Superior Muscle Growth

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..............................................................................................................................7

CHAPTER 1: HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE ............................................................................. 10 What Is Muscle Growth? ........................................................................................................... 12 What Doesn’t Cause Muscle Growth?.......................................................................................... 14 The Two Requirements: Signal And Supply .................................................................................. 16 Requirement #1: The Signal ..................................................................................................... 18 Requirement #2: The Supply .................................................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 2: THE END ..................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER 3: THE THREE PROBLEMS............................................................................... 38 Problem #1: No Results ........................................................................................................... 41 Problem #2: Inferior Results ..................................................................................................... 43 Problem #3: Too Much Body Fat ............................................................................................... 45

CHAPTER 4: THE SOLUTION ........................................................................................... 47 Muscle Growth vs Superior Muscle Growth .................................................................................. 50

CHAPTER 5: CALORIE PARTITIONING.............................................................................. 51 Where Can The Surplus Go? ...................................................................................................... 53 Can You Build Muscle Without Gaining Any Fat?............................................................................. 55 The Stuff You Can’t Control ....................................................................................................... 57 The Stuff You Can Control ......................................................................................................... 59

CHAPTER 6: BODY FAT PERCENTAGE ............................................................................. 60 Starting Body Fat Percentage..................................................................................................... 62 Ending Body Fat Percentage ...................................................................................................... 68

CHAPTER 7: THE RATE OF WEIGHT GAIN........................................................................ 74 The Unrealistic Rates And Limits Of Muscle Growth ...................................................................... 77 The Realistic Rates And Limits Of Muscle Growth ......................................................................... 81

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The Ideal Rate Of Weight Gain For Superior Muscle Growth ........................................................... 86

CHAPTER 8: CALORIE INTAKE: THE SIZE OF THE SURPLUS ............................................ 94 The Importance Of Calories ....................................................................................................... 96 Your Calorie Maintenance Level ................................................................................................. 97 Creating The Surplus .............................................................................................................. 100 The Ideal Weekly Surplus For Men ........................................................................................... 105 The Ideal Weekly Surplus For Women....................................................................................... 108 The Key Step ........................................................................................................................ 111

CHAPTER 9: MACRONUTRIENT INTAKE: PROTEIN, FAT AND CARBS ............................. 117 Protein ................................................................................................................................. 120 Fat ...................................................................................................................................... 128 Carbs................................................................................................................................... 133

CHAPTER 10: THE APPROACH: CALORIE AND NUTRIENT CYCLING ............................... 139 What Is Calorie And Nutrient Cycling?....................................................................................... 141 The Setup ............................................................................................................................ 148 Approach #1: The Straight Surplus .......................................................................................... 150 Approach #2: Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus ........................................................................ 157 Approach #3: Maintenance + Surplus ..................................................................................... 166 Approach #4: Deficit + Surplus .............................................................................................. 176

CHAPTER 11: NUTRIENT TIMING .................................................................................. 194 The Pre-, During And Post-Workout Meals................................................................................. 197 Pre-Workout Recommendations ............................................................................................... 207 During Workout Recommendations .......................................................................................... 212 Post-Workout Recommendations ............................................................................................. 214

CHAPTER 12: MEAL FREQUENCY, EATING STYLE, FOOD CHOICES AND DIET ORGANIZATION ............................................................................................... 218 CHAPTER 13: WEIGHT TRAINING FOR SUPERIOR MUSCLE GROWTH ........................... 226 The Signal: Tension, Fatigue And Damage ................................................................................. 228

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The Components And Goals Of Program Design ......................................................................... 239 Frequency And Split ............................................................................................................... 240 Volume ................................................................................................................................ 244 Rep Ranges .......................................................................................................................... 248 Exercise Selection And Organization ......................................................................................... 251 Rest Periods ......................................................................................................................... 257 Failure ................................................................................................................................. 259 Rep Tempo And Speed ........................................................................................................... 262 Proper Form ......................................................................................................................... 265 Deloading And Training Breaks ................................................................................................ 268 The Best Workout Routines And The Method Of Progression ........................................................ 276

CHAPTER 14: CARDIO ................................................................................................... 278 The Potential Benefits ............................................................................................................ 280 The Potential Problems .......................................................................................................... 283 Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 286

CHAPTER 15: SUPPLEMENTATION................................................................................ 287 CHAPTER 16: LIFESTYLE .............................................................................................. 287 CHAPTER 17: TRACKING............................................................................................... 287 CHAPTER 18: ACTION, CONSISTENCY AND EFFORT ...................................................... 287 CHAPTER 19: THE END ................................................................................................. 287

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DISCLAIMER

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COPYRIGHT

DISCLAIMER All content contained herein is for informational use only and is designed solely for healthy adults. It is not medical or professional advice, it is not meant to be seen as medical or professional advice, and it should not be used to take the place of medical or professional advice. You should always consult your doctor before beginning any diet or workout program or making any changes to your current diet or workout program. This document and the content it contains is offered without warranties or guarantees of any kind. The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any of the information contained in this document. The user (you) assumes all risk for any injury, loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by using any information described herein. COPYRIGHT This document and the content it contains is fully protected under copyright and intellectual property law. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, resold, reprinted or distributed in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the author. Copyright infringement, trademark infringement and theft of intellectual property are serious crimes. Copyright infringement is a felony and civil fines for the conviction of such infringement now begin at $150,000 per infringement and may also result in up to five years in prison. FAKE COPYRIGHT I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for supplements, I can tell you I don't have any. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you do not illegally distribute this book, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you do, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. Or at least, Liam Neeson will.

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► INTRODUCTION

H

ello there. I’m Jay, and in a minute I’m going to show you exactly how to get the best results you are capable of getting.

And yes, it’s going to be just as good as it sounds. I promise. But first…

THANKS FOR BUYING Before we go any further, I wanted to thank you for purchasing this book. Making money is nice and all, but the simple fact that you’re reading this right now shows that you value my opinion and trust my advice. And I think I can honestly say that your trust is just as important to me as money. Alright, fine… it’s a distant second to money, but I still take it VERY seriously. In fact, I’m willing to bet that your trust matters more to me than it does to virtually every “fitness guru” you can think of who is perfectly willing to take advantage of that trust at every possible opportunity. The reason I’m telling you this is because I want you to know that you’re not just a “sale” or a “customer” or a “subscriber” or a “page view” or a “reader” to me. You’re not just another person for me to potentially exploit.

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That’s because unlike the vast majority of the people you’ll come across in the diet and fitness industry, I legitimately care about you, the results you get and the progress you make as a result of the information and advice I provide and the products I sell. I’m telling you this because I want you to have the peace of mind and confidence of knowing that this goes into every single thing I’ve ever put out there and will ever put out there in the future… including this book. Hell… especially this book. I just wanted you to know that. Cool? Cool.

HOW TO READ THIS BOOK As you may have already noticed, there's a whole lotta book inside this book. There are two reasons for this: 1. That’s just my style. I’m comprehensive. I’m thorough. I provide details, specifics and examples. I support it with evidence. I answer the questions you’re thinking as you’re thinking them, and put myself in your shoes to ensure every other question you’re going to have in the future gets answered as well. 2. Because Superior Muscle Growth isn’t meant to be just another book you buy about building muscle. Superior Muscle Growth is meant to be THE book. It’s meant to be the first, last and only resource you will ever need in your entire life to get the muscle building results you want. There is nothing beyond this out there. This is your final stop.

With that in mind, I wanted to point out that this book is meant to be read from beginning to end without skipping over anything. This should be obvious (all books are kinda meant to be read that way), but I wanted to make this point extra clear just in case you saw some chapter listed in the table of contents that seemed extra interesting and you’re already thinking of skipping straight to it. I’d highly recommend not doing that. That’s because I wrote Superior Muscle Growth with a very carefully structured flow to it. Meaning, every section of this book builds on the section(s) that came before it.

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So, for the absolute best reading experience possible, you’re going to want to go in order from beginning to end. You’ll be happy you did.

OTHER FUN INTRODUCTION STUFF If you’ve ever purchased a book like this before, then you probably know what to expect next. This is the point in the book where the author typically spends an entire chapter or often multiple chapters basically attempting to convince you to buy into all of the silly unproven horseshit their book will contain. Or maybe telling you their entire life story in a way that somehow relates to the topic of the book (e.g., “I was a pathetic loser in high school with no friends and no muscle and then I managed to build some muscle and now I’m sexy as hell, have a billion dollars and I’m taking part in an orgy as I type this!!”). Or maybe a bunch of equally wonderful stories about how they tried and failed to build muscle for years until they finally discovered the true secret and now they’re going to share it with you and blah blah blah. Or maybe some other meaningless crap that helps them inflate their page count and sell you on the idea of “an amazing book loaded with 150 pages of cutting edge information!” when in reality 100 of those pages are just boring introduction nonsense. And me? What will I do in this part of my introduction? Besides making fun of everyone else’s introduction? Absolutely nothing. I’m just going to start the damn book already.

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CHAPTER 1

How To Build Muscle

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► HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE

S

o how do you kick off a book called Superior Muscle Growth?

Well, if it were my book, I would begin with the major details. I’d clearly explain the fundamental basis of what it takes to make muscle growth occur so you know exactly what you need to do to make it happen. On second thought, scratch that. If it were my book, I’d begin one step before that. Why? Because to truly understand how to make muscle growth happen, you need to first understand what muscle growth actually is. And hey, look at that. This IS my book! Let’s do this.

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WHAT IS MUSCLE GROWTH? That’s easy. It’s your goal. It’s the thing you want. It’s the thing you bought this book to get. It’s why you train the way you train and eat the way you eat. To you, muscle growth is what needs to happen in order for you to look, feel and be as awesome as you want to look, feel and be. Sound about right? Now while that’s most likely all true and completely understandable, that’s not what muscle growth actually is. So then, what is it? Well, according to the fitness industry, muscle growth is this mysterious, complicated phenomenon with hidden secrets that need to be uncovered requiring all kinds of special programs and products and supplements surrounded by myths and deception with conflicting advice and inaccurate information everywhere you turn. Now that’s definitely not what muscle growth is. So let’s try this one more time. What in the hell is muscle growth? I think the best way to answer this question is by telling you something about sweat. Yeah… sweat. Don’t worry, this will make sense in a second. You know how you sweat when you’re hot? Do you know why that happens? It’s because your body noticed that your core temperature got too high, and its natural adaptive response is to try to lower it back to where it prefers it to be. How? By making you sweat, which creates an evaporative cooling effect on the surface of your skin. So what does sweating have to do with building muscle? Absolutely nothing. However, the reason both occur is exactly the same. Simply put, muscle growth is your body’s adaptive response to its environment.

Simply put, muscle growth is your body’s adaptive response to its environment.

You see, your body doesn’t care that you want to build muscle. Your body couldn’t give a crap about your diet/training goals. The fact that you want more muscle so you can look great naked (or Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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whatever similar reason you have) is damn near meaningless to your body. It’s not that your body hates you or anything; it’s just that this isn’t stuff that matters to it. What DOES matter to it – and really the one and only goal your body ever truly cares about – is keeping you alive and functioning as efficiently as possible. Virtually everything your body does (including sweating) is based around this goal. See… your body really does like you after all! For this reason, if your body senses that something is happening to it that can potentially interfere with your survival or function, its natural adaptive response will be to do whatever it is capable of doing to try to solve the problem and/or improve the situation. And that’s what muscle growth is. It’s the adaptive response your body initiates when it senses that there is a need for your body to have more muscle mass on it. Just like how your body will sweat to try to cool itself when it senses you’re getting too hot, your body will build muscle when it senses that there is a situation occurring in which having more muscle would be similarly beneficial to your survival or function. With me so far? Cool. This brings us to our next obvious question: how exactly do we create this “need” and generate this response? I have a better idea. Let’s start with what doesn’t make it happen…

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WHAT DOESN’T CAUSE MUSCLE GROWTH? In an attempt to cause muscle growth, people will focus on a million different things. But the truth is, most of these things don’t actually cause growth. For example, here’s a list of things that DO NOT cause muscle growth:

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The perfect workout routine.

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The perfect number of reps.

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The perfect diet.

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The perfect number of sets.

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The perfect training frequency, volume and intensity.

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The perfect nutrient timing.

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The perfect meal frequency.

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The perfect workout split.

The perfect food choices.

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The perfect supplements.

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The perfect pre- and post-workout meal.

The perfect amount of protein, fat and carbs.

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The perfect exercises.

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And on and on and on…

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The perfect rest periods.

When people set out to build muscle, this is what they focus on to make it happen. It’s this seemingly infinite amount of major and minor details of our diet and training that tend to get 100% of our attention. The problem, however, is that while lots of this stuff may indeed play some role – sometimes very big, sometimes very small, sometimes none whatsoever – in the overall process, NONE of it is what actually causes muscle to be built. Why? Because way down at the core of muscle growth, there are just two fundamental requirements that absolutely MUST be in place in order for any degree of positive results to be produced. As long as you get them right, you can screw up everything on that list above and still build muscle. Yeah, seriously. Granted, screwing up many of those things will negatively affect just how good those results are. But the point I’m getting at here is that at the heart of every single effective muscle building Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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program (including the one you’re reading right now) are just two principles that dictate whether you succeed or fail. You can obsess over your workout, your diet and your supplementation all you want and constantly tweak everything until it’s “the best” it can possibly be, but it will all be for nothing in the absence of these two requirements. Above all else, they’re going to be responsible for your results or lack thereof. The only question is: what are these two fundamental requirements? I thought you’d never ask…

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THE TWO REQUIREMENTS: SIGNAL AND SUPPLY Like I was saying before, muscle growth is nothing more than an adaptive response. Your body senses that there is a need for it to build more muscle, and it responds to this need by building that muscle. This means your job is to simply:

1. . Create an environment that produces this muscle building “need.” your body’s natural adaptive response (muscle growth) to 2. . Allow take place. Or, to put that another way… you need to “signal” and “supply.” What the hell does that mean, you ask? It means you need to signal your body to begin the muscle building process, and then supply it with everything it needs to actually complete that process and build that new muscle. The “signal” I’m referring to will, of course, be provided through your weight training program. When designed and executed correctly, your workout program will create an environment that convinces your body that more muscle needs to be built. It’s what kicks off the muscle building process. The “supply” of course will be provided through your diet. Once that signal exists, your body will immediately start looking to make sure it has everything it needs to actually build that new muscle. And as long as it does… it will. And that, in a nutshell, is everything. Signal and supply. That is how you build muscle. Whether you want to build 5 lbs of it or 50 lbs of it, those are the fundamental requirements that always need to be met in order for it to happen. Did you read that? Good. Now do me a favor and read it again. And then again. And then please do it one last time just for fun. It’s the singular concept that this entire program is built upon.

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In fact, literally every effective muscle building program worked because it signaled and supplied. Every ineffective muscle building program failed because it didn’t. As long as this fundamental “signal and supply” principle is put into action consistently… YOU. WILL. BUILD. MUSCLE. Yes, 100% of the time. Guaranteed. But if it’s not… you will fail. Regardless of every other aspect of your diet, training and supplementation… you will fail. No matter how perfectly you do everything else… you will fail. Is this getting through to you? I certainly hope so. Because this is what it all comes down to. If you signal muscle growth AND supply your body with everything it needs to build muscle, you will. But if you don’t, you won’t.

As long as this fundamental “signal and supply” principle is put into action consistently… YOU. WILL. BUILD. MUSCLE. Yes, 100% of the time. Guaranteed.

Simple as that. And that brings us to our next question: how do we signal and supply?

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REQUIREMENT #1: THE SIGNAL Despite what you might already be assuming, your weight training program in and of itself is NOT the signal. Rather, your weight training program is just the tool you’re using as a means of creating the stimuli that will actually signal growth. And as far as we currently know, there are three different types of stimuli that are capable of signaling the muscle growth response we need. They are:

1 Progressive tension overload. 2

Metabolic fatigue/stress.

3

Muscular damage.

Now while all three have been shown to play a definite role here, it’s safe to say that this list is in order of importance. I’d categorize fatigue as more of a secondary factor, and damage as more of a tertiary factor. They’re both beneficial contributors to the signal for sure, just not what I’d consider to be the primary factor. That would be tension. It’s the one that I’d categorize as being the primary growth factor and the one true requirement of the three. Let me make that even clearer… While fatigue and damage will help contribute to the signal… progressive tension overload is the signal. For this reason, it’s the one that will always deserve the majority of our attention and focus. Now let’s give it exactly what it deserves…

PROGRESSIVE TENSION OVERLOAD As I’ve said before and will continue to repeat until it’s burned into your brain, muscle growth is an adaptive response. Something happens that makes your body think its survival or function may be in jeopardy, and it responds accordingly to adapt to those conditions.

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In this case, muscle growth is the specific response we want to generate, which means there has to be a very specific set of conditions in place to convince your body that “more muscle” is the adaptation that MUST occur in order for it to continue to survive, function and meet the needs of those conditions. Which is to say that the one and only way your body will ever build muscle is by you proving to it that muscle growth is a response that NEEDS to happen. To put that another way, your body will not build muscle unless you absolutely force it to. How do you force it to? By putting your body in an environment that consistently increases the demands it has to meet. And that right there brings us to a little something called the “progressive overload principle.”

THE PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE The progressive overload principle basically states: In order for a muscle to grow, it must be forced to adapt to a stimulus that is above and beyond what it has previously experienced. You’re probably going to want to read that again. It’s pretty important. And what it means is, if you lift the same weights, for the same number of reps, the same way for the next 20 years… nothing will ever happen. Your body will never change or improve in any way. No new muscle will be built. You will only maintain your current state. However, if you increase the demands you are placing on your body by increasing the weight being lifted, lifting the same weight for more reps, or just doing something that increases the demands that your body needs to meet, then your body will have no other choice but to make the changes and improvements necessary for it to adapt to this environment and remain capable of performing these tasks. Now guess what these “changes” and “improvements” and “adaptations” will come in the form of? You guessed it… more muscle. You’re basically showing your body that in order for it to survive… in order for it to do what you are forcing it to do… it’s going to NEED to build more muscle. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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Let me show you exactly what I mean in the specific context of weight training.

AN EXAMPLE OF PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD Let’s pretend that right now you can lift 50 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 8 reps. Now, if you continue to lift that same 50 lbs for those same 3 sets of 8 reps for the next 20 years… you will not gain ANY new muscle or strength at all. Why? Because there was no progressive overload. Your body has already adapted to this tension (50 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps) and has already provided you with exactly as much muscle and strength as you need to be able to perform this task on a regular basis. Because you aren’t increasing the demands being placed on your body, you aren’t giving your body any reason to improve any further. And, because of that… it won’t. You can do everything else perfectly, but if you fail to provide some form of progressive overload over time, your body will never see any reason to change. However, if you were to lift 50 lbs for 3 sets of 9 reps (instead of 3 sets of 8 reps) on that same exercise, then a reason would finally exist. Why? Simple. You increased the tension. You increased the demands. You increased the training stimulus. You increased the work your body had to do. Instead of doing the same 3 sets of 8 reps with 50 lbs, you worked to do 1 additional rep on each of those sets. And while that may only seem like a tiny improvement, it’s EXACTLY what you need to do to trigger your body’s natural adaptive muscle building response. Similarly, if you were to now try to lift 55 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps (an increase of 5 lbs)… the exact same type of reason would exist. You’re basically telling your body: “Hey, look at this. The work you have to do has increased, so you better build some more muscle to compensate and adapt to these new conditions.” This is progressive overload, and this is what signals growth.

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Whether you get just 1 more rep on just 1 set, or add 5 lbs to all of your sets… it doesn’t matter. Your goal is to somehow beat what you did the previous time. And as long as you do this as often as you can and cause some form of gradual progression to take place over time, then you are giving your body a reason to continue to adapt and improve. As long as that reason is present, the signal to build more muscle will be present as well. At the same time, as soon as that reason stops (or if it never exists in the first place), then your body stops having a reason to improve. No matter how perfectly you’re doing everything else, no new positive changes will be made without progressive overload happening. The signal just doesn’t exist without it.

DOES THAT MEAN I NEED TO PROGRESS EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT? Nope. In fact, doing so would be impossible, at least for a significant period of time. If we could, everyone would be lifting a thousand pounds for a hundred reps on every exercise. That’s just not realistic. Sure, beginners could certainly expect to make this type of consistent progress from one workout to the next, but as they get stronger and more experienced, that progression will gradually become less consistent. However, we should definitely have the mindset of trying to make progression take place consistently and strive to increase the demands being placed on our bodies as often as we possibly can (within the realm of safety and proper form, of course). Whether that happens every workout, or every other workout, or just once per month or less will depend on a ton of individual factors specific to you. However, the point is that if you want to build any amount of muscle, your #1 job is to just make sure it happens. It’s a requirement.

HOW SHOULD PROGRESSION TAKE PLACE? There’s actually a bunch of ways it can be done, and some are a bit more ideal than others. The most common methods of weight training progression are:

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

Increasing the weight being lifted. For example, if you are currently lifting 100 lbs on some exercise, you can lift 105 lbs the next time you perform that exercise.

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Increasing the number of reps a weight is being lifted for. For example, if you are lifting 100 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 8 reps, you can do 3 sets of 9 reps with that same weight the next time you perform that exercise.



Increasing the number of sets you are lifting a weight for. For example, if you are lifting 100 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 8 reps, you can do 4 sets of 8 reps with that same weight the next time you perform that exercise.



Increasing the amount of work being done in a given time period. For example, if you currently rest 2 minutes between sets of an exercise, you can try lifting the same weight for the same amount of sets and reps, but with only 1 minute and 30 seconds of rest between sets.



Increasing the difficulty of the exercise being performed. For example, if you are currently doing split squats/static lunges, you can move up to a similar but more challenging version of the same exercise, such as Bulgarian split squats or walking lunges.

Like I said, there are a lot of effective ways for progression to take place. However, for most of the people, most of the time, the majority of your progression should take place using one particular method that I (and most others) find to be ideal…

THE TYPICAL PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD PROTOCOL In any intelligently designed weight training routine, you will have specific exercises that you are supposed to perform during each workout. For each exercise, you will have a certain number of sets that you are supposed to do. For each set, you will have a certain number of reps that you are supposed to do. And obviously, you will also have a certain amount of weight that you will be lifting during each exercise (this, of course, will vary based on individual strength levels).

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Now, the way this progression protocol will work is like this: 1. Meet the prescribed set and rep goal for the exercise. 2. Increase the weight being lifted for that exercise by the smallest increment possible the next time you perform this exercise. 3. Meet the set/rep goal again with this new, slightly heavier weight. 4. Increase the weight being lifted again by the smallest increment possible. 5. Repeat this process over and over again as often as you are capable of making it happen. Confused? Here’s an example…

AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD PROTOCOL Let’s say that for one of the exercises in your workout routine (let’s call it Exercise XYZ), you are currently lifting 50 lbs. Let’s also say that your program calls for you to do 3 sets of 8 reps for Exercise XYZ. Now let’s say today you did Exercise XYZ and it went like this: 

Set #1: 50 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #2: 50 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #3: 50 lbs – 8 reps

As you can see, you lifted 50 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps in this example. Since your program calls for you to do 3 sets of 8 reps, this workout was a success. Since you’ve reached the prescribed set/rep goal for this exercise, it’s now time to increase the weight by the smallest increment possible. So, the next time you perform Exercise XYZ, you should do something like this: 

Set #1: 55 lbs – 8 reps



Set #2: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #3: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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See what happened? Progressive overload took place. You increased the weight you were lifting by 5 lbs (which is usually the smallest possible increment) and performed that same prescribed 3 sets of 8 reps with this new slightly heavier weight. That means this workout was once again a complete success. The next time you perform Exercise XYZ, you’d go up to 60 lbs and again attempt 3 sets of 8 reps. You would then continue increasing like this as often as possible over and over again. The only thing is, most people will NOT be able to increase this much and/or this consistently from workout to workout (beginners might, but few others will). In fact, instead of that second successful workout shown above (the 55 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps), many people would have ended up only able to do something like this: 

Set #1: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #2: 55 lbs – 7 reps

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Set #3: 55 lbs – 6 reps

This is completely normal and should still be considered a successful workout (it is still definitely progressive overload). Now, in this case, your goal the next time you perform Exercise XYZ is something like this: 

Set #1: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #2: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #3: 55 lbs – 7 reps

And then the time after that… 

Set #1: 55 lbs – 8 reps

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Set #2: 55 lbs – 8 reps



Set #3: 55 lbs – 8 reps

And the time after that… 

Set #1: 60 lbs – 8 reps



Set #2: 60 lbs – 7 reps



Set #3: 60 lbs – 6 reps

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And you would repeat this pattern of increasing reps/weight over and over again so that your body continues having a reason to adapt and improve over and over again. Oh, and in case it isn’t obvious enough, if your weight training routine called for 3 sets of 10, 4 sets of 6, 5 sets of 5, 2 sets of 12, or any of the many other combinations of sets and reps that exist, you’d still progress virtually the same way as shown in the above example, just with a different number of reps and sets.

WILL PROGRESSION ALWAYS GO THIS SMOOTHLY? Nope, not always. There will definitely be times when you end up repeating the same exact number of sets/reps/weight that you did the previous workout. Sometimes this might even continue for quite a while with certain exercises (this is especially true the more advanced you get). There will also be times where, in the above example for instance, you might only get reps of 7, 7, 7, or 7, 6, 6, or 7, 6, 5 in the three sets after going up in weight. Maybe even less. Don’t worry, it’s all perfectly normal. Your job is to just work your ass off to progress in some way as often as you can and beat what you were able to do the previous time. Add 1 rep to every set, add 1 rep to just one set, add 2 reps to one set and 1 rep to another… whatever. Just work hard to gradually reach your workout routine’s prescribed set/rep goal for each exercise. And then, once you do reach it, increase the weight you are lifting for that exercise by the smallest possible increment and repeat this protocol all over again. This is all part of the process of progressive overload, and it is the only true requirement of your training. As long as it’s happening, the signal to build muscle will be there. Which means, the first part of our “signal and supply” principle has been met. Now for the second part…

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REQUIREMENT #2: THE SUPPLY Okay… now the signal to build muscle is present. Do you know what happens next? Your body responds to that signal by beginning the actual process of building new muscle. Hooray! You did it! Maybe. What you’ve really done here is just the first half of the equation. There’s actually still a really good chance for you to screw it all up and cause the process to fail. Why? Because the new muscle you’re trying to build can’t magically be built out of nothing. Certain supplies are required in order for your body to successfully complete this process. If those supplies are available, awesome! Your body will put them to use and muscle growth will occur. But if those supplies are not available, guess what will happen instead? That’s right… nothing. That signal you created will simply go unanswered and no muscle will be built. Which means, in order for all of this to work, your diet MUST provide these required “supplies.” And while there are dozens of different aspects of your overall diet that you might look to for meeting these needs, the truth is that there are only two that truly need to be in place for muscle growth to be possible. They are:

1

A caloric surplus.

2 A sufficient protein intake.

Let’s start with the first one…

A CALORIC SURPLUS As with virtually every diet related goal, it always begins with calories. The reason being, no other dietary factor influences what your body does (build muscle, lose fat, gain weight, lose weight, maintain weight, etc.) anywhere near the level that calories do.

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In fact, your calorie intake is the only diet component that is truly required to change based on what your goal is. Meaning, the only significant dietary difference between goals like fat loss and muscle growth (or weight loss and weight gain) is total calories. To understand why calories are so important and why a “surplus” of them is a requirement of muscle growth, you just need to understand the scientifically proven and always valid law of thermodynamics… aka the energy balance equation… aka calories in vs calories out. Don’t worry, it’s simple as hell.

CALORIES IN Everything we eat and drink contains calories. With the exception of obvious stuff like water, all foods and drinks contain some amount of calories, which of course go on to make up your calorie intake. Since these are the calories being consumed and therefore taken in by your body, they are commonly referred to as your “calories in.”

CALORIES OUT On the other hand, everything we do burns calories. They are what our bodies use for energy to do everything we need to do. From intense exercise like weight training and cardio, to simple daily tasks like standing, talking and brushing your teeth. In addition, your body actually burns a significant number of calories each day on its own just keeping you alive and functioning properly. You know, doing stuff like breathing, pumping blood, digesting food, etc. Since these are the calories that you are using and burning, they are commonly referred to as your “calories out.”

CALORIES IN VS CALORIES OUT What you just learned is the backstory that serves as the basis for the most important part of your diet. Above all else diet related, the results you get depend most on your body’s battle between calories in and calories out. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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And what I mean by that is, which side most often wins this battle is what determines what your body does. Confused? Let me clear it up for you right now.

The Cause, Effect and Result of Your Calorie Intake The Cause

The Effect

The Result

Calories Out Beats Calories In

Caloric Deficit

Fat loss, muscle loss or both.

Calories In = Calories Out

Maintenance

Weight stays the same.

Calories In Beats Calories Out

Caloric Surplus

Muscle gain, fat gain or both.

What you’re seeing here is basically the law of thermodynamics in action in terms of how energy balance takes place within the human body. Now let’s break down each scenario.

IF CALORIES OUT BEATS CALORIES IN, YOU’RE IN A CALORIC DEFICIT In this first scenario, there is what’s known as a caloric deficit. In plain English, this means you burned more calories than you consumed and there is a “deficit” of calories. In even plainer English, you are not supplying your body with all of the calories it needs. It already used all of the calories you consumed, but it still needs more. Since you are consuming fewer calories than your body needs, your body will respond accordingly and find some alternative energy source on your body. Like I’ve been saying all along, your body is all about adapting to its environment and doing whatever it is capable of doing to meet the conditions you put it under and keep you alive and functioning as efficiently as possible.

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So, your body will first use whatever calories you consume as a form of energy to perform whatever tasks it needs to perform on a daily basis. However, if it still needs more calories beyond that amount, its natural adaptive response will be to use the calories that it previously stored on your body for this very purpose. What previously stored calories, you ask? There are two sources: 1. Your Body Fat Now, this first scenario is pretty obvious. This is, after all, how you lose fat. You eat less. Meaning, you consistently consume fewer calories than your body needs, so it uses your stored body fat for energy instead. So, for anyone who has ever lost any amount of fat, this is ALWAYS how and why it happened. You burned more calories than you consumed, and this forced your body to dip into your fat storage and burn your own body fat for energy. 2. Your Muscle Tissue Now, this second scenario might surprise and confuse you at first. But it really shouldn’t. Muscle is partially just calories that were stored on your body. You may like it much more than fat, but your body doesn’t really care. So, when you are in a caloric deficit and your body needs to find some alternative energy source, it won’t automatically just ignore your muscle tissue and only use fat. It is capable of using both (unless of course you signal it not too… which is a topic for another book). So to recap, a caloric deficit will always result in either fat loss (good), muscle loss (not good), or some combination of both. Now if this was a book about fat loss, this is the point where I’d tell you that a caloric deficit is the sole dietary requirement for losing fat. In fact, it’s the sole requirement, period. But this isn’t a book about fat loss. It’s a book about building muscle. And the only reason I’m telling you this is because the opposite of what I just explained is precisely the requirement that matters to us…

IF CALORIES IN BEATS CALORIES OUT, YOU’RE IN A CALORIC SURPLUS In this scenario, there is what’s known as a caloric surplus. This is the one we care about. A lot.

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In plain English, this means you consumed more calories than you burned and there is a “surplus” of leftover calories that never got used. In even plainer English, you are eating more calories than your body knows what to do with. It already burned all of the calories it needed to burn and used all of the calories it needed to use, but you are still continuing to give it even more calories. Since your body has no immediate use for these extra calories that you are consuming, there is only one thing it can do: store them on your body in some form. Once again, your body’s primary function is to adapt to the conditions it is placed under. Since it uses calories for energy, it will use whatever calories you consume to perform whatever tasks it needs to perform on a daily basis. However, if you then give it additional calories beyond that amount, it will store them on your body for later use. And, there are primarily two ways for these extra calories to be stored: 1. As Fat Now, this first scenario is pretty obvious again. This is, after all, how a fat person gets fat in the first place. They eat too much. Meaning, they consistently consume more calories than their body needs, so the excess is stored in the form of body fat. So, for anyone who has ever gained any amount of fat, this is how and why it happened. You consumed more calories than your body burned, and those extra leftover calories that were never used for anything were stored on your body as fat. 2. As Muscle Now, this is the scenario we’re interested in. Like I said before, muscle can’t be built out of nothing. The actual process of creating new muscle tissue requires additional energy, and therefore additional calories. Meaning, in order to build any amount of muscle, your body needs additional calories beyond the amount that it usually needs to maintain its current state. In this case, those extra calories will be stored on your body in the form of muscle. So to recap, a caloric surplus will always result in either muscle gain (good), fat gain (not good), or some combination of both. And this of course leads to a very obvious question: what causes the extra calories to be stored as muscle instead of fat?

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Great question, and the slightly complicated answer is that there are a whole bunch of factors that play an important role in making it happen. But, guess what’s at the very top of that list? You got it: the proper muscle building signal. Meaning, a weight training program built around creating progressive tension overload. You know… requirement #1 from before. That is what sends a “signal” to your body to use the available “supply” of surplus calories to build new muscle rather than just store them all as body fat. And that right there is the primary difference between someone eating enough to support muscle growth, and someone just eating too much and getting fat. So… what’s the big take-home message here? Simple. If you want to build any amount of muscle, there MUST be a caloric surplus present. Your body requires some amount of additional calories to synthesize new muscle tissue (as well as to support the overall training performance and recovery needed for that signal to actually be present in the first place). You can lose your mind obsessing over every other aspect of your diet, but it will all be for nothing if there is no surplus. And that brings us to our next obvious question: how do we create this surplus? That’s where our third scenario comes into play…

IF CALORIES IN = CALORIES OUT, YOU’RE AT MAINTENANCE That’s right. “Calories In” doesn’t have to beat “Calories Out,” and “Calories Out” doesn’t have to beat “Calories In.” They can actually be even with each other. This scenario is most often referred to as maintenance. It’s when your calorie intake is equal to your calorie output. In plain English, it’s when you consume the same number of calories that you burn or burn the same number of calories that you consume. It’s all the same thing, really.

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In even plainer English, it’s when there is no surplus or deficit, which means there is no excess energy that needs to be stored on your body (as muscle or fat), and there is no reason to dip into your stored energy (fat or muscle) to burn that instead. Rather, everything will just be “maintained” as is. No weight loss, no weight gain. Just maintenance. And the amount of calories that makes this happen is known as your calorie maintenance level. Your maintenance level is important because it’s the starting point for figuring out exactly what your calorie intake needs to be in order for that required surplus to be present. Meaning, going into a caloric surplus is just a matter of eating more calories than your maintenance level amount. So, your job as someone trying to build muscle is to end up being some degree above maintenance. As long as you are, a surplus will exist and one of your two required supplies will be in place. Now for that second required supply…

A SUFFICIENT PROTEIN INTAKE A caloric surplus tends to be the dietary requirement that most people lack when they try (and fail) to build muscle. But a sufficient protein intake? Nah, that tends to be the dietary requirement most people have in check. This is probably because the average person who knows nothing about nutrition still somehow knows enough to associate protein with muscle growth. And this association is definitely warranted. After all, protein is the cliché-as-hell “building block of muscle.” Technically speaking, however, it’s actually the building block of damn near everything.

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WHAT DOES PROTEIN DO AND WHY DO WE NEED IT? Your muscles, organs, skin, hair, nails, bones, certain hormones and much more are all made up of some amount of protein. It’s responsible for the growth and repair of all of the cells and tissues in your body, thus making it an absolute requirement for sustaining life and proper function. Without enough of it, you’ll die. Yeah, I know… blah blah blah life and death blah blah blah. Let’s get back to building some muscle! Fair enough.

WHY IS IT REQUIRED FOR MUSCLE GROWTH? As I started to say a few sentences ago, there is a reason protein is referred to as the “building block of muscle” in everything ever written about it. And that reason is… it’s true. Along with things like water and glycogen, protein is literally a part of what your muscles are made up of. Without a sufficient amount of it, muscle cannot be built, maintained or repaired. So, as if death wasn’t bad enough, failing to consume enough protein will also prevent you from building muscle.

Without a sufficient amount of it, muscle cannot be built, maintained or repaired.

For this reason, it is the second required supply we need (along with a caloric surplus) for muscle growth to occur. And just like that, our necessary supplies are both in place.

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CHAPTER 2

The End

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► THE END

A

lright, let’s recap. How do you build muscle?

It’s a two-step process designed to meet two fundamental requirements which I think are best summed up as “signal and supply.” 1. First, you create an environment that proves to your body that more muscle NEEDS to be built. To do this, you need to use your weight training program to gradually increase the demands being placed on your body so that progressive tension overload takes place. Doing so signals your body’s natural adaptive response which, in this scenario, is muscle growth. 2. After that, you need to ensure that you’re supplying your body with everything it needs to actually build that muscle. Specifically, you need a caloric surplus and a sufficient protein intake. Here, let me simplify that even further…

Progressive overload + caloric surplus + sufficient protein = muscle growth.

Got it? Good. Because here’s the thing. There are tons of different ways to put everything together. There are tons of different methods and approaches to use, and tons of remaining details that can be designed tons of different ways. But the real honest truth is that as long as these simple fundamental requirements are in place… it will ALL work! Every single workout routine that allows for progressive tension overload to occur will work. Every diet that provides the calories and protein needed to support growth will work. In fact, you could screw up and/or completely ignore every other aspect of your diet and workout, and you will still successfully build muscle as long as these requirements are in place.

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I’d even go so far as to say that you could put together the shittiest diet and workout program known to man, and you’ll still build muscle as long as these requirements are taken care of. Seriously. On the other hand… You could do everything else perfectly. You could have the greatest diet in the world, the most effective workout routine in the world, and take every remotely beneficial supplement that has ever existed. You could read about this stuff, learn about this stuff, talk about this stuff and obsess over all of these major and minor components 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You could work extremely hard, be relentlessly motivated and put it all into action consistently for years and years and years. But guess what? If the signal and supply aren’t both there, it’s just not going to work. Everything else becomes a big waste of time if these requirements are not being met. Above all else, THIS is what matters. THIS is what builds muscle. THIS is the sole difference between success and failure here. Basically, as long as you signal and supply… you will build muscle. If one or both requirements are missing… you won’t. End of story.

Basically, as long as you signal and supply… you will build muscle.

THANKS FOR READING! Well, that about wraps things up. I hope you enjoyed this book. I also hope you fully understand what you need to do for muscle growth to occur… and I hope you actually do it. I wish you great success in all of your muscle building endeavors. Good luck, and thank you for reading!

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Wait…

Hold on…

You’re still here?

And what’s that you’re saying?

It’s not quite that simple?

People “signal and supply” all the time and still don’t get the results they want?

You’ve even “signaled and supplied” yourself and didn’t get the results you wanted?

There’s gotta be more to building muscle than this?

This can’t be the end?!?!

Oh…

You know what?

You’re right.

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CHAPTER 3

The Three Problems

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► THE THREE PROBLEMS

A

h yes, if only it really was that simple. Technically speaking of course, it kinda is.

I mean, if you’ve spent any time on the usual websites and forums, reading the usual articles, watching the usual videos, having the usual discussions, and maybe even (god help you) buying all of the usual fitness magazines, then I can all but guarantee that you have at some point ended up in a state of “holy shit, building muscle is the most confusing and complicated thing in the history of the world!” That’s a state I can certainly remember being in myself. So, the fact that building muscle can legitimately be simplified down to just three words (“signal and supply”) should feel pretty good and hopefully provide you with some degree of clarity. Simply put, if you do what I just laid out over the first part of this book – signal muscle growth to happen and supply your body with what it needs to make it happen – you will build muscle. No doubt about it. Those are literally the only requirements that exist. Meet them, and muscle gets built. I can honestly say that the chapter you just read contains everything you need to know to successfully make muscle growth happen. But therein lies the problem. It turns out there’s a lot more to building muscle than just being able to make it happen. It turns out that even when you know what needs to be done, and even when you make sure those things get done, your results can still fall below what they could be. It turns out that there’s a very significant difference between just building muscle, and building muscle well. Why is this?

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Well, it’s much more than just one singular problem. There’s a damn near infinite amount of problems at play here. However, I have found that there are three major categories of problems that we’ve all dealt with in the past, are currently dealing with right now, or will eventually end up having to deal with in the future that will impact our ability to successfully reach our muscle building goals. They are: 1. Getting no results. 2. Getting inferior results. 3. Gaining too much body fat. Let’s take a look at each…

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PROBLEM #1: NO RESULTS This first one is pretty easy to explain. It’s just a lack of any meaningful results whatsoever. This is when you try for weeks, months or maybe even years to successfully build muscle, but yet fail to build any noticeable amount of it. Fun! So it’s not bad results. It’s virtually no results at all. And this scenario is surprisingly common. So common, in fact, that I’ve been there myself. I can’t even tell you how long I spent early on getting absolutely nowhere. I’d say that most people have been there before, too. Many in this position give up completely. What do you expect? Many others only give up temporarily. So they’ll try to build muscle, fail and then quit… but then try all over again every so often (every New Year perhaps) only to repeat the same “try and fail” process. Then you have people like I used to be… those who are much too dedicated and motivated to ever quit, but potentially obsessed/crazy/stupid enough to go on getting the same nonexistent results for the rest of their lives. Every gym has people like this. The “regulars” who have been there for years (sometimes even decades) and don’t appear to have any more muscle on their body than they did the first day they showed up. For a minute there, this was almost me. Now, why does this happen? What causes a person to end up in this category and fail to build any muscle at all? Oh come on… that’s easy. They didn’t signal and supply. That’s all there is to it. Like I’ve said approximately 80 billion times already, these are the only fundamental requirements of muscle growth. So if you’ve ever failed or are still currently failing to build any muscle at all, this is the guaranteed reason why 100% of the time. There is either no signal, no supply, or both. If there was, you’d be building muscle.

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For proof, just take the average person who is trying and failing to build muscle and evaluate what they’re doing. Better yet, evaluate what they aren’t doing. In every single case, you’ll find that they’re either not creating progressive overload or they’re not eating enough calories and/or protein to support growth. Or, they’re not doing either. What you’ll often find them doing instead is putting a ton of focus on meaningless bullshit. You know… just ignoring the fundamental major details in favor of putting all of their attention on the unimportant minor details. That right there is the ultimate oh-so-common recipe for failure. Which is why the skinny guy who “can’t gain weight no matter what he does” is just never eating enough calories for a surplus to exist. And the girl trying to get that toned, firm, defined, sexy body (all of which are female-friendly code words for “building some muscle”) who refuses to lift anything heavier than a 3 lb pink dumbbell is just not creating progressive overload.

In every single case, you’ll find that they’re either not creating progressive overload or they’re not eating enough calories and/or protein to support growth. Or, they’re not doing either.

The same goes for every guy or girl whose workouts are focused on the perfect exercises, sets, reps, training splits, rest periods, advanced methods, getting a pump, being sore, and on and on and on instead of doing the one and only thing that their workouts truly need to be doing (providing the required signal: progressive tension overload). And everyone whose diet is focused on the perfect amounts of macronutrients, food sources, meal frequency, nutrient timing, supplements, and on and on and on instead of the only thing their diet truly needs to be doing (providing the required supplies: a caloric surplus and sufficient protein). This is all it takes for muscle growth to occur, and everyone in this category is simply failing to consistently make it happen.

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PROBLEM #2: INFERIOR RESULTS Then you have people who were able to get past Problem #1 and actually end up getting some degree of positive results. Meaning, they’ve successfully built or are currently in the process of successfully building some amount of real legitimate muscle. Hooray! Well, not quite. As if I have to tell you, there are different degrees of success a person can have when it comes to building muscle. In this category we’ll define that degree of success as being “not-so-good.” Or at least just somewhere below what you realistically want it to be or perhaps just below what it could have realistically been. You know… like when you want above-average results, but what you end up getting is belowaverage results. Or, at the very best… just average. Basically, your muscle building results are inferior to what they are truly capable of being. Sound familiar? Yeah… I know the feeling. I have years of experience getting results ranging from okay, to bad, to so-so, to total crap, to “why does it seem like everyone else’s results are better than mine?” Now while there are many examples of this, I think there are really just three that encompass them all: 

Good results at first, bad results after that. Maybe you build some muscle early on. Maybe you make some good beginner gains. Maybe you build yourself a nice base level of muscle. A solid foundation. A nice starting point of progress. But beyond that, nothing. After those initial beginner gains, your results just suck. So after successfully building some muscle, your situation switches over to something like the scenario of Problem #1: you’re just not building any (additional) muscle or getting any (additional) positive results. So rather than failing right from day 1, you succeed a little bit and then fail from that point on. Some people quit at this point, but I find that the majority are motivated enough by the small amount of gains they made early on that they continue on like this for years, hoping that it will magically happen again someday. That’s why gyms are filled

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with tons of people who look like they’ve been lifting for about a year, when in reality they’ve been lifting for closer to a decade. 

Not building muscle as quickly and effectively as you could be. In this case, you ARE getting results past the beginner stage. Things ARE working. You ARE building muscle. Just not very well. Progress is much slower than you had realistically hoped, and muscle isn’t being built as fast as it could/should be (e.g., it’s taking you 3-5 years to do what most people can do in 1-2 years). Or maybe you’re just not building as much of it as you want to build (e.g., you want to build 20 lbs of muscle, but you’ll be lucky to make it to 10 lbs). Basically, you’re just not maximizing your results or making the type of progress you’re capable of making.



Gaining too much body fat while only trying to gain muscle. You know what? This one is way beyond a small bullet point…

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PROBLEM #3: TOO MUCH BODY FAT Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Your goal is to build muscle. Nice, lean, awesome-looking muscle. So, you come up with the perfect workout program (the signal is there), set up the perfect diet (the supplies are there) and proceed to put them both into action to the best of your ability. As time starts to go by, you begin to notice something. You might be building some muscle, but… there’s something else that seems to be happening as well. You’re getting fatter! Not “super fat” or anything. Just slowly and gradually gaining body fat along with the small amounts of muscle you’re building. You’re not happy about it, but you continue on with what you’re doing anyway. As more time passes, you’re noticing something else. You’re still kinda building some muscle (although it’s much less than you had hoped, and it’s happening much slower than you had hoped… aka Problem #2), but yet the amount of fat you continue to gain along with it is increasing by the week. And it’s ruining everything! Your abs – assuming you actually had visible abs when you started – are fading away or have already been covered under a layer of new body fat. You can’t even fully enjoy the new muscle you’ve gained (or even the old muscle you already had) because that too is being hidden under a new layer of fat. Maybe even multiple layers. So although you might be building muscle, you’re just gaining too much body fat along with it. And the longer you continue, the worse it all gets and the closer to “super fat” you become. Now instead of looking muscular, lean, defined, toned, ripped, sexy, awesome and just better overall, the opposite is happening. You’re certainly getting “bigger,” but you’re looking softer. And fatter. And just worse, period. In fact, many people notice that they’re gaining more fat than muscle. HA!

