18 LAWS OF BACK TRAINING

New Exercise and Fitness Review

When you’re buying a house, what’s between the four walls is critical: the integrity of the building, the design, the functionality, and—of course—an open floor plan. But you’d be remiss to make such a large real-estate decision without inspecting the yard and local neighborhood, because those factor into the equation as well.

To build a similar strong, thick, and wide back, you have to take a wide-angle approach and work all the associated muscles.

It’s not too farfetched to say that buying a house is like training your back. You can’t be solely concerned with the latissimus dorsi—the largest muscle of the back—because there are plenty of neighbors that must be accounted for: the rhomboids, middle and lower traps, teres major, rear delts, spinal erectors, and more. When you’re training this muscle group, you’re covering a lot of real estate. That means you need to invest in maximizing the size of all the smaller muscles, too.

This smart training investment is made clear when you see a well-developed bodybuilder whose back is like a three-dimensional topographical map, complete with bumps and ridges that suggest origin and insertion points of a number of different muscles. To build a similar strong, thick, and wide back, you have to take a wide-angle approach and work all the associated muscles.

Bodybuilding.com sought the advice of one of our most popular trainers, Cellucor-sponsored athlete Craig Capurso, for advice on super-sizing the many muscles that form a well-developed back.

Capurso helped us come up with these 18 suggestions; if you’ve got any more, please add them to the comments section at the bottom of the article.

1 DO THE BEST BACK EXERCISE

“In my opinion, the one-arm dumbbell row is the best back exercise,” says Craig. “I do the move off the dumbbell rack in order to really pull heavy weight. Unlike with a barbell, when using a single dumbbell, you’re able to fully extend your arm to get a deeper stretch and even pull it up further, therefore activating more muscle fibers. This is how I have developed my back over the years.

“If you use strict form all the time, you’ll lose the benefits of a minor cheat—in the form of a slight dip and pull—that’s effective for adding poundage and hitting the muscles beyond their limits. While I change my workouts and switch the order of my exercises routinely, for most lifters this is an excellent second exercise in your workout after you’re warmed up.”

2 WATCH YOUR HAND AND ELBOW POSITION

Many people think that hand position determines what aspect of the back gets worked, but that’s not exactly right—it’s elbow position. “Your elbow determines the muscles that get activated when retracting for a squeeze,” says Craig. “If your elbows are traveling back way out to your sides at shoulder height, then you’re focusing on the upper muscles of the back and traps. On the other hand, if your elbow is low and pinned next to your body, then you’re targeting the muscles of the mid back and lats.”

One-Arm Dumbbell Row

In general, movements in which you take a wide grip are the ones that cause your elbows to stay out wide, and they’re best for upper lats and middle traps, rear delts, and rhomboids. Conversely, when using a close or reverse grip, the elbows stay tighter to your sides, and therefore better target the lower area of the lats.

3 EFFECTIVELY TARGET YOUR UPPER LATS

Widening your V-taper—your upper lats—requires that you widen your grip. “Wide-grip pull-ups are one of the best ways to target the upper lats,” says Craig. “You’re fully stretching the fascia [the outermost sheath that covers and shapes the muscle tissue] and contracting at the top, and then bringing yourself down in two ways: forceful with lots of weight, or slowly with a pause at the end. Both have their place and should be interchanged regularly.”

4 TARGET YOUR MIDDLE BACK

Lifters often talk about not only building up their V-taper, but also their middle-back thickness, which is more visible when you’re standing sideways. The biggest muscle you see here is the middle and lower portion of the trapezius. Wide-grip exercises in which you pull into your midsection are best for the middle traps. Wide-grip seated cable rows and T-bar rows are very effective here.

T-Bar Row

To emphasize the lower portion of the traps, movements in which you pull from a near-overhead direction are the best choices, like wide-grip pull-downs. Including a variety of movements with alternating hand positions is one way to effectively ensure you hit muscles from a number of angles.

5 USE BOTH FREE WEIGHTS AND MACHINES

“Machines are going to limit your range of motion, but they allow you the time to focus on a static pause,” says Craig. “I find it much more difficult to pause when using free weights on most back exercises. For one, I’m dealing with loads that are simply too heavy for a distinct pause. I do focus on the negative a bit more with free-weight moves to make up for that [lack of a] concentrated contraction.”

6 INCORPORATE VARIETY INTO YOUR BACK WORKOUT

There are any number of back exercises to choose from, but when putting together exercises for your workout, try to include a variety of movements that require different grips and angles of pull relative to your torso. Bent-over rows, standing machine rows, and T-bar rows pull at the same basic angle relative to your body, so consider doing one with an overhand grip and another with a closer or reverse grip.

The same “change your grip” strategy goes for seated cable rows and machine rows. Opt for a long lat bar and do a wide, overhand grip with the seated cable movement if you’re going to use a close grip on a machine.

7 SQUEEZE YOUR SHOULDER BLADES

Going from full extension to peak contraction is necessary not only to train your lats, but any other muscle group in the body. When you use a weight that’s too heavy, however, it’s nearly impossible to achieve that full range of motion. When pulling, bring your elbows as far back behind the plane of your body as possible.

Going from full extension to peak contraction is necessary not only to train your lats, but any other muscle group in the body.

Consciously squeeze your shoulder blades together, then allow the weight to pull your arms back to full extension while trying not to significantly bend forward at the waist.

8 ALWAYS FINISH YOUR WORKOUT

“There are no real secrets to back training,” advises Craig, “but one rule is critical: You should always finish your workout. If you’re healthy, you should be pushing your workouts to the max, leaving it all in the gym and feeling completely exhausted. You know what a killer leg day feels like: You may fall down the stairs when you leave the gym. On back day, it’s when turning the steering wheel of your car becomes a difficult task.”

9 PROTECT YOUR SPINE

A little cheating is common on just about any exercise, but with back exercises, you have to be particularly careful with your spine. The real danger is rounding your spine with heavy loads, which puts a great deal of pressure of the discs of your lumbar. Besides learning how to hold your natural curvature when doing back exercises—especially bent-over rows—you should also eliminate the forward and back “rocking motion” all too common when doing pull-downs, seated cable rows, and bent-over rows.

In small doses, bringing the lower back into a movement intended for the upper lats is an effective use of cheating, but significant rocking means that your lower back is doing most of the work—and the target muscle is not.

