Last week I tried my first gymnastic rings class trying meat hooks and shoulder stands and it was ridiculous.
Fun but insanely hard, and I pulled up so sore from it in places I didn’t know I had!
What are you doing with your training?
Are you changing things?
Are you making progress?
You should always be looking to improve something in your health and fitness arsenal.
It may be adding a new healthy eating habit, or working harder to improve a particular exercise, or running a little further or faster.
It can be anything. But it should always be something.
Constantly trying to get better at something or adding a more powerful eating habit will bring you closer to staying fit and healthy for life.
Want More Muscle?
Of course you do!
Maybe not big, bulky, bodybuilder style muscle, but most of us want a little better definition. So how do we get it?
Training
Firstly, you’ve got to do resistance training.
It doesn’t matter if its bodyweight, kettlebells, bands, dumbbells, medicine balls or whatever. It just matters that you do a little more work, a few extra reps or you increase the weight you use.
Again, you need to constantly work on adding something and getting better.
On the road to more strength, comes more muscle.
For those who want to put on a more substantial amount of muscle, I recommend adding in a heavy strength day or two, every week.
On these days you’ll work on bigger lifts such as heavy squats and deadlifts, heavy presses and rows.
I’d recommend one lower body day and one upper body day, or if only doing one extra session doing a combination of the four exercises above.
Focus on reps from 6-12 reps for 3-10 sets. The total reps you should be hitting per body part is between 30 and 60.
Sometimes you’ll do a lot. Sometimes you’ll do little. You have to have hard weeks and easy weeks and rotate through them.
Eating
Protein builds muscle, so make sure you are getting enough protein.
This does not mean you have to go out and buy protein powder. You can get all the protein you need from meat, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts and seeds.
However, you do need to make sure you get enough of that type of protein each day.
How much is enough?
Take your weight and multiply it by 2. That’s roughly how many grams of protein you should have in one day.
Does it have to be exact? No.
Some people will do better with a little less protein.
Some people will do better with more.
We are all different and need to find that balance through trial and error.
Don’t want to weigh your food? Neither do I.
Carrying a scale to a restaurant would be ridiculous.
Just aim for 1-2 palms size serves of protein at 2-3 meals per day.
Women will be closer to 1 serve and men closer to 2 serves.
Protein also helps us feel fuller for longer, so if fat loss is your main goal, then you should still be eating the same amount of protein.
Regardless of your goal, your daily protein intake should be the same every day.
Your daily fat intake should be fairly consistent each day too.
1-2 thumb size serves at most meals should suffice.
Again, women will be closer to 1 serve and men closer to 2 serves.
If you eat a fattier meat or fish, you’ll likely get your fat from there and not need to add any.
If you eat a leaner meat, add some nuts, seeds, avocado, or quality oils to your meal.
What about carbs?
If fat loss is the main goal, your carbohydrate sources should be primarily from vegetables.
The more cruciferous veggies you can eat the better, as these will fill you up and provide you with plenty of nutrients.
The darker, leafy greens are the best, and I urge you to vary your sources as much as possible to ensure you get a broader nutrient profile which will encourage better gut health.
Always eat some starch after your heavier training sessions each week.
If you are doing strength training sessions 2-3 days a week, a serve of starch afterwards is ideal.
If you only get 1-2 strength sessions in each a week, add some in after your heaviest martial arts sessions such as BJJ.
This replaces glycogen and allows the muscle to recover faster.
Just add one serve of starch to your next meal whether it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or even a snack.
A serve of starch is around 1 fist full. Guys may need up to 2 fist fulls.
Quality starch sources are gluten free grains such as quinoa, rice and buckwheat (among others) if these agree with your digestive system.
I find white rice digests easier despite all the info about brown rice being superior.
Other great starch sources include potatoes of different colours, especially sweet potato.
On lower intensity training days you can just eat more vegetables.
For those who want to build more muscle, eating enough is essential.
Rather than going into details, read what my strength coach recommends and follow that.
www.jasonferruggia.com/muscle-
And don’t take my physique for evidence it doesn’t work. I’ve used this very approach with a bunch of guys and seen massive muscle gain through this approach.
Resting
Get your sleep.
Your body schedule repairs while you are sleeping.
If you miss out on sleep, you miss out on the repairs being done.
Don’t miss out on sleep.
You are sometimes better to train less and sleep more in order to get best results.
We in the west love our high intensity exercise and we want to try everything, so we are constantly rushing around from one activity to the next, whether that be social, work or training.
Sometimes, less is more.
So get to bed before 1030 each night and aim for 8+ hours sleep.
Easier said than done, I know, but at least if you are scheduling that sleep time, you have the best chance at recovery and the results you are looking for.
Yes you also need to stretch and roll and get a massage occasionally, and you need to schedule that too.
I aim to do a big session once a week and smaller sessions while watching TV or studying.
That’s about it.
Regularly push your training a little harder, be consistent with your nutrition and get to bed on time.
Sounds too simple, but that’s just how it works.