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Does this scenario sound a little too familiar? Have you been there before? I certainly have. I’ve soooo been there and done that. It seems the majority of the people trying to build muscle have been there too. Hell, most are still there and will remain there for the foreseeable future. And if your scenario goes anything like mine always did, these less-than-ideal “bulking” results would then be followed up by trying to “cut” and lose this unwanted new body fat only to end up losing some, or most, or maybe even all of the new muscle you’ve built right along with it. So maybe you start out semi-lean. You then proceed to build a lackluster amount of muscle slower than you could have while simultaneously gaining more body fat than you should have right along with it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, in an attempt to then lose this ugly new fat, you lose the lackluster amount of muscle too… thus ending up right back where you started. You’re essentially just spinning your wheels and repeating the same shitty process over and over again. Some poor bastards (like me, for example) may actually end up in an even worse position than they started out in by becoming even more “skinny-fat” after each cycle of failure. Ah yes, the memories. And as horrible as this type of scenario is, and as much as people will try to avoid it, it still happens ALL THE TIME. The truth is, all three of the problems we just covered are extremely common, and I’d even go so far as to say that they affect (or have at some point affected) damn near every single person who has ever tried to build any amount of muscle. Even the people who ended up doing really well and successfully reached all of their muscle building goals. Chances are they wasted a whole bunch of time and effort along the way as a result of these three problems. And you? The person sitting there reading this right now? Yeah… something tells me you know about these problems all too well. Which of course leads us to one very obvious question… What the hell can we do to solve them? Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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CHAPTER 4

The Solution

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► THE SOLUTION

W

ell, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the first problem – not getting any muscle building results – is already taken care of.

After all, that’s what the entire first chapter of this book was for. To lay the foundation of what a successful muscle building program requires. Signal and supply. As long as you consistently execute those requirements, Problem #1 is solved. That was simple enough, wasn’t it? The bad news, however, is that the other two problems – inferior muscle building results and gaining too much body fat – are a bit trickier. And even worse, they’re going to play an equally important role in our ability to reach our shortterm and long-term goals. You see, solving Problem #1 is what allows us to build muscle. It’s the difference between everything working and everything not working. Plain and simple. Solving Problem #2 and Problem #3, on the other hand, is what will take things one crucial step further. How so? Because solving these problems will be the difference between everything working, and everything working well. What I mean by that is, our goal isn’t to simply build muscle. We’re not trying to get things to just work. We don’t want to just get results. That’s not good enough. What we REALLY want to do here is get the best results we’re capable of getting. We want to maximize the amount of muscle we build and the speed at which we build it, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of body fat we gain so we remain as lean as realistically possible throughout the entire process. So while providing the signal and supply is the required difference between someone getting no results and someone getting some degree of results, it’s optimizing exactly how we provide that signal and supply that determines what degree of results we get. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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So no, this isn’t just about doing what works. This is all about doing what works best. Muscle growth? No thanks. What we want here is superior muscle growth.

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MUSCLE GROWTH VS SUPERIOR MUSCLE GROWTH Let’s break this down even further. The requirements of muscle growth are:

1. .

Signal

2. . Supply

And there are tons of different ways to implement these requirements. There are hundreds of methods and approaches to use when designing your diet, training and overall muscle building program around the concept of “signaling” and “supplying.” As long as you do that, then ALL of these ways will work. But here’s the thing. Some will only work okay, some will work well, and some will work better than everything else. That third one… that’s what we want. That’s EXACTLY what we want. To get it, we’re going to need a slightly different set of requirements:

1. Optimize our training in a manner that provides the strongest “signal” possible. 2. Design our diet in a way that manipulates the “supply” in the most effective way possible. 3. Adjust every single major and minor factor in our favor so that we’re maximizing muscle gains, minimizing fat gains and getting the absolute best results possible.

And that 6-word phrase you just read really sums up everything we need to do here. “Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains.” That’s our true goal, and that’s exactly what we’re going to make happen. Welcome to Superior Muscle Growth.

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CHAPTER 5

Calorie Partitioning

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► CALORIE PARTITIONING

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aximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains.

Keep repeating it over and over again. Let’s make it our goal AND our mantra. Hell, let’s make it the first item on our Christmas list, the thing we want to be when we grow up, the place we want to go on our summer vacation, and the soul mate we want to lose our virginity to and then spend the rest of our lives with. To us, it’s everything. So… um… how do we get it? Well, it’s going to start with one very simple question whose answer will lead us in the right direction. And that question is: why do people gain fat while building muscle? There are two reasons: 1. The first one is your fault. It’s because you went about building muscle in a way that was just not as effective as it could/should have been (or possibly was just flat out ineffective, period). Maybe the strength of your “signal” wasn’t high enough. Maybe your “supplies” weren’t provided in the way your body truly needed them. Maybe you just failed to do things as well as you could (and should) have done them. 2. The second one isn’t your fault at all. It’s reality’s fault. Let me explain… At this point you know what’s required for a person to successfully build muscle, right? You need a properly designed workout program that signals growth, and a diet that supplies your body with what it needs to make that growth happen. On the diet side, one of those required supplies is a caloric surplus, which, as you learned earlier, is when you consume more calories than your body needs to maintain its current state. Why is this surplus needed? Just in case you forgot, it’s because your body simply needs some amount of additional calories to synthesize new muscle tissue as well as support the recovery and training performance needed to make progressive overload happen. Remember now? Cool. And it’s this fact that presents us with a huge problem.

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WHERE CAN THE SURPLUS GO? In addition to being needed for muscle growth to happen, a caloric surplus is also the only thing needed for body fat to be gained. As I alluded to earlier, when a caloric surplus is present and you’re taking in an excess of calories, a little something called calorie partitioning comes into play. Calorie partitioning (also called “nutrient partitioning”) refers to where these extra calories and nutrients will go (or how they will be “partitioned” in your body) when you consume them. It also refers to where they will come from when you’re in a deficit and consuming less of them (meaning, your body can potentially burn stored body fat or muscle tissue for energy). Now obviously, in a surplus, we want every single calorie we eat to go toward muscle growth only, but it turns out there are actually three places for them to go: 1. Toward new muscle. This is what we want. 2. Toward new body fat. This is what no one wants, but it’s what every fat person got. Like I explained earlier, this is how every fat person in the history of mankind ended up getting fat. They consumed too many calories and a “surplus” existed. Taaadaaa! Combine this with the fact that A) there was no muscle-growth-signaling workout program in place, and B) the surplus in these cases was often both excessive and long lasting, and you get a common scenario where most/all of the extra unused (surplus) calories consumed were stored as fat. 3. Toward a combination of both. This is another one we don’t want, but it’s something most of us are quite familiar with getting. For every X pounds of muscle we gain, it seems Y pounds of fat always come along with it. (The exact amounts for X and Y will vary significantly for reasons I’ll explain shortly.) So that’s why gaining fat while trying to build muscle is not only a possibility, but an extremely common reality. The caloric surplus we need to consume can just as easily go toward muscle growth (yay), fat storage (boo), or both (boo again). If only there was a way to partition ALL of our surplus calories toward muscle growth and ensure NONE of them go toward fat storage. If only there was a way to build muscle WITHOUT gaining any body fat whatsoever in the process.

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That would certainly be awesome. But the question is, can it actually be done?

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITHOUT GAINING ANY FAT? Well, that’s going to depend on your answers to the following questions: 1. Do you have amazing genetics? 2. Do you have drugs/steroids? 3. Do you have amazing genetics and drugs/steroids? 4. Are you a complete beginner to weight training that maybe also happens to be fairly fat (in which case, building muscle while simultaneously losing fat is a short-term possibility) and/or in your teens (in which case, puberty is your friend and hormones are in your favor)? 5. Are you regaining lost muscle? Did you previously lift consistently and build a decent amount of muscle at some point in your life, then stop lifting and lose most/all of that muscle, and are now starting to lift again, thus putting you in a position for the legitimate magic of “muscle memory” to come into play? (In which case, again, simultaneous fat loss and muscle growth is a short-term possibility.) Did you answer YES to any of those questions? If so, congrats. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to build some muscle without gaining any fat at all. Although, this will mostly only be a temporary, short-term thing. After that, you’ll be human just like the rest of us. Speaking of the rest of us… Did you answer NO to all of those questions? If so, then please allow me to welcome you to the reality of muscle growth for the majority of the population… You will need to accept some small amount of fat gains in order to build muscle. Go ahead and read that again. Not what you wanted to hear, is it? I know the feeling. But it’s the truth. And trust me… it’s what you need to hear. Why? So you understand what your real goal needs to be. It’s NOT “building muscle without gaining a single drop of fat whatsoever” or “building muscle while remaining exactly as lean as you currently are” or “building muscle while getting even leaner than you currently are.”

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That would all be fantastic, but unfortunately, unless you happen to be one of the exceptions listed above, it’s just not going to happen. Sorry. And attempting to make it happen anyway – as many people often do – will just lead to you wasting a lot of time and effort, getting absolutely nowhere, and never building any muscle at all (aka Problem #1 from earlier). That’s why our goal here is something slightly different…

KEEPING FAT GAINS AS LOW AS POSSIBLE You can’t avoid it completely, but you sure as hell can minimize it significantly. And for us, that’s a goal of equal importance. Say it with me again… maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. So what does this mean exactly? I’ll tell you. It means that one of the biggest keys to reaching our muscle building goals will be our ability to improve our calorie partitioning in the right direction. Because the worse our calorie partitioning is, the more fat and less muscle we’re going to gain. But the better our calorie partitioning is? That means the better our ratio of muscle to fat gains will be. Which means we’re building more muscle (and doing it better/faster) with the least amount of body fat possible coming with it. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? And that brings us to our next big question: what factors affect calorie partitioning?

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THE STUFF YOU CAN’T CONTROL First, the bad news. It turns out that three of the biggest factors influencing our calorie partitioning and overall ability to build muscle are things we have no control over. They are…

1. GENETICS In this case, I’m using “genetics” as a blanket term to cover a variety of factors. For example: 

Testosterone levels.



Joint size.



Cortisol levels.



Tendon insertion points.



Thyroid levels.



Recovery capabilities.



Insulin sensitivity.



Volume tolerance.



Muscle fiber types.



Work capacity.



Muscle belly lengths.



And more.



Bone structure.

And unfortunately, short of using those wonderful drugs/steroids I mentioned earlier, you can’t change or improve your genetics. And even more unfortunately, genetics are going to play a hugely significant role in how your body handles those extra calories in a surplus. With all else being equal (same diet, some workout, same effort and consistency), someone with above-average genetics will automatically partition more of their surplus calories toward muscle and less toward body fat, while someone with below-average genetics will automatically go in the opposite direction (more fat, less muscle). Someone with average genetics can expect something in between. This, of course, is yet another reason why people with amazing genetics have it so much easier when it comes to both building muscle and losing fat compared to someone with awful genetics.

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It’s also why the people we jealously refer to as “genetic freaks” are often surprisingly lean and muscular long before they ever picked up a weight or cared about their diet. That’s just part of what makes having awesome genetics so damn awesome. And why having bad genetics is… uh… hmmm… what’s the complete opposite of awesome?

2. AGE Age is yet another factor we can’t change (although again, various drugs can be used to make our hormonal profile unnaturally “younger”). And once again, it’s a factor that’s also going to play a fairly meaningful role. With all else being equal just like before, the muscle to fat gain ratio will generally be better for someone younger than it will be for someone older. Which is why a 25-year-old version of you will do better than a 35-year-old version of you, and a 35-year-old version of you will do better than a 45-year-old version of you. And a 15-year-old version of you will put every other version to shame. Just one of the many reasons why getting older sucks.

3. GENDER Another factor that is out of our control is our gender. Although yet again, the magic of drugs can certainly get you pretty far as evidenced by people who are transgender and of course the various “manly” looking female bodybuilders that most women are scared to death of looking like (even though it’s completely impossible without taking the same insane amount of drugs every single one of those female bodybuilders purposely took to look that way). But taking that out of the equation, men are just going to be capable of building much more muscle AND doing it much better and faster than women because guys are just hormonally (especially in terms of testosterone levels) and structurally better suited for it. What’s the exact difference? I don’t think anyone knows that for sure (and individual variance will play a role as well). But, the estimate I’ve seen most often is double. Double the total amount that can be built in a person’s lifetime, and double the speed at which it gets built. For this reason, the average guy is generally going to be better at putting surplus calories toward muscle growth rather than fat storage than the average girl because the guy is just physiologically better at building muscle.

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THE STUFF YOU CAN CONTROL Now that I’ve depressed the shit out of most of the people reading this, it’s time for some good news. And that is, there are quite a few key factors that you CAN control that will GREATLY influence calorie partitioning, your ratio of muscle to fat gains, and your overall ability to make muscle growth happen. They are: 1. Your body fat percentage. 2. Your rate of weight gain. 3. Your calorie intake and the size of your surplus. 4. Your protein, fat and carb intake. 5. Your approach to providing those calories and nutrients (aka “calorie cycling”). 6. Your nutrient timing. 7. Your meal frequency, eating style, food choices and diet organization. 8. Your weight training program. 9. Your cardio program. 10. Your supplementation. 11. Your lifestyle. 12. Your tracking. 13. Your ability to take action, be consistent and put forth the required effort. So, while those uncontrollable factors are always going to be there in the background putting some sort of natural limit on our progress, the key to achieving superior muscle growth is going to be optimizing every single one of these controllable factors to the best of our ability. Optimizing them how, exactly? Well, you’re going to want to sit back and get comfortable. It’s time to adjust everything to our advantage. Let the fun begin…

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CHAPTER 6

Body Fat Percentage

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► BODY FAT PERCENTAGE

I

think the best factor to start with is the factor that will determine if you should even be focusing on muscle growth in the first place.

This also happens to be the same factor that will determine when it’s time to stop focusing on muscle growth and start focusing on losing whatever small amount of fat you may have gained along the way. And that factor is… your body fat percentage. Or more specifically, what your body fat percentage is when you start building muscle, what it is when you stop building muscle, and what you allow it to be throughout the entire process taking place in between.

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STARTING BODY FAT PERCENTAGE I know, your primary goal is to build muscle. I hear ya. However, depending on what state your body is currently in, it may not be the goal you’re ready to focus on just yet. What I mean is, if you’re currently fat right now, the last thing you want to do is go into a caloric surplus for the purpose of building muscle. Why? Because the fatter you are, the worse your calorie partitioning will be. So with all else being equal, the higher your body fat percentage is, the more likely your body will be to store surplus calories as body fat rather than muscle. Fortunately, the opposite scenario will produce the opposite result. Meaning, to a certain extent… the leaner you are, the better your calorie partitioning will be. This is because the fatter you get, the worse your hormonal profile starts to get and the more insulin resistant you become. This then sets the stage for your body to become a lot more efficient at storing calories as fat, thus making things go in the wrong direction. Since our goal is to (come on, say it with me) maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains, this is exactly what we want to avoid. But wait, there’s more! Another reason why you don’t want to go into a surplus and begin a muscle building phase in an already fat state is because doing so will just cause you to look like crap throughout the entire process. Think about it… 

Scenario #1: If an example guy starts out at 20% body fat and ends up gaining 5% body fat along the way, he’s going to spend months in the lower 20’s of body fat percentage (which for a guy is FAR from pretty) and then end up at 25% body fat. So he basically goes from “fairly fat, sloppy, soft and gross” to “much more fat, sloppy, soft and gross.”



Scenario #2: Now pretend this same example guy started out at 10% body fat (which for a guy is near 6-pack levels of leanness). Now let’s say he gains the same 5% of body fat along the way and ends up at 15% (which for a guy isn’t really THAT bad). So he basically goes from “lean and awesome” to “a bit less lean but still fairly decent.”

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Which scenario sounds more ideal to you? I’m going to go with #2. But wait, there’s even more! Because the example guy in our first scenario ended up so extra fat as a result of starting overly fat in the first place, he’s now going to have a significantly longer fat loss job to do afterwards, which only increases the potential for muscle loss. So that’s more time spent trying to lose fat, more time spent trying to avoid losing muscle and strength while losing that fat, and less time spent getting back to building more muscle/gaining more strength. Plus, you know, less time spent actually looking good. But wait, there’s still one more thing! As if it wasn’t bad enough that calorie partitioning was already going in the wrong direction from the very start, the fatter our Scenario #1 guy continued to get, the worse and worse his calorie partitioning continued to get as well. So chances are his muscle to fat gain ratio sucked when he started, and then sucked even more as he went along. Which means that he progressively gained more and more fat and less and less muscle the longer this phase lasted. Again, this is exactly the type of stuff we want to avoid at all costs. And yes ladies, even though I’m using a guy in these examples, it all applies just the same to you as well (only with body fat percentage numbers that are relevant to women). In fact, the results would probably be even worse in your case.

SO HOW LEAN SHOULD WE BE? For all of these reasons, we will NOT begin a muscle building phase when we’re in an already fat state. That’s just a recipe for shitty results. Instead, what we want to do is make sure we are at least somewhat lean before going into a surplus to ensure our partitioning will be as good as it can be. How lean is that exactly? Here’s what I recommend…

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IDEAL STARTING BODY FAT PERCENTAGE 

GUYS should ideally be in the 8-12% range to start.



GIRLS should ideally be in the 17-21% range to start.

Starting out this lean will put you at an advantage right from the beginning, and we want every single advantage we can get. So, if you currently fall somewhere within these recommended ranges of leanness, you’re all good to go. You are ready to make superior muscle growth your sole focus.

WHAT IF I’M FATTER THAN THESE RANGES? Now, will starting out higher than these suggested ranges still work? Of course it will. It’s just going to yield suboptimal results that will only get worse the further away you get from them, which is why it’s not something I recommend doing. Instead, if you’re currently fatter than these ranges, the best thing you can do right now is take some time and lose some of that fat first. Then, once you’ve lost enough of that fat and reach this “at least somewhat lean” status, that’s when it’s time to switch your focus to superior muscle growth and create the caloric surplus you need to make it happen. That doesn’t mean you should hold off on (or stop) weight training until you reach that point of leanness. You should DEFINITELY still weight train the entire time. It will help a bit with the fat loss, and even more importantly, it’s going to be the key factor in allowing you to maintain the muscle and strength you currently have (and possibly gain some… more about that in a second) while you do it.

SO HOW DO I LOSE THIS FAT AND GET LEAN ENOUGH? The short and simple answer is to create a moderate caloric deficit. The longer, much more comprehensive answer is unfortunately outside of the scope of this book.

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Don’t worry, I’m not going to just leave you hanging. I’ve already written more than enough freely available information about fat loss to provide you with everything you need to know to make it happen. And for that, I’d recommend starting with the following:



How To Lose Fat



How To Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle



The Best Diet Plan

Now, about that other question that may have just popped into your head…

WHY NOT LOSE THE FAT WHILE BUILDING MUSCLE? This is usually the point where the people who want to focus solely on muscle growth but are really too fat to do so begin to wonder why they can’t just do both? You know… focus on muscle growth WHILE simultaneously losing the fat they need to lose. It’s a great question, but most people will not like the answer. Remember earlier when I explained why the majority of the population will need to accept some small amount of fat gains in order to build muscle? And that trying to build muscle without gaining any fat whatsoever is a great way to fail to actually build any muscle at all? Well, guess what? Replace “build muscle without gaining any fat” with “build muscle while losing fat” and everything I said then applies exactly the same now. So why not just try to build muscle while losing fat? Because the majority of the population WILL NOT be able to actually do that. And trying to anyway will just cause you to fail to build any muscle, or lose any fat, or both. As I explained earlier, muscle growth requires a caloric surplus, and fat loss requires a caloric deficit. This makes doing both at the same time (to any meaningful extent, at least) extremely hard or more likely just flat out impossible. Are there exceptions? Yup. And they are actually the same exceptions from before. Remember them?

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

Fat beginners.



People regaining lost muscle.



People with amazing genetics.



People using drugs/steroids.

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So yes, if you happen to be one of these exceptions, you will have the ability to build some muscle while losing fat. Although in this case, muscle growth is really taking on more of a secondary role with fat loss being your main goal (whether you like it or not). Plus, yet again, this will only be a temporary, short-term thing. After a little while, these people will become human just like the rest of us, in which case they’ll need to focus on one goal at a time just like the rest of us. I actually cover this topic in much more detail and answer whatever remaining questions you may have right here: How To Build Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time But the big takeaway message here is that most people will not be able to lose fat and build muscle at the same time, and the few exceptions that can will not be able to do it for very long. Which is why if you’re not currently as lean as I recommended being to start, you need to simply focus primarily on fat loss for a bit, while of course simultaneously focusing on maintaining the muscle/strength you currently have. Or, if you’re one of those few exceptions, gaining some muscle/strength in the process for however long you are able to. (In the case of “fat beginners,” this would mean a diet designed for fat loss (so a small deficit, sufficient protein intake, etc.) combined with the weight training guidelines you’ll see later in this book.) Then, once you have reached that ideal level of leanness, that’s when you switch over to a surplus and turn your full attention to superior muscle growth. And once again, if you are already at this ideal level of leanness, everything I just explained is irrelevant to you. You’re ready to start right now.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT MY BODY FAT PERCENTAGE IS? Good question, and the typical methods most people use to answer it are borderline useless in terms of getting something close to an accurate number. For example:

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

Calculators: You know the random calculator you found on some website that claims to tell you your body fat percentage based on your height, weight, gender and a couple of measurements? Yeah… it’s crap.



Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA): You know those scales and handheld devices that send a tiny electric current through your body to determine what your body fat percentage is? Yeah… they’re crap too. (Christian Finn does a nice job of explaining why here.)



Skin Fold Calipers: You know those calipers you use to measure the thickness of certain pinched-together areas of fat on your body? They’re actually okay. The problem, however, is that you need to have it done by someone who knows what they’re doing (ideally, someone who has done it hundreds of times for hundreds of other people) to get anything remotely accurate.

So what are you supposed to do? Well, there are a couple of methods for getting a more accurate measurement of what your body fat percentage is (mainly DXA and underwater weighing). But the bad news is that they aren’t exactly quick, easy, convenient or cheap, and the average person reading this is unlikely to ever use any of them. Plus, they’re still far from perfectly accurate. The truth is, unless you let someone kill you, dissect you and then weigh everything out, you’re never going to get a perfectly accurate measurement of your body fat percentage. (Disclaimer: Please don’t let anyone kill and dissect you.) Luckily for us though, we don’t actually need it to be that accurate. We just need it to be accurate enough. And for that, there’s one remaining option left to use that is probably the best option of them all. And that is by simply getting yourself familiar with what various body fat percentages legitimately look like, and then using a combination of what you see in the mirror and what you see in your own progress pictures to take your best unbiased guess as to where you stand. To help you do this, here are a couple of decent starting points with pictures of what different body fat percentages look like on men and women:



http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/



http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-measure-body-fat-percentage/

In most cases, this is all anyone will need.

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ENDING BODY FAT PERCENTAGE Alright, so now you know how lean you should ideally be when you start. The next question is, how lean should you be when you stop? Because this is how things are going to go. You’re going to build muscle, things are going to go amazingly well, you’re going to get the best results you’ve ever gotten in your life, and you’re going to do the best job possible keeping fat gains to an absolute minimum. But… you know some small amount of fat will still be gained along the way. At what point do you switch your focus from building more muscle to losing that small amount of fat you’ve gained?

YOU DON’T WANT TO STOP TOO LATE This is an important question, because you definitely need to stop and make this switch before reaching a point where you’ve gained TOO much fat. The reason why should be pretty obvious at this point, because I kinda just explained it a few pages ago. It’s because the fatter you get, the worse your calorie partitioning gets (and thus the fatter and fatter you’ll continue to get from that point on). And also because A) no one wants to get too fat and look like crap during the muscle building process, B) the fatter you end up getting, the bigger the job you’re going to have afterwards trying to lose that fat (while also trying to avoid losing the new muscle you’ve built), and C) when you gain excessive amounts of fat, there is an increase in the number of fat cells in your body… and the more fat cells you have, the easier it will be for your body to store body fat from that point on (yes, even after losing the fat you gained… the fat cells still remain). This is all typical of an “old school” bulking phase where you just end up getting fat as hell and looking terrible (which is then often followed by unintentionally losing muscle while attempting to lose all of that unnecessary fat you stupidly gained). Again, this is the complete opposite of what we want. Which is why, for all of these reasons, you do NOT want to get to a point where too much body fat is gained.

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YOU DON’T WANT TO STOP TOO SOON, EITHER At the same time though, you also don’t want to stop too soon and hinder your muscle building progress. Or, in many cases, prevent any progress from being made at all. This is actually a common problem of its own, wherein a person is unable to come to terms with the reality of having to accept a small amount of fat gains to come along with the muscle they’re trying to build. So at the very first sight of even the tiniest amount of body fat, they proceed to freak out, stop everything and immediately switch over to fat loss. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a lovely way to spin your wheels and never build any muscle whatsoever. So basically, what you need to do here is find the sweet spot between NOT gaining too much fat, and gaining just the minimum amount of fat necessary to allow muscle growth to take place optimally (or for many people… allow it to take place at all).

THE SWEET SPOT Now where is this sweet spot, you ask? Well, contrary to what people ask me all the time, it has nothing to do with the amount of time that has passed. So all of the people who ask me stuff like “how long do you recommend bulking for?” or “should I bulk for X months and then cut for X months?” or “how long should I spend in a muscle building phase before switching to fat loss?” are asking the wrong questions. So are the people who think the total amount of weight gained is the deciding factor. For example, “how many pounds should I gain before switching to fat loss?” Still wrong, but getting closer. The true deciding factor here is not the amount of time that has passed or the amount of weight you’ve gained, but rather the amount of body fat you’ve gained. What you want to do here is set an acceptable upper limit of body fat percentage you’re comfortable with reaching that, once reached, is your sign to pause the muscle building phase and switch over to losing whatever small amount of fat you’ve gained (while, of course, maintaining all of the awesome new muscle you’ve built).

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So what should that body fat percentage upper limit be? Here’s what I recommend…

IDEAL ENDING BODY FAT PERCENTAGE 

GUYS should ideally focus on muscle growth until they are within the 14-17% range.

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GIRLS should ideally focus on muscle growth until they are within the 23-26% range.

Could you go higher than these ranges? Uh, you could. But again, doing so is going to yield suboptimal results that will only get worse the further away you get from them, which is why it’s not something I recommend doing. Remember our example person from Scenario #2 earlier? The one who went from “lean and awesome” to “a bit less lean but still fairly decent?” Well, this is the upper limit of body fat percentage for making that ideal scenario take place while also making sure Scenario #1 (“fat, sloppy, soft and gross”) doesn’t. So in terms of calorie partitioning, providing you with a substantial period of time to focus on muscle growth (not weeks, but rather a significant number of months), allowing you to always look fairly decent and acceptable (never “too fat”) along the way, making the fat loss phase easier, faster and less problematic afterwards, and (you knew it would be coming again) maximizing muscle gains/minimizing fat gains, this end point (used along with the previously mentioned starting point) tends to be the sweet spot for the majority of the population.

TWO OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER As you may have noticed, I’ve provided you with a range of body fat percentages to shoot for here. Why? Well, for starters, so personal preferences can come into play. For example, some people don’t mind gaining slightly more fat if it means they can focus on building muscle a little bit longer (thus allowing more progress to be made), which means they’d switch over to fat loss upon reaching a slightly higher body fat percentage within this range. On the other hand, some people would much prefer staying slightly leaner all year round (even if it means cutting the muscle building phase a bit short), which means they’d switch over to fat loss upon reaching a slightly lower body fat percentage within this range.

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And this also depends on how lean the person was when they started. For example, I set the ideal starting body fat percentage range for men at between 8-12%. If an example guy started at 9% and gained 5% body fat, he’d be at 14%. If another example guy started at 12% and gained the same 5% body fat, he’d be at 17%. So while they both ended up gaining similar amounts of fat and are still both within the acceptable ranges for superior progress to be made, the first guy ends up slightly leaner because he was slightly leaner when he started. And there’s also just the fact that some people don’t care as much about being “extremely lean” (let’s say, a 6-8 pack) and are perfectly happy with just “lean” (let’s say, a 4 pack). All they care about is building more muscle ASAP, and then maybe they’ll care more about getting “extremely lean” after they’ve reached their long-term goals and finished building all of the muscle they’re looking to build. So, for example, one guy might start at 12% and go up to 17% and feel perfectly comfortable the whole way through (in fact, he might even feel more comfortable the “bigger” he gets and find he really enjoys the strength, size and calorie intake that comes with it). Another guy might hate the thought of going as high as 17% and wouldn’t be happy there at all, in which case he’d be better off starting a bit leaner so he can end closer to 14-15% instead. See what I mean? And yes ladies, all of these examples still apply to you as well (although again, the specific body fat percentage numbers would differ). I’m just using guys in these examples because I’m a guy and my natural instinct is to use guy-centric examples. Don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of girl-centric examples for you later on. I promise. So I guess the point I’m getting at here is that there is a reason I gave an ideal range of body fat rather than one specific amount. Some may prefer to start and stop in the lower ends of those ranges. Some may prefer to start and stop in the higher ends of those ranges. And others may prefer to start and stop somewhere in the middle. And honestly, that’s all perfectly fine. The most important thing here is that you always remain somewhere within these recommended ranges. That’s where calorie partitioning is at its best, and that’s where superior muscle growth takes place. Exactly where in those ranges you decide to be is more of a minor detail that is up to you and your own personal preferences.

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Beyond that, there is one other factor that may occasionally be worth taking into account. And that is… time sensitivity. For example, are you a fitness model who has a photo shoot coming up on a specific date? Are you a competitive bodybuilder or physique/figure competitor who has a competition coming up on a specific date? Is there some other really good reason why you need to be at your leanest on a certain specific date? If so, depending on where you started out, where you’re currently at, and how far away that date is, you may need to start/stop things accordingly to be ready in time for whatever it is you need to be ready for. No, this isn’t something that will matter to most people, because most people are not fitness models or competitive bodybuilders. But in the case of someone who is, it’s something worth taking into consideration.

WHAT DO I DO AFTER THAT? One last thing I want to mention here is what happens next. Meaning… you start your muscle building phase. You proceed to make amazing muscle building progress and stay as lean as possible while you do it. Then, you eventually reach your body fat percentage upper limit, which means it’s time to switch over to a fat loss phase to lose the small amount of fat you’ve gained. So, you then successfully lose that fat (while maintaining all of the new muscle you’ve built) and end up back within those leaner starting body fat percentage ranges from before. Now you’ve built a bunch of new muscle AND you’ve gotten lean, toned, defined, ripped and all of that good stuff as well. This is awesome, but what the hell do you do next? That depends. Are you happy with the amount of muscle you built during that one muscle building phase? Is that all the muscle you’re looking to build? Is your body exactly as awesome as you want it to be? If so, all you really need to do at this point is pat yourself on the back for a job well done and just maintain everything from that point on.

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However, many people will find that they still want to build more muscle. Maybe just a little bit more. Maybe a lot more. Hell, maybe they want to push their natural genetic potential to its limit and build as much muscle mass as they are capable of building. In these cases, guess what would happen next? That’s right, you’d start another muscle building phase. And then when you hit that same body fat percentage upper limit, you’d switch back to losing the little bit of fat you gained along the way while again maintaining all of the new muscle you built. And if you still want to build more muscle after that? You’d repeat this process all over again as many times as you need to until you have built exactly as much muscle as you want to build, have gotten as lean as you prefer to get, and have reached all of your long-term goals. IMPORTANT NOTE: Whenever you’re switching from fat loss to muscle growth (a deficit to a surplus) or muscle growth to fat loss (a surplus to a deficit), don’t make this switch instantaneous. Meaning, don’t just go from a deficit today to a surplus tomorrow (or vice versa). You want to be slow and gradual when making this transition. Here’s how. Once you’ve finished losing fat and are lean enough to be in the starting body fat percentage range for switching to muscle growth, first bring your calorie intake up to your maintenance level and stay there for about 2 weeks. After that, bring your calories up into a surplus. When you eventually hit your body fat percentage upper limit and it’s time to switch over to fat loss, bring your calories down to your maintenance level first and insert that same 2 week maintenance period. After that, bring your calories down into a deficit. Full credit goes to Lyle McDonald for being the first person I saw recommend this probably a decade ago. And with that, you now have one very important factor of Superior Muscle Growth working in your favor. That was fun, let’s do it again…

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CHAPTER 7

The Rate Of Weight Gain

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► THE RATE OF WEIGHT GAIN

O

nce you’ve determined that you’re in the ideal range of body fat percentage to begin your muscle building phase, it’s time to start building some muscle!

And with that muscle (and the small amount of fat that we have accepted will come with it) comes a little something else… weight gain. I’m tempted to move right past that point and get to the real purpose of this chapter, but I know there is someone reading this right now thinking something along the lines of…

“HOLD ON A SECOND… WEIGHT GAIN?!?” Yes, weight gain. While I’m sure the majority of the people reading this are already fully aware of this fact and understand why it has to happen (and in many cases, want it to happen), I know that a small percentage of people may feel the opposite way. So, please allow me to quickly address these people. Hi there. I know the phrase “weight gain” can seem scary to some of you. After all, while you definitely want to build muscle, you may have no interest whatsoever in gaining any weight. This is often because… 

You were once overweight. You were then able to successfully lose that weight, at which point you made it your goal to avoid gaining any weight ever again. “Weight gain” basically became your mortal enemy. And now the idea of watching your weight go up (after you worked so hard to make it go down) just doesn’t sit well with you mentally/emotionally. My buddy JC Deen calls this “Former Fat Boy Syndrome.” And yes, it applies to Former Fat Girls as well.

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You have some kind of “ideal body weight” or “goal weight” in your head that you want to be for whatever reason, and you don’t want to exceed it.

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You’re a woman, and most women trying to build muscle come into it with a fear that they might accidentally build too much and suddenly become “big, bulky and manly” despite the fact that this isn’t even a remotely realistic outcome. So when you see a chapter about some “rate of

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weight gain” in a book about building muscle, some inner alarm goes off and you instantly think “Weight gain? Hell no!! That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid! I just want to build some lean muscle in all the right places and get toned. I don’t want to gain any weight at all!” So what we have here is a bit of a dilemma: people who want to build muscle, but don’t want to gain any weight. Do you know how you do that? YOU DON’T! Why? Because muscle weighs something. So how the hell do you expect to add more muscle to your body without the total weight of your body increasing as well? It’s just not going to happen. Muscle isn’t some magical, weightless tissue. If you build 5 lbs of it, your body weight will increase by 5 lbs. That’s just how math works. So the average lean 120 lb girl who is perfectly happy with her weight but would love to add another 10 lbs of muscle to her body while remaining at 120 lbs is all but guaranteed to prevent herself from ever building a single pound of muscle. The same thing applies to the average lean 150 lb guy trying to gain 25 lbs of muscle while staying 150 lbs.

Muscle isn’t some magical, weightless tissue. If you build 5 lbs of it, your body weight will increase by 5 lbs. That’s just how math works.

The simple fact is that a lean person in our ideal starting body fat percentage range who attempts to build muscle without gaining any weight is a person who is never going to build any muscle. You just can’t add lean mass to your body in this scenario without your overall body weight increasing as a result. And trying to anyway will only lead to you spinning your wheels and getting absolutely nowhere. (Additional details here: Can You Gain Muscle Without Gaining Weight?) Got it? Good. So now that we’re all on the same page and understand that weight gain is a required part of muscle growth, there is a pretty important question that we need to answer next. And that is: at what rate should this weight gain occur?

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THE UNREALISTIC RATES AND LIMITS OF MUSCLE GROWTH So how fast should we allow our weight to increase as we try to build muscle? The obvious answer from most people is often “as fast as possible, bro!” After all, the faster we’re gaining weight, the faster we’ll be building muscle… right? That is how this should work, right? Right?!?! Not quite. See, there is a limit to the amount of muscle each person can build and the speed at which they can build it. These limits are predetermined by the stuff we can’t control (you remember… genetics, age, gender) as well as our experience level and the amount of muscle we’ve already built (and thus how much muscle is still left for us to build). And whether we like it or not, these limits are indeed set in stone and cannot be changed. Well, at least not naturally. Which is why if you attempt to exceed these limits and gain weight faster, 100% of the excess weight being gained will always be body fat, not additional muscle. So for example, if a person can only gain X lbs of lean mass per month and they end up gaining 5 lbs more than X, you can bet that those 5 extra lbs are going to be body fat. With this fact in mind, let me ask you that original question again… How fast should we allow our weight to increase as we try to build muscle? If your answer has now become “as fast as our bodies are capable of building muscle,” then it’s safe to say we’re getting on the right track. But this also means there’s a new very important question we need to answer: just how fast is the human body actually capable of building muscle?

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HOW FAST CAN IT SUPPOSEDLY HAPPEN? Well, let’s think about that. 

We’ve all seen the supplements that promise to help us gain 20 lbs of muscle in a month.

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We’ve all seen the bodybuilding articles with titles like “How To Build 30 lbs Of Muscle Mass In Just 6 Weeks!”

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We’ve all seen the before and after pictures of people (who claim to be natural) gaining tons of muscle in very short periods of time (and claim it’s all totally legit).

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We’ve all seen the products, programs and books guaranteeing “lightning fast muscle growth.”

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We’ve all seen celebrities make impressive and surprisingly sudden gains in muscle for their upcoming roles in some big action movie.

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We’ve all seen the competitive “natural” bodybuilders (both male and female) who have built more muscle than any of us have ever dreamed of building.

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We’ve all seen that person somewhere (on the Internet, in our gym, in the media… wherever) build muscle faster than most people do and claim it’s purely a result of their “special” workout or “special” diet or “special” method or “special” product, and you too can get those same amazing results as long as you do the same “special” thing they supposedly did.

This is the kind of stuff we all see on a fairly regular basis, isn’t it? Funny thing about it though…

IT’S ALL BULLSHIT! Seriously. All of it. It’s all bullshit and the best thing you can possibly do is ignore every single bit of it. Why? Let me tell you the truth about the diet and fitness industry, just in case you weren’t already aware… Everyone wants your money, your attention and your trust. And the only reason they want your attention and trust is so they can eventually get your money. That’s all anyone really cares about.

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This is true of damn near every supplement company, magazine, website, fitness guru, YouTube fitness guru, writer, blogger, author, model, trainer, coach, nutritionist, and so on. If they are in any way connected to the diet and fitness industry, there is about a 95% chance that they are gladly willing to do whatever the hell is necessary to get your money, attention and trust no matter what kind of lies, deception and flat out bullshit tactics they need to employ to make it happen. And as it turns out, one of the very best ways of doing this is by creating an illusion of unrealistic muscle building results. Why? Because they know you want AMAZING results, and you want them FAST. We all do. So, if they can convince you that you can build more muscle than you actually can and do it faster than you actually can, it’s all but guaranteed that your attention, trust and money will soon become theirs. That’s why every product, book and supplement comes with amazing muscle building claims. That’s why every article is about making crazy amounts of progress. Why should they waste their time promising you realistic results when they can just as easily promise you unrealistic results instead and get your money even faster? And so that’s exactly what they do. And if you’re like the majority of the population, you fall for it. Don’t feel too bad though, most of us do at some point… me included. The funny thing is that most people view this as a problem only because it causes people like us to waste our money, time and effort on crap. And while that’s completely true, that’s unfortunately not the only problem. You see, this illusion of unrealistic results clouds our perception of what’s realistically possible. This wonderful combination of deceptive sales/marketing tactics, blatant lies, bullshit claims and the amazing unnatural results of steroid users gives us a false sense of what’s actually possible.

THE PROBLEMS IT CAUSES From there, it’s only a matter of time before some very common scenarios begin to occur. For example…

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We jump from stupid diet and workout to even stupider diet and workout (and useless supplement to even more useless supplement) seeking the type of so-called “lightning fast muscle growth” we aren’t legitimately capable of achieving naturally but have been brainwashed into thinking we can. So we’re basically left searching for something that doesn’t exist.

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We attempt to gain weight at a rate MUCH faster than muscle growth can actually happen at, which in turn only causes us to gain a shitload of body fat, not muscle.

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Many women greatly overestimate how much muscle they can gain and how fast they can gain it, thus perpetuating their fear of instantly getting “too big and bulky” like a guy. Which, as we all know, is what inevitably leads to doing hilariously useless “toning workouts” with 3 lb pink dumbbells that will never cause an ounce of muscle growth in a million years. (Additional details here: Why Workouts For Women Suck)

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The guys (and girls) who want to look more like a “lean fitness model” than a “bulky bodybuilder” train like idiots in an attempt to purposely minimize their muscle growth and avoid getting “too big.” (Additional details here: I Don’t Want To Get Too Big)

Basically, the unrealistic muscle building expectations that come to exist in your mind are capable of not only screwing up your results, but preventing you from getting any results at all. So what can we do about it? It’s pretty simple. We need to ignore the unrealistic rates and limits of muscle growth that we’ve been tricked into believing, and focus solely on what’s truly and realistically possible…

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THE REALISTIC RATES AND LIMITS OF MUSCLE GROWTH So, how much muscle can the average natural man and woman REALLY build in their lifetime, and just how fast can that muscle REALLY be built? To answer this, we need experience. Lots of experience. We need to look at the muscle building results of a very large number of natural trainees. To do this, I’ll start by taking into account the tons of people whose real world results and progress I’ve observed over the years (including my own). I’ll also take into account the combined decades of experience and real world observations of trusted sources like Alan Aragon, Lyle McDonald, Martin Berkhan and Casey Butt (who, by the way, literally wrote the book on natural genetic potential for muscle growth: Your Muscular Potential), all of whom have put their own estimated rates/limits out there for us to draw on. Taking all of that into account, here are my best guesses for the realistic rates and limits of muscle growth for the average natural trainee…

THE REALISTIC LIFETIME LIMITS OF MUSCLE GROWTH 

MEN: The average natural male can expect to gain a total of about 30-50 pounds of muscle in his lifetime.

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WOMEN: The average natural female can expect to gain a total of about 15-25 pounds of muscle in her lifetime.

Despite what you may have seen, heard or somehow come to believe, this is what the average natural man and woman can realistically expect when doing everything right under the best possible circumstances. Are there any exceptions? Yeah, sometimes. For example, people with amazing genetics can occasionally surpass these limits. Steroid users can obviously surpass these limits as well. On the other hand, people with terrible genetics may fall short of reaching these limits because their overall potential for growth is lower. The same goes for people who begin training for muscle

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growth at an older age (if you start at 50, you’re just not going to build as much total muscle as you would if you started at 20). But for most of the people, most of the time, that’s how much muscle you can expect to build when doing everything just right.

THE REALISTIC MONTHLY RATES OF MUSCLE GROWTH 

MEN at the beginner level: The average natural male at the beginner level (first year of proper training/diet) can expect to gain between 1.0-2.5 lbs of muscle per month. Those who are younger or have better genetics may hit the top of that range. Those who are older or have worse genetics may hit the bottom of that range. Everyone else (the “average” guy) will fall somewhere in the middle.

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MEN at the intermediate level: The average natural male at the intermediate level (years 2-4 of proper training/diet) can expect to gain between 0.5-1.5 lbs of muscle per month. Once again, people younger or with better genetics will be at the higher end of that range, people older or with worse genetics will be at the lower end, and the average person will fall somewhere in the middle.

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MEN at the advanced level: The average natural male at the advanced level (when you’ve already built the majority of the muscle you are naturally capable of building) can expect to gain between 0.25-0.5 lb of muscle per month, or really so little that it becomes more about a yearly rate of muscle growth because monthly gains are too small to measure.

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WOMEN at the beginner level: The average natural female at the beginner level (first year of proper training/diet) can expect to gain between 0.5-1.25 lbs of muscle per month. Those who are younger or have better genetics may hit the top of that range. Those who are older or have worse genetics may hit the bottom of that range. Everyone else (the “average” girl) will fall somewhere in the middle.

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WOMEN at the intermediate level: The average natural female at the intermediate level (years 2-4 of proper training/diet) can expect to gain between 0.25-0.75 lb of muscle per month. Once again, people younger or with better genetics will be at the higher end of that range, people older or with worse genetics will be at the lower end, and the average person will fall somewhere in the middle.

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WOMEN at the advanced level: The average natural female at the advanced level (when you’ve already built the majority of the muscle you are naturally capable of building) can expect

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to gain between 0.12-0.25 lb of muscle per month, or really so little that it becomes more about a yearly rate of muscle growth because monthly gains are too small to measure. Despite what you may have seen, heard or somehow come to believe, this is what the average natural man and woman can realistically expect when doing everything right under the best possible circumstances. Are there any exceptions? Once again, yeah… sometimes. For example, people with amazing genetics and/or beginners in their early to mid-teens can occasionally surpass these rates. The same is true for people who are regaining lost muscle, as the temporary magic of “muscle memory” allows for muscle re-growth to happen faster than the initial muscle growth itself did. And again, steroid users can obviously surpass these rates as well. On the other hand, people with terrible genetics may fall short of reaching these rates, as will people training for muscle growth at an older age. But for most of the people, most of the time, that’s how fast you can expect to build muscle when doing everything just right.

“BUT I’VE SEEN PEOPLE EXCEED THESE RATES AND LIMITS!!!” This is the point where all of those unrealistic muscle building expectations that have been burned into your brain surface one last time as a result of you being confused, shocked, surprised, let down or maybe even a little depressed by the realistic figures I just put out there. And this is the point where I crush those unrealistic expectations one final time. Look, I get it. You want to build muscle really fast, and what you just saw doesn’t look anything like the “really fast” you had in mind. I get that, and I know that feeling well. But unfortunately, it’s the truth. Muscle growth is a painfully slow process. Like it or not, you need to accept it. All we can do is ensure we’re doing everything possible to make it happen as fast as it is realistically capable of happening, and that’s exactly what Superior Muscle Growth is designed to do (maximize muscle gains… remember?).

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“But what about all of the people I’ve seen greatly exceed these rates and limits? What about all of those claims that it can happen much faster than this?” Like I said before, it’s all bullshit. 100% of it. And the sooner you understand that and ignore it, the better off you’ll be. “But what about all of the people I’ve actually seen do it? What about the fitness gurus, bodybuilders, athletes, wrestlers, celebrities, models and people in my gym who I’ve seen exceed these rates and limits? What about all of the amazing before/after pictures and muscle building transformations that prove it can happen?” With the exception of a few rare genetic freaks, it’s all still bullshit. Here’s what you’re really seeing… 

Steroids/Drugs. What you’re seeing in most cases is steroid use. Steroids and various drugs allow men and women to build significantly more muscle than they ever could naturally, and do it significantly faster than they ever could naturally. It’s why people use steroids/drugs in the first place… because they work amazingly well. How well? One study showed that people using drugs and NOT working out at all gained significantly more lean mass than natural people who WERE working out. Yes, seriously. Now take this insane advantage and add in the fact that most of the people who have used/are using these drugs either never admit it, insinuate that they never have, or just flat out state that they are natural. That’s how this lovely illusion of unrealistic muscle building results suddenly comes to exist. (Additional details here: Steroids vs Natural)

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Muscle Memory. If you build a bunch of muscle, then stop training and lose most/all of that muscle, and then return to training again at some point after, you will re-gain that previously lost muscle at a much faster rate than you originally gained it. “Muscle memory” is very real and it makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, just like steroids, it’s one of the many methods commonly used to trick people into thinking amazing muscle building results have occurred when in reality it’s just that the person lost a bunch of muscle at some point and is now RE-gaining it. They just never actually mention this part. Instead, they purposely go out of their way to hide it and make it seem like the person is building this muscle for the very first time. Christian Finn does a nice job of exposing the two most popular examples of this bullshit (Tim Ferriss and Arthur Jones) right here.

