It's nothing out of the ordinary. You walk into the gym day after day, month
after month, year after year, and you see the same people doing the same
exercises with the same weight and they look exactly the same as the did
several months before. The training and sleeping has a lot to do with growth
too, but the main part I want to focus on is one of the main reason all those
gym rats aren't growing. It's quite simple too, They aren't eating enough,
period!
First of all I would like to start using myself as an example of the
average gym rat. I was a skinny little kid and I was obsessed with lifting
but I could not gain any size or weight. And it went on like that for a
while. That's when people start complaining about having bad genetics or being
a "Hard Gainer", and I was one of them. Then one day I heard this giant in
my gym talking to another guy about how important food is to the
bodybuilder. That's what most of us fail to realize. I was getting interested
and listened to the rest of their conversation. So, from that moment I started
eating, and when I say eating I mean every two hours, all day long.
Especially a lot of protein and complex carbs.
Can you guess what
happened? I started growing. I put on 35 lbs during the next five months,
Mostly muscle, and added anywhere from 2-6 inches to all my body parts. Not
only that, but my strength gains flew through the roof. I'm not on a picky
diet where I count all my calories, I just eat. Yes, you will put a little on
your stomach but you'll really start packing on the muscle.
I try to eat
around 40-50 grams of protein per meal, and usually have to count on protein
shakes for two of my meals every day. Also it's very helpful to have some
carbs along with your protein shake to help increase the absorption of the
protein.
Personally, I hate tuna, and it does get hard eating so often and
trying to get enough protein so I do eat a lot of protein bars and I depend on
a lot of eggs and chicken breasts etc. But my main source, and also my
favorite is beans and rice. Eating them together makes it a complete source
of protein and high quality carbohydrates, and you can put them in tortilla
shells and make tacos out of them. They also contain no fat. I prefer black
beans and brown rice with some salsa, sour cream and guacamole.
I
contribute a lot of my gains to eating a lot of beans and rice. That is if you
can stand all the gas. I don't count my calories but I try to get as many as
I can and keep my fat at a reasonable level.
After awhile it does get hard to keep up a eating schedule like this and my
parents also complain since I'm always eating and get mad if I can't eat at a
certain time. Because it does kinda get in the way, like food controls my life.
But you may want to take a break after you reach your goals and start doing
some cardio and cut down on the food. If you want to get the maximum gains
I would recommend cutting out all cardio while on a bulking phase. remember,
eat to grow, or you aren't gonna go. Look for my next article which will be on
"How to add inches to your chest".
Keep on growing!
Nathan Underhill
NSTYNC03@aol.com
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