Diet

      The diet is the sum of the food consumed. Proper nutrition requires vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fuel in the form of carbohydrates and fats.There are two main sources in getting fuel to build larger muscles are insulin and growth hormone (gH).

      By modifying the diet and workout to produce more of these hormones and get them to work together. There are other hormones like testosterone work as well but you can not change those amounts in your system besides taking them artificially. Nutritional/diet and exercise hints that exploit hormone regulation and to get the most beat for our buck.

Protein

      It is one of the issue that always seems to pop up when people start think about putting on lean muscle mass : How much protein should I consume over a day and how much should I consume in one sitting and when should I intake it?

      Basically, there are three things to consider when you are looking at your protein intake: What activities you are doing, what your body weight is and lastly what sex you are. Men and women need different amounts of proteins for muscle synthesis.

Level of protein consumption in grams

      Exceeding the level of protein consumption, the extra protein is probably going towards fueling the body rather than building muscles. In some cases, excess intake might hamper your optimum muscle growth.

Male light activity ~0.8 g per kg

Medium activity ~0.9-1.2 g per kg

Heavy activity ~1.6-2.0 g per kg.

      Women have more growth hormone than men they retain their muscle proteins when they exercise. Thus women do not need to replace this lost protein like men do. The average woman needs only ~0.8 g/kg because of this. This 0.8 grams is plenty to build more muscle.

       Heavy activity will boost this slightly (~1 g/kg) but this is such an insignificant difference that most experts recommend a 0.8 g /kg protein requirement for women.Most bodybuilders will look at these numbers and say they are too low.

      Almost all will give personal accounts that they didn't gain mass until they upped their protein requirements far beyond the limit.However, the protein studies indicate these numbers and most indicate that a high protein diet (they tend to view anything above ~1g/kg regardless of activity level as a high protein diet.)

      It should be required during mass building phase and that many of the test subjects gained better mass and strength levels if they lowered their protein levels once they start to plateau.Protein consumption in one sitting. The body takes about 3 hours to digest protein.

      If there are crabs in your diet your body will ingest more protein than it would if you just took it straight. The reason for this is due to better intestinal motility and the fact that the body tends to absorb proteins easier with crabs. So the amount you consume really depends on your protein needs.

      If you want to go towards muscle building you'll want to keep the level below 20% of your Carb intake, for fueling your body and muscle growth about 50% of your Carb intake and if you want to excrete it and use it for fuel anything higher will do.

Timing your carb and protein intakes

      Insulin clears the blood of sugar and pushes half of the aminos to the muscle to be used as fuel, while gH can force all 20 aminos into the muscle at the same time. Only when gH is acting on your system can you build muscle. So the answer is simple you want to time your crab/protein intake so that when your gH is active you have got aminos in your blood rather than in your gut digesting.

      Pure protein is absorbed in 3 hours and a carb/protein mix is absorbed in 90 min to 2 hours and a high glycemic carb is absorbed in about 30 minutes. To get best results, take protein about 90-150 minutes prior to your Carbs. Well now you have aminos and glucose hitting your muscles but your muscles have to need to absorb these fuels so that you can build with them. If you have not worked them then all your well planned timing is for naught as the fuels are then directed to your adipose (fat) tissue.

      Not what you really want it's mass all right but it's not the kind we need extra of. 8^) So here is what your timing should look like: Eat you protein/carb food about 30 min - 45 minutes prior to working out. Work out for about 1 or 1.5 hrs and then drink some orange juice. Now what this does is that you blood sugar peak happens prior to you amino acid peak. Thus as the sugar peaks your insulin clears the blood of sugar and signals the body to release gH.

      Now your aminos should be peaking in your blood and the gH can supply plenty of them to your muscles which will rebuild/build the needed fibres.By sheer protein ingested they always have aminos in their blood and when the gH release is triggered at irregular intervals during the day and at night the body can always push some aminos into the muscle.

      The facts are that if you are eating smarter you can trigger more gH cycles and push more aminos per cycle into those waiting muscles. Those other meals between meals the body tends to canabalize it's muscle proteins. Muscle gets converted to fuel for your brain and red blood cells So what you want to do is have several smaller meals and snacks throughout the day to keep your blood sugars present but not high.

      These meals should be mostly Carbs with some fat (the body burns fat very efficiently at rest) and protein. Keep the glycemic indices low if you're worried about your fat levels. Two meals that you should always get if you're trying to build mass are breakfast and pre-bed time snack. Well in the morning the body has been surviving off of its internal fuels for 8 or so hours and its corisol levels are elevated.

      gH inhibits corisol and its production so you want to get a gH and glucose peak as quickly as possible in the morning to stop muscle breakdown. Take it easy on the protein and fats for this first meal as the gh/glucose levels will rise quicker that way. At night the body releases a lot of gH and thus you want proteins in the body for it to give to your muscles so they can rebuild and grow. But you have to get to sleep first and really high protein meals keep you alert so you want to eat a carb/protein mix about an hour prior to going to bed.

Food ratios

     Now you know your total protein requirements and calorie requirements what you want to do is eat a slightly higher protein to carb ratio prior to working out and falling asleep and a higher carb to protein ratio early in the morning. So here's a rough estimation of where your crabs and protein calories should be ingested (out of the total intake for that day.)

Morning: Carbs: 25%, Proteins: 10%

Pre-Workout: Carbs: 10%, Proteins: 25%

After-Workout: Carbs: 10%, Proteins: 0% (higher glycemic indexed)

Pre-Sleep: Carbs: 20%, Proteins: 25% 2

other meals: Carbs: 35%, Proteins: 40%

      It just gives you a rough idea of how much of your dietary intake should go when and a general idea when you want to increase/lower your carbs and proteins.

Exercise Hints

      Without going into routine specifics I want to stress that you concentrate on the big muscle groups first and then worry about the others. Make sure you work the quads, hams (the big leg muscles), the spinal erectors and lats (the big back muscles) and the pectoral and delt muscles (the large chest muscles.)

      It's easier to add 5 lbs to all of these muscles than to add 5 lbs to a small muscle like the arms or anyone of them specifically.

      Go to muscle failure and give yourself lots of time to recover between sets and exercise days. Don't over do it... reduce your aerobic work and listen to your body for signs of overtraining.

      In gaining muscle sometimes less is more.There are various good routines out there. Just remember to get in the gym, work out intensely for a short period of time and get out.

Example

      Breakfast Large serving (about 3 fo the box servings) of cereal, a couple glasses of juice and milk and some toast (with various spreads.)Pre-Workout snack Some fruit (usually a banana), Milk and fat-free ice cream shake, yoghurt or tuna sandwich .After workout 2 glasses of fruit juice and another banana (or other fruit).

      Lunch 2 meat based sandwiches, more yoghurt, cookies (yeah it fits in my diet), 2 fruit and some milk or juice. Afternoon snack Another sandwich, fruit serving, milk , juice and usually 3 to 6 apple newtons.Dinner/ Pre-bed snack Pasta and meat sauce, some ice cream and various servings of veggies.

      Total Daily Carb Intake: ~4500-4800 KCal, Protein : ~190 g, Carb / Protein / Fat ratio: Somewhere around 60/20/20