10 TRY THE BEST BACK-DAY INTENSITY BOOSTER

“The deadlift-to-row is one of the most intense exercises you’ll ever perform—period,” says Craig. “You perform the bottom motion of a deadlift, but once you pass the knees, you pull the bar into your gut like you would a bent-over barbell row. This exercise will leave you gasping for air, but is well worth it at the end.” Combining these two monster movements in one not only builds muscle, but makes for a more efficient workout.

Bent-Over Barbell Row

11 TRAIN REAR DELTS WITH LIGHT WEIGHT

Nearly every rowing motion actively recruits the rear delts, so training them with back seems like a no-brainer. Craig’s take: “I do [rear delts] both on back and shoulder day, but I keep the weight very light. I consider them an auxiliary muscle that gets much less attention during the back session, say about 20 percent. I follow this dual approach because they’re getting hit on both of these training days, so you don’t need to overdo them, but you do need to sculpt them with some dedicated rear-delt moves.”

12 DON’T SKIP THE MOST UNDERRATED BACK EXERCISE

“One underrated back exercise every lifter should do is the bodyweight pull-up,” says Craig. “I say this in part because I don’t do them enough, and I’ve noticed that I should be able to do a helluva lot more of them based on what I can wrap and pull from a pull-down perspective. Pull-ups provide great shape, and this one exercise hits many muscles of the back. It has the potential for variation, with dead hang and pull, static pause, weighted, and slow negatives.”

“One underrated back exercise every lifter should do is the bodyweight pull-up.” says Craig.

13 ADD SINGLE-JOINT MOVES LAST

Multijoint exercises make up the bulk of mass-building exercises on back day, but you can finish off with a single-joint exercise to help flush the muscle at the end of your workout. The most common choice is the straight-arm pull-down, but a close free-weight cousin is the dumbbell pullover done on a decline bench.

In both movements, the emphasis on the lower lats is greatest when your hands approach your thighs. Hold the final rep for a count of five, a peak contraction that will intensify burn.

14 TRAIN YOUR LOWER BACK LAST

“My lower back fatigues as I make my way through my back workouts, especially with movements that are performed bent over,” says Craig. “If I were to train lower back at the beginning of a workout, I’d probably not be able to stand upright to finish the remainder of the sets. It’s a nagging, burning sensation that’ll cause you lots of discomfort when you overdo it, so it’s best to train the lower-back muscles after you’ve done all your other back work.”

15 INCLUDE SINGLE-JOINT LOWER BACK MOVEMENTS

“While there aren’t many single-joint movements for your lower back, I do include reverse back extensions,” says Craig. “To perform them, I lay face-down on a bench, allowing my lower torso to hang over the side. Keeping my upper body stabilized, I raise and lower my legs. Most people opt for the lower-back extension, in which your feet are locked and your upper body does the extension, but that’s very similar to what you may experience throughout your day. I like adding exercises that are not typically performed, making my time at the gym more valuable.”

Single-Joint Lower Back Movement

16 STRAP IN

Many bodybuilders eschew lifting straps because they fear they’ll reduce forearm and grip strength over time. That’s a poor reason not to use straps; your grip will often give out before your lats do, and that can cost you a couple extra reps.

Using straps on your heaviest sets equates to superior lat growth because of the extra work. As for grip and forearm training, we’re all for it; just do it on a dedicated day rather than expect your back workout to carry the load.

17 VARY REP PROGRESSIONS TO BRING UP A WEAK BACK

“Because the back is such a large area and includes a number of muscle groups, exercise selection is especially important,” says Craig. “If it’s a weak point, consider hitting the muscle group more frequently than just once during your training cycle. Just make sure you give it at least 48 hours before training it again, and that includes the biceps.”

If you follow a twice-a-split training strategy, make sure the workouts are very different from each other. Follow different rep progressions like pyramids one day and reverse the next, and vary exercise selection to work on weak areas.

18 PREPARE BEFORE A DEMANDING BACK WORKOUT

“Ensure you eat all your meals beforehand, and make sure that you have a goal and plan before you get to the gym,” offers Craig. “When the going gets tough, most people drop out. If you have your session on paper, you’ll feel more obligated to finish the workout as planned.”

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18 LAWS OF BACK TRAINING

15 Laws Of Leg Training

New Exercise and Fitness Review

If you were driving from San Diego to San Francisco, following a direct route straight up would get you there fastest, Southern California traffic notwithstanding. Sure, you could take alternate routes, checking out the gambling halls in Vegas, taking in the vistas of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and Yosemite, panning for gold in the foothills east of Sacramento, or even taking the meandering but scenic coastal route, but none of those routes are as direct, and they would add days to your travel.

Vital Stats

Name: Calum von Moger
Occupation: Bodybuilder and Cellucor athlete
Website: calumvonmoger.com

Similarly, bodybuilders looking to add mass want a plan that leads to the fastest gains possible without extended delays. They don’t do just any workout; they follow ones that intuitively make the most sense for building size. They don’t avoid exercises that are hard; they select the best ones that can pack on mass. And they don’t pick just any weight; they choose their load based on what optimally builds size.

Like the traveler, if you want to gain muscle, it makes sense to choose the most direct route possible when you’re looking to gain muscle. There are certainly other less-direct paths you can take, but why be content with suboptimal results that require even more time to achieve?

Of course, getting there as fast as possible means giving nothing short of a hundred percent. You can follow the world’s greatest workout program loaded with the best mass-building exercises, but if you approach it with half-assed effort, you’ll get only half-assed results.

What are the key tips, techniques, exercises, and insiders’ advice when it comes to leg training? We sought the expertise of Australian pro bodybuilder Calum von Moger, 24, winner of the 2014 Mr. Universe and Team Cellucor athlete.

Here are the most critical tips you should heed on leg day. Check out the list below carefully, and incorporate the advice into your routine.

1 Attack Legs As A Weak Point

“I’m a firm believer that squats are ultimately the best exercise for making gains, as they’re a multijoint movement that utilizes all the musculature in the legs as well as the glutes,” says Calum.

Many recreational lifters suffer from CLS—Chicken Leg Syndrome—due in no small part to years of prioritizing chest and arms over their thighs. You can’t change what’s already done but, going forward, prioritizing legs is key.

If you’re afflicted with CLS, Calum recommends two important ways to help bring them up: “If legs are a weak point, I’d suggest training them twice a week, and making squats a priority in your workout,” he says.

2 Start With Squats. Period.

Building on the last tip, you simply have to squat. You may think that any leg exercise will build your thighs if you work hard enough, but that’s not the case.

