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10 Quick Tips to Build Mass

Big VIC

Big VIC

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by Chris Aceto

Muscle mass is the straw that stirs the drink in the sport of bodybuilding. Talk all you want about symmetry, shape and definition, but in the final analysis, muscle mass is the defining element of a physique. The mass building equation has three components: a correct diet strategy, hardcore training and high tech supplementation. It;s not rocket science, but there are tricks to it, nonetheless.

To save you time and trouble, I've complied 10 tips to jump start anabolism and create a positive nitrogen balance - to pack on muscle mass, you need to take in more nitrogen via protein and training than you excrete through the natural metabolic process.

1. Emphasize the Negative
Muscle growth is the logical byproduct of muscle contraction. Much emphasis is placed on the concentric phase of a lift where the muscle shortens as it contracts. But the stretching of the muscle during the eccentric, or negative, phase where the muscle lengthens while maintaining tension can directly cause muscle hypertrophy, too. Emphasizing the negative is an easy technique to overload muscles and promote radical gains in mass.

2. Eat Fish
Fish containing higher amounts of fat - salmon, for instance - provide us with the ever popular omega-3 fatty acids. Why is this important? The omega-3s make the muscle more sensitive to insulin; hence, they fuel glycogen storage and amino acid entry into muscles while also preserving glutamine stores.

3. Increase Sodium Intake
I'm not kidding. Sodium is an essential mineral that is an absolute must for muscle growth. Sodium has a bad rap because it can cause water retention - anathema to contest ready bodybuilders. On the plus side, sodium enhances carbohydrate storage and amino acid absorption while also improving the muscle's responsiveness to insulin.

4. Stop All Aerobics
Aerobic exercise has a detrimental effect on mass building. Aerobics interfere with strength gains and recovery while burning up valuable glycogen and branched chain amino acids (BCAA). Adding mass is the best way to upgrade your resting metabolic rate (RMR); is the RMR is elevated, more calories are burned and it is easier to stay lean.

5. Lift Explosively
The amount of force a muscle generates is proportional to the amount of muscle growth you'll be able to create. Force is defined as mass (the weight you use) multiplied by acceleration (the speed at which you push a weight against resistance). To generate more force, then, progressively increase your poundages while lifting explosively - in this context, you actually increase speed during the second half of the rep.

6. Dramatically increase your calories for three days
You will never achieve a positive nitrogen balance with a low calorie diet. It takes raw materials - carbs, protein and fats - to build new muscle mass and support recovery. Increasing your calories by 50% (from 3,0000 to 4,500 per day, for instance) for three days can spur growth while adding little if any bodyfat. The key is to limit the increased calories to a designated three day period; you'll be able to stimulate growth by improving muscle sensitivity to insulin and by providing more carbs for glycogen storage. If you are in a overtrained state - and if you're not gaining any new muscle mass, this is probably the case - the additional calories will promote anabolism before fat storage is able to kick in. That's why you want to limit the 50% increase to a three day period. After that time, return to your typical intake of daily calories; you'll have stimulated new growth without adding unwanted fat.

7. Rest
Many bodybuilders are unable to pack on mass because they are always training and, therefore, always recovering from those grueling workouts. Taking a couple of days off can restore glycogen, increase anabolism and allow hormonal indexes such as testosterone and cortisol to return to optimal levels.

8. Eat in the Middle of the Night
Anabolism depends on an excess of calories. As you are well aware, bodybuilders eat four to six times per day to increase the absorption of nutrients and to provide a steady influx of carbs, protein and fat. Expanding on the four to six meals per day plan is to include a protein drink in the middle of the night that can encourage additional growth. Glutamine EFX, providing 30 grams of protein and carbs along with the 'big three' (see tip #10), is a good option for this late at night infusion of nutrients.

