CrossFit East Bay Power/Weight Challenge: Gaining muscle
WOD 090729
I am the classic "hardgainer" - tall and skinny with a high metabolism, losing weight is a default state for me. I have to consciously watch my diet to maintain weight, and take some pretty extreme actions to gain any. Over the past three years, since I got serious about fitness, I've made several serious attempts to gain muscle mass - most of them have failed.A few months ago, I tried again with a 12-week strength cycle that was my most successful venture yet: I put on 16 pounds, about 8-10 pounds of which was muscle. For those of you interested in putting on some muscle, I will share what I've learned. None of this is a secret: it's all freely available out there on the internet. But it takes some experimentation to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then you actually have to DO it, which is the hard part.
I should point out that gaining MUSCLE and gaining STRENGTH are not necessarily the same thing. Plain Vanilla CrossFit is actually quite good for gaining strength, but is not likely to add a lot of muscle to your frame if you're naturally skinny. How does this work? Well, when you flex a muscle to move a weight, you're not using anywhere near all of your muscle fibers to accomplish this task. Regular training will train your Central Nervous System (CNS) to recruit more fibers from the muscles you already have, which will make you stronger without actually adding any bulk. If you're a climber or otherwise averse to additional mass (muscle or otherwise), this can be great, but there are diminishing returns - you'll never get to 100% recruitment, and at some point you will need to add more fibers to continue to make gains.
Just like losing weight is a hormonal event, so is gaining muscle. Your primary job is hormone manipulation: stimulating the ones you want (hGH, Testosterone) while keeping the detrimental ones (insulin, cortisol) at bay. There are essentially two places you need to make changes to make this work: the kitchen and the gym. I'll cover them separately.
The Kitchen
Not surprisingly, the most important thing you have to do is EAT. A lot. Way more than you think you should be eating. More than seems reasonable, or maybe even safe. You see, while you CAN get stronger without getting bigger (see above), you cannot gain MASS without a regular caloric surplus. It takes a lot of energy to make new muscle fibers, and unless you're a teenager your body is reluctant to make that investment. You need to convince it that it is flush with resources, and can afford new cells.
Living in caloric surplus, some amount of fat gain is inevitable. Sorry. You'll just have to lose it later. Body builders refer to the cycles of gain and loss as "bulking" and "cutting," and wil frequently do what's called an "uncontrolled bulk," where they simply devour everything in sight, with no regard to macronutrient ratios or quality or caloric content. Easy, but lazy, and can have some disastrous consequences on your performance when you gain 3 pounds of fat for every pound of muscle.
Better, in my opinion, to do a "controlled bulk" - where you ride the edge of just enough caloric surplus to put your body in growth mode, but keep fat gain to a minimum. It's difficult to do, but your friends won't start calling you "Chubs" and you'll still be able to do a pullup. Here are some tips:
- If you know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of calories you need to take in each day to roughly balance the amount you burn), aim for at least 500 calories above this. Shoot for between a half-pound to a pound of weight gain per week - any more than that and you're piling on too much fat.
- Keep the carbs low, and low GI on the carbs you do eat - insulin spikes will just deposit all the energy you take in as fat. I would aim for no more than 200g/day of carbs, on average.
- This leaves protein and fat. Consume mass quantities of these. Animal protein is far superior to vegetable protein in terms of bioavailability, and the most efficient source of protein (both in terms of bioavailability and price per gram) is the egg. Omelets, frittatas, scrambled eggs etc are all your friends. I would make meals out of nothing but rotisserie chicken, slices of cheese and nuts.
- A common technique, particularly among CrossFitters, is GOMAD (Gallon of Milk a Day). This is a great way to add a couple thousand calories to your daily regimen without too much fuss or expense. The only downside is that you have to actually drink a gallon of the stuff each day, which can be intimidating. If you go this route, the milk should be whole and organic, and you should be under 25 years old - over that and you're likely to get chubby from all the carbs. This technique is really designed more for Matthew and Jonathan than to the older among us. I went with QOKAD (Quart of Kefir a Day) instead, and it served me very well.
- Keep food quality HIGH. You don't want to be pumping chemicals into your bloodstream in large quantities, as your body will just have to filter it all out - and you want it focused on one task. Eat your veggies with plenty of olive oil and butter, and avoid packaged foods, artificial sweeteners, and anything that comes in a tub with a picture of a ripped athlete on it. That isn't food.
- Which brings me to supplementation. Normally I avoid it, but in this case I did have a spoonful of Creatine Monohydrate a day (mixed in my kefir). It's cheap, been around for ages, and has proven results. It will cause you to retain more water, though.
