6 Things You "Must Have" In Any Muscle Building Program

[LeBrunFitness]

If you're looking to pack on solid muscle mass, you'll definitely want to
read this article.

Because there's a lot of confusion on how to gain muscle mass and what it really takes. I want to give you 6 areas you absolutely, positively must focus on in any muscle building program you decide to use:

1: The proper amount of calories.

Since your diet is one of the most important keys to gaining muscle mass, you really need to know HOW many calories to eat, WHAT types of food to eat, and WHEN you should be eating them!

If you consistently under eat, you will NOT gain muscle mass. However, if you tend to overeat a lot, you will likely gain body fat.

So you have to be pretty accurate with your calorie intake in order to gain muscle mass without a lot of fat.

2: The correct approach to training in the gym.

Any muscle building program should give you MASS building techniques so that you can gain quality muscle weight, not just fat.

You want to make sure you're not training too many days. That will stop your body from recovering and your muscles from repairing themselves.

You also want to make sure you're not doing too many exercises, reps, and sets because that too could lead to overtraining.

We'll touch more on it below, but the best approach for building muscle is to stick with the basic compound exercises (bench, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls) and use lower reps and just a few heavy sets.

3: The best possible supplements to help pack on weight.

Let's get this straight...you do NOT need supplements to gain muscle. You need calories. And I've used just about every supplement on the market and many are a complete waste of money! However, there are a few exceptions and some can help you in the muscle gaining process, if you decide to use them.

The main supplements worth taking to gain quality muscle would have to be protein (whey, milk, or egg), creatine, glutamine, EFA's, a multivitamin, and meal replacements.

Save your hard-earned money and time by avoiding the useless ones.

4: The proper amount of sets and reps for muscle growth without muscle breakdown.

Like we talked about above, you want to make sure you're setting up your weight training to be the best use of your time and energy.

Most people train the wrong way for muscle growth. What I mean is, they do way too many reps and sets, thinking more is better.

A lower rep and set range is proven to speed up lean muscle growth while minimizing muscle breakdown.

After all, muscle growth occurs from overload. And it makes sense that one
of the quickest ways to increase overload (weight lifted) is to lessen the amount of reps and increase the amount of weight.

5: The right balance of protein, carbs, and fats.

If you don't get enough protein, you WILL NOT gain muscle. If you consume too many fat calories, you'll gain mostly fat and not muscle. So it's important that you get the right breakdown of protein, fats, and carbs for your specific body type.

Most advice shows that 50% of your calories should come from protein, 40% from carbs, 10 % from fats. But this is just a guideline. Find what works best for you and stick with that.

6: The right approach to cardio so that you do not burn off all your hard earned muscle weight.

Depending on your goals, cardio may help or actually hurt your chances of gaining weight. If you're really looking to gain more weight fast, you may not want to be doing cardio at all. That way, you don't risk losing weight and muscle by expending calories that could have been used for muscle building.

If you're looking to lose body fat while still gaining muscle, 3 to 5 cardio sessions a week is plenty.

For someone wanting to pack on the weight, I'd stick with just a couple sessions, none if you're really desperately trying to gain weight.

Those are 6 basic areas you want to focus on with any muscle building program you use.

The main points again are:

1. Find out the proper amount of calories you need to gain muscle weight without adding a lot of fat.

2. You want to set up your weight training to be the best use of time and energy in the gym. This includes how often to train, how many muscle groups, and how long to rest, both between sets and between workouts.

3. If you decide to invest in supplements, stick with the proven ones like protein, creatine, and glutamine.

4. Using lower reps and fewer sets means you can use more intensity and overload on the muscles. High reps with low weight does nothing for muscle building.

5. Out of your total daily calorie needs, you want to ensure you're getting the proper ratio of protein, carbs, and fats. You can start with the 50-40-10 ratio or 40-40-20 and go from there, depending on your results.

6. If you want to gain mass quickly, you may want to consider dropping cardio altogether. Or else, 3 to 5 sessions should be more than enough to continue gaining muscle while shedding fat.

-----------------------------------------------------
The powerful weight gain system "7 Things You Must Do
To Gain Weight" shows you exactly what to do in all 6 of
these important areas.

http://www.shawnlebrunfitness.com/gain-weight.html
------------------------------------------------------

[DecemberDays86]

looks good to me, anyone have criticisms/additions?

