Meth-X : Superior Muscle Regeneration Complex

Question: Jason, your transformation was pretty incredible going from 147 lbs to 231 lbs. How much trial and error did you think you went through training wise until you found what really worked?

Answer: Oh man, I can’t even begin to tell you. I tried so many different methods and systems it was unbelievable. I actually started out as a beginner on a six day a week high volume body part split. This was back in the 80’s so I think I was just looking in the magazines at whatever Shawn Ray or Aaron Baker or Gary Strydom were doing and just copy it exactly. Obviously that didn’t work out too well.

I entered high school weighing less than 100 pounds and after four years of training my ass off and growing almost a foot taller, I only weighed 147 pounds at graduation. So obviously, all my experimentation during high school didn’t work out to well either.

During those four years I was still doing whatever I could find in the magazines and even ordered some courses like Cybergenics and some other stuff that was popular at the time. I think the first training books I had were the Arnold Encyclopedia and one of Dr. Hatfields. I tried everything I read in both of those.

My experimentation during college was quite extensive and quite varied. I finally stumbled upon the HIT movement and Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones. It was like a beacon of light and I adopted that training philosophy immediately. And for the first time I started to really grow, which isn’t shocking since I was so grossly overtrained. But as anyone who has had a similar experience can tell you, those gains don’t last too long either.

I could be here all day telling you about all the crazy stuff I did but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I was in the game and wasted an inordinate amount of time and money for a good ten years before I really figured out what really worked.

Question: It is one thing to find something that works for you personally but you routinely pack 20lbs of muscle on the frames of your clients in spans of only 3 months. How do you get results like when other people seemingly struggle endlessly to get bigger?

Answer: At this point I have been training people for 14 years. During ten of those years I worked with clients for an average of ten hours per day; and twelve hours per day every summer. Now since I was always a C math student I can’t tell you how many hours that is right off the top of my head but, take it from me, it’s a friggin lot.

When you have that much experience doing anything you are bound to become somewhat proficient at it and just develop a knack for it and for reading people and recognizing commonalities.

Most people are making the same mistakes in their training and nutrition and some even have a faulty belief system that is holding them back. I address each of these issues and we’re off and running.

Training is not rocket science not matter how many people try to turn it into that. But figuring it all out isn’t simple either.

Question: Everyone nowadays is always worried about getting fat when “bulking up” what are some strategies that you use to ensure that you put on more muscle than fat? Or do you even care?

Answer: Well, first of all, a lot of people that worry about that have a fear that is completely unfounded. If you are an athlete, under twenty years old or both, this is not that great of a concern unless you are eating deep fried chocolate donuts and dipping them in butter six times a day.

I have worked with plenty of guys who could eat whatever they wanted to and could still stay lean. In that case you have no excuse for not being able to pack on twenty pounds in a couple months.

If you have trouble staying lean there are a few adjustments you need to make. First off, you need to make smarter food choices. Eat lean proteins like chicken, fish, eggs, lean red meat and cottage cheese instead of burgers, hot dogs and pork chops. Next, be sure to keep your carb sources clean as well. This means fruits and veggies are at the top of the list followed by oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, and sweet potatoes. By now everyone knows the benefits of eating good fats like fish oil so I won’t bore people to death with that.

If just eating clean is not enough then we move onto more advanced strategies like carb cycling and calorie cycling. This takes some time to explain but to make it really simple for everyone, you should eat more calories and carbs on training days than you do on non training days. Bottom line. Training days are higher calorie days, off days are lower calorie days; pretty simple. Of course it’s more complicated than that but that’s the gist of it.

Question: What are the biggest mistakes you see people make when trying to pack on muscle? Is it usually related to nutrition or training?

Answer: It’s hard to say if it’s one or the other because they do go hand in hand. But if I had to pick I would say it’s gotta be training. It doesn’t matter how great your diet is, if your training sucks, you’re not gonna make progress.

But, you know what, I’m not even going to cover the training mistakes that people make because looking at that is missing the bigger picture. You know what the biggest mistake people make really is? The one thing that everyone seems to do these days, especially with all of the conflicting information that is out there?

