20 ways to influence muscle growth

(no drugs required!)

The definitive guide to helping you achieve something worthwhile by
actually fucking working for it
 Contents

Instant Gratification
Us and them
Training
1. Do what works for YOU
2. Utilise the ‘BIG’ lifts
3. Don’t generate unnecessary momentum
4. Creating time under tension
5. Creating a pump
6. Get a massage
7. Squeeze the reps like they owe you money
8. Eat before your workout
9. Work the negative
10. Take BCAA’s during your workouts
11. Progression not regression
12. Eat after your workout
13. Develop the mind – muscle connection
14. Eat for gainz
15. Work to failure
16. Catch some ZZzzz’s
17. Isometric contractions
18. Use Creatine
19. Don’t over train
20. Utilise various training Strategies
A final word
 Instant Gratification

Instant gratification ….

we live in a world where we want it, and ‘we want it now’.

If you don’t want to go out to buy food, no problem, just call someone and
they’ll deliver it to you. Want to be famous? Piece of cake, take a photo of
your ass and put it on Instagram. Don’t want to wait to see that new movie
that comes out TOMORROW?! That’s ok, just download a copy online
right now and its yours forever. You don’t even have to go up to someone
and talk to try and get a date anymore, you can just swipe left and you’re an
instant fucking stud, no effort required.
The desire for instant results with putting in as little work as possible is on
the rise, especially in the fitness industry thanks to social media, and its
mind blowing! No one wants to actually put in any work anymore. Fad
diets, crap supplements, muscle stimulation devices, listening to the ‘so-
called’ experts because they have a few thousand followers on Twitter,
wrapping yourself up in cling film to ‘enhance fat loss’ (seriously, I’ve seen
this) and of course, recreational uses of steroids (taking steroids for shits
 and giggles as opposed to using them to get an edge in bodybuilding
competition) are all common place now – and this last one is driving me
fucking crazy!! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a guy who very rarely could
give two fucks about what people take – but what I can’t stand is (1) the
overwhelming need to start taking them as soon as the journey to muscle
building begins BECAUSE PEOPLE AE TOO FUCKING LAZY AND
IMPATIENT and (2) the belief that steroids hold magical properties in
providing users with the knowledge in knowing fucking EVERYTHING
about lifting weights when in actual fact, their technique and execution is
just pure shit and it’s so embarrassing to look at, I wouldn’t even show it to
Stevie Wonder.

Building muscle isn’t an instant gratification kind of thing, like anything

worthwhile, it takes time, it takes practice and it takes persistence. But the
results are rewarding, and they are worth it. Read the book, implement the
strategies, get to the gym and work your ass off. Do it for YOU and only
you. Delay the gratification, enjoy the anticipated reward and look forward
to the journey as well as the destination.
 Us and them

Before you read on, it is absolutely essential that you understand the
difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The reason being is that I want you to
believe I’ve written this to help you, not to con you with shit that doesn’t
work. But to believe it, you must know the following:

‘not all men (or women) are created equally’

and no matter what Flex magazine, Instagram wannabes selling shit or even
Dave down the gym tells you, (and I’m sorry to break it to you) – ‘there’s
not a fucking thing you can do about it’.

There’s us – and there’s them. Always has been, always will be.

The amount of times in my life where I’ve heard:

“Well that’s not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did”

“Ronnie Coleman didn’t do any of that”
“Jay Cutler said to eat this”
 That is what I mean by’ them’. The freaks of nature. The elite. The people
with superhuman genetics. Steroids, Fortune and Photoshop aside, even by
taking all of that away, the best of them out there, the people you may
aspire to be like, are just on a different level genetically. For the majority of
you, if you read this book in the hopes of becoming one of them in 6
months’ time – you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Some of them know what they’re doing, sure, but for them, they pick up a
barbell and their biceps grow by 2 inches. They don’t understand the
struggle of muscle building and therefore, they don’t really know what truly
works and what doesn’t for people like us, and why should they? The new
age bodybuilders have trainers and nutritionists, they don’t know macros
from assholes. They get a programme and they just go do it. Simple. So,
should we be looking to them to help us with our gains? Probably not eh?

With that being said, if you ARE reading this book in order to be the best
that YOU can be, to focus only on YOUR own achievements, YOUR own
goals and YOUR own path – then welcome. You have the right mind set
and fuck me, you’re going to do well.

Muscle building is a science. If you feel that ‘to get big, yow gotta lift some
heavy ass weight’ is a far more intelligent and factual strategic method for
muscle building (cheers Ronnie Colman), then please, put down the book
and go do it. I’ll see you back here in a few weeks or months when ‘lifting
that heavy ass weight’ isn’t all it appeared to be.

Now, let’s make some muscle….

 Training

This book contains 20 methods of building muscle, looking at training,

nutrition and factors outside of the gym. Like most things in life, building
muscle is a trial and error thing. What works for someone may not work for
you (discussed in greater detail in chapter 1) and vice versa. I don’t know
YOU and I don’t know your body, but whoever you are, you are certain to
find a huge number of tips in here useful, but please, (and this is the reason
for this chapter) ‘don’t try to do ALL OF THEM AT ONCE!!’, simply
because some of these tips will contradict one another and it will leave you
feeling pissed off and deflated, for example, one section will focus on you
lifting for a set time rather than reps, but another will have you going to
failure, therefore throwing both set times and reps out the window. Both of
these work, but you must use this book as a tool to work on and study your
own body, carry out experiments and chose the best method for YOU.
Taking on too many of these tips at once will be overwhelming and you’ll
give up before you’ve even begun. Read the chapters, pick the ones you like
and use them. Slowly integrate others or change them completely
depending on your outcomes as you get accustomed to the new training.

