How to gain 10 pounds of muscle mass in a month - Learn the fastest way to gain muscle!

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In 2010, I released a complete 12-week bodybuilding program that is ideal for people who have struggled with their muscle building progress. This entire concept is based on a variation! It's obvious that more advanced you become, the more difficult is keep the progression going on..

Typical bodybuilding workout program follows a specific types of movements where sets, reps, rep-speed, recovery time and so on...which is related to a hypertrophy-specific-training (HST). I'm not going to explain the HST method here, you can read more about HST training from their official website: Hypertrophy-specific.com

They suggest that you use low volume and limit your workouts to a 1-2 per exercise and break the total number of sets to a muscle group to a three separate workouts on every week. If we compare it to my 12-week program, the total amount of volume in each workout is the same. Instead working your full body at every workout, you follow a 3-day split routine.

What makes my 12-week bodybuilding program so powerful, is that your body won't get adapted to any specific stress in a certain period of time. My Progressive overload principle article reveals how to avoid adaptation!

A quick overview of 12-week bodybuilding program

- Introducting the 12-week bodybuilding program! You'll find a detailed workout schedule of three weeks. Within three week period, you train every muscle group 3-4 times which depends of your current level. The schedule is customized for each individual cinsidering the training level, previous experience and endurance.

12 week bodybuilding program consist of three different workout cycles; power/hypertrophy/endurance! Every cycle uses a specific rep scheme, rep tempo, recovery times and resistance. This is a crucial if you want to avoid muscles adapting quickly to a specific routine. Every change that is performed to your bodybuilding workout will elicit an adaptation response from your body in the form of increased muscle growth. You complete every cycle 3 times in 12-week period.

12-Week bodybuilding program - Cycle #1

The first cycle refers to a maximal hypertrophy training that follows a moderate intensity techique, higher volume sets, 8-12 reps with limited rest between sets. Select multi-joint movements and use as much free weight as possible for a better hormonal response and enhaces the lactic acid production. The goal of this cycle is to increase the number of volume in each workout. This boost the endurance and helps to transport the oxygen quicker in the body.

You'll see my sample 3-day split workout routine including the number of sets and reps which gives you a good direction which from you can modify to your own needs.

You'll also find my sample diet plan including daily calorie consumption with an ideal protein,carb,fat ratio. It's easy custromizable for your own current calorie needs and body-fat level.

12-Week bodybuilding program - Cycle #2

I've always believed that in order to build bigger muscles, you'll need to go progressively lift heavier weights. This happens by decreasing the number of reps to a 4-6 and increase the rest between sets. This type of training enhances testosterone level output and innervation, which helps to increase the frequency to recruit motor units.

You will increase the resistance of weights in major lifts by a 5-10% in every fourth week. For example, if you can squat 300 pounds for 6 reps, you could expect squatting 320 to 340 pounds with the reps being the same.

12-Week bodybuilding program - Cycle #3

The last cycle follows the maximal intensity. This cycle is similar to the first one, except the advanced shocking techniques comes into a play. Expecially, supersets and rest and pause which is my favourite techique to stimulate every muscle fiber completely, increases the blood flow in target muscles. I use this cycle focusing on weak muscle groups.

By working the same muscle with one exercise right after another, you can overload your muscles without using heavy weights. This is great if you don't have a spotter or don't want to lift very heavy weights. Go above 10 reps for each set, more preferable 15 reps. Do as many supersets as possible in as many ways as possible. Include, compound supersets, isolation supersets, pre-exhaustion/post-exhaustion supersets, antagonist supersets, staggered supersets.

With a simple tactics you can get your progress moving up again, but don't think, that you will gain huge muscle mass within the first weeks! Indeed, you will see some potential gains in muscle mass within the first 30 days, but always remember, that for huge muscle and strength gains you will need to work extremely hard and it requires a proper long-term planning and also short-term planning!

Do not give up!

Without a proper planning and systematic observance of training and nutrition, you are more easily to losing the focus of your goals, (I assume, that you have at least one big goal and one smaller goal everytime to keep you on the progress).

In the first full year of training, it is actually the same, how accurate is your training plan, because everyone will see some potential muscle and strength gains in the first year of training. But sooner or later, the progress will getting slower and then you will need to pay closer attention into your planning and making more short term plans than ever. Learn, how to keep the progress going at it's highest speed month after month by clicking here

Staying at the progressive zone

This is really easy and common problem with EVERY bodybuilders and weight lifters, who have trained more than a year. And I know many lifters who had give up soon after the 1-2 year or started to taking some steroids.

