The Complete, Step By Step Guide To Building Muscle Naturally

When it comes to packing on pounds of serious, fat-free muscle, guys are about as clueless as Floyd Mayweather at a monthly book club.

So in this article, I’m going to go over the absolute core fundamentals of building muscle — naturally, without the help of any gear (steroids).

Not that there is anything wrong with steroids, as it’s a personal choice for some and I’m not here to judge. In fact, let’s go over this topic briefly so you know what’s really going on behind the scenes when it comes to performance enhancing substances.

First, realize that guys who look like they take steroids (usually pro bodybuilders) know more about putting on natural muscle mass than the average dude who complains about not being able to gain any weight.

Why? Because the pros understand the basic fundamentals from top to bottom – the exact fundamentals which I’m about to drop on you like a rusty anvil. When these pros combine their grasp of the basics with serious dedication, work ethic, and their pharmaceutical aids, you end up with a truly epic specimen.

If you want proof, just seek out pictures of your favorite bodybuilders before they turned pro; Arnold, Ronnie, Jay, Phil, Kai… take your pick. What you’ll see is that even during their natural phase in life, they looked better than the average gym bro doing dumbbell kick backs like the clueless dork that he is.

Arnold is one of the prime, picture-perfect examples of someone who knew how to get absolutely stacked, even before he was introduced to D-Bol.

My point here is this: steroids aren’t a replacement for basics. The pro’s that take these substances can, on any given day, out-work and out-eat you under the table, then steal your girlfriend for good measure.

Now obviously the “juice heads” from Jersey Shore don’t count. In fact, those guys look rather pathetic for publicly claiming to be on “juice” in my opinion. No one on steroids should look that average.

In fact, by following this guide you can have a body that looks miles better than any of those J-Shore clowns, and you won’t have to compromise the state of your chestnuts or risk getting the ever-feared “bitch tits” in the process. Let’s start with where any good mass building program should start…

1. Nutrition

In the same way a planted seed needs water, your body needs calories. Duh, right? But it’s slightly more complex than that.

First of all, when male clients come to me with the sole purpose of building muscle, I don’t bother aiming for specific caloric numbers any more – at least not for the first four weeks. The first thing I do is allot 3500 calories per day from the start. For those that aren’t in the know, 3500 calories equates to about a pound of food.

From that pound of food, the first thing I determine is the amount of protein they need to consume. Now when it comes to protein requirements, there are many schools of thought on what is optimal. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before such as:

“Eat 1g per pound of bodyweight in protein bro!”

“No no, the RDA is all you need, otherwise it’s just wasted and you’ll tax your kidneys dude!”

“Yo there’s no point in taking more than 30g at a time because the rest just doesn’t get absorbed by your body!”

That’s all bullshit; it’s not enough as far as I’m concerned. My suggestion is for you to eat 1g per pound of bodyweight you WANT to be at.

So if you currently weigh 150lbs and want to be 170lbs, then under my guidance you’ll be eating 170g of protein per day – no exceptions. Here are two main reasons why:

A) It always works

and

B) It takes TEF into effect

TEF stands of “Thermic Effect of Food” which, in very basic terms, means it takes energy to burn energy. So not 100% of your calories will go towards muscle. If you want to dive into TEF more, Google it as the details of TEF go beyond the scope of this guide.

So now that you know how many calories you should consume, and you have your protein requirements ready to go, what should you do about carbs and fats?

Well, multiply your protein amount by 4 so you know how many calories that accounts for (So from the example above, 170 x 4 = 680). That number (680 in our case) is the amount of calories you’ll need to take in from protein, from your 3500 total. Now subtract the protein calories from the 3500 and you now have a number which is to be eaten in carbs and fats.

How much carbs and fats? Irrelevant – just stuff your face for now. Generally, more carbs than fat though. But the point is, you can adjust and fine tune this later as the weeks go by, to avoid excessive fat gain. In the beginning, all that matters is that you get your body used to a hypercaloric diet, period.

Trust me, it’s harder than it sounds.

“My suggestion is for you to eat 1g per pound of bodyweight you WANT to be at.” (Tweet This)

Eating Big Is A Skill

Most trainers generally give decent advice when it comes to nutrition concerning building muscle, but they’re either too lazy or clueless to show you how to eat big.

Just because I tell you that you need to eat 3500 calories doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do it. At least not most of you. Some have the natural appetite of a starving race horse and can vacuum food without any issues – and if you’re one of these people, then I hate you. Move on to point number two.

But if you’re not a big eater, you need to train yourself to eat for mass. Plain and simple.

What does this training consist of? Well the basic gist of it goes like this: For 3-4 days, eat as much as you can, and log your caloric intake. Now calculate the average number from those days – this is your eating threshold. If your threshold is below 3500, you need to increase it by a few hundred calories every day until eating 3500 per day goes from feeling uncomfortable to normal.

Note: I’m currently working on a complete guide on how to train yourself to eat big. It’ll be about as detailed as this article and I’ll be releasing to those who are on my Badass Strength program, so be sure to go sign up (it’s all FREE).

