Muscle Gaining Principles

Muscle and Health Principles by Jeff Feliciano

Drink plenty of water

Water is the essence of life. It is the essence of health, so it is one of the cornerstones of muscle gain. If you are under-hydrated, you are not providing your body with an ideal environment for muscular growth, and, in fact, your muscles will appear flatter and smaller. In addition, taking in too few fluids may undercut your health. Almost all bodily functions depend on proper hydration to function at peak efficiency. This includes your digestive system, immune system, neuromuscular structure, and a whole host of other physical systems. Tips: Try to drink at least one gallon of fluid (preferably water) a day. On days when you are stressed, train hard, or sweat profusely, you should consume even more. Strive to drink about 16 ounces of water 20 minutes or so before a workout to increase your blood volume and muscle function. Strategies: Drink water several times throughout the day, especially between meals. Do not discount the benefits of fluids in general — tea, milk, and even coffee contain water and are beneficial in helping provide your body with the fluids you need.

Consume an adequate amount of fiber

Fiber is crucial for helping the body digest food and serves many other functions as well. By consuming an adequate amount of fiber, you will not only improve your long-term health, but you will also get better body function. Fiber helps to slow down the digestion of protein, allowing your body more time to absorb aminos for muscle building. Tips: Try to take in at least 25 grams, and preferably 35 or more grams, of fiber each day from whole food and supplement sources. If you currently take in less, slowly increase your fiber consumption by two to three grams per week until you are taking in an adequate amount of fiber each day. Strategies: Eat vegetables with all whole food meals. Use nuts and seeds as protein sources. Always eat whole fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Choose whole-grain breads over processed breads. Buy whole grain oatmeal rather than quick oats. Use protein products that contain fiber (however, use fiber-free protein products after your workout for faster absorption). In general, think about fiber as a vital nutrient and consistently make choices that increase your fiber consumption each day.

Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits

Consuming plenty of vegetables and fruits is one of the best ways to enhance health. In addition to their essential fiber content, vegetables and fruits are a crucial source of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients. Many people believe they can simply supplement with a multivitamin to cover their bases, but you should never underestimate the power of nature. While we know the function of many of these nutrients, vegetables and fruits contain many still-unknown nutrients that may be crucial for health and muscular gains. Tips: Eat vegetables and fruits with every whole food meal. Strive to take in a minimum of five servings a day, and shoot for eight or more. A serving is a small portion (2 to 3 ounces). Strategies: Add berries to your oatmeal. Cook vegetables in bulk, preparing several days’ worth of servings at once. Eat plenty of salads with mixed greens and vegetables. Add fresh salsa (and other vegetables) to your morning eggs. Make a conscious effort to take in vegetables and fruits through the day, every day.

Take vitamin and mineral supplements

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts need more nutrients than the average person due to the heavy demands that training places on the body. In addition, eat a whole-food diet with a lot of variety. Consuming a limited diet of only certain foods can create inadvertent deficiencies if the particular combination of foods you rely on happen to be low in one or more nutrients. In addition, when you exercise at intense levels, you create numerous free radicals as a byproduct from training. Antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E help to reduce these harmful compounds. Many people need more minerals than most based on their size and training demands. Heavy sweating flushes minerals out of the system, which further increases the likelihood of nutrient deficits. Tips: Try supplementing your diet with a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral each day. Strategy: Take your multi-pack with whole-food meals. Ideally, split the dosage so that you take it two or three times throughout the day. Certain vitamins, such as vitamin C, can clear your system in less than 24 hours. More frequent supplementation (of smaller doses) provides your body with a more constant and more usable supply of nutrients, even though total dosage remains the same. Worry less about mineral interactions (calcium can decrease the absorption of magnesium when taken together) and more about consistency of supplementation. You will be much better off than you would if you did not supplement at all.

Supplement for recovery and growth

Workout nutrition is crucial for reaching your fitness and athletic goals, but it can also improve your health. Creatine helps keep muscles full; post-workout shakes help muscles recover and grow. Glutamine boosts immunity, improves digestion, and enhances muscle gains. Recovery leads to fresher, more effective training and helps avoid overtraining and the negative hormone cascade that comes with it. Tips: Take in up to 5 grams of creatine after your workout, or split into two doses before and after workout. Drink a post-workout shake with 30-40 grams of protein and 30 to 80 grams of simple carbs (such as glucose or dextrose). Take one to four doses of five to ten grams of glutamine throughout the day. Strategy: Put as much effort into your supplementation as you do into your training and your nutrition. Especially focus on supplementation around the time of your workouts, as this is the time when your body most needs these crucial nutrients.

