

How To Boost Testosterone For More Muscle Mass…

Ok, here’s what you do…

For ONE WEEK, before each of your workouts (no matter which body part you’re targeting)…

…do 3 SETS of high volume SQUATS!

I know, I know…you hate doing squats period, right?

But especially for scrawny hardgainers (yeah…you women too!), squats are the “King” of all mass building exercises because they use more total muscle fibers than any other exercise.

Here’s Why This Works…

By starting your workout with 3 sets of squats (shoot for high reps…like 15-20), you jumpstart your endocrine system to kick up the production of anabolic hormones like testosterone.

Plus…using a higher volume rather than lower, you also stimulate the release of more human growth hormone that stimulates muscle growth.

Do this 3 TIMES a week and then move on to the rest of your workout (such as your chest, shoulders, etc.)

Repeat this trick any time you feel like your gains have plateaued and the flood of healthy, mass-building hormones will benefit your entire body to slather your scrawny frame with layers of muscle in no time!

Jeff Anderson, the “Muscle Nerd,” can show you how to build muscle, even if you’ve “tried everything.” He has several courses that show you how to build mass, combat body fat, and put your body in an anabolic state. Check out the “Muscle Nerd” series of bodybuilding courses.

By Jason Ferruggia

1. Lift weights for no more than three to four days per week. Doing so is not only unnecessary but can quickly lead to over-training, especially if you are doing other physical activities such as cardio or playing recreational sports on a regular basis.

2. Limit your workouts to 30-45 minutes and 15-20 total sets. If you can’t build muscle and gain strength in that time frame then I’d say you are half assing it. You have to remember that results are greatest when energy levels and mental focus are at their highest. That is during the first 30-45 minutes of your workout. Going beyond that point causes both of these to plummet.

3. Use big, compound exercises and lift heavy. Deadlifts, military presses, squats, bench presses, rows and chin ups should always be the main focus of your muscle building workout programs. These have been the best muscle building exercises since the beginning of time and that will never change.

4. Continually try to get stronger and always track your progress with a training journal. Progressive overload is the most basic but often forgotten principle in weight training. It states that to make progress you need to constantly increase the amount of weight you lift. Follow this rule and you will get bigger and stronger. Ignore it and you will get nowhere. If you are benching 225 right now, you better be benching 315 by this time next year if you want to build muscle.

5. Train with a multitude of rep ranges. Doing this allows you to target both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers and maximizes your muscle building capabilities. Reps from 1-20 should be used to target both fast twitch and slow twitch fibers.

6. Always change your weight training program every 3-4 weeks. After 3-4 weeks on the same program you will start to burn out and your results will slow down. To keep your body in a muscle building state, be sure to change your workouts frequently. If you have been lifting for several years, this may need to be done every two weeks because you will adapt more rapidly to the same stimulus.

7. Make a serious commitment to eating. Proper nutrition plays a huge role in your muscle building efforts. Without adequate calories you will never grow optimally. Force feed yourself if you have to and be sure to time your carbs correctly, meaning around training and at breakfast, while cutting them out at night if you want to stay lean while building muscle.

8. Be sure to get at least 8-10 hours of sleep per day and take naps whenever possible. When you are sleeping is when you are building muscle. Sleep is the time when you recover and grow. Without adequate sleep you will never reach your true potential and your muscle building efforts in the gym may be wasted. Do not overlook this important factor.

9. Utilize recovery methods. Training and eating properly are not enough to ensure the fastest muscle building results. You also have to be sure to use whatever recovery methods you can to accelerate your progress. Some of these include taking contrast showers or baths after training, stretching after training and on off days, icing, using foam rollers and whatever else you can think of to help you recover faster.

10. Find a good training partner. While I left this for last on the list it may, in fact, be the most important factor of them all. Without a good training partner your results will always be less than what they could be. It is imperative that you try to find someone to push you and to compete against if you really want to take your muscle building efforts to the next level.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit Muscle Gaining Secrets.

Do you struggle to gain weight? Eat endlessly throughout the day? Swallow supplements like there’s no tomorrow? Train really heavy but don’t build muscle?

If you can answer yes to any or all of these questions, you are a hard gainer. The bodybuilding publications insist on breaking people up into three body types: The ectomorph, the mesomorph, and the endomorph. You can think of it in terms of “too skinny,” “just right,” and “fat.”

Mesomorphs have it easy, relatively speaking. They can put on weight by following “conventional” wisdom. Endomorphs usually have a lot of muscle, simply because they’re carrying around the extra weight all day. For example, take a look at an overweight guy’s calves: They’re usually very well-developed.

It’s the ectomorph that has a problem. If you follow the traditional bodybuilding plans, you’ll gain strength, but you won’t put on any weight, no matter how hard you try. In fact, the harder you try, the worse it gets. You may even lose weight!

This introductory post is setting the stage for what may be a transformative moment for you. I will show you the exact methods I used to build muscle at a rapid rate, after YEARS of trying with little success.

There are three things you need to do: Train right, eat right, and get enough rest. You can call it the three-pronged approach. One without the other two will get you no where. Even doing two right won’t get the job done. Like a barstool, it’s only effective at doing what it was designed to do if it has three fully-functional legs.

I’ll show you how to put together a progressive weight lifting program, an eating plan with all the right supplements, and a “relaxation” plan that will not only allow your body to recouperate from your weight training, but that will also slow down your metabolism for rapid gains in bulk.

Make no mistake, I will NOT fatten you up like veal cattle. Rather, the idea here is to put on slabs of muscle in a short amount of time. Whether you’re as lean as a marathon runner or a little on the flabby side, you CAN build muscle by properly addressing the three prongs of this overall plan.

More will follow in subsequent posts. Note that all the plans are on the companion site, Muscle-Build.com, too. Make sure you subscribe to my RSS feeds (they will be delivered to your feed reader or your email inbox, depending on your preference) for this blog as well as The Muscle-Build.com Newsletter, where I will give you tips, workout routines, and meal plans that will skyrocket your bodybuilding results.

For now, take a look around. Leave comments with requests — if you don’t see it here right now, odds are it’ll be here soon!