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60 Tips to Building Muscle Fast
By Charles Poliquin
1: Favor accumulation phases with a higher volume (8 to 12 reps) with moderate loads (65 to 85 percent of the 1RM) and more sets (4 to 8).
2: Train to failure to produce muscle damage and a large protein synthesis response.
3: Periodize your workouts. Sets, reps, loads, and exercises should change every 2 to 3 weeks. Alternating between accumulation and intensification phases every 3 weeks will reduce central nervous fatigue.
4: Include select intensification training phases that favor heavier loads (above 85 percent) and lower reps (6 or less).
5: About 70 percent of workouts should push volume and moderate loads, and 30 percent should be trained at a higher intensity with heavy weights.
6: Train for metabolic stress by using higher volume, moderate intensity, and short rest periods (10 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on protocol).
7: Train based on your muscle fiber type. If you’re fast-twitch with exceptional speed and jumping skills, train with heavy weights and low reps. For slow-twitch, go high rep, high volume.
8: Don’t neglect the slow-twitch fibers completely. They make up the majority of whole muscles and growing them will maximize muscle size.
9: Strength and power athletes trying to gain size while enhancing performance should train and grow fast-twitch fibers.
10: Do eccentric-enhanced training. Start with a longer tempo on the eccentric motion (4 seconds) and 1 to 2 concentric.
11: Progress to advanced eccentric loading with supramaximal loads for the eccentric phase of the lift.
12: For advanced hypertrophy, use a dynamometer that provides a consistent resistive force that is not gravity dependent like dumbbells. This will allow you to train a fast tempo for maximal muscle growth.
13: Training frequency is an often overlooked hypertrophy variable. Favor multi-joint lifts with training splits to maximize recovery and allow for the greatest training frequency.
14: Intermediate and advanced trainees should include select single-joint training because fast- and slow-twitch motor units are scattered throughout individual muscles.
15: Focus on recovery: Besides genetics, the true indicator of muscle development is your ability to recover rapidly so you can hit it hard again in the gym.
16: Avoid steady-state and long duration cardio. Stick to sprints, strongman, and loaded conditioning.
17: Pick a priority and train accordingly. Although it is possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, massive muscle is best accomplished with a hypertrophy lifestyle (thrash muscles, eat, rest, recover, avoid extra activity).
18: Improve your training technique. Avoid regular cheating, or always using momentum to get the weight up. Follow tempo prescriptions and avoid letting weights fall with gravity.
19: Set goals. We’re talking specific load and volume numbers you need to hit for every lift, every workout, every week, every training cycle.
20: Develop a hypertrophy lifestyle: Train, eat, sleep, recover, think hypertrophy.
21: Record the details of your hypertrophy-lifestyle. Track everything: workouts, sleep, diet. Evaluate your performance every time you change your training program.
22: Train for the pump. A muscle pump occurs when you train a high volume that relies on the glycolytic energy system. This leads the muscle cell to swell with liquid, which is perceived as a threat to the cell, leading it to grow.
23: Do forced reps to recruit high-threshold motor units that target satellite cells, which maximize growth. Pick the maximal load you can lift for 12 reps. Increase the load and do 4 sets of 12. Get assistance from a partner when necessary.
24: Do “X” reps: These are partial reps that are done after you achieve full-range failure on a lift. For the bench press, once you can’t do anymore full-range reps, do 6 to 10 inch partials in the top range until failure. Use a spotter.
25: Do drop sets. Do a high-intensity set followed immediately by the same exercise at a low-intensity with 50 percent of the 1RM. Go to failure on the last set.
26: Throw in some “death circuits” that alternate agonist/antagonist muscle exercises and have no rest between exercises for a set time goal. This will lead to lactate buildup, metabolic stress, and a monumental growth hormone response.
27: Don’t ignore the power of strength for muscle growth. Giving your greatest effort during intensification cycles will help you achieve larger mass gains in the long run.
28: Eat enough protein. Vegetarians and women, this means you.
29: Eat high-quality protein and fat at every meal. Favor foods that provide at least 10 grams of essential amino acids every time you eat.
30: Eat MEAT! There’s evidence that there is something about “the meat itself” that yields maximal muscle gains.
31: Hit your protein goal every day. Eat between 1.6 and 2.4 g/kg/day of protein to maximize muscle development from strength training.
32: High-quality calories are king when it comes to muscle building. Opt for a high meal frequency in which you eat or take protein every 2 to 3 hours.
33: Take whey protein post-workout because it is superior to all protein sources for elevating protein synthesis. If you’re allergic, take essential amino acids with extra leucine.