And of course, no fitness book is complete without this little nugget:

Before taking on any of the training principles found in this book, make
sure you are healthy enough to do so. If you are unsure, consult your GP
immediately.
Enjoy
 1. Do what works for YOU

This statement is one of the most important things to remember when

embarking on anything in life – Period!
In terms of muscle building, what this means is you must try to learn to
understand your body, try different things out and don’t just stick with
something because it’s what the other guys do.
We all have different frames, different limb lengths and this creates
different responses to different exercises. For example, I spent years and
years doing the Barbell bench press. Why? Because in all those fitness
magazines and celebrity workouts, the barbell bench press was deemed the
‘king of chest exercises’. Everyone did it, does it and will continue to do it,
and so naturally, I followed this belief. But, if I’m honest, it never really
stimulated my pec muscles the way other exercises did, like the dumbbell
press or dumbbell fly’s. I can get a really good stretch on my chest
generally, but I couldn’t really achieve this with the barbell. I also found it
harder to contract the muscle at the top of the movement with the bar, so for
me, the barbell bench press isn’t my go-to exercise – and just because the
guys at the gym do it – it doesn’t mean that it’s for you. Of course, the
barbell bench press is one example, and you might find that it works great
for you and therefore, you should stick to it. The lesson to take from this tip
 is ‘listen to your body’. If it isn’t working for you, and your technique is
good, replace the exercise with something else. Don’t waste time on shit
that doesn’t work.

So how do you start doing this? I want you to find an alternative for your
number 1 ‘go-to exercise’ for each body part, and do that in your next few
gym sessions. Even if you think your go-to exercise works for you, try a
new one anyway. It may surprise you to find that this new exercise is even
better, hitting your muscle with much more intensity. Cover legs, back,
chest, shoulders, triceps and biceps. You can split legs further into quads
and hamstrings if you like. If anything, this will start helping you to break
away from what everybody else is doing so you can start the journey on
your own path, your own way.
 2. Utilise the ‘BIG’ lifts

Compound exercises are those that recruit a number of muscles to help

execute them (known also as a multi joint movement). Examples of
compound exercises are squats, deadlifts, rack pulls, pull ups, rows, bench
press and shoulder press. Each has a number of variations linked with it, for
example, deadlifts can be further broken down into conventional deadlift,
sumo deadlift and Romanian deadlift.

The use of compound lifts results in great stress placed upon the CNS
(central nervous system) which creates an elevated level of nerve activity.
In turn, the nerves send signals to muscles to recruit more and more muscle
fibres to be able to accomplish the task it has been given (the lift). Greater
muscle fibre activation results in muscular growth.

Another factor to consider here is that compound lifts increase human

growth hormone (HGH) levels. What is HGH you ask? Well HGH is a
hormone in the human body that is secreted from the pituitary gland to
stimulate muscle growth by protein synthesis and by breaking down fat as
an energy source for tissue growth.

These two factors alone should be more than enough to have you adding
compound lifts to your workouts immediately.
So the next few times you train, add at least one compound lift for each
muscle group to your workout (if you don’t already)

Some ideas are:

Chest
Flat bench press, Incline bench press, Flat Dumbbell press, Incline
Dumbbell press
Back
Pullups, Barbell bent over rows, Single arm rows, Deadlift, Rack pulls
Legs
Barbell front squat, Barbell back squat, Hack squat, Leg press
Shoulders
Seated dumbbell press, Military press, Barbell press, Cleans
Triceps
Close press, Dips
Biceps
Underhand pull ups
 3. Don’t generate unnecessary momentum

If you move an object, in our case, weights – it / they have momentum - but
what we really need to avoid when looking to build quality muscle is
generating ‘more momentum than required’ to lift that weight. For a muscle
to grow, we have to place it under stress. The more stress upon it, the more
damage it will take and the bigger it will grow. By swinging weights
uncontrollably and incorporating other muscles to help, you are reducing
that stress, reducing the damage to the muscle and therefore hindering its
potential growth.
For a real-world example, let us take the barbell curl. A classic exercise that
most people, if you watch them, generate too much momentum with in
favour of curling as heavy a weight as possible. Now, lifting heavy is good
– but NOT in favour of technique. Think about it, what muscle is the
barbell curl SUPPOSED to be working? The bicep, right? So, would it not
make perfect sense to curl the bar from a straight arm position by squeezing
and contracting the bicep, and the bicep ONLY? Yes, it would! So why do
we see people day in and day out at the gym, generating a huge amount of
momentum from their hips, knees and shoulders to move that bar – curling
it with such uncontrolled force that it looks like they are trying to fuck it
with every swing? Watch them next time you train – it’s astounding!
To make the bicep grow, we must isolate the bicep, put it under as much
stress as possible without any help from other muscles and work it under a
 full range of motion.
This holds true for every single exercise you do for every body part you are
trying to work. So, if you have an ego when you train lose it, drop the
weight and isolate the muscle. Before every exercise, think:
What muscle is this exercise supposed to be working? Do I feel it in the
muscles it is supposed to be working? Do I feel it in other muscles where I
shouldn’t be feeling it?
Reduce the momentum so you are only working the muscle you are
supposed to be working.
A great tool here is a mirror.
All gyms have mirrors. So, find one and look at yourself as you lift a few
reps. Are you swinging the weight and using momentum to execute the rep?
If you are, take notice and correct yourself. If you can’t physically do it,
drop the weight and try again, because it’s too heavy! I promise that by
reducing the weight and unnecessary momentum, you properly isolate the
muscle and you will feel it a hell of a lot more. You will actually start
building muscle, not just swinging weights.
 4. Creating time under tension

Time under tension (TUT) can be referred to how long a muscle is under
strain during a period of time (In our case, this is a set). Holding a muscle
under tension results in muscle breakdown. This is the good kind of
breakdown that we need in order to repair our tissue and make it grow back
bigger (as opposed to the bad kind of muscle breakdown from not eating
properly and not having adequate rest).
The 2 little nuggets of info to take away here are:

#1 - “In order to build muscle – you must create tension, not lift
weights”

