The Muscle Experiment · muscle mass using bodyweight training techniques. This program is for...

NOTICE The information presented in this book is not intended for the treatment, cure or prevention of any disease, nor as a substitute or alternative for medical treatment and advice. This publication is presented for information purposes only. The author does not assume any liability for the information contained herein. The information contained herein reflects only the opinion of the author and is in no way to be considered required practice. Always consult your physician before beginning any training program The contents of this publication are fully protected by copyright law. Any posting or distribution without written consent from the author will be a violation of copyright law and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

© 2010 Mike Thiga. All Rights Reserved www.The-Muscle-Experiment.com

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INTRODUCTION

hank you for purchasing “The Muscle Experiment”. I appreciate the fact that you’ve trusted me and I guarantee you that you’ll be more than pleased at the results you’ll get after using the program.

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The nature of this system is such that it will work for you whether you’re in your teens or in your fifties; male or female. I designed it specifically for those who want to build massive amounts of muscle using purely bodyweight training. So for those (especially women) who might not exactly want to look like Hulk, I simply suggest you use the program until the point where YOU are satisfied with your own results. What you’ll get throughout this book is a number of unconventional techniques and concepts. But you know what? They work. These are the exact same techniques and routines I used to get from 148 to 187 lbs in a little under 6 months. And here’s the kicker: No weights. No gym. No “MegaMatrix 9999” hype supplements. I did it using some largely unknown bodyweight training and muscle building concepts.

This is NOT like anything you’ve gotten before. This whole program is designed to be practical and easy to use. It’s not just a bunch of exercises randomly thrown together with a whole lot of useless content. Instead, it’s a complete step-by-step system that I’ve carefully broken down so you can follow easily and make gains consistently. This WILL work for you. All you have to do is follow the instructions. I won’t bore you with unnecessary scientific ‘jargon’. I won’t hold back any of the “good stuff”. In fact, you’ll probably gain 5 solid lbs just from reading this sentence! (Hey – just kidding. Please don’t sue me or anything…) But seriously, I’m going to give you every single bit of knowledge I have on building serious muscle mass using Bodyweight Training Techniques. I’ll show you what works and what doesn’t. And most importantly, I’ll show you how you too can build serious muscle with the special program provided. Why did I decide to call this book “The Muscle Experiment”? Because the gains I made are as a result of an “experiment” I decided to do on myself 6 months prior. Having felt like this was my only option left to try building muscle, I decided to test it out and see what would happen. Allow me to tell you a quick story…


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The Experiment: How It All Began I used to be really skinny as a child. And being fairly tall, I was also kind of “lanky”. People would make fun of me all the time, although that never really ever bothered me. But then there was the issue of my arm. You see, I was born with a deformity on my right arm; the arm itself was sort of withered by its nature, and with only one finger. I bet you know how cruel kids can be. So I’d get teased and made fun of by some kids, and I ended up becoming extremely self conscious of myself. I was even ashamed of showing my arm in public. I’d pocket a lot and wear long sleeved clothing so that nobody would notice. This went on right up to college where I decided to stop being apologetic for the way I was and I began to loosen up. I owe this to my family and friends who kept encouraging me to love myself for who I really am. Eventually I got to the point in my life where I wanted to build some muscle. I would move from one gym to another but get very frustrated due to one thing: Most gym instructors would more or less give lame excuses like: “Sorry, we can’t risk training you with weights”. And the few who ever agreed to train me with weights would insist on spotting me with super-light weights (I’m talking 15 lb barbells.). The truth is, nobody really wanted to train somebody with a “bad arm” lest something ‘goes wrong’ and they be liable. I remember getting so frustrated that I almost got into a fight with one trainer…well, he’d have whooped my @ss anyway…a scrawny 148lb guy with a ‘bad arm’ against this beefcake. Boy wasn’t that a boost for my self esteem ;-). Anyway, the absolutely last straw came about when I went to a gym not too far from where I live, and the instructor actually seemed pretty cool. We talked for abit and I told him how I felt that other trainers hadn’t really treated me with respect and how disappointed I had been. He silently nodded in agreement to whatever I said. He seemed very understanding of the situation. In my head I was thinking, “Cool. I think this guy can actually help me instead of fighting my efforts to build muscle.” So as I excitedly tell him about how much I’m looking forward to using weights; how I’m actually stronger than most people think; how…he suddenly cuts me off to say: “Why don’t you join our aerobics class instead?” Words can’t really express how I felt at that particular point. Anger, hurt…those would easily be understatements. I was pissed off. My pursuit to building my dream body was constantly being pushed away by the same people who were actually meant to help me achieve it. So I made my decision. “Screw the Gym.”


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“Screw those trainers. Screw the dumbbells. I’m going to build muscle with or without them.” And so my mission began. I began researching the Internet for ways to build muscle without weights or any equipment. To my disappointment, most of the advice out there was just crappy and misleading. Most people said it is impossible to build muscle without weights. Impossible: that’s a strong word. And those who said it could be done would impractically talk about performing hundreds of reps twice a day, or something absurd like that. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time or energy to do hundreds of anything twice a day each and every day. So I took it upon myself to figure out if “this bodyweight training thing” could build muscle or not. I gave myself 6 months. During the first 3 weeks I tried all sorts of crazy exercises and techniques I had looked up….some of them downright EMBARASSING. But I learned from experience and as the weeks went by, (towards the end of month 2) I began to notice some physical changes. My chest was the first thing I noted. It was definitely not as flat as it had been before. Then my arms…even my right arm was getting more muscular. Whoa! I furiously wrote everything down. I mean every single detail of what I was doing. The exact exercises, my energy levels, food intake, how many times I picked my nose..(ok. That’s a lie) but I literally wrote down each and every single workout detail. I kept TESTING and TWEAKING and TRAINING. And at the end of 23 weeks I stepped on the scales and weighed a whooping 187 lbs of solid muscle! All without ever touching a weight. I even had one close relative accuse me of taking steroids. (I forgive you, Alex ;-)) I figured I was onto something big here. And for the sake of all those skinny (and non skinny) guys who have been misled over the years into believing that it is impossible to build massive amounts of muscle without equipment or expensive gym memberships, I want you to know that I did this for YOU. Plus, I wanted to silence all those wannabe experts who shun that which they know not of. So I created a training program for people who wanted to pack on some massive muscle mass using bodyweight training techniques. This program is for people who want to finally build that great body they’ve always dreamed of having. For those who want to take the fullest advantage of the incredible muscle building capabilities that lie within themselves. Your reasons for using bodyweight training are probably very different from mine. But that doesn’t matter. You now have the chance to build that amazing body you truly desire. Now people look at me different. I turn heads wherever I go. And when people ask me, “Dude, how many times do you go to the gym?” I smile and tell them, “I don’t.”


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Most of them actually think I’m being sarcastic, but I explain to them that I really don’t work out with weights. No dumbbells, no gym fees, nothing. People also ask how I was able to pack on 39lbs of muscle with a “bad arm with one finger”. They just don’t get it. All that mattered is that I knew I could do it. Here’s a lesson I hope you can learn today: Don’t let anybody impose their limits on you. The only thing that matters is that YOU believe it can be done. And now it’s your turn. Your turn to prove it to the masses that you can not only build muscle without weights, but you can also give gym rats a run for their money. If a 148lb skinny guy with a withered arm could do it, I don’t see why you can’t do the same. And now that you’re officially out of excuses, it’s time to pack on some serious muscle. Isn’t it time you built the body of your dreams? So I’m passing the torch to you now. Run with it. Talk soon, Mike.


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THE MUSCLE EXPERIMENT:

The Lost Secrets of Bodyweight Training

By Mike Thiga TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 10 Crucial Things You MUST Do Before You Begin the

Bodyweight Training Program Page 10 Chapter 2 Bodyweight Training – Myths vs. shocking Facts

Page 15 Chapter 3 Mind blowing bodyweight training secrets revealed

Page 20 Chapter 4 The 7 SuperFreak principles of the Muscle building program

Page 31 Chapter 5

SuperFreak Dieting for Massive Mass Page 39 Chapter 6 Supplements – The truth you can only learn here

Page 44 Chapter 7

The SuperFreak Muscle Building Program Page 59 Conclusion Page 60 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


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CHAPTER 1:

10 Crucial Things You MUST Do Before You Begin the Training Program

know how exciting it is to jump into a new training program. But one thing I've noticed with most people (I’m guilty as well) is that they usually begin training without a plan or target of any kind. If someone asks “What’s your target?”

They generally give vague answers like “to gain 15 pounds” or “to get as big as I can get” Other people will follow a program only when they “feel like”. These types of habits often sabotage one’s success. Below I’ve stated ten things which you MUST do if you want to get 100% out of each and every single moment of your training:

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1. Set a target: Before you begin the program you must KNOW for yourself exactly what you want out of it. Make it clear, specific and most importantly, realistic. Saying “I want to gain 15 lbs” isn’t a good enough target. Why? Because you haven’t set a deadline for your goal. Do you want 15 lbs in two months or two YEARS? Be specific with your deadline, and you’ll have no choice but to work your butt off until you hit that target. So instead, you should say something like “I want to pack on 10-15 pounds of muscle by the end of week 8 of this program”.

