Simple Muscle Building Diet + Routine

In the world of fitness, there’s so much information available that it can often be overwhelming to sit down and learn how to formulate a fitness plan. Most of the information posted online is crap, just “sounds good”, and doesn’t really work. One thing I truly believe in is to only take advice from people who have actually achieved a high degree of fitness themselves. Not only do they have a general idea of what actually works, but, unless they are genetically gifted and everything “works”, they have gone through a trial and error process that has led them to understand that everyone is different, but there are some general principles that pretty much apply to everyone. In this article I will structure a fitness routine and diet plan that can pretty much be applied to anyone who wants to gain muscle and minimize fat gain.

Diet:

This almost seems too simple, but try it!

-         Eat 6 meals per day

-         No carbs after 5PM (only from veggies)

-         Grams protein per meal = (Lean body weight x 1.5) / 6

o  Lean Body Weight = (Total Weight – (Body Fat Percentage x Total Weight))

-         Carbs per meal – Eat carbs until full with each meal, no carbs after 5PM. Don’t stuff yourself, your body will tell you when you’re full

-         Carb Sources – Oatmeal, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Rice, Brown Rice . No bread, pasta, processed carbs

-         Protein Sources – Try to get all of your protein from whole food sources and minimize meal replacement shakes. I understand that sometimes they’re necessary because of time, but the more whole food you eat, the better.

-         Fats – Add 1tbsp of one of the following to every other  meal

o  Almond Butter, Natural Peanut Butter (not the Jif crap), MCT Oil, Coconut oil, Avocado Oil, Cashew Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil

-         If you are not gaining weight from this, add a tablespoon of fats to your other meals. If you’re still not gaining weight, add another tablespoon of fat to 2 meals. Increasing healthy fat intake allows you to increase calories from healthy sources which helps build muscle. FATS ARE NOT THE ENEMY AND NEITHER ARE HEALTHY CARBS!!

Routine (This is a generalized, Simple Power Based Routine. If you have physical injuries or disabilities that prevent you from performing any of the exercises, let me know and I can help you find one that works.)

-         Day 1 Chest, Triceps, Shoulders

o  Incline Barbell Bench Press 3 x 6

o  Flat Dumbell Press 2x10

o  Seated Barbell Shoulder Press 3x8

o  Tricep Dips 3x8-10

-         Day 2 – Rest

-         Day 3 – Back, Biceps, Abs

o  Reverse Grip Pulldown 4x6-8

o  Barbell Row 3x8

o  Dumbell Curls 4x10-12

o  Hanging Leg Raises (or knee raises if you can’t do the leg raises) 3 sets to failure

-         Day 4 – Rest

-         Day 5 – Legs

o  Squat 3x6-8

o  Leg Press 4x12

o  Romanian Deadlift 3x10-12

o  Seated Calf Raise 3x12-15

-         Day 6 – Rest

-         Day 7 – Rest

Make sure you record what you do for workouts every lifting day so that you can try to progress every week. Walk on the treadmill before each workout for 10 minutes and then use a foam roller on your full body to warm yourself up. Also, work into each exercise and warm up, so start very light and then work your way up to your working sets which are the ones that you are trying to beat from weak to week.

If you have any questions, please reach out!!