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Deception. Stuff like photo retouching, awesome lighting, improved flexing, better posture, better tan, less

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chest hair (guys only… hopefully) and more can make small amounts of muscle growth look like super impressive amounts of muscle growth. 

Lies. Sure, lies are obviously involved with all of the previous bullet points, but there are plenty of other lies that exist all on their own. For example, take someone’s realistic results over 5 years and claim they happened in 5 months. Taaadaaa! Lying is quick, easy and surprisingly effective.

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Inaccuracy. Then you have people in gyms and on Internet forums who say stuff like “yeah bro, I gained 20 lbs of pure muscle in 3 months!” when in reality they gained maybe 4 pounds of muscle along with 16 lbs of fat, water and glycogen. Mostly fat.

So while the unrealistic rates and limits made possible by the items on this list are infinitely more appealing to us, the fact of the matter is that they are bullshit. Back here in reality, muscle growth is and always will be slow as hell. It sucks, I know. But it’s true. And we need to adjust our rate of weight gain accordingly…

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THE IDEAL RATE OF WEIGHT GAIN FOR SUPERIOR MUSCLE GROWTH So taking all of the above into account (the unrealistic rates/limits of muscle growth, the realistic rates/limits of muscle growth, the fact that we want to simultaneously maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains), what is the ideal rate of weight gain for achieving superior muscle growth? Well, the obvious answer is that it’s exactly the same as the realistic rate of muscle growth. Meaning, if you can gain X lbs of muscle per month, your ideal rate of weight gain is exactly X lbs per month. Seems simple and obvious enough, right? But it’s actually not that simple. See, we’re talking about the overall rate of weight gain here, and “weight” can be/will be more than just muscle. For starters, we have that little bit of fat that we’ve accepted will be coming along with the muscle we’re building. Then there’s stuff like water and glycogen. Then there’s just the weight of the additional food we’re eating to create our surplus and actually support this muscle growth in the first place. Which is all to say that our weight will be increasing due to more than just muscle being gained. And for this reason, our ideal rate of weight gain will be some degree higher than our achievable rate of muscle growth. How much higher, exactly? Just high enough to allow us to strike the perfect balance between A) maximizing the specific rate of muscle growth we are capable of based on our gender, age, genetics and experience level (as well as maximizing the strength, performance and recovery needed to make that happen), and B) ensuring that it’s still low enough to minimize the amount of body fat being gained to the lowest possible level so we stay as lean as we can throughout the entire muscle building process. With all of this in mind, here’s what I generally recommend… 

MEN should aim to gain about 0.5-3.5 lbs per month.



WOMEN should aim to gain about 0.5-1.75 lbs per month.

I know, these ranges are pretty damn broad. So, let’s narrow things down a bit and make it as personalized as possible…

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THE IDEAL RATE OF WEIGHT GAIN FOR MEN GROUP A: 3-3.5 LBS PER MONTH 

Beginners in their teens with above-average genetics. This rare combination of beginner gains, a younger hormonal profile and fantastic genetics makes this the only group that should ever attempt to hit the high end of the ideal weight gain range.

GROUP B: 2-3 LBS PER MONTH 

Beginners in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with average genetics, as well as beginners in their 20’s or 30’s with above-average genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of beginners under the age of 40.

GROUP C: 1.5-2 LBS PER MONTH 

Intermediates in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with average (or above-average) genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of intermediates under the age of 40.



Beginners in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with below-average genetics.

GROUP D: 1-1.5 LBS PER MONTH 

Intermediates in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with below-average genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for intermediates with poor genetics.



Beginners and intermediates over 40, regardless of genetics. Basically, this is also the sweet spot for the majority of people who are 40+ years of age.

GROUP E: 0.5-1 LB PER MONTH 

The advanced, regardless of age or genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of advanced people who have already built most of the muscle they are capable of building and are near their natural genetic limits. And the more advanced a person becomes, the more their focus should shift toward tiny yearly gains (because monthly gains become too small to even measure).

Be sure to take note of what “group” you fall into here and remember it. I’ll be giving specific recommendations for each group throughout the rest of this book.

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THE IDEAL RATE OF WEIGHT GAIN FOR WOMEN GROUP A: 1.5-1.75 LBS PER MONTH 

Beginners in their teens with above-average genetics. This rare combination of beginner gains, a younger hormonal profile and fantastic genetics makes this the only group that should ever attempt to hit the high end of the ideal weight gain range.

GROUP B: 1-1.5 LBS PER MONTH 

Beginners in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with average genetics, as well as beginners in their 20’s or 30’s with above-average genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of beginners under the age of 40.

GROUP C: 0.75-1 LB PER MONTH 

Intermediates in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with average (or above-average) genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of intermediates under the age of 40.



Beginners in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with below-average genetics.

GROUP D: 0.5-0.75 LB PER MONTH 

Intermediates in their teens, 20’s or 30’s with below-average genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for intermediates with poor genetics.



Beginners and intermediates over 40, regardless of genetics. Basically, this is also the sweet spot for the majority of people who are 40+ years of age.

GROUP E: 0.5 LB PER MONTH 

The advanced, regardless of age or genetics. Basically, this is the sweet spot for the majority of advanced people who have already built most of the muscle they are capable of building and are near their natural genetic limits. And the more advanced a person becomes, the more their focus should shift toward tiny yearly gains (because monthly gains become too small to even measure).

Be sure to take note of what “group” you fall into here and remember it. I’ll be giving specific recommendations for each group throughout the rest of this book.

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A FEW IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS To make sure you aren’t left with any lingering questions, allow me to quickly clarify a few things… 

Above-Average Genetics: If you feel that you build muscle better, faster and easier than most people and get/stay lean better, faster and easier than most people, you are someone I’d describe as having above-average genetics. While people like this do exist, it’s the most unlikely category to fall into.



Below-Average Genetics: If you feel the opposite… that you build muscle slower/worse than most people and gain fat more easily in a surplus than most people, you are someone I’d describe as having below-average genetics. While still certainly in the minority, I find that a surprisingly high number of people fall into this category (myself included).



Average Genetics: If you feel that you’re somewhere in the middle – not extra good, not extra bad – then you’re someone I’d describe as having average genetics. The largest percentage of the population falls into this category. So if you aren’t sure if you’re above or below average, chances are you are neither and fall into the category of average just like most people do.



Beginners: There are a few types of people that I’d classify as a beginner. The most obvious is anyone that is in their first year of consistent, intelligent weight training. Note that this also includes people who may have been training for years already but in a manner that was inconsistent and/or just plain stupid and therefore produced little to no gains in muscle mass. In addition, anyone who once weight trained correctly and successfully built meaningful amounts of muscle but then stopped training for at least 1 year or longer (during which all of that muscle was lost) would once again be considered a beginner when they start training again.



Intermediates: This is the category the majority of people past the beginner stage will fall into. So if you have at least 1 year of consistent intelligent weight training under your belt, and during that time you’ve gained at least a base level of muscle and strength, chances are you’d be considered an intermediate.



Advanced: This one is simple. Do you feel as though you’re close to reaching your natural genetic potential? Meaning, have you already built most of the muscle mass that your body is capable of building in your entire lifetime? And therefore only tiny amounts of progress are still left to be made? If so, you’re advanced. This is by far the rarest category to fall into. I’d guess 95% of the people reading this are either beginners or intermediates.



Weight Gain Rate Per Week: What you see above is the ideal rate of weight gain per month. To figure out how much weight you should typically be gaining per week, just divide these

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monthly guidelines by 4 (since there are roughly 4 weeks in a month). So, for example, Group C men should be gaining 1.5-2 lbs per month, which would be about 0.375-0.5 lb per week (ideally 0.4 lb/week most of the time). Group C women should be gaining 0.75-1 lb per month, which would be about 0.187-0.25 lb per week (ideally 0.2 lb/week most of the time). Pretty simple. 

Gaining Too Much or Too Little Weight: If you find that you are consistently (meaning 2-3 weeks straight) gaining more or less than what you should be or possibly not gaining anything at all, that means you need to adjust your calorie intake up or down accordingly until you end up gaining at your ideal rate. Don’t worry, the next chapter of this book will cover this in detail. I just wanted to briefly mention it here as well.



Plenty Of Time For Muscle Growth: When you combine these ideal rates of weight gain with the recommended starting and ending body fat percentage ranges and the fact that this program in and of itself is designed from top to bottom to produce superior results, one conclusion you should come to is that you’re going to be able to spend a whole lot of time building muscle. Meaning, you won’t constantly be switching between short cycles of “bulking and cutting.” This is the opposite of that. This is designed to be a nice long, slow, consistent muscle building phase that will last for a significant number of months. Hell, many people will be able to go an entire year straight focusing on muscle growth before reaching the point where they’ll be ready to switch over to losing the little bit of fat that was gained along the way.

“BUT THIS ALL SEEMS TOO SLOW?!?!” What’s that you say? This seems slow? You’ve seen recommendations for gaining weight faster than this? Yeah, I’ve seen them too. But guess what? If you’d like to avoid gaining excessive amounts of fat while building muscle, then all of those recommendations are shit and you need to ignore them. Like I’ve been repeating (and will continue to repeat), our goal isn’t to just build muscle… it’s to build muscle without gaining too much body fat in the process. The ideal rates of weight gain outlined above take this goal into account. They strike the perfect balance between maximizing muscle gains and minimizing fat gains.

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Those higher/faster recommendations you’ve seen? They don’t take this goal into account nearly as much, if at all. They’re just about building muscle and gaining a bunch of “weight” really fast, with little to no regard for what the composition of that “weight” is. So sure, I’ve seen the recommendations for gaining 1-2 lbs per week (not per month… per WEEK). I’ve seen the recommendations to “just eat as much as you can and worry about fat gains later.” I’ve seen the recommendations for naturally skinny “ectomorphs” and “hardgainers” like myself to just “shut up and eat whatever isn’t nailed down.” Or that “you gotta eat big to get big bro, as long as the foods are ‘clean’ you won’t get fat.” Or the always entertaining “GOMAD” (gallon of milk a day) where the goal is often to gain something like 25 lbs in 25 days. Excuse me for a second… hahahahaha!!! Believe it or not, I’ve actually tried many of these approaches (never GOMAD though, I was never quite that stupid) for significant periods of time. I’m talking a couple of years here. Do you know what happened? I built some muscle for sure and gained a bunch of strength, but I also got fat as hell in the process. Just disgustingly fat… as… hell.

MY ALL-TOO-COMMON EXPERIENCE I remember spending the first few months attempting to gain 2 lbs per week (8 lbs per month) and instantly realized I was just gaining a TON of body fat. Why? Because as a young male beginner with below-average genetics, I would have been the luckiest guy in the world to have gained anything close to 2 lbs of muscle per month. Probably less. And here I was gaining a total of 8 lbs per month, which would mean AT BEST I was guaranteed that 6 lbs of that would be body fat. And rest assured that any muscle I built doing this was mostly or entirely lost during the seemingly never-ending “cutting” phase that came afterwards where I wasted months of my life losing tons of unnecessary body fat that I should never have gained in the first place. Luckily these stupid 1-2 lbs/week type of weight gain recommendations often came with a suggestion that if it seems like too much body fat is being gained, reduce the rate of weight gain to only 1 lb per week. That’s right, only 1 lb per week (4 lbs per month). That was considered slow and conservative by these standards. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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So I did that, and I spent at least a year or two as an intermediate doing it on and off through a couple of “bulk and cut” cycles. And all I ever did was build a little muscle, gain some decent strength, gain a shitload of body fat, and then cut to lose that shitload of body fat while also losing some/most/all of that muscle and strength (and thus ending up right back where I started or slightly worse). Why? Because as a young male intermediate with below-average genetics, I would have been the luckiest guy in the world to be gaining 1 lb of muscle per month. Yet, here I was gaining a total of 4 lbs per month. That means my absolute best case scenario was 3 lbs of fat gained for every 1 lb of muscle. That means for me to gain 5 lbs of muscle, I would have gained 15 lbs of body fat. That’s just horrible. And that ratio would have probably gotten even worse as my calorie partitioning continued getting worse the fatter I continued getting. But that’s just the way things are guaranteed to go when you attempt these insane rates of weight gain. The rate of actual muscle gains just cannot keep up, and that will always mean it’s going to be body fat filling in the rest. So if you only want to “gain weight fast” and don’t really care what the composition of that weight is, then sure… these types of recommendations are fine. Go nuts. But if you only want to gain pretty lean muscle and avoid gaining stupid amounts of ugly body fat while you do it, then I absolutely do not recommend ANYTHING like this at all to anyone. Even the hardest gaining “hardgainer” in the world. (Additional details here: How To Bulk And Cut) Basically, if the ideal rates of weight gain I outlined a few pages ago seem slow in comparison to these “other” recommendations, it’s because mine are based in reality and geared toward keeping gains in body fat down to the tiniest amount possible while ensuring gains in muscle growth are as high as they are realistically capable of being. Which is exactly what we want.

“BUT WHAT IF I STILL END UP GAINING TOO MUCH BODY FAT?” For most of the people reading this, as long as you’re gaining weight at your ideal rate, you are never going to have a problem with gaining too much body fat.

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As I just explained, your ideal rate of weight gain is designed specifically to ensure that doesn’t happen. Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. Remember? But, let’s imagine a hypothetical scenario where you’ve been consistently gaining weight at your ideal rate for a significant period of time (let’s say two months or more) and yet still find that you’re gaining more body fat than is realistically acceptable. What should you do? Well, that answer will depend on what the cause of this scenario is. And there are really only three possible causes. The first (and most common) is that you are just screwing something up somewhere. Your diet, your workout, your consistency, your effort… you’re just not following the guidelines laid out in this book like you should be. In this case, the very simple and obvious solution is to fix whatever it is you’re doing wrong. The second potential cause is unrealistic expectations. Basically, you’re not legitimately gaining too much body fat… you just think you are because you’re confusing “minimize fat gains” with “completely prevent fat gains.” As I explained earlier, the option to “completely prevent fat gains” while building muscle just doesn’t exist for most of us. And if you try to make it happen anyway, you’re pretty much guaranteed to prevent any muscle from ever being built. In this case, the solution is to remember that your goal here is to keep fat gains as low as realistically possible… not attempt to build muscle without gaining an ounce of fat whatsoever. The third and final potential cause is that the factors you can’t control (especially genetics and/or age) are having more of a negative impact on your progress than we assumed it would. In this case, the solution is to just slightly reduce your rate of weight gain. To do this, my recommendation is to only aim for the lower end of your ideal weight gain range. For example, Group C men who should be gaining 1.5-2 lbs per month would now strictly aim for gaining 1.5 lbs per month. In most cases, this will solve the problem. But what if you’re already at the lower end of your range? In this much rarer scenario, my recommendation is to consider dropping yourself down into the next group. So sticking with this same Group C men example, they’d now aim to gain 1-1.5 lbs per month like Group D men. And with that, another very important factor of Superior Muscle Growth is working in your favor. Why stop now? Let’s do it again…

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CHAPTER 8

Calorie Intake: The Size Of The Surplus

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► CALORIE INTAKE: THE SIZE OF THE SURPLUS

S

o you now know what your ideal rate of weight gain is. The next logical step is to figure out what your calorie intake needs to be to support muscle growth and actually make this weight gain occur. Or to put that another way, it’s time to figure out how many calories you need to eat to create your ideal caloric surplus.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF CALORIES As you may remember, this book began with an explanation of the two fundamental requirements of muscle growth. Signal and supply. Remember them? Good. And as you may also remember, one of those required supplies is a caloric surplus. This, of course, means consuming more calories than the amount your body usually needs to maintain its current state. As I also mentioned, this “maintenance” amount is aptly referred to as your maintenance level, aka the amount of calories you’d need to eat per day for your weight to remain the same. For a surplus to exist, you simply need to consume more calories than whatever your maintenance level is. Why do you need to do this? Why must a caloric surplus exist? Because your body requires some amount of additional calories to synthesize new muscle tissue (as well as support the recovery and training performance needed to actually signal the muscle building process to begin in the first place). Basically… without a caloric surplus, muscle will not be built. It’s a requirement. Does all of this ring a bell? Good. If not, feel free to go back to the beginning of this book and remind yourself. It’s cool, I’ll wait. All good now? Awesome. Now it’s time to figure out exactly how many calories your body needs to make this happen.

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YOUR CALORIE MAINTENANCE LEVEL Just like I mentioned back at the beginning of this book, the first step in figuring out your ideal calorie intake for muscle growth is figuring out your maintenance level. After all, that is the number of calories that you need to be above for your surplus to exist. So the question is, what is your maintenance level? As nice as it would be for me to say it’s exactly X calories, it’s just not possible for me (or anyone else) to actually do that. This is because each person’s maintenance level is based on a variety of factors specific to them, thus making it highly unlikely for anyone to come up with a single perfectly accurate amount. These factors include: 

Gender



Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA)



Height



Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)



Weight



Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)



Age

And all of this stuff varies from one person to the next. Hell, you could even take 10 people of the same gender, height, weight, age and activity level and still end up with 10 different maintenance levels. For this reason, the best we can really do here is come up with an estimated maintenance level. Which, as you’ll soon find out, is all we truly need. To do this, there are dozens of different methods, equations and formulas to use, some of which are more or less complicated than others and often more or less accurate as well. Here are my three favorites…

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METHOD #1: BODY WEIGHT (LBS) X 13-17 This is by far the quickest and easiest method of all. Just take your current body weight in pounds and multiply it by 13 and 17. Many people will find that their maintenance level falls somewhere in between those two amounts. For example, a 180 lb person would do 180 x 13 and 180 x 17 and get an estimated daily calorie maintenance level of somewhere between 2340-3060 calories. Those who are female, older, less active and/or feel they have a “slow metabolism” should usually stick more toward the lower end of their estimate. Those who are male, younger, more active and/or feel they have a “fast metabolism” should usually stick more toward the higher end of their estimate. If you’re unsure, just pick a number somewhere in the middle.

METHOD #2: THE MIFFLIN-ST JEOR CALCULATOR While Method #1 is often accurate for many people, it still has the potential to be off to some degree because it doesn’t account for many of those factors I mentioned before (like age, gender and activity level). And that’s where the Mifflin-St Jeor equation comes into play. The Mifflin-St Jeor equation is one of a handful of slightly complex and widely accepted formulas used for estimating a person’s maintenance level based on many of the factors I listed above, thereby increasing the potential for accuracy. Rather than make you do any more math (math sucks, I know), I’ve created a handy calculator that will do it all for you. Just fill it in and click the “Calculate!” button.

It’s here: The Calorie Maintenance Level Calculator The number given is your estimated daily maintenance level.

METHOD #3: THE EXPERIMENT While one (or both) of the previous two methods will usually provide you with the close-enough estimate you need, it’s important to remember that they are still just estimates. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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The only way to truly find your EXACT calorie maintenance level is by doing a simple commonsense experiment… 1. Basically, consistently eat the same amount of calories each day for 2-3 weeks (while also keeping your activity level the same) and monitor what your weight does. 2. If it stays the same, you’ve found your maintenance level. 3. If it goes up or down, then just adjust your calorie intake in small increments, wait another couple of weeks, and see what your weight does then. 4. When you reach a point where your weight is consistently staying the same, you’ll know for sure that you’ve found your maintenance level. Do you NEED to do this experiment? Nope, you definitely don’t. There are two reasons why. The first is because Method #1 and/or Method #2 will honestly be good enough at this point. The second reason is because this “experiment” I just described will magically end up taking place anyway, thus ensuring that your calorie intake ends up being exactly what it needs to be (even if your maintenance estimate is slightly off right now). Don’t worry, you’ll see why later in this chapter. All that’s important right now is that you have some kind of estimated maintenance level in mind… which you do. Awesome!

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CREATING THE SURPLUS Now that you’ve estimated your maintenance level, it’s time for the next important step… creating the required surplus. The only question is, exactly what size should your surplus be? Well, we know it needs to be big enough to maximize muscle growth, but at the same time small enough to avoid gaining unnecessary body fat. Because as I explained in the previous chapter, there is a limit to the amount of muscle each of us can build and the rate at which we can build it. This means there is also a limit to the number of calories your body is capable of using to build muscle. If you supply your body with more calories than that amount, those extra calories will always be stored in the form of body fat, not additional muscle. It’s almost like an extra unnecessary surplus on top of the actual necessary surplus. For that reason, we need to avoid making the surplus TOO big. At the same time, if the surplus is TOO small, muscle will either be built at a rate even slower than we are capable of making it happen (which is already pretty damn slow) or more likely, just not be built at all. We want to avoid this scenario, too. To do this, the goal here is to get the surplus just right. So with all of that being said…

WHAT IS THE PERFECT SURPLUS? That’s easy. The perfect surplus is whatever amount of calories is needed to cause your ideal rate of weight gain to take place. That’s it. That’s the perfect surplus. That’s the perfect calorie intake. That’s the perfect amount of calories for maximizing muscle gains and minimizing fat gains. Basically, that is the surplus that will make superior muscle growth happen.

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Simple enough, right? Yeah… sort of. What we truly have here is a map for helping us find what our calorie intake needs to be. It’s really ALL about your ideal rate of weight gain. That’s the final destination you need to arrive at. Which means, the “perfect surplus” for you is simply the amount of calories that makes this rate of weight gain happen. What is that perfect surplus amount exactly? Determining that for sure will really just be a matter of trial and error. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how in a few minutes. It’s quite easy. I’ll also give you the perfect estimated starting point as well. But first I want to answer the question you’re probably thinking right now… Why can’t you give me an exact perfect surplus amount? As in, why can’t I just say that a surplus of X calories is the absolute perfect surplus? Why does there have to be any trial and error involved in this process? Good question, and the answer is NEAT.

NEAT: THE SURPLUS DISRUPTER As you may remember, NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) was on my list of factors that influence what our maintenance level is. Turns out it’s also a hugely significant factor influencing how big a person’s surplus needs to be. Let me explain. NEAT is defined as the calories burned as a result of all of the little things you do over the course of the day BESIDES exercise. I’m talking about things like standing, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, typing, shopping, walking from your car to your house, etc. But wait, there’s more! NEAT also includes all of your spontaneous daily activity as well. You know, like moving around in your chair, tapping your foot, adjusting/maintaining posture and position, fidgeting… basically just extra movement that you didn’t consciously make yourself do. This also includes the movement taking place while you sleep.

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The most interesting thing about NEAT is that, for many people, it increases with overfeeding. So when you consume more calories to create a surplus, NEAT upregulates and your body naturally burns more calories without you even realizing it. So the more calories you consume, the more calories your body naturally burns thanks to NEAT. Now here’s where it gets REALLY interesting. Studies show that the variance between the amount of calories burned via NEAT from one person to the next is sometimes pretty damn crazy. For example, some people don’t upregulate NEAT at all. So when they eat more, they don’t burn any additional calories. But for others, eating more calories causes their body to burn HUNDREDS of additional calories. Others fall somewhere in the middle. So let’s put that into a completely made up example. Let’s say three people have a maintenance level of 2000 calories per day. Starting tomorrow, they will each eat 500 MORE calories each day (so 2500 total). Here’s what can potentially happen: 1. Person A may burn no additional calories whatsoever. In their case, they ate 500 more calories and have a full 500 calorie surplus as a result (so they’re eating 2500 calories). 2. Person B may burn 100 additional calories via NEAT. In their case, they end up with only a 400 calorie surplus (as if they’re only eating 2400 calories). 3. Person C may burn 300 additional calories via NEAT. In their case, they end up with only a 200 calorie surplus (as if they’re only eating 2200 calories). So in this example, we have three people with the same maintenance level creating an identical surplus and eating the same total amount. But, the amount of weight they gain will be quite different due to how their body responds to the extra calories they consume. You can see why Person C will have a much harder time gaining weight than Person A will (in fact, Person A is likely genetically prone to being fat just like Person C is likely genetically prone to being skinny). Person C’s body is just super-efficient at burning calories (due to NEAT) to the point where it canceled out more than half of the extra calories they consumed. This is why for one person, an example surplus of maybe 250 additional calories per day might be perfect and cause their ideal rate of weight gain to happen.

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For someone else of the exact same gender, age, height, weight and activity level, that same 250 calorie surplus won’t even make a dent. They might need a surplus of 500, 700, or in some cases, even as much as 1000 calories per day to compensate for the effects of NEAT and make that same rate of weight gain occur. Behold the power of NEAT. This, of course, helps explain why some naturally skinny “hardgainers” and “ectomorphs” (the legit kind, not the fake kind that just eat and train like idiots) seem to be almost immune to weight gain. They eat and eat and eat, and yet it seems like no matter how much they eat, it’s impossible for them to gain any weight. What’s actually happening here is that the more calories they eat, the more calories NEAT causes them to burn. And so significant portions of their attempted surplus are automatically (and unknowingly) canceled out. So, for example, when they try to eat 250 extra calories, it may be like they’re only eating 100 extra calories. Of course, people like this can still definitely make their ideal rate of weight gain happen. It’s just that NEAT requires them to eat even more and create an even bigger surplus to do it. I personally fit into this category, so I know exactly what it’s like. On the other hand, this also helps explain why many people are exactly the opposite. They seem to gain weight much more easily and with much lower calorie intakes, thus requiring a much smaller surplus to make their ideal rate of weight gain happen (and also requiring a below-average calorie intake to make weight loss happen). In their case, NEAT just isn’t as significant. So gaining weight is extra easy, but losing weight is extra hard. For all of these reasons, you can see why it’s impossible for me to say that a surplus of exactly X calories is the perfect surplus for everyone. It sounds good on paper, but in reality the surplus that might be perfect for one person can very easily be too low or too high for another based on nothing more than what kind of role NEAT is playing.

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And this is a big part of why trying to give extremely precise surplus recommendations is almost… well… kinda silly. But hey, guess what? I’m going to be silly and do it anyway. However, in this case, it’s not to give you “the guaranteed perfect surplus.” It’s to give you “the perfect estimated surplus starting point for most people.” And guess what else? I’m then going to show you the key step that will guarantee it ends up being absolutely perfect after all. The best way to do this is to break things up into two sections: one for men, and one for women. I’m going to start with the guys. Ladies can feel free to skip a few pages to your section (“The Ideal Weekly Surplus For Women”).

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THE IDEAL WEEKLY SURPLUS FOR MEN 

Group A: A total weekly surplus of about 2800 calories.

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Group B: A total weekly surplus of about 2100 calories.

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Group C: A total weekly surplus of about 1400 calories.

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Group D: A total weekly surplus of about 1050 calories.

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Group E: A total weekly surplus of about 630 calories.

These recommendations are, of course, based on the “groups” I used in the previous chapter while discussing the ideal rate of weight gain. So if you don’t know what group you’re in, you either suck at reading or have a terrible memory. But it’s okay. Feel free to go back and remind yourself. I’ll wait.

“WEEKLY SURPLUS? BUT HOW MANY CALORIES PER DAY?” You may have noticed that the recommendations I just gave you are for an ideal total weekly surplus and not an ideal daily surplus. You’re probably wondering why the hell I did that. After all, a daily surplus is what you see recommended 99.9% of the time, even by me in stuff I’ve previously written. So why am I giving you a weekly surplus now? Because for the way we’re going to be doing things, this is what makes the most sense. You see, there are many different ways to approach how we consume our surplus calories over the course of the week, all of which can allow us to end up creating the same total weekly surplus. For example, you could eat the same amount of calories every day. Or, you could eat more calories on certain days and fewer calories on others. In the end, the amount of calories being consumed each day might be different, but your total net surplus for the week can still add up to be exactly the same. It’s just different ways of getting there.

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And that’s why I’m using an ideal weekly surplus. That’s our focus. We want to be in this much of a total net surplus at the end of every week. So regardless of what size surplus there is on a day-to-day basis, the total surplus for the week needs to add up to these ideal amounts. As far as our calorie intake goes, that’s step #1. Step #2 is to then adjust how we consume these surplus calories so that our calorie partitioning becomes as favorable as it can be (more muscle, less fat). Because it turns out these different approaches have their own pros and cons, and some tend to be better suited for superior muscle growth than others. Don’t worry, I’ll show you exactly what I mean a bit later. But right now I want to start you off with what is essentially the generic default approach to creating this weekly surplus…

APPROACH #1: THE STRAIGHT SURPLUS The simplest, easiest, most basic, most understandable, most straight forward, and least-likely-foryou-to-screw-up approach is something I call a “straight surplus.” That is, consuming the exact same calorie intake with the exact same surplus in the exact same way every single day of the week. This is by far the most common approach of all. To do this, simply take the ideal weekly surplus I just gave you and divide it by 7 (because there are 7 days in a week and you’re going to have the same surplus on all of them). The amount you get is how many additional calories you should eat each day. Or, to put that another way, that’s how many calories over your maintenance level you should be each day. Here, I’ll do the math for you… 

Group A: A total daily surplus of about 400 calories.

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Group B: A total daily surplus of about 300 calories.

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Group C: A total daily surplus of about 200 calories.

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Group D: A total daily surplus of about 150 calories.

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Group E: A total daily surplus of about 90 calories.

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That’s what the weekly surplus recommendations break down to when using a straight surplus approach. So, for example, someone in Group C would create a surplus of about 200 calories per day. Which means if his maintenance level is 2500 calories (just an example), he’d now start eating about 2700 calories every day of the week. Simple as that. Basically, whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add this ideal daily surplus on top of it and eat that amount each day. That’s how a straight surplus would work. Easy enough, right? Now for your next obvious question: is this the most effective approach to use? Maybe yes, maybe no. A little bit later I’m going to walk you through a few other approaches, explain their pros and cons, compare them against each other (and against this straight surplus approach), and then tell you exactly which one I think will work best for you. (Hint: It rhymes with “schmalorie cycling.”) But we’re not quite ready for that yet. There’s still a huge key step remaining here. And it’s honestly the most important step of all. Guys can now feel free to skip over the women’s surplus section below and go directly to the section titled “The Key Step,” which is just a few pages from here.

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THE IDEAL WEEKLY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN 

Group A: A total weekly surplus of about 1400 calories.

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Group B: A total weekly surplus of about 1050 calories.

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Group C: A total weekly surplus of about 700 calories.

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Group D: A total weekly surplus of about 525 calories.

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Group E: A total weekly surplus of about 420 calories.

These recommendations are, of course, based on the “groups” I used in the previous chapter while discussing the ideal rate of weight gain. So if you don’t know what group you’re in, you either suck at reading or have a terrible memory. But it’s okay. Feel free to go back and remind yourself. I’ll wait.

“WEEKLY SURPLUS? BUT HOW MANY CALORIES PER DAY?” You may have noticed that the recommendations I just gave you are for an ideal total weekly surplus and not an ideal daily surplus. You’re probably wondering why the hell I did that. After all, a daily surplus is what you see recommended 99.9% of the time, even by me in stuff I’ve previously written. So why am I giving you a weekly surplus now? Because for the way we’re going to be doing things, this is what makes the most sense. You see, there are many different ways to approach how we consume our surplus calories over the course of the week, all of which can allow us to end up creating the same total weekly surplus. For example, you could eat the same amount of calories every day. Or, you could eat more calories on certain days and fewer calories on others. In the end, the amount of calories being consumed each day might be different, but your total net surplus for the week can still add up to be exactly the same. It’s just different ways of getting there.

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And that’s why I’m using an ideal weekly surplus. That’s our focus. We want to be in this much of a total net surplus at the end of every week. So regardless of what size surplus there is on a day-to-day basis, the total surplus for the week needs to add up to these ideal amounts. As far as our calorie intake goes, that’s step #1. Step #2 is to then adjust how we consume these surplus calories so that our calorie partitioning becomes as favorable as it can be (more muscle, less fat). Because it turns out these different approaches have their own pros and cons, and some tend to be better suited for superior muscle growth than others. Don’t worry, I’ll show you exactly what I mean a bit later. But right now I want to start you off with what is essentially the generic default approach to creating this weekly surplus…

APPROACH #1: THE STRAIGHT SURPLUS The simplest, easiest, most basic, most understandable, most straight forward, and least-likely-foryou-to-screw-up approach is something I call a “straight surplus.” That is, consuming the exact same calorie intake with the exact same surplus in the exact same way every single day of the week. This is by far the most common approach of all. To do this, simply take the ideal weekly surplus I just gave you and divide it by 7 (because there are 7 days in a week and you’re going to have the same surplus on all of them). The amount you get is how many additional calories you should eat each day. Or, to put that another way, that’s how many calories over your maintenance level you should be each day. Here, I’ll do the math for you… 

Group A: A total daily surplus of about 200 calories.



Group B: A total daily surplus of about 150 calories.

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Group C: A total daily surplus of about 100 calories.

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Group D: A total daily surplus of about 75 calories.

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Group E: A total daily surplus of about 60 calories.

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That’s what the weekly surplus recommendations break down to when using a straight surplus approach. So, for example, someone in Group C would create a surplus of about 100 calories per day. Which means if her maintenance level is 2000 calories (just an example), she’d now start eating about 2100 calories every day of the week. Simple as that. Basically, whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add this ideal daily surplus on top of it and eat that amount each day. That’s how a straight surplus would work. Easy enough, right? Now for your next obvious question: is this the most effective approach to use? Maybe yes, maybe no. A little bit later I’m going to walk you through a few other approaches, explain their pros and cons, compare them against each other (and against this straight surplus approach), and then tell you exactly which one I think will work best for you. (Hint: It rhymes with “schmalorie cycling.”) But we’re not quite ready for that yet. There’s still a huge key step remaining here. And it’s honestly the most important step of all.

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THE KEY STEP Alright, let’s recap where you’re at right now. First you estimated your maintenance level using one or more of the methods I provided (like that handy calculator, for example). Then you took the next crucial step, which was to create a caloric surplus so that you will be consuming more calories than your maintenance level. Once again, this is a requirement of muscle growth. To do this, I provided you with an ideal total weekly surplus amount. Your job is to ensure that you are in that much of a net surplus at the end of every week. I also mentioned that there are various approaches that can be used for making this happen (all of which will be covered a bit later), and showed you the most commonly used option of them all… the “straight surplus.” So you have your maintenance level and you know how much of a total weekly surplus you should ideally have. Which means, your calorie intake is all set up and ready to go! Well… maybe.

THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS In a perfect world, the calorie intake you ended up with would be 100% accurate and EXACTLY what it needs to be to support superior muscle growth and make your ideal rate of weight gain occur. And for many people, this may very well be the case. But not for everyone. As I mentioned before, the maintenance level we came up with is an estimate. For some people it will be pretty damn accurate. For others, however, it may be a bit too high or a bit too low. If the estimate is too low, then adding more calories to create a surplus won’t actually put us into the ideal amount of surplus we need. Hell, it might only bring us up to our true maintenance level and not even put us into any surplus whatsoever.

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In this case, our ideal rate of weight gain will not occur. We’ll end up either gaining weight slower than we should be, or more likely, just not gaining any weight at all. This would mean we’re not building any muscle at all, either. If the estimate is too high, then adding more calories to create a surplus will actually put us into more of a surplus than we’re trying to be in. In this case, our ideal rate of weight gain still won’t occur. Only this time it’s because we’ll be gaining weight faster than we should be, which means we’ll end up gaining more body fat than we should be as well. These are two very real potential problems, and they happen fairly often. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a third potential problem… NEAT! So let’s say your estimated maintenance level is actually very accurate (which again, is a strong possibility for many people). So when you add your ideal weekly surplus on top of it, you should hypothetically begin gaining weight at your ideal rate. However… you still might not. You might begin gaining weight slower than your ideal rate. In fact, you might not gain any weight at all. In this case, the effects of NEAT are having a more significant impact on your surplus calories (canceling out many of them with increased spontaneous activity), thus requiring you to consume a larger surplus than the recommendations I gave you (which, as I mentioned, are really just ideal estimated starting points for a surplus). So there are three very real potential problems that can interfere with our calorie intake being what we need it to be. Luckily, though, there is one extremely simple way around it all…

HOW TO GUARANTEE YOUR CALORIE INTAKE IS PERFECT Remember before when I told you what the true “perfect surplus” is? It’s whatever calorie intake causes your ideal rate of weight gain to take place. That’s the most important thing here. Why? Because what makes that ideal rate of weight gain so ideal in the first place is that it’s designed to keep muscle gains as high as possible and body fat gains as low as possible.

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For this reason, the ultimate caloric fail-safe is making sure that you are consistently gaining weight at the ideal rate I outlined in the previous chapter.

Not any more, not any less. As long as that’s happening, then guess what? Your calorie intake is PERFECT!

EAT, TRACK AND (IF NEEDED) ADJUST So here’s what you do. Start by taking your estimated maintenance level and add your ideal weekly surplus on top of it using whichever approach is best for you (again, more about that later). This will put you at least somewhat close to what your calorie intake should be, thus serving as a fantastic starting point. Then just consistently consume this amount of calories for the next 2-3 weeks while closely tracking what your body weight does. After those 2-3 weeks, I want you to answer the following questions: 

Are you gaining weight at your ideal rate? If so, congrats. Your calorie intake is exactly what it needs to be. Continue eating this amount of calories.



Are you not gaining any weight at all? Or possibly even losing weight? If so, your calorie intake is too low and there is no surplus present, which means it needs to be increased by some small increment. Here’s what I recommend: MEN should add about 1400 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 200 calories every day (1400 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 200 extra calories per day). WOMEN should add about 700 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 100 calories every day (700 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 100 extra calories per day). Then monitor your weight over the next 2-3 weeks. Still not gaining any weight? Repeat this step again until you are.

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Are you gaining weight, but a bit slower than your ideal rate? If so, your calorie intake is a bit too low and the surplus is a bit too small, which means it needs to be increased by some small increment. Here’s what I recommend: MEN should add about 700 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 100 calories every day (700 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 100 extra calories per day). WOMEN should add about 350 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 50 calories every day (350 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 50 extra calories per day). Then monitor your weight over the next 2-3 weeks. Still not gaining weight at your ideal rate? Repeat this step again until you are.



Are you gaining weight, but a bit faster than your ideal rate? If so, your calorie intake is too high and the surplus is too big, which means it needs to be reduced by some small increment. Here’s what I recommend: MEN should subtract about 700 calories from their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating 100 less calories every day (700 fewer weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 100 less calories per day). WOMEN should subtract about 350 calories from their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating 50 less calories every day (350 fewer weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 50 less calories per day). Then monitor your weight over the next 2-3 weeks. Still not gaining weight at your ideal rate? Repeat this step again until you are.

Basically, weigh yourself correctly (details below) and keep track of it somewhere. If you are gaining weight at your ideal rate, you’re perfect. If you aren’t, then just adjust your calorie intake up or down in small increments, give it another 2-3 weeks and track what happens. Are you gaining at your ideal rate now? If so, awesome! If not, keep adjusting until you are. All of the maintenance level estimates and surplus recommendations in the world are lovely and wonderful, but this is the key step to guaranteeing that your calorie intake is exactly what it should be for superior muscle growth.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: When you increase your calorie intake to create a surplus, it’s extremely common to see more weight gain in the first week or two. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. It’s NOT body fat. It’s just a combination of water retention, refilled muscle glycogen stores and the fact that there is a bit more food than usual in your body waiting to be digested. This is why I recommend 2-3 weeks of consistently eating a certain amount and tracking what happens before making any adjustments. This gives your weight enough time to stabilize and allows you to see the true rate of weight gain that’s actually taking place.

HOW TO PROPERLY TRACK YOUR BODY WEIGHT One thing you want to avoid doing is making unnecessary adjustments to your calorie intake as a result of improperly weighing yourself and/or improperly tracking your weight. To ensure you’re doing things as accurately as possible, here’s what I recommend: 1. Weigh yourself every single day. Always do it first thing in the morning (you should pee first) on an empty stomach before eating/drinking anything, and always wear the same amount of clothing each time (ideally as little clothing as possible). 2. Ignore your daily weight. Also ignore the completely normal day-to-day fluctuations in your weight. This is meaningless to us. Why? Because these daily changes in body weight happen as a result of everything from a loss or gain of muscle, fat, water, glycogen, poop, food intake and more. It’s even worse for women, especially at a certain time of the month. For this reason, what our weight does from one day to the next isn’t something to pay any attention to at all. Track it, but ignore it. 3. At the end of the week, take the average. This is the number we care about. Your average weight for the week is the number you will base all of your decisions on in terms of whether or not your calorie intake needs to be adjusted. Doing it this way reduces the potential for various normal daily weight fluctuations to throw things off. For additional details, read this one: How Often Should You Weigh Yourself?

WHAT TO DO IF WEIGHT GAIN EVENTUALLY STOPS You know how people trying to lose weight occasionally hit a “weight loss plateau” where their progress stalls and they stop losing?

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Well, guess what? Depending on how much muscle you’re trying to build, the same kind of thing can happen with weight gain. There are a few reasons for this (your activity level might increase, NEAT might increase, etc.), but the most notable is that the more you weigh, the more calories your body burns. So as you build more muscle, gain more weight and make more progress, your maintenance level gradually increases, which in turn gradually offsets your initial surplus until eventually (combined with other factors) there is no longer any surplus present at all and weight gain stops. But have no fear, because the solution is just as simple and obvious as you’re probably assuming it is. Just eat more calories. Wow, shocking! So if you reach a point where your body weight hasn’t increased at all for 3 consecutive weeks (or longer), it’s time to increase your calorie intake a bit. How much exactly? I suggest starting with the following: 

MEN should add about 875 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 125 calories every day (875 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 125 extra calories per day).



WOMEN should add about 525 calories to their total weekly calorie intake. Using the “straight surplus” approach as an example, this would mean eating an additional 75 calories every day (525 additional weekly calories ÷ 7 days = 75 extra calories per day).

Then just track your weight over the next 2-3 weeks and monitor what happens. Are you gaining weight at your ideal rate again? If so, awesome! If not, continue adjusting like this until you are. And just like that, your calorie intake has been designed for Superior Muscle Growth. Now how about we do the same for the nutrients that will be providing those calories…

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CHAPTER 9

Macronutrient Intake: Protein, Fat And Carbs

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► MACRONUTRIENT INTAKE: PROTEIN, FAT AND CARBS Have you figured out the ideal amount of calories that you should eat to maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains? Check! Have you figured out the ideal amounts of each macronutrient that you should eat to maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains? Unchecked. Let’s fix that, shall we?

WHAT ARE MACRONUTRIENTS? Macronutrients (aka “macros” aka the most annoying abbreviation of all time) are the nutrients that provide the calories in the foods we eat. There are four of them, although it’s the first three that will be getting the majority of our attention: 

Protein. (1 gram = 4 calories)

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Fat. (1 gram = 9 calories)

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Carbs. (1 gram = 4 calories)

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Alcohol. (1 gram = 7 calories)

So when you look at the nutritional information of a food and see the amount listed for “Calories,” that amount is the total combined calories from the protein, fat and carbs (and alcohol) in that serving of that food. We’ll ignore alcohol for now because it’s not really relevant (although I will cover it later). These three other macronutrients, on the other hand, will play important roles in both your overall diet and your muscle building results.

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Let’s take a look at what those important roles are and determine exactly how much of each you should consume on a daily basis to best fulfill those roles. Let’s also go in order of importance, which of course means we’ll be starting with protein.

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PROTEIN You may remember protein from the first chapter of this book. At that point, I gave you a pretty decent breakdown of why protein is the most important macronutrient to us. Not just in terms of muscle growth, but also in terms of… you know… not dying. In case you forgot, allow me to refresh your memory. Your muscles, organs, skin, hair, nails, bones, certain hormones and much more are all made up of some amount of protein. It’s responsible for the growth and repair of all of the cells and tissues in your body. Protein is also the provider of our essential amino acids (“essential” in this case meaning your body requires them but cannot produce them on its own… they must be supplied through your diet). So there are really two big facts you should know about protein at this point: 1. Without a sufficient amount of it, you would not be able to live or function. 2. Without a sufficient amount of it, muscle cannot be built, maintained or repaired. Due to fact #2, a sufficient protein intake is one of the two required muscle building supplies (with the other of course being a caloric surplus). And that leads us to our next obvious question: what exactly is a “sufficient amount of protein” for optimizing muscle growth?

HOW MUCH PROTEIN SHOULD WE EAT? Well, depending on who you ask, you’ll get a variety of answers ranging from as low as 0.36g of protein per pound of body weight up as high as 2g of protein per pound of body weight. Pretty broad range, don’t you think? For example, if you ask the USDA, they’ll tell you 0.8g per kg of body weight (which is about 0.36g per pound) is the ideal protein intake. So for someone 165 lbs, you’re looking at about 60g of protein per day.

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The problem with “official” recommendations like this, however, is that they are aimed at basically being the bare minimum amount needed for the average sedentary adult to continue to function and sustain life. And that does not describe us at all. We are something very different. We are healthy active adults training our asses off in an attempt to force our bodies into increasing the amount of lean muscle mass we have. Which is to say… people like “us” have very different needs than people like “them.” And that’s something that damn near everyone in the diet and fitness world will agree on. Recommendations like this are just completely irrelevant to people like us. We clearly need and benefit from more protein than this. Exactly how much more protein do we need? That’s the part that people can’t seem to agree on but love to argue about. Let’s try to make some sense of it all.

MORE PROTEIN = MORE MUSCLE? Knowing that we have higher protein needs than the kind of people the USDA’s recommendations are designed for (hell, even those people should probably eat more protein than that), the assumption most people tend to make is that we don’t just need more protein, we need A LOT more protein. Add in the insane popularity of protein supplements (which are often viewed as “must haves” for building muscle), the popularity of high protein diets (and the fact that no “low protein diet” fad has ever really caught on), the recommendations of steroid using bodybuilders (and the magazines/websites/supplement companies that promote them), and the legitimate fact that protein plays a crucial role in muscle growth, and we end up coming to one seemingly obvious conclusion: The more protein we eat, the more muscle we’ll build and the faster we’ll build it. But is this conclusion actually correct? In a way, yes… it definitely is. But in another way, it’s also quite incorrect.

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Let me explain. It’s true in that eating more protein to the point where your protein intake goes from insufficient levels up to sufficient levels will lead to more muscle being built. The closer and closer you get to “sufficient,” the better and better your results will likely be. However, like I’ve already repeated a few times throughout this book, there is a limit to the amount of muscle we can build and the rate at which we can build it.

However, like I’ve already repeated a few times throughout this book, there is a limit to the amount of muscle we can build and the rate at which we can build it.

So once you’re at this sufficient level, that’s it. You’ve hit the upper limit of effectiveness and are now consuming the maximum amount of protein your body is capable of putting toward the entire muscle building process.

So if X grams of protein is the sufficient amount that maximizes muscle gains, eating more than X grams won’t magically lead to additional muscle being built. With this in mind, it’s safe to say we can eliminate the other end of the spectrum of protein recommendations: the stupidly high end. This would be the kind of stuff you really only hear from clueless steroid-using bodybuilders, the equally clueless people who have been unfortunate enough to take their advice, and the various supplement companies who benefit from you consuming as much protein as possible because (surprise!!) they happen to sell protein powder. I’m talking about crazy high recommendations in the realm of 2g of protein per pound of body weight. Sometimes more. So for someone 165 lbs, you’re looking at 330g (or more) of protein per day. HA! That is just laughably unnecessary for any natural trainee. Ignore it.

THE PROTEIN INTAKE SWEET SPOT So we know the low end of the protein recommendations we see are irrelevant to people with our activity level, training/performance needs and muscle building goals.

