Posts Tagged ‘Muscle Building’
Heavy Squatting and a Simple Primal Recipe
I have a love hate relationship with squat day. Maybe it’s because I absolutely love crushing my lower body unlike a lot of folks out there. Maybe I’m just too hard on myself but I think I suck at squatting. My squat strength just isn’t where I want it to be. Progress is being made but patience isn’t one of my best virtues!
Squats will blow you up like no other exercise. That’s why they call them the king and just because I’m not as good as I think, doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying to dethrone the king!
Today’s training session was short, sweet, and intense
1 – Squat 5×3
2 – RDL 3×6
3 – Sled Drag – 5×250′
I pushed the pace on this one and rested no more than 1:30 between sets. Squatting is all about mindset. Before I started I put my frustrations aside and crushed it!
If you’re looking for a huge muscle building primal meal after heavy squatting check out this one I threw together.
2lbs lean ground beef
1/4 onion, or more if you desire
1 cup salsa
1 can Trader Joe’s refried beans (optional) I know, I know, legumes aren’t exactly primal but I couldn’t resist. I need something a little extra.
Cook up the ground beef in a grill pan then drain it. Saute the onions with the ground beef then add the salsa and beans. I heated the beans before I added them to the beef, onions, and salsa. Let everything cook together until you reach your desired consistency and enjoy.
I also grilled tons of zucchini, squash, and more onions on the side. It only took me about 20 minutes to put everything together.
Give it a shot, add other seasonings if you so desire and enjoy.
Muscle Gaining Secrets – A must have for every training library!
Jason Ferruggia is one of my go to guys when it comes to training. He’s one of the best in the industry and for good reason. He’s trained over 700, including 90 from organizations you may have heard of like the NFL, NHL, and MLB. In fact, he’s helped over 53,000 hardgainers and skinny dudes build muscle and add mass all while staying ripped. How does he do it? His book Muscle Gaining Secrets is one of the best training manuals out there. It is a must have for any training library.
I got my copy over 18 months ago and it totally changed the way I was training. It helped me get back to my roots of lifting heavy using compound exercises to pack on slabs of muscle.
FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS ONLY. Muscle Gaining Secrets is on sale w/ 3 incredible bonuses. Trust me, these bonus are not going to last long. Click here to get your copy of MGS and claim your 3 out of this world bonuses.
Below is a little taste of the high quality content Jason puts out.
Muscle Building Secrets
By Jason Ferruggia
In the quest to unlock the world’s most powerful muscle building secrets I have tried nearly every training system and diet there ever was. Through many years of trial and error I have finally developed a surefire way to build enormous amounts of muscular size and strength rapidly in even the most painfully skinny hardgainer.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is training session frequency. One look at male gymnasts or Cirque Du Soleil performers will tell you that a higher frequency of training than the typical “once-a-week-per-bodypart” recommendation is in order for rapid muscle growth. Whenever you want to improve something in life you do it frequently. It doesn’t matter if it’s improving your golf swing, learning an instrument or building muscle; you have to do it more than once per week.
The next thing that needs to be looked at is training session length. When you allow your workouts to stretch any longer than 45 minutes, you are actually doing yourself more harm than good. Research has shown that testosterone levels are shot after 45 minutes of training. They actually peak at 27 minutes, so stopping at 30 minutes might even be a better idea. Beyond the 45 minute mark, cortisol production increases dramatically as testosterone levels plummet. Cortisol is the stress hormone and actually eats muscle tissue and increases bodyfat storage.
Another one of the most important muscle building secrets that I have discovered over the years is that it is crucially important to cycle your training. The body eventually adapts to any one set routine after a while. The trick is to switch your routine just before your body starts to adapt to it and your gains come to a halt but not so soon that you don’t allow for significant progress. Switching too often is just as big of a problem as not switching things up often enough. If you constantly switch programs too frequently you will never make steady progress because you will always be confusing your body and you will just end up spinning your wheels.
Some experts argue that overtraining is the biggest problem most drug free lifters face. Others say that undertraining is actually the main problem for those who fall into the hardgainer mindset. The truth is that both camps are right and wrong. You need to push yourself, sometimes to the brink of overtraining, and then adjust things at just the right time and back off for a while. Eventually, if you back off too long, you will enter a state of undertraining. The key is to ramp up your training again before that happens. When you train like this you will never experience plateaus.
Finally, I must point out that no matter how well you cycle and plan your training you will never experience any significant muscle growth if you use the wrong exercises. The most effective exercises are those that allow you to move your body through space (as opposed to just moving your limbs). Those include chin ups, dips, pushups, handstand pushups, inverted rows, squats, single leg squats and deadlifts. Stick with those exercises and their different variations and you will build massive amounts of size and strength.
Now that you have the knowledge it’s time to put these muscle building secrets to work and get your butt to the gym and start growing like a weed.
Good luck and train hard.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle fast. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
17 Muscle Building Nutrition Tips
Last week I posted 17 muscle building tips. I thought I’d follow that up with 17 muscle building nutrition tips. Nutrition isn’t rocket science. I realize many people get confused with all the information and or misinformation out there today. So, I’m laying out some simple, non-misleading nutrition tips.
1. Make breakfast and your post workout mean your two largest of the day. You’ve probably read that a couple of times already!
2. Get plenty of healthy fats. Make sure 30% of your diet comes from healthy unsaturated fats.
3. Avoid foods that leave you bloated and gassy. This will likely make you not want to eat.
4. You have to eat to grow.
5. Eat higher glycemic carbs that digest quickly. You digest these carbs pretty quickly, making you ready for another muscle building meal.
6. Eat 6-7 times per day.
7. Consume high calorie shakes. Nobody can sit down and eat a solid meal 6-7 times per day. Shakes will ensure you get the neccessary calories you need to build lean muscle.
8. Consume calorie dense foods like seeds and nuts. These pack a mean nutrition punch, providing you with high quality calories, protein, and fats. They are a must if you’re looking to increase your caloric intake.
9. Get 6-12 grams of fish oil every day. Again, more healthy fats.
10. Rice, yams, quinoa, and oatmeal are your friends!
11. Get plenty of high quality protein from sources like eggs, fish, chicken, and lean red meat.
12. Plan your meals. This will also ensure you’re getting the calories you need.
13. If you’re going somewhere that’s not close to any food, carry something with you. It’s not the end of the world, but if you’re looking to up your calories, skipping meals really isn’t an option.
14. DO NOT SKIP A MEAL!
15. Eat protein with each meal. It doesn’t have to be a piece of meat or a powder. Foods like beans, almonds, soybeans, and natural peanut butter are packed with protein.
16. Make sure 90% of your calories come from whole foods.
17. Avoid junk foods. While these foods sure are tasty, they do little aid your recovery or provide you with the quality calories and nutrients you need to build some serious muscle.
Now, I am by no means a nutritionist or dietician but everyone knows the greatest training in the world doesn’t mean sh*t if it’s not backed up with solid nutrition.
I’d love to hear some of your best tips that didn’t make my list.
Drop me a comment and let’s keep this list growing.








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