10 tips to gain mass

i found this on flexbodybuilding.com, could help someone out





1. Eat and I Mean Eat a lot
Eating high calorie meals is probably the most important step in gaining mass. If you don't get enough to eat, you won't gain weight. You can't lift like a horse and eat like a bird and expect to gain weight it just doesn't work that way. That is why most bodybuilders eat four to six times per day to increase calories, protein, carbs., etc., and to increase the absorption of nutrients. You may even want to try drinking a protein shake in the middle of the night to encourage additional muscle growth.

2. Increase Sodium
This underestimated mineral plays an important role in overall muscle growth and by slightly increasing your daily sodium intake it helps increase water retention. Plus sodium enhances carbohydrate storage and amino acid absorption also improving the muscle's responsiveness to insulin.

3. Drink Water
Water is the best way to supplement a diet. It's mother natures ultimate supplement and without it you will go no where. It gives you proper regulation of food, vitamins, and minerals. It also helps you get the most out of your protein and carbs, by helping your body absorb it.

4. Cycle Your Diet
For two weeks eat an extra 2000 calories then go back to your normal calorie diet for the next two weeks, on and off. I have heard good stories about doing this. You will only eat the extra 2000 calories for two weeks because that's about how long it takes your body to adapt to it, and if it does you will not get the same benefit as you would if it was not adapted to it.

5. Use Creatine
Creatine will most likely help you gain mass. Plus with no side effects where can you go wrong. Be sure to drink plenty of water while your on it though, and just like any other supplement.

6. Rest
I love to sleep. You all need to if you want to put on some mass. Your body needs this time to re-cooperate. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.

7. Stop All Aerobics
In order to put on serious mass your gonna need to stop all of your aerobics. You need to keep as many calories and you can in your body and the aerobics will not help you do that. Remember every physical activity has a negative impact on building muscle.

8. Eat Meat
Tuna, Beef, Steaks......mmmmmmmm

9. Lift Hard
Your never gonna get that physique you want unless you lift and I mean lift hard. That doesn't mean to throw the weights around. Be sure to control your weight, control is very important. Be sure to use a weight that you can do 4 reps but no more then 6, heh this is the fun part, do 6 reps anyway. NOT CHEATING!

10. No Spotter!
Well, this is my opinion but here goes.....I don't believe in using a spotter, gloves, straps, or anything that will help you get that weight up. I believe that you should be able to get that weight up on your own and not with the help with anyone or anything else.

Why is it that all these lists are overly simple and include stupid things?

1) Eat more? Shit really? Eating more is really down to knowing how much you currently eat and add a bit more. As soon as it becomes too much you just get fat, regardless of how "clean" the food is. It should also be good quality food, not junk.

2) Eat sodium? You should actually be getting quite a bit of this in your diet already from the foods you eat.

3) Drink water? Thanks I'll keep that in mind....

4) Calorie cycling is actually a really good idea. But not when you are talking about essentially doubling your daily intake for two weeks. Daily or weekly fluctuations of a couple hundred cals would be a better idea.

5) Creatine is good.

6) Rest is good.

7) Stop Aerobics? This is counterintuative. What's next, stop lifting? If you aren't fit enough to work hard in the gym then you will never gain as much strength and never gain as much muscle as you could.

8) Eat meat? How about just eat quality foods, meat being a cornerstone of that with fruits and vegetables.

9) Lift hard but sensibly, no problem with that. But where the hell did the rep recommendations come from? Everyone knows its meant to be 3 sets of 8...

10) I agree that people should man up and just lift the weights themselves without all the crutches. But it is important to be safe about it!

Tim wins the thread

Arcane1129 said:

Tim wins the thread

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First of all I would like to thank my mom and dad, my beautiful girlfriend, and most of all God.:methman:

i posted this for beginners, basic shit there are alot of beginners and young ones and pretty much puts everything in an easy way, i apologize if i insulted a man of your intelligence, it was intended for who ever is interested in gaining mass and has no idea how to do it.

agree with tim on the cardio part, alittle aeorobics is necessary imo unless ur a total hardgainer and needs to down 10000 kcals a day or u have a very physically demanding job. also i dont agree with the rep recommendation totally, for hypertrophy i think 8-12 is optimal, although lower reps should also be incorporated. even higher reps sometimes. also nr 10 is ridicolous.

theweapon said:

i posted this for beginners, basic shit there are alot of beginners and young ones and pretty much puts everything in an easy way, i apologize if i insulted a man of your intelligence, it was intended for who ever is interested in gaining mass and has no idea how to do it.

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:angrydude:
You've missed the point and the entire reason I posted. I already know and have put into action how to gain mass, the post was not for me, it was for the beginners. The last thing they need to be told is a load of BS.

A couple of the points there are just mindless and would lead to fat gain and poor health. Telling people to cycle their calorie intake by essentially eating twice as much as an average adult would need in a day is just plain wasteful and might as well have been an advert for protein mass gainers.

When you post info it has to be good info, regardless of the audience. Yes telling a beginner about in depth physiology is pointless, but telling them to keep a food log isn't.

bulkboy said:

agree with tim on the cardio part, alittle aeorobics is necessary imo unless ur a total hardgainer and needs to down 10000 kcals a day or u have a very physically demanding job. also i dont agree with the rep recommendation totally, for hypertrophy i think 8-12 is optimal, although lower reps should also be incorporated. even higher reps sometimes. also nr 10 is ridicolous.