2. Start immediately: There is no such thing as the “perfect time” to start training. So stop wasting more time. Tomorrow never comes. I don’t care if you’re living in the jungle, or you’re at your office or at home. Most of the bodyweight training techniques I’ll show you can be done virtually anywhere. And that’s the beauty of it. No “dumb-bells”, remember? ;-) UNLESS…you’ve just come off a previous training program which you’ve been using for over 3 months. If that’s the case, then you should take a full one week break off any form of training. But once you’re week is up, I’m expecting you back here. Okay? 3. Tell people about your goal: You don’t necessarily have to do this, but I’d definitely advise you to. Let the people who are close to you know about your bodybuilding goals and your target. But tell only those who will encourage and motivate you. There are some people out there who are ready to shoot you down for the sake of their own sadistic fulfillment, so be careful who you tell. By letting your close family & friends know about your goals, it’s much harder to fail because you are now accountable to someone who will be watching you progress. 4. Go through this book step by step: Don’t skim trough this book or skip ahead looking for magic bullets and quick techniques. I have provided some ‘tricks’ and a whole other bunch of cool stuff to help you build muscle quickly, BUT you must


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use everything together as a whole. Please follow exactly as I say in the book. Don’t be tempted to add or remove reps, sets or anything like that. In chapter 7 I’ll reveal to you the exact system I used to gain 39 pounds in 6 months with bodyweight training. 5. Give your mind a detox: I want you to clear your mind of all the junk info you’ve gathered from the bodybuilding magazines and the Internet. Let go of any preconceived beliefs you had about bodyweight training and muscle building. Put away all those other workout programs you’ve been collecting. Don’t try to “Mix and Match” parts of this program with other programs. Put all your focus on this program and make the decision to follow it to the very end. 6. Be consistent: Studies show that the biggest mistake most trainees make is not giving a training program enough time to work. You need to decide for yourself right now if you really want to go ahead with this program. Because half-hearted efforts only produce half (if any) results. You need to give this program everything you’ve got. Some days you probably won’t feel like working out…or maybe you might not be feeling well. I know. I’ve been there too. And that’s where discipline and consistency get put to the test. Remember, whining is NOT an option. Make the decision to let NOTHING come in your way to developing your dream physique. I guarantee that if you use this program consistently you’ll begin to see results just weeks from now. 7. Write everything down: Write everything down for the sake of being able to track your progress. I can’t stress this one enough. Note down exercises performed, sets & reps completed, time of day, how you were feeling that day…were you psyched up? Or were you kind of tired or bogged down? Comparing these details will let you know how much better you performed than your previous workout. I’ve provided some workout logs in a bonus PDF file which you will print out and record this information on. This is the single most important thing you must do if you’re serious about muscle building. 8. Be prepared beforehand: Decide for yourself the best time you can train uninterrupted and stick to it all through. The time of day doesn’t really make any difference. It’s simply a matter of personal preference. I personally workout from around 9.00pm-9.45pm. Keep whatever you’ll need close by. Have a bottle of water with you so you won’t have to keep traveling and wasting time looking for something to drink. Remember you only have 45 minutes MAX per training session. So let this be the most explosive muscle pumping 45 minutes you’ll EVER have. There is no time to waste. 9. Break old habits: Take advantage of this life changing period and make the decision to break old habits. Stop eating all that junk food which will sabotage your progress. Decide to stop slouching completely by the end of 30 days. Whatever habits in your life you want to break, just start slowly but consistently. Take it one day at a time and you’ll be amazed at how much progress you’ll have made at the end of 30 days. Everything you are right now (good or bad) is based upon the decisions you’ve made in the past.


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10. Actually DO the program: Don’t skim through the program saying to yourself “I know”. People make the mistake of doing this. Instead of actually doing a program, they’ll dismiss it claiming “I know all this stuff already”. But do you really? Because if you did, then you wouldn’t be Mr. Skinny Guy, now would you? Here’s the hard fact: You do not know ANYTHING about muscle building until you have actually BUILT muscle, right? So then I ask you to trust me and actually DO this program; follow it exactly as it is; and I’ll be waiting to see your transformation pics in a few months. Before we move on to the next chapter, I want you to spend just 15 minutes coming up with your goal for this program. Write down exactly how many pounds you want to have gained at the end of two months and at the end of six months. Go further and describe exactly how you want to feel with this extra muscle mass, the size of clothes you want (or don’t want) to fit in, etc. Do this before moving on to chapter 2. It’s extremely important. You’re done? Good. Let’s move on then.


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CHAPTER 2:

Bodyweight Training – Myths vs. Shocking Facts

he bodyweight training issue has been debated literally for centuries. Some people support bodyweight training as the supreme training method while others shun it. Some say it can be used to build muscle while others say it is

completely useless. T

In all honesty, most critics simply talk because they feel they must open their mouths to say something. Majority of the people who shun bodyweight training as a way to build muscle are simply passing on 2nd hand information which they picked up from somebody else. Information which they’ve never verified for themselves. As information gets passed on like that it is bound to get corrupted along the way. And hence the question as to whether or not you can build muscle without weights has never been resolved with a definite answer. And where does that leave you? Confused and frustrated. Nobody has dared to answer this question for fear of being ripped apart by the critics. But I’ve got good news for you today. I’m about to reveal to you the shocking facts about bodyweight training. Because unlike most people who simply talk about bodyweight training, I actually use it and have witnessed the effects for myself. And by the end of this chapter you will have the answer to a question millions of people have asked over the last few centuries. But first let’s debunk the 6 most popular bodyweight training myths:

Myth # 1: Bodyweight exercises are only good for fat loss I bet you’ve heard this one as well. On TV they’ll show you all these super skinny models doing step-ups star jumps and ab crunches. Therefore people are misled to believe that that’s what bodyweight training is all about. First of all, those techniques don’t work for fat loss. Secondly, there is a MASSIVE difference between bodyweight training for fat loss and bodyweight training for muscle gain. It’s the same way you can use weightlifting either to build muscle or to lose fat..but the techniques for each one are very different. Real muscle building bodyweight training techniques involve stressing the muscle; overloading it to the point that it has no choice but to GET BIGGER.

Myth # 2: Bodyweight workouts have to be super long to be effective. A lot of people argue that the sessions have to be up to 2 hours long to be “effective”, and that anything less is a waste of time. This argument stems from


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the belief that people think bodyweight training is a “cardio” thing. And cardio sessions can usually go on for hours and hours. Actually, the opposite is true. For a bodyweight training session to be effective, must be performed within a time limit of 45-60 minutes MAX! The reason is simple: Your body has a 45-60 minute anabolic window during training, after which it is programmed to release muscle destroying hormones if you continue to exercise. So 45-60 minutes is all you need to build muscle.

Myth # 3: Bodyweight exercises are only good for holding onto gains,

but not for making any. I’ve often heard people saying that if a weightlifter is in a location where he doesn’t have any access to weights, he can use bodyweight training exercises to hold onto his gains. “But just don’t expect to make any new gains”. I can only agree with the first part. Bodyweight training can help a weightlifter hold on to existing gains, BUT I will go further and say that they WILL make further gains with the bodyweight exercises if they use them correctly. Oh, the ignorance! Muscle building is about stimulation. And your muscles don’t care whether you’re in a gym or in the jungle. Any exercise that can stimulate your muscles will lead to new growth. And I will show you exactly how to do it. Myth # 4: The only usefulness of bodyweight exercises is to ‘keep fit’. And by ‘fit’ they definitely don’t mean buff. They mean ‘skinny but healthy’ ☺. I bet you know a few of those “skinny but healthy” culprits. Apparently, bodyweight training is ‘too easy’ and so it is only good for maintaining ‘overall well being’ (what???). There exist hundreds of bodyweight exercises. Some are easy while others are super pumpingly intense and downright hard. The same way you would go to a gym and find 5lb dumbbells and 200lb barbells. So it would be pretty dumb of me if I picked the 5lb dumbbell, used it for a few reps and then said, “Man, weightlifting is too easy to build muscle.” Moral of the story? You must pick the right exercises. It’s not about doing any bodyweight training exercise you feel like doing. I’ll give you the exact ones to build you all the muscle you want.

Myth # 5: If you hope to see any muscle, you must do a super high

number of reps.

This one is all over the internet. Some so-called “experts” will tell you things like “Do 100 pushups and 200 burpees twice a day everyday.” I don’t know about you,


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but I personally don’t have the time or energy to do that amount of exercise every single day. The problem is that people think that the only way to accommodate for the lack of weight is by doing obscenely high reps. Wrong. You’ll never have to do so many reps. In fact, training like that everyday could quickly lead to severe overtraining. In very few instances would someone ever need to do high reps to incorporate overload.

Myth # 6: You CAN’T build muscle without weights.

Ah…The most classic of them all. It’s actually becoming the ‘popular’ thing to say nowadays. The main argument behind this myth is that since bodyweight training doesn’t allow a constant increase in weight load (like weightlifting), you cannot overload your muscles and hence they cannot grow bigger. Remember what we had discussed before? Muscle building relies on stimulation. Period. Your body doesn’t particularly care whether the stimulation comes from iron, a bag of gorilla manure or even your own bodyweight. Stimulation is the key, and as you’ll see later on, bodyweight training exercises have been proven to provide more stimulation than weight lifting exercises. People generally accept these myths as truth because they take in information without judging it for themselves. Don’t believe everything you read. Everyone has an opinion. But having an opinion does not make you an expert. Look at it this way: With all the free bodybuilding information floating around on the web, how come such few people actually look like bodybuilders? (Hmm…I wonder why). Now let’s get into the really good stuff.

4 Stunning Facts You Never Knew about Bodyweight Training.

FACT: Bodyweight exercises stimulate more muscle than weightlifting

exercises

Exercises that move the body rather than a weight (like the handstand pushup) have been shown to fire more muscle fibers than exercises that move a weight rather than the body (like the military press). More fiber stimulation equals more muscle for you. This is great news because once you know the correct bodyweight exercises that stimulate the most amount of muscle fibers, you’ll automatically have a way bigger advantage than people in the gym. So have no fear…I have all the correct exercises prepared for you.


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FACT: Bodyweight Training enhances your body’s natural lines of movement

I don’t want to sound too “Pencil Pusher-ish”. Here’s the thing: Your body was designed to move in all directions: up down, left, right etc. So when training you should aim to improve your natural ability to move in these directions, so as to enhance your growth potential. This cannot be done by being strapped to an exercise machine or by using dumbbell lifts. By improving your body’s natural lines of movement, you will achieve superior fitness levels in addition to the SIZE you’ll pack on. Iron cannot give you these benefits. Plus, you won’t be complaining of joint and bone issues when you’re older. FACT: Muscles produced by bodyweight training last longer than those

produced by weightlifting

The nature in which you will be performing these exercises will produce both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers. Some of the exercises (due to the number of reps) will predominantly produce slow twitch muscle fibers, which are known to last longer than their fast twitch counterparts. And this is good because you see, you’re not only trying to gain muscle, but you’re also trying to keep as much of it as you can without having to fight so hard. FACT: Pound for pound, compound bodyweight training exercises are

THE ultimate mass building exercises.

Ask yourself: “Why would super strong, ripped pro bodybuilders trying to get as big as possible stick to pull-ups if bodyweight exercises were so ineffective?” I’ll tell you why: Because no other exercise on this planet can beat wide grip pull-ups in building pure mass on the upper back. And in the next chapter, I’m going to give you a whole list of bodyweight exercises just as powerful as wide grip pull-ups, but for every other part of your body. Important note: You must know HOW to use the bodyweight training techniques. Use them poorly and you’ll be unlikely to see any results. I hear enough people saying they “know” how to perform bodyweight training exercises correctly, but really you do not “know” anything until you have actually done it for yourself and gotten results. On the next page is a story that better illustrates my ideology about “knowing” how to use something:


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Lumberjack Joe and the Seven Dwarfs There once lived a man by the name of Lumberjack Joe. He was the best lumberjack in the country. With nothing but an axe in hand, Joe could chop down up to 10 trees in a single day. One day he got called up by a client who wanted 100 trees chopped down by the end of the week. The next day they met to discuss payments and such, and as soon as the client saw Lumberjack Joe’s axe, he said “There’s no way you’ll be able to chop down 100 trees by the end of the week with that thing! Here’s a chainsaw. You’ll be able to cut down 30 trees a day with it.” So he gave Joe the chainsaw and left.