Supplementation

Assuming your basic nutrition and food intake is on point, you can really turbo charge your results by adding supplements into the mix. Below are a list of some of the basic ones you should be using:

• Whey Protein (to meet your protein requirements)
• Creatine Monohydrate (buying any other forms of creatine is a waste of money)
• Multivitamin (just grab any brand. I’ve linked up the one I use – it’s designed for athletes)
• Fish Oil (one tablespoon per day should do the trick)
• Caffeine (you can take it straight, or your favorite pre-workout to kick ass in the gym)

There are others, but trust me, they won’t make an ounce of difference until you get your caloric needs and basic supplement routine down pat! Now that we’ve got our eating and supplementation sorted out, let’s move on to some bad-ass, intelligent training.

“…guys who look like they take steroids (usually pro bodybuilders) know more about putting on natural muscle mass than the average dude who complains about not being able to gain any weight.” (Tweet This)

2. Training

Generally, you’re going to have to lift some heavy things off the floor – but unlike strength training where you only have to do it a few times, building mass needs volume. This means lifting it repeatedly. The very first thing you should do, is figure out  your one rep max (1RM) of most basic compound exercises such as:

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Bench Press
• Overhead Press
• Bentover Row

Once you know this, memorize the following magical statement:

Hypertrophy favours high(er) volume training at 70-80% of your 1RM

Where my philosophy differs from most is that I prefer not to mish-mash my strength and hypertrophy training when gaining size is the primary goal. What exactly is a mish-mashed protocol? Well, most 5×5 programs are ones I would consider mish-mashed. The idea behind them is that 5 reps is enough to force you to lift heavy so you’ll get stronger, which in turn will help you put on size. True. But to get really strong, there is a better way, and to put on muscle really quickly, the statement I’ve made above is the better way.

If you want to go for a general, middle ground approach, then by all means go nuts with your 5×5 program.

But as far as I’m concerned, screw mediocracy! If something is worth doing, you might as well aim high and do it to the best of your ability. Otherwise, you’re going to look just like the rest of the jokers walking around.

Let’s dive into more details when it comes to your training…

Reps

All you need to know, is that reps are absolutely KING. Reps determine what weight you will use and how many sets to pull off. In fact, it doesn’t matter what type of training you do – reps are always king. When I say “do 6 reps”, what I really mean is pick a weight where by 6 reps you are practically exhausted. If you were able to do 8 reps, then your weight selection was off – it’s as simple as that. Below are a list of rep-ranges provide awesome results for hypertrophy (muscle building) purposes.

• 7-8 (5+)
• 8-10 (3-4)
• 10-12 (3-4)
• 12-15 (2-3)

I personally like to cycle between these. You’ll also notice other numbers in brackets – these are the number of sets I recommend. Notice how the number of sets drop as the number of reps go up. This isn’t written in stone as you can easily do 5 sets of 12 reps, but I would only perform such a feat of crazyness if I knew that my body responded well to it (or I was using pharmaceutical assistant to help me recover faster).

Exercise Selection

Keep it BBC – and no, not that kind of BBC. What I mean is keep it big, bad and compound. If you’re not sure if an exercise can be considered BBC, just put it through the BBC test and see if it passes. Let’s take the tricep kickback as an example.

First, it cannot be a big lift because even when lifting a measly 15-20 lbs dumbbell, ninety nine percent of people’s form becomes fugly. Next, it’s not bad-ass by any stretch of the imagination – Elton John driving a Prius could command a more bad-ass status than a dumbbell kickback. And finally it’s not a compound movement at all since it only targets the triceps.

So it fails the BBC test, which means you shouldn’t bother with it.

So let’s get to what works. Below are a list of some BBC exercises that will put mass on you (notice how this list is oddly similar to the list of exercises I recommend in strength training).

• Barbell Squat
• Goblet Squat
• Leg Press
• Barbell Bench Press (Includes all variations: Close grip, reverse grip, incline/decline)
• Barbell Deadlift (Includes all variations: Sumo, RDL, Rack Pulls etc.)
• Weighted Chinups/Pullups (Or regular ones if you’re weak)
• Weighted Dips (Or regular dips)
• Overhead Press (Includes variations: Push Press, Military etc.)
• Barbell Shrugs
• Barbell Goodmornings
• Barbell Bentover Rows (or Pendlay rows if you’re feeling like a champ)
• Dumbbell Bench Press (also try one arm)
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press (also try one arm)
• Dumbbell Pullovers

This is not a complete list by any stretch of the imagination, but it should be enough to get you going. In fact, if you’re a noobie or intermediate – DO NOT DEVIATE from those exercises. Yes I know, what you’re wondering right now: “Where are the curls?!”

There are no curls up in there but trust me, your biceps will grow.

“Hypertrophy favours high(er) volume training at 70-80% of your 1RM” (Tweet This)

Progression

It should be evident that if you’re lifting the same weights over and over again, that you will eventually stop growing. Now, is this really an innovative idea that you’ve never heard before? Not really. Yet it’s astounding to me how many people forget, so don’t be the tool that lifts the same weight week after week. You should be adding a few pounds every few workouts or so (more on this in a second). This process is called progressive overload (P.O), and it’s one of the key factors to building non-stop muscle on your frame.

