M3:D41 Intensity defined
Related Posts:
Sunday tip: Can you gain muscle without getting fat?
Can You Gain Muscle Weight Without Getting Fat?
By Vince DelMonte
There are two common fitness goals – to gain muscle mass and to lose body fat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Building muscle mass is going to require you to take in a surplus of calories because, well, let's face it, you can't build muscle out of nothing (unless of course you have some chemical help going on).
Losing fat mass on the other hand is going to require you to be in a negative calorie balance because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues.
Striving to accomplish both goals at the same time is rarely a good approach because more than likely you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
Most weight lifters will have to accept some fat gain when they are looking to gain weight, however how much fat gain they need to add is question. It is this variable that we are hoping to influence.
Can you really gain weight without getting fat?
When adding muscle mass there are two approaches you can take.
Some take the approach of just eating as much food as they can possible cram into themselves. Their life suddenly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they are under the thinking that the more food that goes in, the more muscle synthesis that will go on.
This thinking is heavily flawed. The body can only assimilate so much muscle tissue at once and after it has done so, any remaining calories are simply going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exception to the rule.
For those guys who are out there taking in five thousand or more calories per day, this is obviously going to be way more than they need and will result in a considerable amount of unwanted fat weight over a period of three to six months (how long most people will ‘bulk' for).
The second option is to adopt a more moderate approach and only eat so many additional calories to support this muscle growth and that's it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous rise in body fat.
So that leads us to the next question you're probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be eating?
You've probably already heard of the guy who claims he's added 20 pounds of muscle in the short timeframe of six weeks. While this may be a very rare occurrence among an individual who is brand new to weight lifting, has insanely good genetics and utilized an excellent training and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are simply not going to be able to come even close to adding this much muscle tissue.
A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week – if he's doing everything correctly. If he doesn't have the greatest genetics or isn't feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at a measly two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren't going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes.
The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.
It is always best to go by REAL WORLD results since you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be eating, but this does not mean that's going to be the exact number that will produce results. Different people have different metabolisms that will respond to an increase in calories in various ways. So as you go about your bulk, adjust according to the results you are getting.
Remember that the more patient you are with your muscle gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding muscle mass and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained – which as I'm sure many of you already know, is not a pleasant experience.
So next time you decide you are going to do a ‘bulking' phase, take a slower approach. Not only are you much more likely to maintain a favourable appearance this way but your mind will thank you as well. Nothing kills confidence levels faster than seeing all muscle definition go out the window in a matter of weeks, so keep the weight gain under control so you don't have to deal with this.
———————————-
About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building : Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com/
He teaches skinny guys how to get big muscles, without supplements, drugs and training less than before.
© 2006-2008, Vince DelMonte Fitness. All rights in all media reserved. You may reprint this article so long as the article and author bio are reprinted intake and all links are made live. This article may never be sold individually or as part of a package.
Related Posts:
M3:D40 Powerful Reasons Why
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Today my entire commentary is devoted to my Powerful Reasons Why (PRW). Debbie: Can We Talk? came up with the idea for all of us to share our PRWs and so that's what I'm going to do today. After reading some of the other lists, mine is not that exciting. So why am I a Shredder? What is it that motivates me daily?
That's my list–good or bad–I'm sticking with it! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Today I had a nice cardio session. It was too hot to run outdoors, so I hit the gym for a good session on the elipptical. 20 minutes of steady state cardio on the elipptical was my workout. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Your Powerful Reason Why will draw your goals to you. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 What is your top goal at the moment. Be specific. Comment this blog to answer the question. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Related Posts:
M3:D39 Working Harder Than Ever Before
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday's are always an interesting day for me in my life. I work from home most Friday's and so my phone tends to ring off the hook. This week was no different. Today I wanted to discuss with everyone the concept of working harder than you've ever worked before. Everything we are doing on the fitness front is a progressive action. We are aiming to continually improve our body and lose more and more fat and gain more and more muscle. The only way that will happen is if you always work harder than the last time you worked out. That means you are always working harder than ever before. When you enter your gym (or place you workout) always leave your personal issues outside the door. Don't let anything distract you. You have a job to do and it involves working harder than ever before. You can't do that if you are distracted. Think about this concept before every single lift. My personal approach is as follows. Let's assume that my workout for a Friday involves the following supersets: Deadlift Seated cable rows Lat pull down Hammer curls As I approach this exact workout, I would have my workout log in hand. (Note: If you do not log every single workout, start doing it now or you won't really work harder than ever before). I review my numbers from the previous time I did this workout. During a workout I always make little notations that tell me if I should increase the weight the next time and what the intensity level was (1-10) of the weight I just lifted. As I do this workout I would review this information and make adjustments accordingly. I am going to either add weight or add repetitions, but the next lift I do is going to be bigger than the previous time I did the lift. Using the above workout as my example, I am aiming for 15 repetitions and 3 sets. My trusty workout log says that last week I did 225 pounds on the deadlifts, the effort was a 10 and I managed 15 on the first two sets and 14 on the last set. I will now aim to do 225 for 15 repetitions on all 3 sets. That's working harder than ever before. Next, I see that in my log, the last time I did bent over rows I managed 150 pounds for 15 repetitions on all 3 sets and the effort was a 9. I am going to go up to 155 pounds for today's workout and aim to hit 15 repetitions on all 3 sets. Again, working harder than ever before. As long as you approach your workouts this way you will always work harder than ever before. You are always striving to beat the previous workout. You are not taking it easy. You are pushing yourself to the max. With this approach you will see changes in your body. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yet another extremely intense workout. I've noticed that since my calories have been up I am working out with alot more intensity. I am becoming a stronger and stronger proponent of eating enough food and avoiding large caloric deficits caused by cutting the amount of food you eat. I think you sacrifice your ability to workout with high intensity when you do that. In the end, you are sacrificing your results and that's not good. By eating enough I've been able to push heavy weights around and push my body to the limit each and every time I hit the gym. I've been seeing some amazing gains and it is all because the metabolic engine of the fat burning machine has grown. I have more muscle to assist in the job of burning the fat. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The experiment you need to conduct is the experiment of one–what works for you–and then use the results of that experiment to see massive gains. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Have you conducted your own experiment of one and what were the results? Comment this post to answer the question. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Related Posts:
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- …
- 148
- Next Page »