Focus on rest and recovery

Rest and recovery is a vastly underappreciated and a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle. Keep in mind that training tears your body down, and muscle growth occurs afterwards, when you are recovering. That pump you feel when you are lifting may feel like growth, but it is really your body’s way of helping to counter the stress you are putting on it. The real growth occurs with proper nutrition and rest after a good training session. Continuous training without days off not only undercuts your ability to add muscle mass, but can also deplete your immune system and may promote training-related injuries. Tips: Get plenty of sleep each night - at least eight hours - especially when you are training hard. Limit hard training days to no more than four or five per week, allowing at least two full days of recovery per week. Strategies: Plan your recovery the way you plan your workouts. Schedule time off and think of it as a psychological strategy to allow you to have better training sessions and enhanced growth when you do train. Consider activities such as massage and meditation as part of your rest and recovery plan.

Get regular medical check-ups

If you are young and healthy, you may not regularly see a doctor. For optimal results, though, this can be an ideal time to establish what your baseline numbers are for blood pressure, heart rate, and blood work (see below). It is also an ideal way to determine if you have some unknown condition before it becomes a more serious problem. Tips: Have a full physical once a year. Strategies: Keep track of all your baseline numbers in the same way you track your nutrition and training. This allows you to make comparisons from one check-up to the next. As important as individual numbers are from one test, the comparison from one test to another will reveal whether or not there are any changes in your health status. This is the best preventative maintenance you can take to keep yourself healthy and on the path to bodybuilding success.

Have blood work done periodically

When you have a physical, you should ask your doctor to perform as much blood work as is reasonable and affordable. Knowing the following baseline numbers can be helpful in maintaining a healthy and long life: cholesterol, testosterone, glucose, insulin, and liver enzymes. Rx: Have blood work performed once a year, if not every six months. Strategies: Look for any fluctuations in your numbers. Take particular notice in large shifts (15 percent or greater) or in shifting trends, where one number continues to move in one direction over three tests or more.

Cardio year-round

For ideal cardiovascular health — and potentially better fitness results overall — include cardio training at all times during the year. Rx: While dieting to shed body fat, perform up to four one-hour sessions of moderately intense cardio per week. While trying to gain muscle mass, perform two to three 20-30 minute sessions of light to moderate cardio per week. For advanced athletes and exercisers, try H.I.I.T: High Intensity Interval Training, which includes running, cycling, and elliptical machines at a pace of 85-90% total output (i.e. sprinting) for 30 seconds followed by 30 second walk or rest for a total of 10 minutes or more. Strategy: Adjust your cardio parameters so that you are performing cardio exercises year-round. Perform fewer and lighter sessions while trying to add muscle mass, and additional and more challenging sessions while trying to cut body fat. This will promote heart health and still allow you to use cardio as an effective body fat shedding technique.

Avoid nutritional extremes—in dieting or in growth

Gaining or losing weight too quickly can negatively impact health as your body is overtaxed with the effects. Additionally, diets low in healthy fats can have a negative impact on health and bodybuilding results since your body needs these fats for numerous physiological functions Tips: Consistency is the hallmark of success. Whether your goal is to reduce body fat or gain muscle, make moderate adjustments in your calorie consumption by increasing or decreasing total calories by about 10-20 percent depending on your goal. Larger changes than this may cause your metabolism to react radically. For instance, large decreases in calorie intake usually results in a slowing of metabolism since your thyroid function makes corrections for the change in calories by increasing rT3, which is not active, and decreasing T3, resulting in a decrease in metabolism. Raising calories beyond what you are burning is just tricky since small increases raise your metabolism through enhanced thermogenesis; however, large changes result in an increment in thermogenesis as well as an increase in fat stores. Strategies: Plan your diet in advance, both on a weekly and daily basis. Prepare quality foods and have them available so that you can consume them consistently at the appropriate times.