Bulking up or putting on size is a common aspect of training, however I still get asked allot on a weekly maybe even daily basis how it is that some people manage huge muscle gains while others struggle to gain at all.

And my answerer is always the same, to really bulk up and get those huge gains you’re after you need to do three things and you need to do them BIG; eat, train and sleep

So here are a few tips I give to my clients who are looking to put on size and get some serious muscle gains.

1. Start with the basics – Eating Big

Eat in 2 hour Intervals – Learn it, love it and make sure nothing stops your meals

You have to continually fuel your body for the training you’re going to be, and to do this you need to ensure your body has a constant supply of nutrients to prevent going into a catabolic state in which your body feeds off your muscle and protein stores.

It may seem hard at first to eat regularly on 2 hour intervals but with time it becomes second nature and it all comes down to the planning. Ensure you have your meals cooked and ready – use plastic containers to separate meals and prep them a day or two in advance, you can always freeze meals and leave them to defrost overnight ready for the next day at work.

Bulking up doesn’t mean Junk Food – Eat high quality protein and carbs

Putting on mass doesn’t mean eating fatty unhealthy foods; your diet should still consist of high quality protein which you can get from your poultry, fish eggs and lean meat, also complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice and oatmeal as well as fibrous carbs from raw vegetables.

A rule of thumb is to make your meals roughly 1 third protein 2 thirds carbohydrates, and aim to have a protein intake of 1 ½ grams per pound of body fat don’t forget to factor in the protein you receive from supplements you using protein powders such as Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey offer an easy and effective way to increase your protein intake (1 serving is 23grams so enough protein to cover roughly 8-9 pounds of bodyweight in a shake).

Aim to eat some red meat at least once a day, it’s been said for many years that Lean red meat has strength building properties, which is true as this type of meat is high in Iron, protein, and Creatine and to minimise the cholesterol associated you can stick to the leanest joints such as sirloin.

With this taken into account it’s easy to plan meals as I said before to ensure you’re eating regularly every 2 hours.

Refuel before you run on empty – Recovery starts immediately

Your body is much more receptive to nutrient intake immediately after a workout so this is the perfect time to refuel your body, because training depletes your body of protein and glycogen stores to aid recovery this is the best time to start refuelling your body.

The best way to do this is with a quality post workout supplement mixed with non-fat milk, this is both easier on the stomach than eating and more convenient.

There’s hundreds of supplements on the market build for post workout nutrient loading and you can get them off any reputable online retailer I buy allot of my supplements from sport and supplements.

2. Training – Half Measures only Cheat You

Get back to basics; bodybuilding has been around for many many years, long before the days of resistance machines and complex exercise programs. Forget about shaping movements these are only worthwhile when you’re refining existing size, to put on that superhuman size get back to basics and work on those basic heavy barbell exercises.

Movements such as Squats, bench press, deadlift and barbell row will help pack on insane amounts of muscle to anybody who puts in the time and effort to work up to very high weight stacks.

The best thing about these exercises is the fact they are simple and effective, they allow you to build core muscle strength as well as add great size if combined with everything else in this article.

Low volume training – Making a comeback

For years now we’ve been told to do multiple exercises in large sets per body part this is effective but since were going back to basics with exercises and were aiming to gain huge size we need to make sure we are lifting big weights all of the time to force the muscles to grow in order to compensate for the stress.

A proven strategy for gaining huge size in the shortest amount of time is to assign just two or three exercises per body part and only one or two sets at the most – this allows you to go for the absolute heaviest weights you can lift and push out at set without saving energy for later sets like you would usually do if you were doing a combined 40 sets from six to eight exercises.

Aim for four to six reps on your upper body and eight to ten on your leg exercises packing on the heaviest weights possible you should be pushing your body.

Rest between sets – don’t burn yourself out rushing between sets

You’re going to be lifting heavy weights and pushing yourself to the limit every time you lift so you need to give your body time to rest between sets, there’s no sense rushing between each set and exhausting yourself. Take your time and give your body time to recover from the punishment your enduring.  For muscles like calves and arms one or two minutes is all you’ll need before your good to go again, but if your squatting or deadlifting huge weights then you’re going to need to give your body that little extra time to recover between sets I’d say three to five minutes.

Your there to gain size not do a cardio workout so don’t rush between your sets, if you want to train cardio devote some time to this, but remember in the long run your looking for big gains in a short time so rest between sets and lift big.

 3. Rest! – Without rest your body can’t grow

Most people don’t have all day off every day of the week to train, coupled with work, school, family and everything else life throws at you it’s hard to not get burned out at the best of times and pushing your body in the gym to get those gains you want can be too much if you don’t rest. Sleep is a vital part of any training program but is often one we leave off the paper when we workout out our routine. You need to sleep as much as possible to give your body time to recover from the damage done in the gym 8 hours is the absolute minimum and anything extra is a bonus if you can get those 10 hours a night then you definitely should.

If your weekends are free then this is the best part of the week to ensure your well rested so avoid those late nights unless your free to sleep in the next day.

Overtraining is worse than no training

The only thing worse than not training is over training, especially when your lifting big weights to get huge gains – your body NEEDS to recover and working out two to three days in a row will make this almost impossible, to grow new muscle tissue to help your body continually grow you need to give it time.

Aim to work out two days and then take a rest day; my routine is two days in the gym followed by one day off and then after I’ve done this three times I rest for two days instead of one to make sure I’m well rested this helps to keep me motivated and ready to hit the gym every time I go.

Aerobic Exercise is healthy but won’t help you bulk up

I love to play ice hockey but when I’m bulking up I cut this from my routine completely as well as any other aerobic exercise such as football, tennis, basketball. The reason for this is that aerobic exercise burns precious fuel reserves that are needed for size gains.

If you’re worried about your heart or your cardio fitness then do some light cardiovascular exercise a few times a week, and by light I mean light don’t go sprinting until your legs go and you can barely breath this just burns glycogen instead of body fat and can result in size losses especially if your running/cycling and loosing size is just contradictory to the whole process.

Training Partner

Not vital but definitely a help, when you’re looking to gain size it’s easy to get demotivated when you don’t see the gains you want, having somebody there to keep you on track, spot you and help force those last big reps in the gym is something that allot of people underestimate. Not only does it help to have support but training with somebody who is also looking to gain size is the best way to increase gains – Its human nature to compete and if two people are pushing to gain more than the other you’ll always have a reason to push that last rep.

Important Information – Don’t Overlook This

You want to put on size and muscle, of course you’re going to gain a little fat along the way but make sure it is exactly that a “little” fat, you’ll loose allot of definition but should still be able to see some definition in your abs if you go beyond this then you’re just going to end up with a great physique covered in flab, don’t let this happen.

Everything takes time don’t get demotivated

The biggest thing I see as a personal trainer is people looking to gain muscular weight and then a few weeks in becoming de motivated because there gains aren’t what they had hoped for, I explain to them all the same thing – gaining muscle is a slow process your body needs to rebuild damage tissue each time you work out and unlike fat that just gets stored muscle needs to be built.

It’s entirely possible to put on 30, 40 even 50 pounds in a month and if this is your goal then there’s only two outcomes, you’ll end up fat and a slob or you won’t hit the target and become devastated. Putting on muscle and looking good is hard work and takes time, you can realistically expect to gain three to six pounds a month if you’re going all out bulking, and doing everything right. There’s a reason we don’t have thousands of these superhuman bodybuilder sin each gym and that’s because it’s damn hard work to get big.

But if you put in the time and effort and you discipline yourself and push to do everything in this article correctly then you’ll end up with the gains you want. It just takes time.

- Article by Nick Mills