If you have a burning desire to achieve your goals, have enough motivation to overcoming the obstacles and are willing to work hard, you will profit from the tips and techniques, that I'll give you and that finally helped me to gain more muscle mass in 3 short months, that I did in 3 full years! If you have a lack of motivation and desire, because you are frustrated and ready to give up, don't worry, you can read my motivation tips below!

Small changes, Big success

Test your progress regularly, by taking pictures and measuring your bodyweight and body fat percentage. These three things will help you to make right decisions and adjustments to your workouts and diet.

For example, if your bicep are lagging behind from other muscle groups, you may add few extra sets to biceps. Here's a little tip, that worked for me, splitting your bicep workout into a half and therefore focusing more on yor biceps, you will work your biceps with more energy! Remember, the best muscle building workout is in your head and is waiting to be taking into effect!

Take some pictures of yourself

A good rule of thumb is by taking a picture of yourself in the end of each month, unless you are preparing to the bodybuilding show. Add some notes below every picture, current weight, bodyfat percentage, etc. You will see immediately, what bodypart needs more attention and what bodypart has gained most muscle mass!

1) Goal setting.

- Write down the goals, that you want to achieve! Everything starts from here. Conceive a clear picture, how strong you want to be, how much do you want to weight and what percentage of fat you want to achieve and when, make it sound realistic? You can't reduce the body fat, gain huge muscle mass and
build explosive strength at the same time. It is important to have a clear vision, what you want to achieve. You need to have have both, short-term goals and long-term goals. For example, if you want to have 20 inch arms before the christmas, write it down.

2) Plan everything in advance.

- Make a plan of campaign! This is at least as important as the first one and walks close together with the first one. Write down everything, how you want to achieve the goals. What it takes to complete the every steps that brings you closer to the goal. For example, if your goal is to gain weight 10 pounds at the end of the month. You need to have the workout to gain muscle mass.

3) Bodybuilding videos, true inspiration.

- Watch bodybuilding videos and join fitness events. In the day, when I first time saw the bodybuilders live on the stage, I think to myself, "WOW, I want to get my ass on the stage someday and beat the other competitors. I realised, how much work it needs to climb up on the stage! That's the measurement of the extremely hard work and where I can truly test my potential limits. Bodybuilding videos are other true inspirer! Watching the videos of the top bodybuilders is one reason of my brutal training style.

4) Have a role model

When I was a kid, I wanted to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I followed his every movie and as soon when I started bodybuilding, I went to the library and spent many hours just by reading his training books, including the best seller "The new encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding"! I was collecting his posters and attached them on the wall. I knew, I couldn't ever have the same physique, that Arnold has, but he was giving me so much motivation and attide, that I was always able to pushing myself towards my goals.

5) Train intensely with a training partner

- Have a training partner! There is a big difference, if I train alone or when I have a trustworthy training partner beside me to encourage me to have an maximal training intensity and therefore lifting heavier weights. It makes you feel
unfailing and safe, if there is someone, that you know personally, for example spotting your heavy bench press set, who knows your technique and weak points precisely! I must say, that I have never been satisfied to my workouts, if I'm training alone!

6) Learn from other fitness experts

One of the biggest reason to my success is learning from the books, one like I mentioned earlier was "The new encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding" and the other book, that gave me some trule awesome information, how to gain muscle mass fast and naturally is Jason Ferruggia's Muscle Gaining Secrets! It covers everything from muscle building workouts to ready-made meal plans to help you to gain weight.

1. Progressive Resistance!

The key element of this mass building workout program is simple, increase the muscle stimulation by making your workouts progressively more heavier, in other words challenge yourself to lift heavier weights or do more reps to the same weights everytime you step into the gym within the 6-Weeks program! Never be content using the same weights for the same reps for extented periods.

2. Build muscle using heavy compound movements!

The mass building workout program should primarily consist of heavy compound movements, that stress most of your muscles at the same time, while still targeting the appropriate muscle or muscle group. The other muscles are working as a stabilizers or supporting the target muscles. The most heaviest exercises are those, that requires you to keep the weight balanced against the gravity, instead of directed motion, like smith machine presses.

3. Use special techniques as a part of the mass building workouts!

I use special techniques reqularly to boost my workouts and increase the intensity of my workouts. The fastest way to gain muscle, are super sets and rest and pause set, that gives me the amazing pump to my muscles and making my workouts shorter, which is good thing and in my opinion one of the best workout techniques to gain muscle mass fast.

