So you want to gain muscle. Great! You need to get started. The more time you spend thinking about getting started is the more time you’ve wasted. Perhaps you’re searching for the perfect routine and diet. If that’s the case, then listen. There is no perfect routine or diet. Quit trying to come up with one – you’re wasting your time. The perfect routine and diet is one that is constantly changing, just like your body is. You cannot adequately provide for your body’s changing needs by trying to come up with one routine and diet that will best serve you forever. It takes trial and error to really discover what works best for your body, but starting with the basics will get you well on your way. If you want to gain muscle, you need to eat more. You need to be eating 6-7 small-to-medium sized meals per day. Keep track of what you are eating, and keep slowly increasing it until you see a change in bodyweight (by no more than 500 calories per day). Eat protein with every meal (you need to be getting at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight every day – so a 160lbs person should eat roughly 160g of protein per day), and limit the amount of fat you are taking in, especially saturated fat. You don’t need to worry too much about macro-nutrient ratios when you are trying to gain mass – just make sure you are getting plenty of complex carbohydrates and protein at every meal, with sprinklings of healthy fats (nuts, extra virgin olive oil). Carbs are important – you aren’t going to get bigger without lots of them.
I’m going to walk you through a sample diet and several different sample training routines. Let’s get started…