The client came back after seven days and to his utter shock, Lumberjack Joe had only cut down 35 trees. “What the heck have you been dong all this time?” The client squealed in anger. Joe replied with a tone of anger and slight arrogance: “This chainsaw thing of yours is USELESS! I can only cut down 5 trees a day with it. I can double that with my axe alone!” “That can’t be right” said the client as he took the chainsaw from Lumberjack Joe’s hands and pulled the cord as it made a loud “VRRROOOOOOM!” sound. As the client turned around to ask Joe something, he was shocked to see Joe up the top of one of the trees trembling in total wussy-like fear. The client asked him: “What’s the matter? And what on earth are you doing up that tree?” Joe responded: “What the heck is that sound?” The meaning of this story is simple. Lumberjack Joe never knew how to work a chainsaw, so he tried to use it manually and was only able to cut very few trees. But he kept saying that the chainsaw was useless…yet the mistake was his own ignorance. “But what does this story have to do with Seven Dwarfs?” You may ask… I have no idea. And after all is said and done, herein lies the question: “Can You Build Muscle Without Weights?” YES YOU CAN. You can build muscle without weights. And I mean MASSIVE amounts of pure rock hard muscle…not just 5-10lbs. I will show you how I did it and most importantly how YOU can do it as well. I hope you’re ready.


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CHAPTER 3:

Mind blowing bodyweight training secrets revealed

eople fail to make progress in building muscle because they get trapped in the mindset that everything has to be complicated for it to be worthwhile. They think that if something is too simple or obvious, then it doesn’t work.

It’s possible to become “addicted” to your struggle. It happens in every day life. Some people think that just because they work 70 hours a week they deserve to make more money than someone else who works only 40 hours a week. But it really doesn’t work like that. The payoff is much higher when you work smarter rather than harder.

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Before we discover HOW to build muscle using bodyweight training techniques, let’s first see why people fail in the first place:

• Useless Techniques – Every single day someone comes up with some really “creative” bodyweight exercise. Some are just variations of the originals. Others are just plain weird. Most of these extreme variations are simply useless and do nothing other than waste your time (and make you look silly ☺) Let me tell you something that will probably save you a whole lot of wasted effort: When trying to build muscle, don’t try to get all “creative” or “cute” with your exercises. Stick to what works and has been proven time and time again.

• “More is better” mentality – Sometimes people tend to think that if they

add more reps, more sets, more exercises…that they will get more results. No. More isn’t necessarily better. Many times it’s actually counterproductive. So many bodyweight training programs I’ve seen give selections of 35-50 different exercises so that the users don’t get “bored” of the “same old routines”. I disagree with them. Because I would rather have 5-10 “boring” exercises that build muscle rather than 10-50 “fresh” exercises which don’t build muscle. Wouldn’t you?

• No structure – This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons people fail to

build muscle using bodyweight training. For some strange reason people have been led to think that they don’t need a structure in place when performing bodyweight training exercises. So they’ll do a few pushups today, skip three days then come back and do one or two chinups (if they feel up to it)…and one month down the line when they look at themselves in the mirror, they will actually act shocked when they find that they still look exactly the same.

In the training program I’ve given only the best batch of exercises. I won’t throw 100 useless exercises at you just so that it seems like you have a bunch of choices but in reality is just a waste of your time.


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Onto the secrets: The reason I’m calling them “secrets” is because until now, the methods and techniques I’m about to show you had been in the hands of only a privileged few. And these few are the SuperFreaks among their groups. So let’s get to them: Secret # 1: How to achieve progressive overload without weights Most people who argue that you can't build muscle without weights base their argument upon the concept of Progressive Overload. They claim that since you can’t increase weights week by week (like weightlifting), there is no way to overload your muscles progressively in order for them to grow. Wrong again. In fact, let me show you 5 solid ways which you can use to achieve progressive overload without weights:

i. Perform the same number of reps in less time than before. ii. Perform more reps without increasing the workout length. iii. Hitting the same muscle at different angles. iv. Incorporating static holds into your workouts. v. Reducing the speed per rep by half.

All these methods can be successfully used to progressively overload and greatly increase muscle stimulation. And muscle growth is all about stimulation. Secret # 2: The secret to massive size AND strength Size and strength do NOT always come together. We all know at least one of those guys who have been working out in the gym for years, but they look exactly the same as when they first started out. I know it’s funny, but I bet these guys must be pretty frustrated. You’ve probably also noticed that even if these guys don’t have much to show in terms of their size, they are usually super strong. So what happens? What’s really going on? (By the way, this doesn’t just happen to weightlifters.) Victims of this “skinny-strong” phenomenon are usually guilty of one of the following:

(a) Their load never increases. They use the same weight with the same number of reps, day in day out, month after month.

(b) Their load increases, but they make the mistake of increasing their

rest periods together with the load. This results in an intensity drop, and stimulation fails to occur.

SOLUTION: The solution to both these issues is simple. If you want to gain both size AND strength, you must constantly increase your muscular load as you progress in training, while at the same time keeping the rest periods constant (typically 30 seconds between sets). Don’t be tempted to increase rest periods otherwise you’ll completely sabotage yourself.


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Secret # 3: Bodyweight Training vs. Weightlifting This bodyweight training vs. weightlifting argument has been going on for thousands of years. I’m going to save you the headache and give you the clear cut facts right now. I’ve taken the time to select for you the best muscle building exercises that exist (at least on this planet). What I’ve done here is simply match up some of the most powerful bodyweight exercises (which we’ll be using in the program) against the most powerful and widely used weightlifting exercises. If you want even more muscle building bodyweight exercises, take a look at the Exercise Database (it was provided together with the other bonuses). The exercises below have been rated according to their overall muscle building capacity (on the scale of 1 to 10). You’ve never seen anything like this:

VERDICT: Close Grip Chinups take the win when it comes to building massive biceps. The twisting dumbbell curls might be popular in weightlifting circles, but are absolutely nowhere near as effective.

VERDICT: Same thing goes for upper back muscle building. Wide Grip Pull Ups reign supreme. Ask any pro bodybuilder and they’ll swear by this☺.


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VERDICT:

The incline bench press is a good exercise for building the chest muscles. But guess what works better..you guessed it! Decline Pushups actually work the chest deeper & harder as well as stimulating the muscle fibers across a more dynamic plane of motion.

VERDICT: Bodyweight training does have a slight weak point in building quadriceps muscles. But this doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to have toothpick legs. With the special workout combinations I’ve given in the program, you’ll be able to slap on a slabs of muscle on your legs.

VERDICT:

Most people focus only on working their biceps. You probably didn’t know that your triceps actually make up about 2/3 of your upper arm muscles. And that being the case, you need a SERIOUS tricep workout exercise. Tricep blasters are THE best tricep exercise in all of existence. Wait till you try them.

VERDICT:

We have a tie here between the Arnold Press and the Handstand Pushup. Good news is that the muscle building capacity is through the roof! Want to look like one of those ‘no-necks’ you see in the magazines? Then handstand pushups can get you there.


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VERDICT: Bodyweight decline ham extensions are undoubtedly the best hamstring exercise there is. If you want those massive extruding hams at the back of your legs, then look no further than this particular exercise.

OFFICIAL VERDICT: As you can see, Bodyweight Training comes up on top. And this isn’t some biased information made to make weightlifting look bad. These are facts which many people can attest to. Once an avid weightlifter friend of mine even openly told me that 60% of his workouts are bodyweight training exercises...and he’s a pretty big guy. But since he works out in a gym, people automatically assume that he’s all about the weights. The exercises given above are just but a few. The Exercise Database bonus ebook contains all the bodyweight exercises you’ll ever need if you want to build muscle. This is not B.S. I’d probably be skeptical as well if I read this somewhere. But this goes beyond reading. Based upon this very same information (plus a solid training and nutrition schedule) I was able to pack on 39lbs of muscle in 5 months and 3 weeks…something people take several years to do. Without these particular bodyweight exercises, your chances of getting huge are slim to none. So listen up, and pull your seat a little bit closer. What you’ve seen is just a taste of things to come.


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CHAPTER 4:

The 7 SuperFreak principles of the Muscle building program

uring the 6 months that I was testing various muscle building techniques, I got to learn a lot of stuff. I found out what worked and what didn’t. And after isolating something that worked, I tested it against something else to

find out how well it performed as compared to its counterpart. After filtering out all the real data from the crap, I was left with a specific set of rules and techniques which can generally be categorized into 7 groups which I like to call the SuperFreak Principles.

D These 7 principles are the core of The Muscle Experiment. How much muscle you build over the next six months will depend on how closely you follow them. And they are so powerful that they will work for anybody who wants to build muscle. Not just bodyweight trainers.

The 7 SuperFreak Principles: PRINCIPLE #1: EXERCISE TYPE, TECHNIQUE AND FORM Type: The exercises you choose mean everything. Picking the right type of exercises can mean packing on a solid 40 lbs over the course of the year. Picking the wrong type of exercises can mean being stuck in skinny mode…forever. Burpees won’t do you any good if your aim is to pack on mega pounds of muscle. Neither will lunges. It’s no wonder that some people think you can’t build muscle without weights. Correct exercise selection is critical. Another key to muscle growth is the use of compound exercises. These are exercises which work several muscle groups at the same time instead of just one. An example of a compound exercise would be pushups, which focus on building the chest, but at the same time also work the triceps and the shoulders (traps). These types of exercises stimulate more muscle fibers and anabolic hormones (Testosterone, Growth Hormone and IGF-1). Technique: There are a number of extremely powerful techniques which when plugged into your normal training will magnify your results countless times over. I want to share some of them with you right now because you’ll be using them at different times during the program. Think of them as dynamite. They are very powerful, but when used wrongly can potentially blow up in your face.