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We also know the high end of the recommendations we see are just unnecessarily high and will not produce any “better” results than a saner yet still sufficient protein intake would, despite what various crazy people might claim. Which means, as usual, the sweet spot lies somewhere in the middle. I’d define this sweet spot as being: 0.8-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. Based on all of the research and anecdotal evidence I’ve seen, along with the various recommendations I’ve seen from the people whose opinions I value most, this is what I’d consider to be the ideal protein intake range for building muscle. Now I know what you might be thinking. This range is still pretty damn broad. Is there one specific point in this range that’s best? Good question. In recent years it seems like recommendations for the lower end – specifically 0.8g per pound (or its unnecessarily precise cousin, 0.82g per pound) – have grown slightly in popularity, and they always seem to come with some kind of reference to a study that supposedly proves without a shadow of a doubt that this is the exact amount of protein that is 100% perfect, despite the fact that no study showing anything this conclusive actually exists. Then there’s a very smart guy by the name of Lyle McDonald (who literally wrote the book on protein: The Protein Book) who looked at the same research as everyone else (in fact, with over 500 references, chances are he looked at more research than anyone else on the planet) and came away recommending the mid/upper end of that range. Specifically, 1.1-1.4g per pound for men, and 1.1-1.2g per pound for women. Alan Aragon, on the other hand (who of course is one of the smartest and most highly respected people in the nutrition field), often uses 1g per pound of a person’s target body weight for his recommendation, which typically puts him somewhere in the middle of the range (e.g., a 150 lb guy with a goal of getting to 180 lbs would eat 180g of protein per day… which ends up being 1.2g per pound of his current 150 lb body weight). And then you have the recommendation that has existed in the bodybuilding world for decades and will likely still be here decades from now. The good old “1 gram per pound” recommendation, which is likely the most common recommendation of all.

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So, you can see here how a range as broad as 0.8-1.5g per pound can come to exist as the sweet spot. Depending on different people’s personal experience and interpretation of the available research, there seems to be some degree of support for a protein intake anywhere within this range. But enough about everyone else. This is my book. Let me tell you what I think.

MY PROTEIN RECOMMENDATIONS 

0.8g of protein per pound of your current body weight. This is what I would consider to be the bare minimum amount to aim for each day. So if you’re a guy or a girl who has trouble eating enough protein, and finds higher protein recommendations to be impossible to meet, and really just can’t stand the thought of having to eat an amount of protein higher than this each day (and trying to force yourself to do it drives you insane), then this is the protein intake for you. So for example, if you weigh 165 lbs, you’d eat about 132g of protein per day.



1g of protein per pound of your current body weight. I think an even 1g per pound is likely to be sufficient, and I prefer it over 0.8g for a few reasons, one of which is that it’s just quicker, simpler and easier to remember and calculate. So for example, if you weigh 165 lbs, you’d eat about 165g of protein per day. It doesn’t get any easier than that, and if you’re someone who thrives on keeping things as simple as possible, this is the protein intake for you.



1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight. With all else being equal, this is my preferred protein intake for men and women in a surplus trying to build muscle. So for example, if you weigh 165 lbs, you’d eat between 181-198g of protein per day.

Now let me answer the question that probably just popped into your head. If something as low as 0.8g/lb may very well be sufficient, why do I prefer 1.1-1.2g/lb? Well, it’s partly because I always prefer small ranges for stuff like this rather than one exact amount to allow some room for personal preferences to come into play. Now the people who just like eating more protein CAN eat more protein rather than being forced into eating one specific amount.

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But it’s mostly because when it comes to protein, I agree with both Lyle and Alan’s line of thinking… which is that it’s better to end up eating a bit too much rather than a bit too little. Why? Three reasons: 1. Insurance Because if you shoot a little higher and fall a little short, you still end up consuming a sufficient amount of protein. For example, if you shoot for 1.2g per pound and fail to get there, you might end up at 1g per pound, which is still in the range of sufficient. But, if you shoot for 0.8g per pound and fall a little short, you’ll end up below the range altogether. 2. Uncertainty Because we just don’t know exactly what amount of protein is best. Yeah, we kinda know enough to form this sweet spot range. And sure, this range is most likely where that exact “best” amount lies. But, we just don’t know exactly where in this range it is. Which means, for all we know, slightly more protein may provide some benefit over slightly less protein within the context of this range. Regardless of what anyone tells you, shows you and claims to be true, there is nobody on the planet who knows for sure. No one (including me) can say with absolute certainty EXACTLY how much protein is ideal for natural men/women trying to build muscle. All we can do is guess based on whatever inconclusive evidence is available and whatever personal experience we have. To play it safe, I like guessing slightly higher than slightly lower. You know who else does? Virtually every experienced and respected coach I know of at every level. 3. Safety Because it’s perfectly safe for healthy adults. This is more of a reason to back up the previous reason, but it’s still worth mentioning. Anything you may have come across stating that higher protein intakes are “bad” or “dangerous” for otherwise healthy adults is bullshit. There is literally no research of any kind showing this, and plenty of research showing that protein intakes as high as 1.3g per pound are safe for healthy active adults with healthy kidneys (and those who do have preexisting kidney issues should obviously have their own dietary guidelines to follow). So even if you truly believe that there is something remotely magical about a number as hilariously precise as 0.82g/lb, there is absolutely nothing bad that will happen if you consume 0.83g/lb or 0.9g/lb or 1g/lb or 1.3g/lb or anywhere in between.

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So at worst there’s nothing that will happen, and at best there might be some hypothetical tiny benefit to it. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather shoot for a bit more protein than a bit less. IMPORTANT NOTE: The only exception to these recommendations (besides those with preexisting kidney issues) are the obese. In the case of people who are very overweight, your protein intake calculations will be overestimated if you use your current body weight due to the excessive amount of fat on your body. So, for true obese individuals, your goal body weight should be used instead. For example, a 300 lb person looking to get down to 200 lbs would use 200 lbs as their weight when calculating their protein intake. However, since you should always be within our ideal starting and ending body fat percentage ranges when following this program, this note shouldn’t really apply to anyone reading this. I’m just mentioning it anyway to be as complete as possible.

HOW TO FACTOR PROTEIN INTO YOUR TOTAL CALORIE INTAKE Now that you know how much protein you should eat each day, the next thing you should know is how to factor this protein intake into your total calorie intake. This is a step that may seem completely pointless right now, but it will serve a purpose a bit later. To do this, you just need to know that 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories. So, just multiply the amount of protein you’re going to eat each day by 4 to figure out exactly how many calories your protein intake will account for. Here’s an example… Let’s use this same random 165 lb person we’ve already been using throughout this chapter. Let’s say they go with my preferred 1.1-1.2g/lb range, which for them is 181-198g of protein per day. Let’s say they decide to go with an even 185g. They’d then do 185g x 4 calories per gram = 740 calories. Which means in this example, 740 calories out of this person’s total daily calorie intake will come from protein. That was easy enough, wasn’t it? Again, you’ll see the purpose of this step a bit later.

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EXAMPLE SOURCES OF PROTEIN The final thing you should probably know about protein is what foods you can get it from. Below is a basic list of the most common higher quality sources: 

Chicken



Egg Whites



Turkey



Protein Supplements (e.g., whey protein powder)



Fish



Dairy (e.g., milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.)



Beef



Nuts



Pork



Beans



Whole Eggs

This is by no means the definitive list of every food that contains protein, but it is a list of some of its most abundant and highest quality sources. Pick your favorites and/or the ones you tolerate best (e.g., if you have issues with dairy, then don’t eat dairy). I personally get the majority of my protein intake from chicken, turkey, eggs and whey protein powder. Those are my preferred/best tolerated sources. Find your own and do the same.

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FAT After protein, the next most important macronutrient is fat. And, similar to protein, what makes fat so important is that it plays a big role in both the muscle building process AND overall health. In terms of the latter, consuming a sufficient amount of fat each day is a requirement for sustaining life and proper function. It plays a crucial role in hormone production (we’ll come back to this in a second), the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, the regulation of inflammation and more. It’s also your body’s second most ideal fuel source (carbs are always #1). In addition, dietary fat is what provides the essential fatty acids (EFAs). Just like with the essential amino acids, your body requires these EFAs but cannot produce them on its own… they must be supplied through your diet. And as you may have already heard, these EFAs play a ton of important roles of their own. I know, this is all well and good, but what role does fat play in muscle growth? A few interesting ones, actually. The most notable are: 

Optimal hormone levels, specifically testosterone. Research shows a fairly meaningful connection between dietary fat intake and testosterone levels. Testosterone, of course, is the hormone that plays the largest role in our libido and (more relevant in this book) our ability to build muscle. The higher your testosterone levels are, the better/faster muscle growth will take place (which is why people with great genetics typically have naturally higher levels, and why people use various drugs to unnaturally increase theirs). Studies (like this, this and this) have linked lower fat diets to lower testosterone levels, and higher fat diets to higher testosterone levels, thus making a sufficient fat intake (and possibly more specifically, a sufficient saturated fat intake) a highly beneficial aspect of our diet.



Improved calorie partitioning. There are a few different types of fat (details below), and two in particular – the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA – have been shown to positively affect a variety of physiological processes that may provide some degree of calorie partitioning benefits.



Higher source of calories. This is technically more of an indirect role, and it only really applies to people who have trouble eating enough calories to support growth. Unlike protein and carbs, which both contain 4 calories per gram, fat contains 9 calories per gram. So, those who may fail to create their required caloric surplus as a result of just not being able to eat enough will

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often find fat to be the most beneficial macronutrient, because it’s the most calorie-dense of the group.

THE FOUR TYPES OF FAT As I just alluded to a minute ago, there are four major types of fat. Here’s a brief breakdown of each: 1. Trans Fat Found mostly in typical snack foods (chips, cookies, etc.), doughnuts, various pastries and much of the usual crap that tastes yummy but you already know should be limited to some sane (but tolerable) degree, trans fat is really the only type of fat that you want to try to greatly limit or maybe even just avoid altogether. It provides no positive benefits whatsoever, and the majority of the research I’ve seen shows a link to a variety of negative health effects. 2. Saturated Fat Found mostly in animal fat, dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, etc.), and certain oils (coconut and palm), saturated fat is often thought to be just as bad (if not worse) than trans fat and a guaranteed cause of heart disease that should therefore be avoided completely. However, this doesn’t appear to actually be true… at least not for healthy active people with a healthy overall diet. This whole good/bad, safe/unsafe debate about saturated fat is actually a complicated topic that is way beyond the scope of this book. What I will tell you, though, is that a large amount of research in recent years calls into question all of the hate and fear saturated fat has gotten over the last few decades, and it does not appear to be as bad as it was thought to be. Hell, it may very well not even be bad at all. Plus, as I mentioned before, saturated fat has been shown to play a positive role in testosterone production. 3. Monounsaturated Fat Found mostly in various types of nuts and plant oils (e.g., olive oil), monounsaturated fat is generally considered one of the “good” fats due to its positive effects on heart health. 4. Polyunsaturated Fat Providing us with the essential fatty acids omega-6 and omega-3, polyunsaturated fat is also considered one of the “good” fats. To a certain extent, this can be both true and false. The omega-6 fatty acids are found in foods like various nuts and virtually all food oils, while the omega-3 fatty acids are found primarily in fish and fish oil. For this reason, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the typical person’s diet is usually far from the ideal 1:1 or 2:1 it should be (usually more like 20:1), with omega-3 intake greatly lacking

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and omega-6 intake excessively high. This uneven ratio has been shown to be problematic in terms of overall health, which is why a focus on omega-3 consumption (and fish oil supplementation) is so highly recommended. In fact, fish/fish oil and the omega-3 fatty acids they contain (eicosapentaenoic acid aka EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid aka DHA) have been shown to be extremely beneficial. This includes a huge list of health benefits (e.g., reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia/Alzheimer’s, etc.), as well as the potential calorie partitioning benefits I mentioned before. So unless you eat a lot of fatty fish on a regular basis, fish oil is one of the very few supplements worth taking (full details coming later). So what does all of this mean? It’s pretty simple. Trans fat should be avoided, and your daily fat intake should come from a good mix of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats with an extra added emphasis on getting a sufficient amount of the omega-3 fatty acids.

HOW MUCH FAT SHOULD WE EAT? Like protein, this again depends on who you ask. If you look hard enough, you can find fat intake recommendations ranging from as low as 5-10% of your total calorie intake (typically from the crazy low fat community) to as high as 80-90% of your total calorie intake (typically from the even crazier low carb community). However, once you eliminate the various crazy diet cults, you’ll find that the majority of the sane and logical people in the nutrition world tend to recommend a fat intake range somewhere in the middle. Specifically…

The ideal daily fat intake range is: 20-35% of your total calorie intake.

Yeah, it’s a decent sized range, but the sweet spot is likely to be somewhere within it. You can let your personal dietary preferences dictate exactly where within that range you want to be. If you don’t really have a preference, something around 25% is usually perfectly fine for most people.

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HOW MANY GRAMS OF FAT IS THAT PER DAY? Now, in order to convert this recommendation into an actual amount of grams you need to eat, you just need to remember that 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. Next, figure out what 20-35% of your daily calorie intake is (just multiply your calorie intake by 0.20 and 0.35) and then divide both of your answers by 9. The amount you get is the ideal range for how many grams of fat you should eat each day. Confused? Here’s an example… 

Let’s say an example person figured out that their ideal calorie intake for muscle growth is 2500 calories per day. (Again, this is just an example.)



From there they’d figure out that 20-35% of 2500 calories is between 500-875 calories.



They’d then divide 500 and 875 by 9 (because there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get a range of 56-97.



So, in this example, this person would eat between 56-97 grams of fat per day. Since we’ll also pretend that they like being right in the middle, they decide to go with an even 75 grams.

Easy enough, right?

EXAMPLE SOURCES OF FAT While I already mentioned a few sources of fat when describing the four different types, I think we can all agree that everything is better when it’s on a neat little list. So, here’s a basic list of the most common higher quality sources of fat: 

Fish (fatty types like salmon)



Olive Oil



Fish Oil Supplements (full details coming later)



Coconut Oil



Nuts (all types)



Avocados



Nut Butters



Eggs/Egg Yolks



Seeds



Beef

This is by no means the definitive list of every food that contains fat, but it is a list of some of its most abundant and highest quality sources.

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Pick your favorites and/or the ones you tolerate best (e.g., if you have a peanut allergy, don’t eat peanuts). I personally get the majority of my fat intake from a variety of different nuts (almonds are my favorite) and olive oil, and get my omega-3s from fish oil supplementation. Those are my preferred/best tolerated sources. Find your own and do the same.

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CARBS And last but not least, we have carbohydrates… aka carbs. Although, technically speaking, carbs kinda are the “least,” at least in terms of what your body truly needs to keep you alive and functioning. What I mean is, protein and fat are both considered essential in that they each provide us with nutrients that our bodies require but cannot produce on their own (essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, respectively). Carbs, on the other hand, don’t provide us with anything fitting this description. This is the point where you’re supposed to be thinking “but doesn’t the body need some amount of carbs for energy?” Not exactly. This is because the body is actually capable of converting fat and protein into the glucose it needs when in a state where carbs (the preferred choice) are not available. So is this enough to keep you alive? Yup. Is it ideal? Probably not. But more importantly, is this enough to fuel intense exercise such as weight training? Is this enough to maximize performance and recovery? Is this enough to optimally build muscle? Hell no! And as damn near every single person who has ever gone over to the “low carb” dark side and eventually found their way out of it will always report, everything is better when eating more carbs vs eating stupidly low amounts of carbs. Mental and physical performance, recovery, muscle growth, fat loss, sleep quality, overall mood, and really just life in general. Carbs make it all better. Plus, carbs taste yummy and people are generally happier when eating yummy things. So while we may not technically need to eat carbs to live, the human body sure as hell runs a lot better when we do. How many grams of carbs do you need exactly? I’ll get to that in a second. There’s this one annoying topic I need to tackle first.

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THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARBS At some point, most of us have come to view certain high carb foods in very specific ways. In fact, many of us still do. For example… 

Bad carbs and good carbs.



Simple carbs and complex carbs.



Fast carbs and slow carbs.



Dirty carbs and clean carbs.



High glycemic carbs and low glycemic carbs.

Now, on the one hand, when these classifications are used to get the average person to eat more stuff like fruits and vegetables and less stuff like sugar, cookies and candy, then I’m a big fan. Generally speaking, this is a fantastic recommendation. On the other hand, when these classifications are used to conclude that foods like brown rice, sweet potatoes and oatmeal are amazing, while foods like white rice and white potatoes are horrible and should never be eaten because A) they are unhealthy and B) they will cause you to gain more fat than equal amounts of these “better” carb sources would, then that’s when we have a problem. Why? Because statements like this are total horseshit. See, the main reason people say things like this is because of the glycemic index (GI), which is a system of classifying foods based on how quickly and how high they raise blood sugar levels. For this reason, eating in accordance with the glycemic index (eating low GI foods/avoiding high GI foods) is often viewed as a great idea for everything from losing fat or preventing fat from being gained, to controlling hunger, and preventing heart disease, diabetes and more. And if the glycemic index legitimately was the magical good/bad carb detector people like to pretend it is, then there would really be something to all of this. But unfortunately, it’s not. In reality, the entire concept of the glycemic index is flawed to the point where using it as the sole determinant of whether a high carb food is “good” or “bad” is just plain stupid.

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Why? Because the GI value of a food is determined when it’s eaten in isolation after an overnight fast. Those are the only conditions where the GI of a food is relevant. So unless you’re eating your carb sources in a manner that makes them all the FIRST and ONLY thing you’re eating after a full night of not eating anything (meaning waking up and having a breakfast comprised of absolutely nothing but white potatoes), then the glycemic index is borderline useless. I explain this in much more detail and really cover this whole idea of supposed good carbs vs bad carbs in my comparison of Brown Rice vs White Rice. Spoiler alert: with all else being equal, they are both exactly the same or white rice is slightly better. In fact, for me personally, foods like white rice and white potatoes are my favorite and most frequently eaten carb sources.

“BUT WON’T ‘BAD CARBS’ CAUSE MORE FAT GAINS?!?” No. Just, no. For the love of all humanity… NO! With all else being equal (meaning the same total calorie, protein, fat and carb intake, same workout program, same effort and consistency, etc.), the specific foods you eat play no direct role in fat loss or fat gain, muscle loss or muscle gain, or any aspect of calorie partitioning. With all else being equal, there will be no difference in body composition between eating white rice vs brown rice, white potatoes vs sweet potatoes, or even Twinkies vs oatmeal (absolutely not a recommendation… just trying to make a point). Strictly in terms of your body’s ability to build muscle, maintain muscle, lose fat or gain fat… none of this stuff matters. What matters is your total calorie and macronutrient intake for the day. Not how “good” or “bad” your carb sources were. Obviously there are big differences when it comes to things like satiety and overall health, which of course is why I recommend the following: Minimize your consumption of processed, low fiber, nutrient-lacking, lower quality carb sources (like sugar, candy, soda, cookies and typical “junk” food), and get the majority of your daily carb intake from more natural, higher fiber, nutrient-dense, higher quality sources (like the foods on the “Example Sources Of Carbs” list I’m going to show you in a minute).

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Now let’s figure out what your carb intake should be…

HOW MANY GRAMS OF CARBS SHOULD WE EAT? That’s easy.

Whatever amount is needed to meet your ideal calorie intake after your ideal protein and fat intakes have been factored in.

Confused? Don’t be. At this point, you’ve figured out how many grams of protein and fat you will be eating each day. You also know how many calories each of those macronutrients will account for (remember when we factored your protein intake into your daily calorie intake and it seemed pointless… here comes the point). So you know all of the calories that are still not yet accounted for in your diet in order to reach the ideal total amount of calories you should be eating each day? Those calories will all come from carbs. And, since 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories, you just need to divide this left over amount of calories by 4 to figure out exactly how many grams of carbs you need to eat. Still confused? It’s cool. Here’s an example using completely made up amounts and figures that will clear everything up: 1. Let’s say some example person figured out that they should be eating 2500 calories per day to build muscle (for the 100th time, this is just an example). 2. Let’s also pretend they weigh 165 lbs and want to eat 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of body weight each day (just like the example person we used before). In their case, that works out to 181-198g of protein per day. Just like before, let’s say they decide to go with an even 185g. Since 1g of protein is 4 calories, they’d then do 185g x 4 and find that 740 calories out of their 2500 total will come from protein each day. 3. Next our example person learned that 20-35% of their total calorie intake will come from fat. So, just like our example from before, they’d figure out that 20-35% of 2500 calories is between 500-875 calories. And since they like numbers somewhere in the middle, they go Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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with an even 675 (which of course works out to 75g of fat per day), which means 675 calories out of their 2500 total will come from fat each day. 4. At this point our example person knows that 740 of their daily calories will come from protein, and 675 will come from fat. Combined that means 1415 calories out of their 2500 total are now accounted for (in the form of protein and fat). 5. That means there are still 1085 calories that have not yet been accounted for in this example person’s diet (2500 - 1415 = 1085). Well, guess what? All of those 1085 calories will come from carbs. 6. And, since 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories, all our example person would need to do now is divide 1085 by 4 and get 271. 7. Which means, this example person would need to eat about 271 grams of carbs per day. Now just repeat these steps using your own amounts for calories, protein and fat. Figure out how many calories are still left over after protein and fat are factored in, and then just divide that left over amount by 4. The amount you get is how many grams of carbs you should eat per day.

EXAMPLE SOURCES OF CARBS As promised a minute ago, here is a basic list of the most common higher quality sources of carbs: 

Vegetables



Oats/Oatmeal



Fruits



Quinoa



Rice (white, brown, whatever)



Beans



White Potatoes



Various Whole Grain/Whole Wheat Foods



Sweet Potatoes/Yams

This is by no means the definitive list of every food that contains carbs, but it is a list of some of its most abundant and highest quality sources. Pick your favorites and/or the ones you tolerate best (e.g., if you have issues with wheat, don’t eat wheat).

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I personally get the majority of my carb intake from white rice, white potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Those are my preferred/best tolerated sources. Find your own and do the same. And with that, your macronutrient intake has been designed for Superior Muscle Growth. Now let’s redesign the way we consume it…

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CHAPTER 10

The Approach: Calorie And Nutrient Cycling

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► THE APPROACH: CALORIE AND NUTRIENT CYCLING

S

o, at this point, we’ve set up the most important aspects of our diet. The major details, if you will.

First, we created our ideal surplus (aka required supply #1) and figured out what our calorie intake needs to be to support growth and make our ideal rate of weight gain occur. We also learned how to track and adjust things just in case it doesn’t. Then we determined where those calories will come from by calculating what our ideal protein intake (aka required supply #2), fat intake and carb intake should be. Which means… every major component of our diet has been carefully designed to maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains to the highest degree possible. Nice! However, if you’re anything like me (handsome, brilliant, multi-talented… sorry, I mean an obsessive perfectionist who needs to know that every single thing – no matter how big or small – is being done just right), then you’ve probably been left with one lingering question on your mind… Is there anything that can be done to improve things even further? I mean sure, the major details of our diet have been set to optimal levels, but is there anything more we can do to ensure we get every last drop of effectiveness out of it? Something perhaps less major, but still beneficial enough to have a meaningful positive impact on our results? The answer, of course, is yes. And it’s a little something called calorie and nutrient cycling.

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WHAT IS CALORIE AND NUTRIENT CYCLING? First, a quick clarification so I can stop referring to it as “calorie and nutrient cycling.” Above all else, the true key to this dietary method is the cycling of calories. For this reason, “calorie cycling” makes sense as a name. However, since it’s technically nutrient intake (protein, fat, carbs) that’s being adjusted to make that calorie cycling occur (because it’s those nutrients that provide the calories in the first place), “nutrient cycling” makes sense as a name as well. Similarly, since the nutrient that tends to be adjusted the most is carbs (as you’ll see in a minute), referring to it as “carb cycling” also makes plenty of sense. However, in this context, these are just different names for the exact same thing. Of the three, my preference is to call it “calorie cycling” for the simple fact that if your calorie intake remains the same, you could dick around with nutrients and carbs all you want and it’s not really going to matter much in terms of changes to muscle mass or body fat (as long as protein remains at sufficient levels, at least). It’s the cycling of calories that produces the majority of the benefits. The cycling of everything else is primarily just a means to making that happen. Though yes, once the changes in calorie intake are present, the changes in individual nutrient intake will play some beneficial roles of their own as well (as you’ll also soon see). So… be it calorie cycling, nutrient cycling, carb cycling, cyclical dieting, zig-zagging or any of the other terms people sometimes use, it’s essentially all the same damn thing. From this point on however, I’ll be referring to it strictly as calorie cycling. Cool? Cool.

“SO WHAT THE HELL IS IT?” Calorie cycling is a dietary approach that involves strategically manipulating the manner in which you consume your calorie and macronutrient intake over the course of the week.

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For what purpose, you ask? In the context of muscle growth, to further improve calorie partitioning. Meaning, your diet is adjusted in a way that provides your body with more of the calories and nutrients it needs when it’s more likely to put them toward muscle growth (your training days), and less calories and nutrients when it’s more likely to put them toward fat storage (your rest days). Maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains. It always comes back to that. And it just so happens that this is an approach built for making it happen.

“BUT I DON’T GET IT? HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?” It’s pretty simple. A typical diet aimed at muscle growth is designed using an approach I refer to as a straight surplus, which is the only approach I’ve mentioned so far in this book. And what makes a straight surplus a “straight surplus” is the linear structure it has in terms of your daily calorie and macronutrient intake. You eat the same total amount of calories, with the same sized surplus, and the same amounts of protein, fat and carbs every single day of the week. Sure, various aspects of your diet may change from one day to the next (food sources, meal timing, meal frequency, etc.), but the major aspects (total calories, protein, fat and carbs) remain the same across all 7 days of the week. So you simply figure out what your daily intake of everything needs to be, and then you just eat those same amounts every day. This is often the only type of diet approach most people use or are even familiar with. It’s also the primary approach I use in the majority of the articles I’ve written (and I’ll explain why that is in a minute). But the thing is though… it’s not the only approach. Calorie cycling opens a door to a variety of new ways to structure our diet, specifically our calorie intake.

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How so? Because now things are no longer required to be linear. Now we’re thinking beyond daily totals. Now we’re thinking more about weekly totals and strategically manipulating the way we reach them to better suit our goals. Because as I mentioned earlier in this book, there are plenty of different ways to structure your diet that can still allow you to end up reaching the same totals at the end of the week. It turns out that certain ways of doing this provide benefits that other ways (like a straight surplus) may not.

“I THINK I’M STARTING TO GET IT NOW” Good. And this is also the point where you’re supposed to think “oh right… this must be why you gave ideal WEEKLY surplus recommendations before, isn’t it?” You bet your ass it is. It’s always going to be about creating that required surplus. The only difference now is that we’re going to redesign the way we do it to better improve our calorie partitioning. How? By using some of the other daily calorie intake options that are now at our disposal: 

A small surplus.



A moderate surplus.



A large surplus.



Maintenance.



A small deficit.



A moderate deficit.



A large deficit.

Each option on that list comes with its own set of characteristics… some of which are more ideal for helping us maximize muscle gains… and some of which are more ideal for helping us minimize fat gains. Our job is to incorporate them to our advantage.

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“I REALLY LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING” You should. So basically, instead of being in the same sized surplus every day using the straight surplus approach, we can now use any combination of the options above over the course of the week and STILL end up in the same total weekly surplus we need to be in. For example, we can be at maintenance or even in a deficit on our rest days (to help reduce fat gains), but as long as we create a large enough surplus on our training days to compensate (which will better support muscle growth, training performance and recovery on the days we need it the most)… the same total weekly surplus will still be present in the end. Let me show you one of the many ways it could work. Let’s say a person had a maintenance level of 2500 calories and wanted to create a total weekly surplus of 1400 calories (which, as usual, is just one random example). With a straight surplus approach, they’d just add 200 calories to all 7 days (1400 ÷ 7 = 200). So it would look like this… 1. 2700 2. 2700 3. 2700 4. 2700 5. 2700 6. 2700 7. 2700 Total Calorie Intake For The Week: 18900 Total Combined Weekly Surplus: 1400 Now let’s say they wanted to do the same thing using a calorie cycling approach. One example of the many ways it could be done is by staying at maintenance on their rest days (we’ll pretend they have 3 rest days and 4 training days) and then creating a larger surplus on their training days so the same total weekly surplus is still produced. In this case, that would mean putting a surplus of 350 calories on each of their 4 training days (1400 ÷ 4 = 350). So it might look like this…

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1. 2850 – Training Day 2. 2850 – Training Day 3. 2500 – Rest Day 4. 2850 – Training Day 5. 2850 – Training Day 6. 2500 – Rest Day 7. 2500 – Rest Day Total Calorie Intake For The Week: 18900 Total Combined Weekly Surplus: 1400 So at the end of the week, they accomplished the exact same thing: the same total calorie intake with the same total weekly surplus. It was just two different ways of getting there. Making all kinds of sense now, right? Good.

CALORIE CYCLING VS THE STRAIGHT SURPLUS The question you should be asking next, though, is whether any of these various calorie cycling approaches are more effective than a typical straight surplus approach? With all else being equal, I would say the answer is definitely YES. There is one potential exception to this – one particular group of people that a straight surplus will be more ideal for – and I’ll fully explain who those people are in a minute. But, for the vast majority of the people reading this, a calorie cycling approach will be superior to a typical straight surplus approach. Now, if you’re looking for me to show you a study that supports this statement, that’s not going to happen. This isn’t because it’s not true, it’s just because no such study exists. And if you’re looking for me to tell you exactly what degree of positive difference there will be when using a calorie cycling approach over a straight surplus approach, I honestly can’t do that either because I’ve never been able to quantify it down to something more specific than just “better.”

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All I can tell you is that I spent about 8 years using nothing but the straight surplus approach, and about 6 years using nothing but a calorie cycling approach. And without a doubt, things went better for me when using a calorie cycling approach than they ever did when using a straight surplus. Better how? Calorie partitioning. I gained more muscle and less fat. I stayed noticeably leaner while in a surplus building muscle. There was just a clear improvement in my ratio of muscle to fat gains. And it’s not just building muscle. I’ve found calorie cycling to be equally superior (if not more so) when the goal is fat loss for the same reasons (improved calorie partitioning) plus a few others specific to the needs of someone in a deficit (which is a fun topic for another book). And it’s not just me who has noticed the benefits. I’ve seen a significant number of people at a variety of levels (the average guy or girl just trying to build muscle and look awesome, athletes, natural bodybuilders, figure competitors, fitness models, etc.) report the exact same thing. And I’ve seen some of the smartest and most well respected people around use some form of calorie cycling as a huge component of their highly proven programs. Everyone from Lyle McDonald in his Ultimate Diet 2.0 (aka UD2), to Martin Berkhan’s “Leangains” style of intermittent fasting, to Tom Venuto’s best-selling Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, to probably hundreds of other people with hundreds of other programs… many of which got (or completely stole) the idea from these guys. And while I’ve been aware of the concept of cycling calories for over a decade, I’ll gladly be the first person to admit to having the desire to actually experiment with it (especially for muscle growth) put into my head by these guys (especially Lyle and Martin). The only thing I’ll take any credit for is what ended up becoming my specific approach to it. Or really, my specific approaches to it. Speaking of which…

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THE APPROACHES It’s now time to walk you through the details of each approach, explain their pros and cons, and tell you exactly which one will be most effective for you. The approaches are: 1. The Straight Surplus 2. Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus 3. Maintenance + Surplus 4. Deficit + Surplus And now let me set the stage for it…

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THE SETUP Each of the following approaches will involve adjusting certain aspects of your calorie and macronutrient intake. So, for your convenience, I want to quickly recap the diet recommendations made throughout this book thus far, this way they’ll all be right here, together, in one place. Let the recap begin…

THE IDEAL WEEKLY SURPLUS FOR MEN 

Group A: A total weekly surplus of about 2800 calories. (3-3.5 lbs/month)



Group B: A total weekly surplus of about 2100 calories. (2-3 lbs/month)



Group C: A total weekly surplus of about 1400 calories. (1.5-2 lbs/month)



Group D: A total weekly surplus of about 1050 calories. (1-1.5 lb/month)



Group E: A total weekly surplus of about 630 calories. (0.5-1 lb/month)

THE IDEAL WEEKLY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN 

Group A: A total weekly surplus of about 1400 calories. (1.5-1.75 lb/month)



Group B: A total weekly surplus of about 1050 calories. (1-1.5 lb/month)



Group C: A total weekly surplus of about 700 calories. (0.75-1 lb/month)



Group D: A total weekly surplus of about 525 calories. (0.5-0.75 lb/month)



Group E: A total weekly surplus of about 420 calories. (0.5 lb/month)

DAILY PROTEIN INTAKE 

1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight.



1g of protein contains 4 calories.

DAILY FAT INTAKE 

20-35% of your total daily calorie intake.



1g of fat contains 9 calories.

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DAILY CARB INTAKE 

Whatever calories are left over after protein and fat have been factored in.



1g of carbs contains 4 calories.

MEET OUR EXAMPLE PEOPLE: JACK AND JANE To make sure everything is as clear as possible in this chapter, I’m going to give both male and female examples using imaginary example people named Jack and Jane. 

We will say Jack weighs 165 lbs and has a daily maintenance level of 2500 calories.



We will say Jane weighs 120 lbs and has a daily maintenance level of 2000 calories.

Again, these are all just randomly made up example amounts. Your actual amounts will of course be specific to you. Jack and Jane are just here to serve as examples. Now let’s get down to business…

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APPROACH #1: THE STRAIGHT SURPLUS While we technically already covered the straight surplus approach earlier, I want to cover it again here, in more detail, and provide a full example diet breakdown for Jack and Jane.

WHAT IS THIS APPROACH? As you already know, the straight surplus involves creating the same sized surplus each day, and then eating the same amount of calories, protein, fat and carbs every single day of the week. Nothing is cycled throughout the week, and nothing gets adjusted from one day to the next. Your calorie and macronutrient intake stay consistent across all 7 days of the week.

HOW SHOULD IT BE DONE? 1. Calorie Intake You’re going to simply take your ideal total weekly surplus and divide it up evenly over the 7 days of the week. You will therefore be eating the same amount of calories each day, with the same sized surplus. 2. Protein Intake Protein will remain consistently set each day at 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight. 3. Fat Intake Fat will also be consistently set each day at somewhere within the range of 20-35% of your total calorie intake, with the exact amount being mostly dependent on your own personal preferences. If you don’t really have a preference, something like 25% is usually perfectly fine for most people. 4. Carb Intake Carbs, like everything else, will also be consistently set each day, and will, of course, fill in the remaining calories after protein and fat have been factored in.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: MEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for guys…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR MEN As mentioned, you’re keeping your calorie intake consistent across the week and thus creating the same sized surplus every single day. Since there are 7 days in a week, you just need to divide your ideal weekly surplus by 7 to determine your daily surplus. No need to do any math, though. I’ve already done it for you:



Group A: A total daily surplus of about 400 calories.



Group B: A total daily surplus of about 300 calories.



Group C: A total daily surplus of about 200 calories.



Group D: A total daily surplus of about 150 calories.



Group E: A total daily surplus of about 90 calories.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add this ideal daily surplus on top of it and eat that amount each day.

MEN’S EXAMPLE: JACK Our example guy is Jack. He weighs 165 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2500 calories. Let’s also say he is in Group C. Here’s what he would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create his surplus. Since he is in Group C, he would create a surplus of about 200 calories per day. Since his maintenance level is 2500 calories, Jack will eat 2700 calories per day (2500 + 200 = 2700). Obviously, if he was in one of the other “groups” his daily surplus would be slightly bigger (perhaps 300) or slightly smaller (perhaps 150). You should obviously create your surplus based on which group you fit into. Our example guy Jack just happens to be in Group C. 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jack weighs 165 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, he calculates that his protein intake will be 181-198g per day (165 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 181-198g). Jack prefers to go with the high end of his range and rounds up to a perfectly

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even 200g of protein per day. He also calculates that 200g x 4 calories per gram = 800 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jack wants to go with an even 25% for his fat intake, so he figures out that 25% of his total 2700 calorie intake is 675 calories. 675 calories divided by 9 calories per gram = 75g of fat per day. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 800 calories will be coming from protein and 675 calories will be coming from fat, Jack sees that 1475 calories out of his total daily calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 675 = 1475), which means there are still 1225 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs (2700 - 1475 = 1225). So Jack does 1225 divided by 4 calories per gram and gets 306g of carbs per day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jack will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring his progress and tracking his body weight. Why? To ensure his ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! He will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure his ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If he’s gaining more or less than he should be, however, he will adjust his calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example guy Jack now has a diet that breaks down like this… 

Calories: 2700



Protein: 200g



Fat: 75g



Carbs: 306g

You just need to repeat these same five steps using your own relevant numbers.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: WOMEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for girls…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN As mentioned, you’re keeping your calorie intake consistent across the week and thus creating the same sized surplus every single day. Since there are 7 days in a week, you just need to divide your ideal weekly surplus by 7 to determine your daily surplus. No need to do any math, though. I’ve already done it for you:



Group A: A total daily surplus of about 200 calories.



Group B: A total daily surplus of about 150 calories.



Group C: A total daily surplus of about 100 calories.



Group D: A total daily surplus of about 75 calories.



Group E: A total daily surplus of about 60 calories.

 So whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add this ideal daily surplus on top of it and eat that amount each day.

WOMEN’S EXAMPLE: JANE Our example girl is Jane. She weighs 120 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2000 calories. Let’s also say she is in Group C. Here’s what she would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create her surplus. Since she is in Group C, she would create a surplus of about 100 calories per day. Since her maintenance level is 2000 calories, Jane will eat 2100 calories per day (2000 + 100 = 2100). Obviously, if she was in one of the other “groups” her daily surplus would be slightly bigger (perhaps 150) or slightly smaller (perhaps 75). You should obviously create your surplus based on which group you fit into. Our example girl Jane just happens to be in Group C. 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jane weighs 120 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, she calculates that her protein intake will be 132-144g per day (120 lbs x 1.1-1.2g =

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132-144g). Jane prefers to go with something in the middle and chooses a perfectly even 140g of protein per day. She also calculates that 140g x 4 calories per gram = 560 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jane wants to go with an even 25% for her fat intake, so she figures out that 25% of her total 2100 calorie intake is 525 calories. 525 calories divided by 9 calories per gram = 58g of fat per day. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 560 calories will be coming from protein and 525 calories will be coming from fat, Jane sees that 1085 calories out of her total daily calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 525 = 1085), which means there are still 1015 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs (2100 - 1085 = 1015). So Jane does 1015 divided by 4 calories per gram and gets 254g of carbs per day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jane will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring her progress and tracking her body weight. Why? To ensure her ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! She will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure her ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If she’s gaining more or less than she should be, however, she will adjust her calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example girl Jane now has a diet that breaks down like this… 

Calories: 2100



Protein: 140g



Fat: 58g



Carbs: 254g

You just need to repeat these same five steps using your own relevant numbers.

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WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF THIS APPROACH?  Pros: It’s the simplest and most straightforward way to set up your diet. That’s the biggest benefit of this approach. This, of course, is precisely why it’s the generic approach I’ve used by default in the majority of the stuff I’ve written outside of this book. The straight surplus is just the easiest to explain, the simplest to understand and the least complicated for the average person to put into action and consistently adhere to. I mean… “just eat these same amounts every day” is as clear as it gets. And it just so happens that the simpler a diet is, the more likely the average person will be to begin and sustain it.



Cons: While it will definitely work really well when used in conjunction with all of the guidelines in this book, a calorie cycling approach just works better.

WHO SHOULD USE THIS APPROACH? With all else being equal, probably no one. Why? Because a calorie cycling approach is the superior choice, and that’s exactly what Superior Muscle Growth is all about. However, things are not always equal when it comes to a person’s diet. That’s because there is more to a diet than just doing the most effective thing. There is always an adherence component involved. Meaning, if a diet is too complicated for someone, or too hard or inconvenient for them to manage, or just too much of a pain in the ass for them to consistently sustain, then guess what? They aren’t going to. Any added effectiveness from the method they’re trying to implement will be canceled out by the fact that this person just isn’t going to stick to that diet. And above all else, the first step to making a diet effective is actually sticking to it long enough for it to work. For this reason, there is one particular group of people who I feel a straight surplus will be ideal for… Anyone (beginner, intermediate, advanced) who thrives on keeping things as simple as possible, finds calorie cycling to be too complex to manage/sustain, and may therefore fail to meet their major dietary requirements as a result.

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Because really, that’s what’s most important here… creating the ideal weekly surplus, hitting your macronutrient totals and making your ideal rate of weight gain occur. A calorie cycling approach is just the beneficial icing on the cake. So if the slightly more advanced nature of the approaches outlined below may somehow prevent you from consistently meeting those requirements, then a straight surplus is the ideal approach for you. But, that’s it. That is the primary scenario where I’d recommend a straight surplus over calorie cycling. So, if this sort of thing isn’t an issue for you… if you have no problem doing something slightly more advanced… if you’ll have no real issue adhering to a more complex dietary approach… then calorie cycling is definitely what I recommend. Now let’s take a look at how to do it…

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APPROACH #2: SMALLER SURPLUS + LARGER SURPLUS The first calorie cycling approach we have is best described as Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus. I’ll tell you up front that this is an approach I only recommend to certain beginners. So if you are past the beginner stage, this isn’t an ideal approach for you (I’ll explain why in a bit). Beginners, however, should pay extra attention. For some of you, it will be ideal.

WHAT IS THIS APPROACH? The “Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus” approach is exactly what it sounds like. There is a surplus every day of the week, however rest days will have a smaller surplus and training days will have a larger surplus. As for macronutrients, protein intake will remain the same each day. Fat intake, however, will be slightly higher on rest days and slightly lower on training days, while carbs will be the opposite of this (lower on rest days, higher on training days). Carbs will also be the nutrient being adjusted the most to create the difference in calories between rest and training days.

HOW SHOULD IT BE DONE? 

Calorie Intake Your total weekly surplus will now be divided up over the 7 days of the week in a manner where a smaller surplus is placed on your rest days and a larger surplus is placed on your training days. But, the total combined surplus for all 7 days will still be equal to what your ideal total weekly surplus needs to be. Specifically… MEN will have a 150 calorie surplus on each of their rest days. WOMEN will have a 100 calorie surplus on each of their rest days. The remaining surplus calories needed to meet your ideal weekly total will then be divided up evenly over your 3 training days. Why 3 training days? Because this is an approach I’m only recommending to certain beginners, and beginners should – for reasons I’ll explain later in this book – ideally have 3 training days per week (and therefore 4 rest days). So this is the only schedule I’ll be showing examples for.

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

Protein Intake Protein will remain consistently set each day at 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight.



Fat Intake Fat will be just a little bit higher on rest days than training days, with the specific difference breaking down as follows. Your rest days (of which there will be 4) will have a fat intake of 28% of your total daily calorie intake, while your training days (of which there will be 3) will have a fat intake of 22% of your total calorie intake.



Carb Intake Carbs will always fill in the remaining calories after protein and fat have been factored in. However, in this case the amount that needs to be “filled in” will be less on rest days and more on training days. Which means that carb intake will be slightly lower on rest days, and slightly higher on training days.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: MEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for guys…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR MEN 

4 Rest Days A surplus of 150 calories on each of the 4 rest days.



3 Training Days Group A: A surplus of 733 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group B: A surplus of 500 calories on each of the 3 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add 150 calories to it on your rest days, and either 733 calories to it on your training days for Group A, or 500 calories to it on your training days for Group B. Now even though your surplus will be different on training days and rest days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week, the total weekly surplus you need (which is 2800 for Group A and 2100 for Group B) will still be just the same. For example, a Group B diet would look something like this… 1. 500 surplus – Training Day 2. 150 surplus – Rest Day 3. 500 surplus – Training Day 4. 150 surplus – Rest Day 5. 500 surplus – Training Day 6. 150 surplus – Rest Day 7. 150 surplus – Rest Day Total Surplus For The Week: 2100 Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group B: 2100

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As you can see, the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group B diet should have. Now for an even more thorough example that puts everything together…

MEN’S EXAMPLE: JACK Our example guy is Jack. He weighs 165 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2500 calories. Let’s also say he is in Group B. Here’s what he would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create his surplus. Since he is in Group B, he would create a surplus of 150 calories per day on each rest day, and then 500 calories per day on each training day. Since his maintenance level is 2500 calories, Jack will eat 2650 calories on his 4 rest days (2500 + 150 = 2650) and 3000 calories on his 3 training days (2500 + 500 = 3000). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jack weighs 165 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, he calculates that his protein intake will be 181-198g per day (165 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 181-198g). Jack prefers to go with the high end of his range and rounds up to a perfectly even 200g of protein per day. He also calculates that 200g x 4 calories per gram = 800 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jack will get 28% of his calorie intake from fat on his 4 rest days. So first he’ll figure out that 28% of 2650 (his rest day calorie intake) is 742 calories, and then he’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 82g of fat on his 4 rest days. Next he’ll repeat these steps for his 3 training days, only now calculating 22% (the training day fat intake) of his 3000 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 660 calories, which comes out to 73g of fat per day on his 3 training days. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 800 calories will be coming from protein each day and 742/660 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1542 calories out of Jack’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 742 = 1542), while 1460 calories out of his total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 660 = 1460). This means there are still 1108 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his rest days (2650 - 1542 = 1108), and 1540 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his training days (3000 - 1460 = 1540). So Jack divides 1108 by 4 calories per gram and gets 277g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1540 by 4 calories per gram and gets 385g of carbs on each training day.

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5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jack will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring his progress and tracking his body weight. Why? To ensure his ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! He will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure his ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If he’s gaining more or less than he should be, however, he will adjust his calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example guy Jack now has a diet that breaks down like this… His 4 Rest Days:

His 3 Training Days:



Calories: 2650



Calories: 3000



Protein: 200g



Protein: 200g



Fat: 82g



Fat: 73g



Carbs: 277g



Carbs: 385g

You just need to repeat these same five steps using your own relevant numbers.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: WOMEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for girls…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN 

4 Rest Days A surplus of 100 calories on each of the 4 rest days.



3 Training Days Group A: A surplus of 333 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group B: A surplus of 217 calories on each of the 3 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, just add 100 calories to it on your rest days, and either 333 calories to it on your training days for Group A, or 217 calories to it on your training days for Group B. Now even though your surplus will be different on training days and rest days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week, the total weekly surplus you need (which is 1400 for Group A and 1050 for Group B) will still be just the same. For example, a Group B diet would look something like this… 1. 217 surplus – Training Day 2. 100 surplus – Rest Day 3. 217 surplus – Training Day 4. 100 surplus – Rest Day 5. 217 surplus – Training Day 6. 100 surplus – Rest Day 7. 100 surplus – Rest Day Total Surplus For The Week: 1051 Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group B: 1050

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Ignoring that completely meaningless 1 calorie difference (it’s because 217 is actually a rounded off 216.6), you can see the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group B diet should have. Now for an even more thorough example that puts everything together…

WOMEN’S EXAMPLE: JANE Our example girl is Jane. She weighs 120 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2000 calories. Let’s also say she is in Group B. Here’s what she would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create her surplus. Since she is in Group B, she would create a surplus of 100 calories per day on each rest day, and then 217 calories per day on each training day. Since her maintenance level is 2000 calories, Jane will eat 2100 calories on her 4 rest days (2000 + 100 = 2100) and 2217 calories on her 3 training days (2000 + 217 = 2217). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jane weighs 120 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, she calculates that her protein intake will be 132-144g per day (120 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 132-144g). Jane prefers to go with something in the middle and chooses a perfectly even 140g of protein per day. She also calculates that 140g x 4 calories per gram = 560 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jane will get 28% of her calorie intake from fat on her 4 rest days. So first she’ll figure out that 28% of 2100 (her rest day calorie intake) is 588 calories, and then she’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 65g of fat on her 4 rest days. Next she’ll repeat these steps for her 3 training days, only now calculating 22% (the training day fat intake) of her 2217 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 488 calories, which comes out to 54g of fat per day on her 3 training days. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 560 calories will be coming from protein each day and 588/488 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1148 calories out of Jane’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 588 = 1148), while 1048 calories out of her total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 488 = 1048). This means there are still 952 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her rest days (2100 - 1148 = 952), and 1169 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her training days (2217 - 1048 = 1169). So Jane divides 952 by 4 calories per

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gram and gets 238g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1169 by 4 calories per gram and gets 292g of carbs on each training day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jane will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring her progress and tracking her body weight. Why? To ensure her ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! She will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure her ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If she’s gaining more or less than she should be, however, she will adjust her calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example girl Jane now has a diet that breaks down like this… Her 4 Rest Days:

Her 3 Training Days:



Calories: 2100



Calories: 2217



Protein: 140g



Protein: 140g



Fat: 65g



Fat: 54g



Carbs: 238g



Carbs: 292g

You just need to repeat these same five steps using your own relevant numbers.