As with any muscle group, choosing the most challenging movement and doing it first in your workout when your energy levels are high will pay the greatest dividends.

“I’m a firm believer that squats are ultimately the best exercise for making gains, as they’re a multijoint movement that utilizes all the musculature in the legs as well as the glutes,” says Calum. “I’ve always done them at the start of my workout, and I believe that’s the only way you can put in 100-percent effort.”

Squat variations—low-bar squats and front squats, in particular—are good alternatives that use slightly different muscle recruitment patterns and can be substituted on occasion for better overall strength and size development.

3 Go Deep

Besides never being seen in shorts, chicken-legged bodybuilders try to hide their lower-body weakness by loading up the squat bar—only to descend just a few inches. This attempt to hide their CLS fools no one, and the shortened range of motion also shortchanges their muscle gains.

“Full range of movement is best because it hits the whole muscle,” says Calum. “If you’re doing half reps, you’re not working the muscle completely. That being said, an effective way to completely exhaust the muscle is by doing partial reps after you complete all your full-range reps at the end of the set.”

A video posted by Çalum vøn Møger™ (@calumvonmoger) on Mar 3, 2014 at 4:07am PDT

Going deeper engages the glutes and hams to a greater degree than when you do shallow squats, whether you’re actually doing squats, leg presses, hack squats, or other multijoint deep knee-bend movements. If you’ve got good flexibility, go to a point to where your hips are lower than your knee joint.

4 Change Up Your Foot Position

You can use any number of foot positions and widths with leg exercises like squats, leg presses, and hack squats, but for the most power, opt for a stance in which your feet are about shoulder-width apart and your toes are angled slightly outward. As your quest for size progresses, you’ll want to add variety to your foot position.

“I’ll frequently change leg position so that I can target every angle of my legs,” says Calum. “I’ll do narrow-stance squats to hit the outer sweep of the quads, followed by a wider stance to target the adductors (inner thighs). I apply the same principle to leg presses and leg extensions.”

A word of caution: Don’t angle your toes inward or excessively outward on closed-chain movements (where your feet are pressed flat against the ground or a machine), to ensure you don’t cause damage to your knees.

5 Use High And Low Foot Placements

Many leg machines—including leg presses, hack squats, and horizontal leg sleds—have platforms that allow you to use any number of foot positions. It turns out that where you place your feet—high or low—makes a difference in terms of muscle recruitment.

Essentially, lower foot placements target the quads to a greater degree, while higher foot placements target the glutes and hamstrings more effectively. That doesn’t mean you can isolate these muscles, but if you want to increase the muscular tension on a particular area, foot placement is one way to do so.

6 Implement The Most Underrated Exercise

Everyone knows squats are king, but what exercise is the most undervalued when it comes to leg day? According to Calum, it’s weighted split squats. “This exercise is a killer for developing the teardrops in your quads, yet not many people do them,” he says.

A photo posted by Çalum vøn Møger™ (@calumvonmoger) on Jun 6, 2014 at 7:28pm PDT

To do a split squat with dumbbells, start with one leg forward and the other back. Simply bend your knees and descend, then come back up again. Make sure your back knee doesn’t touch the floor and, for joint health, make sure the knee of your forward leg doesn’t extend past a vertical plane that comes directly up from your toes.

7 Focus On Your Quads

Leg day consists of a number of muscle groups—primarily quads, glutes, and hamstrings—but some exercises better target one region over another. Calum’s picks for movements that do a better job on the quads include leg extensions, squats, single-leg presses, hack squats, sissy squats, and front squats.

He’s also a big fan of using pre-exhaust with a single-joint exercise to start his leg workout, doing three working sets of leg extensions before he adds multijoint exercises.

A video posted by Çalum vøn Møger™ (@calumvonmoger) on Mar 3, 2014 at 8:09pm PDT

8 Boost Your Training Intensity

The benefits of a good leg workout can be amplified when you add any number of intensity-boosting techniques to extend a given set and make your training harder. Besides pre-exhaust, in which you precede your heavy multijoint exercises with an isolation movement, Calum also favors these three intensity-boosting techniques:

• 
  

  Dropsets, in which you quickly reduce the weight by about 25 percent once you reach muscle failure, and continue on with your set. Calum prefers to do these after his working sets.

  
  


• 
  

  Partial reps, in which you do as many full-range reps as you can, then do a few more partials, either above or below your sticking point.

  
  


• 
  

  Reduced rest time to increase training intensity.

  
  

9 Split Your Leg Workout

Leg day consists of exercises for several muscle groups, as discussed above, and many of the exercises are among the most demanding movements you’ll do in any given week. Sometimes that makes training hamstrings an afterthought. Rather than trying to muster the energy to push through ham-specific movements, many bodybuilders simply opt to train their hammies on another day, often separated by at least 48 hours from their main quad session.

“I like to separate hamstrings from quads so that I can give each muscle group 100 percent,” says Calum. “Train quads first one day, and follow up with maybe one exercise of hammies at the end; 2-3 days later, train hamstrings first and finish with calves.”

10 Let Your Rep Range Drift Northward

Just about every exercise science text you’ll read recommends choosing a weight you can do for just 8-12 reps for muscle growth (hypertrophy). But when it comes to leg day, Calum says that going with slightly higher reps works best: “I find [legs] respond best to higher reps because it takes a while for the blood to get pumped down there and fill up the muscle,” he says.

A video posted by Çalum vøn Møger™ (@calumvonmoger) on Jun 6, 2014 at 9:31pm PDT

Rather than reducing your working weight, strive to do more reps—up to 15—on your heaviest sets. This is an especially useful technique to try if your leg workout has gone stale and you’re not seeing results.

11 Avoid Locking Out

When you’re huffing and puffing toward the end of a fairly brutal set of squats or leg presses, it’s tempting to momentarily take a break and lock out your knees. When you lock out a joint, some of the stress shifts from the working muscles to the joint, which puts ligaments and tendons under considerable strain. It also reduces the tension on the target muscle (translation: less growth stimulus), providing momentary relief from the pent-up fatigue while allowing for a short “break” during the set.

For joint safety, it’s never a good idea to lock out a joint, especially when you’re training with heavy weights. Take each rep through a full range of motion for maximal benefit, but stop just short of lockout.