Static holds – A static hold is a technique whereby you contract your muscles at the top of a rep, and hold that position for a specified length of time, for example 30 seconds. When you can no longer stay in


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that position, you slowly let gravity bring you down. Static holds involve only a single rep. Here's an example for chinups: Position yourself in the chinup position and lift yourself. Just before you get to highest point, hold your position for 30 seconds. Contract your biceps as hard as you can in that position as you fight gravity from pulling you down. After 30 seconds, lower yourself in a controlled fashion. This same concept applies to pushups, pull-ups and various other bodyweight exercises. The key to performing a static hold is to contract your muscles at the near top position of a rep and hold that position for a given number of seconds. Static holds enable the muscle to recruit the most muscle fibers possible. Reversals – Sometimes it happens that you just can’t make progress with a

particular exercise. Maybe you’ve been stuck on the same number of reps for weeks and muscle growth has stopped. That’s where reversals come in. The general idea is to switch the position of your exercises, such that the first one now becomes the last; the second one becomes second last and so on. This reversal sequence often gets people out of their ‘stuck’ points.

Muscle order – Believe it or not, the order in which you work your muscles

also influences the gains you will make. I don’t want to get too scientific or ‘boring’ on you, so I’ll leave it at that. As long as you follow the order I’ve laid out in the program, you’ll be ok.

Consistency – We hear this one all the time. But for some strange reason

very few people follow it. Let me stress this: You have absolutely NO chance of building muscle if you don’t follow your training program consistently. Sometimes you’ll be psyched up to work out and other times you just might not have the energy. Some days you might be having a really tight schedule and working out may not seem to be the biggest priority. That’s where consistency comes in. Don’t let your emotions determine whether or not you’re going to work out today. Look at every training session you miss as another potential 5lbs of muscle lost forever.

Supersetting – A superset is a series of exercises performed one after the

other, without stopping or resting in-between. The series of exercises is grouped into a single set. So you basically perform two different exercises working the same muscle group. An example of a triceps superset would be this: start off with tricep blasters, then immediately follow up with tricep dips.

When used properly, supersets have the ability to stimulate more muscle without increasing reps or workout session length. And the cool thing is that


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they allow you to go far beyond your normal capacity without compromising other workout parameters.

Hitting the muscle at multiple angles - Normal forms of exercise will only

hit a muscle at one particular angle. Your muscles will still grow if you do this, but you will leave thousands of fresh muscle fibers untouched. But when you start hitting the same muscle group at multiple angles, then you’re really beginning to enter freak territory. Ever seen one of those guys whose arms have so many muscular subdivisions on them that they look like they’re straight out of a batman cartoon? That’s what I’m talking about. And I’ll show you how to do it as you progress in the training program.

Volume training – This is a technique we’ll be using toward the end of the

program. If your body is a car engine, then this will be the Nitrous that will propel you so far past the finish line you won’t even believe it. But it only works wonders when used for brief periods at a time. It involves targeting only the major muscle groups while performing intensively high reps on them. Volume training is great but must never be overused or used with the wrong exercises.

Form: I’ve seen enough people who claim to be able to do 50 pushups ‘easy’. Most of these guys simply bounce their chests off the ground while letting momentum rock them up, and gravity bring them down. Wrong. I’ll let you in on something: For your muscle to grow they must work. Performing exercises in a speedy fashion uses more momentum than muscular power. And momentum does NOT build muscle. So if you think you can do 50 pushups ‘easy’, I challenge you to reduce your pushup rep speed by half, and see how many reps you can manage to complete. That will be your true threshold. It’s a pretty humbling experience. ;-)

Here are the basic rules to ensure that your form is perfect such that you begin to utilize every single muscle fiber you’ve got:

• Perform full range reps: Always extend to the deepest point of

muscular contraction. If its pushups, go all the way down to the floor. If it’s bar dips, go as low as you can, but don’t overdo it and risk injuring yourself. Going all the way will enable you to complete fewer but higher quality reps for maximum fiber stimulation. When you move a greater distance, you work a greater amount of muscle (simple science really).

• Use slower than normal speeds: Don’t rush through your reps…you’ll

only be lying to yourself. Relying on momentum to help you through an exercise will get you absolutely nowhere. The longer your muscles are under tension, the more stimulation will occur. So slow down your rep speed. Make sure you take at least 40 seconds to complete each set.


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This rule should apply regardless of whether you’re performing 10 reps or 20 reps. Forty seconds is the absolute minimum allowable length of time you should take to complete a set.

• Don’t stop for rest in-between reps – Go all out and push to the very

end. Your mind will generally try to give up before your body does. Don’t listen to it. Resting in-between reps will result in an intensity drop. This is bad.

PRINCIPLE #2: INTENSITY What image comes to your mind when you hear the word “intensity”? You’re probably picturing someone working their butt off in the gym, doing countless reps for 2-3 hours straight. That’s intense, right? WRONG! Two things to remember - Firstly: The longer your training session is, the less intense it becomes. Secondly: The more frequently you train, the less intense your overall workouts will be.

It is physically impossible to train both hard and long. Human physiology is not calibrated for such a task. For your workouts to be intense, they must be brief. You want proof? Take a look at sprinters and marathon runners. I want you to ask yourself which one of the two groups perform with the highest level of intensity..obviously the sprinters. These guys go all out for a full 100 meters. But they absolutely cannot perform with the same intensity for anything longer than that. Now take a look at marathon runners. They perform with a much lower intensity, and because of this they are able to run much farther distances than the sprinters. You see, there always must be an exchange of some kind between intensity and time. But you’ll never have both.

“So What Exactly IS Intensity?” With that said, it’s much easier to begin to see what intensity actually is. Newbies generally have the idea that “intense” is when you train six days a week for two hours each day. This is far from it. Intensity is when you give your workout 100% all out effort from beginning to end.


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I know that this can vary because your 100% on your best day will be different from your 100% on a day when you’re stressed out. So here is how you will determine intensity: The workout programs in this book are designed with 6 default exercises which are meant to be completed within 45 minutes; IF your intensity is 100%. Of course this is oversimplified, but it’s a good way to calculate how intense your workouts are. So if you want to know how intense your workout was, simply follow the following formula:

The figure you get is your % intensity. (Assuming that everything else was done as it was supposed to) Here’s an example: if I usually take 50 minutes to complete my workouts, in order to calculate my intensity all I have to do is this:

“But what if I’m constantly able to beat the 45 minute mark?” If you’re constantly able to finish in less than 45 minutes (and you’re doing everything perfectly), let your new finishing time become your “time required” in the intensity formula. So if you’re now able to constantly finish in 40 minutes instead of 45 minutes, you will calculate your intensity like this:

In this example, whenever you finish your full workouts within 40 minutes, your intensity will be assumed to be 100%. But Remember: The aim is not to do the exercises as fast as you can. This isn’t a cardio session. Don’t kill yourself trying to beat the 45 minutes. Just make sure that you’re working out in perfect form and you’re not using momentum to get you


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through the exercises quickly. During first two weeks, it might be abit hard to keep up, so give yourself an extra 10 or so minutes if you have to. With that out of the way, it’s time to get down to some serious business: Muscle growth is directly related to the intensity of the exercises you use. The key is to have intense workouts which are brief (45 minutes) and infrequent (3 times a week). Increasing the amount of training is truly the worst thing you could possibly do if you wanted to build muscle. To increase the intensity of our workouts even further, we’ll be doing full body workouts each session. Your body will be literally FLOODING with anabolic hormones and you will GROW. But you must pay the price. You must put 100% effort into every single workout session. No distractions, no lengthy rest periods, no excuses. This NOT for sissies. Your mind must be prepared to do this. Remember, you only have 45 minutes to build muscle. USE THEM WISELY. True intense training is actually much harder than most people think. Even with those extremely brief sessions, I’ve seen people freak out at the 30 minute mark, wondering if they’ll be physically able to complete the session. That’s a good sign. I don’t care what anybody else says. Intensity is THE key ingredient to rapid muscle growth once you have the correct exercises in place. Understand this one concept and you’ll be light-years ahead of the crowd.

As I said before, you’ve got to be prepared mentally, physically and emotionally. During intense training periods the mind has the tendency to give up before the body does. When you begin to hear “I can’t go on” in your head, ignore the thought and focus instead on the end result of what you want to achieve…that great body. PRINCIPLE #3: ANABOLIC SUPERSTATES Anabolism: The process of muscle tissue building. Catabolism: The process of muscle tissue destroying. Those are the two factors which will determine how big you can humanly get. Ordinarily, your body maintains a state of balance called “Homeostasis”. Homeostasis is simply a balance between anabolism (muscle building) and catabolism (muscle destroying). For there to be a normal balance, our bodies both gain and lose muscle tissue daily. This balance prevents us from becoming SUPER MASSIVELY FREAKIN’ HUGE or extremely puny.


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This is how the balance looks for a normal person who isn’t working out:

If we want to increase muscle growth to the HIGHEST MAXIMUM POSSIBLE, then both sides of the anabolic/catabolic scale must be altered so that anabolism is increased and catabolism is reduced. Sort of like a bank account. If you have an account where you deposit 100$ everyday and you withdraw 100$ everyday, then your account is in a state of “balance” or “Homeostasis”. Now, if you want to increase the amount of money (muscle) in your account, there are 2 ways through which you can do it:

(a) You can either increase your daily deposits to let’s say, 200$, without increasing your daily withdrawals. (The money will increase due to addition)

(b) Or you can leave the daily deposits at 100$ BUT decrease your daily withdrawals to let say, 50$. (The money will increase due to the fact that it is no longer being removed. It will therefore increase due to accumulation.)

Simply put, you can increase the amount of money in your account by either increasing how much you put in or decreasing how much comes out.


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In bodybuilding terms this means that you can either increase anabolism or decrease catabolism, if you want to build muscle. Now, imagine if you could do BOTH of these at the same time?

This is how TRUE muscle building works. You will not only increase muscle gain, but you will reduce muscle loss as well. That’s how pro bodybuilders get so huge on steroids. Not only do steroids rapidly build up muscle, they also suppress the catabolic response and hence they are able to surpass their normal genetic limits. But we are going to do that without steroids.

Therefore, (contrary to what most people think), muscle building is 2 sided. Ordinary people focus only on the anabolic side while SuperFreaks (that’s us) focus on both anabolic and anti-catabolic. If I were to break everything down and have a “Muscle Building Formula”, this would be it: High Workout Intensity + Max Anabolism + Minimized Catabolism = Freaky Mutant-like Muscle Mass Now that you have an idea of the role of anabolism and catabolism in muscle building, I want you to see how this will get applied in the training program. There are two states in which you can build extreme muscle: State1: Starved anabolic states These are simply periods in which you will build muscle by NOT eating protein. People generally think that constantly eating truckloads of protein is the key to building a Hulk-like body. Protein is necessary to build muscle (and we will get to that), but ingesting too much protein actually makes your body poor at utilizing it. And by creating a “protein starved” state, your body will respond by releasing hormones to utilize and store up the nutrients in the muscles. Here is why you should be excited: your body grows as a result of what it absorbs, NOT what it eats. You might eat 10lbs of steak every day but if your absorption capabilities are low, you won’t gain any mass. During the protein starved periods your absorption capabilities are WAY higher than during normal diet periods.