20-rep squat, aka "brething squats are absolutely one of the best way to build muscle mass fast!! Not just your legs, but your entire body, even biceps. Without a doubt, this puts the hurt on your entire body and without any surprise, many who have tried this extremely brutal and mindless method, have quit after third attempt.

WARNING!

This muscle building workout requires three things. 100% focus, 100% motivation and 100% preparation. In addition of all this, you must have a properly planned muscle building nutrition. Download my FREE report to learn how to eat to gain muscle!

What you need is a power rack and straight bar. Do some light reps before your first real set. Load the bar with weights that allow you to perform barely 15 regular reps.

Now, go under the bar, tense up and lift it clear of the pins. Take one step back and take a deep breath. Now squat all the way down. Yes, I mean at lest to a parallel. Then immediately go up, then repeat until you have finished 15 reps. Now you would normally stop here, but you wanna keep pushing out the last 5 reps, no matter what happens. You start breath more rapidly, once this happens, take few heavy breaths, now go back down. Do this until your legs stop working and your entire body feel exhausted.

That's it! Now it's your turn! But wait a second. It doesn't end here. Read my 6-week bretahing squat routine here.

I have recently tested an extremely powerful method, how to gain muscle mass fast! It is so intensive and advantage, that I won't recommend to do this too often. This program is based to the radical and quick manipulation of diet and workout.

I have been able to gain muscle mass as much as 15lb within the 20 days with this program!!! NOTE: (I'm a hardgainer)

Phase 1: duration 4-6 days

Diet: Lot's of protein and fat, just little amount of carbs (about. 40-50g per day)

Workout: Train as much as you can, use ligth/moderate weights (50%-60%/MAX). Lot's of sets and high repetitions for each muscle group (10x 12-20). Train each muscle group as many time as you can during this period, for example lower body and upper body twice per week!

Phase 2: Duration 1 day

Diet: No protein! Eat carbs as much as possible, but skip all those wheat products that contains protein. Eat lot's of fruits. You can replace the original day with the 3-day carbohydrate refuelling and eating protein as little as 1 gram
per pound of bodyweight in that 3-day period.

Workout: Rest 1 day. If you follow the 3-Day phase instead of 1-day, make sure you begin the third phase workout after 1 day of rest.

Phase 3: Duration 10 days

Diet: Eat plenty of protein and carbs!
Take only a reasonable amount of fat. Eat more calories than you body burns, and I mean lot more (1000-2000 calories more). It sounds a lot, but you can take weight gain drinks to ensure the calorie supply.

Workout: In this phase, follow extremely heavy sets and do fewer reps, than in the first phase! Do only 5 sets and 5-10 reps per muscle group. Focus only on power movements, like bench press, deadlift and heavy squats. Include lot's of special techniques, like negatives and drop sets. Hit each muscle group 3 times during this 10-day period. 2-day split workout program works best in this phase.

Why this method is so effective?

In the first phase, your muscles and liver become empty from glycogen. As a result of this, your body will drift into a ketosis. If for some reason this will not happen after the day 5, you should make sure, that you don't eat any carbs and continue the process until this happens! The first and second phase together with overtraining will induce the body's counterreaction, then getting the huge amount of food from protein and carbs, your body start to overcompensate to the state of deficiency and you will gain some serious weight in the last 10 days!

Workouts and diets are not set into a stone. Everyone should adjust them according to his/her own approach. I won't recommend this for beginners. You need at least 1 year experience of intense weight training. This is for serious lifters only. Try this only, if anything else hasn't been worked! This workout routine is ideal if you have hit the plateau and see little or no progress in your muscle building routine.

I have never follow the exactly same workout progams more than 4 weeks! I have seen, that the fastest way to gain muscle and get more results at the same time, is to alternate the workouts in every 2-4 weeks. If you follow the same routines more than 4 weeks, your body begins to adapt to the stimulation and begins to lose it's best sharp! In another words, your body will drift into a homeostasis, which means the opposite of development. And after 6 weeks, you start losing the effectiveness of the workout and in the worst case, your body get into the sate of over condition and begins to lose muscle!

Lift heavy weights as many reps as you can!

You may already know, that if you want to build muscle mass, you should keep the reps between 8 and 15 reps. If you want to build strength, the reps should be between 4 and 6, sometimes even lower. But if you want to build both, strength and increase muscle mass, the general guideline is doing 5 to 8 reps.

