Disclaimer: A Quick Recommendation
Disclaimer: A Quick Recommendation
Disclaimer: A Quick Recommendation
Disclaimer
The information contained in this document represents the opinion of its author.
All dietary and training recommendations should be discussed with and cleared by
your personal physician prior to their commencement.
A Quick Recommendation
If you are reading this guide chances are you are a young male between the ages of 16 and 33.
The information in this guide is for you. If you are beyond the age of 33 and want to gain size
and strength you can certainly do it, but the extreme caloric intake recommended in this guide is
not for you. You can follow the training and supplementing guidelines but should take a more
moderate approach to your diet.
Mastodons of MASS! From Left to Right: Dave “Neutron” Hoff, Donnie Thompson, and
AJ Roberts. All three are in the top 5 for all-time powerlifting totals.
Eating For Mass
Contrary to what you might be thinking, eating for mass isn’t about eating the traditional
bodybuilding foods like rice and chicken. If you want to get HUGE you have to fuel that growth
with sufficient calories. You will have to consume calorie dense foods and that means you will
have to consume foods which have a relatively high fat content.
To reach STRENGTH BEAST status you have to consume a diet which is high in quality
protein and relatively high in fat. You simply cannot consume sufficient calories on a low-fat
diet. You would literally have to graze like a cow all day long!
The following is a brief list of some of the best mass producing foods. These foods should be
consumed liberally in your daily diet:
- whole milk
- red meats
- chicken
- fish
- eggs
- cheeses
- peanut butter
- nuts of all types
The above list is by all means NOT comprehensive. There are many other beneficial foods you
can consume. When choosing which foods to consume try to stay with foods which are as
natural and unprocessed as possible (note this does NOT mean uncooked). Strive to minimize
your consumption of refined sugar.
Your target daily caloric intake is a minimum of 25 calories per pound of body weight. This
means a 200 lb man has a minimum target daily intake of 5000 calories during his quest for
maximum mass. Please note this is a minimum target and more calories can and should be
consumed if warranted.
Liquid calories are easier to consume (no chewing, no dry mouth) than solid foods. Our product
Opticen+ can be used to make a high calorie quality shake. Shakes can be a lifesaver for many
of you who struggle to consume the necessary number of calories.
Opticen+ Annihilation:
*Note: If you find the shake to have too thick of a consistency feel free to add more liquid
and consume as two shakes.
These shakes are MONSTER BUILDERS and should be consumed in addition to the whole
foods you consume throughout the day.
Even with the shakes, meeting your minimum daily caloric intake target will not be easy. The
underlying point in this statement cannot be sufficiently emphasized. The reason so many young
men struggle to gain weight and never reach their goals (often times turning to potentially
dangerous anabolics) is that they under-eat. They swear that they are eating a “ton” of food and
that they could not possibly eat more while simultaneously lamenting their lack of progress in
the gym and their inability to gain weight.
A major reason so many young men feel they cannot consume more food is because they do not
condition their stomach for it. You must push yourself in order to expand your stomach and this
can be unpleasant. In order to expand your stomach you must consume large meals and eat
beyond the point of feeling “full”. You do NOT want to eat until you vomit but you DO want to
push the envelope and come close to it. Over time this will allow you to more comfortably
consume the necessary quantities of food. To this end, as mentioned earlier, you should consume
your Opticen+ shakes with meals. This additional volume of foodstuff consumed with meals
will aid in your stomach expansion efforts.
If you cannot, or are unwilling to do the above you should stop reading this guide now. You will
fail and you will do so because you do not have the necessary constitution to reach your physical
goals. Go back to your mundane and puny existence and leave the heavy lifting to the big
boys…
For the rest of you, your odyssey is just beginning! You now know how to eat and supplement in
order to get big, but we have not yet touched on how to train. Training is obviously one of the
most important factors. Eating massive quantities of food will make you big, but you want
muscular size not just lard!
AtLarge Nutrition Athlete Extraordinaire Eric Lilliebridge (right) and Bill Carpenter.
These guys know how to pack on lean mass!
Training for Mass!!!
Training for maximum mass requires that you build your routine around the “basic” or
“compound” movements. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
Why must compound movements be the backbone of your max-mass training routine? There are
many theories about why movements like squats and deadlifts realize such incredible overall
bodily results in both strength and size. The idea that squats spur the body to release more
growth hormone and testosterone than other exercises is often mentioned as a cause. While it
may be true that greater amounts of anabolic hormones are released by the body as a result of
squatting it is a stretch to say that the relatively small increase in circulating levels of these
hormones is sufficient to cause the rapid overall gains that squats can induce.
Forget hormones and think of the fact that efficiency and load are the two main reasons
compound movements are so effective. All compound movements work the largest skeletal
muscles in the body. Squats, for example, target the quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors, erector
spinae, and the gluteus maximus. When you squat you are training a huge percentage of the total
volume of skeletal muscle in your body and you are doing so with very heavy loads. These
heavy loads stress even the muscles that are not directly involved in the movement. The overall
effect is a tremendous bodily stimulus for growth if the squats are trained with a relatively high
degree of intensity of effort. The same thing is true to varying degrees for most compound
movements and therein lies their beauty and the reason you must include them as the basis of
your mass building routine.