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Therefore the nutrients required to build muscle will be utilized better, in addition to the anabolic hormone tsunami that will be released. You will grow. I’ll explain exactly how you’ll be using this to your advantage abit later. State2: Hyper Anabolic states Here’s where things start to get really good. Even after you complete your “protein starved” cycle and restart your normal protein diet, your anabolic Growth Hormone levels will remain spiked for a good number of days. And since your body doesn’t know if there’s going to be another protein starved period, it will now soak up every single ounce of protein you feed it and store it in your muscles. Muscle growth during these states is unbelievable…it’s literally a period when anabolism will be on hyper-drive. PRINCIPLE #4: RECOVERY Here’s a quick lesson on how muscles are built: During an intense workout session, your muscle tissues get “damaged”. Once your session is over and you’re in a relaxed mode, those muscles begin to repair themselves. But not only do they repair themselves, they actually reinforce themselves by building additional muscle on top so as to prepare for the next “damaging” workout. Note that muscle repair occurs during rest periods (not when training). And since muscle growth occurs during rest periods, then you MUST rest if you want maximum results from your workout. Recovery is just as important as your actual training. So make sure you get as much rest as you can on your off-training days. Get 1-2 hours of extra sleep during the day if possible.

Get at least 7-8 hours of good sleep each night. The muscle repair process mostly happens during sleep, so try getting to bed early so you can get enough hours. Don’t take coffee or any stimulant 2 hours before bed. I know this doesn’t sound all “tough and manly”, but I wouldn’t really bother stressing this out unless it actually made a significant difference in the end result. Believe me, sleep and muscle gain have a direct correlation. Two people on the exact training program with the exact diet will get very different results if one sleeps 5 hours a night and the other 8 hours a night. So yes, it is THAT important. Follow this and you will NEVER have to worry about overtraining.


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PRINCIPLE #5: NUTRITION We’re going to go deeper into muscle building nutrition in the next chapter, so the only thing I’ll do here is deal with the key points. There are certain periods during the day when some nutrients are better utilized than during other periods. For example, if you want to gain mass, eating protein in the morning will get you to your goal much faster than eating it at lunch time… it’s all about the timing. PRINCIPLE #6: OVERLOAD Overload is simply the process of constantly exceeding your training capacity. So if you perform 10 reps of an exercise today and by the next week you are able to do 20 reps, then you have achieved overload. The purpose of overload is to keep your muscles out of their comfort zone so they can constantly grow bigger. Most “expert” definitions of overload are simply impractical. You’ll often hear, “Do more than your last workout”. This of course is not practical, as well as impossible. Your body isn’t a machine. It can’t adapt to a new threshold with each new workout. This would lead to overtraining long before you even saw a single ounce of muscle. The key to proper overload is timing. When you switch from doing 10 reps of an exercise to 20 reps, your muscles will grow bigger and stronger to accommodate for the stress. It will take an average of 3-4 weeks before they fully adapt to the new stress. So you shouldn’t even think of overloading further until 3-4 weeks pass. Many people make the mistake of trying to overload before their muscles have even adapted to the previous stress-load, and this results in wasting plenty of potential muscle gain.

The problem with “too little” overload: There’s also the problem where people achieve overload but they seem to have hit a plateau and can’t grow further. Let me give an example situation and how to solve this dilemma: Let’s say you’re a newbie who can usually perform 10 reps of pushups. Your chest will grow until a particular point whereby it needs more load than 10 reps. So muscle growth stops there. One week later you might now be able to do 15 reps, but still not realize any significant muscle growth. THEN once you hit 20 reps, your chest might literally “explode” over the next 2-3 weeks. Why did this happen? Because your muscles ALREADY had the capacity to move the extra 11-19 rep


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load…it’s just that you didn’t realize it. So they simply didn’t need to increase in size until that 11-19 rep range was exceeded. PRINCIPLE #7: SYNERGY People tend to misunderstand the whole muscle building process. Many think that it’s just simply about the ‘training’ part and they neglect the rest of the components which when combined have the capacity to create SuperFreaks. And you’ll find that most of these guys who have been training for so long yet they still look the same are guilty of neglecting some of the very crucial components. Some people train hard while neglecting their diet. Others eat hard while neglecting their training (we both know how that one ends). In the end none of these guys get what they want. Synergy is simply combining all the right components at the right time to produce a result which is exponentially greater than the results produced by each individual component. Synergy is not 4+4+4; it’s 4x4x4. And it’s not just about combining everything; it’s about combining the right things. This includes training, nutrition, rest etc. The concept of synergy looks simple…maybe even obvious to some, but the difference between those who understand and apply it and those who don’t is nothing to shake a stick at. But don’t worry. I’ve already incorporated the perfect synergy concepts within the program so you won’t have to waste any time trying to figure them out for yourself.


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CHAPTER 5:

SuperFreak Dieting for Massive Mass

an you build a house without bricks? (Don’t give me a smart answer). Your body is like a house. Foods you eat are the “bricks” or building blocks that make up the house. So it’s pretty simple. If you want to build a bigger house,

you need more bricks. C

More often than not, lack of an adequate diet is the reason many trainees fail to become huge. Bodyweight trainers should seriously consider increasing their diet uptake when planning to build muscle. But remember, you can’t just stuff your face with anything labeled “food” on it. Eating 5 lbs of chocolate doughnuts after a workout won’t exactly get you into Mr. Olympia shape. So let’s first see what you have to stop eating: Group 1 (High Cholesterol and high fat foods) Margarine, potato chips, high calorie pizza, hotdogs. These kinds of foods will increase the risk of heart-related complications, due to their high cholesterol and “bad fat” content. Be very afraid… Group 2 (High GI sugar foods) Sodas and most frozen desserts fall here. Don’t even hope to see a six pack if you continue eating these.

This doesn’t mean that your diet should become boring and plain. But these foods generally do more harm than good, especially when trying to pack on muscle. Later on I’ll let you in on a particular period in training when you can get away with eating these foods (and not have to suffer the consequences).

Foods to eat in plenty: Add these foods to your diet and eat them in PLENTY: Proteins: Whole eggs, tuna, whole milk, chicken breasts, beef, pork Carbs/starch: Brown bread, oatmeal, steamed rice, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, yams, corn, pasta Vegetables: Cucumbers, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, spinach, tomatoes, cabbage Legumes: Black beans, lentils, pinto beans


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Use your creativity to mix these different foods to construct your meals. Don’t get too fancy though. Stick to the same basic meals once you’ve chosen them.

I suggest you have the following foods in your diets at all times (unless prescribed otherwise by a doctor): Whole milk, whole eggs and oatmeal. Most people insist on skimmed low fat milk and egg whites without the yolk. We’ll go the other way. Trust me on this one. You won’t grow fat.

• Skinny guys (ectomorphs) should follow a diet ratio of about 25% protein - 55%

carbs - 20% fats.

• Naturally Muscular (mesomorphs) should follow a diet ratio of about 30% protein - 45% carbs - 25% fats.

• Chubby trainees (endomorphs) - should follow a diet ratio of about 35% protein -

30% carbs - 35% fats. Don’t get too analytical with this. Use your judgment to help you balance things out.

Make sure you don’t eat too much of one nutrient (e.g. protein) while neglecting the rest. Each nutrient is dependent on the other to increase its overall efficiency in your body. So don’t shortchange yourself. “How often should I eat?” It’s best to eat 4 massive solid meals. These are breakfast, lunch, supper and post workout meals. The post workout meal will come immediately after your workout, whatever time of day that is. Just make sure there are a couple of hours between your post workout meal and your next meal. Eat 4 solid meals each day, and between each meal take a protein-carb drink. So basically you should eat 4 meals and drink 3 liquid meals. 7 in total. If your budget is limited, follow a diet plan of 3 solid meals, with 500ml of whole milk between each meal.


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“If I’m a vegetarian, can I gain mass?” Sometimes it gets tricky when a vegetarian is trying to gain weight because the highest quality protein sources are usually meats and eggs. But it can still be done. All you need to do is replace the animal protein sources with vegetable proteins such as red & black beans, peas etc. I also advise you to take Branch Chain Amino Acids everyday to aid muscle building and tissue repair. It’s critical that you eat plenty of vegetable proteins and pump up the carbs. Just remember to follow the appropriate diet ratio that matches your body type (as given in the previous page). “I eat a lot of food but still can’t gain weight!” Really? (And yes, I’m being sarcastic). We’ve probably all been through that phase where we think we’re eating a lot of food…but we actually aren’t. I bet if you kept a log of “all that food” you ate over a period of 7 days, you’d more than likely see that it actually wasn’t that much. Here’s a bunch of questions for you: How “fast” is fast? How “high” is high? How “much” is much?

These words mean absolutely nothing until you give them definite value. And this can only be done by tracking. Track your nutritional intake by monitoring what you eat and exactly how much. This will let you see what you’re doing wrong and how you can correct it. Tracking is based on 2 factors:

1. Quantity – Remember, to get big you must eat big. There’s no way around this one. If you don’t have a big appetite then you better start training yourself to eat more from today. Depending on your weight and daily activities, your body burns a certain number of calories each day. So if you

want to build muscle mass, you must consume more calories than you burn. It’s that simple. Consume more than you burn and you’ll gain weight. Consume less than you burn and you’ll lose weight.

I’ve provided a calorie calculator that will tell you exactly how many calories you’ll need to eat each day to build significant muscle mass. Once you know how many calories you’ll need, follow the appropriate meal plans as closely as possible. If you want, you can calculate the calories for your own food, but it’s going to be quite a daunting task I’d advise you to simply follow the pre-calculated meal plans provided.

2. Quality – On top of eating big, you must learn to eat the right kind of foods.

All calories are not created equal. 4000 calories of green vegetables won’t build you any muscle. 4000 calories of pizza will make you obese.


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4000 calories of a balanced protein-carb-fat diet will make you an anabolic beast. You see, these three examples are all 4000 calorie diets. Yet they all produce extremely different results.

The quality of what you eat is just as important (if not more important) as how much you eat. So stop eating all that junk food and replace it with all the good stuff mentioned in this chapter.

