Mass gain made easy

40 pounds of mass

Yes, I know, everyone is an expert on mass gain. The internet is full of 60-pound skinny experts.

Here's a summary of their mass-building methods: put a bunch of big words in a row or get out a thesaurus and pack each sentence full of synonyms. Bam! Your following will instantly grow.

At a recent workshop, I was "held hostage" by a guy who argued that regular squats are superior to front squats due to leg flexor recruitment. The problem was that this guy, I later learned, had never performed a squat in his life. Another expert.

In fact, I'm a pretty good example of real mass gain myself. Within four months, I built 40 pounds of muscle without steroids and increased my body weight from 73 to 92 kilos. What was interesting about my four months of forty pound gains is what I did before I started building mass. Why? Well, that's probably what you're doing right now.

At a body weight of 73 kilos, I trained heavy bench press almost every day. At a bodyweight of 73 kilos, I trained lat pulldowns and a selection of curls, did a lot of abdominal training and moved quickly from machine to machine. Then I met Dick Notmeyer and the pointer on the scales started to move.

At Dick's there was a barbell on the floor and a squat rack. Three times a week I went to the bar on the floor and moved it overhead in a few different ways. Two days a week I did squats.

Pretty soon I was constantly hungry - so hungry that I was eating sandwiches right before dinner so I wouldn't be so hungry during dinner.

Dick had me weigh myself every day and it was shocking to see the numbers go up daily. I came home once after working out and my brother, who hadn't seen me for a couple weeks, looked up from the table at me and said "Holy crap!".

Guys, this is a mass-building program.

If you don't see someone for a few weeks and that person doesn't recognize you, then you've done everything right. On the other hand, if you're lighter two months after you've started mass building than when you started, then: welcome to the club. Most people who want to gain mass fail at this.

Why? Because:

1. They do too many things that make them tired but not bulky.
2. They do too few things that make them bulky and really tired.

Read on and I will explain this

The 3 principles of mass building

This is a formula you can build on:

1 - You need to get stronger, but you can do this with any smart basic program.

I fell in love with Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program because it works quite simply.

You need to do two things to get stronger: increase the weight and do more reps. The answer has never been: do a lot of reps with a light weight or do a few reps with a heavy weight. The answer remains: Perform many reps with heavy weights.

2 - The other part of the formula is as old as the squat rack: you need to perform some serious squats

In the March 1980 issue of Ironman magazine, there was a short article by Jack Kirwan: "A Seminar by Tom Platz." (A Seminar by Tom Platz). His relentless candor - along with the mass of his thighs - has always been Tom's trademark. His answer to skinny arms, a weak chest or whatever, was quite simply to train the body with squats.

To repeat: squats are the answer.

3 - Last but not least, you literally need to spend more time with the bar.

By far the best way I know of to spend more time with the bar in your hand is to use complex sets.

As you may have read in previous articles, complex sets involve performing a series of exercises in cycles without putting the bar down between sets, completing all repetitions of an exercise before moving on to the next exercise. It's brutal, you'll whimper. And then you'll want to do it again (but not immediately after).

Let's put it all together

The magic of a mass-building program is putting these three elements together and surviving the workouts that result.

Let me say this first: Ideally, the best way to prepare for a mass-building program is to get lean first.

Although this may seem counter-intuitive, the athletes who have made the best gains are those who had just completed something that consumed enormous amounts of resources and time and energy and calories. The body had adapted to that stress and was prepared to build mass to adapt to future crises. This is why football players in December and wrestlers in March tend to put on 10 pounds seemingly overnight.

How do you get lean? I think running the Appalachian trail from Georgia to Maine and eating only protein and fats would lower your body fat levels. You can also run barefoot to regain strength in your feet, toes and ankles. Next, you should then move to a warm and sunny place and start exercising seriously.

Not practical? Okay, fine. There are quite a few ways to get lean, but I refuse to ignore the Velocity Diet. The lesson I learned from my last V diet is that I wasn't eating enough protein before. I also agree that the really important changes from this diet are psychological.

I realize that not many people will follow my advice to get lean first. However, if you ever get the chance to try this sequence - getting lean first, followed by a mass-building phase - you'll be amazed at the difference.

And how do we put the training sessions together? As follows:

Element #1: The basic strength program

To get stronger, I like to consider performing four basic strength exercises. Jim Wendler recommends classic squats, standing barbell shoulder presses, deadlifts and bench presses. Use this with a low-volume approach and with a serious set of "as many reps as possible" as the last set.

Here's how we've adapted this for our athletes over the course of the week:

• Day 1: Front squats and bench press. We use front squats in the strength portion of our training session. The classic squats are for higher repetitions.
• Day 2: Deadlift and barbell shoulder press standing.

It takes about 15 minutes or so to do some light warming up and then the three serious sets of each exercise. The last set is done with as many reps as possible and that's the only number we write down. If your reps increase at one weight then you are getting stronger, but for some reason people miss this simple point.

If you do something else (and there are dozens of basic strength programs) then that's fine, but have an eye on the time it takes you to do the work. Basic exercises and basic training can be done much more efficiently. I had excellent results years ago when I only trained two days a week with basic exercises.

