What do you want to see on pinkguide.com?

Generally most people will say ‘both’, but in my experience it is harder or should I say – it takes longer to accomplish both simultaneously. So I recommend you choose which is your priority.

Assuming you want to build up:

There are two things that will directly influence this:

1. Diet
2. Exercise

Diet

Because you are trying to add size to your frame, you need to provide your body with the right kinds and amounts of ‘fuel’. When you go to the gym and lift weights, etc you will get soreness. This is because you have torn the muscle fibres. When they grow back, they will be thicker and stronger. The idea is to break them again, so they keep growing back bigger and better each time. This is why eating right is so important when building muscle… because by going to the gym you are actually hurting your body – causing it damage. You need to eat well and supply it with everything it needs to build up bigger and stronger.

This would mean your diet should be at least 50% protein - the more the better generally. What your body doesn’t use to build muscle will be burned off as energy anyway. Admittedly, a long-term high protein diet can put a strain on your kidneys, which is why you should try to increase your water intake aswell. But this is really a non-issue for young, fit people like you!

I’ll list the basic protein sources in a second, but it’s important that you choose the kind of foods that work for you. CONSISTENCY is going to be your biggest challenge. Eating good food for a few weeks won’t achieve anything. You need to change your eating habits gradually, so that they stick!

Good sources of protein include chicken, tuna, fish, eggs (preferably without the yolks), any red meat, yoghurt, baked beans, milk, and supplement powders.

Talking of good eating habits, you should be trying to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals as opposed to 3 large meals. This keeps your metabolism firing and gives your body a constant intake of ‘fuel’ to rebuild itself.

Because you are trying to build up, you have to make sure your body always has an adequate amount of calories to access for rebuilding purposes. For example, the more muscle you have, the harder your body has to work to maintain it. (Which is why muscly people have a higher metabolism) But if you go for a period of time without eating, your muscles are still going to require their hit of protein. So they go into a cannibalatic state – some muscle breaks down and the rest feed on its protein. So you are actually getting smaller b/c some of your new muscle is breaking down. This is why you should have something to eat every 3 hours. This means a meal at 7am, 10 am, lunch at 1pm, snack at 4 pm, tea at 7pm and a pre-sleep snack at 10pm.

So to make sure you always have adequate calories, you can still eat lots of bread, rice and pasta (in that order…) Remember, you are trying to build up.

Once you have been eating and training consistently for about a month, then there are supplements that you can buy to help speed things along. Creatine would be the most popular one, closely followed by HMB and L-Glutamine. But you should wait until your body adjusts to the weight, etc first otherwise they wont have as much affect.

Whenever you finish training at the gym, you have to eat as soon as possible (within the hour). This is the time that your body will be crying out for fuels. If you don’t provide them relatively soon, you’ll find that you don’t recover nearly as well. I’m talking about muscle wise and energy wise. And an important thing to remember is that when you are resting is when you are actually growing!

Training

If you are trying to build muscle, the general consensus is that you should do 12 sets of 12 repetitions for large muscles, and maybe 8 sets of 12 rep’s for smaller muscles. The muscle groups are:

1. chest
2. shoulders
3. triceps
4. back
5. biceps
6. legs
7. abdominals

However, if you are beginning from scratch, you should work all muscle groups only twice a week. For example, start at the first muscle group and choose two exercises (ie- bench press and flies). Do two sets of 12 rep’s of bench press and then do two sets of 12 rep’s of flies. Then move on to shoulders. Do two set’s of 12 rep’s of shoulder presses, then do two set’s of 12 rep’s of lateral raises. Then move to triceps. Chose 2 tricep exercises, etc, etc until you have done a full body workout. Ideally you would do this on Monday, rest on Tuesday and Wednesday – and do it again on Thursday, resting again until the following Monday. This would be your first program and would last for about 3 weeks. Then you would change your program to a split one like chest, abs, shoulders, & triceps on Monday – then back, biceps and legs on Tuesday – rest on Wednesday – chest, etc on Thursday – back, etc on Friday and then rest over the weekend.

Remember that all you have to put in at the gym is about 3 hours a week. That’s not a big ask when you consider there are 168 hours in a week. Assuming you sleep for 56 hours & work for 40 hours – that leaves 72 hours of time. You only need to put aside 3 per week and (combined with the right diet) you will see changes.

But the weights won’t lift themselves – and you wont enjoy it for the first month or so. It will be hard work. You will wander if it is worth it – whether you’ll ever make a difference. I tell myself that time will pass anyway, so why not do something constructive with it. Your body is the most valuable thing you’ll ever own, but most people are so uneducated as to how to look after it. Look at everything you put in your mouth as fuel for your body. If it is shit that you are putting in, that’s how you will probably feel. Everyone had to start somewhere – no one is born with huge muscles.

So now you have a choice – you can either do something about your body or you can put it off ‘hoping’ that it changes magically.

Let me give you the tip – the longer you leave it, the harder it will become!

As much as going to the gym is a physical thing – it is also a mental one in that you have to make yourself go even when you are not enjoying it. You need to make some sacrifices because you will only get out what you put in.

© Nathan Grieve 2002