In my other article, “No Excuses,” I discussed what works for fat loss. I stated that in order to continue progressing toward your goal, doing everything you can right away is clearly not the best path. Rather, “do the least amount that you can to get results” is shockingly the better path. In this article, I’ll go over muscle gains, weight gains, and strength gains.

Eat more
Muscle, weight, and strength gains have one thing in common to me, and I can sum that up with two words—eat more! Eat more protein, eat more carbs, and eat more fat. Just eat more of everything you usually eat. “Whoa, I can eat candy and ice cream?” I wouldn’t every day, all day, but I wouldn’t worry about it if you did.

Here is what I hear:

Guy: Ray, I want to gain muscle, like 20 lbs.

Ray: Eat more.

Guy: But I don’t want to lose my six-pack.

Ray: Forget it.

Yeah, I know I’m a bully or I’m mean. I’m also telling the truth. I remember reading a statement from Mark Rippetoe. He said, “Many successful weight gaining programs have been sabotaged by this bizarre desire to have a six-pack year round. What the hell is the point of having a six-pack if you don't have an ice chest to put it in? Let's say you put on 40 or 50 pounds in six months. That's going to have a huge impact on how you look and how strong you are. But let's say you do the ‘gotta keep my razor sharp abs’ horsesh*t. You'll be lucky if you gain eight or nine pounds. What do you think is going to have more effect on how you look—50 pounds, 30 of it muscle, or 8 pounds? No one gives a shit about your bullsh*t abs if you're 5'11 and 170 pounds.”

He says it’s better to gain weight and then drop the fat, which is relatively easy. Instead of being eight pounds heavier and lean, you’re 30 pounds heavier and lean.

Everyone now knows and understands that a good starting point for weight loss is fewer calories in than you burn in a day. Over time, that leads to weight loss and, hopefully, if proper nutrition is followed, fat loss. Weight/strength/muscle gains are just the opposite. Eat more than you burn. Just do it. Lose the fear of blurred abs and enjoy the feeling of having a chest, traps, and legs you aren’t embarrassed about. You can finally bench more than the 185 pounds for five reps that you’ve been stuck at for four years because your strength goes way up. Stop looking at guys in the gym bigger than you with that jealous “Oh, he takes steroids” look. Start eating more and lifting right. Maybe he does take steroids, but you aren’t getting bigger or closer to his size and strength by eating 2000 calories a day.

Training “correctly” for size
OK, so we have established that you clearly need to eat more to get bigger and stronger. What we need to go over now is how to train. We just said weight loss is partially determined by burning more calories than you take in. How do we burn calories? We do more exercise. Hmmm. We are trying to get bigger. What is the opposite of training less? Hmm. OK, I’ll give you the answer. Train less. Rest and recover more. That way you can grow. I’m not saying to slack on training. In fact, I’m saying to train harder when you do train. Intensity is what forces the body to change. Instead of working out six days a week, scale it back to three or four. This allows the body time to recover and that is when it grows and gets stronger. Granted you’re eating more.

Another thing, instead of doing five sets of 10 of every exercise ever invented and one you invented for each body part, increase the intensity and stick to the exercises that actually work. Let me explain. Along the same lines as working out less to recover more, use that same philosophy while you’re actually working out. Perform bench presses, rows, pull-ups, glute ham raises, stiff leg deadlifts, and deadlifts and maybe you can find out what that weird looking cage is at the far end of the gym (just so you know, it’s called a squat rack and, no, bicep curls aren’t allowed in it).Your program should be based around those exercises. Period. Burn less calories during training yet hit the same muscles. That means growth.

Conditioning for growth and strength
Lastly, I want to talk about conditioning when your goal is size and strength. Stop it. OK, maybe not completely. You don’t want to die out during your workouts because your lungs can’t handle it. But you don’t want to burn so many calories that you have to eat 7000 calories a day to gain some weight and strength. So my suggestion is to run some sprints three to four times a day but only do about four to six of them or walk every day. Going for a 30- to 45-minute walk will actually work very well and it doesn’t ruin your knees and joints like long distance jogging. We need those joints to be able to handle the heavy weights we’re going to get you to lift.

The moral of the muscle and strength gain story is this:

  • Eat more
  • Train less
  • Train harder
  • Cut back on conditioning

Feel free to send comments, criticism, or questions to Ray@EliteIronInc.com. I answer every question.