I cannot stress enough the importance of not only understanding this

statement, but incorporating it into your training.
Your muscles have no fucking idea whether you are squatting 20 kg or 200
kg – they don’t understand ‘weight’, they only understand ‘tension’. There
have been numerous times where I’ve gone all out heavy on a lift, throwing
a few reps out and re racking the weight – compared to times where I’ve iv
lifted less than half that weight and by generating more tension. Every
single time, I felt it so much more with the lighter weight.
Create the tension with the weight you can control and reap the rewards.
 That being said, your second nugget of information when actually using
TUT is this:

#2 - “for optimum muscular growth – each of your sets should last

between 30 and 40 seconds”
So, would it benefit you to time your reps rather than working for a
number? Yes! People spend so much time striving for numbers, but in
reality, when it comes to building muscle, your rep count doesn’t really
mean shit. (Take note: I said, ‘muscle building’. For strength training /
Powerlifting, then yes, numbers do matter). For us seekers of muscle gains
though, they are there really only as a reference and are more ideally used
to measure progress. For example, in month 1, I completed 12 reps of Bicep
curls with 20 kg dumbbells and the following month I complete 16 reps –
that is progress and that is all numbers are – a measurement of progress for
you to write down and refer back to in your future workouts (more on this
later).
So, when you’re ready to give this a go, forget the numbers and train only
for time. Set up a stop watch / timer and train every set you complete for a
minimum of 30 seconds to a max of 40 seconds.
Complete good reps. Those being, using a full range of motion (ROM),
having control over the weight the whole time, going slower on the negative
(chapter 10), controlling the weight back to the starting position and
stopping just short of lockout or bottoming out before reversing direction.
Keep your sets at 3-5 per exercise.
 5. Creating a pump

Metabolic stress is a fancy term for what you may know simply as ‘the
pump’. The pump is that fucking wonderful ‘tight, explosive’ feeling we get
in our muscles after a few sets of lifting that makes us want to strip off, oil
up and grind on the closest thing to us that has a heartbeat.
If you want a more personal explanation of the pump, check out Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s description of it in the movie ‘Pumping Iron’. (Don’t
watch it with your Mum!)
By working to chase the pump, blood is ‘pumped’ into the muscles by the
arteries. Once there, muscular contractions from following sets and reps
prevent the veins from letting the blood escape – thus resulting in metabolic
stress or ‘cell swelling’. Our muscles are covered in a thin fascia that
surrounds our muscles, dividing them into smaller components. By filling
the muscles with blood, this fascia is stretched, permanently over time,
allowing our muscles to grow – therefore, metabolic stress / the pump is a
key to muscle growth.
When it comes to trying this out for yourselves, the key to the pump is to
maintain constant tension. This is done by not resting between the reps – so,
reverse the direction just short of lockout (on exercises like bench press,
squats, shoulder press, triceps extensions) or reversing direction before you
 bottom out (on exercises like inverted rows, bent over rows, bicep curls).
Your rep range would most likely be between 12 – 25 reps (if you’re
working for reps and not time as covered in the last chapter). Such high reps
mean a lower weight than you would use when working out for 6-10 reps,
so be mindful of this when you try it. Keep rest periods shorter than normal
so you don’t lose all the blood out of the muscle when you lift. Anywhere
from 30 to 60 seconds is about the norm.
Utilising various training strategies will also help maximise the pump.
Things like compound sets, supersets, tri-sets, giant sets, drop sets, triple
drop sets and strip sets will all rock your freaking muscle pump world (All
the info regarding these training strategies can be found in Chapter 20)
 6. Get a massage

Sports massages are a hugely underestimated tool when looking for that
edge in muscular growth. When you have trained for a period of time, your
body will start to accumulate a build-up of scar tissue. Areas that have this
scar tissue will become very tough and knotted, resulting in the following
problems:

Restricted blood flow

Restricted signals from the central nervous system
Limits range of motion (ROM)

These three issues will limit your ability to generate a good muscular
contraction and tension – the key to muscle growth.

By having a sports massage, this scar tissue can, over time, be broken down
which in turn opens up pathways for maximum blood flow, better signals
from the central nervous system and a better range of motion.

Search your local area for a good sports massage therapist and book an
appointment. The number of sessions you are able to have will be related to
how many you can personally afford or actually need, but I’d suggest
 maybe one a week for a month to six weeks to start, depending on how
much scar tissue you have. A good sports massage therapist will use the
first session with you to find all the problematic areas and give you a rough
number of sessions required. Once that scar tissue has been broken down,
book an appointment once a month or so to just keep on top of it. Sports
massages are not cheap, but they don’t cost the earth either (and they are
cheaper than pissing your hard-earned money away on some shit
supplement that promises you the earth when in reality it does fuck all).
Don’t underestimate what having a massage can do for you in terms of
muscle growth, so take it into consideration.
 7. Squeeze the reps like they owe you money

‘Squeezing’ your reps are an important part of muscle growth but it’s so
rare to see people doing it. As I’ve mentioned (more than once), it seems
the number #1 strategy nowadays is to ‘lift as heavy as you fucking can’ –
with everything else coming after.
So, what do I mean by squeezing the reps? At the peak of your lift, the split
second between the end of lifting it and the start of lowering it (or vice
versa depending on the exercise), you are in the Isometric portion of the lift
where you are not moving. I call this a ‘squeeze zone’. By taking a count of
one or two in this position and really squeezing the working muscle as hard
as you can, you can get so much more out of your reps.
Squeezing reps will create a greater intensity to your contraction by forcing
more blood into the working muscle and causing more muscular damage
placing greater stress on the muscle. The more stress you create, the more
muscle growth can occur.
This technique is all about how much you want it. You have to really want
it. It’s not just a case of lifting a weight, throwing it around and putting it
down again. You really have to squeeze the life out of each and every rep. It
will burn, it will hurt, and it will ache (which is why people probably don’t
 do it) but sometimes, you have to do painful things to get the pleasure you
seek. Me personally, I’d much rather squeeze reps then stick a needle in my
ass – but then again, I don’t like needles.