It is a lack of consistency and a lack of belief in what you are doing. There is so much information out there these days that people don’t know who or what to believe. And because of this they are confused. They are constantly reading something different and always in search of the next best thing. They do a workout for a week or two and then read so and so’s new article about changing your tempo every rep or some brand new way to fire up the CNS or some nonsense and they try that system. A week or two later they decide that is not working so they switch to something else. And so on and so on.

If you are always changing programs and training philosophies how can you ever make progress? You can’t; it’s that simple. If you don’t believe in what you are doing you will never, ever be successful. That is a universal principle that applies to everything in life. It has to apply to your training if you ever want to make real progress. You can use the crappiest training program in the world but if you are consistent, have the balls to train the way you really should and really and truly believe in what you are doing, you will get results.

Pick a training program, system or philosophy and stick with it; believe in what you are doing and train your ass off. You can’t fail if you do that.

Question: Okay so tell us a little about Muscle Gaining Secrets. What makes this stand out from other products?

Answer: Well, first of all I tried to make it more of an entertaining read than a lot of the stuff out there so I included a lot of stories and personal anecdotes that people could relate to. The topics of sets and reps and proteins and carbs can be kind of boring so I try to spice it up a little bit.

Aside from that, I have tried to make it as simple to understand as possible while still including information that will help anyone from a raw beginner to an advanced lifter. I have had guys who have trained for over twenty years tell me that they learned quite a bit from reading Muscle Gaining Secrets, which makes me very happy to hear. If I can do that while not alienating beginners, then I know I achieved the goal I set out to accomplish.

I have included some unique methods of periodization which have rarely been covered. I detail every single mistake that people make in their training and show how these can be avoided. And of course, a book from me wouldn’t be complete without getting politically incorrect and calling bullshit where I see it. I definitely expose a lot of the gimmicks and nonsense that is out there and do my best to help people save time and money and avoid making all the same mistakes that I did.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit:

This week I’m very excited, because I’ve just discovered a new informative resource about bodybuilding. Usually I read only medical studies and scientific books at my local library. I do NOT buy bodybuilding magazines because those magazines are full of crappy information, nutritional supplements ads and fallacies. This the the main problem of most bodybuilding magazines and internet websites. They only tell you half truths and half truths are probably the worst of the lies, because they are credible unless you analyze them deeply.

This is the reason I’m very excited this week. I’ve just found a small blog written by the top competitors coach: “Doc” Frank. He writes about his personal view of bodybuilding. It does not contain crappy information, only true sound strategies you can immediately use. Besides there is not any kind of advertising in his blog.

If you want to get a higher bodybuilding level just go to:

The 20 rep squat - does it work?

If you’re bored of your normal run of the mill training programme, here’s a new one to shake up your training and kick start your muscle growth into a new phase. Some of you may have heard of the 20-rep squat program at some point along your training life, if not, it’s an old-school approach to putting on size that was common a few decades ago when men were men and drugs were unavailable. You do one set of 20 reps of the squat, plus a few other exercises.

Every successive training session you add 5-10 lbs to your squat weight. It has been touted as one of the most effective programs ever designed for adding muscular size and strength in a short period of time, and with good reason; it works!

High rep squats work wonders for building muscular bulk and strength, not just for the legs, but for the entire body. The program is ridiculously simple to follow, brutally hard to do, and extremely productive. It’s so productive, in fact, that I have never ever heard of anyone who did a version of this program correctly and didn’t gain muscle size and strength.

Whenever I have a client who wants to get big in as little time as possible, this is where we begin. I am going to outline a 6 week program that has put slabs of muscle on everyone who has ever followed it. It is time to stop living in Tiny Town. This is your ticket to Hugeville.

Get into the right Mental focus

Before discussing the actual program, you must understand the psychology of 20-rep squatting. You can’t just go to the gym, put some plates on the bar, start squatting and hope for the best. This program is as much about focus and mental toughness as it is physical exercise, probably more.