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF THIS APPROACH?  Pros: With a surplus every day, this approach is ideal for those with higher realistic rates of muscle growth (which in this context is primarily young beginners) who will therefore be capable of benefiting from keeping a surplus intact all 7 days of the week. Why? Because more potential for growth = more potential for calories/nutrients to be put toward growth (thus helping to maximize muscle gains). In addition, unlike a straight surplus which puts the same moderate surplus on each day, this approach cycles calories so that the surplus (and carb intake) is a bit higher on training days and a bit lower on rest days. This will help improve calorie partitioning to some degree compared to a typical straight surplus approach (thus helping to minimize fat gains).

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Cons: Because there is still a surplus every day of the week, the potential for fat gains is slightly higher for those who aren’t capable of that same higher realistic rate of muscle growth (and would therefore be less likely to benefit from having a surplus on all 7 days). This includes all intermediate and advanced trainees, as well as older beginners and beginners with below-average genetics.

WHO SHOULD USE THIS APPROACH? As I’ve mentioned a couple of times now, this is an approach I think is most ideal for certain beginners. Specifically, I recommend this approach to…



Beginners in their teens or early 20’s with average (or above-average) genetics. This would include all of Group A, and all Group B people under the age of 25 with average (or better) genetics. This slightly more aggressive approach is what will best allow you to push recovery, performance and progress as high as possible during your initial 612 months of intelligent beginner training and really maximize your potential for “noob gains” in strength and muscle mass.

So if that describes you, this is your superior approach. For everyone else, however, there are better options still to come. Here’s one of them right now…

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APPROACH #3: MAINTENANCE + SURPLUS Next up we have a calorie cycling approach best described as Maintenance + Surplus. This is one that all remaining beginners not using the previous approach will want to pay close attention to.

WHAT IS THIS APPROACH? The “Maintenance + Surplus” approach is exactly what it sounds like. You will be at your maintenance level on rest days, and in a surplus on training days. As for macronutrients, protein intake will remain the same each day. Fat intake, however, will be fairly low on training days, and then fairly high on rest days. Carbs will be the opposite of this… higher on training days (when we’re more likely to benefit from them) and lower on rest days (when we have much less use for higher carbs).

HOW SHOULD IT BE DONE? 

Calorie Intake Your rest days will be set at your maintenance level (so no surplus at all on rest days) and your total weekly surplus will then be divided up evenly over your 3 training days. Why 3 training days? Because this is an approach I’m only recommending to certain beginners, and beginners should – for reasons I’ll explain later in this book – ideally have 3 training days per week (and therefore 4 rest days). So this is the only schedule I’ll be showing examples for.



Protein Intake Protein will remain consistently set each day at 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight.



Fat Intake Fat will be set at 15-20% of your total calorie intake on your training days, and 30-40% of your total calorie intake on your rest days. So, even though you may be just slightly outside of that ideal 20-35% range I mentioned earlier on certain days, your average daily fat intake for the week will still end up somewhere within that ideal range.



Carb Intake Carbs will always fill in the remaining calories after protein and fat have been factored in. However, in this case, the amount that needs to be “filled in” will be a lot less on rest days and a lot more on training days. Which means that carb intake will be much lower on rest days, and much higher on training days.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: MEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for guys…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR MEN Since you will be at maintenance on your rest days, figuring out your training day surplus is a simple matter of dividing your ideal total weekly surplus by however many training days you have. To make it even simpler, I’ve already done the math for you. Since this is an approach for beginners, and since beginners will have 3 training days per week, this is what the daily surplus would end up being for the groups this approach may potentially be used by:



4 Rest Days Maintenance. (No surplus.)



3 Training Days Group B: A surplus of 700 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group C: A surplus of 467 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group D: A surplus of 350 calories on each of the 3 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, you’d stay at that amount on your rest days. And then depending on which group you fall into (B, C or D), this is how much of a surplus you’d need to be in on each of your 3 training days. Now even though there is no surplus at all on rest days and a larger surplus has been put on training days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week, you still end up creating the ideal weekly surplus you need (which is 2100 for Group B, 1400 for Group C, and 1050 for Group D). For example, a Group B diet for a person with 3 training days per week will look something like this…

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1. 700 surplus – Training Day 2. 0 surplus – Rest Day 3. 700 surplus – Training Day 4. 0 surplus – Rest Day 5. 700 surplus – Training Day 6. 0 surplus – Rest Day 7. 0 surplus – Rest Day Total Surplus For The Week: 2100 Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group B: 2100 As you can see, the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group B diet is supposed to have. And even though I’m not showing a similar example for a Group C or Group D diet, you can expect the outcome in all of these cases to be exactly the same (meaning, the total weekly surplus you’re supposed to have will indeed be there in the end).

THE DAILY FAT INTAKE FOR MEN As I mentioned before, fat intake is going to be kept pretty low on training days (15-20% of total calories) and pretty high on rest days (30-40% of total calories). And honestly, as long as you are somewhere within those ranges on those days, you’ll be fine. However, I figured I should show you my preference for exactly how I like to set this up:  

4 Rest Days: 32% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days. 3 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

In this scenario, the average daily fat intake for the week is about 25%, which is usually pretty close to perfect for most people. And, going this low with fat on training days and this high on rest days (and conversely, this high with carbs on training days and this low on rest days) is what I’ve found to be the superior macronutrient setup when using this approach. But again, as long as you’re within the suggested ranges, you’re good. Now for an example that puts it all together… Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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MEN’S EXAMPLE: JACK Our example guy is Jack. He weighs 165 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2500 calories. Let’s also say he is in Group B and has 3 training days/4 rest days per week. Here’s what he would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create his surplus. Since he is in Group B, he will eat at his maintenance level on his 4 rest days, and then create a surplus of 700 calories on each of his 3 training days. Since his maintenance level is 2500 calories, Jack will eat 2500 calories on his 4 rest days and 3200 calories on his 3 training days (2500 + 700 = 3200). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jack weighs 165 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, he calculates that his protein intake will be 181-198g per day (165 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 181-198g). Jack prefers to go with the high end of his range and rounds up to a perfectly even 200g of protein per day. He also calculates that 200g x 4 calories per gram = 800 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jack decides to use my preferred fat intake percentages. That means he will get 32% of his calorie intake from fat on his 4 rest days. So first he’ll figure out that 32% of 2500 (his rest day calorie intake) is 800 calories, and then he’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 89g of fat on his 4 rest days. Next he’ll repeat these steps for his 3 training days, only now calculating 16% (the training day fat intake) of his 3200 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 512 calories, which comes out to 57g of fat per day on his 3 training days. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 800 calories will be coming from protein each day and 800/512 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1600 calories out of Jack’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 800 = 1600), while 1312 calories out of his total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 512 = 1312). This means there are still 900 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his rest days (2500 - 1600 = 900), and 1888 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his training days (3200 - 1312 = 1888). So Jack divides 900 by 4 calories per gram and gets 225g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1888 by 4 calories per gram and gets 472g of carbs on each training day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jack will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring his progress and tracking his body weight. Why? To ensure his ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! He will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure his ideal rate of weight Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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gain continues to occur). If he’s gaining more or less than he should be, however, he will adjust his calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example guy Jack now has a diet that breaks down like this… His 4 Rest Days:

His 3 Training Days:



Calories: 2500



Calories: 3200



Protein: 200g



Protein: 200g



Fat: 89g



Fat: 57g



Carbs: 225g



Carbs: 472g

You just need to repeat these same steps using your own relevant numbers.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: WOMEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for girls…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN Since you will be at maintenance on your rest days, figuring out your training day surplus is a simple matter of dividing your ideal total weekly surplus by however many training days you have. To make it even simpler, I’ve already done the math for you. Since this is an approach for beginners, and since beginners will have 3 training days per week, this is what the daily surplus would end up being for the groups this approach may potentially be used by:



4 Rest Days Maintenance. (No surplus.)



3 Training Days Group B: A surplus of 350 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group C: A surplus of 233 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group D: A surplus of 175 calories on each of the 3 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, you’d stay at that amount on your rest days. And then depending on which group you fall into (B, C or D), this is how much of a surplus you’d need to be in on each of your 3 training days. Now even though there is no surplus at all on rest days and a larger surplus has been put on training days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week, you still end up creating the ideal weekly surplus you need (which is 1050 for Group B, 700 for Group C, and 525 for Group D). For example, a Group B diet for a person with 3 training days per week will look something like this…

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1. 350 surplus – Training Day 2. 0 surplus – Rest Day 3. 350 surplus – Training Day 4. 0 surplus – Rest Day 5. 350 surplus – Training Day 6. 0 surplus – Rest Day 7. 0 surplus – Rest Day Total Surplus For The Week: 1050 Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group B: 1050 As you can see, the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group B diet is supposed to have. And even though I’m not showing a similar example for a Group C or Group D diet, you can expect the outcome in all of these cases to be exactly the same (meaning, the total weekly surplus you’re supposed to have will indeed be there in the end).

THE DAILY FAT INTAKE FOR WOMEN As I mentioned before, fat intake is going to be kept pretty low on training days (15-20% of total calories) and pretty high on rest days (30-40% of total calories). And honestly, as long as you are somewhere within those ranges on those days, you’ll be fine. However, I figured I should show you my preference for exactly how I like to set this up:  

4 Rest Days: 32% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days. 3 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

In this scenario, the average daily fat intake for the week is about 25%, which is usually pretty close to perfect for most people. And, going this low with fat on training days and this high on rest days (and conversely, this high with carbs on training days and this low on rest days) is what I’ve found to be the superior macronutrient setup when using this approach. But again, as long as you’re within the suggested ranges, you’re good. Now for an example that puts it all together… Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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WOMEN’S EXAMPLE: JANE Our example girl is Jane. She weighs 120 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2000 calories. Let’s also say she is in Group B and has 3 training days/4 rest days per week. Here’s what she would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create her surplus. Since she is in Group B, she will eat at her maintenance level on her 4 rest days, and then create a surplus of 350 calories on each of her 3 training days. Since her maintenance level is 2000 calories, Jane will eat 2000 calories on her 4 rest days and 2350 calories on her 3 training days (2000 + 350 = 2350). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jane weighs 120 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, she calculates that her protein intake will be 132-144g per day (120 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 132-144g). Jane prefers to go with something in the middle and chooses a perfectly even 140g of protein per day. She also calculates that 140g x 4 calories per gram = 560 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jane decides to use my preferred fat intake percentages. That means she will get 32% of her calorie intake from fat on her 4 rest days. So first she’ll figure out that 32% of 2000 (her rest day calorie intake) is 640 calories, and then she’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 71g of fat on her 4 rest days. Next she’ll repeat these steps for her 3 training days, only now calculating 16% (the training day fat intake) of her 2350 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 376 calories, which comes out to 42g of fat per day on her 3 training days. 4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 560 calories will be coming from protein each day and 640/376 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1200 calories out of Jane’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 640 = 1200), while 936 calories out of her total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 376 = 936). This means there are still 800 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her rest days (2000 - 1200 = 800), and 1414 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her training days (2350 - 936 = 1414). So Jane divides 800 by 4 calories per gram and gets 200g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1414 by 4 calories per gram and gets 354g of carbs on each training day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jane will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring her progress and tracking her body weight. Why? To ensure her ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! She will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure her ideal rate of Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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weight gain continues to occur). If she’s gaining more or less than she should be, however, she will adjust her calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example girl Jane now has a diet that breaks down like this… Her 4 Rest Days:

Her 3 Training Days



Calories: 2000



Calories: 2350



Protein: 140g



Protein: 140g



Fat: 71g



Fat: 42g



Carbs: 200g



Carbs: 354g

You just need to repeat these same steps using your own relevant numbers.

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF THIS APPROACH?  Pros: Adjusting our diet so that a larger surplus and a significantly higher carb intake are placed only on our training days will have a positive impact on our performance, recovery and overall ability to maximize muscle gains. And then removing the surplus completely so that we’re back down to maintenance along with a significantly lower carb intake on our rest days (when our calorie/carb needs are greatly reduced) will have a more positive impact on our ability to minimize fat gains than either of the approaches we’ve already covered. And the fact that we’re at maintenance on those rest days (rather than something more extreme… like a deficit) and carbs are still fairly moderate (rather than something more extreme… like really low) means we’ll be getting those benefits without cutting into the recovery process that’s still taking place on those days (like a deficit and/or really low carb intake potentially can).

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Cons: For most people, practically none. For a select few, one. Specifically, removing the surplus from rest days makes this approach slightly less ideal for those with higher realistic rates of muscle growth (this would primarily be the young beginners with average or better genetics using the previous approach) and therefore lower potential for fat gains. People like this are more likely to benefit from having a surplus every day (to maximize their higher potential for growth) and less likely to truly need the fat-gain-minimizing benefits of going down to maintenance on rest days (which may slightly impede their ability to maximize that growth potential). This, of course, is why I recommended the previous approach (“Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus”) to people fitting this description. For everyone else, this is a non-issue.

WHO SHOULD USE THIS APPROACH? This is an approach that I recommend to…



All beginners not using the previous “Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus” approach. That previous approach was recommended to beginners under 25 with average (or better) genetics. So if that doesn’t describe you, then this “Maintenance + Surplus” approach is your ideal option. This would include beginners under 25 with below-average genetics, as well as all beginners over 25, regardless of genetics. So basically all beginners from Groups B, C and D who aren’t using the previous approach.

So if you fit the description above, this is your superior approach. For everyone else, however, there is one remaining option you’re going to want to see. Let’s take a look at it right now…

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APPROACH #4: DEFICIT + SURPLUS Next up we have a calorie cycling approach best described as Deficit + Surplus. This is one that all intermediate and advanced trainees will want to pay close attention to.

WHAT IS THIS APPROACH? The “Deficit + Surplus” approach is exactly what it sounds like. You will be in a deficit on rest days and in a surplus on training days. As for macronutrients, protein intake will remain the same each day. Fat intake will be fairly low on training days, and then fairly high on rest days. Carbs will be the opposite of this… higher on training days (when we’re more likely to benefit from them) and lower on rest days (when we have much less use for higher carbs).

“WAIT… A DEFICIT?!?! ARE YOU SURE?” Yes, a deficit. And yes, I’m sure. But you are right to be a bit cautious and/or confused about it. After all, a caloric deficit is literally an energy deficit, and it’s safe to say that the things we care about most – like performance and recovery – are not exactly going to be at their best when in this energy deficient state. Especially when compared to how those same things would be when we’re at maintenance or (even better) in a surplus. Not to mention, we learned earlier that in addition to fat loss, muscle loss is another possible outcome of being in a deficit. Yikes! So what we have here is something that can potentially impede our recovery, performance and overall ability to build muscle, while also potentially being capable of causing some actual muscle loss as well. The question is, with a résumé as scary as this, why in holy hell would we even consider using a deficit as part of our muscle building approach?

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And the answer is, because as long as we use it just right, the potential benefits it can provide in terms of minimizing fat gains will be well worth the risk for most of us.

“ALRIGHT, NOW YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION” If you can temporarily ignore the potential negatives that a caloric deficit might bring to the table, you’ll see that it also brings a couple of positives as well: 1. A deficit allows us to insert periods during the week where gains in body fat are not going to happen (similar to being at maintenance in the previous approach). 2. A deficit also allows us to insert periods during the week where a small loss of body fat may occur (which is something that would not happen at maintenance in the previous approach). Now granted, the key word in point #2 is definitely “small.” Why? Because we will still be in a weekly net surplus after all, and meaningful fat loss will not occur in a net surplus. However, by including these brief periods (rest days) of caloric deficit within that overall weekly surplus, there is a potential for some very minor amounts of fat loss to occur. So minor, in fact, that all you should expect to lose is some small percentage of the already small amount of body fat you’d be gaining due to being in a surplus in the first place. Meaning, it’s not going to be significant enough to offset ALL fat gains and completely prevent any fat from being gained (as we went over earlier, that’s something that’s just not going to happen for the majority of the population… some small amount of fat gains will always occur in a surplus regardless of your approach). And it sure as hell isn’t going to be significant enough to allow you to lose the body fat you already have (as we also covered earlier, the majority of the population will not be capable of building muscle and losing fat at the same time… most of us will need to focus on one goal at a time). But what it will be significant enough to do is take things one beneficial step further in helping us minimize the amount of fat being gained while we build muscle. And for us, that’s more than good enough. All we need to do is figure out the best way to implement this deficit into our approach to get these benefits, BUT also ensure we don’t experience any of those potential problems that I mentioned before (impeding recovery/performance/growth, causing muscle loss). Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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Because if those problems are occurring, it will all be for nothing. Any potential fat prevention benefits we’d be getting would easily be outweighed by the fact that the deficit is hindering muscle growth or quite possibly preventing any muscle from being built at all. We need the best of both worlds, and the key to making it happen lies in the size of the deficit itself.

THE SIZE OF THE DEFICIT So, how big should our rest day deficit be? There are actually a few options here, and I’ve personally tested all of them: 1. Tiny Deficit In this context, we’ll define that as 5-7.5% below maintenance. (So if someone’s maintenance level is 2500 calories, they’d have a deficit of 125-188 calories on their rest days.) 2. Small Deficit In this context, we’ll define that as 10-15% below maintenance. (So if someone’s maintenance level is 2500 calories, they’d have a deficit of 250-375 calories on their rest days.) 3. Moderate Deficit In this context, we’ll define that as 15-25% below maintenance. (So if someone’s maintenance level is 2500 calories, they’d have a deficit of 375-625 calories on their rest days.) 4. Large Deficit In this context, we’ll define that as 25-35% (or more) below maintenance. (So if someone’s maintenance level is 2500 calories, they’d have a deficit of 625-875 calories or more on their rest days.) So, which one is best? I’ve experimented with this quite a bit, and the results actually support my initial (very obvious) hypothesis. That being… the bigger the deficit, the better things become for minimizing fat gains but the more detrimental things become for muscle growth, performance and recovery. Because while we aren’t actually training on our rest days, various important aspects of the overall recovery and muscle building process are still taking place. So if there is too much of a deficit on those days, it cuts into that process and hinders growth. And if the deficit is big enough, an even worse case scenario is that some small amount of muscle loss

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will occur (so you basically build and lose tiny amounts of muscle over the course of the week, thus never getting anywhere in the end). Another problem with having a deficit of any size on rest days is that it requires an even larger surplus on training days to compensate and ensure that the ideal total weekly surplus remains intact. So the bigger that rest day deficit is, the bigger the training day surplus will need to be. Why is that a problem? Because many people will just not be able to eat enough on training days to consistently meet those needs. Especially those who already have trouble eating enough to support growth as it is. Plus, even for those who can, having such a drastic swing in calories from a significant deficit one day over to a significant surplus the next – and having this happen various times throughout the week – is just something that doesn’t feel… right. It’s hard to explain, and maybe it was just my own personal experience with it, but I just didn’t like it for some reason (mental, physical, maybe a bit of both). So for all of the above reasons, a deficit that’s too big is wonderful for minimizing fat gains, but total shit for maximizing muscle gains. That is certainly not the best of both worlds we’re looking for. The obvious solution, then, is to create a deficit that is just big enough to get the benefits but still small enough to avoid the problems.

THE TEST To figure out exactly what that deficit is, I spent around 2 years in separate muscle building phases testing out every deficit size on that list above while closely monitoring what happened. I made sure to keep everything else the same throughout. The same total weekly surplus. The same rate of weight gain. The same macronutrient intake. The same style of training. The same supplements. The same everything. Here’s the path I took and what I discovered along the way: 

Control: I had already spent years prior to this using a straight surplus approach, so that sort of became my “control” results that everything else was compared against. For me, a straight

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surplus was always fine from a muscle growth standpoint, but less-than-ideal for minimizing fat gains. 

Test 1: From there I took rest days down to maintenance (aka the Maintenance + Surplus approach) and definitely noticed some degree of meaningful improvement in fat gains (less of them) while muscle gains remained just as good as they previously were. So compared to my control results, this was equal for muscle gains, but slightly better for minimizing fat gains.



Test 2: From there I took rest days down to a tiny deficit (5-7.5% below maintenance), and again definitely noticed some degree of meaningful improvement in fat gains (even less of them than Test 1) while muscle gains seemed to remain just as good as they previously were. So compared to my control results and Test 1, this seemed pretty much equal for muscle gains but even better for minimizing fat gains.



Test 3: From there I took things down to a small deficit (10-15% below maintenance). However, now I didn’t really appear to improve much (if at all) in terms of fat gains (about equal to Test 2), but I did find that this was the point where muscle gains may have begun to suffer ever-so-slightly. Tough to say what the exact difference was, though. So compared to all previous results, this seemed just slightly worse for muscle gains, but not any better for minimizing fat gains.



Test 4: From there I took things down to a moderate deficit (15-25% below maintenance) and found that there may have been another small improvement in fat gains (slightly better than Tests 2 and 3), but this was when muscle gains began to suffer for sure. It just felt like there was a small but noticeable drop in my recovery and performance. So compared to all previous results, this was clearly worse for muscle gains, though slightly better for minimizing fat gains.



Test 5: From there I took things down to a large deficit (25-35% below maintenance) and didn’t really fully notice or even care what the positive change in fat gains were, as the negative changes in everything muscle growth related were far too significant at this point for it to truly matter. Not to mention, my training day calorie needs were just completely insane due to having this big of a deficit on rest days. So compared to all previous results, this was horrible for muscle gains (and adherence), to the point where any further improvement in fat gains no longer felt relevant.

THE WINNER: TINY DEFICIT So out of all the deficit options I tried, the tiny deficit (about 5-7.5% below maintenance) was the sweet spot.

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Going bigger than that may help further minimize fat gains to some small extent, but it comes at the expense of crossing the line into becoming too detrimental for muscle growth to actually warrant doing in my opinion. I don’t recommend it. The tiny deficit is where you want to be to get the pros without the cons. My experience was actually confirmed by a good number of people who I have since recommended this approach to over the last couple of years. And the negative experience of going into a bigger deficit than this has also been confirmed by a variety of people who I’ve seen try something similar to this and do just as poorly.

THE DEFICIT RECOMMENDATIONS So for rest days, a deficit of about 5-7.5% below maintenance would be ideal. Well… usually. See, the only problem with using a percentage based approach for the deficit in this case is that people with higher than usual calorie needs (whether it’s from abnormally high activity levels, above-average NEAT, maybe both) are going to have higher than usual deficits. I mean, a tiny percentage of an above-average maintenance level will still be an above-average deficit. That’s just how percentages work in this scenario. To prevent this, I’ve found that a smarter option is to have everyone apply a 5-7.5% deficit of a typical, average maintenance level, even if theirs is atypical and above-average. Specifically, here’s what I recommend… 

MEN: A deficit of 150-200 calories on each rest day.



WOMEN: A deficit of 100-150 calories on each rest day.

Most people will find that 5-7.5% of their maintenance level is already somewhere within that range anyway, and the few who don’t will be best served to stay within this range regardless. This will be your deficit sweet spot. I will note, however, that while anywhere within these ranges is perfectly fine, I’m going to be using the middle (an even 175 calorie deficit for men and an even 125 calorie deficit for women) in the examples below.

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HOW SHOULD IT BE DONE? 

Calorie Intake Men will have a 150-200 calorie deficit on each rest day, while women will have a 100-150 calorie deficit on each rest day. Your total weekly surplus PLUS the total combined amount of deficit created will then be divided up evenly over however many training days you have each week. The exact numbers will, of course, be partially dependent on how many training days/rest days you actually have per week (we’ll be covering that later). But since most people will end up weight training 3 or 4 times each week, I’ll be giving you example numbers for both of those scenarios below.



Protein Intake Protein will remain consistently set each day at 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound of your current body weight.



Fat Intake Fat will be set at 15-20% of your total calorie intake on your training days, and 30-40% of your total calorie intake on your rest days. So, even though you may be just slightly outside of that ideal 20-35% range I mentioned earlier on certain days, your average daily fat intake for the week will still end up being within that ideal range.



Carb Intake Carbs will always fill in the remaining calories after protein and fat have been factored in. However, in this case, the amount that needs to be “filled in” will be a lot less on rest days and a lot more on training days. Which means that carb intake will be much lower on rest days, and much higher on training days.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: MEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for guys…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR MEN Since you will be in a small deficit on rest days, figuring out your training day surplus is a simple matter of adding your ideal total weekly surplus and the total amount of weekly deficit being created, and then dividing that combined amount by however many training days you have. To make it even simpler, I’ve already done the math for you using 175 calories as the rest day deficit amount. Since most people will have either 3 or 4 training days per week, this is what your daily surplus would end up being for the groups this approach may be used by:



Rest Days 175 calorie deficit on each of the 3 or 4 rest days.



3 Training Days Group C: A surplus of 700 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group D: A surplus of 583 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group E: A surplus of 443 calories on each of the 3 training days.



4 Training Days Group C: A surplus of 481 calories on each of the 4 training days. Group D: A surplus of 394 calories on each of the 4 training days. Group E: A surplus of 289 calories on each of the 4 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, you’d stay 175 calories below it on your rest days. And then depending on which group you fall into (C, D or E) and how many training days you have (3 or 4), this is how much of a surplus you’d need to be in on each of those training days. Now even though there is a deficit on rest days and a larger surplus has been put on training days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week and subtract the total combined deficit from it, you still end up creating the ideal weekly surplus you need (which is 1400 for Group C, 1050 for Group D, and 630 for Group E).

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For example, a Group C diet for a person with 4 training days per week might look something like this… 1. 481 surplus – Training Day 2. 481 surplus – Training Day 3. 175 deficit – Rest Day 4. 481 surplus – Training Day 5. 481 surplus – Training Day 6. 175 deficit – Rest Day 7. 175 deficit – Rest Day Total Training Day Surplus: 1924 (481 x 4 = 1924) Total Rest Day Deficit: 525 (175 x 3 = 525) Total Net Surplus For The Week: 1399 (1924 - 525 = 1399) Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group C: 1400 Ignoring that completely meaningless 1 calorie difference (it’s because 481 is actually a rounded off 481.25), you can see the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group C diet should have. And even though I’m not showing a similar example for a Group C diet with 3 training days, nor am I showing examples for a 3 or 4 day Group D or Group E diet, you can expect the outcome in all of these cases to be exactly the same (meaning, the total weekly surplus you’re supposed to have will indeed be there in the end).

THE DAILY FAT INTAKE FOR MEN As I mentioned before, fat intake is going to be kept pretty low on training days (15-20% of total calories) and pretty high on rest days (30-40% of total calories). And honestly, as long as you are somewhere within those ranges on those days, you’ll be fine. However, I figured I should show you my preference for exactly how I like to set this up. Once again, I’ll be showing examples for 3 and 4 training days: 

4 Rest Days: 32% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days.



3 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

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3 Rest Days: 37% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days. 4 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

In both scenarios, the average daily fat intake for the week is about 25%, which is usually pretty close to perfect for most people. And, going this low with fat on training days and this high on rest days (and conversely, this high with carbs on training days and this low on rest days) is what I’ve found to be the superior macronutrient setup when using this approach. But again, as long as you’re within the suggested ranges, you’re good. Now for an example that puts it all together…

MEN’S EXAMPLE: JACK Our example guy is Jack. He weighs 165 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2500 calories. Let’s also say he is in Group C and has 4 training days/3 rest days per week. Here’s what he would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create his deficit and surplus. Since he is in Group C, he will create a deficit of 175 calories on each of his 3 rest days, and then create a surplus of 481 calories on each of his 4 training days. Since his maintenance level is 2500 calories, Jack will eat 2325 calories on his 3 rest days (2500 - 175 = 2325) and 2981 calories on his 4 training days (2500 + 481 = 2981). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jack weighs 165 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, he calculates that his protein intake will be 181-198g per day (165 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 181-198g). Jack prefers to go with the high end of his range and rounds up to a perfectly even 200g of protein per day. He also calculates that 200g x 4 calories per gram = 800 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jack decides to use my preferred fat intake percentages. That means he will get 37% of his calorie intake from fat on his 3 rest days. So first he’ll figure out that 37% of 2325 (his rest day calorie intake) is 860 calories, and then he’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 96g of fat on his 3 rest days. Next he’ll repeat these steps for his 4 training days, only now calculating 16% (the training day fat intake) of his 2981 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 477 calories, which comes out to 53g of fat per day on his 4 training days.

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4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 800 calories will be coming from protein each day and 860/477 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1660 calories out of Jack’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 860 = 1660), while 1277 calories out of his total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (800 + 477 = 1277). This means there are still 665 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his rest days (2325 - 1660 = 665), and 1704 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on his training days (2981 - 1277 = 1704). So Jack divides 665 by 4 calories per gram and gets 166g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1704 by 4 calories per gram and gets 426g of carbs on each training day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jack will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring his progress and tracking his body weight. Why? To ensure his ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! He will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure his ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If he’s gaining more or less than he should be, however, he will adjust his calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example guy Jack now has a diet that breaks down like this… His 3 Rest Days:

His 4 Training Days:



Calories: 2325



Calories: 2981



Protein: 200g



Protein: 200g



Fat: 96g



Fat: 53g



Carbs: 166g



Carbs: 426g

You just need to repeat these same steps using your own relevant numbers.

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PUTTING IT TOGETHER: WOMEN’S VERSION Here’s how everything would break down for girls…

THE DAILY SURPLUS FOR WOMEN Since you will be in a small deficit on rest days, figuring out your training day surplus is a simple matter of adding your ideal total weekly surplus and the total amount of weekly deficit being created, and then dividing that combined amount by however many training days you have. To make it even simpler, I’ve already done the math for you using 125 calories as the rest day deficit amount. Since most people will have either 3 or 4 training days per week, this is what your daily surplus would end up being for the groups this approach may be used by:



Rest Days 125 calorie deficit on each of the 3 or 4 rest days.



3 Training Days Group C: A surplus of 400 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group D: A surplus of 342 calories on each of the 3 training days. Group E: A surplus of 307 calories on each of the 3 training days.



4 Training Days Group C: A surplus of 269 calories on each of the 4 training days. Group D: A surplus of 225 calories on each of the 4 training days. Group E: A surplus of 199 calories on each of the 4 training days.

So whatever your specific maintenance level is, you’d stay 125 calories below it on your rest days. And then depending on which group you fall into (C, D or E) and how many training days you have (3 or 4), this is how much of a surplus you’d need to be in on each of those training days. Now even though there is a deficit on rest days and a larger surplus has been put on training days, if you add up the total combined surplus at the end of the week and subtract the total combined deficit from it, you still end up creating the ideal weekly surplus you need (which is 700 for Group C, 525 for Group D, and 420 for Group E).

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For example, a Group C diet for a person with 4 training days per week might look something like this… 1. 269 surplus – Training Day 2. 269 surplus – Training Day 3. 125 deficit – Rest Day 4. 269 surplus – Training Day 5. 269 surplus – Training Day 6. 125 deficit – Rest Day 7. 125 deficit – Rest Day Total Training Day Surplus: 1076 (269 x 4 = 1076) Total Rest Day Deficit: 375 (125 x 3 = 375) Total Net Surplus For The Week: 701 (1076 - 375 = 701) Ideal Total Weekly Surplus For Group C: 700 Ignoring that completely meaningless 1 calorie difference (it’s because 269 is actually a rounded off 268.75), you can see the total surplus created is equal to the ideal total weekly surplus this example Group C diet should have. And even though I’m not showing a similar example for a Group C diet with 3 training days, nor am I showing examples for a 3 or 4 day Group D or Group E diet, you can expect the outcome in all of these cases to be exactly the same (meaning, the total weekly surplus you’re supposed to have will indeed be there in the end).

THE DAILY FAT INTAKE FOR WOMEN As I mentioned before, fat intake is going to be kept pretty low on training days (15-20% of total calories) and pretty high on rest days (30-40% of total calories). And honestly, as long as you are somewhere within those ranges on those days, you’ll be fine. However, I figured I should show you my preference for exactly how I like to set this up. Once again, I’ll be showing examples for 3 and 4 training days: 

4 Rest Days: 32% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days.



3 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

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3 Rest Days: 37% of your total calories will come from fat on rest days. 4 Training Days: 16% of your total calories will come from fat on training days.

In both scenarios, the average daily fat intake for the week is about 25%, which is usually pretty close to perfect for most people. And, going this low with fat on training days and this high on rest days (and conversely, this high with carbs on training days and this low on rest days) is what I’ve found to be the superior macronutrient setup when using this approach. But again, as long as you’re within the suggested ranges, you’re good. Now for an example that puts it all together…

WOMEN’S EXAMPLE: JANE Our example girl is Jane. She weighs 120 lbs and has a daily calorie maintenance level of 2000 calories. Let’s also say she is in Group C and has 4 training days/3 rest days per week. Here’s what she would do… 1. Set Calories: The first step is to create her deficit and surplus. Since she is in Group C, she will create a deficit of 125 calories on each of her 3 rest days, and then create a surplus of 269 calories on each of her 4 training days. Since her maintenance level is 2000 calories, Jane will eat 1875 calories on her 3 rest days (2000 - 125 = 1875) and 2269 calories on her 4 training days (2000 + 269 = 2269). 2. Set Protein: Next, since Jane weighs 120 lbs and will be consuming 1.1-1.2g of protein per pound, she calculates that her protein intake will be 132-144g per day (120 lbs x 1.1-1.2g = 132-144g). Jane prefers to go with something in the middle and chooses a perfectly even 140g of protein per day. She also calculates that 140g x 4 calories per gram = 560 calories from protein per day. 3. Set Fat: From there, Jane decides to use my preferred fat intake percentages. That means she will get 37% of her calorie intake from fat on her 3 rest days. So first she’ll figure out that 37% of 1875 (her rest day calorie intake) is 694 calories, and then she’ll divide that by 9 (since there’s 9 calories per gram of fat) and get 77g of fat on her 3 rest days. Next she’ll repeat these steps for her 4 training days, only now calculating 16% (the training day fat intake) of her 2269 training day calorie intake. That comes out to 363 calories, which comes out to 40g of fat per day on her 4 training days.

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4. Set Carbs: Finally, since 560 calories will be coming from protein each day and 694/363 calories will be coming from fat on rest/training days respectively, that means 1254 calories out of Jane’s total rest day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 694 = 1254), while 923 calories out of her total training day calorie intake are now accounted for (560 + 363 = 923). This means there are still 621 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her rest days (1875 - 1254 = 621), and 1346 missing calories that need to be filled in via carbs on her training days (2269 - 923 = 1346). So Jane divides 621 by 4 calories per gram and gets 155g of carbs on each rest day, and then divides 1346 by 4 calories per gram and gets 337g of carbs on each training day. 5. The Key Step/Track and Adjust: Jane will then begin consistently eating these amounts each day while closely monitoring her progress and tracking her body weight. Why? To ensure her ideal rate of weight gain is taking place. This is crucial. If it is, awesome! She will continue eating these amounts each day (while still tracking everything to ensure her ideal rate of weight gain continues to occur). If she’s gaining more or less than she should be, however, she will adjust her calorie intake up or down in small increments, wait 2-3 weeks and see what happens then. So, our example girl Jane now has a diet that breaks down like this… Her 3 Rest Days:

Her 4 Training Days:



Calories: 1875



Calories: 2269



Protein: 140g



Protein: 140g



Fat: 77g



Fat: 40g



Carbs: 155g



Carbs: 337g

You just need to repeat these same steps using your own relevant numbers.

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WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF THIS APPROACH?  Pros: Adjusting our diet so that a larger surplus and a significantly higher carb intake are placed only on our training days will have a positive impact on our performance, recovery and overall ability to maximize muscle gains. And then removing the surplus completely and dropping down into a tiny deficit along with a significantly lower carb intake on our rest days (when our calorie/carb needs are greatly reduced) will have a more positive impact on our ability to minimize fat gains than any of the approaches we’ve already covered. And the fact that the deficit is kept “tiny” on those rest days (rather than something larger) and carbs are still somewhat moderate (rather than something more extreme… like really low) means we’ll be getting those benefits without any meaningful sacrifice toward the recovery process still taking place on those days, our training performance on the days after, and really just overall muscle growth itself (all of which are things a larger deficit and/or really low carb intake will certainly do). And lastly, do you like getting to eat a nice amount of food? Especially carbs? Well, with your usual surplus PLUS the extra surplus needed to compensate for the deficit on rest days now being put on your training days, this approach will yield a higher calorie and carb intake on training days than any of the previous approaches. So for those who like their carbs, you’ll enjoy this setup a little extra.



Cons: Adherence may be more of an issue for certain people with this approach than the ones we’ve already covered. This is especially true for those who already have trouble eating enough calories to support growth. Because although having a deficit on rest days will actually make eating enough easier for that part of the week, having to compensate for that deficit by having an even larger surplus on training days will make that job harder than usual during that part of the week. Similarly, the variance in calorie and macronutrient intake between rest days and training days is also larger here than in the previous approaches, thus again being a potential issue for certain people from an adherence standpoint (who are mainly those who prefer to keep their diet as consistent as possible every single day with no real changes).

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WHO SHOULD USE THIS APPROACH? This is an approach that I think is ideal for pretty much everyone except beginners. Specifically, I recommend it to…



All intermediates, regardless of age or genetics. This would be all intermediates from Group C and Group D.



All advanced trainees, regardless of age or genetics. This would be all advanced trainees from Group E.

So if you fit any of the descriptions above, this is your superior approach. Now let’s do some quick recapping…

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Approach Recommendations The Approach

Most Ideal For

Straight Surplus

Anyone who finds the calorie cycling approaches to be a bit too complex to adhere to consistently.

Smaller Surplus + Larger Surplus

Beginners under 25 with average (or better) genetics.

Maintenance + Surplus

All remaining beginners.

Deficit + Surplus

All intermediate and advanced trainees.

All clear? Good. And now your dietary approach has been designed for Superior Muscle Growth. Let’s keep this party going…

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CHAPTER 11

Nutrient Timing

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► NUTRIENT TIMING

S

ince that last chapter was filled with scary amounts of calculations and examples, I figured it would be a good idea to make this next chapter about something that will have little to no calculations or examples of any kind. In fact, I promise that any math contained in this chapter will be purely optional. As for the topic itself, it’s one that is surprisingly simple despite how complicated most people think it is and many others unnecessarily make it out to be. I’m of course referring to a little something called nutrient timing.

WHAT IS NUTRIENT TIMING? Nutrient timing is the concept of strategically adjusting the way you consume your calorie and macronutrient intake over the course of the day. Meaning, you eat certain amounts of certain things at certain times. For what purpose? To (hypothetically) improve everything from calorie partitioning and body composition, to training performance and recovery. While this technically includes timing issues like whether or not there is a benefit to eating breakfast (the supposed “most important meal of the day”) or whether bad things will happen if you eat late at night (like the claim that you supposedly need to “stop eating carbs at 7 p.m.” or whenever), these aren’t really the factors people associate with the term “nutrient timing.” (I’ll still be covering this stuff in the next chapter anyway.) Instead, “nutrient timing” is most often used in reference to the specific timing and composition of your pre-, during and post-workout meals. This includes: 

Exactly which nutrients those meals should contain (protein? carbs? fat?).



Exactly what amounts of each nutrient there should be in each meal (how many grams?).

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

Exactly where those nutrients should come from (solid food? a shake? slow digesting sources? fast digesting sources?)



Exactly how soon before and after your workout they should be consumed (immediately? within 30 minutes? 60 minutes? 2 hours? longer?).

Let’s examine all of this now, separate fact from fiction, and adjust every single meaningful factor to our advantage.

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THE PRE-, DURING AND POST-WORKOUT MEALS Let’s start with the basics. For the few people who didn’t properly learn their prefixes in school, the pre-workout meal is the meal consumed before your workout, and the post-workout meal is the meal consumed after your workout. Take a wild guess when the “during workout” meal is consumed. The theoretical purpose of these meals is that what’s eaten before (and if needed, during) your workout will help fuel the workout itself and maximize your performance throughout, while what’s eaten after your workout will help optimize the recovery process, increase protein synthesis, decrease protein breakdown, and really just ensure that your body immediately has all of the supplies it needs in order to recover, adapt and improve the way you want it to. But here’s where things get interesting. If you’ve been paying attention to the overall perception of these meals over the last decade or so, you’ve probably noticed that a pretty big transition has taken place. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry. It just means we’re going to need to hop into my DeLorean, generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity we need, and then take a little walk down memory lane…

THE PAST MISTAKES From at least the late 1990s up until the late 2000s (and for many, still up till today), nutrient timing was regarded as a critical factor of muscle growth and fat loss… often to the point where it was viewed as being equal if not more important than stuff like your total calorie and macronutrient intake. In fact, getting your pre-/during/post-workout meals absolutely perfect was viewed as being not just beneficial, but a requirement of getting the results you want.

In fact, getting your pre-/during/postworkout meals absolutely perfect was viewed as being not just beneficial, but a requirement of getting the results you want.

Many popular fitness gurus would make this claim by saying things

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like “if your post-workout meal isn’t eaten at this exact time with these exact nutrients from these exact sources in these exact amounts, then your workout will have been for nothing.” They’d often reference a so-called “post-workout anabolic window” of time that existed for just a matter of minutes after your workout during which you could easily make or break your success. If you were able to consume the perfect meal during that time, you’d be guaranteed muscle growth, fat loss, a new car, billions of dollars and all sorts of wonderful things. But if you consumed the wrong things, or the right things in the wrong amounts, or – worst of all – somehow just missed that tiny magical window of time altogether, you’d be guaranteed to lose muscle, gain fat and just fail as a human being. And speed was of the essence! You must have an ultra-fast digesting liquid meal… aka a post-workout shake! Solid foods will take much too long to digest and you’ll miss the window! You need the fastest digestion possible! Don’t include a single gram of fat in this meal because fat slows digestion! And you must get your protein only from a whey protein supplement (the fastest digesting protein source). Or whey hydrolysate, the fastest of the fast! And you must get your carbs from the highest glycemic sources known to man… dextrose, maltodextrin or the always entertaining waxy maize starch. Or better yet, drink Surge!!! Surge, of course, was (and I guess still is?) one of the most popular supplements that came out during this period of time that was formulated for this very purpose and pimped out by what seemed like every fitness guru and all of their fitness guru friends. Take 3 scoops before your workout, 8 scoops during your workout and 39 scoops after your workout! Or something like that. And you must do it quickly! You need to finish your last set of your last exercise and immediately start drinking your post-workout shake! Literally put down the weights and drink! If you even take a second to get your crap out of your locker first or dare take 5 minutes to drive back home, you will miss the window and your entire workout will have ended up being a complete waste of time!

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And you’ll instantly go catabolic and lose all of your muscle! And your life will be ruined forever! What? What’s that you say? A lot of this stuff sounds exaggerated? Well, as someone who was right there in 2006 drinking his whey/dextrose shake in the locker room just minutes after his workout (not exactly an ideal dining experience, by the way), I can promise you that it’s really not that exaggerated at all. And I feel like I might be making this all sound like the kind of thing that only the dumbest percentage of the diet and fitness world recommended, but it wasn’t. At the time, virtually every single person was on the nutrient timing bandwagon, at least to some extent. Myself included. Seriously. I don’t know of a single person who wasn’t recommending that you consume fast digesting sources of protein and carbs, or consume your post-workout meal within 30 minutes of your workout, or giving some kind of very specific recommendations for what this meal should and should not contain, or expressing the overall importance of these meals and nutrient timing in general, or all of the above. Everyone was doing it. Yes, even the people who now like to pretend they weren’t (more about these idiots in a minute). Granted, it was the dumber half that took it to the laughably insane levels the average person likely grew most aware of, but the smarter half was still there in the background giving their own similar, albeit saner recommendations. Even a guy like Alan Aragon, who famously had an extremely popular thread on the bodybuilding.com forums that housed his own recommendations.

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Hell, it was already 2011 when a guy like Eric Helms (another one of the good guys) wrote into Alan’s monthly research review asking about this topic and insinuating a still-current belief in at least some of this stuff. It’s safe to say that during this span of time, everyone (again, myself included) seemed to agree that nutrient timing was a special thing, and that our pre- and post-workout meals, along with the specifics of how they were designed and when they were consumed, were at the very least a very important factor (the smarter, saner people), and at the very most the single most important factor in the history of the world (the dumber, less-sane people).

THE PRESENT MISTAKES Cut to today, and boy have things changed. The most ironic part of the change is that it was the smarter/saner people from the previous era who helped make this change happen. I’d put Alan Aragon at the top of that list. At some point toward the end of the 2000s, I can remember Alan editing his huge thread over at the bodybuilding.com forums that for years prior contained his often quoted and often used pre/during/post-workout meal recommendations. What used to contain very specific amounts for protein and carb content and the timing of those meals (30 minute window for the post-workout meal if I remember correctly) had now become no recommendation at all. Instead, it became something that was part warning, part reminder and part suggestion to basically take it down a notch with all this nutrient timing shit. Alan’s primary point was that in the grand scheme of things, nutrient timing isn’t quite as important as everyone has been making it out to be. And that above all else, what truly matters is our total calorie and macronutrient intake for the day. That’s by far the #1 thing we need to care about. Nutrient timing was something that, according to him, should be ranked distantly below it on his “Hierarchy of Importance.”