[matsimitso]

lol dont talk about reocvery much , as its probrably the most crucial and underestimated point you need to keep in mind when trying to build muscle..

a muscle building article should be highly focused on recovery LOL, (wata joke)

hard to find articles in this section , that dont waste my time n make me wanna go to bed :s

[MikeDS]

A few things I didn't like from the article:

- Whats with the low reps high weight thing? It's proven that high reps ( 6-8 range ) is essential for muscle mass and size

- Where is creatine in your list of supplements?

- Where is recovery time?- One of the most essential things for gaining maximal muscle mass

- You didn't mention that High intensity cardio ( sprints ) actually make you gain more weight than lose

[pahotboy69]

good post!

[Ka0s]

nothing about periodization either


if you grew from squatting 225lbs one day, your legs arent going to KEEP growing every session you squat 225 with the same reps

[JTringer]

basic compound exercises (bench, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls)

I was unaware

[Messs7381]

A few things I didn't like from the article:

- Whats with the low reps high weight thing? It's proven that high reps ( 6-8 range ) is essential for muscle mass and size

- Where is creatine in your list of supplements?

- Where is recovery time?- One of the most essential things for gaining maximal muscle mass

- You didn't mention that High intensity cardio ( sprints ) actually make you gain more weight than lose

6-8 reps is not high

[Hellbent1100]

he did talk about rest , and he did talk about creatine (The main supplements worth taking to gain quality muscle would have to be protein (whey, milk, or egg), creatine, glutamine, EFA's, a multivitamin, and meal replacements.)


can you guys read?

[Lax891122]

A few things I didn't like from the article:

- Whats with the low reps high weight thing? It's proven that high reps ( 6-8 range ) is essential for muscle mass and size

- Where is creatine in your list of supplements?

- Where is recovery time?- One of the most essential things for gaining maximal muscle mass

- You didn't mention that High intensity cardio ( sprints ) actually make you gain more weight than lose

First, 6-8 is not essential. That is a stupid word to use in that context and is basicall wrong. You are thinking of the word optimal.

Second, high intensity cardio does not make you gain weight. Thats nonsense. Burning calories= more fat on body? I dont think so. Go tell that to many athletes that are freaks.. and eat like ****.

[totalrookie]

original post was in 2004

[JTringer]

original post was in 2004

OMG lmao repped for noticing

[Kite-surfer17]

good post thanks

[verseb]

is 32 sets too much for a full body workout with about 10 to 15 sets each that is only done 3 days a week?
i want to gain lean muscle as quickly as possible is this too much

[Shezza94]

Seems legit.

[Musclemadeeasy]

1) You want to make sure you're not training too many days. That will stop your body from recovering and your muscles from repairing themselves.

2)You also want to make sure you're not doing too many exercises, reps, and sets because that too could lead to overtraining.

3)If you don't get enough protein, you WILL NOT gain muscle. Most advice shows that 50% of your calories should come from protein, 40% from carbs, 10 % from fats.

1) WRONG. Overtraining does NOT happen in a short few weeks, overtraining is the result of working your muscles for months and months without adequate rest periods between sessions. The average athlete trains 5-7 days a week each and every week for months at a time and they still don't overtrain, there is a very big misconception about overtraining. Your muscles repair and recover while you sleep, there is no need to rest an entire day to "heal" your muscle, they DO NOT recover and heal while awake, only while sleeping so as long as you get adequate sleep it's impossible to overtrain your body unless you do 30 sets per muscle group.

2) WRONG. You cannot overtrain from just doing more reps or sets, overtraining takes a very long time and when you do finally overtrain your body it will be impossible to do any exercise for weeks and months at a time.

3) WRONG. This is ridiculous. 50% of calories from protein is suicidal and you're going to be constipated and have some serious bowel cancer in ten years, there is ZERO data to support this type of diet. I have many clients I work with and they are 5x my size and much taller and eat only 10% of their daily calories in protein. It's a myth, you DO NOT need a large amount of protein, most of the amino acids in meat proteins that aid in developing muscle repair and growth are non essential and our bodies create those amino acids, there is only a small amount of essential proteins your body requires and most of them are found in all the foods we eat. Eating more protein does not mean more muscle, this is a total myth muscle building magazines push across to sell more supplements.

Apart from those common myth, this post is pretty good.

[Aggressive]

All i need is my gym membership, food, and sleep. Didn't need an article for that

[Musclemadeeasy]

is 32 sets too much for a full body workout with about 10 to 15 sets each that is only done 3 days a week?
i want to gain lean muscle as quickly as possible is this too much

3 sets per exercise is plenty.

3 sets of squat
3 sets of dead
3 sets of bench
3 sets of military press
3 sets of dips

[six6pack]

2004 thread was made
2008 thread was bumped
2012 thread was bumped
2016 ?????

