How To Gain One Pound of Muscle in a Week
Posted: Monday, November 24, 2008
by Bill Davis
Building muscle is easy, at least in concept. I will show you how to gain up to one pound of solid muscle in one week, by simply following my diet and exercise plan.
Gaining one pound of muscle in a week is simple mathematics, combined with overloading your muscles so much that they HAVE to grow. This requires extremely intense training along with a healthy level of rest.
A pound of muscle contains 600 calories. That is to say, if you ate a pound of 100 percent (zero fat) beef, you'd consume 600 calories. Since muscle is mostly water and protein, and water yields zero calories, you can assume for this exercise that a pound of muscle contains 150 grams of protein (one gram of protein yields 4 calories. 600 / 4 = 150)
So, to gain one pound of muscle in a week, you need to assimilate 150 grams more of protein than you need in that week. Spread over 7 days, we're talking about 20 extra grams of protein per day.
Sound preposterous? Yes, it does. Generally speaking, your body is not 100 percent efficient with its food. And nobody really knows how efficient it is.
Bodybuilders and other strength athletes generally consume 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight when in maintenance mode, but they up their protein consumption to 1.5 to 2 grams per pound when they want to build muscle or cut fat and maintain muscle. If you're 150 pounds, then, you'll need roughly 300 grams of protein per day to build muscle. This would suggest that your body is only about 7 percent efficient in terms of turning the protein you eat into solid muscle.
Much of this is due to improper training, however. Many aspiring bodybuilders follow the training and diet regimen of their heroes, the Ronnie Colemans, Arnold Schwarzeneggers, and Dorian Yates of the world. These athletes are genetic freaks, so to speak, who can obviously pack on more pounds of solid beef than the average gent. They also take lots of supplements (which are costly to you but free to them) and I'd venture to guess that they used steroids and other growth-enhancing drugs in their heyday.
You simply cannot train and eat like professional bodybuilders. You have to follow a plan that concentrates less on volume and more on high intensity (this is not to suggest that those guys don't train hard. They do. They train with extreme intensity in high volumes due to their superior gifts and enhancements).
This means you will follow a plan of training each major muscle group 1 to 2 times a week (one week, once a week, the following week twice a week), using as few sets as possible to blast your muscles into having to grow. The key here is stimulation.
Since muscle fibers only contract "all or nothing" you've got to stimulate as many as possible in as short a time as possible. This means you'll do 3-4 sets of compound exercises like Squats, deadlifts, bench presses, bent-over rows, and military presses, while doing 2-3 sets of isolation moves like curls, tricep extensions, calf presses, and the like.
Use as much weight as necessary such that your last rep or two is done to failure. This means that you'll need help getting up those last couple reps. For the upper body, shoot for 6-10 reps; for the lower body, try for 12-15 for maximum muscle stimulation.
As for your food intake, eat plenty of high-protein, low-carb foods as possible, like eggs (the best), milk, and beef, chicken, and fish. Supplement with a high-quality protein powder. Stay away from "weight gain" powders, as they contain a ton of sugar and will only make you fat.
Your pre-workout meal will be the same as your post-workout meal -- a high-protein shake. Use whey protein mixed with whole milk.
Don't worry about fat intake right now. If you train right and stick to high-protein animal sources, you won't get fat. That is, IF you train like I've prescribed.
You'll note that you work-out only 3 times per week with weights. The other 4 days a week are for rest. Your body needs rest to grow. In fact, your body only grows at rest.
This is one component that most bodybuilders and weight athletes neglect. Train hard, eat right, but fail to get sufficient rest, and you're really no better off than the guy who trains hard and eats crap.
Follow this plan for no more than 6 weeks at a time. In that six week period, you can expect to gain one pound in the first week, and about a half pound in subsequent weeks, for a total of 3 to 4 pounds.
Considering that most high-level bodybuilders can only dream of putting on 6-10 pounds of muscle per year, you can do that in only 2-3 cycles.
After 6 weeks, go back to a maintenance diet consisting of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Train 4 times a week using a split routine, like a Monday-Thursday, Tuesday-Friday program. Use enough weight to bang out 10-12 reps for the upper body, 15-20 for the quads and calves.
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