In fact, you could probably select the shittiest exercises known to man, but as long as you’re eating right and apply P.O you will grow. No, I shit you not, good sir.

While most trainers will agree on the importance of progressive overload – not all agree on the rate of progress itself. Some are very linear and say “add 5lbs per week” or that “you should go up by 10 lbs per month” and to be honest, blanket statements like that are the height of douchebaggery.

There is not a single soul on Earth that can be on a weightlifting program and continually progress at a linear rate – even if they’re on gear. I’ve seen newbies add 10lbs to their bench press in a week. I’ve also personally struggled to add 5lbs to my bench over the course of nearly two months. Shit happens – sometimes you stall and sometimes you blast through all your lifts. Experience and physical human limitation also has a lot to do with it.

Therefore, the best thing to do would be to try and progress when possible, but don’t beat yourself up if the linear rate of progress stops. Feel it out. For example, by looking at your logs (you are logging all your workouts, aren’t you?), you might see that next week it’s time to up the weight on your squat by 5lbs. However, you walked into the gym today feeling like a boss and you just know that you can probably add the 5lbs today and crush it.

So what should you do? Back off, respect the program and wait till next week?

Hell no. Rules exist so you know when to break them. Add the extra 5lbs, drop that ass down low, and squat the shit outta that bar. Mission accomplished.

Now, eating and lifting with intensity is all well and good, but you don’t grow in the gym. I know, big revelation right? This means you obviously need to pay attention to rest and recovery – a topic that’s more in depth than you may think. So let’s dive right in…

3. Rest/Recovery

First, let’s talk recovery. There are two schools of thought on recovery and nither is more correct than the other – they just exist so you can choose what you want to do.

The first piece of advice says that in order to grow, you need lots of rest. Therefore training with sufficient volume and load three times per week is more than enough. The other chunk of your time should be used to sleep/eat/grow. I know many dudes who train 3x a week and look very muscular indeed. I myself workout 3-4 times per week 80% of the time. This type of training also works really well for beginners.

The second piece of advice says “the hell with this rest crap – you should train as often as possible as long as you get your 8 hours a night.”

Logically, this line of thinking goes against everything the dudes who support 3/4 training days per week… but bodybuilders, gymnasts and Bulgarian lifters train practically every day, and sometimes even multiple times per day. And surprisingly, these men and women are some of the strongest, most muscular and ripped human beings I’ve ever seen.

So how in the hell do they have time to grow?

“Rules exist so you know when to break them!” (Tweet This)

Well first of all, you need to realize that these individuals are athletes. These aren’t your average gym bros and gals. Their body is used to high demands and stress, so doing a few sets of bench, squats and deadlifts 3x a week is like chump change. They need more stimulus.

For my fellow men, here’s a perfect analogy: think of making love to a world-class porn star with a 3 inch man sausage. Boooring!

Second, these people are proof that high volume training works. I was in gymnastics and also did competitive power tumbling – which resulted in training 12 hours a week. National/world class gymnasts train 20-30 hours a week. It’s basically their job. And have you seen their physiques? With that much volume their body has no option but to adapt, recover and grow as quickly as possible.

Finally, their nutrition is on-point. And by that I mean their caloric intake is quite high. Obviously, pro bodybuilders take gear in which helps them recover in record time, but I know of natural bodybuilders who train just as often so let’s not give steroids all the credit. If you’re not feeding your body, it’s kind of hard to get up the very next morning for another destructive workout.

My General Rule Of Thumb

If you’ve been training for 2 years or less, then 3-4 days a week is PLENTY. If you’ve been training longer than that, then you can use bursts of high volume training to blast past plateaus, put on some quick size and generally shock your body into awesomeness. Just make sure that you get your 8 hours a night, regardless of what rest protocol you choose.

Putting It All Together

So there you have it – a comprehensive, fool-proof guide to building some muscle. It ain’t rocket science, it just takes patience, hard work and following the guidelines I’ve set.

To keep track of your workouts, I highly recommend using the app called Fitocracy – it’ll let you know when you hit PR’s along with other useful data, plus it gives you points, badges and levels you up just like a video game, which is pretty awesome.

If for some reason you still cannot put together a solid routine, or you’re strapped for time and just need someone to make a plan for you, then consider Personal Online Coaching. This is where I take you under my wing and guide you every step of the way. I’ll design a customized workout, meal and supplementation plan while keeping you motivated to hit the gym day after day. I’ll be on your ass to make sure you get it done, and be your support lifeline during the times where you need the push. You’ll get 24/7 access to me VIA email and instant text messaging.

But there’s a catch – spots are very limited and I don’t take on everyone! If you’re interested in having me get you in the best shape of your life, click here to fill out an application – we’ll talk, get to know each other and if I feel that you’re a right fit, I’ll bring you on board and change your life (this initial consultation is absolutely FREE).

One word of caution: Be prepared to work and ditch your excuses at the door – if you need someone to discuss feelings with, go find a therapist ;)

Cheers!