Muscle Building.

I get asked a lot about how to build muscle in a short period of time. "How much size can I put on in a month?", "I want to put on a Stone before my holiday's" "What's the best way to get big fast?", If I do this and this type of exercise can I put on mass quick?"

It isn't easy to answer these questions and quieries because there are so many factors involved in muscle growth, regeneration, and training. "It depends" I always say...and it does. Truly gaining size is not as easy as just do this exercise and eat this amount of food. However, saying that I do believe there are things you can do that can help your chances of gaining size quickly. I always look at what skinny/weak/small people ARE NOT doing to gain muscle and keep a log of it. I'm going to outline a few things I have observed in my years as a trainer and put them in as points that Skinny/weak/small guys should add to their training and nutrition to help them along the road to getting some respectable gains in a small time frame.

1) Not enough clean water intake. Aim for 1.5-2.0 litres a day.
2) Inadequate Protein intake. Get on Fitday.com and open a free account/nutrition log there. Monitor your Protein intake and aim for 1gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
3) No essential oils. Get udo's or cod liver with EPA and take the recommended dosage every day.
4) Not enough sleep. Get 8-9 hours a night consistently.
5) Not enough overall calories. Get on fitday again and keep track. Whatever you're eating add 500 cals to it a day.
6) Awful routines of isolation exercises and crunches. Do the below routine for a month, it's simple and better.

Monday: 1) Front Squat 10-3 reps 80-85% 1RM 2) Bench press the same
Tuesday: 1) Pullups 6x5 Bodyweight or 10-3 reps if you're weak 2) Barbell pullovers 6x5 75-80% 1RM. If you can't do pullups you should be ashamed..get a bungee cord to use as assistance over the chin/dip handles to help.
Thursday: 1) Back Squat 10-3 reps 80-85% 1RM 2) Military press 10-3 reps 80-85% 1RM
Friday: Mobility work (Z-Health or super joints) massage, relaxation and stretch. Foam roller.

7) No recovery drink after training. Buy them and use them or get a tub of protein and some maltodextrin or a carb drink and make them up yourself.
8) No commitment. It's no good training consistently for 4 or 5 days and then taking a week off or only dropping into the gym for some lat pulldowns and tricep kickbacks twice a week thereafter. You got to do the work in the timeframe and eat the right foods and get the rest and recovery in place. Then, maybe, ...You'll put on a bit of mass in time for the holiday.

Scott