12 Stop Going By The Rules

When you reach a training plateau, it can feel like nothing will help you over the hump. That’s exactly when you need to start thinking outside the box. For Calum, that’s when he starts breaking all the training rules he normally applies, following a principle called muscle confusion.

“I don’t follow rules, I break them—that’s my secret,” he says. “Legs can be very stubborn; they expect you to follow the rules. So I like to surprise them by doing extra sets, reps, and different exercises than what I might have done the prior week. So long as you’re struggling to walk properly afterward, you know you’ve done enough.”

13 Hit Your Hammies From The Hip Joint

If your hamstring workout includes exercises like lying leg curls, standing leg curls, and seated leg curls, you’re still only halfway home. All those exercises initiate movement from the knee joint. However, the hamstrings attach at both the knees and hips. You can focus on the upper ham region by including movements in which action takes place at the hips. The best way to do so is by including Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) in your hamstring routine.

A video posted by Çalum vøn Møger™ (@calumvonmoger) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:47pm PST

Not to be confused with the stiff-legged deadlift, which is more of a lower-back exercise, the RDL effectively targets the glute/ham tie-in. While it takes some time to master this particular movement—push your butt back, make sure to keep your back flat throughout, keep your knees bent, and don’t try to lower the weight all the way to the floor—it’s a great way to complement leg curls for more complete hamstring development.

14 Include Two Types Of Calve Movements

Calves are usually done last on leg day, and most lifters throw on an exercise or two before calling it a day. But it would be a mistake to assume that all calf exercises are alike. While most calf movements are done with straight (but not locked-out) legs, bent-knee calf exercises are different in one important way: the soleus takes on the brunt of the workload.

This is because the gastrocnemius (one of two major lower-leg muscles) attaches above the knee joint, making it unable to contract very strongly when the knee is bent. With straight-legged movements, both muscles are called into play. Hence, doing a straight-legged calf exercise (such as standing or donkey calf raises), in addition to seated calf raises (done last), most effectively targets these lower-leg muscles.

15 Tune Your Mind In First

How do you mentally prepare for a killer leg workout like the kind Calum does to build his thighs? Try taking Calum’s approach. “I normally start preparing the day before by eating up, so I’m full of carbs,” he says. “Then I go over the workout in my head while driving to the gym, take my scoops of C4 pre-workout, and listen to the latest podcast of Hidden Forest.”

Everyone has his or her personal preferences for getting amped for a good workout, but don’t expect to just show up and enjoy an incredible workout. Prep your mind so that it’s ready to take your muscles through a hardcore training session.

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15 Laws Of Leg Training

24 Laws Of Eating For Muscle

New Exercise and Fitness Review

Americans are experts on gaining size. Sadly, with over a third of our population classified as obese, that’s not the kind of “mass” you’re after. Yet that’s exactly what indiscriminate eating and a lack of exercise can do for you.

If you’re committed to a resistance-training program, you can instead pack on muscle by following a number of key nutrition and supplementation tips. But first you’ll have to toss out any remnants of how most Americans eat.

To gain the right kind of mass, we enlisted two captains of the Muscle Militia, Twinlab athletes Ronnie Milo and Jason Wheat, to help us compile the 24 tips presented below.

Sure, eating clean and healthful foods is more difficult than eating whatever you want, but we’re pretty sure you don’t want to look like that other 33 percent.

1 TIP THE SCALES

Whether you’re just trying to add some off-season size, or you’re a hard-gainer who has trouble adding mass, growing muscle means consuming more calories—assuming you’re already training hard. While you can log your meals over the course of a week to compute your average daily calories, perhaps the simplest step is to consume one additional mini-meal during your day that adds calories over and above what you normally eat.

Whether you’re just trying to add some off-season size, or you’re a hard-gainer who has trouble adding mass, growing muscle means consuming more calories—assuming you’re already training hard.

By ensuring you have a caloric surplus, you provide your muscles with the raw materials to repair tissue damage brought on by heavy training to support growth.

A mini-meal of about 300 calories can be inserted anywhere during your day, preferably during your longest stretch between whole-food meals.

2 ASSESS AND GROW

If, after two weeks, the scale still isn’t budging, and you’re not seeing gains in strength with the addition of a single mini-meal, add another. (The scale can’t be your sole determinant, because you may be dropping body fat while you’re adding muscle, in which case the scale may not budge.)

By increasing your daily calories slowly, any gains you make will less likely be ones that ring your midsection. The extra meal will have to become part of your daily routine as well. This is especially true for hard-gainers and individuals with a fast metabolism who have difficulty adding muscle.

3 EAT MORE MEALS MORE OFTEN

If you’re active and train hard, you likely burn a lot of calories each day. It’s very difficult to eat clean foods that replace all the energy you’ve spent in just three meals. That’s why bodybuilders—competitive and recreational alike—eat 5-8 meals per day to support mass-building. While most individuals still eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they also eat a number of high-protein snacks as well.

If you’re looking to add size, it makes sense to eat multiple meals every day, not just three. Taking your meals to work or school means planning and preparation, but it’s an essential habit that separates those who succeed from those who don’t.

“I split my macros into eight meals so I’m eating a meal about every 2.5 hours. I like to eat that often so I’m never hungry.” – Jason Wheat

“I eat eight times a day,” says Orlando fireman and Twinlab Muscle Militia captain Jason Wheat, a former defensive lineman in college football who now competes in powerlifting. “I split my macros into eight meals so I’m eating a meal about every 2.5 hours. I like to eat that often so I’m never hungry. When I get hungry or miss a meal, I tend to want to cheat, or overeat. If I do get hungry and need a snack, my go-to is either a tablespoon of peanut butter or a handful of almonds, which I would count against my macros for the next meal.”

“This is where supplementation is key,” says Militia member and amateur bodybuilding champion Ronnie Milo of Sunrise, Florida. “Supplements allow you to to add extra calories to aide you in your goals. We all know that it’s difficult to try and increase your calories from whole-food sources alone. It’s a challenging task to eat as many times as possible and then add more calories on top of that.”

4 PROTEIN COUNTS

Protein foods are broken down into amino acids, which are then reassembled in your body. The aminos that enter muscle cells can help repair muscle tissue damaged from a hard workout, enabling them to grow larger. How much protein does a hard-training bodybuilder need? More than the average Joe who doesn’t train, so beware of lowball estimates intended for the general public.

The simplest way to remember how much protein you need each day is to use your body weight in pounds. Hence, if you weight 210 pounds, try to consume at least 210 grams of protein per day. If you eat six meals and mini-meals a day, that’s 35 grams per meal.