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Basically, Alan began noticeably downplaying the importance of nutrient timing – especially the precision of the post-workout meal and the “post-workout anabolic window” – for the majority of us normal people with normal diets doing normal workouts with normal goals. And pretty much everyone else began to follow suit. And rightfully so. And in the years since then, Alan has only increased his emphasis on the importance of just hitting your calorie/macronutrient totals for the day and has continued to de-emphasize the importance of nutrient timing, magical anabolic windows and precise pre-/post-workout meal recommendations. It became a frequent topic of discussion in his monthly research review (aka AARR, which by the way is worth every cent) right from issue #1 back in 2008. And as someone who has read every single one of those issues, I can tell you that he has used the available research to make a strong argument in favor of his point of view. And I’m in full agreement with it. This all culminated in 2013 with a paper published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (JISSN) co-authored by Alan himself and Brad Schoenfeld called “Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window?” along with a thorough meta-analysis called “The effect of protein timing on muscle strength and hypertrophy” which was co-authored by Alan, Brad and James Krieger. To say that these papers garnered some attention would be an understatement. That first link has officially become the most viewed article in the entire history of JISSN. This is both good and bad. It’s good in that it helps show, among other things, that this short and magical “post-workout anabolic window” of time we’ve all been obsessed with isn’t nearly as short or magical as everyone has spent the last decade making it out to be. And that much of our obsession with precisely designing and urgently timing these meals is a lot less substantiated than we thought. This has hopefully helped the people who have been driving themselves insane trying to get their pre- and post-workout meals just right (often while neglecting the more important aspects of their diet), or wasting their money on supplements (Surge, waxy maize, etc.) they just don’t

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need, or being inconveniently anal about slamming down a post-workout shake the second their workouts end. (And yes, I like to think that was the first time the term “inconveniently anal” has ever been used in any context. I’m honored to have been the one to make it happen.) So that’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that this is the diet and fitness industry, and the diet and fitness industry is filled with crazy people who are only capable of going from one extreme to the next. And that’s exactly what happened. So now all of the people who used to be madly in love with the concept of nutrient timing began going in the total opposite direction. Now everyone has jumped off the bandwagon completely and landed on this new anti-nutrient-timing bandwagon.

Not only is it less important than we all thought, but now it’s NOT important at all!

Not only is it less important than we all thought, but now it’s NOT important at all! Not even a little. Ever. For anyone. In any context. Now you have people making statements like “everyone should just train fasted” or “the postworkout meal is completely and utterly pointless” or ”nutrient timing doesn’t matter” or “nutrient timing doesn’t work” or “there is no benefit to consuming a pre- or post-workout meal” or “you can have your post-workout meal 30 minutes later, 6 hours later or just feel free to skip it altogether” or “the pre- and post-workout meals don’t actually do anything” and on and on and on. Now when someone posts a question about these meals on some fitness forum, the same people who used to answer with hilariously specific recommendations implied to be of the utmost importance now respond with stuff like “lol, who cares… these meals don’t even matter.” My favorite thing of all is that many of the dumbshit fitness gurus who eventually came around and made this transition (a few years after everyone else, of course) now act as if there never was a transition at all.

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How so? By acting as if this was the one and only recommendation they’ve ever made, basically pretending that their previous 10 years of recommendations never happened and that they were apparently the sole voice of reason during that period of time. Oh gurus, you’re so cute. So what happened here is that people initially spent years overstating the importance of nutrient timing, only to now go on and do a complete 180 to the point where they aren’t just understating its importance… they’re acting as if it has literally no importance in any capacity whatsoever. So um… what’s the real deal here?

THE REALITY OF THE SITUATION As with virtually everything in the diet and fitness world, the extremes are wrong and the right place to be is somewhere in the middle. The pre-, during and post-workout meals are no exception. So are these meals of any importance? Yes, definitely. Are they of extreme importance? For most of us, no. For most of us, nutrient timing is much more of a minor detail of lesser importance in the grand scheme of our overall diet. However, the point people seem to be missing these days is that there is a difference between a minor detail of lesser importance and a meaningless detail of no importance. The difference, of course, is that the first one is still something that can and will provide some degree of benefit. Minimal or not, we’ll take every benefit we can get. But at the same time, we can’t lose sight of the minimal nature of it. It’s not something that’s going to make or break our success. It’s not something we need to lose our minds obsessing over. It’s not anywhere near the level of importance as something like our total calorie and macronutrient intake. Not even close.

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And anything making it seem as though nutrient timing is as important as or maybe even more important than overall calorie and macronutrient intake is pure bullshit. And horseshit. And catshit. And really just feel free to pick your favorite animals and insert their shit in this very spot. I really can’t stress this enough. As long as your total calorie and macronutrient intake is what it needs to be each day, the specific manner/timing of how and when it’s all consumed becomes significantly less important, or, in some cases, not important at all. Just like Alan has gone out of his way to make clear over the years, this is comparing minor details to major details. But taking it to the other extreme and saying that it’s not important at all would also be wrong (or maybe just show a lack of reading comprehension), and Alan and Brad themselves will be the first people to tell you this. In fact, I’ve seen both Alan and Brad make this very point many times since their stuff got published and people began misinterpreting what it actually says. Here’s one such example from Alan, and one from Brad. There are plenty of others. I’ve also seen Alan and Brad talk in great detail about this subject, what their published papers legitimately do and do not mean, and what they currently recommend in terms of pre-, during and post-workout nutrition. Here’s the gist of it: 

Your total daily calorie and macronutrient intake is the most important thing by far. Nutrient timing is way less important. However, less important doesn’t mean not important.



Under typical circumstances (average person, normal goals, sufficient pre-workout meal within 1-2 hours of the workout, normal workout duration, etc.), the “post-workout window” is larger than the mystical 30 minutes or whatever most people previously believed it to be.



Under those same typical circumstances, there is no need to consume a super-mega-ultra-fast digesting shake immediately after your workout. You still can – there is still nothing bad about it assuming you like doing it for whatever reason – it’s just not the required thing some people think it is. In this scenario, you can actually relax and consume your post-workout meal within 1-2 hours of your workout (assuming you’d rather do that) and everything will still be just fine.

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

If the circumstances are NOT typical (for example, training fasted with no pre-workout meal whatsoever, or if the pre-workout meal was consumed 4+ hours before the workout, or if the workout was a lot longer than the common 45-90 minutes it tends to be), then consuming a “fast” post-workout meal as soon as possible afterwards becomes much more important and beneficial.



Nutrient timing is STILL important. Just not “most important thing in your diet” important. More like “another one of the minor but still meaningful factors of your diet” important.



You should STILL surround your workouts with protein (and ideally carbs as well). This is STILL the right thing to do. It’s just that in most cases it doesn’t need to be a shake consumed 5 minutes after your workout “or else.” However, it still can be if you want to do it. And hell, for all we still know, there may be some extremely minor benefit to doing it. We may never know for sure.



Continuing on that last point, we STILL don’t know everything with 100% certainty. Most studies are filled with flaws and limitations. We’re essentially just taking our best guesses using the research available and various forms of anecdotal evidence.



In one instance where Alan and Brad were explaining all of the above, Alan mentioned: “We both surround our training bouts with protein. We both don’t wait to get the protein in.” Just figured I’d throw that in. (Source: 20:53 mark of this interview.)

THE BIG POINT So what’s the big point we can take away from all of this? It’s pretty simple. Above all else, make sure your total calorie, protein, fat and carb intake is what it needs to be each and every day. Regardless of what any fitness guru or supplement company might claim, this is always what matters most. Everything else (including nutrient timing) is just a minor detail in comparison.

However, proper preand post-workout nutrition will still be of some benefit to you and play a small but positive role in your overall muscle building results.

However, proper pre- and post-workout nutrition will still be of some benefit to you and play a small but positive role in your overall muscle building results.

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Is it enough of a role to make or break your success? No. Is it enough of a role to make up for failing to get the important stuff right? Definitely not. Is it enough of a role to warrant being a minor detail you continue to pay a sane amount of attention to? Sure. Really, the best way to explain it is by using the same analogy I used in a 2009 article I wrote about this very topic, which coincidentally is the same analogy I’ve seen Alan use when discussing his published work. And that is… Your total calorie and macronutrient intake is the cake. Nutrient timing is just the icing on that cake. So, to ensure we cover all bases – real or hypothetical – and ensure we get all possible benefits – significant or insignificant – we should still try to get these meals right. All clear? Good. Now let’s get to the details…

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PRE-WORKOUT RECOMMENDATIONS Remember at the beginning of this chapter when I promised that this was going to be surprisingly simple and any math mentioned would be completely optional? It’s time to make good on that promise. Here are my pre-workout meal recommendations…

PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL #1 (TYPICAL) Consume a solid food meal containing a nice amount of protein and carbs from whatever sources you prefer about 1-2 hours before your workout. That’s it. Taaadaaa! Seriously, there is no need to make it any more complicated than that. What foods should the protein come from? Whatever foods you want. Chicken, turkey, eggs, meat, fish, etc.… it’s all perfectly fine. What foods should the carbs come from? Whatever foods you want. Rice, potatoes, oats, fruit, etc.… it’s all perfectly fine. Can this meal contain a meaningful amount of fat or fiber? If you’d like it to, and it doesn’t leave you feeling uncomfortably full during your workouts, and it fits in with your total dietary needs for the day… then sure. What does a “nice amount of protein and carbs” mean exactly? It means stop sweating the details. It means I don’t personally see any need to put a precise number of grams on it. It means I just eat a nice amount of protein and carbs 1-2 hours before my workout. Simple as that. However, since I know that some people are already losing their minds over my lack of specifics, it’s time to include some of that optional math I’ve been mentioning. Here’s my recommended starting point for this meal:

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

Protein: 0.2-0.3g of protein per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume 33-50g of protein in this meal.)



Carbs: 0.2-0.5g of carbs per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume 33-83g of carbs in this meal.)

(NOTE: People who are significantly overweight should use their goal body weight rather than their current body weight.)

Please keep in mind that these numbers are not magical, nor are they set in stone. It’s really nothing more than a slightly more specific starting point. A little lower than these amounts is fine. A little higher is fine as well. Whatever fits your preferences. Again, I personally don’t use any specific numbers for this meal myself. I just eat a “nice amount of protein and carbs” in a manner that suits my personal preferences and overall dietary needs for the day, and allows me to feel good (rather than too full) during my workouts. You should do the same.

PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL #2 (LESS TYPICAL) Now let’s say your pre-workout situation is less typical than it is for most people, and Protocol #1 just can’t be done. For example, let’s say you train first thing in the morning and don’t actually have 1-2 hours before your workout to eat a pre-workout meal like the previous protocol recommended. Or maybe you’re going to the gym directly from work or school and your schedule just doesn’t permit you to have a pre-workout meal 1-2 hours prior. In cases like these, I recommend using Alan’s original recommendations for this type of scenario: Consume a liquid or easily digested meal (like a whey/dextrose shake) containing a sufficient amount of protein and carbs within 30 minutes before your workout and/or by sipping it during your workout.

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What foods should the protein come from? In this case, whey protein powder would be the ideal protein source. What foods should the carbs come from? This is where dextrose becomes an ideal carb source, though something like Gatorade would work as well. Can this meal contain a meaningful amount of fat or fiber? I wouldn’t really recommend it. Since the timing of this meal is so close to your workout, you’re going to want to keep it as easily digestible as you can. For this purpose, keeping fat and fiber out of it would probably be a good idea. Trace amounts (like the 1g of fat in a scoop of protein powder) are absolutely nothing to worry about, though. What does a “sufficient amount of protein and carbs” mean exactly? In this case I’d again go with something close to what Alan originally recommended for this scenario:



Protein: 0.25g of protein per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume around 41g of protein in this meal.)



Carbs: 0.25g of carbs per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume around 41g of carbs in this meal.)

(NOTE: People who are significantly overweight should use their goal body weight rather than their current body weight.)

PRE-WORKOUT PROTOCOL #3 (EVEN LESS TYPICAL) Now let’s say neither Protocol #1 or #2 is relevant to you. That mainly leaves just one group of people… those who want to train fasted. This was borderline nutritional sacrilege a few years ago, but thanks to the popularity of various intermittent fasting (IF) protocols (such as Martin Berkhan’s Leangains and the 5000 others that blatantly ripped it off), fasted training has become a slightly more common occurrence. I personally spent a few weeks experimenting with fasted training back in 2009 and hated it.

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I found I don’t enjoy training fasted, didn’t perform as well when training fasted, and really saw no benefit whatsoever to warrant “trying to make it work” anyway. So, I don’t train fasted. But that’s just me. What about you? Well, with all else being equal, I don’t really view fasted training as being ideal for training performance and muscle growth. Can it still work? Sure. My opinion, however, is that it’s probably not optimal. It seems Alan Aragon feels the same way. Here’s a direct quote from a 2014 interview he did about nutrient timing after being asked about people who train completely fasted: “I’m hoping that their primary goal isn’t to gain more muscle because they’re not doing everything that’s hypothetically possible to maximize their training performance. And when you maximize your training performance, you’re going to indirectly optimize your rate of gainz.” (Source: 7:20 mark of this interview.) (And yes, that’s intentionally meant to be “gainz” with a z.) So, with all else being equal, I wouldn’t recommend fasted training to someone seeking superior muscle growth. Now let’s play the fun game of pretending that all else isn’t equal. As I’ve mentioned a few times throughout this book, this is often the case when it comes to a person’s diet. Especially a person’s adherence to that diet. One example of this is a person who uses some type of IF approach because it fits their preferences and makes it easier for them to sustain their diet and meet their total calorie and macronutrient needs each day (which again is always the most important thing). As part of this hypothetical IF approach, let’s say training fasted is something they need or just prefer to be doing and they don’t want to stray from that. That’s fine. While this isn’t what I’d consider ideal, I will always put overall dietary adherence over the potential minor benefits of anything else… including nutrient timing. So in this case I’d have to say okay… feel free to train fasted if that’s what you prefer. However, if possible, try to avoid training completely 100% fasted if you can. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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For example, I know Martin Berkhan still recommends consuming some amount of BCAAs or possibly even whey protein before training when using his IF approach. This would be much better than training completely fasted.

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DURING WORKOUT RECOMMENDATIONS Alright, so your pre-workout meal has been figured out. How about what happens during your workout? Here’s what I recommend…

DURING WORKOUT PROTOCOL #1 (TYPICAL) I don’t recommend any sort of “meal” during your workout. Drink some water. Simple enough for ya? Basically, under typical circumstances where there was a sufficient pre-workout meal anywhere within 2 hours of your workout (like Pre-Workout Protocol #1 would entail), the workout itself isn’t insanely long (e.g., 3 hours or more), and there will be some form of post-workout meal coming up a normal amount of time afterwards, then I don’t really see any need at all for consuming anything during your workout besides water. Why? Because the nutrients you consumed pre-workout will actually still be getting released into your bloodstream at this point, thus eliminating the need for any “during workout” nutrition. Now, if you personally feel like you perform better sipping some kind of diluted protein and/or carb drink during your workout, or want to experiment with something like this and see how it goes… feel free. For me though, as long as my pre-workout meal is sufficient, I’ve seen no performance benefit whatsoever to having anything during my workout. So, I just drink water. For the majority of the population training under similar typical circumstances, that’s really all I’d recommend.

DURING WORKOUT PROTOCOL #2 (LESS TYPICAL) Now let’s say that you’re using Pre-Workout Protocol #2 from before. This again is the protocol for people who are unable to have a normal pre-workout meal 1-2 hours before training. In this case the recommendation is to consume some kind of easily digested meal (most likely a protein/carb drink) within 30 minutes before your workout and/or by sipping it during your workout.

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So, if you are someone who will be using this protocol, your during workout meal should simply coincide with that pre-workout meal, assuming of course you’ve chosen to sip it during the workout rather than just finish it before.

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POST-WORKOUT RECOMMENDATIONS And finally, it’s time for the remaining aspect of this little nutrient timing trifecta… the postworkout meal. Here’s what I recommend.

THE POST-WORKOUT PROTOCOL Consume a meal containing a significant amount of protein and carbs from whatever sources you prefer within 1 hour or so after your workout. That’s it. Taaadaaa! Once again, there is no need to make it any more complicated than that. What foods should the protein come from? Whatever foods you want. And no, they don’t have to be “fast.” Whey protein powder, chicken, turkey, eggs, beef, fish, etc.… it’s all perfectly fine. What foods should the carbs come from? Whatever foods you want. And no, they don’t have to be “fast” either. Rice, potatoes, oats, fruit, dextrose, etc.… it’s all perfectly fine. Can this meal contain a meaningful amount of fat or fiber? If you’d like it to and it fits in with your total dietary needs for the day… sure. What does a “significant amount of protein and carbs” mean exactly? It means stop sweating the details. It means I don’t personally see any need to put a precise number of grams on it. It means I just make this post-workout period a time when I consume a fairly significant portion of my daily protein and carb intake. Why? Because I (and quite a few others) feel that doing so has some small but positive effect on calorie partitioning for obvious reasons. Meaning, it’s safe to assume that the calories and nutrients being consumed during the post-workout period are more likely to be put toward supporting some aspect of the muscle building process rather than being put toward fat storage. Or to put that another way, if there is any time of the day when calorie partitioning might be improved to any degree, the post-workout period (and the pre-workout period as well) is likely to be that time. So, it just makes sense that this would be a fantastic time to consume one of your largest meals of the day… if not your largest meal of all.

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For me personally, my post-workout meal and the next meal after that are my two largest meals of the day (especially in terms of carb content), and the pre-workout meal is often third in terms of size (and carb content). Once again, to ensure no one loses their mind over my lack of specifics, let me throw another batch of optional math at you. Here’s my recommended starting point for this meal:



Protein: 0.2-0.3g of protein per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume 33-50g of protein in this meal.)



Carbs: 0.25-0.8g of carbs per pound of your current body weight. (So for example, someone weighing 165 lbs would consume 41-132g of carbs in this meal.)

(NOTE: People who are significantly overweight should use their goal body weight rather than their current body weight.)

Just like before, please keep in mind that these numbers are not magical, nor are they set in stone. It’s really nothing more than a slightly more specific starting point. A little lower than these amounts is fine. A little higher is fine as well. Whatever fits your preferences.

TIMING THE POST-WORKOUT MEAL You may have noticed that there is just one post-workout protocol. This is because I don’t really have another set of recommendations for different scenarios. The guidelines outlined above apply in pretty much all cases. The only minor adjustments I’d maybe make would be to the specific timing of this meal. And the basis of those minor adjustments would be the fact that the pre-workout meal dictates the timing (and really overall importance) of the post-workout meal. So for example, in a less typical scenario where you are training fasted, or maybe your preworkout meal was 4+ hours before your workout, or your workout itself was significantly longer

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than is typical… that’s when I’d recommend consuming your post-workout meal as soon after your workout as you can. If there was ever a time or a place where “slamming down a post-workout shake immediately after training” would be remotely necessary, this would be as close as it gets. HOWEVER, in a more typical scenario where your pre-workout meal was sufficient and your workout was a normal length, then guess what? The nutrients you consumed pre-workout are actually still being released into your bloodstream at this point, meaning there is now no legitimate urgency for consuming a post-workout meal ASAP. So when should you ideally consume it under these much more typical circumstances? I think shooting for anywhere within 1 hour or so after your workout would be a good idea for most people. Can you wait longer than that? Yeah, probably. And while it is certainly possible that consuming your post-workout meal 2 hours after training could be equally as effective as consuming it within 1 hour, I’d still rather see it consumed within 1 hour if possible. Why? Just to err on the safe side and get whatever (hypothetical) tiny benefits there may (or may not) be from consuming it slightly sooner rather than slightly later. Can you still slam down a post-workout shake immediately after your workout anyway in this scenario? Sure you can. There is absolutely no need to do this, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it anyway if you happen to prefer it for whatever reason. I personally still consume a post-workout shake in the car on the ride home from the gym, followed by what is essentially “part 2” of this meal about 60-90 minutes after that. This second half is always a big solid food meal containing a significant amount of protein and carbs (here’s an example of a meal I often eat at this time). Once again, there is absolutely nothing special or more effective about this. It’s just what I like to do because it suits my personal needs and dietary preferences. You should do whatever suits yours. And I think that pretty much covers everything. Just in case I unintentionally lost or confused you at any point during this chapter, I just want to quickly bring it all home with a one sentence summary that will hopefully make everything as clear as possible.

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Ready? Here it is… Ensure that your total calorie and macronutrient intake for the day is what it needs to be, and then surround your workouts with some protein and carbs. We can make it much more complicated than that (and for the purpose of being as thorough as possible, I guess I just kinda did), but in the end this is how simple it truly is. And just like that, any remotely beneficial aspect of nutrient timing has been designed for Superior Muscle Growth. “…if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further?” #Shawshank

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CHAPTER 12

Meal Frequency, Eating Style, Food Choices And Diet Organization

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► MEAL FREQUENCY, EATING STYLE, FOOD CHOICES AND DIET ORGANIZATION

A

nd now it’s time to finish out the diet and nutrition stuff by lumping together a handful of dietary factors into one chapter that could have simply been titled “Diet Adherence” for reasons you’re about to see. So, what am I talking about when I say “meal frequency, eating style, food choices and diet organization?” I’m talking about this… 

Should you eat big meals or small meals?



Should you eat frequently or infrequently?



Should you eat every 2-3 hours or every 4-5 hours?



Should your diet be more strict or more flexible?



Should you eat “clean” 100% of the time or do some form of “IIFYM” (If It Fits Your Macros) where you maybe eat “clean” 90% of the time and “dirty” 10% of the time?



Should you go Paleo, or raw, or gluten-free, or anti-grain, or vegan, or organic, or whatever the hell else?



Should you eat 3 meals a day or 6 meals? 2 meals or 7 meals? 4 meals or 5 meals?



Should you do some form of intermittent fasting or eat regularly throughout the day?



Should you eat early or late?

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Should you eat breakfast or skip it?

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Should you stop eating at a certain specific time at night?

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Should you eat more carbs earlier or later?

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Should you combine certain foods and nutrients in a single meal and avoid combining others?

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And on and on and on.

Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s all of the stuff that most people lose their minds over.

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THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS So, what’s the answer to these kinds of questions? What’s most effective? What should you do? Brace yourself, because this is going to get super complicated. You ready? The answer to every single one of these questions and every similar question just like them is: who cares? Why? Because with all else being equal, none of this shit matters. Yes, seriously. The only small exception to this is the nutrient timing topics covered in the previous chapter (your pre-/post-workout meals). But even in that case one of the main points you should have taken from that chapter was that in the grand scheme of your diet, even that stuff was of minor importance. But this stuff? It’s of less-than-minor importance. In fact, as long as your total calorie and macronutrient intake is what it needs to be at the end of the day, I’d go so far as to say that this stuff is of no direct importance whatsoever. I know. You’ve probably heard differently. You’ve probably heard all kinds of things from all kinds of sources that provided what seemed like fantastic arguments for why certain things on the list above are directly responsible for the effectiveness of your diet. But the truth is, that’s all just a big collection of myths, bullshit and people trying to pass off their personal preferences onto everyone else.

But the truth is, that’s all just a big collection of myths, bullshit and people trying to pass off their personal preferences onto everyone else.

In reality, not a single factor listed above will have any meaningful direct effect (positive or negative) on any aspect of calorie partitioning, muscle growth, muscle loss, fat loss, fat gain or anything similar. Yes, seriously.

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I’ve seen no remotely conclusive evidence to support one side of these factors being superior to the opposite side, and I’ve personally experimented with most of it myself and found there to be no differences or benefits of any kind one way or the other. Most sane/unbiased people have reported the exact same thing. Do you know what that means? It means… 

Your meals can be whatever the hell size you want them to be.



You can eat as frequently or infrequently as you want.



You can eat every 2-3 hours, every 4-5 hours, or do some form of intermittent fasting.



Your diet can be as strict or as flexible as you want it to be.



You can eat 100% “clean” foods 100% of the time, or eat those same clean foods maybe 90% of the time and various supposed “dirty” foods the other 10% of the time.



You can be as Paleo, raw, gluten-free, anti-grain, natural, vegan, organic, or whatever the hell else as you want to be. Or, you can be absolutely none of it.



You can eat 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 meals per day. Shit, you can eat 3.5 or 5 1/4 meals for all I care.



You can eat breakfast bright and early, or skip it completely.



You can eat whatever combinations of foods and nutrients that you want.



You can stop eating calories and/or carbs at a certain specific time at night, or you can feel free to eat however the hell late you want to eat.



And on and on and on.

And in every single case – with all else being equal – there will be no direct difference in the end. Why? Because in terms of your diet, changes in body composition happen solely as a result of your overall calorie, protein, fat and carb intake. The specific food sources that provide those calories and macronutrients, and the specific manner in which they are consumed throughout the day will play no direct role at all. This is the point where the crazy people who have developed an emotional (or perhaps financial) attachment to their preferred style of eating like to say stuff like “You’re just a hater, bro!”

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As if I’m saying this because I have some kind of vendetta against certain ways of eating. Which is hilarious. The funniest part of all is that I WISH I was wrong. I WISH that some version of this stuff actually played a meaningful role in that regard. I WISH that a certain approach to meal frequency, eating style, food selection/restriction or diet organization truly did provide some degree of benefit that would directly improve any aspect of muscle growth or fat loss for me. If it did, I would be the first person to implement that approach and this would be a chapter explaining exactly what that approach is and exactly how you can implement it yourself. But the reality is that this just isn’t the case. So instead, this is a chapter about how none of this stuff actually matters. Because honestly… it doesn’t. Well… except for one tiny thing.

DIET ADHERENCE: THE X-FACTOR Ah yes, diet adherence… the kryptonite to the “with all else being equal” assumption. See, while none of this stuff might have any direct impact on your results, the same cannot be said for its potential indirect impact. In that regard, this stuff can be super important. How so? Because meal frequency, eating style, food choices and diet organization are the factors that determine if a person’s diet ends up being convenient, enjoyable, preferable and sustainable for them… or the complete opposite. Now remember earlier in this book when I mentioned the three biggest problems people face when trying to build muscle? Well it turns out there is actually a fourth potential problem, and it’s a problem that plagues every diet for every goal. And that is simply a person’s inability to stick to that diet and consistently eat how they need to eat. Also known as… diet adherence.

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Because regardless of how effective any diet is, it will always fail to work if you are unable to consistently put it into action and sustain it long-term. Do you know why this happens most often? Besides just a lack of motivation, dedication, desire, effort and that sort of thing? It’s because the diet you are trying to consistently put into action and sustain just isn’t ideal for you. Not in terms of effectiveness, but strictly in terms of suiting YOUR personal needs, preferences and lifestyle. Which is all to say that meal frequency, eating style, food choices and diet organization are the keys to diet adherence, and diet adherence is the one remaining x-factor that every diet must have in order to be capable of success. So yeah, indirectly… this stuff can play an absolutely crucial role in your results solely from the standpoint of adherence. Luckily for us though, it’s surprisingly easy to get right.

THE SIMPLE SECRET TO DIET ADHERENCE So we already answered all of the questions on that list at the beginning of this chapter from the perspective of “what’s more effective?” And the answer, of course, was that with all else being equal, there is no difference. It’s all equally effective. Now let’s answer all of those questions again, but this time from the perspective of “what’s better for your own diet adherence?” The answer 100% of the time is this:

Whatever will make you most likely to consistently meet your total calorie and macronutrient intake each day, THAT’S what you should do. Whatever is most convenient, enjoyable and sustainable for you, your life and your specific dietary needs and preferences… THAT’S what you should do.

So when you’re trying to decide how many meals to eat a day, or how early/late to eat, or if you should allow or restrict certain types of foods or food groups, or any other similar question about

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the way you go about eating over the course of the day, the only factor worth taking into consideration is simply your own personal preferences and doing whatever the hell is best for you. Simple as that. What’s that, you say? You’re still looking for a little bit of guidance anyway? Alright, no problem. Here are a few very commonsense suggestions…

SOME COMMONSENSE SUGGESTIONS 

The majority of your calorie and macronutrient intake should always come from higher quality, minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods you enjoy, while the typical junkier foods should be kept to a sane yet still enjoyable and sustainable minimum. A ratio like 90/10 tends to be an ideal balance for most people in terms of both overall health and… you know… life not sucking. But if you happen to prefer 100/0 for whatever reason (and that reason isn’t some kind of baseless disordered obsession with food that is likely to only be detrimental to your heath and sanity), then hey… that’s fine too. Whatever is most ideal for you.



While there may be some people who can make as few as 2 meals per day work, and some who can make as many as 7-8 meals per day work, the majority of the population will usually do best with somewhere between 3-6 meals per day.



Someone with a lower calorie intake will generally end up having to eat a bunch of tiny unsatisfying meals if they try to spread their daily calories out over something like 6 meals per day. In this case, consuming larger meals and less of them (e.g., 3-4) may be ideal. Feel free to experiment and see what you like best.



Someone with a higher daily calorie intake might feel like they are about to explode if they try to cram all of their daily calories into something like 3 huge meals per day. In this case, it may be more ideal to consume additional meals (e.g. 4-6) and make them a more moderate size. Feel free to experiment and see what you like best.



For the exact same reason as the previous bullet point, many intermittent fasting approaches that shrink down the allowed “feeding period” to some extent (e.g., an 8-hour window) can make it much harder for many people to get all of their calories in each day. In cases like this, I’d suggest not using an IF approach.



You can do things the same way every day, or you can change things a bit from one day to the next depending on what you prefer doing that day. For example, maybe you like eating 4 meals

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per day, every day. Or, maybe 5 meals suits you best on training days, and 3 meals suits you best on rest days. Whatever you like best. 

Don’t force yourself to restrict foods/food groups you enjoy and have no legitimate reason to restrict.



Don’t force yourself to follow any sort of dietary “rules” that you have no legitimate reason to follow and just make things unnecessarily hard or annoying for you.



Avoid foods that you have legitimate issues digesting. So if certain foods make you (literally and/or figuratively) feel kinda crappy (e.g., gas, bloating, nasal congestion, lethargy, cramps, constipation, diarrhea, etc.… all the fun stuff), minimize your consumption of those foods or maybe even avoid them completely.



Avoid foods you just don’t enjoy eating. Even if they are “good” foods. If you hate them, there’s no need to force yourself to eat them. There is always some other food that will provide whatever “good” thing that food supposedly provides.



If you prefer eating earlier, eat earlier. If you prefer eating later, eat later. If you prefer both, do both.



If you’re someone who does better with a more strict and structured diet, do that. If you’re someone who does better with a more flexible diet, do that.



Simply put, meet the various dietary guidelines laid out in this book in whatever the hell way makes you the happiest. Because when a person’s diet makes them happy (rather than annoyed, inconvenienced, uncomfortable, unnecessarily restricted, etc.), that person becomes a whole lot more likely to stick to that diet and consistently meet those guidelines.

Got it? Good. For additional details, I cover many of these topics in the following articles: 

Clean Eating vs IIFYM – Which Is REALLY Better?



How Many Meals A Day – When & How Often Should You Eat?



How To Choose The Best Foods For Your Diet & Adjust Everything To Fit Your Preferences

And just like that, you know how to give your diet the sustainability it needs for Superior Muscle Growth to occur. So… what’s next? Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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CHAPTER 13

Weight Training For Superior Muscle Growth

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► WEIGHT TRAINING FOR SUPERIOR MUSCLE GROWTH

A

lright, let’s recap. The “supply” is now in place. You learned right at the beginning of this book that the only true requirements of a muscle building diet are a caloric surplus and a sufficient protein intake.

Check and check. But you also learned that while this is all that’s needed to make things “work,” just making things “work” isn’t good enough for us. That’s why these previous chapters have walked you through every single meaningful dietary factor and adjusted all of them in your favor. Rest assured that every beneficial aspect of your diet is now designed to maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains. All that remains now is repeating these steps… only this time focusing on the “signal” that makes all of this diet stuff relevant in the first place. Which means, it’s time to talk training. Earlier I explained that muscle growth is nothing more than an adaptive response the body initiates only when it’s put into an environment that proves to it that more muscle NEEDS to be built in order for it to continue to survive and function. Basically, your body doesn’t want to build muscle. So if you want it to, you’re going to need to create an environment that forces it to. This “environment” will, of course, come to exist as a result of your weight training program. However, as I also mentioned earlier, that’s not what actually makes muscle growth happen. Rather, weight training is just the tool we’re using to produce the stimulus that actually signals the growth response we want. The only question is… how exactly do we design the most effective weight training program possible for this purpose? Well, in order to answer that, we first need to understand the stimulus itself. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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THE SIGNAL: TENSION, FATIGUE AND DAMAGE Research (like this great paper from Brad Schoenfeld) plus seemingly infinite amounts of real world experience show us that there are 3 main types of stimuli that contribute to the muscle building signal. In the most likely order of significance, they are:

1 Progressive tension overload. 2

Metabolic fatigue/stress.

3

Muscular damage.

This list should look familiar, because I mentioned these 3 components briefly back in the first chapter of this book before only going into detail about the most important of the three… progressive overload. Now it’s time to cover the other two (along with some additional important details about progressive overload) and figure out how to design our weight training program around them.

1. PROGRESSIVE TENSION OVERLOAD Everything you need to know about what progressive overload is, why it’s so important and how to make it happen were already explained in the first chapter of this book, so I won’t bother repeating myself. On second thought… you know what? Screw it. It’s so damn important that it warrants repeating myself just a little bit if for no other reason than to burn it into your brain. Progressive tension overload is essentially just a fancy term for getting stronger. If you want muscle growth to occur to any degree (be it 5 lbs of new muscle or 35 lbs of new muscle), you must force your muscles to adapt to a tension that is above and beyond what they have previously experienced. So if you go on lifting the same amount of weight for the same number of reps for the rest of your life, you will never build any muscle.

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You will only maintain the muscle you currently have. Why? Because your body has already adapted to that tension and therefore has no reason to build any new muscle. Basically, if the demands that need to be met can be met with whatever amount of muscle and strength your body already has, then your body will simply think “okay then, I guess no additional muscle is needed here.” But, if you increase the demands you are placing on your body by increasing the amount of weight being lifted and/or lifting the same weight for more reps (or something similar), then guess what your body thinks now? “Uh oh, looks like we’re going to need to build some new muscle to remain capable of meeting these new demands.” Which is why the #1 goal of every single workout program aimed at building muscle is to make progressive overload happen as often as possible by consistently striving to get stronger on every exercise over time. So if you can do 6 reps, you now want 7 reps. If you can lift 100 lbs, you now want 105 lbs. Whether you get just 1 more rep on just 1 set of just 1 exercise, or add 5 lbs to all of your sets… it doesn’t matter. Your goal when you step into the gym is to try to beat what you did the previous time by some small amount as often as you can (within the realm of safety and proper form, of course). Every time you do, your body responds by adapting to this new progressively heavier tension in the only way it knows how… by building more muscle to support it. This is progressive tension overload, and this is the primary signal of muscle growth.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO TRAIN FOR IT? The next thing you should be wondering is: what type of weight training is most conducive to generating this crucial tension stimulus? Well, the first thing you should know is that every single form of training imaginable that involves any kind of resistance that is heavy enough to truly challenge your muscles is capable of making it happen, which of course explains why so many different types of workout programs can be effective for building muscle.

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However, pretty much everyone will agree that progressive overload happens optimally when using a more stereotypical powerlifting-style approach (aka “strength training”). This encompasses a variety of factors, the most significant of which include: 

Lower rep ranges and heavier weight. For example, doing heavy sets of 1-8 reps will typically be more ideal for strength progression than lighter sets of 8-15.



Longer rest periods. For example, resting 3 minutes between sets of a given exercise will typically be more ideal for strength progression than resting 1 minute between sets.



Big free weight compound exercises. For example, strength progression will happen much better with exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses and rows than it ever will with exercises like leg extensions, bicep curls, lateral raises and dumbbell flyes.



Strength gains are priority #1. So the focus of training is entirely on just getting as strong as possible as fast as possible and lifting the heaviest weights you’re capable of from point A to point B.

Now please don’t misunderstand me here. This stuff is definitely NOT a requirement of progressive overload. It can (and does) take place very easily under conditions that are the complete opposite of what I just described (higher reps, lighter weight, shorter rest periods, secondary/accessory/isolation exercises, etc.). However, my point here is that what I just described is what’s most ideal for consistently generating this progressive tension stimulus. And that leads us to a very obvious assumption…

SO WE SHOULD TRAIN PURELY FOR STRENGTH, LIKE A POWERLIFTER? Makes sense, right? I mean, if progressive tension overload (aka getting stronger) is the primary stimulus of muscle growth, and this strength-focused style of training is what’s most ideal for making it happen, then surely this is the best way to train to build muscle… right? Not quite. And this is the point where the dumbest portion of the strength-focused crowd (e.g., Mr. 5x5 who does nothing but a few big compound exercises in low rep ranges and thinks this is the ideal way

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everyone should train for every goal… including muscle growth) likes to cut me off and say “But have you ever looked at the people who train purely for strength? They’ve built TONS of muscle, so clearly this style of training works for muscle growth!” To which I’d respond, yup… you’re 100% correct. But the point that these people stupidly and/or stubbornly seem to miss is that while this definitely works for building muscle… it’s just NOT what works best. And that’s what we’re looking for. Really, that’s what everyone who is interested more in muscle growth than pure strength alone should be looking for… even if various Internet strength cults have tried to brainwash them to believe otherwise. So why exactly isn’t this style of training best for muscle growth? Two main reasons: 1. Gaining strength doesn’t guarantee gaining muscle. Yes, you need to get stronger in order to build muscle. This is always key. However, strength gains can be (and very often are with this style of training) neural and/or technical rather than hypertrophic. Meaning, you can get stronger at an exercise as a result of improved nervous system efficiency or just by simply improving your technique in a way that makes you better at doing that exercise… and NOT as a result of an actual increase in muscle mass. As people who are seeking superior muscle growth, this matters. 2. Progressive tension overload is NOT the only component of the signal. If it was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But it’s not. You saw that list a minute ago, and there were two other types of growth-signaling-stimuli on it that this strength-focused style of training is just FAR from ideal for producing or really just completely ignores altogether. It’s not its fault, of course. It’s just not what this style of training is designed to do. And this is precisely why training purely for strength is what’s ideal for… gaining strength. And while this does work for building muscle, it’s more of a side effect of this style of training rather than its actual intended purpose. As people who are seeking superior muscle growth, why in the hell would we train in a manner fitting this description? It would be just as silly as someone only interested in pure strength using a program explicitly designed for building muscle (you’ll certainly get stronger, but it’s just not ideal for strength).

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So basically, progressive tension/getting stronger is an absolutely crucial part of building muscle. However, training entirely for strength – while certainly effective for this goal – is misguided and simply not what’s going to work best for it. Now for component #2…

2. METABOLIC FATIGUE/STRESS Of secondary importance to the muscle building signal is something commonly referred to as “metabolic fatigue” or “metabolic stress.” Technically speaking, this occurs as a result of the accumulation of various metabolites (such as lactate) as well as muscle hypoxia, cell swelling (aka the pump) and probably a few other factors as well. And research, along with decades of real world results, show us that this “fatigue” stimulus is a beneficial addition to the growth signal we’re trying to create. The question is, what type of weight training is most conducive to making it happen?

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO TRAIN FOR IT? Pretty much everyone will agree that it occurs mainly as a result of using a more stereotypical bodybuilding-style approach (aka “pump training”). Which is my way of saying that it’s brought on mostly by: 

Higher rep ranges/moderate-lighter weight/longer time under tension. For example, doing sets of 8-15 reps with a more moderate amount of weight will typically generate more fatigue than heavy sets of 1-8 reps.



Shorter rest periods. For example, resting 1 minute between sets will typically generate more fatigue than resting 3 minutes between sets.



Higher amounts of volume. For example, doing more sets, reps and/or exercises for a given muscle group will generate more fatigue than doing just a few sets of a single exercise.



Accessory and isolation exercises performed using a variety of equipment (free weights, machines, cables, body weight). For example, secondary and/or accessory lifts like the incline dumbbell press or seated machine row are typically more ideal for generating fatigue than a

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primary lift like the flat barbell bench press or bent over barbell row. Even more so, isolation exercises like dumbbell flyes, lateral raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, etc. will be much more ideal for generating fatigue than big compound exercises like squats and deadlifts. 

Fatiguing the muscle is priority #1. So the focus of training is largely on stuff like feeling the muscle working, getting a huge pump, feeling it burn, squeezing the muscle hard during the set, hitting it in different ways from different angles with different exercises, keeping constant tension on the muscle, slowing down the tempo, getting a good stretch, using “advanced” methods like dropsets, concentrating on making a mind-muscle connection at all times and really just fatiguing the muscle as much as possible.

Now you’ve probably noticed that what’s most ideal for fatigue is sort of the opposite of what’s most ideal for progressive tension. This is correct. There is definitely plenty of overlap in the middle between the two, but it’s safe to say that what’s best for each lies on opposite ends of the training spectrum (which again is one of the reasons why pure strength training isn’t optimal for growth… it’s just not suited at all for generating this fatigue stimulus). And similar to tension, metabolic fatigue can be generated using a variety of training approaches. However, the point here is that this is the style of training that is most ideal for consistently making it happen. And that leads us to yet another very obvious assumption…

SO WE SHOULD TRAIN PURELY FOR FATIGUE, LIKE A BODYBUILDER? Makes sense, right? I mean, if metabolic fatigue is a beneficial stimulus of muscle growth, and this bodybuilding style of training is what’s most ideal for making it happen, then clearly this is the best way to train to build muscle… right? Not quite. And this is the point where the dumbest portion of the pump-focused crowd (e.g., the “bro” doing his highly entertaining “chest day” filled with 4000 different chest exercises who thinks this is the be all and end all of building muscle) cuts me off and says “But have you ever looked at the pro Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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bodybuilders who train this way? They’ve built more muscle than anyone else on the planet… including the strongest powerlifters! So clearly this style is what works best for muscle growth!” To which I’d respond, yup… but it’s a bit more complicated than that, and complicated in ways that eliminate the possibility of this style of training being best for muscle growth. There are three main reasons why: 1. Steroids/drugs and amazing genetics make this argument irrelevant to us. Ready for a shocking reveal? The vast majority of male and female bodybuilders at every level (including many “natural bodybuilders”) are using drugs. Shitloads of drugs. Surprise! Many also have above-average genetics. Surprise! And when you give someone enough drugs (and optionally add in fantastic genetics on top of it), you end up with a scenario that not only profoundly enhances the effectiveness of their training (strength, recovery, rate of muscle growth, etc. etc. etc.), but makes the actual design and effectiveness of their training a borderline afterthought. Why? Because with enough drugs (and/or elite genetics), you can walk into the gym and spend 45 minutes banging your head into a wall and still build muscle better than the average natural trainee doing everything right. Hell, as I mentioned earlier, with enough drugs a person can do surprisingly well even if they never step into the gym at all. (Full details here: Steroids vs Natural) Which means, the results of people like this are of little to no relevance whatsoever to people like us. 2. Too much fatigue is counterproductive. Yes, some degree of metabolic fatigue is definitely a good thing in terms of signaling growth. However, excessive amounts of fatigue (which describes the average stereotypical bodybuilding routine and may actually be an understatement) can quickly become a bad thing in that it can impede recovery and hinder our ability to make progressive overload happen. Now if you have the aforementioned drugs and/or great genetics to make up for this, you’ll still do just fine. But for the genetically average (or below-average) natural trainee like you and me? You’ll get nowhere. (Additional details here: Bodybuilding Routines Suck For Building Muscle) 3. Fatigue is the primary focus when tension should be. The other issue with this style of training is that it doesn’t just focus too much on fatigue; it focuses damn near entirely on fatigue at the expense of tension. Why is this a problem? Because of the two, tension is the more important stimulus AND the sole required stimulus. So if anything, fatigue should always take a backseat to tension in terms of training focus, and this style of training has that backwards… often to the point where there is no focus on progressive tension at all.

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So basically, stereotypical bodybuilding training is – for all intents and purposes – total shit for people like us. However, this does NOT negate the fact that some degree of fatigue stimulus is still definitely a beneficial part of the muscle building signal that we should definitely try to provide via our weight training program. It just needs to be done properly. And now for component #3…

3. MUSCULAR DAMAGE And finally, of tertiary importance to the muscle building signal is muscular damage. This type of stimulus occurs when some small amount of actual damage is done to the muscle tissue itself, thus requiring the remodeling of that tissue. And if we can say that the “pump” is the most common feeling associated with causing some degree of metabolic fatigue, then we can also probably say that soreness is the most common feeling associated with causing some degree of muscular damage. While this statement is true, there are two key points that need to go along with it: 1. I wouldn’t say soreness is a required sign of damage. Meaning, there can be damage without soreness. 2. Soreness in and of itself is definitely NOT an indicator of muscle growth or training effectiveness (more here). It’s also definitely NOT something to purposely seek out, for reasons I’ll explain in a second. Regardless, research and real world experience shows us that some degree of this “damage” stimulus likely plays a beneficial role in enhancing the growth signal we’re trying to create. The question is, what type of weight training is most conducive to making it happen?

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO TRAIN FOR IT? Unlike tension and fatigue, which could each be pinned down to a particular style of training, damage isn’t quite as clear cut. If anything, I would say it leans a bit more toward the bodybuilding/fatigue style mentioned a minute ago. But really, this sort of stimulus can occur quite a bit at both ends of the training spectrum. This is because it’s brought about mostly as a result of:

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

Doing something new/different. For example, beginners who first start training will cause plenty of muscular damage because they are making their muscles do things they’ve never had to do before.



The eccentric (lowering/negative) portion of an exercise. For example, the point in the rep where the weight is being lowered and the muscle is being stretched and the range of motion is being increased all while under tension is the point in the rep where the majority of the damage takes place. This is one of the reasons why you want to control the weight on the way down rather than just letting it drop due to gravity. This is also a big part of why training methods such as extra slow negatives or eccentric-only reps are often used by people trying to elicit as much damage as possible.



Exercises with a natural stretch component to them. For example, exercises that place tension on the muscle while in an already stretched position – Romanian deadlifts, dumbbell flyes, overhead tricep extensions, etc. – tend to produce more damage/soreness than any other type of exercise.



Lifting weights. Really, any typical training scenario where your muscles are being subjected to a meaningful amount of tension and/or fatigue is likely causing some degree of damage.

As you can see, the causes of muscular damage are fairly generic and tend to be present when using a wide variety of training approaches. There are three notes of importance about all this: 

First, muscular damage is the least important component of the muscle building signal and the one that I place the least amount of emphasis on. Yes, it contributes to it, just not as much as tension and fatigue do.



Second, just like how too much fatigue can be counterproductive, too much damage can VERY easily do more harm than good. It can very easily have significant negative effects on recovery and our ability to make progressive overload occur (or actually train at all in the first place). For this reason and more, we definitely want to avoid seeking out large amounts of muscular damage. We also want to avoid training specifically to “get sore.”



Third, you really won’t have to do much to seek out muscular damage in the first place. Why? Because it’s a part of tension and fatigue and it’s kinda going to happen automatically. What I mean is, if you’re training in a manner that places your muscles under a significant amount of tension and then you gradually increase that tension over time (aka progressive overload), you can bet your ass that muscular damage will be taking place throughout that process. The same

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goes for when you subject your muscles to significant amounts of metabolic stress and fatigue. Damage is going to occur on its own as a side effect of that. So basically, some small amount of damage is a beneficial component of the muscle building signal, BUT A) too much damage will be problematic and B) the damage we need/want will typically come about on its own in any intelligently designed muscle building routine that is successfully generating tension and fatigue (thus meaning that in most cases, very little should be done to purposely cause damage and/or soreness).