34: Depending on body fat percentage, dose with 20 grams of whey every 3 hours on training days to repair tissue for mass gains.
35: Cycle carbs to promote insulin sensitivity for mass gains. De-emphasize them on off days, but go higher carb on training days.
36: Workout carb intake is not imperative for protein synthesis but it can reduce cortisol during training. A carb-to- protein ratio between 2:1 and 1:1 is indicated.
37: Have a higher carb, high calorie day every 5 to 7 days in which you increase calories by up to 50 percent.
38: Balance your omega-3 to omega-6 fat intake: Eat fish, pastured animal products, take fish oil, and avoid vegetable oils.
39: Eat beneficial fat and avoid low-fat eating like the plague. Fat provides cholesterol, which supports hormone balance and recovery from intense exercise.
40: Favor saturated animal fats (butter, cream, meat), omega-3s, and monounsaturated fat (olives, avocados, macadamia nuts).
41: Attend to your body’s pH. Drink lemon or lime water, and eat a boatload of green vegetables and nutrient-rich fruits to become more alkaline.
42: Ensure hydration: Dehydration will significantly elevate cortisol and most people are chronically dehydrated. Shoot for drinking 37 ml/kg of body weight. For a 75 kg person this equals 2.8 liters.
43: Optimize gut health. Take probiotics on an empty stomach. Always pair protein with high-fiber foods (veggies and fruit) to improve protein digestion so that it doesn’t pass through to the intestinal intact.
44: Get extra B vitamins, particularly B5, because they are depleted in people who experience a lot of stress, both physical and mental.
45: Balance your cortisol: Get 2 to 10 grams of vitamin C post-workout or anytime you’re stressed. Be smart about caffeine and never take it when anxious or post-workout.
46: Optimize baseline levels of hormones, particularly testosterone, because it is a significant indicator of athletic ability. Higher resting T means you’ll get more out of workouts to induce greater muscle gains.
47: Embrace sleep. It’s been called the “athlete’s steroid” because it can boost athletic performance by as much as 10 percent. Shoot for at least 10 hours a night if you’re trying to gain muscle.
48: Train in the afternoon between 2 and 5 pm because muscle strength peaks during this window and protein synthesis peaks at 5 pm.
49: Sleep according to your natural tendency (called chronotype) because this optimizes hormone balance. Men who sleep according to their chronotype have higher testosterone.
50: Attend to your vitamin D level: Achieve a year-round level of at least 40 ng/ml. People in Northern latitudes or who do not get daily sun exposure require 2,000 to 5,000 IUs daily to achieve this baseline level.
51: Ensure magnesium status by getting a red blood cell test. Scientists suggest athletes should supplement with 500 mg of high-quality magnesium daily. Take it post-workout.
52: Dose BCAAs with leucine in a 4 to 1 ratio to valine and isoleucine. Research indicates 40 grams of BCAAs over the course of a workout can increase protein synthesis and reduce muscle breakdown.
53: Take 5 g/day of creatine to experience double muscle gains. One review found an extra 2 to 4 pounds of muscle mass gained in athletes.
54: Take beta alanine because it helps the body remove waste during intense muscle contractions. Try a high-low dosing format of 4 to 6 g/day for 4 weeks, followed by 1.5 to 3 g/day for 4 weeks.
55: Use caffeine pre-workout anytime you have poor motivation, are sleep deprived, or have a blue mood. It’s the most effective legal performance-enhancing aid available.
56: Take up to 4 grams of fish oil post-workout to improve protein synthesis and reduce inflammation.
57: Load up on conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) by eating pastured, organic dairy and beef. CLA can increase muscle gains by a few pounds over a placebo.
58: Take citrulline to improve blood flow and energy levels. It also boosts arginine for greater growth hormone release.
59: Try taking glutamine in doses throughout the day. Use it anytime you feel your immune system suppressed or are nearing an overtrained state to improve recovery.
60: Work harder. You’re less likely to be a “hard-gainer” if you work harder and smarter.
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Post Thanks / Like - 3 Thanks, 5 Likes, 0 Dislikes
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I’ll start with 5! Lol Love your reading Poliquin! Awesome Trainer!
Max
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Post Thanks / Like - 1 Thanks, 2 Likes, 0 Dislikes
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What a great read...thanks buddy
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Post Thanks / Like - 2 Thanks, 2 Likes, 0 Dislikes
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I feel like I learned each of these points over the years on my own. If only we could go back to when we first started training and tell ourselves everything we now know. Good read for sure.
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Post Thanks / Like - 2 Thanks, 2 Likes, 0 Dislikes
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