Or having mood swings.

Or acne.

Or increasing my chances of heart problems dramatically.

Or having my balls shrink up into my stomach.

But I guess we’re all different ….

 8. Eat before your workout

The pre-workout meal is one of those things everybody knows about and
apparently everybody does, but ask one of these ‘experts’ exactly what you
need to eat, how much of it you need and when to eat it and you’ll get a
brief look of confusion followed swiftly by the ‘shit, say something quick’
comment of (1) “SOME PROTEIN MAN!!”, (2) “whatever you want” or
my personal favourite (3)“A fucking banana”.

The pre-workout meal has a specific job. That job is to increase liver and
muscle glycogen levels to enhance performance in the gym. Glycogen is
stored glucose, energy, and this comes from carbohydrates. Eat too early,
and you risk low blood sugar when you train, comprising performance. Eat
too late and you are left feeling bloated and sick whilst you work out.

So the general rule of thumb is this:

Consume 2.5g of Carbs per kg of bodyweight 2-4 hours before your

workout

With the protein rule being:

Consume 1g of Protein per 4g of carbohydrates. (a ratio of 1:4)

 Let’s look at an example:

Arnold is 70kg. His carbohydrate requirement is:

2.5 x 70 = 175g of carbs

Arnolds protein requirement is:

70 / 4 = 43 – 44g of protein

Therefore, Arnold must take in 175g carbs / 43-44 g protein 2-4 hours
before he trains

A quick note – Your pre-workout meal is taken in to provide energy for the
coming workout. Energy is provided by carbohydrates. The pre-workout
meal is not designed for tissue repair and growth – you haven’t damaged it
yet! That is the role of protein. This is why your carb requirement is much
higher than your protein requirement (I know you were thinking it). If it
were the other way around, your performance would be shit, and your body
would probably start breaking down muscle to fuel your workouts – the
opposite of what we want! Carbs are key to muscular growth!

Below is a list of pre-workout meal ideas for you to try. Remember to

modify the quantities to suit the amount of carbs and protein that YOU
need.

Jacket Potato with cheese / beans / tuna / chicken

Porridge with milk
Wholegrain cereal with milk / yogurt
Sandwich / roll / wrap / bagel filled with chicken / cheese / egg / peanut
butter
Vegetable and prawn / tofu stir fry with noodles or rice
Mixed bean hotpot with potatoes
Pasta with tomato based pasta sauce and cheese with vegetables
 9. Work the negative

A quick overview on the three stages of lifting weights for muscle growth:

Concentric phase
The concentric phase is the actual lifting / pulling / pushing of the weight
itself. “The hard part”. It is the ‘press’ on a bench press, the ‘curling’ of a
bicep curl or the ‘pull’ of a chin up or row.

Isometric phase
This stage is middle portion. The ‘pause’. This is when the weight is not
moving, it is the transition between the concentric and the eccentric. (Our
squeeze zone if you remember from our earlier chapter).

Eccentric phase
The eccentric phase is the final part of the lift where it is returned to its start
position. Eccentric can be defined as ‘the forced lengthening of active
muscle’. Back to the chest on a bench press, back down to your sides for a
bicep curl or hanging with straight arms on a pull up. The eccentric phase is
also known as the ‘negative’ phase, and that’s what we’ll be discussing in
this section.
 The negative is often overlooked as it is overshadowed by the actual lift /
concentric phase itself, which, for sports like powerlifting is perfectly
acceptable. But we are in the business of building muscle, not lifting
weights and we must utilise every phase of our lift in order to create an
environment where we can build muscle. Muscle growth is created by
tearing down muscle fibres during the workout, and, with adequate
recovery and fuel, these fibres grow back thicker and stronger than before,
so they are able to cope with the stresses they have been put under.
Now for the interesting shit. Muscle fibres undergo their greatest damage
whilst in the ‘eccentric’ phase of a lift. Lightbulb moment. By taking the
time to slow down your negative, controlling it back to the start position as
opposed to just dropping it back down, you will tear more muscle fibres
leading to more growth.

There are two ways to do these. Number one is to focus on your rep tempo
a little more – primarily on the negative. Instead of just dropping the weight
back to the starting position, try keeping the weight under complete control
and lowering it for a count of 4-6 seconds. Then repeat. You’ll find that by
doing it this way, if done properly, you’ll manage about half the amount of
reps you did before making the change.
The second way is to utilise the negative to failure. With this, you’ll need a
gym partner or someone to spot you. Instead of throwing out your standard
set of 5,8,10 reps and finishing the set, have your spotter help you return the
weight to the top of the lift (doing the concentric for you) and then your job
is to control the negative, again for 4-6 seconds. Once you finish the rep,
repeat. Have the spotter help you complete the concentric as you do the
negative slow and controlled.

What you are doing is completely destroying the muscle, first, by going to
failure on the concentric phase of the lift, and then, instead of stopping, you
are further damaging the muscle to the point of failure on the negative also.
 10. Take BCAA’s during your workouts

Protein, when digested is broken down into amino acids. There are 20
amino acids that are known to be the building blocks of protein. 12 of these
20 amino acids are known as non-essential amino acids (NEAA’s) – not
because we don’t need them, but because they are made by the body from
other amino acids, carbohydrates and nitrogen. The other 8 amino acids are
known as essential amino acids (EAA’s) meaning that they must be supplied
in the diet.

