If it seems like no matter what you do, you’re unable to build a substantial amount of muscle mass, you might be compelled to fall into the trap of thinking that nothing works and you’re cursed to stay with a small and weak physique forever. And that’s not true – if there’s one indisputable truth to be found in the world of bodybuilding, it’s that anyone can increase his size if provided with the right set of tools. If you’re perpetually doing the same things, how can you expect different results?
It’s time to step up the game. In this article we’re offering you a wake-up call that can powerfully accelerate your bodybuilding efforts, condensed in 2 reasons why you can’t build mass and no-bullshit ways to overcome your mistakes. Read to find out how you can improve and achieve your size goals.
#1. Your Diet Sucks!
How can you tell if your bulking diet sucks? Easy – just look at the number of calories you’re consuming on a daily basis. A common mistake that bodybuilders make while bulking is convincing themselves that they eat enough when in fact, their day-to-day diet lacks consistency and real structure. If you only eat one huge meal per day, that’s not going to cut it. What happens during the rest of day? How about the entire week? How does your weekly diet look like? Do you eat at regular times every day?
Enter reality. If the numbers on the scale are not going up, you’re not getting in enough calories, period. Meal size and meal frequency are incredibly important and there’s no way to get around them, especially not with new fad diet concepts such as intermittent fasting. As one of the most recent ‘radical’ ideas in the fitness community, intermittent fasting has really helped many people shed fat faster – but there isn’t a single bodybuilder who went from scrawny to brawny with the help of this method.
The idea that fasting for long periods of the day will help you build as much mass as possible is basically illogical. Its proponents claim that it works because fasting increases GH production, which is true, but they neglect to mention that this increase is so insignificant that it won’t make any difference. In the meantime, the fasting individual fails to make use of important feeding windows, which are the basic requirement for growth.
Simply put, if you’re trying to gain mass, stay away from any diets that include fasting. Meal frequency may not be the sole criteria for gaining weight, but it’s a great way to give your diet a solid structure and make sure you’re getting in all the calories you need. And you can be sure that every jacked lifter you’ve ever met has relied on this to develop his physique. So the first rule is: eat more. A lot more. At every meal of every day!
Oh, and if you’re one of those guys who claim they simply can’t force themselves to eat the large amounts of food the process of mass building depends on, your point is valid but that doesn’t make it a valid excuse to stop trying. Increasing your caloric intake is a gradual process just like anything else – your body needs time to adjust to it, so you can’t expect to go from 2,000 calories to 5,000 calories per day in one week. You wouldn’t expect the same from your deadlift numbers, right?
Here’s what you can do, if you haven’t already – add a protein shake after every meal. For example, two scoops of protein powder amount to around 220 calories, and if you add a tablespoon of olive oil which contains 120 calories to it, the total will be 340 calories. Drinking three shakes like this one in the day will bring over a 1,000 extra calories per day.
This is one of the simplest ways to up your caloric intake without having to eat another meal, and if you’re consistent it will help your body adjust to eating more food. Buy a blender and prepare high-calorie protein shakes by adding egg whites, peanut butter, bananas, chocolate syrup or anything else you can think of. Liquid meals are much easier to ingest than whole-food meals, so use this advantage to the maximum.
Continues on next page…