Your most important meals Every single meal you take is extremely important if you want o build muscle mass, but there are 2 specific mealtimes which must be given special emphasis:

• Breakfast – When you wake up in the morning, your body has just come off a 7 hour “fast” and is screaming for nutrients. During this time it is readily and willingly going to absorb anything you put into it. Why not put this to your advantage? Start off your mornings with a high protein & carbohydrate meal. A good example breakfast would be 5 boiled eggs (whole) and a bowl of oatmeal made with whole milk.

• Post workout – After an intense workout, your body needs the proper raw

materials (protein) to reinforce the damaged muscle tissue. Failure to provide the body with adequate protein at this time will lead it to breaking down muscle from other parts so as to get the necessary material. Have a high protein-carb meal 20-40 minutes after your workout to maximize muscle growth.

Remember that every single meal you take is extremely important. But the two meals above have special significance attached to them and missing any one of these meals is going to drastically affect your muscle building progress is a negative way.

Bulk Up and Cut Down The nutritional concepts in this book revolve around the process of “bulking up”. What this means is that you will aim to pack on as much mass as you can before cutting down to your ideal “ripped” weight-class. So if your target is to be 180 lbs ripped, then you should aim to bulk up to around 210lbs then start “cutting” down from there.


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Hands down this is THE fastest way to build muscle. Many people make the mistake of trying to stay lean while moving up a weight class. That will never work. Don’t worry about getting fat. You won’t. I’m not going to go too much further into details on this one. The rule is simple: Bulk up, cut down. Concerning meal plans I’ve prepared a set of meal plans for you to use together with the training program. However if you do want to come up with your own meal plans, there is a bonus mini-ebook provided showing you how you can do it. I understand that it might not be able to follow each meal plan with 100% accuracy. Do what you can to try follow them as closely as possible and use your own alternatives where some foods are lacking. Here is one sample meal plan you can use (other meal plans provided in mealplans bonus ebook):

SAMPLE MEAL PLAN Breakfast:

• 5 whole eggs, boiled • 2 cups cottage cheese • Oatmeal (made with milk), add raisins & 1 tbsp honey • 1 tsp Olive/Flax seed oil • 5-6 dates

Lunch

• 8 oz chicken breast • 2 cups brown rice • 1/4 cup black beans • 1 cup tomatoes • 1/2 cup cucumber • 2 large baked potatoes • 1 tsp Olive/Flax seed oil

Dinner:

• 2 cups pasta • 8 oz Beef • 2 cups Carrots • 1 tsp Olive/Flax seed oil • 2 Peppers • 1 glass whole milk (300 ml)

Right Before Bed:

• 30 grams Protein powder (mixed with 500ml whole milk) Post Workout Meal

• 30g protein powder (mixed with water) • small bag of peanuts • Liquid Aminos • 1 oz Sunflower seeds


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Non-workout days: Your diet on non-workout days will be exactly the same as during your workout days.

Water Your muscles are over 70% water. Imagine that! So you’re really not doing them much justice by denying them of their chief component. There are no two ways about it. You must drink water. Plenty of water, each and every day throughout the day (I’m getting thirsty just talking about it…). Lack of adequate water intake when training can reduce workout efficiency by a whooping 80 percent! So how much water should you drink each day?

Well, the beauty about it is that there is no maximum limit to how much you should drink. My advice is for you to drink at least 4 litres of water distributed throughout the day. Out of the 4 litres make sure you drink one full litre during your training session. Don’t count extra drinks such as tea or juice within your 4 litres. Try to avoid drinks such as coffee and alcohol as much as possible, because they will dehydrate your system. Lack of enough water has also been shown to slow down recovery in trainees. So start drinking at least 4 litres of water everyday and it will remove toxins from your system, promote better nutrient transportation and speed up your recovery after training. DIET TRICK #1: ONCE A WEEK ANABOLIC SURGE The diet trick I’m about to show you is designed to give you some really cool “growth surges” during your first 3 months of training. DO NOT misuse it though. Here is the process to follow starting from month 1 of training all the way to month 3: During month 1 all the way to month 3, select one training day every week in which you will cut all your calories by half. This means that whatever you usually eat, there will be one day each week when you only eat half the amount. On the following day (a non-training day), you have the freedom to stuff yourself silly with whatever food you want (just minimize on the sugary junk food). So basically you’ll have one day per week whereby you cut all your calories by half,


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followed by an “all you can eat” day. Make sure that these 2 days follow each other immediately. The body responds marvelously to such diet fluctuations when used correctly. This trick is amazingly powerful. Remember I told you I’d let you in on a day when you could eat what you want and not pay the price? This is it. DIET TRICK #2: HYPER ANABOLIC DIET CYCLING I gave you a sneak peek of this in chapter 4. Now let’s get into the real detail of it and how you’ll be using this technique to produce freaky gains. Start applying this technique from month 4 all the way to month 6. This technique is made up of two cycles: the starved anabolic cycle and the hyper anabolic cycle. You’ll shift between these cycles every two weeks. Month 6 will be a little different though, because you will only use the starved anabolic cycle for one week and use the hyper-anabolic cycle for the remaining three weeks. CYCLE 1: Starved Anabolic Cycle This is a two week period (starting from week 13) whereby you’ll decrease your daily protein intake to about 40 grams. In reaction to this, your body will be signaled to release a flood of anabolic hormones in an act of “damage control” thereby greatly increasing your anabolic muscle building capabilities within that period. Here are the exact steps to go by it:

• Starting the first week of this stage, begin to slowly drop your protein intake everyday so that by the end of week 1 you’ll be taking in about only 40 grams.

• The best way to accurately measure your protein intake for this period is to use protein powder. The container will usually indicate how many grams per serving of protein it contains. Based on that, scoop out 40 grams plus abit more on top (because we all know that “99.9% absorption” thing is pure crap ;-)).

• Eliminate your dairy intake during these two weeks. Milk, cheese, eggs etc. should be avoided.

• Keep your calorie intake high during this period. In fact, increase your carbohydrate intake. Eat loads of rice, potatoes and dextrose (glucose) drinks.

• Remember to keep your exercise intensity very high. • Eat loads of fruits and vegetables. • Take the 40 grams immediately after your workout.

*During the starved anabolic cycle, avoid taking any vitamin B supplement (B12, B complex etc). Also stay away from ZMA supplements during this 2 week period.


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So during week1 of this phase you’ll be slowly lowering your protein intake so that by the end of the week you’ll have gotten to 40grams a day. The whole of week 2 you ought to be strictly on 40g a day; no more, no less. After this week is done, you’ll immediately switch gears and start on the 2nd phase which you’ll be on for 2 straight weeks. CYCLE 2: Hyper Anabolic States During this cycle, you’ll trick your muscles into storing much more protein than they usually do. During the previous 2 weeks when you were restricting your diet to only 40 grams of protein, your body was forced to become more efficient at storing it. And now that you’re going to feed t with truckloads of protein for the next 2 weeks, it is going to store much more protein than it usually does (a process called supercompensation). Guess what this means? BIGGER muscle for you! Below is a step by step process on how you will do it:

• Starting from the first day of this phase, you’ll increase your protein intake to 1.8 grams per pound of bodyweight (i.e. if you weigh 160 lbs, your intake will be 160x1.8 = 288grams of protein)

• Take 40 grams in the morning immediately after waking up. • Take 30 grams immediately after your workout. • Take 40grams with whole milk right before bed • Divide the remaining portions equally throughout the day. • During this 2 week period you will slightly decrease your workout intensity

as your muscles soak up that extra protein coming in. And that’s the nitty gritty of how you’ll be performing these two supercharged cycles. Use them exactly as they are and you’ll be nothing short of amazed at the results you get.


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CHAPTER 6:

Supplements - The Truth You Can Only Learn Here

eople want to know if bodyweight trainers should use supplements. Muscle building is muscle building. Supplements do not discriminate based on the technique you’re using. But there’s so much hype about supplements. And

literally everyday some big shot company invents a new “magic formula mega hyper-drive anabolic matrix solution” which promises some crazy results.

P “MegaNitro 3000 is the BADDEST! I gained 900 pounds of lean muscle in just 7 days!” (sounds familiar?) What I’m about to reveal to you might be abit unconventional, even “out of line”, but I urge you to trust me and follow the advice I give without question. Okay? Good. And now that we’re on the same page… …Let’s Get One Thing Straight: Santa Claus doesn’t exist. The Easter Bunny doesn’t exist. Muscle building supplements don’t exist. I’m very sorry if you didn’t know about the Santa Claus thing (no seriously ☺). But anyway, here’s the real truth about “muscle building” supplements: You see, no matter how good your diet is, it is practically impossible to get ALL the nutrients you need from your meals alone. And we who are training to build muscle need even more nutrients than the average person. That’s where supplements come in. Supplements help reinforce our diet by adding extra nutrients to back up our muscle building progress. They usually boost your caloric intake while providing particular macronutrients in their concentrated isolate form e.g. protein powder.

But be warned (and this is really important): Supplements are not THE reason for any gains you will make. They merely support your solid nutrition and training. They have no “magical” powers of their own, contrary to what supplement companies have brainwashed people to believe. Without a solid training and nutritional plan, “muscle building” supplements are useless.

If we really need all these fancy supplements to build muscle, then how the heck did the bodybuilders of past generations manage to build such impressive physiques? And how about the ancient Spartans and Greeks? Let me ask you this: have you ever heard of somebody dying because of an “NO Xplode deficiency”? No. There is no such thing as a Nitric Oxide deficiency. But there IS such a thing as a Vitamin deficiency. So why would you go out and buy


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Nitric Oxide supplements while totally ignoring your vitamin intake? Something to think about. Supplement makers are great salespeople. And with billions of dollars exchanging hands every year between the supplement makers and the consumers, don’t think that the supplement hype will ever stop. These guys are willing to make their money at whatever cost.

The Only Supplements You’ll Ever Need There are a few supplements I recommend using during your training program. For starters though, I suggest avoiding supplements of any kind during your first month of training. As a newbie you’ll grow like a fertilized weed anyhow, so you won’t need supplements. Plus, I want you to start off with a “supplement independent” mindset which will help you see that supplements really aren’t as “miraculous” as they are made out to be.

1. Multivitamins

These will provide you with broad spectrum coverage, ensuring that all your nutritional needs are met. I know that these aren’t the first supplements that come to mind when you think of muscle building, but remember that everything in your body works together to produce the required results. And when your body is lacking in multivitamins, the efficiency of all other supplements you use will be DRASTICALLY reduced. So these should be the first on your list without question. How to take them: Take multi’s 3-4 times a day with meals.

2. Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s)

Without amino acids, you’ll never grow. Period. The body can’t manufacture BCAA’s for itself and therefore we need to get them from external sources. They help transport other amino acids into the muscles for growth and repair, as well as promoting protein synthesis. You should always have amino acids at hand.


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How to take them: Buy the liquid aminos (never the tablets…tablets hardly get absorbed). Take 5 grams immediately on waking up and another 5 grams 20 minutes before you begin your workout session.

3. Glutamine

Glutamine assists in Growth Hormone release as well as its capability to boost your system’s immunity. During an intense training session, Glutamine is quickly depleted, thereby decreasing strength and recovery ability. So it’s a great supplement to take for somebody who is into intense workouts (like us). I won’t go much deeper into this one because it seems to get people arguing a lot. But I’ll tell you one thing: it works. How to take it: Take about 15 grams a day: 5g before breakfast, 5g before a workout and 5g immediately after a workout.

4. Creatine Monohydrate

Unless you’ve spent the last 5 years sleeping under a mossy rock, you’ve probably heard about creatine. So what exactly is it? It’s a combination of 3 amino acids (Arginine, Glycine and Methionine). There’s quite some hype about this supplement. But unlike most, creatine lives up to the hype. It’s definitely worth giving a shot. Creatine allows trainees to workout longer and harder while speeding up recovery time. When ingested over 30 days, it pulls fluid into the muscle and actually makes them bigger. I’ve seen these effects for myself. How to take Creatine: The most effective way to take creatine is to start off with a 5 day loading phase followed by a maintenance phase afterward. Loading Phase: Take 5g (one teaspoon) four times daily at regular intervals for 6 days. The first one should be taken in the morning immediately after waking up (30 minutes before breakfast). Also have one 5g portion immediately after your workout. Take the remaining 2 doses at different intervals during the day. So basically you’ll be ingesting 20 grams a day for 6 days. After this loading phase, you’ll shift to a maintenance phase from day 8 onward. Maintenance Phase: After your 6 day loading phase, begin a 2 week maintenance phase by taking 10g daily (5g before breakfast, 5g after your workout). During the maintenance phase you should only take creatine during your workout days. After completing the 2 week maintenance phase, take 3 weeks off the creatine, then restart the cycle again. Below is a demonstration of how to do this creatine cycle: Week 1: Creatine loading phase (20g per day) for 6 days. Week 2 & 3: Maintenance phase (10g) Week 4, 5, 6: Take a full break off creatine. Week 7: Begin the cycle again (starting with a loading phase)


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Creatine tip #1: The more water you mix with creatine, the more effective it is in your system. Mix 5g of creatine with at least 500ml of water. Drink it all at once. Creatine tip #2: Here’ a trick you can (and should) use to increase the absorption of creatine in your system by up to 60% more: mix your 5g creatine with 75 g Dextrose (aka Glucose or corn sugar). Mix this with 500ml or more of water and drink. It’s going to be extremely sweet and probably abit nauseating at first, but the amazing effects brought about by this mixture are EXTREMELY valuable…and worth the temporary discomfort.

5. Protein Powder The most effective way is to ingest at about 1.8 grams per pound of bodyweight (so if you weigh 160 lbs, you need 160x1.8 = 288 grams of protein per day). Of course it will be extremely difficult to get this much protein from food alone. And that’s why we’ll be adding the protein powder to our diet. When shopping for the powder, look for the protein-carb combinations. Consume about half your daily protein intake through protein shakes, and divide the rest between meals such as eggs, fish, beef, milk etc. Drink 3 meals and eat 3-4 meals.

Remember: Protein powder is NOT an alternative to whole food. Whole food will give you a whole other bunch of extra nutrients that powders won’t. Don’t neglect your proper diet schedule. How to take protein powder: Mix the required number of servings with 500 ml of whole milk (unless you are lactose intolerant). The only time when you should mix protein powder with water is during your post-workout shake. On the tub will be indicated how many grams per serving of protein it contains. All you need to do is follow the instructions. But do not take more than 50g of protein within one sitting. Your body can only absorb it bits at a time. Take a protein shake immediately after waking up, have another one right after your workout and another one just before bed. Try to squeeze an extra one 2hrs after lunch as well.

6. Zinc This is an extremely important mineral, especially for men. Zinc helps maintain good testosterone levels and also assists with protein metabolism. Everyone training should add zinc to their supplementation.


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How to take zinc: Get it in the form of a ZMA supplement. Simply follow the indicated dose.

Bare minimum supplements If you really totally absolutely cannot afford to buy the major supplements, here are the bare minimum ones I recommend (in order of priority):

1) Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s) 2) Multivitamins/Multi-minerals 3) ZMA

Supplements to stay away from: Testosterone boosters, carb energy drinks, GH stimulators, Nitric Oxide boosters. Don’t waste your money on them. They are pointless, to say the least. And in the case of carb energy drinks, its much cheaper and way more effective to prepare a dextrose-water solution which you can take during and immediately after your workout. And now for the big unveiling: What you are about to see in the next chapter is the SuperFreak muscle building program. This system that you’re about to get into helped me pack on 39lbs of muscle in just under 6 months. I hope you’re as excited as I am. There’s no turning back now. You better look at your skinny self in the mirror for one last time. Because after this there will be no proof that you were ever scrawny. I want you to do something right now: Take a photo of yourself without a shirt on. This is going to be your “before” photo. Keep that photo close by and look at it just ONCE every four weeks. After every 4 weeks you should look at it to evaluate and see how much physical progress you’ve made so far. It’s a pretty neat exercise. So are you ready?


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CHAPTER 7:

The SuperFreak Muscle Building Program

his chapter will deal entirely with the 6 month muscle building program. It includes all the training data and mechanics to get you to your desired goal. But just before we get to the training program, I’ve put together some basic

points to help you along the way: T

General Points to Remember Throughout the Program:

• *This 6 month program is for beginners who’ve never seriously trained before.

If you are an advanced bodyweight trainer, use the Advanced 6 Month Training Program provided with the bonuses.

• Before your workout, warm up for at least 5 minutes. Start by jogging lightly in

the spot and massaging your muscles. Then perform a warm-up set of any upper body exercise (5-10 reps). This will drastically reduce any chance of muscle strain or injury in the future.

• Have at least 8hrs of sleep each night. And if possible, get an extra 1hr of sleep

during the day. This will speed up your muscle recovery faster than you would believe. And recovery = muscle growth.

• You will workout only 3 times a week, FULL BODY, with one off day between

each workout day. Each full body workout will be no longer than 45 minutes. I don’t care if you haven’t finished your workouts. After 45 minutes, STOP! Anything longer and you risk losing your hard earned muscle.

• Don’t do any form of exercise during your non-workout days, no matter how

tempting it may be.

• As a rule, you’ll measure your weight every 2 weeks, starting from week 4, i.e., week 1, 2, 4, 6, 8…24. As for inches e.g. waist size, biceps etc, measure only once every 4 weeks.

• Stay away from alcohol and stimulants such as coffee as much as

possible…preferably entirely. Taking them (especially during training) will dehydrate your system.

• Water, water, water! Start drinking at least 4 litres of water each day. You’ll

be amazed at the difference after just 2 weeks.

• Immediately you begin the training program, start eating more. Loads more. Proteins, carbs, vegetables, good fats etc. and begin to eliminate the junk food.


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• You‘ll be taking 3 full days off after each month of training. So after month 1, take a 3 day break before moving to month 2.

• After training for 12 weeks, take a full 5 days break before moving to week

13 and beyond. The 7 days will give your body enough time to rejuvenate. Don’t worry. You wont lose any muscle mass.

• (This applies to months 1-3): You will cut your diet calories by half once a

week. This will be on any workout day. The following day is an all you can eat “buffet” day. (Just not too much junk food).

• (This applies to months 4-6): From month 4, you will have periods of

protein deprivation running for 2 weeks, followed by periods of protein supercompensation, also running 2 weeks. This will go all the way to the end of the program. So you won’t be cutting calories once a week like you were during months 1-3.

• Massage and stretch your muscles after each workout session so as to

prevent soreness and enhance muscle growth capacity.

• Remember to keep perfect form at all times. Avoid relying on momentum and speed to get you through an exercise. Don’t count any rep that is done without strict form.

• Take notes! Make sure you write everything down so you can effectively

track yourself. By comparing your own notes you’ll be able to see whether or not you are making progress, dropping your intensity, etc. Write down the number of reps, sets, time of day, how you were feeling that day, etc. This is very important.

• Print out the workout tables from the logs.pdf file. These are the logs

you’ll be using to track your progress and to see if you are keeping up with this program.

• Never jump out of a speeding truck.

• One more thing: Don’t forget to take those “before” photos before

beginning the program…because once you get into it nobody will ever believe you were actually once a skinny guy!

Below you will find 2 programs: The first is a 2 week adaptation program (optional), while the second one is the 6 month muscle building program. The 2 week adaptation program is for:

• Total newbies who are unconditioned and have problems lifting their own bodyweight effectively.


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• De-conditioned trainees who want to get back into shape. • Overweight trainees having trouble lifting their own bodyweight.

The aim of this 2 week program is to get your body prepared and properly conditioned so that once you get into the 6 month muscle building program, you won’t have a problem keeping up. It will help you gradually adapt to bodyweight training, and in this way you’ll have no problems once you get into the main program.

*If you feel you are fit enough, you may skip this 2 week adaptation program and go straight to the 6 month program. 2 Week Bodyweight Adaptation Program You’ll begin the adaptation program by performing light variations of specific bodyweight training exercises. Over the course of the 2 weeks you will transition from the light variations to the actual exercises which are in the main program. You might experience some slight soreness. That’s actually a positive indication that your muscles are responding the way they should. Training will take place every day (except for weekends) for 2 full weeks. After that, if you feel you still aren’t ready, you may continue for one more week. On completing this adaptation program, take a 2 day break then begin the REAL program. We’ll be working around 4 main exercises: Pushups, bodyweight squats, bench dips and chinups. These particular exercises will rapidly build your strength and greatly increase your capacity to effectively handle your bodyweight.

In the 2 week program, each exercise has 2 variations: the light variation and the normal variation. The light variation is simply the easy form of the exercise while the normal variation is the ordinary form of the exercise. The next page gives an explanation of the variations and how to do them:


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EXERCISE NORMAL VARIATION LIGHT VARIATION Pushups Kneel on the floor with your palms flat and

your arms straight and shoulder width apart. Move your feet back, placing your toes on the floor such that your knees are now off the floor and your legs are straight. Your whole body ought to be in a straight line. Lower your body to the floor by bending your elbows. (Remember to keep your whole body straight.) Then push back up to starting position. Don’t lock your elbows at the top.