For card-carrying Militia members, sometimes even that’s not enough. “I recommend 1 gram minimum, up to 2 per pound of bodyweight,” says Wheat. “The more active you are, the more protein your muscles need for growth.

5 EAT CLEAN

You have any number of food options for a given meal that have various macronutrient and micronutrient profiles, but remember the old adage: “You are what you eat.”

“I believe the most important aspect of gaining quality weight is high-quality food choices,” says Milo. “Your body needs quality food and nutrients to aid in performance and recovery. A lot of beginners and advanced athletes make mistakes when trying to add quality weight, making poor food choices like fast foods or processed foods.”

6 WHOLE-FOOD PROTEINS

Get your protein from a variety of whole-food sources including dairy, fish, fowl, steak, and eggs. Choose leaner cuts of steak (opt for “loin” and “round” cuts, which have the lowest amounts of saturated fat) and remove the skin from turkey and chicken.

Fattier cuts of beef like prime rib and even ribeye, as well as higher-fat dairy products, can cause your calories and daily fat intake to skyrocket. You want to moderately increase your daily calories, and too much dietary fat that’s consumed with your protein foods can quickly contribute to the wrong kinds of weight gain.

7 MEASURE YOUR INTAKE

What Does 40 Grams of Protein Look Like?

• 5-1/2 oz. top sirloin


• 5-1/2 oz. chicken breast


• 6 large eggs


• 6-1/2 oz. tilapia


• 5 cups low-fat milk


• 2 scoops protein powder

It’s one thing to read that you need 40 grams of protein at each meal, but do you know what that looks like if you’re in a cafeteria line or throwing chicken breasts on the barbecue? And how many ounces of steak is that?

Learn how to eyeball what 40 grams of protein looks like to ensure you’re getting enough of this muscle-building nutrient at each meal.

8 FIX IT RIGHT

The right choices of protein-rich foods like chicken breast can be spoiled by the wrong preparation methods. When preparing your foods at home, try grilling or broiling your meats; battered and fried foods boost fat-content and calories, and are less healthy.

Avoid oils, butter, and sauces in favor of a can of six-pack friendly Pam whenever you can.

9 DON’T FEAR SATURATED FAT

If you eat protein from animal sources, you’re also getting saturated fat with your protein. You don’t want to go overboard, but nor should you cut out saturated fats completely; they’re important for hormone production and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. “A low-fat diet can, over time, lower your testosterone levels, which will hinder your muscle gains,” says Wheat.

While recent research shows that saturated fat intake may not be linked to greater risk of heart disease, evidence does show that replacing saturated fat with foods that are high in polyunsaturated fats does reduce cardiovascular risk.

On a mass-building plan, you should be getting 25-30 percent of your daily calories from dietary fats. Divide your fat intake between healthier versions (including olive and canola oils, nuts and seeds, fatty fish) and saturated fats (which are contained in animal proteins such as dairy, meat, and eggs).

10 CONSUME LIQUID CALORIES

Prepping for each and every meal is next to impossible unless you work from home, so a scoop or two of powder in a shaker cup is a great way to drink your calories between meals. Besides keeping amino acids in constant supply in your bloodstream, you inhibit the snack attack that can creep up on you between whole-food meals, reducing your risk of impulsively choosing the wrong foods when you’re really hungry.

“My days can be lengthy at times with travel and meetings,” says Milo, who is also Sports Nutrition Regionals Sales Manager with Twinlab. “I rely on quality supplements to fill a quick meal or energy source. This also keeps me from making bad food decisions when food isn’t always on hand.”

Looking for a quick food fix? Whey protein isolate dissolves easily with water so you don’t need a blender. What’s more, liquid meals are absorbed quickly and won’t adversely affect your appetite for your bigger whole-food meals later in the day.

If you find it challenging to eat a large number of calories at a whole-food meal, liquid calories can help make up the difference.

11 IGNORE YOUR SWEET TOOTH

Sugar-sweetened drinks and processed foods are nutritional landmines. These empty calories displace healthier options that could’ve been hard at work helping you add quality mass. Clean your kitchen of these unhealthy foods so you’re not tempted when a craving arises.

Also, never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. And eat a high-protein food before you leave the house on weekends when you’re running errands, so you’re not hungry and don’t give in to fast-food cravings.

12 CHEAT TO WIN

It’s nearly impossible to eat clean all the time, so allowing yourself a cheat meal at regular intervals—say, on a weekend afternoon—can make sticking to a diet easier, and the bump in calories may help boost growth.

Allowing yourself a cheat meal at regular intervals—say, on a weekend afternoon—can make sticking to a diet easier, and the bump in calories may help boost growth.

Just watch that you don’t overdo a cheat meal and make it a cheat day—or worse, a cheat weekend—which can then throw you completely off a clean diet. Use cheat meals as rewards for a good week of clean eating. Use moderation. Resist the urge to splurge.

13 CHOOSE THE SLOWER CARB

Nearly half of your total daily calories come from carbohydrates, but there’s a big difference between the simple ones and the complex variety. Complex carbs such as brown rice, whole grains, yams, sweet potatoes, and quinoa are longer chains of sugar molecules—hence they take longer to digest and absorb.

The benefit is that you’ll have sustained energy throughout the day, and the lower insulin response means you’ll be less likely to store any excess calories as body fat. Opting for complex carbs with minimal processing is better for your health and to keep body fat in check.

14 SPEED IT UP POST-WORKOUT

The only time a high-glycemic carb (think sugars like dextrose and glucose and highly processed carbs like bagels and white rice) is your carb of choice should be after your workout, when your muscles are hungry to replenish spent glycogen stores.

The insulin spike helps drive those fast carbs—and, of course, the 40 grams of protein you consumed with it—quickly into cells for repair and growth. This insulin spike that you can manipulate post-workout is one reason why carbs are called the anabolic nutrient. Consuming simple sugars at any other time is more likely to contribute to gains in body fat.

What you don’t need to do is go sprinting to the front desk to slug down a protein shake the instant your last set ends. The influx of protein can wait till you get home, son.

15 DINE OUT WITH DISCRETION

As obesity has skyrocketed in recent decades, so has the number of times Americans eat out. Many Americans visit restaurants twice as often as they did 30 years ago. The problem with eating out is that it encourages the wrong kind of mass-building.

Make your meals and eat at home as much as possible, and limit trips to restaurants to just once a week.