- Stop eating 2 hours before you go to bed. Large meals of any variety (high carb, protein or fat) have been shown to diminish the body's growth hormone response. Human Growth Hormone (hGH) is the single most important chemical in this endeavor, and you really want to maximize it. The body releases hGH in waves throughout the day, but by FAR the greatest release occurs in the first two hours of sleep. Getting to sleep earlier (ie, before 10) also increases hGH release.
- For this reason, be VERY conscious of your sleep. Get at least 8 hours a night, in a dark room, early and relatively fasted.
One of the things that makes CrossFit so great is its adaptibility. With just a little tweaking, you can keep CrossFitting while still focusing on gaining strength and muscle. The goal here is, again, hormonal manipulation: you need to send the message to the body that it really does not have sufficient resources to do what is being required of it. The most effective way to do this is to lift VERY heavy weights in movements that stimulate the largest number of muscle fibers. Typically, the two movements that are acknowledged to provoke the greatest CNS response are the Deadlift and the Squat. (I just read an article last week that quoted Charles Poliquin as saying the Snatch-grip Deadlift off a 4" box is the single greatest muscle-building exercise that exists). There are a couple ways to go about this.
- The most straightforward is probably Max's Simple 3x5 routine for CrossFitters, which he first wrote about ages ago. Set aside two days a week just for lifting, and do Deadlifts and Squats with a couple smaller complementary movements (ie, Press and Bench Press), and then just go up 5 pounds every week until you can't go up anymore. People have been doing essentially this routine for decades, and it is tried and true.
- There's been a lot of fuss lately about CrossFit Strength Bias (CFSB), which is an adaptation of regular CF WODs to promote greater strength gain. It's gotten good reviews, but would essentially prevent you from training with CFEB while you were doing it, which would make us all very sad.
- CF Norcal promotes Max-Effort Black Box (MEBB), and they proved its efficacy with their showing at the Games.
- In MY latest cycle, I went with a hybrid of CFSB and the 3x5 routine. It was quite challenging, but wound up putting 30 pounds on my squat and 40 pounds on my deadlift, which I was very happy with. If you have any questions about this routine, fire away.
- You'll notice the common denominator of all of these plans is that they have heavy weights, short rep schemes, and full-body movements. Whatever you wind up doing, make sure you have these elements in place.
- Avoid high-volume. Regular metcons are great, but try to keep your workouts under 45 minutes, and don't do any long-distance running/cycling/etc. Long workouts will spike your cortisol and can actually be catabolic (ie, burning muscle for energy), and will send the message to your body that now might not be a good time to add more mass.
I found these articles to be particularly helpful when I was figuring things out for myself. If you're serious about putting on some muscle mass, I highly recommend reading all of them through.
- How to Build Sleeve-ripping Arms by Working out your LEGS?!
- How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle
- Building Muscle 101
- Hardgainer No More
WOD 090729
AMRAP* in 20 minutes:
5 C2B Pull-Ups
5 Handstand Push-Ups
Post number of rounds completed to comments.
*As Many Rounds As Possible
Categories
Challenges , General Fitness0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: CrossFit East Bay Power/Weight Challenge: Gaining muscle
WOD 090729 .
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.crossfiteastbay.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/640
15 Comments
Leave a comment
Links
CrossFit FAQ
CrossFit East Bay Family Tree
Ancestors
CrossFit HQ
CrossFit Black Box NYC
CrossFit Virtuosity
CrossFit Oakland
Decendents
CrossFit Nittany
CrossFit Mariner Square
CrossFit True Blue (Grenada)
Friends
Sweatin & Snackin (Ynez)
Recommended Products:
Daniel,
Two random questions:
1) This is not something I'm looking to implement anyway (rather for my own curiosity), but I would like to know more about your experience with creatine (including why). I remember the bad rap it got in mandatory sports team nutrition class, basically that it just adds water weight and is at most a "one season wonder" supplement (at worst, it was considered an addictive "gateway" to steroid use, which I am fairly confident is a gratuitous scare tactic/complete bullshit).
2) Re: not eating before bed (and keeping in mind that I am NOT a hardgainer), I had heard that while you should avoid huge meals before bed, it was good to have at least a glass of milk or some form of protein before you go to bed, ostensibly for use when your body hits REM sleep. I remember this information because I really, really like eating/consuming anything, especially before bed. Is there any truth to this? Why is fasting better?
Thank you!
