Simple and EASY Mass-Gaining Tips and Techniques

For Fast Muscle-Building Results

At first, I was going to write this as one "big-as-hell" article the same as my one from last week on old-school arm training.  However, I thought this might work best as a sort of semi-regular series on various "little known" or "secret" muscle-building tips and techniques for easy mass-gaining.  Besides, it was getting kind of long as it is.  Introduction out of the way, I hope you enjoy...

The "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, seen here in his competitive days, was the inspiration for this article.  Gironda had more knowledge of "secret" muscle-building tips and tricks than just about any trainer before or since.

 In many of my posts and articles, I often lament the fact that many lifters (and I use that word loosely here) seem to prefer over-complicated and easy instead of simple but hard training programs.  I suppose nutrition would fit the bill, too.  But in the case of diets, I think more people are less likely to fool themselves.  Many people know, for instance, that they will lose tons of body fat from eliminating every single carbohydrate from their diet, and subsisting entirely on fat and protein, but they admit that such a diet is too hard for them, personally, so they just don't do it.  Instead, they look for other diets that - although not as effective - are close to what they can get from a strictly "keto" diet plan.  (And I will save this rant for another time, but almost everything that I see at the grocery store these days labeled "keto" is anything but!)

As far as training is concerned, part of the problem could be that - and maybe it's America's perennial love of "hucksters" who have gotten rich selling the public almost anything - a lot of people actually believe there might be some magic training program that will provide better results than the very basic, but very result-producing simple but hard training program he or she is currently doing.  But you will never find something that can outdo a simple but hard program.  Now, having said that, there are a couple of programs that could almost - and I mean almost - make me eat my words.  We will look at those two training programs first before we move on to some other muscle-building hacks.

Try An "Easy" High-Frequency Training Program

If there actually are simple and easy programs out there, the two that I have in mind might just be the only two in existence.  I guess I must add a "caveat": these programs might be really "easy" for some folks, while for other lifters, these will be "hard" just because you are training every single day.

Here, I have in mind my "30-Rep Program" or Dan John's (or Pavel Tsatsouline's) "40-Day Program."  For those of you unfamiliar with the 40-Day Program, here are the "nuts and bolts" of it from the mouth of the man that (might have, kinda) created it, Dan John:

A few years ago, Pavel Tsatsouline, noted kettlebell master and perhaps the keenest mind in strength I've ever met, gave me a simple program. Be wary, this program is so simple that you'll ignore its value.

     1. For the next 40 workouts, do the exact same training program every day. (For the record, I find that most of my goals are reached by day 20 or 22, so you can also opt for a shorter period.)

     2. Pick five exercises. I suggest you do a squatting movement like the goblet squat or overhead squat as part of the warm-up, as you don't want to ignore the movement, but it might be fun to focus on other aspects of your body.

     3. Focus on these five movements:

     • A large posterior chain movement (the deadlift is the right answer)

     • Upper body push (bench press, incline bench press, military press)

     • Upper body pull (pull-ups, rows, or, if you've ignored them like me, heavy bicep curls)

     • A simple full-body explosive move (kettlebell swings or snatches)

     • And something for what I call an "anterior chain" move (an abdominal exercise). I think the ab wheel is king here, but you can also do some movements best suited for lower reps.

     4. Only do two sets of five reps per workout for the deadlift and push/pull exercises, and one set of 20 to 50 for the explosive move. Do a solid single set of five reps for the abs.

     5. Never plan or worry about the weight or the load. Always stay within yourself and go heavy "naturally."

     6. Don't eat chalk, scream, or pound on walls. Simply do each lift without any emotion or excitement and strive for perfect technique.

     So, the workout might consist of these five movements:

     Thick bar deadlift

     
Bench press

     Heavy biceps curls

     
Kettlebell swings

     
Ab wheel

     For the record, this is exactly what I recently used in my workouts. I often did this five days a week, and found that my lifts naturally waved up and down throughout the week and the full 40 days. Sometimes, something like a 250-pound bench press would feel so light for both sets of five that I had to hold back on the excitement to do more sets and reps.

     The secret to the program is that you get your volume from doing up to ten sets of a lift in a week and the load increases as you naturally feel like the weights are "easy." It is that simple.