You have to be mentally prepared or you will not make it. Pain and fear will be there with you, tempting you to stop, telling you to give up. Your body will be screaming for you to listen to them, and the little voice in your head will be begging you to do cease and desist. Tell them to shut up. You’ve got some growing to do!

Squatting a heavy weight for 20 reps will not feel natural for your body. It will hurt. You will feel dizzy and light-headed. You will probably want to vomit. Go ahead. Your body may decide to completely shut down and leave you in the bottom of a squat, unable to rise. Obviously, safety is of primary concern.

DO NOT attempt a 20 rep squat program without a power rack, safety pins or a spotter. Being stuck under a heavy barbell in the bottom of a squat with no place to go while you are gasping for air is not a good scenario.

The Training Program

Let’s jump right into it. The heart and soul of this program is the barbell squat, done for 20 reps. Please notice I didn’t say the “Smith machine squat,” or any other machine squat, for that matter. There are tons of gimmicky machines that promise to deliver a “safer” squat.

You’ll be plenty safe as long as you are in a power cage or have sturdy safety pins for your squat rack or a trusty strong spotter. Moreover, your technique will always be your greatest safety. Before I proof this section, it’s important that you note whether this is an Olympic squat or a powerlifting squat; the techniques will be entirely different.

I tend to favor a more powerlifting-based approach in squat technique because it suits my body type. If you are unsure of your technique, find an experienced powerlifter (preferably one who has competed) and ask him to teach you the proper form.

Proper form is vital:

A straight (not to be confused with upright) back is core to a good squat. Keep a fairly close grip on the bar and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Push up on the bar slightly as if you were going to do a behind-the-neck press. Do this before you ever lift the bar clear of the pins. The purpose of this is two-fold: it will create a “shelf” just below the traps for the bar to rest on and the tension in the shoulders and upper back will stimulate the upper body while keeping it rigid and safe.

The feet should turn out slightly for most people and the knees should track over the toes. Do not allow the knees to buckle in at any time. If they do, you will die.

Your gaze should be forward or slightly upward. Looking down will round your back and compromise your structure. This increases the chance of injury. Your body tends to follow your head. Rolling a bar over the back of your head in the middle of a squat set does not make for productive training. Keep the abdomen tight and keep the anus contracted, especially in the bottom position. It sounds strange, I know, but there are horror stories throughout the iron community about people who neglected this important point. Load the bar, get under it, tense up, and lift it clear of the pins. Step back, take a deep breath and begin. Squat all the way down, at least to parallel. Come back up, take a few deep breaths, and squat again. The further you get into the set, the more of an issue breath becomes.

In fact, old-timers sometimes called them “breathing squats”. By the time you get to the last few agonizing reps, you will be doing more breathing than squatting. One of the reasons so much growth is stimulated on this program is that the muscles of the upper body are constantly working to support the weight and to fill the lungs with air. Take as many deep breaths as necessary between reps. You must keep complete focus throughout the entire set. Convince yourself before you even get under the bar that you WILL NOT quit. The only reason to stop short of 20 reps is going into the hole and being physically unable to stand back up. It is going to happen at some point; you will get into the bottom position and your legs will simply stop working. That’s okay; next time you simply load the bar to the same weight and attack it again.

The length of the cycle is six weeks. This is a good amount of time for building size and strength without going into overtraining and burnout. Longer than six weeks usually amounts to diminishing returns. The standard protocol in the beginning is to train three times per week on non-consecutive days.

For example, the classic Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule works perfectly. If you are not recovering well, you may train twice per week. The first time I tried this routine, I did well with MWF. A few months later, after I had done a couple of 20-rep cycles, I had great results training only on Tuesday and Friday. By this time, I had learned to focus better and was using fairly heavy weights, so the extra recovery was more warranted and well appreciated for me.

I have heard many different ideas concerning weight selection, and I believe that it is good to begin with the end in mind, especially for a first-timer on this program. Most people can reasonably expect to be squatting their 5-rep max (5RM) for 20 by the 6-week mark. To determine your starting weight, take your current 5RM and subtract 5 lbs for each scheduled workout. So, if your current 5RM is 315 lbs and you are planning to train three times per week for 6 weeks (18 workouts), you should begin with 225 lbs, as 18 workouts x 5lbs per workout = 90lbs. Subtract 90 from 315 and you get 225. Simple enough.