With larger portion sizes, unlimited drink refills, and tempting desserts, you’re almost guaranteed to overeat. The lesson? Make your meals and eat at home as much as possible, and limit trips to restaurants to just once a week.

16 BRING ORDER TO YOUR ORDERS

When you do eat out, scan the menu for the cleanest protein foods you can find. If you don’t see one, ask your server if one can be made without sauces or oils. “The majority of restaurants have choices like plain grilled chicken, beef, or fish,” says Milo. “Most of them will work within your needs—all you have to do is ask.” Well, they don’t say no to Milo, anyway…

Side salads (dressing on the side) and veggies make good side choices to contain total calories. With some dessert choices topping 1,000 calories, you could end up having to do three hours on the bike just to burn that off. Opt for fruit if you must have something sweet.

17 ABOUT THAT FAST-FOOD MEAL…

We’ve all been there: You’re in a terrible hurry, have no food, and you’re starved. Whatever Golden Arches you pull into, you’re surround by bad food choices that’ll tally up a day’s worth of fat and sodium in a single meal. If you can muster any willpower, opt for a grilled chicken sandwich (or two, if you eat like a bodybuilder) and ditch the buns. You can’t go wrong with a salad either, unless you slather it in dressing.

The come-hither smell of French fries can be hard to resist; but resist you must. Here again, get the 40 grams of protein and fill up with veggies as best as possible. French fries, by the way, do not count as a clean potato.

18 EAT A PRE-BEDTIME SNACK

Late-night munchies can ruin a day’s effort of clean eating, so if you’re looking for a midnight meal, a shake made of slow-digesting micellar casein protein can feed your muscles during your nightly slumber. A half-cup of cottage cheese is also high in casein, and provides 14 grams of protein.

A half-cup of cottage cheese is high in casein, and provides 14 grams of protein making it a perfect late-night snack.

Add some almonds and you get essential fats and some added protein as well. Carb-oholics watch out: Consuming too many at bedtime can elevate insulin levels, meaning those extra calories can more easily be shuttled into fat stores.

19 CREATINE BOOSTS ANABOLISM

The importance of whey isolate and casein for boosting your protein intake can’t be overstated, but other supplements can support anabolism too. Creatine monohydrate, in fact, is well supported by research to boost strength and size gains. Naturally found in red meat, creatine increases the volume of muscle cells, which helps signal anabolism, as well as short-term energy.

20 THE THREE AMINOS

The branched-chain amino acids—leucine, isoleucine, and valine—are also a part of a mass-building supplement stack. They share a unique structure that’s preferentially taken up by muscle, and ingestion directly stimulates anabolism. The supplement can also reduce exercise-induced muscle pain and decrease mental fatigue during intense exercise.

21 BOOST BLOOD FLOW

L-arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid that helps produce nitric oxide, which has been shown to elevate skeletal muscle blood flow. This not only allows for improved delivery of nutrients but also greater clearing of metabolic byproducts (sometimes called waste products) in working muscles. This helps you work out longer and harder. L-arginine has also been shown to increase anabolic substrates like growth hormone and insulin.

22 NEVER MISS A MEAL

We can all get caught up with our schedules and appointments, running late, and skipping meals. But I’ll bet you almost never miss a workout. Adopt the mindset that missing a meal is as bad as missing a workout. That might mean planning and preparing meals on weekends, carrying a cooler, and occasionally carrying snacks with you on the go.

“The best way to stick to a diet is preparation and consistency.” – Ronnie Milo

If your goal is mass, you can’t expect results when you’re not fully committed. We all have demanding schedules and important obligations; what separates winners from losers is planning and commitment, not making excuses.

“The best way to stick to a diet is preparation and consistency,” says Milo. “Preparation is key. This will aide you in staying on the right track, and deter you from making bad decisions.”

23 MAKE TIME FOR A GOOD START

What’s the second thing you do in the morning (after hitting the snooze button a few times)? Eating a hearty breakfast had better be your answer, because you’ve probably gone up to 10 hours without eating. If your morning meal includes a cartoon tiger, we can likely guess why you’re not adding quality mass.

Get those 40 grams of protein with eggs or egg whites, slices of beef or chicken, a glass of milk, or a high-protein cereal. If you’re in a hurry, a morning protein shake is the way to go.

24 SLEEP FOR GAINZZZZZZ…

You train hard and eat right, so what could be missing? Since your muscles get stimulated during your workout but actually grow during your recovery periods, ensure you’re allotting enough time for a restful night’s sleep. Consider this sleep stack to nourish your muscles all night long: melatonin, micellar casein, ZMA, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP).

The slow-releasing casein defends against muscle catabolism, while ZMA (which contains zinc) has been shown to increase testosterone and IGF-1 levels. GABA and 5-HTP both promote healthy, deep sleep, which is essential for GH release and muscular recovery.

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24 Laws Of Eating For Muscle

28 Laws Of Lifting For Muscle

New Exercise and Fitness Review

Each year thousands of newcomers begin some sort of bodybuilding program, but a majority of them are unsuccessful. It’s no wonder; far too many just show up at the gym and lift, which may—or, more likely, may not—be the best and fastest method to make gains.

Those who succeed tend to follow a well-formulated plan. In fact, we guarantee that if you incorporate our best mass-building training tips below—which we put together with the help of IFBB physique pro Craig Capurso—you’ll be on track to make big muscle gains.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get bigger!

1 LIFT BIG BY WARMING UP FIRST

Remember, a warm muscle is better capable of lifting max weight—and less likely to become injured.

If you’re looking to hoist serious poundages, you’ll sabotage your chances if you short-change your warm-up. What’s more, the stronger you are, the more warm-up sets you’ll need.

That helps not just the muscles push more weight but also the tendons and ligaments that have to support that heavier resistance as well.

A good 5-10 minutes on the bicycle preceding your first light-weight sets is an effective way to kick off your training session and get the blood pumping.

Remember, a warm muscle is better capable of lifting max weight—and less likely to become injured.

2 REPS FOR MUSCLE

A common question every beginner asks is, “How much weight should I use?” The answer depends on your goals. Warm-up sets aside, when your goal is to build strength, your heavy sets should be done for fewer than six reps.

If your goal is building muscle, choose a weight at which you reach muscle failure between 8-12 reps. And for emphasizing muscle endurance, go with a weight that allows you to do more than 15 reps.

