Gaining FAT Faster Than You Gain MUSCLE!?

I’m not going to sit here and assume you all don’t already know how important  Nutrition is to optimizing growth. I KNOW you do. People come to me all the time and ask “What is the BEST approach to take if I want to gain muscle and lose fat?” Is that even possible?

Well, the truth of the matter is that, yes, it is absolutely possible. Is it easy? Of course not. BUT it is SIMPLE.

Let me do my best to explain.

Your first consideration when it comes to nutrition is RECOVERY. You need to always ensure that your body has what it needs to recover when it needs it. It is very important to nourish your muscles around the workout. Your muscles need protein, in the form of amino acids, present in the bloodstream ALL the time or the body will start to leach those aminos from other parts of your body (Read: break down your muscles). This is BAD NEWS for those of us trying to build muscle.

REMEMBER: Weight training is a catabolic process -- it breaks down muscle! It’s when we leave the gym and feed the body that the growth and re-growth processes occur. Whenever possible we want to minimize the amount of muscle breakdown during the workout. In order to do this, certain essential nutrients MUST be present:

·        branch chain aminos

·        glutamine

·        arginine

·        antioxidants

·        glucose

·        zinc

This is your first consideration when it comes to building muscle. The other main considerations of an intelligent nutrition plan are timing of nutrients, and ratio of nutrients (percentage of fats/carbs/proteins).

How do I know WHEN to EAT WHAT?

I think by this point in my life I have probably read EVERY nutrition book ever written (or at least started to read them all. Some are terrible so I toss them out halfway through). I have probably tried every single logical approach to nutrition at some point in my life.

I was once a vegetarian; I have tried really high carb, low protein; I have tried high protein, low carb; zero carb; zero fat; gluten free; Ketogenic diet; Metabolic diet; Hollywood diet; Fasting diet….you get the idea! The only one I think I haven’t tried yet is raw food diet because I just don’t think I could support my bodyweight with the limited food sources.

I could tell you pros and cons of each one for someone trying to build muscle and optimize their body composition (a.k.a.,Lose Fat). My approach to nutrition is very much a hybrid of them all. I believe I have taken the best points from each one and manipulated them to create a formula for people trying to build lean muscle without the excess fat.

To Doubling Your Muscle Gains :

Learning Proper Anatomical Muscle Function Basically, it boils down to learning the proper anatomical function of each of the muscles and using this to your advantage. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but don’t worry, I don’t expect anyone to learn the science. Just follow instructions, make some small changes to the way you train in the gym.

Let’s put this to use:

Want big triceps? A fully contracted (shortened) tricep can ONLY happen with your elbow extended behind you, arms slightly internally rotated (palm facing behind you), and fully extended elbow. Try it now! You can feel it contract without great effort, right?