After your squats, do a light set of pullovers for about 20-25 reps. I recommend using a 25lb plate and doing them across a bench, but you can use a dumbbell if you like. Think of this as a recovery aid more than an exercise. Stick with the same light weight for the duration of the cycle. Other exercises are added based on your recovery ability. You should include at least one pressing movement and a pulling movement but you can add more if you feel like you can adequately recovery from the additional volume. Listen to your body; if it gets to be too much, you can always drop a set or two later.

A sample program for someone with good recovery ability might look like this:

Squat: 1×20
Pullovers : 1×20
Deadlift: 1×15
Bench Press: 2-3 x 10
Seated row: 2-3×15
Shoulder press : 2-3 x 12

I personally am not a fan of single-joint movements such as curls and calf raises in spite of the fact that they show up in most of the “classic” 20-rep squatting programs. I believe that you get enough stimulation through the compound exercises listed. If your ego simple can’t get by without doing a set or two of curls, add them at the end. For those who tend to recovery poorly, here is a more abbreviated program that has worked for everyone with whom I have ever used it:

An abreviated program, for those that need more recovery:

Squat: 1×20
Pullovers: 1×20
Deadlift: 1×15
Parallel Dip: 2×10
Seated row: 2×10

Notice the squats are first here. This is to get the most painful part out of the way early. Rest as long as you need to between sets. You may substitute chins for the rows and bench presses for the dips. Stay away from the pulldown machine and the pec dec; just imagine that you are in a time when such things didn’t exist! If you choose to do dips or chins, add weight as soon as you are strong enough to do so.

After six weeks of this, switch to something else. The classic 5×5 routine is a good choice, as is a more conventional bodybuilding routine. Wait at least six weeks before giving the 20-rep squats another go-round.

Recommended nutritional requirements

To get big, you must eat big. Meat, cheese, fruits, and vegetables are in order. Even though you are purposely consuming lots of calories, don’t fill up on bad calories, such as; pizza, donuts, cookies, crisps, etc… You need quality in your calories as well as quantity. The nutritional “secret weapon” of the original program was milk, but now that has been replaced by whey protein. Milk was a huge component of the original 20-rep programs years ago - so big a component, in fact, that it was sometimes called the “Squats and Milk Program.” It worked then, but today you can expect even better results with whey protien, which has even better research than the casein found in milk. For maximum results on this type of protein expect to consumer at least 2lbs per kilo, ie: an 80kg male would need 160gm of protein per day on a bulking cycle from food and protein powders combined. Stick to quality whey proteins with low lactose levels to ensure you keep good digestion and wind free.

Typical menu:

Here is an example of a typical day’s eating for this program back in the day:

Breakfast
3-4 eggs with cheese
2 slices of toast
1 glass of milk or whey protein shake

AM Snack
whey protein powder or weight gainer (depends on calorie requirements)

Lunch
Sandwich (i.e. meat, cheese, tuna, etc.)
Fruit
Salad
1 glass of milk or whey protein shake

Afternoon Snack
Piece of fruit
1 glass of milk or whey protein shake.

Dinner
Steak, chicken, or fish
Pasta, rice, or potatoes
Steamed veggies
Salad

PM Snack
whey protein shake mixed with milk (to slow digestion)

This is just a suggestion. Customize your food intake to suit your personal tastes, but make sure you eat plenty of food, keep protein intake high and eat often, at least every 2-3 hours to prevent hunger and your body from losing its positive nitrogen balance and slipping into a catabolic state. Drink plenty of water throughout the day as well. To make the old-school approach a little more modern, add a good EFA supplements to insure that you are getting enough healthy fat.

This is a good program for loading up on Creatine too. Take care not to eat for at least an 1.5 hours before your workout to minimize being sick in the gym; most gym owner’s frown on such things.

I strongly recommend taking a good Creatine suppplement.