3 PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Some folks spend hours a day working on a single body part. Others insist they need only one set per exercise. So what’s the best amount? While there’s no magic number, doing 2-3 sets of a given move works best for most beginners; 3-4 sets for more advanced athletes.

The focus here is on volume—the total number of sets and reps completed for a given muscle group. Bodybuilding for muscle growth concentrates on fairly high volume, though too much risks overtraining.

Start off with about 12 sets total—say, 3 sets of 4 exercises—for larger muscle groups like chest, back, and legs, and 6-8 for smaller ones.

As you progress, you can handle more sets (volume), but you’ll want to extend the number of days before you train that body part again.

4 ADOPT AN ATHLETIC STANCE

When getting into position on standing exercises, do what athletes in all sports do: Adopt an athletic stance. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly outward, knees bent (soft), torso erect (chest out, shoulders back, low back slightly arched) with your head looking forward.

This is a natural, stable, and strong position, and it should be a starting point for you when get into position for almost any standing exercise.

5 DON’T BE IN A HURRY

“Make sure you’re taking ample recovery time between sets in a mass-gain phase,” says Craig Capurso, IFBB pro physique competitor and Cellucor athlete. “I don’t look to limit rest times when max muscle growth is the name of the game. I want to be recovered enough to push the weight as many times as I can, not stopped by a muscle that’s not sufficiently recovered from the previous set. You need sufficient rest in between sets to be able to push maximal loads.”

6 OVERLOAD AND GROW

In your efforts to stimulate muscle, you need to be somewhat aggressive. Muscle fibers adapt fairly quickly, and the effectiveness of a once-challenging workout can quickly fade. This means you should continually increase the challenge—so long as you maintain good form—and never fall into a comfort zone.

By progressively increasing the overload over time, you’ll continue to make gains in size and strength. For most lifters, changes to their training programs helps keep workouts fresh.

7 FLIP YOUR GRIP

Speaking of making changes, one very easy and effective way to do so is to simply try a different grip from what you’re used to. If you’ve typically done an exercise with a wide, overhand grip, flip it and use an underhand grip instead. This approach can work with bench presses, lat pulldowns, bent-over rows, barbell curls, and triceps pushdowns, among other exercises.

8 GET GROUNDED

We’ve all seen him: the poor guy doing curls while teetering on a wobble board like Mr. Magoo in an earthquake. Strength training is important, and so is balance. But when you’re trying to add size, keep them separate. Forget about doing squats on wobble boards, dumbbell presses on exercise balls, or standing on one leg while curling a weight.

Besides making you looking like a fool, neither your core nor the target body part will be fully stimulated. Your best bet is to focus on one activity one day, and the other the next. Besides, you’ll be able to push much more weight when grounded on a stable surface.

9 GET MILE-WIDE

Few of us were born with low body-fat levels that give us that natural V-taper, so how do you create the illusion of a small waist if you’ve got a more blocky physique? Emphasize your upper back and middle delts to a greater degree in your workouts.

Emphasize your upper back and middle delts to a greater degree in your workouts.

Do a few more sets of wide-grip movements on back day, and a few extra sets of upright rows and lateral raises on shoulder day. Bonus: The width will make your waist appear smaller.

10 DUMBBELL ADVANTAGE

Sure, you have a number of training options when it comes to doing a particular exercise, but if you want the biggest challenge, opt for dumbbells. Unlike with barbells and most machines, which allow a stronger side to dominate, dumbbells require both sides of the body to do an equal amount of work.

Dumbbells are also especially easy to get to when the gym is busy during the early evening. If you’ve been favoring particular barbell exercises, achieve a slightly different training stimulus by substituting its dumbbell cousin.

11 CHEAT REPS CAN COUNT

A lot of folks at the gym use bad form, which usually puts pressure on surrounding joints while taking stress off the target muscle. But when done right, cheat reps can make the target muscle work harder. The purpose of cheating is to stimulate the muscle fibers with greater intensity, not less.

That’s best done by completing 6-8 reps on your own with good form, then adding just enough momentum to pass the sticking point for a few more reps. If you have to cheat right from the very first rep, though, the weight’s too heavy.

12 RUNNING THE RACK

Dropsets are a time-tested approach that really ignites a muscle burn.

Dropsets (repping to failure, then continuing with progressively lighter weight) are a great way to induce a deep muscle burn on the last set of a given exercise, and are especially useful for precontest bodybuilders looking to burn a few extra calories. Dropsets are a time-tested approach that really ignites a muscle burn.

For example, if you’re curling with 35-pound dumbbells, do your set, then immediately place the weights back on the rack and grab the 30s. Do as many reps as you can, then replace and repeat with the 25s.

Squeeze out as many as you can—and it may not be very many—all the way down until you reach the 15s. Light weight never felt so heavy!

13 PUT YOUR MOVEMENTS IN
REVERSE

What makes the deadlift from the floor different from other exercises? You do it from a dead stop. With other exercises, you generate elastic energy—the energy that helps you lift the weight during the initial stages—when you reverse direction at the bottom. When you remove that elastic energy by momentarily resting the bar on the floor, the movement is much harder. This is also a great way to build strength over the lower portion of the range of motion.

Try this: Set the safeties in a power rack at the lowest point in the range of motion for a given move (i.e., the bottom of your squat). Each rep begins from the bottom—not the top. Make sure you momentarily let the bar settle on the safeties on each rep before pressing back up to remove that elastic tension.

14 OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Supersetting two exercises is a common method to speed up your workouts, but when you do it for opposing muscle groups, research shows you can get an added bonus: You’ll be slightly stronger than normal on the second exercise in the grouping. Pair exercises for antagonist muscle groups: biceps/triceps, back/chest, and quads/hamstrings.

15 PRE-EXHAUST TO WORK AROUND WEAK LINKS

Most of the “big” exercises you do are called compound or multijoint movements—exercises that allow you to push the most weight because more than one muscle group is involved. When doing these kinds of movements, the set commonly ends when one of the muscle groups reaches failure.

Pre-exhaust training is an approach that gets around the “weak link in the chain” that brings about premature failure.

Pre-exhaust training is an approach that gets around the “weak link in the chain” that brings about premature failure. For example, when bench pressing, the smaller triceps often give out before the larger pecs muscles. To bypass this limitation, first do an isolation exercise like the dumbbell fly, which places very little stress on the triceps. This “pre-exhausts” the chest muscles.