Element #2: Squats with high repetitions

During the mass building phase, high repetition squats are the next exercise. Here's what Tom Platz recommended:

Monday:

• 135* x 10
• 225 x 10
• 275 x 6
• 325 x 3
• 345 x 3
• 345 x 3
• 275 to exhaustion

* The weights are given in pounds and are only examples. Divide these values by 2.2 to get the weight in kilograms.

Friday:

• 135 x 10
• 225 x 10
• 275 x 5
• 325 x 5
• 325 x 5
• 325 x 5

I allow my athletes a two-week acclimatization phase. Why? If you're coming from another sport (or that little six-month hike I mentioned), anything you do during the first two weeks is going to increase the weight on the scale.

Here's exactly what we do:

Classic squats

Week 1

• Day 1: One set of 30 reps with 45 kilos
• Day 2: Twosets of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos
• Day 1: One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos. One set of 30 repetitions with 52.5 kilos
• Day 2: Three sets of 25 repetitions with 52.5 kilos

Week 2

The ashen faces of my athletes during the training sessions of week 2 indicate that something good is happening! From then on, we aim for heavier and heavier weights per week on one training session with classic squats and on the other training session we aim for more reps.

This could be something as simple as the following:

Week 1

Day 1:

• Warm up
• 185 x 10
• 205 x 10
• 225 x 10
• 275 x 5
• 315 x 5

Day 2:

• Warm up
• 185 x 5
• 205 x 5
• 225 x 20 x 15

Week 2:

Day 1:

• Warm up
• 185 x 10
• 225 x 10
• 275 x 5
• 315 x 5
• 335 x 3

Day 2:

• Warm up
• 185 x 5
• 205 x 5
• 225 x 25 x 20

There is no secret to building mass. You need to load the bar and get down on your knees. Then move back up again.

After the familiarization phase, give yourself about four weeks to focus on high-volume squats. Then stop. To recap: two weeks to get used to it, four weeks to push weights and reps up, and then move on to the next part.

Element #3: The complex sets

We've had really good success with using complex sets when it comes to really increasing time under load for our athletes. If you're new to complex sets, try this simple variation:

1. Reposition the weight eight times
2. Perform 8 repetitions of standing shoulder press after the last repetition
3. Lower the weight to your neck and perform eight squats
4. Lift the weight forward over your head and perform eight front squats
5. Lower the weight and perform eight repetitions of deadlifts

Here is an excellent hypertrophy complex. Take a kettlebell in each hand, reposition the weight and press the kettlebells up overhead. Now do the following:

1. Press the kettlebells upwards eight times
2. Reposition the kettlebells eight times
3. Perform eight front squats with the kettlebells
4. Perform eight repetitions of deadlifts with kettlebells

I recommend using complex sets twice a week for a general warm-up. Here is an example:

Day 1

Complex D

• Rowing upright
• Snatch
• Classic squats
• Neck press
• Good Mornings
• Rowing

Perform 3 sets of 8 repetitions of this complex with a light weight.

The "big two"

• Front squats
• Bench press

Use the 5/3/1 program

High-volume classic squats

• One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos

Eat something.

Day 2:

Complex A

• Rowing
• Reposition
• Front squat,
• Standing barbell shoulder press
• Classic squats
• Good Mornings

Perform 3 sets of 8 repetitions with a light weight.

The "big two"

• Deadlift
• Standing barbell shoulder press

Use the 5/3/1 program

High-volume classic squats

• One set of 30 repetitions with 45 kilos

Eat something.

This would be a nice familiarization workout.

The bonus day

I still strongly recommend one extra training day per week. On this day, warm up and perform 5 sets of 3 reps with one of the standard complexes and aim to increase the weight on each set.

After that, do any of the things you feel you're missing - like curls or whatever. Perform a good training session and go home. I'm not going to plan these in detail for you. If you don't want to do this bonus day, that's fine too.

Nutrition and other factors

1 - Eat three meals a day

Eat an additional three to four snacks per day. I prefer each meal to be a meat-, fish-, egg- or poultry-based meal with black beans, pinto beans or white beans and vegetables, but you have some leeway during a mass-building program.

Snacks? During a bulking phase, you can also get away with diet killers. Yes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches work when it comes to gaining weight. No, I can't believe I wrote that either.

2 - If you really want to shock yourself, use fish oil

Here's a weird "secret" that I use with my extremely motivated athletes: Increase the amount of fish oil capsules until you get a little "runny". (If you don't know what I mean, then you've never taken too many fish oil capsules).

When you have reached this amount, reduce the number of capsules by one or two and that is the amount of fish oil you need per day.

3 - Regeneration is important

You need to sleep. It's okay to watch movies and TV during a bulking phase. I never recommend mass-building phases that last too long. So it's okay to become a typical American for a few months.

Furthermore, I don't want you to play basketball, train for a marathon or learn a new sport. Later, of course, but not now.

4 - Don't try to perform your sport at an elite level!

You are focusing on something else for now. It may even be good that your sporting skills are diminishing somewhat. That's okay temporarily as you focus on building mass.

Summary

Gaining mass is fundamental. Remember this. If you try to do too much or get too smart during these six weeks, you won't make the kind of progress I typically see.

You can expect a boost during the first two weeks that will convince you that the simple combination of strength training, high repetition squats and complexes will actually work better than something more exotic and sexy.

Always remember that I didn't say it would be easy - just simple.

From Dan John | 12/14/09

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/mass-made-simple