What to do when you’re not in the Gym

On days when you are not in the gym, doing some active recovery such as walking or swimming, as doing so will help reduce soreness and flush the lactic acid out of the body. Daily stretching and if you can afford it or get a free one at home, a sports massage every week or two will also help in recovery. Strenuous activity such as intense cardio or hard sports should be avoided since you want all available energy and recovery to go into building muscle. Get lots of sleep: 8-9 hours per night and sneak a nap in whenever you can, this will keep natural testosterone and growth hormone levels high, which will increase muscle growth.

If you follow the guidelines I have set forth for you, you can realistically expect to gain 10 to 15lbs in the next six weeks, although lots of people will gain even more than that. Either way start saving up for new clothes, because by the end of the program, you will need them.

When “dieting”, don’t restrict your calories too much or too drastically or for to long of a time or else you’ll ending up losing a lot of muscle and very little fat.

REASON:

The body’s main purpose is to stay in “homeostasis” or to basically stay balanced at all times. It does this mainly through adaptation by a system of checks and balances. For example, when you reduce calories too much or for too long, the body thinks it’s starving and it won’t be able to find food.

It begins to go into “hibernation” mode and it does this by slowing down your metabolism and reducing thyroid output and also, by preserving FAT for survival and burning up muscle, since muscle requires more calories for existence.

As you can see, this would defeat our purpose. So, at times, it’s best to reduce calories by 10% every 2-3 weeks and at the same time, expend more energy through exercising.

There is no need to do too much, too soon. Do a little, your body will be okay with it and around 14-21 days, it will begin to adapt and that’s when you’ll need to once again, reduce calories by another 10%.

In fact, one of our protocols we use is to reduce calories by 10% for weeks 1+2, then increase exercising by 10% or 20-30 minutes 3x a week for weeks 3+4. This is one month. Then, repeat the second month by further reducing calories by another 10% for weeks 5+6 and then after two weeks, increasing your workouts a little more during weeks 7+8.

By just going back and forth and reducing food a little for 2 weeks and then adding more exercise for 2 weeks and so forth, you’ll keep your body happy, burning fat and preserving muscle. Obviously, you can’t do this forever and after 3 months, it’s time for a break by increasing calories for about a week. But this is good for now and we’ll get into specifics in the future.

For further clarification on previous posts, you should try to eat your protein/carbohydrate meals during the first half of the day if possible and your protein/fat meals during the second half of the day.

REASON:

This again has to do with managing your insulin levels. But also, keep in mind that carbs are used for quick and instant energy. When you have carbs during the early part of the day, you can utilize the calories for the rest of the day since you will be active. But when eating carbs late at night and going to bed afterwards, the carb calories will get stored mostly as fat.

There is an exception to the rule in that immediately after exercising, it’s a good idea to have a protein/carb meal without any fat. I know many people exercise after they leave work, later in the day … so have some carbs after your workout will be beneficial and help speed up recovery.

Just don’t over do it!

As stated in the previous post (How To Burn Fat, Law # 3), you do need to eat some amount of healthy fats every day (about 15%-20% of your diet) It’s best to do so with protein meals and as well, more so later on in the day. Healthy fats would consist of uncooked/raw nuts, flaxseed oil, extra virgin olive oil and fish oils (capsules).

REASON:

Fats are very important in that they slow digestion and hence, reduce insulin secretion and at the same time, keep you from getting hungry quickly after a meal. They are also beneficial because they create good hormones and enzymes, which are needed to build muscle and reduce body fat.

The hard part or real secret is that fats should NOT BE HEATED! Hence, you have some raw almonds … or a tea spoon of flaxseed oil in your protein shake or a bit of olive oil on top of your salad. When you cook/heat/fry fats, they become hydrogenated and they aren’t as beneficial for your body … not to mention, they can increase the potential of getting cancer.

I’m not saying go overboard here … but a little bit of healthy fats a day will keep your skin looking younger, increase your sex drive, lubricate your joints and reduce pains and arthritis and has host of other benefits.

Combine your foods … Don’t eat ONLY protein for a meal or only carbohydrates. It’s best to eat protein, carbs AND fats together. Most importantly (and hardest to follow) is do NOT eat HIGH carbs with HIGH fat. Hence, the best tasting foods like pizza, muffins, chips, cookies, and cakes are all full of sugar and fat and that’s why they are also the worse for your body!