9. Increase Strength Through Powerlifting
Your muscles respond to training in three ways. When you train with high reps (more than 15), there is an increase in endurance with no substantive improvement in size or strength. The six to twelve rep range - the range that all big bodybuilders rely on - promotes an increase in both size and strength. Powerlifters generally stay with low reps, two to four per set, which supplements strength with slight variances in size. However, if you set aside one week of training to pile on the weights with low reps the subsequent improvement in strength will make you stronger when you return to the six to twelve rep routine. Here's the formula: More strength equals more tension on the muscle equals more growth.

10. Supplement with the Big Three:
Glutamine, Creatine and BCAA
Glutamine is known as the immunity amino. If you are overly stressed from dieting or training, the immune system kicks in, releasing glutamine into the bloodstream. Having low levels of glutamine will inhibit muscle growth - that's why supplementing with glutamine is important.

Creatine is associate with added power and the ability to produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - the chemical fuel source for training and growth. Supplementing with creatine allows bodybuilders to raise creatine levels in the muscle - therefore enhancing strength and ATP - without the unwanted fat that you'd be saddled with by getting all your creatine exclusively from food.

Branched chain amino acids act as a handy fuel source when glycogen stores are low. Adding BCAA to your nutritional program will increase your nitrogen balance while preventing the dreaded catabolic state that derives from overtraining or overdieting.
 
tim290280

tim290280

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Gotta disagree with the aerobics one.

I spent a lot of time not doing any and my body really suffered. My work capacity dropped right down and it was really holding me back.
 
Robcardu

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Gotta disagree with the aerobics one.

I spent a lot of time not doing any and my body really suffered. My work capacity dropped right down and it was really holding me back.

I was abut to say something like this, since you told me to start cardio ive been growing like weed as im feeling better and stronger.
 
Bulkboy

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cardio ftw!!!

seriously, this shit about not doing any cardio always provokes me. why would someone want to not exercise their hearth properly?

the better cardiovasuclar shape ure in, the better. im all for not doing excessive amounts of cardio when trying to get big and strong. but everyone should do some cardio. its beneficial both in and out of the gym.

i dont understand people who would want to walk around at 140 kg and be able to lift extreme amounts of weights but not being able to run for awhile without risking a heart attack. it just seem so unpractical.
 
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Tonka

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I agree with the above comments , the aerobics has improved my overall fitness and heart strength to feel great and struggle through my hard workouts. It also gets rid of the latic acid and is a must for everyone...
 
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Tonka

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cardio ftw!!!

seriously, this shit about not doing any cardio always provokes me. why would someone want to not exercise their hearth properly?

the better cardiovasuclar shape ure in, the better. im all for not doing excessive amounts of cardio when trying to get big and strong. but everyone should do some cardio. its beneficial both in and out of the gym.

i dont understand people who would want to walk around at 140 kg and be able to lift extreme amounts of weights but not being able to run for awhile without risking a heart attack. it just seem so unpractical.

I totally agree, ever since i've kept up with skipping 10 minutes a day with 20 minutes of runnign 4 x a week I'm a much better person in overall health.
 
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proteinguysx

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I dont agree with the sodium intake
 
Anabolicus

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I believe theweapon posted this once.
 
Svartberg

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Do you have any studies to back up the sodium one? :)
 
Mike33

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cardio ftw!!!

seriously, this shit about not doing any cardio always provokes me. why would someone want to not exercise their hearth properly?

the better cardiovasuclar shape ure in, the better. im all for not doing excessive amounts of cardio when trying to get big and strong. but everyone should do some cardio. its beneficial both in and out of the gym.

i dont understand people who would want to walk around at 140 kg and be able to lift extreme amounts of weights but not being able to run for awhile without risking a heart attack. it just seem so unpractical.

Exactly, I totally agree. It has been proven that if you do some cardio also, you make more gains. It helps your body only in a positive way :)

I do cardio 2-3 times a week now, that's enough for me, I have a hard time putting on size. That's why I only to 2-3 times, 20-40 minutes a session!
 