Build the muscle mass through high intensity workouts!

However, if you want to gain muscle mass as much as possible, you need pay attention to high intensity workouts. Whatever you do, do it hard! Feel your body stronger everytime, you step into the gym. Try to reach the limits, as soon when you feel your body overtrained, suddenly lighten your workouts for a week or less. This usually happens after 3 weeks of heavy and intense training.

I emphasize the proper high calorie diet when your goal is to gain more lean muscle mass. The main key is to eat more calories than you burn! I know it may not be the easiest task to accomplish for hardgainers, because I am one of them, also called an "ectomorph" who use to have a very fast metabolism and small bone structures. Sometimes you have to eat if you are not hungry and invest some extra money on foods.

From the very beginning, I knew nothing about nutrition and supplements, but I still gained lot's of muscle during the first two to three years, it happened almost itself and then suddenly when I hit the magic number of 165 lbs. it was more and more complicated and challinging to gain more weight. And when I luckily reached my weight to over 180 lbs. the weight dropped back to the 165 lbs. faster than I could imagine.

Now, things are different. I started to focus more on my diet and learn what was working and what didn't. It required plenty of testing with trial and error to figure out, what and how my body respond to different nutrients. I make sure, that I eat enough protein and carbs in every 2-3 hours.

Learn more from my blog and download my complete guide to muscle building diet atmybodybuildingjourney.com PLUS get the latest muscle building & fat loss tips!

People have asked me, what to eat to gain muscle? Here's the sample 1 Day meal plan that worked well for me and what I also recommend for you to try out!

1) Breakfast - This is the most important meal of the day and in the morning, you should eat plenty of calories, at least 600 kcal! Fulfil your bodys glycogen stores with the quality carbs and eat protein at least 30g.

- 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs
- milk
- 2 cups oat meal
- 1 banana
- Omegas + Multivitamins

Total calorie: 934kcal Protein: 59g Carbs: 108g Fat: 29g

2) Lunch - It is time for meat and potatoes. I'm getting at least 600 kcal from lunch. Normally my lunch includes steak, chicken, rice, potatoes, vegetables, full grain toast..

- 250g of chicken breast
- 100g brown rice
- 80g pre-grilled vegetables
- 1 slice of whole wheat bread

Total calorie: 746kcal Protein: 55g Carbs: 86g Fat: 19g

3) Dinner - At a dinner, I use to eat the same food as in the lunch, but I change the chicken with pork and rice with potatoes.

- 250g loin of pork
- 300g potatoes
- 80g vegetables

Total calorie: 521kcal Protein: 58g Carbs: 44,5g Fat: 11,5g

4) Pre-Workout meal - Mostly I drink some self-mixed protein shake with some additional carbohydrates, like bananas that are easily digestible to fulfil the body's energy stores with a long lasting energy.

- 114g N-Large 2
- 120g banana
- 10g Glutamine
- 5g Creatine Monohydrate
- C-Vitamin 500mg

Total calorie: 651cal Protein: 41,5g Carbs: 109,1g Fat: 4,5g

5) Post-Workout drink - I drink some easily digestible protein-carbohydrate drink immediately after workout. I prefer the Prolab N-Large Mass gainer, because of it's great taste and an ideal protein-carbohydrate ratio. It is important to fulfil your muscles with a protein that contain a great amino-acid composition to prevent the muscle catabolism. Hydrolized whey protein is the best solution!

- 114g N-Large 2
- 120g banana
- 10g Glutamine
- 5g Creatine Monohydrate

Total calorie: 651cal Protein: 41,5g Carbs: 109,1g Fat: 4,5g

6) Evening meal About 1 hour after the post-workout drink I continue to add carbohydrates and eat some meat that contain lot's of protein, usually red meat or salomon.

- 200g grilled beef
- 300g potatoes
- 1 slice of whole wheat bread

Total calorie: 535cal Protein: 45,3g Carbs: 62,5g Fat: 10g

Total calorie of the day: 4038kcal
Total protein of the day: 300g
Total carbohydrates of the day: 520g
Total fats in the day: 78,5g

You can adjust the above meal plan according to your own approach and goals. The example meal plan is primarily directed for men with the weight from 185lbs to 220 who wants to gain muscle mass.

If you are intrested to see 9 more meal plans starting from 2000kcal a day up to 6000kcal a day diet added with recipes of more than 20 healthy & delicious muscle building meals, download your free meal guide here!