REASON:

By food combining and eating each of the 3 macro nutrients in one meal, you help control insulin levels. Also, each of the food groups produces enzymes needed to help digest the other food group. Basically, they work together and are meant to be eaten together.

Now, the reason you should NOT have high carb/fat meals is because high carbs increases blood sugar and insulin levels. When you have high insulin, the food eaten will be directed to the cells. The last thing we want is to have the recent fat in the meal directed to our cells.

Does this make sense?

Basically, it’s best to have high protein/high carbs/low fat … or … high protein/medium fats/low carbs.

But NEVER high carbs/high fats/low protein.

Now, I know this isn’t always possible … especially when eating out, or when you are at a party or with friends or whatever. Try to do it most of the time. And other times that you can’t, take a supplement which Blocks fat and carb calories from being absorbed and hence, turning into fat.

Eat more of your calories at the beginning of the day and less at night. Meals 1-3 should be bigger than meals 4-6, and meal 1 should be the biggest, while meal 6 the smallest.

REASON:

Your metabolism is faster at the beginning of the day, versus at night time and hence, you’ll burn and absorb the day-time calories. This way, you can typically eat MORE total calories without getting fat, rather than if you ate more at night.

Also, your insulin receptors work better during the day since you have less cortisol. At night, you have more stress hormones like cortisol released, which readily turn food into fat (hence, why most get sugar cravings at NIGHT time and don’t feel like eating much during the day).

Additionally, try to have more of your carbohydrates during the day-meals and more protein during the evening meals. Again, all of this having to do with your insulin and cortisol, how to manipulate them and work WITH them, rather than against them.

Probably the hardest part about all of this this is having to eat LESS at night time, especially carbohydrates. I know for me and most everyone I know, we all tend to crave sugars and carbs more so at night, than during the day.

Some people use supplements to get rid of sugar cravings, but even if you don’t use them, that’s fine. Just tough it out the first few weeks of this new diet and your body will slowly adjust and adapt and you won’t crave sugars as much - especially if you are eating often through out the day as mentioned in How To Burn Fat | Law # 1

Eat More OFTEN, To Burn More FAT!

Don’t go too long without eating something (preferably containing some protein). You should be eating every 3-4 waking hours. If you are having “hunger pains” through out the day, chances are you aren’t eating often enough.

REASON:

The more often you eat, the faster your metabolism becomes because it has to WORK to digest your food. If it works 6x a day, versus only 2-3 times, you’ll burn more calories and even more importantly, DIGEST your food better and hence, the calories will be directed more towards energy, repair, muscles, etc. … rather than the fat cells.

The Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) represents the additional caloric expenditure (above resting metabolism) that it takes to digest, absorb, and process the food you eat. Studies on the thermic effect of different foods have been important in describing the different effects of the macronutrients on metabolism.

The TEF lasts from between one to four hours after eating a meal. When adding up the thermic effects from each of your meals, this extra metabolism represents between 5% and 15% of your total daily energy expenditure. Therefore, if your daily energy expenditure is 3,000kcal, about 150 to 450kcal of that comes from the TEF. Interestingly, different macronutrients tend to have different effects on metabolism.

Welle et al. (1981) and Robinson et al (1990) demonstrated that during a normal six hour period of rest and fasting (basal metabolism), subjects burn about 270kcal. When eating a single 400kcal meal of carbs alone (100g) or fat alone (44g), the energy burned during this six hour period reached 290kcal (an additional 20kcal). Interestingly, when eating 400kcal of protein alone (100g) the subjects burned 310kcal during this six hour period (an additional 40kcal). Therefore, protein alone had double the thermogenic power vs. fat or carbs alone!

Another reason is if we wait too long to eat, most of us are so hungry that we’ll pretty much eat anything in front of us that’s fast and convenient and that usually translates to junk food. But by eating more often, you feel somewhat satisfied through out the day, you won’t have cravings as much and when it’s time to eat, you can logically choose healthier foods rather then turning into a wild animal and devouring everything in sight.