1) In my research on Creatine, I found the reaction ranged from "it works" to "useless but harmless." It's extremely cheap as long as you don't get some silly branded "EXTREME" version of it. It does cause water retention, but that goes away when you stop. Did it work for me? I dunno - SOMETHING did, and it didn't hurt. I stopped taking it when I went off my cycle, as I don't want my body to get accustomed to it. I do intend to use it again next time, as I still have a tub of the stuff sitting around. As for the "gateway to steroids" argument: I find that hilarious.
2) One of the mysteries of milk is that it causes an insulin spike approximately twice as large as it should, given the amount of carbs it contains. I haven't found a decent explanation of why this happens, but despite this I still find the benefits of milk to outweigh the downsides enough to recommend its consumption by anyone who isn't lactose intolerant. But of all things to avoid right before bed, a glass of milk is high on the list. As for the rest: research shows that you release more hGH when fasted (another benefit of IF), and since you release the majority of your hGH in sleep, you would be shooting yourself in the foot to do anything to diminish that.
I've heard the conventional wisdom argument that says you should have some protein right before bed to prevent catabolism. This is silly. Our bodies are built to withstand a great deal, and I think they can handle a measly 10 hours without food before turning to cannibalizing their own muscles for energy. My understanding is that--unless you spike your cortisol--you won't begin burning muscle until after ~24 hours of fasting. I gained those 16 pounds while fasting in 16-hour windows three times a week, and almost NEVER eating before bed. Take that, T-Nation.
Great post Daniel. You just about summed up 4 years of college study in exercise science.
Your article has had a profound influence on the boys they argued over its various nuances as I drove them to the gym so they could do their 3 X 5's. By the way since you've given up dairy this month could you drop off the milk you used to drink on our doorstep to help alleviate my exponentially increasing milk expenditures?
Daniel is correct. Normally your body will not start catabolising muscle for around 24 hours. Hence IF may indeed be very useful for losing weight.
A tweak for the 3x5. Very simple: if you wish to gain muscular MASS do 3x8s instead. Unfortunately this will not make you quite as STRONG as 3x5s. One could do 2.5 weeks of the challenge as 3x8s followed by 2.5 weeks of 3x5s. If I was trying to gain mass and strength, this is what I would do.
Daniel, you are the best. Thanks for all that.
The milk/protein/whatever before bed always seemed a little mythical. However, I recall Max cautioning against IF in case of insulin sensitivity (which is a category I'm pretty sure I fall into)... so could fasting before bed be considered IF-like?
I think I'm looking for another excuse to keep eating... sleep is just a minor interruption of that endeavor.
PS I have a funny story about the "gateway to steroids" line... ok not that funny, but definitely a story!
Sorry, Bill. I understand your pain - at our peak Rebecca and I were going through 5 gallons of milk, 4 dozen eggs, 2 tubs of cottage cheese and a ton of chicken, jerky and nuts each week. It does add up!
Just to give you an idea of the quantity of food I'm talking about, here's a sample of what I'd eat in a normal day:
Breakfast: 4 eggs with turkey bacon
Snack: 1 cup cottage cheese with cinnamon and almonds
Snack: 3 oz chicken, 2 cheese slices and 1/2 cup nuts
Lunch: (tupperware of leftovers - some combination of veggies and meat)
Snack: 2 hard-boiled eggs, deli slices wrapped around cheese slices, and a homemade protein bar
Dinner: (some combination of veggies and meat)
Post-workout: Quart of Kefir
Plus some milk throughout the day
It isn't easy to eat this much food. Looking at it now, I'm kind of finding it hard to believe that I did that. If you're a hardgainer, remember: eat food like it's your JOB.
Andrea: I find IF to be very effective regardless of whether I'm trying to gain or lose weight (though I find it particularly great for cutting). It increases your insulin sensitivity (a good thing) and maximizes Growth Hormone release. What's not to love?
It isn't for everyone, though - Max tried it and didn't like it. I recommend that anyone interested in it should give it a try, and see how it works for them.
There are tricks to scratch the consumption itch while still fasting. If I get hungry in the evenings, I'll make a cup of green tea or water with lemon - just having something with a flavor to put in your mouth can alleviate the cravings and ease hunger pains.
how do you figure out your BMR?
There are plenty of online calculators that will give you a good estimate.
5 rounds + 5 pull-ups... Obviously a bit lower end. Gotta work on my HSPUs...
9+1 hspu rx static.
17 rounds + 5 pullups.
Some HSPU to floor and some to block using the full body kip.
7 rnds + 5 pull ups scaled - chin over bar pull ups, handstand attempts
6 rounds RX