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SIGNAL STRENGTH Alright, so what does all of this mean to us and our weight training program? Do we want to design it for tension, fatigue or damage? Trick question. For superior results, we want all of them. At the top of that list is and always will be progressive tension overload. Why? Because it is and always will be the primary component of the growth signal. So we must lift some heavy ass weight and strive to consistently lift heavier ass weight over time. This is goal #1. And while tension alone can create the growth signal we need, it alone will not create the growth signal we truly want. This is because there are additional factors – fatigue and damage – that also contribute to it and when combined along with tension will substantially increase the strength of that signal. And that’s exactly what the goal of our training is: generating the strongest signal possible. Because the stronger we can get that signal to be, the better our calorie partitioning will be, the more surplus calories we’ll have going toward building new muscle rather than fat storage, and the better/faster muscle growth will be taking place overall. Or to put that another way, we’ll be maximizing muscle gains and minimizing fat gains to the highest degree we are capable of. Sounds good, doesn’t it? To make this happen, we’re going to need to implement what’s best for each type of stimuli and combine the benefits of “strength” focused training with the benefits of “pump” focused training

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into a workout program that generates maximal amounts of progressive tension, optimal amounts of metabolic fatigue, and beneficial amounts of damage. Now for the details and specifics of exactly how it should be done…

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THE COMPONENTS AND GOALS OF PROGRAM DESIGN So now we know what physiological stimuli contribute to the growth signal we need. The next step is to strategically adjust every meaningful component of our weight training program in a manner that best meets that need. These weight training components will include: 

Frequency And Split

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Failure

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Volume

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Rep Tempo And Speed

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Rep Ranges

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Proper Form

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Exercise Selection And Organization

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Deloading And Training Breaks

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Rest Periods

Our goal is to adjust all of these components in a way that meets the following criteria: 1. Produces the strongest growth signal possible in the most proven (research and real world), intelligent and effective way we’re capable of. 2. Makes #1 happen in a way that does not cause one component to interfere with another and/or require adjusting something in suboptimal ways to compensate. 3. Makes #1 happen in a way that does not exceed our capacity to recover optimally. 4. Makes #1 happen in a way that suits our personal needs. This includes everything from experience level, available training schedule and injury history, to genetics, age and individual training preferences. 5. Makes #1 happen in a way that reduces the risk of injury as much as possible. All of this other stuff is wonderful, but an injury can quickly make it all meaningless. Let’s now walk through each relevant factor and adjust them to our advantage.

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FREQUENCY AND SPLIT Frequency can refer to a lot of things in the context of weight training, but in our case we’ll mostly be focusing on how often we’re training each body part/muscle group per week. The split is basically the way the workouts are structured over the course of the week to achieve that frequency. So, how often should we train each muscle group/body part? Well, realistically speaking, there are really just three categories to choose from: 1. Lower Frequency We’ll define this as training each muscle group just once per week (so once every 7th day). This is the frequency most commonly seen with stereotypical bodybuilding-style training. You know… something like chest on Monday, arms on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, shoulders on Thursday, legs on Friday. Having an entire week between sessions for the same body part tends to be nice for creating the largest fatigue/damage stimulus possible during that one weekly workout since there will be 7 full days to rest/recover before training that same body part again. However, this frequency tends to be complete shit for progressive tension because that full week between sessions will cause most people to detrain and lose whatever adaptations were made in the previous workout by the time the next workout finally comes along. Drugs and/or great genetics instantly change this, of course. Which helps explain why bodybuilders do great with this frequency, while the majority of the population doesn’t. (Details here: Once-Per-Week Frequency and Bodybuilding Workouts Suck). 2. Higher Frequency We’ll define this as training each muscle group 3 times per week (so once every 2nd or 3rd day). This frequency is most commonly seen with stereotypical strength-style training, almost always with a full body workout on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This higher frequency is much more ideal for making strength gains simply because the more often you train something, the better/stronger you’re likely to get at it (and the faster it’ll happen). The downside here is that it’s the least ideal for fatigue and damage, because the workouts come so frequently that you purposely need to reduce the fatigue/damage stimulus to suboptimal levels in order to allow for adequate recovery. In addition, full body training in general (which is the only realistic way of making this higher frequency work) comes with problems of its own once a certain stage is reached. (Details here: Three-Times-Per-Week Frequency and Full Body Training Downsides) 3. Moderate Frequency We’ll define this as training each muscle group about twice per week (so between once every 3rd to 5th day). There are tons of examples of this, with one of the most common being upper Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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body on Monday and Thursday, and lower body on Tuesday and Friday. This is basically a middle ground between the previous two extremes, and it tends to provide many of the benefits of both while reducing their downsides. (Details here: Twice-Per-Week Frequency) Despite their various pros and cons, and despite what you may have already heard or assumed, the honest truth is that every single one of these training frequencies is capable of working for muscle growth (both research and real world experience support this) as long as everything is done right and the signal/supply are there. But again, we don’t care about what works. We want to know which one works best. So, which frequency works best for building muscle? Here’s what I recommend…

BEGINNER RECOMMENDATIONS Beginners will train everything 3 times per week using a full body split.

That would look something like this: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Monday: Full Body Tuesday: off Wednesday: Full Body Thursday: off Friday: Full Body Saturday: off Sunday: off

Why 3 times per week? Because the untrained state beginners are in primes them for rapid improvements in strength gains that intermediate/advanced trainees are no longer capable of, and the best way to maximize those gains is by using a higher frequency. This, of course, explains why literally every highly proven beginner program uses this frequency. Why a full body split? Because it’s the only training split that allows for this higher frequency to be reached in a truly intelligent manner. This also explains why literally every proven beginner program uses a full body split. Without any doubt, this is what’s most effective for beginners. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED RECOMMENDATIONS Everyone past the beginner stage will train everything about twice per week (so somewhere between once every 3rd to 5th day). As for the split, there are a handful of intelligent splits that can work well with this frequency (e.g., upper/lower, push/pull/legs, push/pull, etc.). The Best Workout Routines (which is the other file that came along with this book) contains all of them. For right now though, I’ll just show you the most commonly used split for this frequency (and one of my personal favorites), which is upper/lower. The 4 day version looks something like this: 1. Monday: Upper Body 2. Tuesday: Lower Body 3. Wednesday: off 4. Thursday: Upper Body 5. Friday: Lower Body 6. Saturday: off 7. Sunday: off The 3 day version looks something like this:

WEEK 1 1. Monday: Upper Body 2. Tuesday: off 3. Wednesday: Lower Body 4. Thursday: off 5. Friday: Upper Body 6. Saturday: off 7. Sunday: off

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WEEK 2 1. Monday: Lower Body 2. Tuesday: off 3. Wednesday: Upper Body 4. Thursday: off 5. Friday: Lower Body 6. Saturday: off 7. Sunday: off So why train everything about twice per week? Because it is simply what works best for intermediate and advanced trainees seeking superior muscle growth. Similar to a higher frequency, this moderate frequency is also ideal for progressive tension. For proof, look no further than the fact that this is the frequency used by the vast majority of powerlifters (yes, even more so than 3 times per week). Unlike a higher frequency however, this moderate frequency allows for optimal amounts of fatigue and damage to be generated in each workout without impeding recovery or forcing those components to be reduced to suboptimal levels. Basically, it brings the positive aspects of both higher and lower frequency training while avoiding their major downsides. It’s the best of both worlds. Plenty of research supports this as well, as does my own firsthand experience, a seemingly infinite amount of real world results and observation, and the countless recommendations I’ve seen from every trainer and coach whose opinions I value. For more proof, look no further than the fact that this is also the frequency used by the vast majority of legitimate natural bodybuilders. Long story short, about twice per week is what’s going to be most effective for intermediate and advanced trainees.

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VOLUME Alright, so now you know how many times to train each muscle group per week. The next question is, how much volume should you be doing? Volume is essentially the amount of work being done. As in, how many sets, reps and/or exercises are being performed for each muscle group per workout or per week total. To answer this, we first need to figure out the best way to count volume.

HOW TO COUNT VOLUME Many people do it based on sets. As in, do X sets for a muscle group in each workout or maybe X total sets for each muscle group per week. This is okay, but when you take reps into account, things can get thrown off quite a bit. For example, let’s pretend 10 total sets for back per week is ideal (that’s just a random example number). If you did 5 reps per set, that’s 50 total reps for back per week. If you did 15 reps per set, that’s 150 total reps per week. As you can see, even when the amount of sets is equal, different amounts of reps can still lead to the total volume being very different. For this reason, counting volume based on reps is usually the smartest way to do it. Now the number of sets and/or exercises being done can vary a dozen different ways, but yet the overall volume will still be equal as long as the same total amount of reps are done in the end. (Additional details here: Weight Training Volume)

HOW MUCH VOLUME IS BEST? We basically want to do the largest amount of beneficial volume we can without exceeding our capacity to recover, because that would either hurt our progress (maybe even prevent it completely) or at best require making a suboptimal reduction to some other aspect of our weight training program to compensate (e.g., cutting frequency back to just once per week, which is suboptimal for growth). With that in mind, there are really just 5 categories of volume we can be in:

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1. Insufficient Amounts. This is using an amount of volume that is so low that it’s just completely ineffective for signaling growth. Technically, this category does exist, but in reality the number of people who are actually using an amount of volume that is so low as to be insufficient is probably zero. 2. Suboptimal Amounts. This is using an amount of volume that works. No doubt about it, this is an effective amount of volume for building muscle. However, it is simply not what works best. It is just some degree below what would produce the best results the person is capable of getting. Many typical “low volume” approaches fit into this category, as do many minimalistic strength-focused approaches. 3. Optimal Amounts. This is the sweet spot we all want to be in when it comes to volume. This is the category where you are maximizing gains to the highest extent possible. 4. Unnecessary Amounts. This is an amount of volume that isn’t really doing anything positive or negative compared to the previous category. It’s just more than the maximum amount that is beneficial, thus essentially making it an unnecessary waste of time and effort. This is another somewhat rare category, as people going in this direction tend to go from category #3 to category #5 instantly. 5. Detrimental Amounts. This is the point of diminishing returns. Now you’ve passed optimal and unnecessary and ended up in counterproductive territory. Meaning, this is an amount of volume that has significant negative effects on everything from muscle growth and strength gains to recovery and injury prevention. Most stereotypical bodybuilding approaches fit into this category. So take a wild guess what category we want to be in. Yup, category #3… optimal. The question is, what exactly is the optimal amount of volume? Unfortunately, there is no exact amount that is absolutely perfect for everyone. Due to individual differences in experience level, volume tolerance, work capacity, recovery capabilities, age and other factors specific to each person, it’s impossible for there to be one super specific guideline that suits everyone equally. What there is, however, is a certain range of volume that has proven to be optimal for most of the people, most of the time…

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VOLUME RECOMMENDATIONS Here’s what I recommend…

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For each bigger muscle group: about 60-120 total reps PER WEEK.

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For each smaller muscle group: about 30-60 total reps PER WEEK.

(Additional details here: The Optimal Volume Range) We’ll define the “bigger muscle groups” as being chest, back, quads and hamstrings, and the “smaller muscle groups” as being biceps, triceps and maybe abs. Shoulders are really somewhere in the middle, though I tend to lean more toward the “smaller” guidelines. Calves, while technically small, are another muscle group that is somewhere in the middle, and again I tend to lean more toward the “smaller” guidelines. Why less volume for the smaller muscle groups? Two reasons. First, they are “smaller” after all, and just don’t require as much volume. Second and more importantly is the fact that these smaller muscle groups (with the exception of calves) all get a ton of indirect volume while training the bigger muscle groups. So biceps get hit a ton during all back exercises, and triceps and shoulders get hit a ton during all chest (and shoulder) pressing exercises. After all of that indirect volume, less direct volume is needed. And from there it’s really just a matter of dividing this weekly volume up based on what your training frequency is. So… 

Intermediate and advanced trainees will be training each muscle group about twice per week. That would mean doing about 30-60 reps for each bigger muscle group and 15-30 reps for each smaller muscle group in each of those two weekly workouts. (For example, 30-60 reps for chest on Monday, and another 30-60 reps for chest on Thursday. Or 15-30 reps for triceps on Monday, and another 15-30 reps for triceps on Thursday.)

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Beginners could technically do the same thing using their own three-times-per-week frequency, but guidelines like this aren’t as relevant to beginners (and if anything, beginners would belong at the lowest end of the suggested ranges or even a little below them). This is simply because beginner training is this weird area that seems to have a very specific approach that most often works best, and bringing that approach to life often involves straying from some of the guidelines that apply to everyone else. Like volume, for example. So what does that mean exactly? It means in the case of

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beginners, the best thing to do is just use a proven beginner routine that already puts everything together just right for you (like the one I’m going to show you a little bit later).

WHERE DOES THIS OPTIMAL VOLUME RANGE COME FROM? Good question. The first place I can ever remember seeing a recommendation like this was years ago (I’m guessing maybe 2004?) in a book called The Black Book of Training Secrets by Christian Thibaudeau. Back when Thibaudeau was only putting out high quality information (let’s just say he has been quite inconsistent about quality in the decade since), he was the first person I saw who suggested that a range of about 80-120 total reps per week per muscle group was optimal, and that it should be divided up somewhat evenly over however many workouts there would be for each body part per week. So for example, intermediate/advanced trainees training each muscle group twice per week would do around 40-60 reps per muscle group in each workout. But wait, there’s more! The next place I saw similar numbers was in the now infamous Wernbom meta-analysis, which was published back in 2007 and suggested that 30-60 reps per muscle group per workout (with about two workouts per week for each muscle group) was optimal for growth. And the final place I saw it was… all around me. What I mean is, when looking at what I’d consider to be some of the most intelligent, proven and all around effective weight training programs designed for muscle growth by the people I respect the most, you begin to notice a lot of similarities. One such example is volume and the total amount of reps being prescribed for each muscle group in each workout. They often tend to fall somewhere within (or at least extremely close to) this optimal range. Turns out the various experienced trainers and coaches who designed these programs individually came to realize that a similar amount of volume produced the best results. In my own personal experience, I’ve found this to be the case as well… and that’s exactly what these volume recommendations are based on.

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REP RANGES The next thing we need to figure out is how to go about reaching this ideal amount of volume in our workouts. As in, what rep range should be used for each exercise? The rep range is the amount of reps being done in a given set. This also dictates intensity (which is how heavy you’re lifting in relation to your 1 rep maximum) as well as time under tension (which is how long your sets last). Technically speaking, we could do as little as 1 rep to as many as 30 reps or more in each set and still get some degree of results. But what we want to do here is narrow things down to what’s best for muscle growth. To do this, we can start with a pretty widely agreed-upon goal classification system using pure strength, muscle growth and muscular endurance as the three goals. Here’s how it breaks down: 

1-5 Reps Per Set = Primarily strength.

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5-8 Reps Per Set = Strength and muscle equally.

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8-10 Reps Per Set = Muscle with some strength.

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10-12 Reps Per Set = Muscle with some endurance.

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12-15 Reps Per Set = Endurance with some muscle.

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15-20+ Reps Per Set = Primarily endurance.

(Additional details here: How Many Reps Per Set) As you can see, there is plenty of overlap between goals, and the honest truth is that each rep range can be effective to some extent for each goal, including muscle growth. So anything you may have previously seen or heard that made it seem as though only certain rep ranges were or were not capable of building muscle… you can ignore it. It’s horseshit. Virtually every single rep range can be effective. But, yet again, we don’t care about what’s effective. We only care about what’s most effective. And as you can see here, for muscle growth, it’s the 5-15 rep range.

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Now, that’s not to imply that you should never do something like 4 reps. For starters, if you’re going to be training as low as 5 reps, then chances are you’re going to end up hitting 4 from time to time (occasionally maybe even 3) just as a part of the normal process of progression. This is more to imply that the 5-15 rep range is going to be optimal for growth and should therefore be the range you spend the majority of your time training in.

RECOMMENDATIONS The thing is though, the 5-15 rep range is still a bit broad. So, let’s narrow it down even further… this time based on the specific type of growth stimulus each rep range is best suited for – progressive tension or metabolic fatigue (damage will happen with all of them) – as well as what type of exercise each rep range is best suited for: primary compound movements, secondary compound movements or isolation movements. Here’s how it breaks down:

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5-8 Reps Per Set > Tension > Primary Compound Movements

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8-10 Reps Per Set > Tension and Fatigue > Secondary Compound Movements

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10-15 Reps Per Set > Fatigue > Isolation Movements

No, this doesn’t mean that primary compound movements can never be done for more than 8 reps, or that secondary compound movements can’t be done for 5-8 or 10-15 reps, or that isolation exercises can’t be done for less than 10 reps. Everything can be done in every rep range. This is just the rep range each type of exercise is best suited for, and where it should ideally be done most of the time. And no, this also doesn’t mean that the 5-8 rep range doesn’t generate any fatigue (it does), nor does it mean that the 10-15 rep range can’t allow for progressive tension overload to occur (it can). This just means that this is the stimuli each rep range is most ideal for creating. And to create the strongest signal possible, we’re going to utilize all of them. Why? Because each individual rep range provides a different type of growth stimulus, recruits different types of muscle fibers, utilizes different levels of intensity, puts different amounts of stress

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on our body and nervous system, causes different periods of time under tension, and just generally brings a variety of different benefits that will improve the muscle building process. And unlike the various extremists in the fitness world who will stubbornly/stupidly only do 5x5 or only do 3x10 or only ever use one specific rep range 100% of the time… we’re going to be smart and take advantage of all of it. Why? Because that’s what makes superior muscle growth happen. (Beginner Exception: Just like earlier, beginners will again be an exception to this recommendation and will primarily stay within just one rep range rather than employ a variety of rep ranges like intermediate and advanced trainees will. This is just what’s proven to work best for beginners.)

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EXERCISE SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION So we know how much volume to do and what rep ranges to use to achieve that volume. Now we need to figure out what exercises to use to make it all happen. And that’s where we need to step back for a second. See, the thing about exercise selection is that it is by far the most potentially complicated aspect of designing a weight training program. Not because it’s confusing, but because there are just so many different factors to consider. However, rather than turn this into an entire book about exercise selection, I’m going to link you to a few articles I’ve already written that cover pretty much all of the basics:

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Selecting Exercises For Your Weight Training Routine

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Free Weights vs Bodyweight vs Machines

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Dumbbells vs Barbells

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Compound Exercises vs Isolation Exercises

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Movement Patterns: Horizontal/Vertical Push & Pull, Quad/Hip Dominant

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A Big List Of Exercises For Each Muscle Group

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What Are The Best Exercises?

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Arranging The Exercises In Your Workout

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6 Really Good Exercises I Will Never Do Again (And Why)

See, I told you there were a lot of factors to consider. No, you don’t have to go and read all of that right now for the rest of this to make sense. Really, if you’re familiar with the stuff I’ve written or are at least a little more knowledgeable about training than your average clueless gym-goer, chances are you already know a lot of it anyway. If not, feel free to check it out.

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I do, however, want to cover the most relevant points of importance before giving some recommendations: 

There is no such thing as a useless exercise for building muscle. The first point of importance is that despite the nonsense you may have previously come across, every single exercise is capable of being beneficial for muscle growth. Yes, even the ones that various groups of idiots claim are completely pointless (e.g., all isolation exercises, all machines, etc.) and universally crap on the most (leg extensions come to mind). That’s all bullshit. Every exercise is potentially useful, some more so than others.

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There is no such thing as a required exercise for building muscle. The second point of importance is that despite the nonsense you may have previously come across (usually from the same idiots mentioned a second ago), there is no such thing as an exercise that is absolutely required for building muscle. Yes, even the ones that people worship the most (squats, deadlifts and bench press come to mind). Are these potentially great exercises for most people? You bet your ass they are. Do you absolutely have to do them (even if you have a good reason for not doing them)? Nope. Why? Because the same training effect can be achieved using similar variations of those exercises (more on that below). Are there certain instances where those variations are occasionally even more ideal? Yup.

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Similar exercises are often equally effective for building muscle. The third point of importance is that with all else being equal, similar exercises are virtually equal in terms of muscle building effectiveness. So one vertical pulling exercise isn’t universally better than another (like pull-ups vs chin-ups vs lat pull-downs). One horizontal pushing exercise isn’t universally better than another (like barbell bench press vs dumbbell bench press vs machine bench press). One horizontal pulling exercise isn’t universally better than another (like bent over barbell row vs dumbbell row vs seated cable row vs chest supported machine row). There are plenty of other examples just like this, but I think you get the idea. Now obviously the barbell bench press vs the dumbbell fly isn’t equal, just like squats vs leg extensions and deadlifts vs leg curls aren’t equal either. These are different kinds of exercises that serve different types of purposes. But when the exercises are essentially just identical versions of the same movement done in slightly different ways and/or with slightly different equipment? That’s when it’s mostly all interchangeable based on personal needs/preferences, and there really isn’t one that is universally better than the rest.

There is one very simple reason why all of the above is true.

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And that is, when it comes to muscle growth, your muscles don’t have a clue what specific exercise or type of exercise is being done, nor do your muscles give a shit. All they know is the tension, fatigue and damage they are being subjected to. And all they (and we) truly care about is making the adaptations needed to continue to survive and function under those conditions (aka more muscle). Therefore, any exercise that allows you to safely and correctly put the target muscle(s) under stress and generate any or all of the growth signaling stimuli (progressive tension, fatigue, damage) is capable of making muscle growth occur, or at the very least, contributing to the overall growth signal being created. So what does this mean to us? It means there are MANY different exercises – each with their own set of pros and cons – and those pros and cons can change based on the circumstances they are being used in and the person they are being used by. And the first step toward intelligent exercise selection is to stop looking at them as special things that are always either “good” or “bad,” or either must be done or must be avoided… and instead start looking at them for what they actually are: potentially useful tools for a job, with the job being to signal muscle growth.

RECOMMENDATIONS Now having said all of that, certain types of exercises are definitely more ideal for different aspects of the growth signal than others. Meaning, some exercises are better suited for progressive tension overload, some for generating fatigue and others for causing damage. We want all three, and here’s how we’re going to do it: 

Our workouts will be comprised mostly of big compound exercises, like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, pull-ups, overhead presses, etc. Why? Because these are the types of exercises most conducive to making consistent strength gains and generating the progressive tension stimulus that we know is the main contributor of the growth signal.

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For this reason, every workout will always start with our primary lifts. These will be big multi-joint compound movements (like the ones I just mentioned) performed in lower rep ranges (5-8) with the main focus being on progressive overload. We’ll consider them our “tension exercises” in that their main function in our workouts is NOT to cause a massive pump or generate a ton of fatigue or anything like that. But rather, their main function is for us to get as strong as humanly possible at them (always within the realm of safety and proper form, of course). Yes, we definitely want to ensure that the target muscle group is activated and working during these movements (so, for example, we want our back to be doing most of the work on rows and pull-ups, not just our biceps). But significantly “feeling the muscle” and “getting a pump” and “feeling the burn” and that sort of stuff is not at all what these exercises are for. They’re here for us to make progressive overload occur as often as we possibly can and basically just get as strong as hell.

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From there each workout will typically contain some secondary lifts. These will often be additional compound movements (e.g., incline dumbbell press, Hammer Strength machines, leg presses, lat pull-downs, split squats, lunges, various seated and/or chest supported rows, etc.) that will be done in moderate rep ranges (8-10, sometimes slightly higher) and serve to provide an equal combination of progressive tension AND fatigue typically to the same muscle(s) trained by the primary lifts that came before them (and sometimes to muscles that at this point only received indirect volume). Our goal with these secondary “tension and fatigue exercises” is to STILL get strong as hell and make progressive overload happen. However, we’ll understand that progress won’t go quite as well here as it will with our primary lifts, for obvious reasons (e.g., we’re already fatigued from the primary lifts, the rep range is higher, etc.), plus the fact that tension is simply not the only purpose of these exercises… fatigue is now of equal importance. So now getting some “pump” and “feeling” the target muscles working and that sort of thing is half of the purpose/focus of these exercises (the other half = progression).



And from there we’ll typically have some isolation exercises. Now that most/all of the more important, more mentally and physically demanding work has been done, our workouts will also usually contain some smaller single-joint isolation movements (e.g., chest flyes, lateral raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, etc.) done in higher rep ranges (10-15) that will act as our “fatigue exercises” and serve to provide additional direct volume and a different type of training stimulus to muscle(s) that have already been trained or perhaps only to muscles that up to this point have received only indirect

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volume (like biceps and triceps). Now all of that fun “pump” and “burn” stuff and feeling/squeezing the muscle throughout the entire rep becomes our main focus. Do we still want to try to make progressive overload happen here? Yup, we always do. However, the purpose of these exercises above all else is generating fatigue. And since that is goal #1 here – plus the fact that the rep ranges are higher and isolation exercises in general are not well suited for progression – we will understand that we’re not going to be getting very strong at these exercises or progressing anywhere near as often as we will be with our primary or secondary lifts. But for these exercises, that’s perfectly fine. We’re doing them for fatigue more than anything else. So any progression we can gradually get here will be a bonus. 

Damage will mostly take care of itself. As mentioned earlier, some muscular damage will occur on its own when tension and fatigue are being generated… so we won’t really need to go out of our way to seek it out. However, we can still put a small amount of emphasis on it by selecting a couple of those natural-stretchposition “damage exercises” (like overhead tricep extensions, chest flyes, Romanian deadlifts, split squats, etc.) that I mentioned before.

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Redundant exercise selection in each workout will be avoided. So there’s no need to do flat barbell bench press, then flat dumbbell bench press, then a flat machine press for chest. Or overhand grip pull-ups followed by overhand grip lat pull-downs for back. Or split squats followed by forward lunges followed by Bulgarian split squats followed by walking lunges for legs. Or anything similar.

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Exercise quantity will be kept to sane and beneficial levels. In most cases, you’re looking at 1-3 exercises per muscle group per workout. Bigger muscle groups will typically get 2 direct exercises most of the time (maybe 3 occasionally), and smaller muscle groups will typically get 1 direct exercise most of the time (maybe 2 occasionally).

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Injury history and safety will always be taken into account. For example, exercise X might be great for many people and considered one of the best exercises of all time, but for you it might be problematic for an existing injury, bring back a previous injury, or just cause some form of pain, discomfort or awkwardness that will eventually lead to a future injury. In cases like this, you will avoid that exercise 100% of the time no matter what that exercise is or how “required” stupid people might claim it is. There are plenty of seemingly great exercises that I purposely avoid for this very reason (like dips, incline barbell presses, chin-ups, straight bar bicep curls, behind the neck presses and

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more). Luckily, there are always going to be perfectly suitable and equally effective replacements for all of them. So, for example, if the flat barbell bench press bothers your shoulders (and you’re sure bad form isn’t the cause), you should simply avoid it in favor of some other similar chest pressing exercise that doesn’t (e.g., flat dumbbell press, neutral grip dumbbell press, decline barbell press, weighted push-ups, etc.). 

Personal needs will always be taken into account. Some people are just “better built” for certain exercises than others. For example, tall people tend to suck at squats and may sometimes do better with leg presses and various single leg movements instead.

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Personal preferences will always be taken into account. Do you find that you like one exercise better than another exercise for whatever reason? Maybe you prefer one type of chest press over another type of chest press? Or you like lunges better than split squats? Or you’re able to feel your back working better during one type of row than another type of row? Or you feel more comfortable with an overhand grip than an underhand grip? Or a thousand similar examples that all come down to our own personal preferences? If so, awesome… pick that one instead of the other.

(Beginner Exception: Once again, beginners will be an exception to some of these guidelines. Why? Because beginners do best keeping exercise selection as basic and minimalistic as possible, with the majority of their focus being on consistent progression at a handful of primary lifts only. This is just what’s proven to work best for beginners.)

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REST PERIODS Now let’s figure out how long to rest between each set of each exercise. Hypothetically speaking, rest periods as low as a few seconds to as high as something like 10 minutes can be capable of working for muscle growth. But there’s that damn word again… capable of “working.” No thanks. We want to know what’s going to work best. So, just what is going to work best? How long should our rest periods between sets be? I think anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes can benefit muscle growth, with 1-3 minutes being the ideal range the majority of the time. But yet again, this range is a bit broad. To get a little more specific, we need to understand what influences the amount of rest we require (and want) so we can narrow things down accordingly. There are mainly three factors to consider: 1. What exercise is being done, and how demanding is that exercise? The harder an exercise is – both in terms of technicality and physical/mental demand – the more rest there should usually be. So exercises like squats and deadlifts should have more rest between sets than exercises like leg extensions and leg curls. And exercises like various bench presses, shoulder presses, rows and pull-ups should have more rest between sets than bicep curls, tricep extensions, chest flyes and lateral raises. 2. What rep range is that exercise being done in? The lower the rep range (and therefore the higher the intensity and the heavier the weight), the more rest there should be between sets. So most of the time, exercises being done in the 5-8 rep range need longer rest periods than exercises being done in the 8-10 rep range, which need longer rest periods than exercises being done in the 10-15 rep range. 3. What is the intended training effect of that exercise? As we learned earlier, longer rest periods are more conducive to progressive tension overload, while shorter rest periods are more ideal for generating metabolic fatigue. So if you’re doing a “tension exercise,” you’re going to want to rest longer between sets to maximize strength output. And if you’re doing a “fatigue exercise,” you’re going to want to rest less between sets to get that pump going. And if you’re doing a “tension and fatigue exercise,” you’re usually going to want a moderate rest period somewhere in between. (Additional details here: How Long To Rest Between Sets) Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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RECOMMENDATIONS Now let’s turn this into actual numbers. Here’s what I recommend…

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2-3 Minutes Rest: Ideal for “tension exercises,” which include most primary compound movements. I personally usually take 3 minutes for the big stuff, occasionally into the 3-4 minute range depending on exactly what I’m doing and what I feel like I need at the time. Since making strength gains is the main focus of these exercises, longer rest periods like this will be optimal for making it happen.

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1-2 Minutes Rest: Ideal for “tension and fatigue exercises,” which include most secondary compound movements. This range is sort of the midpoint between being ideal for strength and being ideal for generating fatigue. So while it’s not entirely what’s best for either, it is what’s perfect for achieving an equal combination of the two… which is exactly what we want from these exercises.

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1 Minute Rest: Ideal for “fatigue exercises,” which include most isolation movements. Resting this amount won’t be too good for strength and performance, but it will be great for generating fatigue. And since that is the main focus of these exercises, it’s exactly what we want.

One final point of note about rest periods is how long to rest between different exercises. My recommendation is to take about as long as you rested between sets of the previous exercise. Meaning, if you rested 3 minutes between sets of Exercise #1, you should rest about 3 minutes before doing your first set of Exercise #2. However, I’m not really super strict when it comes to rest times between exercises, because sometimes you just need a little more time to recover from that last set of the previous exercise as well as time to actually get to and set up at your next exercise and/or wait for someone to finish using the equipment you need. So, if you end up taking a little extra time when moving from one exercise to the next, that’s usually alright with me unless otherwise instructed. However, I do suggest trying to keep your rest times between sets of each exercise as consistent as you can (within the realm of sanity of course… no need to literally count the seconds and lose your mind over it).

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FAILURE In weight training, the term “failure” is used to describe what happens when you are physically unable to continue a set of an exercise due to momentary muscular failure. Some people think failure is just when you think you can’t do any additional reps. This is wrong. Failure is when you actually reach the point of being unable to finish a rep. You literally attempt the rep and fail to complete it. For example, let’s pretend you were barbell bench pressing and attempting to do 8 reps. Now let’s say you get to the 7th rep and you try to press the bar up but get stuck halfway through the rep. You then struggle there for a second or two before the bar begins to slowly move back down toward your chest (at which point you hopefully have a spotter there to grab it and rack it for you). In this example, you failed on the 7th rep. You successfully did 6 reps and tried for #7 but could only lift it part of the way before getting stuck and being unable to complete it. This is failure. The question is, is there anything beneficial or perhaps even detrimental about training to failure? And the answer is yes to both parts of that question. Let me explain…

TRAINING TO FAILURE: PROS  If you reach failure during a set, it usually means you are working pretty hard, putting forth significant effort, pushing yourself to make progressive overload occur and likely generating significant tension and/or fatigue and/or damage.

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TRAINING TO FAILURE: CONS 

Training to failure is extremely taxing on your body. Not just the target muscle(s) being trained at the time, but your entire central nervous system as well. This means that training to failure can have a substantial negative impact on your short-term and long-term recovery capabilities as well as immediate training performance during subsequent sets/exercises within that same workout. Which means that failure can indirectly impede your ability to generate the tension, fatigue and damage needed to signal growth in the first place.



In addition, there’s also the issue of safety. Sure, going to failure on an exercise like dumbbell curls or leg extensions is fairly safe, but failing (especially without a spotter or proper safety measures in place) during a set of barbell bench presses or squats is not a fun place to be. And the risk of injury would also be increased when failing during more technical exercises (like deadlifts) where the act of struggling not to fail in the middle of the rep can lead to all kinds of dangerous stuff happening with your form.

So what does this all mean to us? Here’s what I recommend…

RECOMMENDATIONS Based on available research, real world observation, and of course my own firsthand experience with it, my opinion is that purposely training to failure does more harm than good. I think that purposely setting out to reach failure on a set (or every set) is the wrong idea. In most cases, you should set out to come really close to failure… ideally ending the set about 1 rep (maybe 2) before failure actually occurs. So, if you are trying for 8 reps but felt your 7th rep was definitely going to be the last one you’d be able to do and there was virtually no chance of getting #8, then stop there and don’t purposely go and fail on the 8th rep just for the sake of failing. Leave that rep in the tank and try for it next time. Now, what about unintentional failure? As in, let’s say you thought you COULD do the 8th rep and tried for it but failed to complete it. In this case… it’s okay.

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Occasionally reaching failure in a scenario like this is perfectly fine in my opinion, and in order to continue making progress, it’s pretty much bound to happen from time to time. This is what I’d consider a good use of training to failure. So, as long as it’s not your goal and you’re not purposely trying to reach failure all the time (and when it does happen, it happens safely), then it’s alright if it occurs every once in a while unintentionally. The majority of the time, however, you should aim to stop about 1 rep or so before reaching that point.

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REP TEMPO AND SPEED Rep tempo refers to the tempo (or speed) at which you perform a rep of an exercise. For example, 2 second concentric, 1 second pause at the top, 3 second eccentric, 1 second pause at the bottom (this is just one completely random example, by the way). So the question is, what rep tempo is best for muscle growth? That’s easy… none at all. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think there’s a right way and a wrong way to perform each rep of each exercise. There is a “good” general speed and tempo, and then there’s the opposite of that, which I think can best be described as either stupidly fast or stupidly slow. But honestly, as long as you’re avoiding those stupidly fast/stupidly slow extremes and fall somewhere in the middle, you’re probably doing your reps just fine. So while rep tempo can certainly have its uses, I honestly don’t put much emphasis on it at all and almost never use or prescribe a specific number of seconds for the concentric or eccentric portion of a rep. I find it’s more of a distraction than anything else. I’d much rather see 100% of the focus during a set be on proper form, using the target muscle(s) and generating the progressive tension, fatigue and/or damage you’re doing that exercise for in the first place. Not counting seconds. So here’s what I recommend instead…

RECOMMENDATIONS For most of the people, most of the time, I like to see the weight lowered under control on the way down, and then exploded back up.

Let me break that down a bit further…

THE ECCENTRIC (LOWERING) Regardless of the exercise being done, you should almost always lower the weight in a smooth and controlled fashion. Definitely NOT super slow (that’s a whole other idiotic training method

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altogether… sup Fred Hahn? You mad bro?). Just slow enough so that you and the target muscles are fully in control of the weight rather than just gravity alone. This would mean that the weight is NOT just dropping and you’re NOT just letting it fall and lower on its own. You’re controlling it the whole way down. This is a good idea for many reasons, one of which is that it contributes to the damage stimulus we’re looking for since the majority of muscular damage occurs during the eccentric portion of the rep.

THE CONCENTRIC (LIFTING) As for the lifting portion, this can vary depending on the exercise being done. In most cases, however (especially primary and secondary compound exercises), you should explode the weight. Or, as I sometimes like to describe it… hit your reps with a purpose. Meaning, don’t intentionally slow down the speed of this part of the rep. Try to move it from the starting position to the end position in a quick and explosive manner. This DOES NOT mean throw the weight, or bounce the weight, or swing the weight, or use momentum to get the weight where it needs to go. It just means – in a controlled fashion, where proper form always remains intact and nothing funny/stupid makes an appearance – you should move the weight from point A to point B in a powerful, forceful, swift motion. Hit that rep with a purpose.

THE EXCEPTIONS While this is all I’d recommend the majority of the time, there are a few exceptions. For example, calves in particular tend to benefit from a bit of a pause at the bottom. And certain exercises are just less suited for being “exploded” (mainly isolation exercises where the focus should be more on contracting/feeling/squeezing/fatiguing the muscle rather than maximal power and progression anyway). These “fatigue exercises” may also benefit from a slightly slower eccentric for this very reason.

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But beyond that… controlled eccentric, explosive concentric is what I recommend. No need to make it any more complicated than that.

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PROPER FORM And now for a super obvious statement: you should always use proper form. There are two major reasons for this: 1. Safety/Preventing Injuries Again, pretty obvious. But for whatever reason (never learning proper form in the first place, letting their ego take over and lifting way more weight than they actually can for the sole purpose of looking cooler, just assuming their form is perfect when completely unbeknownst to them it’s not, etc.), most of the people you see in typical gyms are using terrible form. And not just on the more complicated exercises, but on the most simple and impossible-to-screw-up exercises as well. And the #1 reason why you want to avoid being one of these people is that it greatly increases your risk of injury. And do you know what sucks the most for building muscle? When you can’t actually train the way you need to train due to an injury preventing you from doing so. 2. Actually Using The Target Muscle(s) By now you know how important progressive overload is to the muscle building process. But here’s the thing. We’re not just trying to move more and more weight from point A to point B. We’re trying to make the target muscle groups move that weight from point A to point B. So the act of adding more weight to the bar in and of itself is not what signals growth. I can add 10 lbs more to the bar tomorrow than I’m capable of lifting today and use much worse form during that set (cheating, less range of motion, etc.) to compensate and I’ll have seemingly “progressed.” But that version of “progression” isn’t the progression we want. We want to progress by placing the target muscles under tension and then gradually increasing that tension over time. So if your form is getting consistently worse as the weight is getting consistently heavier… you’re doing it wrong. Long story short, you should use proper form. Surprise! The problem, however, is that until someone invents a magical book that allows me to teleport through and stand right there next to you demonstrating how to do each exercise (and then follow up by watching you do it while pointing out anything you might be doing wrong)… this is going to be the hardest training factor to get across in a regular, non-magical book.

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So, I’m not even going to bother trying. Here’s what I recommend doing instead…

RECOMMENDATIONS The best way to learn proper form is to get taught in person by someone who legitimately knows what they’re doing. Have them stand right there with you and teach it. And then have them watch you and continue to correct you until you get it right. Now while this is by far the best way to learn how to properly do each exercise, it’s also probably the hardest to actually make happen.

The best way to learn proper form is to get taught in person by someone who legitimately knows what they’re doing.

Why? Because few people actually know what the hell they’re doing… including many personal trainers. That means there is a very high probability that the person teaching you proper form may not actually have any idea what proper form is. Fun! And no, that wasn’t a typo. A significant portion of licensed/certified personal trainers in most gyms fit into this category as well. Many are just as clueless as the average clueless person in your gym. Don’t misunderstand me here. There are plenty of fantastic trainers out there who know their stuff. They do exist. I’ve seen them. I know a bunch of them. They are real. It’s just that for every 1 trainer like this, there are probably 100 that are horrible. So, what should you do? To be honest, this is one of the hardest questions to answer. The best advice I can offer is that if you are lucky enough to know or find someone who is truly knowledgeable and capable enough to teach your proper form… then by all means… go for it! If not, or if you’re just not sure if you found someone who actually fits that description, then you really only have one other option… Teach yourself. Two common starting points are:

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

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

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http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

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These websites contain exercise demonstrations for hundreds of the most popular/common exercises and should serve as a decent starting point for learning form. Are they 100% perfect? Nope. The demonstrations tend to range from great, to okay, to laughable. But unfortunately, until I put together my own database of exercise demonstrations (which is a huge project that has been on my to-do for years), there is just no better option available. You can also always just randomly search YouTube and hope for the best. But if you do, please remember that just because someone is teaching proper form and looks amazing and appears to know what they’re doing/saying doesn’t actually mean they do. This is really a fine tip to keep in mind as you venture out into any area of the diet and fitness industry.

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DELOADING AND TRAINING BREAKS And now for the most neglected aspect of weight training… taking some form of planned break from it. It’s a simple concept very few people seem to grasp or actually give a damn about to any degree. Yet, it’s something that is crucial for actually reaching your goals, progressing consistently and preventing injuries. When I say it like that, you’d think this would be something at the top of everyone’s list of training components… but it never is. In many cases, it’s not even on that list at all. And I can understand why only because that used to describe me. The thought of temporarily backing off and allowing for any kind of “break” in my pursuit of muscle growth felt like the worst thing I could possibly do. I thought it would screw up my progress, delay my results, and if anything, cause me to lose muscle and strength… not gain it. But that all changed when I finally started to do it regularly. That’s when I realized that not only was it NOT bad or counterproductive, and not only did I NOT lose any muscle or strength in the process… but it ended up having a significant positive effect on my results in a variety of ways, all of which improved my ability to gain muscle and strength. How could this be, you ask? Think of it like this. Pretend weight training progression is a series of walls that you need to climb. Every time you successfully make it over a wall, progress is made. Eventually, however, all of this constant wall climbing catches up with you and a point is reached where you become physically and/or mentally unable to get over the next wall. When this happens (and it ALWAYS eventually happens to EVERYONE), you have two choices: 1. You can either keep slamming into that wall over and over and over again. 2. Or, you can let up just a little, take a few steps back, and then get a running start so you can jump straight over that wall.

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This second option is what a training break is. It's essentially taking 1 step back so you can take 2-3 steps forward. And while that "1 step back" aspect of it might initially seem like something that is counterproductive to reaching your goals, the reality is that it's the complete opposite. It's a requirement of reaching your goals. Which is all my way of saying that if there is a voice in the back of your head telling you that this isn’t important and you should just ignore this section of the book, tell it to shut up starting right now.

WHAT ARE TRAINING BREAKS? WHY ARE THEY REQUIRED? Training breaks are exactly what they sound like. They’re planned breaks you purposely take from training for the purpose of: 

Giving your entire body (muscles, nervous system, joints, tendons, etc.) and mind (training gets mentally draining on everyone after a while) an extra-large dose of rest/recovery, thus putting you into a fresh and ideal state for the next period of intense training.



Allowing for an extra-large dose of supercompensation to occur (which is basically when your body’s adaptations and improvements occur).

There are mainly two different types of training breaks, and both have their place depending on the situation: 1. Taking Time Off: This is what most people think of when they hear “training break.” Just taking some number of days completely off from weight training. 2. Deloading: In this case you don’t take any time off; you just somehow “de-load” by reducing the work being done so that your workouts are somewhat “easier” for a brief period of time. As usual, there are pros and cons to each method as well as a way of doing things that often works best for building muscle. Here’s what I recommend…

TAKING TIME OFF: RECOMMENDATIONS As mentioned, this is where you simply stop training for some predetermined amount of time. In most cases, this is usually 1 full week off from weight training.

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The benefits of this are obvious in that you really can’t beat an entire week off from training when it comes to giving your body/mind time to rest, recover and recharge. The downside, however, is what you come back to. Specifically, the “I-can’t-even-move” type of soreness. Kinda like the soreness you experienced when you first started weight training as a beginner… just a few degrees less extreme. The other more important issue is that while some people claim to actually come back stronger after a full week off, many others (myself included) find that they get set back a bit too far when they return, and it takes a few weeks to get your groove back and return to where you left off before the break. This is always more of a neural/technical issue rather than a result of any legitimate muscle loss (it takes much longer than a week for that to happen). It’s certainly not the end of the world, but it’s still something to take into consideration.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD IT BE DONE? For these reasons, I don’t recommend taking a training break like this TOO often. I’m definitely not against taking actual time off, but I just think the people who suggest that the average person needs to take a full week off from weight training every 4-8 weeks (or whatever) are out of their minds. For the vast majority of the population, it’s just unnecessary at best and counterproductive at worst. Instead, taking 1 or 2 full weeks off per year is more what I recommend and personally do myself. There are exceptions, of course (someone who is older and/or more beat up physically might need to do it more often, certain lives/schedules may require it more often, etc.), but in most cases, this is all I’d recommend. So you can do this every 6-8 months or so, or just during a vacation or trip you take once or twice a year, or only when you’re dealing with some kind of pain/injury that would benefit from it, or only when you feel like it’s truly needed. And don’t worry, you will be just fine. Your muscles won’t instantly fall off (in my experience it’s not until the fourth consecutive week off that muscle loss starts to occur to any meaningful degree) or magically turn into fat (that’s just not physiologically possible), and as long as your diet is kept in check (more on that in a minute), you won’t suddenly gain a bunch of body fat either.

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Also note that when you return from this time off, you should NOT attempt to jump right back in where you left off. That is not a smart idea at all. Instead, you should follow the same 3-week 80%, 90%, 100% progression I’m going to be describing in a minute.

ANOTHER USEFUL OPTION Before moving on to deloading, there’s actually one other modified version of the “take-a-week-off” type of training break that I want to mention. One way I’ve found of lessening those downsides I mentioned a minute ago while still getting some of the same benefits is simply by taking time off… but not taking a full week off. Instead, maybe just take half of the week off. So for example, if you’re using a 4 day upper/lower program, you’d do just the first 2 workouts of the week and take the other 2 off.

DELOADING: RECOMMENDATIONS In the case of a “deload,” rather than taking actual time off from training, you just take some of the “load” off from training (hence the name de-loading). Meaning, you continue to train, but you somehow back off a bit and make your workouts easier for you in some way for a predetermined amount of time. That means NO training to failure, NO attempts at progression, and NO really hard work, period. Training during this time should be somewhat easy and comfortable, not challenging. If it is… you’re doing it wrong. There are many different deloading protocols that can all work quite well. Some involve deloading volume, or frequency, or intensity, or some combination of them all. However, I have experimented with many of these options over the years and found one in particular that always worked best for me. And that is by inserting a 1 week period where you significantly reduce the intensity (aka the weight being lifted) of every exercise, and then spend the next 2 weeks gradually bringing that intensity back up to what it originally was. Let me break that down for you…

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1. Week 1: Reduce the amount of weight you lift on every exercise to about 80% of what it usually is for the entire week. Keep every other aspect of your workouts the same. (Example: If you normally lift 200 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 6-8 reps, you’d now lift 160 lbs for the same 3 sets of 6-8 reps.) 2. Week 2: Now you start gradually bringing the intensity back up. So this week you increase the amount of weight you lift on every exercise back to about 90% of what it initially was. (Example: If you normally lift 200 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 6-8 reps, you’d now lift 180 lbs for the same 3 sets of 6-8 reps.) 3. Week 3: Now you finish the deload by bringing the intensity back up and increasing the amount of weight you lift on every exercise to 100% of what it was before you began this deload. (Example: If you normally lift 200 lbs on some exercise for 3 sets of 6-8 reps, you’d now go back to lifting that full 200 lbs for the same 3 sets of 6-8 reps.) And at that point, the deload is over. A fresh new training cycle is ready to begin and you’re back to working your ass off to make consistent progression occur.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD IT BE DONE? This is something that will vary from person to person depending on genetics, age, training experience level, strength levels, effort levels, lifestyle (sleep quality, stress, etc.) and more. So for example, someone who is older may need to deload more often than someone younger. Someone more advanced who is lifting very significant amounts of weight would need to deload more often than someone who hasn’t been training as long and isn’t nearly as strong. Someone who barely sleeps and is constantly stressed out would need to deload more often than someone fitting the opposite description. For these reasons, you’ll typically see recommendations fall as frequently as every 3 weeks to as infrequently as a couple of times per year depending on the specifics. But as usual, the ideal scenario is often somewhere in the middle. Specifically, I recommend deloading every 6-12 weeks. That ends up being about 4-8 times per year on average. Also note that if you choose to take a full week off (as discussed a few pages ago), that would be counted as a deload.

