How To Build Muscle and Get Stronger Without All The Fat Gain
The bulk and cut approach is dead.
You are typically told by many fitness gurus that to build muscle you must do a split routine of chest, shoulders, triceps and then back and biceps and legs.
You are then told to eat as much food as you can and to do very little exercise other than your workouts.
This approach has been proven to work, but is it worth it? Hell no. You will gain muscle, but the majority of the weight will be fat gain which you will have to spend months dieting off.
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Introducing: The 5-Part Series on Building Lean Muscle Mass
Everything you read in this 5-part blog series is backed up by research and real world experience.
…But don’t worry. There won’t be any jargon. The articles use plain and simple language, provide detailed examples, and give you action plans that should help you build muscle and strength without getting fat.
Sound interesting? Let’s get started:
You must first set realistic expectations. You are not going to build 50lbs of muscle in 8 weeks like you will see some people claim.
If you are a beginner, 3 full body workouts per week are going to get you stronger quicker, leading to more muscle.
If you have been training a while, recovery will be an issue on full body workouts. A more suitable program would be something like Lyle Mcdonald’s bulking routine which uses an upper/lower split. I am personally using this right now with the exception that I add an extra set for each back exercises.
Visual Impact Muscle Building is also a very good intermediate muscle building program which maximises sarcoplasmic muscle growth and also myofibrillar muscle growth.
Whatever program you choose, the key is just sticking to the program and not program hopping. The key to getting stronger is to continually challenge your muscles using the overload principle.
To support your training, you need to have adequate nutrition. This includes sufficient calories, protein, fats and carbs.
- A Muscle Building Diet
P.s. You can also also drink alcohol and make lean muscle gains. You can read Alan Aragon’s excellent advice on this down below:
A Musclehead’s Guide to Alcohol
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