BCAA’s are Branched Chain Amino Acids. These BCAA’s, of which there
are three, Valine, Leucine and Isoleucine, are part of the EAA’s group,
meaning that they must be supplied to the body in our diet as our body
doesn’t make them.
BCAA’s make up one third of muscle protein and are a vital substrate for
two other amino acids, Glutamine and Alanine, which are released in large
quantities during intense exercise.
Science lesson out of the way, quite simply, if you take BCAA’s during your
workouts, they will be used directly as fuel by the muscles, especially when
/ if your glycogen stores become depleted, meaning that the muscle tissue
that you are trying so desperately to build, won’t be broken down and used
as energy as you exercise.
There are predominantly two forms of BCAA’s for you to take – powder or
tablets. I always advice people to opt for the powder form as it more
quickly absorbed by the body to be used as energy and can be taken as you
train whereas tablets take a lot longer you absorb due to them needing to be
broken down by the body.
As with all supplements, use your brain. If you feel any negative effects of
using them – stop.
 11. Progression not regression

How many times have you walked into the gym with no plan?? We all have,
on more than one occasion, but it’s just like not having a road map in a
place you don’t know – you’re going to struggle to get where you want to
get to.
In the gym, we need ‘progressive overload’. if you have no reference from
what you did when you trained legs, for example, the week before – how do
you progress from that session? What exercises did you do and in what
order? What sets? What reps? What tempo did you use? How long were
your rest periods? What weight did you get to on each set? Did you superset
anything? How did you feel that week? Was your nutrition on point?
Not having this information could lead to a session of regression and over
time, that will leave a lot of growth on the table. You have no reference to
compare what you did do with what you need to do now. Maybe last week I
hit 200kg on a squat? A PB for 4 reps. Then the following week, I
remember that I hit 200kg, but I think I remember doing 2 reps and I only
do 3, thinking that iv progressed by a rep but in fact I’ve left it a rep short.
That one single rep could be part of a chain of regression, this is most
certainly true if it keeps happening time after time.
Week by week, you must, in some way, make ‘progression’ in your training
– be it adding a few reps, increasing weight, reducing rest periods, whatever
it may be, it must happen for your muscles to be constantly challenged – or
 growth will slow or maybe even stop altogether.

Note, the title says ‘constant’ progression not regression. That is because
it’s important to have a regressive week in a good bodybuilding plan. This
will give the muscles a break from the hard pounding they have been taking
over the past few weeks / months. Just be careful not to regress in
something weekly because you ‘don’t remember’ what you did. So, write it
all down. Simple!
You can buy gym journals / diaries from online or you can just buy a
notepad and customise your own. Take it with you to the gym and write
down your workout AS YOU GO.
Don’t leave it in your gym locker and try to remember everything at the end
of the workout – because it won’t work! Be consistent with it and refer back
to it when you need to make sure you are progressing that little bit each and
every workout.
 12. Eat after your workout

After smashing your body in the gym, you have depleted all of your
glycogen stores and you need nutrients as soon as possible. The main
nutrients required are those consisting of protein and carbohydrates. Why?

Carbohydrates post exercise are required to quickly replenish your glycogen

stores. This is important if you train daily and / or every other day. By not
doing so, over successive days, your training intensity will be
compromised, achieving smaller gains as glycogen stores get progressively
lower, unable to cope with the demands you are seeking.
Carbohydrates also stimulate an insulin release. (The higher GI your
carbohydrate, the greater the insulin release, therefore post workout
nutrition is one time of the day where high GI carbs are more beneficial
than low GI carbs.) Imagine inulin to be a gatekeeper if you will. When
carbs are taken in, insulin is released and unlocks the muscle cells –
allowing them to absorb the nutrients that you have just consumed as the
cell membrane is more permeable to the glucose. This is why you should
also add this second nutrient to your post workout nutrition:

Protein.

Consuming protein post workout will stimulate muscle synthesis, help to

 prevent muscle breakdown and promote positive protein balance to the
muscle after resistance exercise.
Combining protein and carbohydrates also promotes glycogen recovery
more effectively than carbohydrate alone. The combination also reduces
muscle damage and muscle soreness.

All of this is not worth mentioning the reasoning of why exactly the post
workout meal should be consumed as soon as possible. The reason for it is
because glycogen storage is actually faster during this window than any
other time. What is this window? During the first 2 hours after exercise,
glycogen replenishment is at 150% times the normal rate! The following
four hours sees a drop in this rate but is still higher than normal.

So how much do you need?

Consume 1g of Carbs per kg of bodyweight during the first 2-hour post

training window

With the protein rule being:

Consume 1g of Protein per 4g of carbohydrates. (a ratio of 1:4) or

15-25G of Protein

Let’s look at an example:

Arnold is 70kg. His carbohydrate requirement is:

1 x 70 = 70g of carbs

Arnolds’ protein requirement is:

70 / 4 = 17.5g of protein

Therefore, Arnold must take in 175g carbs / 17.5 g protein with 2 hours of
finishing his training

Below is a list of post workout meal ideas for you to try. Remember to
modify the quantities to suit the amount of carbs and protein that YOU
need.

Bananas and semi skimmed milk

Wholemeal tuna sandwich and a yogurt
Protein shake make with milk and a banana
Beans on Toast
Jacket potato, beans and cheese
Pasta and chicken
Weetabix, Milk and yogurt
 13. Develop the mind – muscle connection

The mind is a powerful tool and you can use this to your advantage in the
gym to create muscular gains. To be able to harness it though, you’ll
probably need to stop doing certain things when you train. Checking out the
scattered ass, taking selfies, texting BAE – all that shit needs to stop
because the only thing you need to think about are the muscle(s) you are
working.
This is known as the mind muscle connection (MMC), and, quite simply, if
you think about it working, you can feel it working, and if you can feel it
working, you can generate an even greater stimulus and muscular
contraction as you go through the reps and sets. By improving upon the
MMC, you will be to incorporate a greater number of muscle fibres.
If you are serious about building muscle and developing your physique,
MMC is a must, especially when it comes to exercises that involve a
number of different muscles.
For this example, we’ll take the pull up. The pull up requires a number of
various muscles, but really, we only want to target the latissimus Dorsi
(back muscles). The lats are therefore known as the primary mover, or,
target muscle. The biceps and shoulders are secondary movers – they are
involved, but they are not what we are looking to work on. Now, you may
be able to do 20 pull ups – with 20 kg strapped to your waist - fucking
 awesome, congratulations, but if your MMC is poor, it may be that your
shoulders and biceps are doing a hell of a lot more work than they should –
therefore taking away your maximum potential lat muscle fibre recruitment.