Training volume has always been a topic of debate. The total volume that can be productive in
your routine is directly correlated to the effort you put into each post-warm-up or “working” set.
In other words, if you are training with loads which are easily handled and you stop well short of
concentric failure (you cannot complete the repetition without help) you can handle a greater
volume of training. If you go to concentric failure or beyond on each set you will find that you
cannot tolerate much volume at all.
The “trick” with training is to find that happy medium of intensity of effort, load, frequency, and
volume which nets you the greatest gains in overall size and strength. This is best done via
individual experimentation but some basic parameters apply to the majority of natural trainees.
Your total number of working sets (post-warm-up sets) per body part should be kept between 2-
5. Frequency of training should be limited to no more than 5 days per week for resistance
training. The conjugate method* of training espoused by Westside Barbell’s Louie Simmons
(www.westside-barbell.com) should also be employed. This method involves the rotation of
compound movements for a given body part(s) on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly etc.).
Every exercise, or variation of a given exercise, even if for the same body part(s), stresses the
nervous and muscular systems in a unique fashion and rotating movements allows for more
frequent intense training without overtraining. Finally, periodization of the intensity of effort and
training loads is necessary for optimal results.
* Conjugate Method – As stated above this training methodology dictates the rotation of
exercises on a regular basis by body part. So, for example, your heavy chest exercise for
one week might be the barbell bench press. The next week, or two weeks later, you might
switch to incline dumbbell presses as your heavy movement of choice. This same method
can and should be used for all of your “major” body parts (chest, shoulders, upper back,
lower back, upper legs and hips). A method commonly practiced at Westside Barbell is to
choose 4 exercises by body part and rotate them weekly on ME (Maximum Effort – see
www.westside-barbell.com) day for a four week total cycle. On the fifth week the cycle is
repeated.
Left to Right: Justin Tooley (my training partner), Shaun M., and me. Justin and I are
both about 265 lbs in this pic.
The “H.I.T.” (H.I.T. or High Intensity Training is an acronym/phrase coined by Ellington Darden
PhD) based idea that intensity of effort is the most important variable in one’s training when
seeking size and strength is misleading. HIT proponents state that training to failure (or beyond)
is the only way to maximize your training results and this is simply not true. In fact, stopping
short of failure on compound movements and the increase in volume it will afford the lifter will
often lead to superior results especially when considered over the long-term. It is necessary to
train with a high intensity of effort and heavy loads in order to stimulate an optimal response by
the body (“optimal” being defined here as the greatest increase in the size and strength of the
skeletal musculature), but it is not necessary to train to failure on multiple repetition sets with
any regularity. An exception to this rule involves single joint, or isolation movements and higher
repetition compound movements used for assistance* exercises. These exercises can be taken to
failure regularly with good results.
* Assistance Exercises - Single or multiple joint exercises utilizing high repetition sets taken
to failure. They are performed after lower repetition “strength” work.
Specific Routines
Below are your ULTIMATE MASS ROUTINES. Please keep in mind that these are suggested
training templates and you can and should, over time, tweak them to your personal needs.
The format listed for sets and reps is as follows (for example):
4 x 4/4/3/2
The above denotes 4 working sets are to be performed with the rep counts per set to be 4, 4, 3,
and 2 for the last set. Be sure to perform at least 2 warm-up sets per body part being exercised
prior to your working sets. If 2 exercises are to be performed per body part you can use your
discretion as to whether or not you feel the need to warm-up prior to your working sets for the
second exercise.
Routine 1:
Day 1:
Day 2:
Rest
Day 3:
Deadlift – 3 x 2/2/2
One-Arm Dumbbell Row – 3 x 5/5/5
Barbell Curls – 2 x 5/5
Triceps Pushdowns – 2 x 10
Calf Raises – 2 x 15/15
Weighted Ab Crunches – 2 x 10/10
Day 4:
Rest
Day 5:
Days 6 & 7:
Rest
Day 8:
Repeat the sequence. Remember, you can rotate in different exercises which work the same
body parts on a weekly basis as per the conjugate method.
All-Time Record Holder Dave Hoff Benching HUGE! (Those aren’t 45s…)
Routine 2:
Day 1:
Incline Barbell Press – 4 x 2/2/2/2
Weighted Dips – 1 x 30 (assistance)
Good Mornings – 3 x 5/5/5
Calf Raises – 2 x 10/10
Day 2:
Day 3:
Rest
Day 4:
Squat – 3 x 3/3/3
Walking Lunges – 2 x 15/15
Seated Calf Raises – 2 x 10/10
Day 5:
Days 6 & 7:
Rest
Day 8:
Conclusion
Follow the guidelines listed in this guide and you will bask in the glory and personal satisfaction
of achieving your goal of Maximum Mass!!!