[doubledbrah]

2004 thread was made
2008 thread was bumped
2012 thread was bumped
2016 ?????

2020 profit

[Ronners]

It is an interesting read!

[SpitBlackwood]

Thanks for this! My problems are definitely getting enough food in, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm over training. It's pretty much the highlight of my days, so I only take 1 recovery day per week

[JordanClark9]

Brought back from the dead?!?!

[Vygotsky]

The funny part is how you think calories from fat turn into fat...
Excess calories = stored as fat.
45% 30% 25% sounds better. CHO/pro/fats is fine for me.

The only time protein should be very high is when trying to cut and maintain muscle mass.

[AdamWW]

The funny part is how you think calories from fat turn into fat...
Excess calories = stored as fat.
45% 30% 25% sounds better. CHO/pro/fats is fine for me.

The only time protein should be very high is when trying to cut and maintain muscle mass.

Ratios are NOT how to optimize a diet..

[ranjan667]

Hi,
I used to weigh 195 pounds in Sept. 2011. Since then I have been running religiously and cutting calories in my diet. As a result I lost 50 pounds in 9 months(May 2012).
Now my problem is that I have lost a lot of muscle mass and people around me have started saying that I look like I am sick. I want to gain muscle mass but I don't know how to do that without gaining fat again. And mind you I have been fat my entire life and don't ever want that again. I have recently joined a gym and am lifting weights for the first time in my life.
My question is how much and what should I eat to gain mass and not fat? Should I still try for a calorie deficiet or eat more than I burn?
My weight before weight loss was 195 pounds. Waist 38 inches
Now my weight is 145 pounds and waist 33 inches. I still need to lose fat off my belly as it is still bloated and hangs. My height is 5'8". Again how many calories do I eat every day? How should I work out(weights only or weights and cardio as well)? Do I still try a calorie deficit as I still need to lose my belly fat.And my upper body is very skinny now. I need muscle on my chest, arms and back. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a ton
Ranjan

[the.weezle]

Hi,
I used to weigh 195 pounds in Sept. 2011. Since then I have been running religiously and cutting calories in my diet. As a result I lost 50 pounds in 9 months(May 2012).
Now my problem is that I have lost a lot of muscle mass and people around me have started saying that I look like I am sick. I want to gain muscle mass but I don't know how to do that without gaining fat again. And mind you I have been fat my entire life and don't ever want that again. I have recently joined a gym and am lifting weights for the first time in my life.
My question is how much and what should I eat to gain mass and not fat? Should I still try for a calorie deficiet or eat more than I burn?
My weight before weight loss was 195 pounds. Waist 38 inches
Now my weight is 145 pounds and waist 33 inches. I still need to lose fat off my belly as it is still bloated and hangs. My height is 5'8". Again how many calories do I eat every day? How should I work out(weights only or weights and cardio as well)? Do I still try a calorie deficit as I still need to lose my belly fat.And my upper body is very skinny now. I need muscle on my chest, arms and back. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a ton
Ranjan

Look in the nutrition section, read the stickies, learn about proper dieting. The best way to go about dieting is to research the articles and learn about it yourself. Take the advice there; create a starting point for your bulk. The articles give breakdowns of how much protein, carbs, and fats your body might need at a minimum based on valid research. Use that as your starting point and then track your progress and how your body is reacting to that calorie intake. The higher you eat over your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) the dirtier your bulk and more fat you are likely to put back on. If you do not know any of this information to begin with, I would probably start at a calculated maintenance for your body type for a couple weeks and then adjust from there when you get a better understand of how your body is reacting to those levels (I would add 10-20% above maintenance when you are looking to bulk).

Define your goals. What amount of fat is acceptable for you on your body, currently and in the future? Do you want to be ripped, do you want to be lean, and do you care about a few extra pounds on the midsection as long as you have more muscle? Personally, If I had just lost 50 lbs. and been cutting weight for 9 months (congrats btw), I would be looking at adding lean mass and researching into a diet where I am eating slightly above maintenance and tracking my progress to see how my body is reacting to it. Again, there are hundreds of answers to this very question already at your fingertips, you just have to go look it up and do the work. That’s the best way to go about it. Good Luck

As for this article, I am surprised some people were actually supporting it. The article is vague, has some significant myths the OP is claiming as a valid, and overall lacks any significant contribution. Half of his points speak half-truths at best.

[f1ghter33]

nyc post !! very simplified !!

[peterpss]

I wish that I'd read this post years ago.

Up until recently I'd been doing it all wrong!

[f1ghter33]

good to read dat !!!