Muscle Gainer Basics Without Using Supplements

July 20, 2010

The term “muscle gainer” generally conjures up images of some kind of supplement, protein powder or other product sold on late-night TV. While supplements can be any easy way to add protein or nutrition to your diet, they are not a required element in muscle building. People have been building muscles for centuries without the aid of supplements. A good muscle gainer combo is proper training and diet…and the diet doesn’t need crazy amounts of protein either.

What’s Involved In a Good Muscle Gainer Workout?

The best way to gain muscle is through interval training over a period of time that works within a 6-15 repetition range, alternating with a 2-5 repetition exchange. The reason for this is simple: the higher amount of reps build up fluid inside the muscle cells, while the lesser amount of reps will develop the muscle cells’ muscle tissue. The fastest growth will come from an increase of cellular fluid, but strength and density of the muscle will be caused by an increase of the actual muscle tissue.

Your Workout Shouldn’t Combine Both High and Low Rep Training

The human body naturally adapts to patterns of behavior and activity. If you perform high reps and low reps within the same workout it will simply just get “sort of” good at each rep range. It will make you good at completing each of the repetition routines, however you will never get truly great and increase your muscles. Training follows that same principle. For a truly effective muscle gainer workout, you should spend time lifting in the higher rep range to increase cell volume, and also some time lifting in the low rep range to build muscle.

Tip #3 – Alternate Method: Try Just Lifting 5 Repetitions Per Set

Very few guys in the gym follow the proven method of lifting for 5 reps for dense muscle mass. This approach is known to have great results, and can help you to gradually and steadily build the size, density and strength of your muscles. Unfortunately, muscle growth will be much slower than for those who do the typical 6-15 reps method. However, with this method your muscles will grow to be much more defined and dense.

Here is How a 5×5 Muscle Gainer Set is Structured

If you’re doing the 5×5 reps, you shouldn’t use high reps as a warm up. Lift with a weight you can do 10 times and lift it 5 times. For the second set, pick something you could lift 8 times and do it 5 times. Then when you do sets three, four and five, choose a weight that is challenging for you to lift for 5 repetitions – just do not lift to muscle failure. If you avoid failure you send positive feedback to your nervous system and will get stronger in the long run.

Tip #5 – A Good Muscle Gainer Diet Should Be Simple

For every pound of body weight that you have, you need to consume approximately 1/2 to 2/3 of a gram of protein each day. This is 100-130 grams of protein for a 200 pound man. Calories are another matter, and you should consume approximately 12 calories per pound of weight. You really don’t need any muscle gainer supplements if you follow this simple diet and workout approach.

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