     The first time I tried this program under Pavel's direction, I added 15 pounds to my lifetime incline bench press during the twenty-first workout, approximately a month after starting the program. I did this max with no spotter and I got the lift for a double. It was a 15-pound improvement over my lifetime best with an extra rep as a parting gift without doing a single hard workout. Just two sets of five anytime I entered the gym.

     You can certainly come up with your own variations, but try to stick with the basic five movements and don't stray far from two sets of five. You'll be amazed at how quickly your strength will improve after just a few weeks. Also, notice the element of randomness in this workout.

     With a home gym, I can train this program daily, but I naturally find that I take days off here and there simply because of the nature of life. You could do all 40 (or 20) days in a row, but things will come up.

     After finishing either all 40 days or when you feel your strength has come up to a level that more advanced training methods are appropriate, feel free to move along. The short time you invest in focusing on strength building will do wonders for your muscle mass as you begin to attack super sets or whatever you deem important.*

The 30-Rep Program

     The program that follows keeps the inherent qualities of John’s program that I love: the moderate volume, the high frequency of training, and performing a few core, basic lifts.  But it adds in two elements that allow you to perform the program as long as you feel like doing it: exercise variety and breaks - the two things lacking in John's program, and the two things that a lot of lifters need in order to stay committed to a program.

     With all of that being said, here is the “gist” of this program:

     1. Pick 8 to 10 exercises that you want to get strong on—they should all be “bang for your buck” exercises.  These are the only lifts you will do throughout the course of the program.  My suggested list of exercises are the following:

• Squats
• Bench presses
• Standing overhead presses
• Deadlifts
• Power cleans
• Snatches
• Barbell curls
• Deficit deadlifts
• Front squats
• Dumbbell rows

     2. At every single workout, pick three of these exercises to train.  For each exercise, you will only do a total of 10 reps.  You can do 2 sets of 5, 5 sets of 2, 3 sets of 3 (yes, I realize it’s not 10 reps, but close enough), or 3 sets of 2, 3, and 5 reps.  This will work out to a total of 30 reps per workout for your core lifts.

     3. As a goal, train at least 5 days per week.  And always train at least 2 days in a row before taking a day off.  After a few weeks on the program, if you need 2 or 3 days off consecutively, then by all means, take the break.

     4. Slowly increase the amount of weight you do at each workout.  This should not be a “forced” thing.  As Dan John says in his 40-Day Program, you should go heavy “naturally.”

     5. Perform more squats, overhead work, snatches, and power cleans throughout the program than flat bench presses, deadlifts, barbell curls, or rows.  The former movements are all “built” for frequent training.

     6. When you are finished with the 3 exercises for the day, then add one “odd lift” movement as a finisher.  Sandbag carries, sled drags, farmer’s walks are three excellent choices, for instance.  None of these exercises should be done “all out.”  Slowly build up on the amount of work you do on your odd lifts as you do on the barbell movements.

     And, finally, as recommended in the 40-Day Program, do not get “psyched up” for any of the lifts. “Simply do each lift without any emotion or excitement and strive for perfect technique.”

     Since I can already predict the number of emails I’ll be receiving, asking me to “lay out” the program in more simplistic terms, here’s a sample week of training to help you understand:

Day One:

• Squats: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Bench presses: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlifts: 3 sets of 3 reps
• Sandbag carries

Day Two:

• Front squats: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Overhead presses: 3 sets of 5, 3, and 2 reps
• Barbell curls: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Farmer’s walks

Day Three: off

Day Four:

• Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps
• Power cleans: 5 sets of 2 reps
• Overhead presses: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Sled drags

Day Five:

• Front squats: 3 sets of 5, 3, and 2 reps
• Snatches: 5 sets of 2 reps
• Dumbbell rows: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Sandbag carries

Day Six:

• Squats: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Bench Presses: 2 sets of 5 reps
• Power cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps
• Farmer’s walks

Day Seven: Off

To me, both of those programs are "easy", and if you want something easier than that, maybe you should take up anything other than serious power training and mass building.  Maybe ping pong, or that damn "pickle ball" game that I've seen old people play.  Before I begin a rant, onward to our next trick for building muscle fast.

