Tag Archives: Geek2Freak

How To Put On 5kgs Of Muscle in 30 Days

How To Put On 5kgs Of Muscle in 30 Days

Having reduced gym time to 2 hours a week to cut weight and build lean muscle, there was still some capacity to train with more focus and intensity – and make some improvements.

While following the previous program, I took time out to read books and articles by some of the best trainers in the field. Notably Charles Poliquin, Joe De Franco and Pavel Tsatsoluine. One theme was constant, to build lean muscle, you need a combination of slow focused weight orientated exercise – and a fast intense weight orientated exercise with rest periods.

With this in mind, I created the following gym program:

Slow and focused HIT Style Exercises (Every Rep is 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down, for a total of 100 seconds under tension). No rest unless specified.

  • Pullover – x10 (Super Set)
  • Yates’s bent row – x10
  • 3 minutes rest
  • Zercher Squat – x10
  • 3 minutes rest
  • Pec-deck – x10 (Superset)
  • Weighted dips – x 10
  • 3 minutes rest
  • Reverse curl – x10
  • 3 minutes rest
  • Military Press – x10
  • 3 minutes rest

Fast and intense exercises.

  • x100 2 handed Kettlebell swings 28kg
  • 3 minutes rest
  • 6 Min Abs

Outside the gym

Press ups in the morning and in the evening. These could vary from 100 a day to up to 500 a day.

Frequency

I would perform this program on every 3rd day. So if you went to the Gym on Monday, the next day you would go was Thursday. This gave my body time to recover enough to make the next strength increase. For slow and controlled exercises, the weight was increased by 10% every time I could complete 11-12 reps. Sessions would take about 45mins to 1hr.

Why?

A combination of the most efficient way to gain muscle, with minimal recovery time, and the minimal time required in the gym (lifes too short to spend 5 days in the gym, right?).

Supplement Program

ALA (Antioxidant)

Creatine Monohydrate (Speeds up recovery and lead to faster strength gains)

Food

2 Litres of Unhomogonised Milk Per Day (To increase my daily calorie intake)

Low carb diet based on The Slow Carb Diet from the 4 Hour Body By Timothy Ferriss.

The results?

Before: 66.1kgs

August 2011 - 66.1kgs

August 2011 - 66.1kgs

After 71kgs

September 2011 - 71kg

September 2011 - 71kg

 

Contact me if you have any questions by form here or @twitter here

Current Gym Program Progress – August 2011

Intro

This is the current progress of my gym program (not including outdoor activities), designed for 80% strength gains and 20% lean tissue growth.

Look at the weights and numbers below, all sets are single set to failure (a la Geek2Freak program), with a super slow 5 second cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down), leaving muscles under tension for 100 seconds. Each set is completed to failure.

Workout program

• Pullover – 36kg x10 (Super Set)
• Yates’s bent row – 72kg x10
3 minutes rest
• Box Squat – 50kg x10
3 minutes rest
• Pec-deck – 80kg x10 (Superset)
• Weighted dips – 7kg x 10
3 minutes rest
• Reverse curl – 27kg x10
3 minutes rest
• Military Press – 35kg x10
3 minutes rest
• x100 Kettlebell 2 handed swings 24kg
3 minutes rest
• Manual neck resistance – 12 reps
• 6 Min Abs

Every session, when 100+ seconds have been achieved, the weights are increased by 10%. I go to the gym every 3 days.

Supplements

With all meals:
ALA – Antioxidant. For all round health.

Pre and post training:
BCAA - 0.2g per KG of body weight before and after training (its a lot of tablets)
Casein -My protein of choice. Will look at Whey Protein Isolate also over the next few weeks.

Other:
2 Litres of Organic Whole Milk daily.

Metrics

4 weeks into this program I am up 4kgs (weighing 70kgs from 66.1kgs) at 13.4% Body Fat – a lean gain of about 4kgs muscle. More details post to come in 8 weeks to show beginning to end progress. Let me know if you have any questions!

This gym program certainly isn’t the be all and the end all but suits my current goals.

2 Hours A Week To -3Kg Fat and +3Kg Muscle

2 Hours A Week To -3Kg Fat and +3Kg Muscle (In 50 Days)

The Days Of High Maintenance Muscle

High Maintenance Muscle

High Maintenance Muscle

12/01/2011 – An Update On The Follow Up To This Article Will Be Up Soon

I’m a rare breed – I love the gym. Its a great way to be prepared for any sport. But the problem was spending 20-25 hours a month  to try and get results.

Here was a rough breakdown of my training plan (all exercises unless stated were 5 sets of 5 repetitions at 1-2 seconds up and down, all reps at 90-95% of 1 rep max).

Monday - Rest
Tuesday – Deadlift, weighted pullups, lat rows, angled close grip lat pull downs
Wednesday – Bench press, incline dumb bell flys (very heavy), cable chest contractions, straight arm skull crusher, close grip decline benchpress (smith machine). Evening AB Ripper X DVD workout.
Thursday – Squats, calf raises, straight leg deadlifts, 10 mins Interval cycling
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Shoulder raises, military press, 4×4’s, Arnold presses, tabata training (4 minutes)
Sunday – Dumb bell curls, Weighted parallel bar dips, close grip pullups, tricep pulldowns, forearm workouts, sit-ups, 5k run (sub 25).

Old Supplement Schedule:

Pre gym
Reflex Performance Matrix (Pre gym workout formula for pump and focus)

Post gym
Reflex Natural Whey (For muscle recovery post gym)

Before bed
PhD 6 Hrs (Before bed)

Looking at that schedule makes my eyes water. But it did work. Gains were slow but steady. I also had the side effect of walking around all day with serious muscle soreness and mental fatigue. When it came to any kind of sporting event, I’d have to take 3 days off training or suffer poor competitive performance.

Sports were Dragon boating, canoing and running (badly).

The transition to having more time, more muscle and… eating beans? Good science CAN be repeated.

Low maintenance muscle

Low maintenance muscle

 

Going to the gym for 20-25 hours a month can be anti-social. Apparently it can also be counter productive too. Want more muscle and more strength? Go to the gym more! – WAIT thats what I first thought. But how about something completely different?

I took some time out to read the 4 Hour Body and followed Tim Ferriss’ Geek2Freak program with the principles of Occams Protocol.

Could it really be possible gain lean muscle with 4-6 hours gym a month? That’s potentially a 20 hour saving a month for me.

So I thought, what the hell. Best case, I’d put on some lean muscle and lose weight. Worst case scenario, I’d lose muscle (but gain 20+ hours a month!) and I could always Continue reading →