Muscle Training Program, Part 8

Our muscle training program now addresses the Advanced Level.

If you have followed the Intermediate Program for six to eight months, feel the need for even greater intensity, have been consistently involved in resistance training for about a year, or you are an experienced bodybuilder not satisfied with your progress, you may be ready for Advanced Muscle Strength & Recovery Training. This program is based on high-intensity training principles and is designed for serious, experienced bodybuilders. It involves a level of intensity that can injure the unprepared body. If you are unsure of your readiness, use the intermediate workout at a high-intensity level for a few weeks before moving on to the advanced program. Do not use the advanced program if you are not ready!

Advanced Nutrition Principles

Nutrition for the advanced program adopts the principles previously outlined, but must be followed more rigourously to get the best results. Remember, a balanced diet plus two to three Muscle Strength & Recovery shakes daily supplies your body with everything it needs for sustained, natural muscle growth. Be sure to consume one of your daily shakes within 45 minutes after completing your workout. This is the time when the uptake of nutrients into the muscle is maximal, although nutrient uptake remains high for up to five days following a very intense resistance workout. This is why balanced, high-level nutrition is necessary on a daily basis, even on days when you are not working out.

There has been a great deal of discussion in popular bodybuilding magazines about the importance of additional protein and energy (calories) during bodybuilding. Remember that each pound of muscle has about 125 grams of protein (the rest is water) and contains 600 calories. Compare this with a pound of fat which has no protein and 3,500 calories. Since the process of building new muscle is a relatively inefficient process, it is estimated that the body may require as much as 750 grams of extra protein and 3,600 extra calories to increase muscle mass by one pound.

For the natural bodybuilder an exceptional amount of growth would be one pound every two weeks. This is the rate of increase during the adolescent growth spurt, so it's possible to achieve by natural means. This level of growth tends to occur mainly in the early stages of working out when the body first adapts to the new routine. As the body becomes stronger and more adapted, it is more difficult to increase muscle mass which is one of the reasons why many bodybuilders are frustrated. For the average natural bodybuilder, a muscle-mass gain of about a pound a month is more realistic. This would still be 12 pounds of muscle a year.

Assuming we would like to be sure that nutrition is never the limiting factor in muscle growth at any level, we need to be certain the diet supplies an extra 2,400 calories and 500 grams of protein every 14 days. A quick calculation using the numbers referred to above reveals that adding about 500 calories and 60 grams of high-quality protein daily to your basic diet would assure adequate nutrition for adding two full pounds of muscle each month. Of course, if you are interested in increasing muscle mass while reducing excess body fat, a process referred to as energy repartitioning, it is essential that energy balance remain even or slightly negative. In this case the body needs the additional protein, but not the additional calories. Controlling energy balance to modify body weight is explained in detail in the Thermojetics Advanced Energy Guide by Herbalife and is a recommended companion booklet to this program.

As with exercise, more is not necessarily better when it comes to nutrition. Extra calories from any source are converted to fat and may lead to increased body weight, but not necessarily increased muscle mass. Many bodybuilders brag about the quick gains they have made using a new, high-calorie supplement, only to discover later that the excess weight went to their waists, not their muscles. Also, excess protein in the diet strains and potentially damages the kidneys and liver, and further increases the calorie load which can be converted to body fat.

Our Advanced Muscle Training Program continues in Part 9.

Back to Part 7