Banish the ego … again!

Drop the weight so you can work on your MMC and get a good quality
contraction. Remember, bodybuilding is about creating tension and
contractions – not throwing heavy shit around that you can’t control. Forget
about lifting stupid heavy weights – leave the ego at the door.

Say I’m 90 kg and I have that 20kg plate strapped to me. I’m lifting 110kg
– but I’m only activating 65% of my Lat muscle fibres. That means my Lats
are lifting 71.5kg

By getting rid of that 20kg plate completely, and focus on my lat muscle
fibre recruitment so strongly that I’m able to activate 85% of them – then
my lats are lifting 76.5kg – so an extra 5kg!

Flex
You may see people do this a lot in the gym, whether they do it for the
reason I’m about to share, or because they just like being pretty – it doesn’t
matter – it works!!
By flexing the working muscle between sets, you will force additional
blood into them – creating an immense pump. A pump makes you more
aware of those muscles therefore making it incredibly easier to think about
and isolate them on your next sets

Warm up sets
Everyone does them – but no one really knows why. One of the key reasons
you should be doing them is to help with your MMC. Use a very low
weight with high reps (15-25) focusing on the working muscle – squeezing
throughout the rep and taking a second to pause at the point of your
maximum contraction.
 14. Eat for gainz

To be able to grow muscle, you need to eat frequently. Muscle needs

nutrients to be able to grow and resynthesise after you have broken them
down in the gym. There are a million and one different ideas and
philosophies out there on your meal sizes and frequency of eating I could
probably write a whole book on that alone, so for this chapter I’ll keep it
simple as to how often I feel you should eat – but more importantly, why.
Let’s look at protein. As we know, one of the main roles of protein is to
influence muscle growth and repair. Without protein, especially for you
guys looking to build muscle, your muscles would go into a catabolic state,
that being, they would begin to break down – the very opposite of why you
are busting your asses in the gym day in and day out.
When we eat protein, muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is peaked, helping to
repair muscle and grow new muscle, but then, MPS starts to decline in a
matter of hours. If you are currently one of those people who eats 2-3 meals
a day – this can be problematic as you are having around 6 hours between
meals and your MPS is not being kept elevated throughout the day, leaving
you more vulnerable to catabolism and you may start losing muscle tissue.
So how often should you eat? By eating every 2-4 hours max, your body is
guaranteed to be getting enough amino acids (as long as your meals contain
protein of course) to consistently repair damaged muscle and help build
new muscle.
Eating every 2-4 hours may sound like an arduous task to you, but just like
stepping in the gym for the first time, with proper planning and
determination, it’ll soon become second nature. If you are truly serious
about muscle growth and wanting to make that change to your body – you
have to be willing to do what it takes.

Top tips on implementing this into your lifestyle:

Prep is key! Don’t make your meals as you go because this is doomed to
fail. Take a day and use it to prep all of your food for at least 3-4 days or
even a full week.
Tupperware is your friend!! Buy lots. Prep your meals and pack them into
Tupperware. Keep 2 days’ worth of food in the fridge and freeze the rest. If
you don’t have the room for Tupperware – use Ziploc freezer bags.
Take your meals with you, just in case you get delayed or stuck somewhere
Make sure your food is pre-cooked and can be eaten cold – just in case you
aren’t at home or don’t have access to a kitchen
Carry protein bars / snacks with you if it is unlikely you will be able to eat a
proper meal
Keep your meals small in size – when I say eat frequently – I’m talking
about splitting up what you normally eat over more meals – not just adding
extra meals to your current diet. You’re eating often, so smaller meals will
digest faster and won’t leave you feeling bloated and full.
 15. Work to failure

Going to failure in the gym is a much-debated topic and you’ll get a

difference of opinion wherever you go.
Firstly, what does ‘going to failure’ mean exactly? Funnily enough, it is
exactly as it sounds – going rep after rep after rep, not for trying to hit that
magic number of 6,8,12 etc. but to just keep on going until you can
physically no longer lift that weight one more rep (WITH GOOD FORM) –
getting a maximum amount of blood forced into the muscle. It sounds easier
than it actually is. How many times have you put the bar down and a few
seconds later thought ‘I could have done another 1 or 2 of those easily’?
Going to failure is hard because we are human beings, and we don’t like to
fail. We don’t want people in the gym to see us unable to curl that bar or
press those dumbbells. We don’t want them to see us failing. We don’t want
ourselves to fail. But we must fail in order to grow.
Training to failure increases motor unit activation as well as increasing the
secretion of HGH and testosterone (muscle building hormones). So, it
makes sense to do it, right?
Well, there are negative impacts of training to failure but there is a reason
why. The side effects of doing it are tiring the nervous system, increasing
the risk of injury and hinder recovery. In my opinion though, these negative
effects of training to failure occur much more in beginners than more
advanced trainers, simply because beginners don’t yet have the knowledge
of technique, skills in muscle fibre recruitment or the ability to know when
they should stop at the risk of injury. So, for this one, I’d advise you to do it
if you are a novice / advanced trainer. If you are beginner, utilise the other
methods first and come back to this one later once you have a little more
experience under your belt.
To do it, warm up with 3-4 sets of whatever exercise you are doing,
increasing the weight a little each time – building up to your working set.
This will get the blood flowing to the muscle, warm up the joints and ignite
the muscle memory ready for that tough upcoming set. Your failure set will
be ONE SET. That’s right, one set. If you go to failure properly, then you
don’t need another working set, that’s why it’s called ‘failure’. If you feel
you can do another, you didn’t go to failure. This is what a typical back
exercise would look like:

Bent Over Row:

Set 1 – 15 reps (Light weight) (60 secs rest)

Set 2 – 12 reps (Increase weight slightly) (60 secs rest)
Set 3 – 10 reps (increase weight again) (60 secs rest)
Set 4 – working set. No numbers. Go to failure. Fuck shit up.