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WHEN SHOULD IT BE DONE? Many intelligent workout routines program the deload weeks right into the design of the routine so it’s done on a very specific and required schedule. In my opinion, this is both good and bad. It’s good because it forces people to deload regularly, and most people are just too dumb and stubborn to ever deload on their own accord (been there myself). On the other hand, it means everyone deloads at the exact same time, and not everyone needs it at the exact same time. What I mean is, someone might truly need to deload at week 6, while someone else could have made it to week 12 before truly needing to. While it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to deload too soon (better than doing it too late), it still causes that second person to basically pause their progression unnecessarily right when everything is going perfectly and the need for it just isn’t there yet. For all of these reasons, I usually prefer to go by feel. So if at week 6 I’m feeling physically or mentally in need of a break (progression stalls, my body hurts, I’m losing motivation, etc.), I’ll deload at week 6. But if I’m feeling good, progressing well, killing it in the gym and can hardly wait for the next workout, I’ll just keep on going and not even consider stopping. In that case, I’ll go another 1-6 weeks (so a total of 12 at the most) before actually deloading. This is how I do it and would typically recommend it be done. The only potential downside is that it’s then up to each person to be smart enough to actually deload when they need it and not keep trying to grind it out and basically run themselves into the ground. So um… don’t be a dumbass. If 12 weeks of hard consistent training have passed and you haven’t deloaded, take a very serious look at your progress and how you’re feeling (physically and mentally) in general. Chances are it’s time. And I promise, it’s only going to improve your results.

EXCEPTIONS There are a few exceptions to some of these guidelines. That would mainly be: 1. Beginners. Almost no one will need or benefit from any sort of true training break during their first few

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months of training, and many won’t need it much during their entire first year of training. This becomes much more of a requirement when you reach intermediate levels and beyond. This is partially because you’re just so fresh and new to weight training as a beginner (meaning your body is less beat up/fatigued and progression happens much easier) and because the weights you’re lifting really aren’t all that heavy at this point. However, as you get stronger, and the weights get heavier, and the volume and exercise selection increase, and other similar changes occur to your training… the more of a semi-regular requirement it becomes. 2. People who aren’t training hard in the first place. The people who just go through the motions, don’t care at all about progressive overload and are essentially having an “easy week” every week do not really have a need for any sort of deload or training break. What they really need to do is stop training like a baby and start putting in some actual work. 3. People whose primary goal at the time is fat loss. As I mentioned earlier, a caloric deficit is super fantastic (and required) for fat loss, but it also comes with the potential for muscle loss. One of the keys to preventing that muscle loss is continuing to train hard and heavy so that you (at the very least) maintain your strength on every exercise. For this reason, taking a training break where you purposely reduce the amount of weight being lifted (for deloading purposes) or taking a short amount of time off from training altogether would not be a good idea while in a deficit. You’re basically telling your body to find some alternative fuel source to burn and then removing the signal that would also tell it to preserve muscle and only burn body fat. To avoid this, if a person is going to be deloading during a fat loss phase, they should temporarily increase their calorie intake back up to their maintenance level for the duration of the deload/break, and then bring it back into a deficit when the weights are back to 100%.

DIETARY ADJUSTMENTS And finally, are there any changes that should be made to your diet during a deload? The answer is mostly no. You want your surplus to remain intact, your macronutrient intake to remain intact and your calorie cycling approach to remain intact. The reason being, this is a time when supercompensation is going to occur. Which means your body will basically be rebuilding and recovering more so than ever before, so it’s not uncommon to experience some actual muscle growth WHILE you deload. Making sure the calories and nutrients needed for it to happen are still being supplied is obviously a pretty good idea.

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What about during a full week off? In this case I’d recommend bringing all the days of your diet to your maintenance level regardless of which calorie cycling approach you were using at the time. Then, when the week off is over and you’re back to training at 80%, bring your calorie intake back into a surplus and resume whichever calorie cycling approach you were using.

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THE BEST WORKOUT ROUTINES AND THE METHOD OF PROGRESSION So now you know how to adjust every single weight training component in your favor to create the strongest muscle building signal possible. And while you could surely use these guidelines and recommendations to create your own effective weight training routine, I don’t want you to actually do that. Why? Because I’ve already done it for you.

THE BEST WORKOUT ROUTINES You see, this chapter was less to help you design your own program and more to help you understand the reasoning and purpose behind the proven programs I’ve already designed for you (while also showing you how to properly put them into action). And that’s exactly what I want you to do. Why? Because I’ve already spent a decade personally testing and adjusting a handful of routines myself that literally thousands of people have been using for years now with tremendous success. And as the feedback has come in from tons of those people during these years, I’ve continued to improve things even further to the point where I can say with absolute certainty that these routines – when used along with the rest of the guidelines in this book – will produce superior muscle building results. So I definitely don’t want you to try to design anything yourself, and I sure as hell don’t want you to go looking anywhere else. That need no longer exists. The guesswork is officially gone. These are The Best Workout Routines for building muscle. All you need to do is pick one and use it. Which one should you pick? Well, if you’re a beginner this is easy because there is only one beginner routine (“The Beginner Weight Training Workout Routine”). Use it.

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If you are an intermediate or advanced trainee, you have many more options to choose from. So, feel free to look them over and pick your favorite based solely on what your schedule/lifestyle best allows and what your personal weight training preferences are. What if there is more than one workout program that you like? Simple. Pick one, spend a significant amount of time working your ass off using it (note the emphasis on the word “significant”), and then feel free to switch to another for a significant period of time as well.

THE METHOD OF PROGRESSION (AND MORE) In addition, I’m also going to show you the specific methods of progression that I’ve found to be far superior to everything else for making progressive tension overload occur in a manner that is best suited for building muscle. And a few other things that you may be wondering about (like how many warm-up sets to do, how often to change your workouts, etc.) will be fully explained as well.

OPEN THAT SECOND FILE To access everything I just described, all you need to do is open up the second file that you downloaded along with Superior Muscle Growth. All of the workouts, details, specifics, progression methods, warm-up recommendations and more are in there waiting for you.

The file is named: The-Best-Workout-Routines.pdf

No need to do it right now, though. We still have a few remaining factors to cover first.

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CHAPTER 14

Cardio

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► CARDIO

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nd now… cardio. It’s a topic people ask me about all the time – most often when their goal is fat loss – but still a surprising amount when their goal is muscle growth.

So, where should we begin? Oh, I know. With the first rule of using cardio to improve any aspect of body composition. And that is, cardio is completely optional. A weight training program designed to signal muscle growth? That’s a requirement. A diet designed to supply everything that is needed for that growth to occur? That’s a requirement. Cardio? That’s not even remotely required for muscle growth (or even fat loss, for that matter). Don’t get me wrong, the potential usefulness of cardio as a tool is certainly there, especially when the goal is fat loss. Cardio burns calories, and fat loss is all about burning more calories (or much more efficiently, just eating less of them). But when the goal is muscle growth? Cardio’s potential usefulness drops significantly. So if you were somehow under the impression that cardio was one of the things you MUST do when attempting to build muscle… the first thing you need to know is that you definitely don’t. Everything we truly need will come as a result of our weight training program and diet. You can still do cardio anyway if needed/preferred for other reasons, but it is not at all necessary for building muscle. Which brings us to an obvious question: then why the hell would anyone actually want to do it? Let’s find out…

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THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS As I just mentioned, cardio isn’t required at all if your goal is building muscle. Hell, it’s not even required if your goal is losing fat. It’s completely optional in both cases. So why exactly would a person want to do cardio while building muscle? Well, aside from having other athletic/endurance oriented goals in mind, cardio does offer a few potential benefits that may be of interest to someone whose primary goal is just muscle growth. These benefits include: 

Improved recovery and reduced soreness. Light amounts of cardio are capable of serving as a form of “active recovery” (as opposed to “passive recovery,” which is basically a typical rest day where no exercise is done), which can play some minor yet positive role in overall recovery as well as in reducing some of the soreness caused by weight training.

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Maintaining some level of aerobic conditioning. This matters mostly to athletes who need to maintain some degree of conditioning for whatever sport/activity they play.

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A potential tiny improvement in calorie partitioning. This one is debatable. Some feel cardio can help at least slightly with minimizing fat gains in a surplus. Others find it makes no difference whatsoever in that regard. I lean more toward the latter.

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Cardiovascular health. We call it “cardio” for a reason, and the cardiovascular benefits it can provide are legit. But I don’t want to talk about them. I’d rather talk about the fact that cardio isn’t necessarily the only way to get those kinds of benefits. See, there’s this little underrated fact about weight training that people rarely pay attention to. And that is, assuming you’re not taking super long rest periods between every set of every exercise or only doing super low reps each set, then your weight training workouts will be providing a bunch of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory benefits of their own. So even with no typical form of cardio exercise being done, you’d still be training some of those same systems to some extent with weight training alone. The exact difference and degree of difference is hard to say and depends on the specifics of exactly what’s being compared, but the point is that if you’re following some sort of intelligently designed weight training program aimed at muscle growth (like all of the programs included in

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The Best Workout Routines) and are doing no direct cardio work, you’re still training some of those same systems and getting some of those same health benefits anyway. That’s not at all meant to slight cardio or its own positive effects in this area. It’s just to shine a light on the fact that weight training is not useless in this regard. 

It’s fun and enjoyable! As crazy as it seems to a cardio hater such as myself, there are actually some people out there who just flat out love doing cardio (you sick bastards!). Some actually find it really fun and enjoyable to put on some music (or a movie) and jump on the treadmill or elliptical or bike. Or maybe get out on a track or trail or street. Or take some kind of class, grab some battling ropes, hit some pads, or flip some tires. Maybe it helps them start or end their day. Maybe it’s a social activity they like to do with friends. Maybe it makes them feel better physically and/or mentally. Maybe it’s just a part of their regular routine of “good habits.” Whatever it is, some people just get some kind of “happiness” benefit from it.

There’s nothing all that amazing on this list, but it might still be enough to get some people to consider making cardio a part of their overall muscle building program. Wait… what’s that you’re saying?

“BUT WHAT ABOUT BURNING FAT WHILE BUILDING MUSCLE?” There is one other extremely common reason for why people do cardio while trying to build muscle, and one other “potential benefit” they’re seeking to get. And that is the idea that cardio will not only help them avoid gaining too much fat (which, as I mentioned a minute ago, is debatable at best)… but actually allow them to BURN fat while building muscle. To which I’d have to say bullshit. The reason this thought exists is because the average person naturally associates cardio with fat loss. They don’t understand the energy balance equation (calories in vs calories out), realize it even exists in the first place, or have any clue what a caloric deficit or surplus is and/or why this is what’s most responsible for the changes in their body composition.

They just think doing cardio = losing fat. Period. Always and forever. No matter what.

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So regardless of everything else, if they get on a treadmill for 30 minutes a few times a week, they’ll be guaranteed to lose fat. And if they happen to be on a muscle building program at the same time (such as this one), they assume they’ll just magically end up doing both simultaneously. Hell yeah!!! Awesome!!! But also… bullshit. As you already know by now, muscle growth requires a caloric surplus (more calories than your body needs) while fat loss requires a caloric deficit (less calories than your body needs), thus making doing both at the same time extremely hard or just completely impossible for most natural, genetically average, non-beginners (especially at anything close to an acceptable rate let alone the superior rate we’re going for here). This means that even if you did do cardio while trying to build muscle (meaning you’re in a caloric surplus), it still wouldn’t allow you to lose fat because there would be no deficit present. You’d basically just be a person in a surplus doing some cardio. Hooray, I guess? If anything, cardio may just end up burning some/all of those surplus calories you needed for building that muscle and therefore prevent muscle growth from taking place (more about that in a second). So, if your main reason for doing cardio while building muscle is to allow you to magically lose fat while you build that muscle, then please realize that your reasoning is quite faulty.

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THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS While cardio is capable of bringing some potential benefits to the table, it also brings some potential problems as well. There are primarily two big ways for cardio to (potentially) either hinder your muscle building results or in some cases prevent them altogether. How so, you ask? Like this:

1. CARDIO CAN CUT INTO YOUR CALORIC SURPLUS Building muscle requires a caloric surplus. Cardio burns calories. Can you see the direct conflict here? So in terms of calorie intake alone, cardio definitely has the potential to prevent muscle from being built by simply burning the calories your body needed to build that new muscle. Here’s an example. Let’s say that you’ve figured out that you need to eat 3000 calories per day to create your surplus (just a random example). Now let’s say you are burning 500 of those calories each day through cardio. That means you’re now at 2500 calories per day (instead of the 3000 you needed), which means your required surplus no longer exists. Instead, cardio has cut into it and burned up all of those essential extra calories. And when that happens, muscle can’t be built. The good news, however, is that there is a really simple solution… just eat more calories to compensate. So if you’re going to burn X extra calories through cardio, you just need to eat an extra X calories to make up for it. Using the same example we just used, if you now consumed 3500 calories per day and then still burned 500 through cardio, you’d still be at the 3000 calories you need to be at for your surplus to exist. So, as far as your diet goes, doing cardio won’t stop you from building muscle as long as you eat enough calories to compensate for the calories it burns.

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Of course, this is sometimes easier said than done. Many people trying to build muscle have trouble just eating enough calories to support growth in the first place, and having to now eat even MORE calories than that to make up for the calories burned during cardio can make things much harder. Often to the point where it just doesn’t happen. This would then create the same scenario you’d be in if you just never created a surplus at all. You know… that lovely scenario where muscle isn’t being built and your results are nonexistent. Awesome! But, as long as you successfully manage to eat enough to keep your ideal surplus intact and your ideal rate of weight gain occurring, cardio shouldn’t be a problem. Well, except for one other important fact…

2. CARDIO CAN CUT INTO YOUR RECOVERY The other big potential problem here is that cardio is additional exercise, and additional exercise requires additional recovery. This is why all effective weight training programs are always designed with sufficient recovery in mind. The volume, frequency, intensity, split, exercise selection… everything. It’s all set up in a way that optimizes your ability to recover. Why? Because without sufficient recovery, progress can’t be made. As you can imagine, adding any other form of activity on top of your weight training workouts (which are already putting a tremendous amount of stress on your body) has the potential to cut into this whole recovery process, which can in turn cut into your body’s ability to build muscle. And we’re not just talking about the local recovery of the muscle groups being used the most (typically the legs), but also the overall recovery of your CNS… which affects everything. Exactly how much of an impact it would have is hard to say and would depend on the exact frequency, duration and intensity of the activity being done. For example, something light and easy like 20-30 minutes of brisk walking 3 times per week wouldn’t have nearly as much of an impact as 60 minutes of running 7 days per week. In fact, as I mentioned before, the light and easy option could potentially help with recovery rather than impede it.

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And something like high intensity interval training (HIIT) can almost be like adding an extra weight training workout in terms of the stress it’s placing on your body (especially legs) and the amount of negative impact it can have. So basically, a little bit of cardio can be fine. A lot of cardio can cause problems. And as a bonus, excessive amounts of cardio can cause some actual muscle loss. Fortunately though, there is once again a solution. If you’re going to do cardio while trying to build muscle, it needs to be kept somewhat short, infrequent and fairly easy. Coincidentally, this will also help lessen the first problem in that the lower the duration/frequency/intensity is, the fewer calories it’s going to burn.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Let’s see, how shall I put this so it’s as simple and understandable as possible? Alright, I got it…

Do very little cardio. Or, just do no cardio whatsoever.

Is that clear enough? And if you happen to be one of those naturally skinny people who has an extra hard time building muscle, gaining weight and/or eating enough calories to support growth, then let me shorten this recommendation down to simply “do no cardio whatsoever.” Why do I think cardio should be kept to a minimum or just avoided completely? Because I feel the potential cons of cardio outweigh the potentials pros when a person’s #1 goal is building muscle as quickly and effectively as possible, and in my experience better results come when all other activity is either significantly reduced or just eliminated completely. Instead, allow most (if not all) of your mental and physical resources to go toward weight training performance and recovery. As for me personally, I always lean more toward doing no cardio whatsoever. I find my recovery, strength and muscle building results are better without it. Plus, my calorie intake needs are high enough as it is. And honestly, I just hate doing cardio. It seems many others feel the exact same way. For all of these reasons, I think the majority of the population will build muscle better when doing as little cardio as possible, and MOST of them will build muscle better when doing no cardio at all.

HOW TO DO CARDIO AND STILL BUILD MUSCLE Of course, I get that some people still might want to do some cardio anyway. I’m not talking about the people who are crazy enough to attempt a serious muscle building program while simultaneously training for a marathon or some other hardcore endurance oriented goal (which is just plain stupid). I’m just talking about the average person who wants to build muscle but also likes the idea of doing cardio for any or all of the potential benefits we covered a few minutes ago.

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In this case, here’s what I’d recommend. If you’re going to do cardio when your primary goal is building muscle, the most ideal situation would be to keep it to a minimum. Anything too frequent, too long, or too intense will definitely have a negative impact on your results. Which means that the goal here is to do the least amount possible to get the benefits you’re looking for without sacrificing muscle growth in the process. To do this, I’d recommend 1-3 cardio sessions per week for 20-40 minutes at a time comprised of nothing more than low intensity steady state cardio (something like brisk-paced walking would be perfect). As for whether you can make this work with something significantly more intense (such as HIIT), it’s certainly possible. However, I wouldn’t recommend trying. Remember, this is a program designed for superior muscle growth. With that goal in mind, HIIT just isn’t worth the risk. As for when it should be done, your rest days from weight training would be my first choice. If that isn’t doable, the next best option would be on the same days as weight training but at separate times (e.g., maybe weight training in the morning, cardio in the evening). And if that’s still not doable, the next best option would be after your weight training workout. Really, as long as you’re not doing the cardio before weight training, the timing isn’t going to matter much. Also, remember that if you do decide to do this amount of cardio (and again, keep in mind that it’s completely optional and my recommendation for most people is to do no cardio whatsoever), you must also eat enough calories to compensate and ensure your ideal rate of weight gain is taking place as it should be. And with that, another factor of Superior Muscle Growth is in place. On to the next one…

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CHAPTER 15

Supplementation

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► SUPPLEMENTATION

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nd now for the subject that I personally have the least amount of interest in and hate writing about the most… supplements. Yes, I think I hate it even more than cardio.

There are 5 main things you need to know before we continue: 1. 95% of all supplements are complete and utter garbage. And that might be an underestimate. The vast majority either have no evidence whatsoever to support them or they’ve actually been proven to be useless. Others, in addition to doing nothing positive, have also been shown to come with a variety of negative side effects. And the various companies who sell them/people who recommend and endorse them are some of the biggest scumbags on the planet. They regularly do, say and claim whatever the hell they need to in order to get you to buy their useless crap. Really, if you asked me to sum up the supplement industry in one word, it would be bullshit. The supposed claims, benefits, reported results, testimonials, before and after pictures… it’s all just loaded with bullshit. 2. No supplements are required for building muscle. As long as your diet is what it needs to be, then all of the supplies of muscle growth will be available and there won’t be a single supplement that you need to take. So yes, you’ll build muscle just fine without ever spending a cent. 3. Supplements cannot make up for a poor diet or workout program. Despite the hopes and dreams of many lazy people, there is no such thing as a magic pill or powder that will “do the work for you” or even “do some of the work for you.” Nor is there any kind of “you can eat whatever you want as long as you take this” supplement. A proper diet and workout program are irreplaceable requirements. If they aren’t exactly what they need to be, there aren’t enough supplements in the world to help you. 4. There are no supplements that directly build muscle. There are plenty of illegal drugs that can do this (not a recommendation, just stating a fact), but in terms of actual legal supplements… there is not a single one that will actually build muscle. Even if it claims it does… it’s bullshit. 5. There are a few proven, safe and effective supplements worth taking. No, they are not required. No, they will not make up for an insufficient diet or workout program. No, they will not build muscle. What they will do, however, is play some small

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beneficial role in some aspect of the muscle building process. And yet again, we’ll take every benefit we can get. Here now are the few supplements that I personally recommend and use myself because they’ve been proven to be both safe and effective and will play some positive role in our pursuit of superior muscle growth…

CREATINE At this point, I feel pretty comfortable referring to creatine as the most proven muscle building supplement there is. Although calling it a “muscle building supplement” isn’t completely accurate because, as mentioned before, no supplement will directly build muscle. What creatine will directly do is improve your strength and performance by essentially giving your muscles more energy. No, you won’t suddenly be able to lift 20 lbs more on every exercise. The effects aren’t that significant. You will, however, be able to get a few additional reps in many of your sets. And while this seems fairly minor (and it is), it will still have a meaningful positive effect on your ability to make progressive tension overload occur. Creatine has also been shown to be extremely safe. The only potential “side effects” are mild – stomach discomfort and cramps – and can easily be prevented by drinking a sufficient amount of water each day, taking the proper dosage, and using a higher quality micronized version of it (which just means it will mix and digest easier). I recommend the following… 

Use a plain creatine monohydrate powder. No other form has been shown to be any better despite being significantly more expensive.

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Take 3-5 grams per day, every day. Don’t load it. Don’t cycle it.

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The time of day you take it doesn’t really matter. On training days I take it post-workout just because it’s easy to remember. On rest days I take it with my first meal just so I don’t forget to take it later.

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Take it with a meal. And feel free to mix it in any liquid you want. I prefer water.

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Use a micronized version.

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I personally use and fully recommend: Optimum Nutrition’s Creatine Powder. This is literally the only creatine I’ve ever used. I’ve taken 3-5g of it every single day since somewhere around 2006.

If you have any other questions about creatine, my absolutely amazing guide to it is the perfect place to look: The Ultimate Guide To Taking Creatine. Examine.com’s creatine article is another. (By the way, Examine.com is the most unbiased, science-based source of supplement information you will ever find.)

PROTEIN POWDER This one is pretty self-explanatory. It’s just protein… in powdered form. What does it do? Nothing really. Then why take it? Because as you learned earlier, a sufficient protein intake is one of the required muscle building supplies. Which means, one of your primary dietary goals is to ensure you’re eating enough protein every single day. And that’s where protein powder comes in handy. It’s basically just a very high quality, super convenient source of protein. No need to prepare or cook anything. Just throw a scoop in a cup or bottle, mix for a few seconds and drink. Taaadaaa! You should ideally try to get most of your daily protein intake from higher quality food sources like chicken, turkey, beef, eggs and so on, and then feel free to use protein powder as needed to fill in the rest and hit your goal total for the day. I recommend the following… 

There are many different forms of protein powder, but whey is definitely my preferred choice in terms of quality and digestibility.



There is no minimum, maximum or ideal amount of protein powder to use per day. Your goal is to simply eat a sufficient total amount of protein every day. If you need X grams from protein powder to make that happen one day, then consume X grams of it that day. If you need Y grams on some other day, then Y grams is how much you should take. And if you meet your protein intake goal through normal foods alone on some other day, then there’s no need to take any protein powder whatsoever that day.



Regarding the use of protein powder in the pre-, during and/or post-workout meals, see the Nutrient Timing chapter from earlier. It covers all of this.

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

It can be mixed in any liquid you want.

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The calories and macronutrients contained in protein powder count just the same as the calories and macronutrients from any other protein source (as do the calories/macronutrients of whatever liquid you’re mixing it in… unless it’s water).

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I personally use and fully recommend: Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey Gold Standard. I’ve gone through a bunch of different protein powders over the years, but this has been my favorite since at least 2008. All of the flavors I’ve tried are pretty damn good, so you can’t go wrong with any of them in my opinion.

FISH OIL Remember earlier when I explained the different types of fat and mentioned a particular type of polyunsaturated fat called the omega-3 fatty acid? And more precisely, two specific types of omega-3… eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)? You may recall that these omega-3 fatty acids might provide some calorie partitioning benefits along with a list of overall health benefits that were too long to even get into. You may also recall that the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 consumption is near 1:1 for optimal health and function, but yet is more like 20:1 in most people’s diets. Well, unless you happen to eat a lot of fatty fish (like salmon) on a regular basis, there’s a damn good chance your diet is lacking in omega-3. To solve this problem, you can either start eating a nice amount of fatty fish regularly, or better yet in my opinion… just take a fish oil supplement. It is the most abundant, high quality and convenient source there is. I recommend the following… 

To get the benefits it provides, you want to consume between 1-3 grams of combined EPA and DHA per day. Not grams of fish oil, not grams of fat from fish oil, not total grams of omega-3. You only really want to pay attention to the total combined amount of EPA and DHA the fish oil contains (because they are the ingredients we care about), and take whatever amount provides a combined total of 1-3g of EPA/DHA each day.

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

For the specific brand I recommend below, this would be between 2-5 capsules per day. I personally take 4 (which gives me 2.2g of combined EPA/DHA). Note that with other brands, it will usually require more capsules to reach this amount.

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Always take it with a meal, and feel free to spread them out so you’re not taking them all at once (though it probably wouldn’t matter much if you did).

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I personally use and recommend: Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega. It’s honestly the one and only fish oil I’ve ever taken in my life.

For additional details, check out Examine.com’s fish oil article.

VITAMIN D Vitamin D has become one of the most recommended supplements over the last few years, and with good reason. It has been shown to provide benefits ranging from increased testosterone levels, improved immune function, bone health and more, along with reducing the risk of a variety of diseases. While there are a few dietary sources of vitamin D, its most abundant source by far is the sun. And since the majority of the population these days seems to spend most (if not all) of their day indoors, and the time they do spend in the sun often involves the use of sunscreen, most people end up with suboptimal levels of vitamin D, and in some cases, full-blown deficiencies. The quickest and easiest way to fix this is by supplementing vitamin D. I recommend the following… 

The proper vitamin D dosage for most people is usually 2000 IU per day. That’s what I personally take. If, however, a blood test shows a legit deficiency, your doctor will probably recommend starting out with a higher dosage.



Vitamin D3 is the ideal form of it.



Always take it with a meal, and make sure it’s a meal that contains at least a small amount of fat (because it’s a fat-soluble vitamin).



Try to take it at some point during the first half of the day, as some report that taking it at night may disrupt sleep (though I’ve never noticed this myself).

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I personally use and recommend: NOW Foods Vitamin D3. This is the only Vitamin D supplement I’ve ever taken.

For additional details, check out Examine.com’s vitamin D article.

HONORABLE MENTIONS There are two other supplements I want to mention as being potentially beneficial for muscle growth, but I’m not really going to go into any detail on them. Why? Because… A) I don’t personally take them myself (no special reason why, just my preference) and B) I hate writing about supplements and will gladly use “A” as an excuse to get out of having to do it. The two supplements I’m referring to are: 

Caffeine



Beta-alanine

Both have some proven benefits (especially caffeine as a pre-workout stimulant… it’s as proven as it gets) and may be worth taking. For additional details, check out Examine.com’s caffeine article and their beta-alanine article. They cover everything you need to know.

INDIVIDUAL VITAMINS/MINERALS YOUR DIET IS LACKING The good thing about eating a balanced diet comprised largely of higher quality foods is that it often automatically allows us to get a sufficient amount of various micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) without having to purposely try to make it happen. To be extra safe and ensure that nothing is missed along the way, many people (including myself) like to take a very basic multivitamin to serve almost as a form of nutritional insurance on top of an already high quality diet and provide some additional peace of mind that no deficiencies are present. This is purely optional. More important, however, is that due to certain personal dietary needs and preferences, some people may end up with a diet that is low in certain micronutrients and may therefore require individual supplementation. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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Take me, for example. I completely avoid all forms of dairy because I don’t digest it well. This means my diet is almost always low in calcium. So, I take a calcium supplement to compensate. If there are any similar examples like this within your own diet (and a blood test would be ideal for confirming it), supplementing the specific micronutrients that are lacking would be a very good idea. If there are no examples like this in your diet (and a blood test shows everything is within the range it should be in), you’re all good. No need to take anything else.

BUT WHAT ABOUT OTHER SUPPLEMENTS? That’s it. Those are the only supplements I personally take or would recommend that you take. However, there’s a good chance that there is some other supplement out there that you are currently taking, are considering taking, or will eventually have marketed down your throat in the hopes that you eventually start taking… and you probably have/will have a million questions about it. Well, the short answer is that if it’s a supplement I haven’t mentioned in this chapter, the odds are that it’s total shit and you’d be best served to pretend it doesn’t exist.

The short answer is that if it’s a supplement I haven’t mentioned in this chapter, the odds are that it’s total shit and you’d be best served to pretend it doesn’t exist.

For a much better, more detailed answer, I’d recommend checking out Examine.com’s Supplement-Goals Reference Guide and/or their supplement Stack Guides. I have both, and I can tell you that they’ll provide the research-backed answer to every supplement question you will ever have. And with that all covered, I think it’s time we talk about the birds and the bees…

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CHAPTER 16

Lifestyle

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► LIFESTYLE

A

t this point we’ve covered virtually every meaningful aspect of our diet, training and supplementation, and we adjusted it all to maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains and make superior muscle growth occur. Nice! But we’re not quite done yet. There are a few additional factors that are capable of affecting our results, and they don’t exist in the gym or the kitchen. Rather, they are factors of our lifestyle. I’m talking about: 1. Sleep

3. Sex

2. Stress

4. Alcohol Consumption

Let’s take a quick look at each…

SLEEP First, the obvious… sleep is good. We should get a sufficient amount of it every single night. It’s crucial to our overall health and function. Now for the slightly less obvious… what role does it play in muscle growth? Well, studies and anecdotal evidence have shown that insufficient sleep often comes with the following negative effects: 

Lower testosterone levels. (The muscle building hormone.)



Higher cortisol levels. (The stress hormone.)



Reduced insulin sensitivity.



Increased hunger. (This is why sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain.)



Impaired cognitive function.



Impaired recovery.



Impaired physical performance. (Ever train on little sleep? How’d that go?)

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So what does this mean to us exactly? For starters, the first three items on that list play a big role in calorie partitioning. Which is to say that not getting enough sleep can potentially lead to less muscle and more fat being gained in a surplus (and more muscle and less fat being lost in a deficit). It also means that training performance/focus/recovery will go to crap. Or at the very least, just not go as well as it could and should be going. After all, it’s kinda hard to train your ass off to signal muscle growth when you’re tired, lacking energy, and just not all that interested in training. And even if you can somehow force yourself to mentally get into the mood, your body just isn’t going to be up to task. Which is all my way of saying that sleep has the potential to be an important part of the muscle building process. Get an insufficient amount of it and things will go worse. Get a sufficient amount of it and things will go better. The only question is: what is a “sufficient amount of sleep?” And the answer is, I honestly don’t know. I don’t think anyone else really knows, either. It turns out the good old “8 hours” recommendation that has been around forever doesn’t appear to actually be based on anything meaningful. And what it unintentionally serves to do is cause a lot of people to lie awake in bed not sleeping because they’re too obsessed with trying to get exactly 8 hours of sleep. It also appears that some people just need more or less sleep than others. So yeah, it’s not exactly clear cut. My best guess is that the ideal amount of sleep for an adult is somewhere in the range of 7-9 hours per night. My advice would be to experiment within that range and see what suits you best.

STRESS So you know your job, or your school work, or your wife/husband, or your girlfriend/boyfriend, or your kids, or your parents, or your friends, or the countless other aspects of your life that tend to drive you crazy sometimes? Or maybe all the time?

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That is stress, and it’s not a good thing. The negative impact it has on your body and overall health is quite large. And its effects on muscle growth are also bad, much in the same ways that a lack of sleep is. Which is why you already know what my advice is going to be: try to reduce the amount of stress in your life as much as you can. Not exactly rocket science. And it’s certainly easier said than done. But, all I can really do is say it and hope there is some way for you to realistically make it happen. Your results will be better if you can.

SEX I’m going to keep this one short and sweet (insert your own joke there). Sex is good. Feel free to have as much of it as you want. Every sex-related study I’ve ever seen shows only positive effects. Several positive effects, actually. For both men and women. In fact, sex also helps reduce stress and produces a nice relaxed feeling that is ideal for falling asleep. Plus, all of that aside, it’s really fun! Seriously. It comes highly recommended from pretty much everyone who has had some. And if you don’t have someone to have that sex with, there’s still some good news. Masturbation sorta has similar effects, though possibly to a lesser degree. I only bring this up because I seem to get about one email a week from some guy who is concerned that his masturbation frequency may be lowering his testosterone levels or in some way interfering with his ability to build muscle. The answer, however, is no. It’s fine. Knock yourself out. And for anyone wondering, in the decade or so that I’ve been getting this question from guys, I literally haven’t heard it once from a woman. I’m still holding out hope it happens one day, if for no other reason than to help balance out the creepiness factor of having random dudes tell me how often they’re jackin’ it.

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ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION And last but not least, we have alcohol. While technically a dietary factor, I think we can all agree it fits better in the lifestyle category. So, what do we need to know? Strictly in terms of muscle growth, there’s really nothing positive to report. The effects of alcohol are either going to be harmless or negative… not positive. In what ways can it be negative exactly? Among the many things you don’t want, studies show that excessive alcohol consumption is associated with a decrease in testosterone levels. Alcohol also provides calories just like protein, fat and carbs do (it’s one of the four macronutrients, remember?). Which means that it has the potential to put you over your intended calorie intake and therefore lead to an excessive amount of body fat being gained. Plus, in case it’s not obvious enough, doing large amounts of drinking today is very likely to have a significant negative effect on your training performance tomorrow. Or, it may just prevent you from actually training in the first place. But, none of this means that alcohol needs to be avoided completely. It doesn’t. Just like anything else, a sane amount of moderation will help prevent the negatives and shift things into the “harmless” category. Alan Aragon actually wrote a really good article about alcohol a while ago that I still link people to when they ask me about it. It’s here: A Musclehead’s Guide to Alcohol. I think Alan’s advice at the end of that article sums things up nicely… “If you don’t already drink, there’s no reason to start. And if you drink a lot, you risk a lot. But if you’re a just-right drinker – you drink enough to enjoy the benefits without ever waking up with a hangover (or, worse, with a stranger who’s equally hung over) – there’s no reason to quit. Maybe the simplest advice is this: If you drink so much that it interferes with your training, you need to cut back. If the amount you drink never interferes with anything important, let’s get together for a beer sometime.” Sounds good to me. Next…

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CHAPTER 17

Tracking

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► TRACKING

I

have a confession to make. I maybe, kinda, sorta, unintentionally lied to you at the beginning of this book when I said the only true requirements of building muscle are to signal and supply.

Okay, maybe “lied” isn’t really the right word. It’s more that I didn’t tell you the full extent of the truth. What I mean is, there are two remaining required factors within your control that will dictate whether or not what needs to be done actually gets done, and whether it gets done as well as it should be getting done. The first of these factors is tracking. Tracking what, exactly? Three different things:

1 Your training.

2

Your diet.

3

Your progress.

Here’s why it must be done, and here’s how we’re going to do it…

TRACKING TRAINING: THE WORKOUT LOG If progressive tension overload is the main component of the muscle building signal (and it is), a workout log is the main component of progressive tension overload. Think about it. How in the hell are you supposed to progress in the next workout if you don’t know exactly what you did in the previous workout? You need to keep some sort of log of the exercises you did, how much weight you lifted each set, how many reps you did each set, and how long you rested between sets. Then when it’s time to repeat that workout, all you’ll need to do is go into your log and see exactly what you were able to do last time so you’ll know exactly what needs to be done this time to beat it. This information is the difference between going into the gym to just “work out,” and going into the gym to train for the specific purpose of reaching your goal.

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And the primary difference maker is a workout log. Feel free to keep a simple no-frills log in a plain text document, or something fancier in a program like Excel, or use some kind of app on your phone, or just go old school and use a notebook and pen. It really doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it. So, do it. This is not just a fun suggestion or a handy tip. It’s a requirement.

TRACKING DIET: THE DIET LOG Similarly, you know how the key to your diet is consuming the right total amount of calories, protein, fat and carbs each day? Well, in order to actually make that happen, you’re going to need to keep some form of diet log to track what (and more importantly, how much) you’re eating. There are many ways to do this. The first and most obvious option is to just check the back of the box, can, jar, bottle, bag or package that your food came in and view its nutritional content right there. You can also quickly look it up on any of the hundreds of different food databases (links below). From there you could put together some kind of fancy Excel spreadsheet to do the math for you, or go old school with a notebook/pen and do the math yourself. The second option – which is certainly the faster/easier/more convenient option – is to just use one of the hundreds of diet tracking websites and apps around that will allow you to look up thousands of different foods and track the totals of everything you eat right there on the site/app. Some popular examples include:



MyFitnessPal



CalorieCount



CalorieKing



A Calorie Counter



FitDay

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Search around and you’ll find tons of others. But regardless of how you do it, my one recommendation is to make sure you’re using a digital kitchen scale as often as you realistically can when doing it. Measuring cups, measuring spoons, guessing, assuming or “just eyeballing it” are often horribly inaccurate, and in the vast majority of cases will lead to you eating substantially more or less (usually more) than you think you are. Seriously, it happens ALL THE TIME. Which is why there is no better “diet product” on the planet than a kitchen scale. It’s small, cheap and as fast and easy to use as can be. Just put some food on it and see exactly how many grams or ounces it weighs. You’ll then be able to enter that exact serving size into whatever diet tracking site/app you use and instantly see the exact amount of calories and macronutrients that amount of food contains. In terms of accurately tracking what you’re eating, it’s really a must-have item. If you’re looking for a recommendation, any of the kitchen scales shown here will be perfectly fine. I currently use this one: EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale. Once again, this is not just a fun suggestion or a handy tip. It’s a requirement.

TRACKING YOUR PROGRESS And finally, we have your progress itself. Technically, your workout log will play a huge role in tracking your progress, but in this case, I’m mainly referring to the tracking of what your body is (or is not) doing. Why is this important/required? Because your goal is to maximize muscle gains and minimize fat gains. So you NEED to know if your body is changing the way it should be at the ideal and realistic rate it should be. If it is, it’s your confirmation that everything is being done just right. If it’s not, it’s your confirmation that some aspect of your diet or training needs to be adjusted accordingly. So, how should this sort of progress be tracked? I have three recommendations:

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1. Body Weight This is definitely going to serve as the foundation. But of course, you know this already. You know there is an ideal rate of weight gain that you need to make happen. It’s what your calorie intake is designed for. You also know that falling short of your ideal rate of weight gain means muscle is either being built slower than it could be or (more likely) just not being built at all, and that exceeding your ideal rate of weight gain means too much body fat is being gained. For this reason, tracking your body weight is going to be quite useful and important. As I fully explained earlier, the most accurate way of doing it is by weighing yourself every single day first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, and then taking the average at the end of the week. Also remember that we don’t care about the day-to-day changes. It’s the weekly averages that matter to us. To do this, you can again go with some kind of weight tracking app, or make yourself a fancy spreadsheet, or just use a notebook or whatever else (I like using Google Calendar for this). I’d also recommend getting a good digital scale. Any of these will likely do just fine. I currently use the EatSmart Precision Digital Bathroom Scale. It’s been the most consistent and accurate bathroom scale I’ve ever used. 2. Measurements You’re also going to want to get a tape measure (any of these will be good) and take regular measurements every 1-2 weeks and keep a log of it somewhere as well. Measure your stomach/waist, arms/biceps, hips, thighs, calves, chest, whatever. The exact spot you take each measurement from doesn’t matter as much as ensuring you take it from the same spot each time. 3. Mirror Scales and measurements are great and highly recommended, but one of the best ways to track progress is by simply looking in the mirror. As I mentioned earlier, the mirror (along with pictures) is my recommended way of estimating what your body fat percentage is by comparing what various body fat percentages realistically look like to what you look like (and doing so in a sane, unbiased manner). 4. Pictures Another thing you’re definitely going to want to do is take pictures about once a month. As good as the mirror is, the fact that you see yourself every single day combined with the fact that muscle growth is a super slow process makes it pretty tough for us to notice the

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differences. That’s where pictures help out big time. Nothing is better for showing you exactly what type of visual changes your body is making (and just how noticeable those changes truly are) quite like a side-by-side comparison of pictures. Try to take them in the same room, in the same spot, with similar lighting and in a similar pose to keep things as consistent as possible. A front, back and side shot is a good starting point, but you can of course take more in whatever poses you want. I’d also recommend taking some of them relaxed and some of them flexed if you can. And now for the last remaining factor…

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CHAPTER 18

Action, Consistency And Effort

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► ACTION, CONSISTENCY AND EFFORT

Y

our diet, training, supplementation and lifestyle are now as close to perfect as can be. Every aspect of what you’re going to do to make muscle growth occur has been designed for superior results. Every person reading this is damn near guaranteed to do amazingly well. Except for one tiny thing. Reality. You see, the unfortunate reality of every single muscle building program (or fat loss program, for that matter) is that the majority of people will fail. Not because the program didn’t work. But because THEY didn’t work. They either failed to take action, failed to consistently sustain that action, or just failed to put forth the effort required for that action to be effective.

THE SAD REALITY OF THE SITUATION: PART 1 Do you know what’s sad? I wrote Superior Muscle Growth knowing full well that more of the people who buy it are going to end up “having it” than actually taking action and “using it.” Sometimes it’ll just become yet another program in the long line of programs they bought and never used. Or maybe used for an insignificant amount of time before they went and bought the next program they’ll also never use, and then the next one after that. These are collectors, not doers. Then you’ll have the people that wanted to know what Superior Muscle Growth was all about. They wanted the information it contained. Not to actually use that information, but to read it, consider it, compare it to 100 other programs, think about it, obsess over various details of it, discuss it with friends and basically do everything possible with it besides put it into action. These are readers, not doers. Then you’ll have people who are just flat out lazy and/or lacking in motivation. They bought Superior Muscle Growth fully intent on putting it into action. They soooo want to, but they just aren’t actually going to. Copyright © 2014 Superior Muscle Growth

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These are wanters, not doers. Then you’ll have people who have the mindset of “hey, this looks great… I think I’ll try this.” While that may seem like a positive mindset to have, the fact of the matter is that nobody has ever accomplished anything by trying. Success requires doing. These are triers, not doers. Noticing a trend here? The truth is, Superior Muscle Growth could very well be the single greatest and most effective muscle building program in history (my opinion may be slightly biased), but that alone isn’t going to do shit for you. Why? Because all of the information and guidelines in the world are guaranteed to accomplish nothing unless it’s actually put into action. And unfortunately, there is no advice for this. There are no recommendations to give. There are no supplements to buy. Your ability to take action is something that only you are in control of. All I can do is bring that point to your attention.

THE SAD REALITY OF THE SITUATION: PART 2 The funny thing is, as absolutely crucial as taking action will be, action alone is not enough. In fact, action alone is pretty damn useless. People take action all the time and still fail miserably. Want proof? Walk into any typical gym during the first week of January. You’ll see plenty of people “taking action.” Now walk into that same gym again in March and tell me what you see. That’s right, a much emptier gym as a result of a ton of people who only temporarily took action. And that type of action is completely useless. Useful action, on the other hand, is the kind that consistently happens for the long-term. Not days, not weeks, not months… not even years. It’s consistent unlimited action. The kind of action that doesn’t stop. It just happens until what it’s meant to achieve is fully achieved, and then continues beyond that point to ensure it’s never lost.

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But yet again, there is nothing I can do to make this happen for you. I can’t make you consistently eat and train how you need to eat and train. Only you control this.

THE SAD REALITY OF THE SITUATION: PART 3 As if you needed more bad news, even THAT is still not enough. Just consistently “showing up” will only get you so far. That’s because superior results take effort. Shitloads of effort. The kind of effort that most people are incapable of bringing to the table. Want proof? Walk into any typical gym at any time of the year. There will be tons of people in all of them who have shown up consistently but yet still failed to reach their goals. Sure, this is often due to a poorly designed diet or training program, but many times it’s just a flat out lack of effort. The best way to describe what these people have been doing for all of this time is “going through the motions.” They’re there, they showed up, they’ve consistently taken action (some for years, if not decades)… but they just aren’t putting forth the effort needed for it to actually matter. That’s the thing about muscle growth. It doesn’t just happen by consistently taking action. It’s not nearly that easy. It requires pushing yourself physically and mentally to do what most people would much rather not do for the purpose of getting your body to make improvements it would much rather not make. And that takes a limitless supply of real, legit “I WANT THIS” type effort. The kind of effort that must be present in order for anything worthwhile to be accomplished, including muscle growth.

And that takes a limitless supply of real, legit “I WANT THIS” type effort. The kind of effort that must be present in order for anything worthwhile to be accomplished, including muscle growth.

But once again, I can’t make you put forth this effort. That’s all on you. All I can do is help you realize its importance and then cross my fingers and hope you’re capable of it. Basically… I control the program I give you to follow. You’re the only one who controls what you do with it.

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CHAPTER 19

The End

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► THE END

W

elcome to the end of Superior Muscle Growth. I hope it exceeded your expectations.

HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

Like I said way back in the introduction of this book… I legitimately care about the results you get and progress you make as a result of using this program. So, if you have any questions about any aspect of Superior Muscle Growth, I will do my best to answer them. You can email me here: [email protected].

I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! Now is also a good time to mention that I would love to get your feedback. I want to know exactly what you thought of this book. How did you like it? Was there something you thought was missing? Anything that confused you? Additional examples I could have shown? Other questions I could have answered? Related topics I could have covered? Once again, send it here: [email protected].

I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR RESULTS! And finally, I want to know how well Superior Muscle Growth is working for you. So please, definitely keep me updated on how things are going. Send me progress updates, testimonials, before and after pictures, during pictures, etc. Really, whatever progress you’ve made or are currently in the middle of making, I want you to tell me about it. You can send it all right here: [email protected].

THE END And with that, we’ve reached the end of Superior Muscle Growth. Enjoy your results.

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Hmmm. Look at that. You’ve found the top secret surprise ending to this book. Congrats! Now it's time to give you the real secrets of Superior Muscle Growth! And the secret supplements I really take! I'm kidding, of course. But since you were diligent enough to make it to this little hidden area, I figure you do deserve something kinda close to a secret. So, here you go. By following this program, you will maximize muscle gains, minimize fat gains and get the absolute best muscle building results you are capable of getting. But… what about fat loss? What about getting really lean? What about doing it without losing any of the new muscle you just built? What about doing it without hunger issues, or food restrictions, or metabolic slowdown, or unexplained plateaus, or decreases in strength and performance, or annoying diets, or tons of cardio, or counterproductive workouts, or problems with mood and sleep? What about losing fat in a way that avoids ALL of the things that suck about losing fat? If only there was a program designed for this goal. If only there was a program designed to maximize fat loss while minimizing or maybe even completely preventing muscle loss… all while significantly reducing all of the other negative effects that always come about when trying to get leaner. If only there was a program made specifically for this purpose. Funny thing about that. At some point in the near future, there will be. Superior Fat Loss… coming soon.

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