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lambwell

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Hello,
Generating muscle tissue is an energy intensive activity for the body. Do not shy away from eating a good amount of healthy fat. When exercising always have a good intake of carbohydrates as that is the time the body needs it the most. You can also have carbohydrates at other times, but in lesser quantities compared to the amount you will have during exercising.
The best exercising is with weights. In the beginning always choose compound exercises to be done with heavy weights. These types stimulate the greatest number of muscle fibers. Make sure the exercises cover all the major muscles of the body. Include exercises like the bench press, military press, squats, dead lifts, and bent over rows.
 
Glex

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5. Lift Explosively
The amount of force a muscle generates is proportional to the amount of muscle growth you'll be able to create. Force is defined as mass (the weight you use) multiplied by acceleration (the speed at which you push a weight against resistance). To generate more force, then, progressively increase your poundages while lifting explosively - in this context, you actually increase speed during the second half of the rep.
Oh lols...I know I haven't been posting much but I read this and I had to respond. Whoever wrote this is at best not an engineer, but probably just an asshole. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't act like you do.

Force is indeed mass times acceleration, thank you Newton. But 'the speed at which you push against a resistance' is not acceleration. Acceleration is a distance per second per second, or at what rate do you get faster or slower. This means that a constant postive acceleration, for example, causes a continually increasing speed.

In the lifting case, the pertinent acceleration is not what you provide, though how and when you lift the weight may have different effects. The acceleration is provided by gravity. If you'll notice, a bowling ball is moving faster after falling three stories than if you just drop it from waist-high. This is the acceleration due to gravity. In fact, when dealing with English units, this acceleration is already built in; pounds are a measure of force themselves, unlike their 'counterpart' in metric, the gram.

So the force we're talking about moving is the mass of the object times the acceleration due to gravity. In English it's already taken care of, but if you divide by the acceleration due to gravity (32.2 ft/s^2) then you'll get its mass (slugs). And if you want to find out the force in metric, take the kilograms and multiply by the metric acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m/s^2) and you'll get Netwons.

If you push with just one iota of force than what your barbell weighs, it will move.

The concepts this moron was trying to get across probably dealt with work and power. Work, in our case, is applying a force over a distance, like pushing up against a barbell.

No matter how fast you push, you will still do the same work when you reach the top of your motion from the bottom. However, power involves how quickly you do work. If you explode up with the weight and accomplish all the work quickly it takes more power than if you do it slowly.

This is exactly analogous to horsepower in a car. Horsepower is a measure of an engine's power output. A car of similar weight but with more horsepower will go from 0-60 in less time than its sister car with less horsepower. In vehicles, at least, more horsepower generally means a bigger engine, and that may be the reasoning this guy is trying to use with the explosive lifting.

At any rate, please don't accelerate through a motion because you think that will provide you bigger gains. It will just make you look stupid like this guy.

signed,

your resident mechanical engineer-
glex
 
Natzo

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Glex! the arcade champion outa nowhere!:umwtf:
 
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bradlys

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I totally agree with this. Though not all are mentioned but this list could help out new body builders like me in getting into the shape that I want faster and healthier. All these steps to be followed with great determination and self discipline should get me in shape in now time. Thanks for sharing!
 
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Shit.... The first time I lifted any weights I got big, but I also got fat because I refused to do any cardio!! Now with cardio not only em I lean with a medium size frame but I'm also heart healthy & my lungs are way more powerful....

Sodium I refuse to follow that tip any link around to prove this??

CHEERS:biggrin:
 
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superman1

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Useful information,
Thank you man,
Good luck
 
cereal

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I couldn't reply with quote so I reply without one:
Glex: I agree 100%
Like Arthur Jones once said: Explosive training is simply criminal! It's stupid as hell!
 
tim290280

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I couldn't reply with quote so I reply without one:
Glex: I agree 100%
Like Arthur Jones once said: Explosive training is simply criminal! It's stupid as hell!
So you're calling all sprinters (or athletes) and weightlifters stupid!?
 
cereal

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Well thinking is always allowed.. generally I and he meant bodybuilding. There is a place where explosive power is usefull. BB is not that place.
 
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