Your final set must be an all-in, ‘100% balls to the wall, fuck off I’m
training’ mentality. Turn the music up, keep the form, and lift that fucker
until you cannot lift anymore. Embrace it. If you have a training partner,
utilise them to help you through the concentric phase after you have
fatigued so you can get a few more reps out. Push yourself and don’t count
the reps. Counting reps will become a mental barrier, once you hit 10 or 12,
your brain says ‘ok, you did it, put the weight down’.

Failure sets, as I mentioned, work great with training partners, especially on

push exercises like bench press and squats because they can help you on the
concentric phase of the lift when you begin to fatigue. If you don’t have a
partner on your failure days, utilise machines and cables for your exercises.
These are safer than going to failure on exercises like a barbell bench press!

A final note, don’t go to failure all the time! Integrate it into your training
programme for a few weeks, then take a couple of weeks off it to let your
body recover.
 16. Catch some ZZzzz’s

Muscle isn’t built in the gym.

We’ve all heard it – but is it true? Well, Yes. It is.

Let’s start this chapter off with Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH
(also known as Somatotropin) is a hormone produced in the pituitary gland
of our brains and it plays an important role in regulating bone and muscle
growth.
HGH actually rises during sleep (in men, this is between 60-70% of daily
HGH secretion), therefore, a bad night’s sleep or lack thereof can impair
muscle growth.
Remember, you go to the gym to break muscle down. To create microscopic
tears. That full and swollen feeling you get in the gym isn’t technically
muscle growth – it’s just the blood swelling in the muscle(s) you are
working. It disappears faster than you can pull on your tight T shirt and flex
your guns ‘in da club’.
The time that you are at rest and sleeping is the time that these microscopic
tears in the muscle are repaired and rejuvenated to strengthen and grow the
 muscles.

By resting properly, your HGH production will aid in repairing the damage
done to your muscles during your training ensuring muscle recovery and
growth.

Getting a good night’s sleep is important every night, but especially on

those days that you train. You should be looking at hitting 8-10 hours per
night.

Just like not getting enough sleep, too much sleep is equally
counterproductive. For muscle to grow, our body must synthesise protein
faster than it is broken down. As sleep is our longest time between meals,
when we wake up, all those nutrients would have been used up and protein
breakdown is likely to be exceeding its synthesis. By sleeping longer than
required, we are delaying nutrient absorption, creating an even greater
catabolic (breakdown) effect on our muscles.

If you are worried about muscle catabolism whilst you sleep, drinking whey
protein isolate or casein is a great way of inhibiting protein breakdown
whilst you are sleeping.
 17. Isometric contractions

Everyone has certain muscles in their bodies that just won’t grow like the
rest – for a lot of people, that’s calves and traps. In order to force growth on
these stubborn muscles, we have start doing things outside of the gym, as
well as in it. I’m not talking about extra food, or extra sleep here either.
What I am talking about is ‘Isometrics’.
As I mentioned in the ‘Work the negative’ chapter, Isometrics are the
middle portion of a lift, or rep. The point at which there is no movement,
and you are squeezing the muscle.
By adding Isometrics to your muscle growth plan, you can start to achieve
results for those stubborn muscles.
Isometrics are so useful as a muscle building tool because once applied,
they quickly recruit the largest motor units because it is a maximum
voluntary contraction. Also, when carrying out a normal full range of
motion rep, the tension will wavier due to mechanical changes through the
movement which can make it difficult to really feel the muscle working.
When you’re ready to start doing these, take note that Isometrics are tough
(if done properly) so I’d advise you to do them separately from your main
gym workouts to ensure you are getting the most out of them without the
interference of fatigue. Luckily, they can be done anywhere, and you
require no equipment to be able to do them, so plan them around your main
workouts.
 Address your lagging body part and squeeze f it at the top of the rep. You
will be performing these Isometric contractions for 3-5 sets of an 8-10
second squeeze.
For example: For calves, you are going to push up on the balls of your feet,
hold onto something for support and continuously squeeze the life out of it
for 8-10 seconds. Just keep pushing and squeezing, not relaxing at all.
When the time is over, rest for a good 2-3 minutes before set number 2 –
and so on and so forth. If you are doing multi body contractions, you can
move onto the next one in-between your working sets if you wish.
Obviously I can’t list the instructions on how to contract every muscle in
the body here, so whatever your lagging body part – research on how to get
it into a maximum contraction position and play with it.
Start off hitting each body part twice a week and increase the frequency as
you improve to around 4-6 times a week.
 18. Use Creatine

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance in the body and it is used in the

production of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), which is the energy in the
human body.
Depending on how quickly your body resynthesises ATP will determine if
it’s worth you looking into using a manufactured creatine powder as a
supplement. During your intense lifting sessions, your body may run out of
energy to power you through and your intensity will drop – leaving you
short. By supplementing with creatine powder, you will top up your energy
supply, giving you extra bouts of short term power to be able to hit those
extra reps / add those few pounds to the bar.
A secondary benefit to creatine for people chasing the ‘gainz’ is that it acts
a cell volumizer. This means that it draws fluid into the muscle and
although you’ll hear people say that it causes water retention, studies show
that this retention is intra muscular and not subcutaneous (just under the
skin) – therefore it helps in increasing the size of the muscle as well as
protein synthesis.

In short, if you can take a legal, safe, highly researched supplement that will
allow you to lift a little more for a little longer – you’ll get bigger and
 stronger.