The G.O.M.A.D. Diet

If you are new to the world of hardgainers desperately in search of quicker ways to pack on the mass, then you can be forgiven for not knowing this acronym.  And in case you don't know, it stands for "gallon of milk a day."

Before the world of too-damn-expensive protein powders, if you needed some extra "liquid supplementation", you did what bodybuilders have been doing since the 1930s: you drank a gallon of milk per day in addition to your "regular" meals.  And if you didn't miss a day of GOMAD for the next 6 to 8 weeks, then you were pretty much guaranteed to pack on the pounds.

For some serious "hardgainers", the GOMAD technique might not be enough.  In that case, our next "trick" is about as sure-fire as they come...

Vince Gironda's "Ginger Ale and Cream" Method

This might be the "oddest" trick or tip in this article - or any article that follows.  And here's the thing: I've looked everywhere for the magazine(s) - Gironda may have mentioned this method in an issue of IronMan and in an issue of MuscleMag International, I'm not quite sure - where he discussed this, and, so far, I haven't been able to locate the article.  But I distinctly remember reading a magazine article of Gironda's in the mid to late '90s where Gironda wrote that the easiest way to put on mass or bulk for hardgainers was to drink a combination of one-part heavy cream mixed with one-part ginger ale.  If I remember correctly - and I'm pretty sure that I do; once again, could be wrong - he said that the easiest way for a hardgainer to quickly "bulk up" was to eat 3 meals per day, and to drink 3 of these "cream and ale" floats in between each meal.

The first thing you may be thinking here - if you know anything about Gironda - is "the 'Iron Guru' sure does love his heavy cream."  And you, of course, would be correct.  He's well-known in the bodybuilding world as the original "low-carb/high-fat" diet guru (he's really not the originator, but we'll save that for another post).  And his favorite things to eat on his diet were mainly steak and eggs or a combination of heavy cream mixed with raw eggs.  For every ounce of heavy cream, you use one egg.  (While we're on this subject, if you want to get ripped, then fast until 2 PM or so every day, then have a heavy cream and egg shake.  Don't eat again until around 8 PM, and for that meal, just eat steak and eggs. You'll be ripped in no time.)

The other thing that you may be thinking here is why? Why this odd combination of cream with ginger ale?  One, heavy cream is very calorically-dense. A cup of heavy cream contains 800 calories, almost all of them from fat.  But drinking heavy cream by itself is difficult to do - mainly because it is hard on the stomach.  And that's where the ginger ale comes in; ginger ale is well known for soothing upset stomachs, making it much easier - and more palatable - to drink the cream.

I actually think that there's "more to it" as far as why Gironda recommended this combination, but it wasn't something that he could really explain, probably because he didn't have either the science or, more likely, hadn't utilized it enough among some of his bodybuilders to have more anecdotal "data."  Now, this is purely speculation on my part, but I think Gironda had witnessed enough bodybuilders gain muscle - while actually keeping body fat relatively low - on diets high in fat and sugar.  Sergio Oliva, for instance, mainly fasted during the day, then his favorite dinner at night was crab legs and Coca Cola!  Oliva said when he made a comeback in the '80s he didn't look as good as he should have because he used a nutritionist who put him on a "conventional" bodybuilding diet of oatmeal, rice, potatoes, chicken breasts, fish, etc. - a diet made up of about 60% carbs, 30% protein, and 10% fat.  (If you did any bodybuilding in the '80s or early '90s, then you know that fat was a "bad word" in the fitness industry, and it wasn't until the "Anabolic diet" came along combined with a renewed interest in the pre-'80s diets of bodybuilders that this began to change.)  The bottom line is that there are some bodybuilders who will gain more muscle from fatty and "sugary" meals than from "complex carbs" and low fat meals.  It's individual, and it takes experimentation, but Gironda was so far ahead of his time that he just knew there was something about the combination of heavy cream with ginger ale that just made it different.  

So if you're a scrawny, young, up-and-coming hardgainer who is desperate to put on weight as fast as you can, you could do a hell-of-a-lot worse than to go on a cream and ginger ale supplementation regimen.  (And if you do try it, send me an email to let me know how it worked for you!)

*From “The 40-Day Program” by Dan John, in the online magazine T-Nation, published 5-19-2009