Also, when you don’t eat for 5-6+ hours … your blood sugar drops and you become fatigued and can’t think straight or concentrate. Then, when you begin to eat, there is a massive surge of insulin and there is a “rebound effect” and you’ll have very HIGH insulin levels, which means your food gets converted to FAT much more readily.

If you are use to only eating 2-3 meals a day, then start to add in a simple snack here and there and slowly train your body and mind to eat more often. A good snack would be something that contains both protein and carbohydrate - something like yogurt or cottage cheese or half a sandwich.

Or, just cut your lunch in HALF and have one half at noon and the other half around 3 pm. Just be careful that you don’t increase your TOTAL calories by having the snacks in ADDITION to all your regular meals.

Remember, eat smaller, but more often. Split your lunch and dinner into TWO parts and basically, have 4 mini-meals. I know for some it’s a hard habit, but you’ll feel and look so much better! Just start slowly …

Now, the whole point of eating smaller, frequent meals is to SPEED UP YOUR METABOLISM, without having to DECREASE calories and starve yourself.

Q. I’m doing the standing barbell curl, the seated dumbbell curl and the standing dumbbell curl, three sets of each, but my arms aren’t growing. What am I doing wrong?

A. There are at least seven reasons why your arms aren’t growing:

l. The three exercises you’re using are similar. More varied exercises may be more effective - for example; standing barbell curl, incline supinating dumbbell curl and hammer curl. The two biggest contributors to your front arm mass are your biceps and your brachialis. The brachialis is beneath the biceps.

Both muscles are called arm flexors. The biceps also supinates the forearm. To supinate your forearm, turn your hand so that your thumb rotates outwardly. You can’t do this with a barbell. With dumbbells, start with your elbows straight and hands parallel to each other, or palms down. As you curl, rotate your hands (and thus your wrists and forearms) outwardly as much as possible. On the descent, reverse the movement and pronate your forearms.

2. Your exercise technique isn’t correct. Lift the weight, no faster than two seconds up and another two seconds down; and don’t cheat. Lift the resistance and lower it. Don’t heave it up and drop it. Reduce your weights, if necessary, and use correct technique.

3. You’re doing too much arm work. Cut back to a warm-up set and a single work set for the first arm exercise, and then a single work set for each of the other two exercises. Do this no more than two times a week, but make your sets INTENSE, and add a LITTLE weight to each exercise when possible, but without compromising on exercise technique. Three hard sets for your arms is sufficient. Your arms are given additional work in rows, pulldowns, and chin-ups, so it’s easy to overwork them.

4. There’s more to arm work than just working your arm flexors. There’s the triceps (back of the arm) which provides a greater proportion of arm size than the arm flexors. So be sure that you’re not neglecting your triceps, otherwise you’ll never end up with big thick powerful arms.

5. You’re not letting your arms recover enough. If you cut corners on your nutrition and have to be woken by an alarm clock on a regular basis (ie: less than 7-8 hours sleep), you are cutting corners on your recuperation, which will harm your bodybuilding progress. Don’t forget that if you’re looking to pack on extra muscle and that means bigger arms also, you have to increase your protein intake, if you can’t eat enough food, you’ll need a good whey protein, such as CytoSport Cyto Gainer and nothing beats Creatine for increasing strength and size also.

6. I don’t know how long you’ve trained, or how big your arms are. If they are 17 inches or larger (and you can see your abs), you’re likely to have achieved a superb level of arm development. Obviously if you are holding a lot of fat, your arms could be much bigger. Muscles don’t grow indefinitely, and very few men have the genetics for a lean body with muscular arms bigger than 17 inches.

7. My best trick however to make your arms look massive is to train forearms. Years ago I saw a guy in the gym that had the most fantastic foreams, he was training them every time he did arms and the top of his forearms were the same size as his biceps, with veins running all over them. It just looked freaky. It is a very neglected bodypart, but one that can dramatically improve the size of your arms. I recommend doing forearms wrist curls and reverse curls when you train arms and then playing with a power ball every other day,