Creatine comes in a few different forms, flavoured powders, tablets and

drops. I don’t recommend the tablets as it will take longer for your body to
break them down. Whatever form you buy it in, I recommend taking 5
grams just before training. Many brands of Creatine suggest a ‘loading
phase’ where you take it around four times a day every day for a week or
so. I have never personally found any benefit to this over taking it just once
a day, but try it for yourselves and monitor your results.

Again, ill refer back to chapter one of the book ‘Do what works for YOU’.
Down sides to creatine are that some people find that it bloats them. If this
is happening with you, please, don’t keep using it because you feel you
have to. Firstly, look at using a different type. If it keeps happening,
discontinue using it.
 19. Don’t over train

Over training ….

Is it real??

YES! Yes, it is.

Your goal is to create maximum results by training smart, intensely and

spending as little time in the gym as you can.
By over training (generally training 7 days a week and not getting sufficient
rest with good nutrition), your results will start to decline.

So, what happens if we over train?

CNS overload
We spoke about the CNS in an earlier chapter. Your central nervous system
is how you recruit your muscle fibres during your workouts which leads to
muscle growth. By over training the CNS, your ability to generate that
connection to the muscle fibres will reduce dramatically, impeding your
muscle gains.
How do you know your CNS is overworked? Ever been to the gym and you
can’t get the muscles working? They aren’t firing properly, and you can’t
feel anything although you are training your ass off? – That’s an over
worked CNS – take a few days or so off

Connective tissue

Connective tissues are your ligaments and tendons and, if over worked, they
will become inflamed. Inflammation, if you have ever had it ... is fucking
painful, and this inflammation will have a massive effect on your intensity –
limiting your training. Connective tissue does not repair as quickly or easily
as muscle so once you create inflammation from over working it – it will
take a long time to fully recover and get back to that muscle building
intensity. So, if it feels painful to do certain exercises that you used to have
no problem with doing, changes are you are overtraining – again, rest up
and recover or suffer the consequences.

You need to learn to listen to your body and know when to rest to let your
body recover and grow. If you find yourself going through one or more of
the following, you’re probably overtraining:

Acquired an insatiable thirst no matter how much you drink

Extended muscle soreness (more than 72 hours)
Increased injury
Loss of concentration
Depression
Lost motivation
A decline in progress
 20. Utilise various training Strategies

Our final chapter together will look at the many various types of training
strategies that you can / should use in your workouts, for a number of
reasons. Firstly, changing it up will constantly challenge the muscle so you
don’t hit plateaus too frequently. It will also stop the boredom of doing the
same things over and over (if you are one of those people that gets bored
quickly). Some of these strategies can also help bring up lagging body
parts, help burn body fat and even increase your strength more so than just
utilising the straight set system over and over. So have a play with them and
just like I said in chapter 1 – use the ones that work for YOU.

Compound sets
Performing two exercises back to back on the same muscle group.
e.g. Chest press followed by Chest fly’s.

Supersets sets
Performing two exercises back to back on different muscle groups.
e.g. Bicep curl followed by Triceps press.

Tri-sets
Performing three exercises back to back on the same muscle group.
 e.g. Chest press followed by Chest fly’ followed by press ups.

Giant sets
Performing four exercises back to back on the same muscle group
e.g. Barbell back squats followed by Barbell front squats followed by
Barbell lunges followed by leg extensions.

Drop sets
Performing an exercise to muscle failure then dropping the weight (around
25%) and going again with no rest
(for speed and efficiency of changing weight, machines with pins are best
for this type of training)
e.g. Leg extensions / Lat pulldowns / Machine chest fly’s / Machine
preacher curls.

Triple drop sets

As above for drop set, but once you reach failure the second time, drop the
weight again and repeat for a third set.

Strip sets
Like drop sets / triple drop sets but you continue to strip the weight after
each set to failure for any many times as you see fit (5 minimum is the
norm).

Pyramid sets
Increasing the weight of an exercise each set whilst lowering the reps.
e.g. Barbell Bent over rows
Set 1 – 50 kg x 10 reps
Set 2 – 60 kg x 8 reps
Set 3 – 70 kg x 6 reps
Set 4 – 80 kg x 4 reps

Reverse pyramid sets

Decreasing the weight of an exercise each set whilst increasing the reps.
e.g. Barbell Bent over rows
Set 1 – 80 kg x 4 reps
 Set 2 – 70 kg x 6 reps
Set 3 – 60 kg x 8 reps
Set 4 – 50 kg x 10 reps

Pyramid to reverse pyramid sets

Yep, you guessed it. This one is disgusting. Go straight through both the
pyramid and reverse pyramid workouts finishing back exactly where you
started.

Rest / Pause
The rest / pause strategy is utilised to help you get out ‘a few more reps’.
Once you are fatigued and can’t go anymore, don’t put your equipment
down. Instead, hold it at the top of the lift (where it is easiest and there is no
tension) and rest for a few seconds (no more than 5 or 6). Then go again,
forcing out a couple more reps.

Negatives
We’ve done a whole chapter on this, but just for shits and giggles, I’ll add it
here too. After pushing the concentric (hard) portion of your lift to failure,
slow the tempo right down on the negative to help tax the muscle even
more. Be sure to have a spotter with you before you do these, especially if
you are using free weights.
 A final word

And that is that.

Thanks so much for taking time out and choosing this book, I hope it helped
you reach your goals in some way and provided some insight into the true
application of building muscle.

I’d love to get your feedback on this book and use it to make any changes /
updates in the future to give yourselves and other readers a better reading
experience. If you think it’s absolutely amazing and has helped you in some
way, I’d love to read about that too (who wouldn’t?!), so please feel free to
leave a quick review on Amazon to help other people who are / were in the
same boat as you and are looking for inspiration and help to make that
change.

Please feel free to check out the other books written by us:

Fuck burpees
Fuck HIIT