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Hardgainer is just another term for someone who doesn't eat enough to maintain weight let alone gain it. I'm yet to meet a hardgainer that eats breakfast, let alone 10000cals a day! A skinny guy at my work claims to be a hardgainer (or at least unable to gain weight) and claims to eat a lot. I challenged him to add up what he ate each day; turned out he ate less than my 50kg girlfriend. Although admittedly his evening meals were 80% of his intake and were huge meals.

Hypertrophy isn't a rep range, it is a volume of work. Your muscles can't count reps, they just respond to the volume and load (and intensity) of work.

Item 10 isn't ridiculous. I'm yet to see someone use a spotter or belt/strap/wrap/etc in the correct fashion aside from competitive lifters. How many times have bench presses been turned into bent over rows? Lifting the weight yourself would go a long way to better strength and thus development for most lifters.

tim290280 said:

Hardgainer is just another term for someone who doesn't eat enough to maintain weight let alone gain it. I'm yet to meet a hardgainer that eats breakfast, let alone 10000cals a day! A skinny guy at my work claims to be a hardgainer (or at least unable to gain weight) and claims to eat a lot. I challenged him to add up what he ate each day; turned out he ate less than my 50kg girlfriend. Although admittedly his evening meals were 80% of his intake and were huge meals.

Hypertrophy isn't a rep range, it is a volume of work. Your muscles can't count reps, they just respond to the volume and load (and intensity) of work.

Item 10 isn't ridiculous. I'm yet to see someone use a spotter or belt/strap/wrap/etc in the correct fashion aside from competitive lifters. How many times have bench presses been turned into bent over rows? Lifting the weight yourself would go a long way to better strength and thus development for most lifters.

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1) obviously hardgainer is a term man, some people really have a hard time putting on muscle, let alone any mass. and ye, often its because they dont eat enough, but when u have to eat 6000-8000 kcals a day to gain a single gram i perfectly understand why some people fall of the wagon and loose motivation. i know of this one dude, and he eats like there is no tomorrow, but still he remains skinny, obviously a hardgainer.

2) u dont agree that a set performed for 8 reps will result in more hypertrophy than a set performed for 2 reps? i think that it obviously will, therefore its fair to say that there is a more beneficial rep range for hypertrophy right? atleast i was always under that impression anyway. please enlighten me about what u mean here, its very interesting and i will be the first to admit that im not very knowledgeable about it

3) i know that alot of people ruins their training because they let their spotter do all the lifting. but cmon, having a good spotter can be very beneficial, one who can push you and knows where ur limit is. im just saying that nr 10. is mostly incorrect, because if u automatically assume that everyone use a spotter in the incorrect way then thats another story. but if u use a spotter correctly, not to lift the weight for u, but rather assuring u dont fuck urself up and that u keep pushing bigger weights then its beneficial.

tim arent you like 120lbs soaking wet?

Bulkboy said:

1) obviously hardgainer is a term man, some people really have a hard time putting on muscle, let alone any mass. and ye, often its because they dont eat enough, but when u have to eat 6000-8000 kcals a day to gain a single gram i perfectly understand why some people fall of the wagon and loose motivation. i know of this one dude, and he eats like there is no tomorrow, but still he remains skinny, obviously a hardgainer.

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I'm yet to see a true hardgainer that has energy intake needs of 6000 cals (let alone kcals). There are plenty of athletes that would need this amount, but that is due to the huge volume of work they perform. Speaking to a sedentry gym goer, I doubt that there is such a thing as a hardgainer. Speaking to a manual labourer or elite athlete, maybe. Having at one stage termed myself Hardgainer (I own the book) I'm now convinced that the term is falsely used in 99% of cases.

Either way it is easily fixed when you calculate your metabolic needs and record what you consume. Once you work that out you know how much you need to eat to gain (just a little bit more than you need to maintain). Hardgainer = thinks they eat more than they do.

2) u dont agree that a set performed for 8 reps will result in more hypertrophy than a set performed for 2 reps? i think that it obviously will, therefore its fair to say that there is a more beneficial rep range for hypertrophy right? atleast i was always under that impression anyway. please enlighten me about what u mean here, its very interesting and i will be the first to admit that im not very knowledgeable about it

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What part of "volume" did you miss? One set of 2 doesn't have the same volume as one set of 8. I was obviously saying that it isn't the number of reps in a given set that give hypertrophy, it is the overall reps for the workout for a given movement or bodypart. If you do three sets of eight and I do eight sets of three we have done the same volume, but I have done it at a higher load and intensity. Therefore I will have to get a lot bigger and stronger.

3) i know that alot of people ruins their training because they let their spotter do all the lifting. but cmon, having a good spotter can be very beneficial, one who can push you and knows where ur limit is. im just saying that nr 10. is mostly incorrect, because if u automatically assume that everyone use a spotter in the incorrect way then thats another story. but if u use a spotter correctly, not to lift the weight for u, but rather assuring u dont fuck urself up and that u keep pushing bigger weights then its beneficial.

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You said that point 10 was "ridiculous". I'm saying it isn't. I don't disagree that a spotter can be very beneficial, but it is also fair to say they are completely abused by most trainees. As I stated I've only seen competitive lifters use spotters correctly.

SerbMarko said:

tim arent you like 120lbs soaking wet?

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Is this somehow meant to discredit what I'm saying? Considering my stats are in the drop down on the side of the post you know that I'm not a lightweight, and that I know what I'm talking about. So clearly this is a lame attempt to have a cheap shot at me.:angrydude:

I'm sorry that you feel so maligned by someone being more intelligent and knowledgeable than yourself. It must be hard when you lack the ability to state a logical argument and have to resort to petty attacks of ad hominem*. In fact I'm pretty sure it's a sin Serb!



*ad hominem means attacking the arguer not the argument Serb!