Because the chest has already been worked, the triceps are no longer the weaker muscle by the time you do bench presses and you can do the exercise to true pectoral failure rather than triceps failure.

16 DO YOUR WOKROUT IN REVERSE

What’s the easiest way to do a workout makeover? Try doing it in reverse order. You’ll still want to start with a good warm-up, but then go right into what’s normally your last exercise. You’ll be surprised by how much stronger you are when doing it first, because it isn’t prefatigued, and you’ll be able to do more weight for more reps.

Naturally, when you get to the movements you typically do first, you won’t be able to go as heavy or for as many reps. Ultimately, you’ll work the target muscle in a way it’s unaccustomed to, which is a great way to kick-start muscle growth.

17 A FINISHING PUMP

“For max muscle recruitment, use a high-volume approach,” says Capurso. “When I use a very low rep range, I feel like I’m leaving more in the tank. So I’ve adopted an approach that will be mentally and physically challenging in my attempt to push a load till failure. Most people will fail in the lower rep ranges and feel satisfied, but try taking the challenge of doing multiple sets in the 15-18-rep range. You’ll find yourself completely fatigued by the end.”

Research also supports the idea of adding one last back-off set with a lighter weight you can do for higher reps, flushing the muscle with blood and water to increase strength and muscle size.

18 SPEED UP YOUR GAINS

At the end of a set when fatigue is setting in, using a slightly more explosive motion can help you do an extra rep or two when you otherwise might have racked the weight.

Remember to use a strong and controlled rep speed when starting out a set; once you near that last rep or two, start generating a bit more momentum to help you blast through sticking points.

19 TRAIN LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

Rather than opting for same ol’ three sets of 10 on a given movement, try pyramiding your weight on successive sets, stepping up the weight a bit each time. Of course, the number of reps you can do necessarily falls as the weight increases, but you’ll realize better gains in strength with the lower-rep sets. Just make sure you don’t burn yourself out on lighter-weight sets; don’t encroach on muscle failure until you hit your heaviest sets.

20 DOUBLE YOUR GAINS

What’s the best way to continue making gains? By finding a workout partner who pushes you, especially one who is bigger and stronger than you. Besides spotting you and assisting with forced reps and partials to help you train past failure, a training partner will also motivate you to hit the gym on days you might otherwise opt for the sofa.

If you’re stuck training on your own, you can still benefit from training past muscle failure; try these selected intensity-boosting techniques that work especially well for single trainers.

21 GET BELTED

Weight belts aren’t seen as much in gyms as they used to be, but every serious lifter should have one. While you shouldn’t be wearing it on every set—you need to strengthen your lower back muscles—they should be worn on especially heavy sets in which your lower back needs support.

Weight belts aren’t seen as much in gyms as they used to be, but every serious lifter should have one.

I’m talking deadlifts, bent-over rows, standing military presses, and squats. Skip the belt on your lighter-weight sets so your low back has to work and can therefore grow stronger.

22 BAND-AIDS

Using powerlifting bands and chains may appear unnecessary or inconvenient, but they can help you can realize big-time gains, especially when your muscles are unaccustomed to using them. What’s unique about these tools is that they provide variable resistance over the course of a single rep.

In the down position, the bands and chains unload some of the weight on the floor and are therefore lighter; as you press up, the tension on the target muscles increases. Bands and chains are a great way to attack a sticking point.

23 STRAP IN

Wrist Wraps

Support wrist integrity during monster lifts! Get high quality wrist wraps for the best performance in the gym.

You’ve been told never to use wrist straps, so you can work your grip on back day? Nonsense! Once your grip starts to become fatigued, put on those pulling straps. You’ll find you can do an extra rep or two on each set, which means greater muscle growth.

Don’t worry about forearm or grip development; do that on arm day. When it’s back day, focusing on pushing as much weight for as many reps as you can—and that means using straps.

24 REST TO GROW

Though this is in no way a “training technique”, many lifters determined to continue to push harder in their pursuit of growth actually undermine their efforts by including too few rest days in their training split. Don’t be so obsessed with missing a workout and training to utter exhaustion that you fail to give your body enough time to actually heal—and grow.

Likewise, levels of catabolic hormones like cortisol rise quickly in the body over the course of a training session; you should strive to get in the gym and get it done quickly. Work on increasing your workout intensity rather than duration.

25 HIT IT AGAIN

The frequency with which you should train a particular muscle depends in part on how much work (volume) you’re doing. Beginners who don’t do a lot of sets for a given body part can train them more frequently (say every 2-3 days). More advanced lifters who do 15-20 sets for a given muscle group can follow a split in which they train each muscle group every 5-6 days.

Competitive bodybuilders who often train balls-to-the-wall might go seven days or more before repeating a workout. In these cases, it literally takes that long for the muscle to fully recover between training sessions.

26 GO FOR THE “BIG” MOVES FIRST

When looking for the best exercise to start your workout with, steer toward multijoint exercises; you can lift the most weight early in your workouts, when your energy levels are high. They’re called multijoint—or compound—because more than one set of joints is working, which recruits additional muscle groups.

For example, the bench press recruits the triceps and front delts in addition to the pecs. Squats, bent-over rows, overhead presses, and bench presses are the best muscle builders for the legs, back, shoulder, and chest, respectively. Add on other exercises from different angles to fully work a target muscle.

When looking for the best exercise to start your workout with, steer toward multijoint exercises; you can lift the most weight early in your workouts, when your energy levels are high.

Bonus tip: Really challenge yourself with weights you can only do for 6-8 reps early in your workout; once fatigue starts to set in, you won’t be able to push those very heavy weights any longer.

27 SPLIT WISELY

When devising your training split, be careful about training a given muscle group on consecutive days because—say it with us—a muscle grows when it’s being rested in the presence of good nutrition. If you train chest on Mondays, shoulders on Tuesdays, and triceps on Wednesdays, your split doesn’t allow ample recovery time. Training back or biceps on consecutive days is also a sign of a poorly designed split. Use rest days and leg days to break up your upper-body training days.

28 ADJUST YOUR LIFESTYLE TO YOUR GOALS

Gaining mass is all about taking in more calories than you burn while following the specific training advice presented here. However, if you’re a party animal and consume too many of the wrong calories from alcohol or greasy fast foods, you’ll sabotage your efforts.

Make sure your extracurricular activities (i.e., everything you do outside the gym) are in sync with your diet and your training in order to make the fastest possible gains!

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28 Laws Of Lifting For Muscle