In this case, you’ll perform the pushups while on your knees. Start on your hands and knees and then walk your hands forward until your back is straight. Begin the pushup by lowering your body until your elbows are at a 90 degree angle. Push yourself back up and repeat.

Squats Begin in standing position. Have your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, toes pointed 30 degrees out. Squat down until your calves touch your hamstrings. Push yourself back up until your knees and back are straight up again. Make sure you push through your heels.

Same as normal variation.

Bench dips

Have two benches parallel to each other at a distance of about 1 meter. Place your hands on the edge of one bench and your feet on the other bench. Lower your body with your arms until you achieve a full stretch or till your butt touches the floor. Raise your body and repeat.

Place your hands on the edge of a bench. Your feet won’t need a bench in this variation. Set your feet flat on the floor about two feet away from the bench. Your knees will be bent. Your butt should be on the floor as well. Perform the routine.

Chinups Hold the chinup bar (or whatever you're using) with your palms facing you. Your hands should be 6-10 inches apart. Pull yourself up with the aim to get your upper chest to touch the bar. Come back slowly to your start position. Use your bicep muscles, NOT your back muscles.

For the light chinups, assume the normal chinup position. Instead of lifting your bodyweight, jump to the top position and then slowly lower yourself using your bicep muscles.

(Exercise variations for the 2 week adaptation program.) Follow the 2 week program outlined on the next page: *Note that each workout session during these 2 weeks should take no longer than 20 minutes.


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The 2 week bodyweight adaptation program: Week 1 (5 days: Mon-Fri, once a day)

Day Exercise Sets Reps Pushups (light*) 2 10 Squats (light*) 2 15 Bench Dips (light*) 2 10

Day 1-4

Chinups (light*) 2 10

Pushups (light*) 2 15 Squats (light*) 2 20 Bench Dips (light*) 2 15

Day 5


SIDEBAR: Light* simply means you perform the light variation of each exercise. Each workout session during these 2 weeks should take no longer than 20 min. Rest for 20 seconds between sets and 40 seconds between exercises. DO NOT exercise on Saturday and Sunday.

Week 2 (5 days: Mon-Fri, twice a day)

Day Exercise Sets Reps Pushups (light*) 2 15 Squats (light*) 2 15 Bench Dips (light*) 2 8

Day 1-3


Pushups (normal*) 2 5 Squats (normal *) 2 5 Bench Dips (normal*) 2 5

Day 4-5

Chinups (normal*) 2 6

SIDEBAR: Perform this workout routine twice a day (morning and evening) Rest for 20 seconds between sets and 40 seconds between exercises From day 4-5, switch from the light variations of each exercise to the normal variations (they will be abit harder to do). Rest 15 seconds between sets and 40 seconds between exercises. Maintain perfect form! Don’t use momentum to get you through the exercises. Rest on Saturday and Sunday.


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THE 6 MONTH MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM

All exercises are to be performed in the exact sequence in which they have been laid out. This is a full body workout system. The workouts are done across a 3 day split (preferably Monday, Wednesday and Friday).

Month 1 (week 1-4) The main goal for this month is to kick-start your growth. Load will remain constant for the whole month so that your muscles may be fully stimulated before you move to the next phase. Don’t take any supplements at all during these first four weeks.

BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Biceps Chinups 2 6

Triceps Bench Dips 2 10

Hams/Quads One Legged Squats

2 8

Calves Calf Raises 2 10 Back Wide Grip Pullups 2 6

Abs Ab sit-ups 2 15 Chest Decline Pushups 2 10

Rules:

• Begin high calorie diet. Eliminate junk food. • Zero supplementation on this month. • Drink plenty of water. • 30 seconds rest between sets. • 2 minutes rest between exercises • After week 4, take a two day break before moving to week 5.


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Month 2 From week 5, you’ll begin to incorporate more reps, but the workout session length will remain the same. You will also add static holds to help you activate a TON of untouched muscle fibers, hence skyrocketing your gains. Begin to take supplementation from this month (creatine, multivitamins etc). Remember to mix your creatine with 60-75g dextrose to maximize absorption. Week 5-6 BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Biceps Chinups SH

30 sec

2 8

Triceps Bench dips SH 20 sec

2 15

Hams/Quads One Legged squats 2 12 Calves Calf Raises 2 15 Back Wide Grip Pullups SH

15 sec

2 8

Abs Ab Situps 2 15 Chest Decline Pushups SH

20 sec

2 15

Rules:

• Start taking creatine and other supplements from this month. • Remember to drink at least 4 litres of water each day, with one full liter at

hand during training. • Rest for 30 seconds between sets. • Rest for 2 minutes between exercises. • SH = Static Hold *Static holds are done as the last “set” of each exercise. Example: perform your 2 sets of pushups first, AND THEN move on to the static hold. This static hold will act as the 3rd set. • Grey boxes mean that there are no static holds for that exercise.

*Static holds – To perform a static hold, contract your muscles at the top of a rep, and hold that position for the length of time specified it the table. When you can no longer stay in that position, you slowly let gravity bring you down. Static holds involve only a single rep.


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Week 7-8 BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Biceps Chinups SH

30 sec

2 10

Triceps Bench dips SH 20 sec

2 15

Hams/Quads One Legged squats 2 12 Calves Calf Raises 2 20 Back Wide Grip Pullups SH

15 sec

2 10

Abs Ab Situps 2 15 Chest Decline Pushups SH

20 sec

2 20

Month 3 Your load will continue to increase by adding some extra reps while increasing the length of your static holds. A major difference from this month onwards is that your exercise workout order will be completely reversed. Reversals are a quick and easy method to break through plateaus as well as dealing with any lagging muscle groups. Week 9-10 DATE: WEEK: DAY: BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushups SH

45 sec

2 25

Back Pullups SH 25 sec

2 12

Hams/Quads Squats 2 15 Calves Calf Raises 2 25 Triceps Bench Dips SH

35 sec

2 15

Biceps Chinups SH 40 sec

2 12

Abs Ab Situps 2 25


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Week 11-12 BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushups SH

45 sec

2 25


2 15


35 sec

2 20


2 12

Abs Ab Situps 2 25 Rules:

• Abdominal exercises remain at the bottom even after reversing. • Rest for 30 seconds between sets. • Rest for 2 minutes between exercises. • SH = Static Hold

*Static holds are done as the last “set” of each exercise. ***After completing month 3, take 3 full days off before moving to month 4. *Static holds – To perform a static hold, contract your muscles at the top of a rep, and hold that position for the length of time specified it the table. When you can no longer stay in that position, you slowly let gravity bring you down. Static holds involve only a single rep.


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Month 4 From this point all the way to week 24, you’ll begin to cycle your diet between high protein and low protein phases every two weeks. Your body will shift into a hyper-anabolic phase. DO NOT even attempt to get into this phase before week 13. Week 13-14 BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushups SH

60 sec

2 25


2 15


45 sec

2 20


2 25

Abs Ab Situps 2 25 Rules:

• Drop amino acids and dietary protein for these 2 weeks. • The only supplement you should take during this period is creatine. • Remember to ingest 40 grams of protein immediately after your workout. • Rest for 30 seconds between sets. • Rest for 2 minutes between exercises.

Week 15-16 BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushups 2 20 Back Pullups 2 15 Hams/Quads Squats 2 10 Calves Calf Raises 2 20 Triceps Bench Dips 2 20 Biceps Chinups 2 15 Abs Ab Situps 2 25


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Rules: • Restart protein intake from here and remember to over-compensate. • Double your intake of amino acids and multivitamins. • Rest for 30 seconds between sets. • Rest for 2 minutes between exercises • No more static holds. • Take a full 3 day break before moving to month 5.

Month 5 You begin to perform Giant Sets during this month. Giant sets are simply sets in which you perform 3 exercises on the same muscle group back to back with no rest in-between. Giant sets stimulate a MASSIVE amount of muscle fibers by hitting the same muscle at multiple angles. Perform only one Giant Set for each bodypart. Try not to exceed 30 minutes per session during this phase. Week 17-18 Bodypart Exercise (Giant Set) Sets Chest Decline pushups

20 reps Bar Dips 15 reps

Normal Pushups 20 reps

1

Back Pullups 10 reps

Pullups 10 reps

Pullups 10 reps

1

Legs One Legged Squats 10 reps

Hindu Squats 30 reps

Calf Raises 20 reps

1

Arms Chinups 15 reps

Tricep Blasters 6 reps

Bench Dips 15 reps

1

Abs Ab Situps 15 reps

Janda Situps 10 reps

Bent Leg Crunches 25 reps

1

Rules:

• Just like month 4, you’ll decrease protein intake for the first 2 weeks.

• Take only 40 grams of protein immediately after your workout.

• Rest for 3 minutes between each giant set (i.e., take 3 minutes rest after each complete chest workout, 3 min after each complete back workout, etc.)

• Take a maximum of 10 seconds rest between each exercise in a giant set.


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Week 19-20 Bodypart Exercise (Giant Set) Sets Chest Decline pushups

20 reps Bar Dips 10 reps

Normal Pushups 15 reps

1

Back Pullups 10 reps

Pullups 10 reps

Pullups 10 reps

1

Legs One Legged Squats 10 reps

Hindu Squats 30 reps

Calf Raises 20 reps

1

Arms Chinups 10 reps

Tricep Blasters 6 reps

Bench Dips 10 reps

1

Abs Ab Situps 15 reps

Janda Situps 10 reps

Bent Leg Crunches 25 reps

1

Rules:

• Restart heavy protein intake from here. • Double your amino acid and multivitamin intake.

• Rest for 3 minutes between each giant set (i.e., take 3 minutes rest after

each complete chest workout, 3 min after each complete back workout, etc.)

• Take a maximum of 10 seconds rest between each exercise in a giant set.

• After completing this month, take a full 3 day break before moving to

month 6.


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Month 6 By now you ought to be a freakin’ BEAST! But wait… I’m going to show you one more trick that will slap on a hefty amount of muscle onto your frame in only 4 weeks if you use it correctly. It’s a combination of the hyper-anabolic diet cycling and volume training. Week 21

Day Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushup 10 10

Monday Back Pullups 10 10 Hams/Quads Hindu Squats 10 10 Abs Ab Situps 10 10

Wednesday

Calves Calf Raises 2 20 Triceps Bench Dips 10 10 Biceps Chinups 2 15

Friday

Shoulders Dip Bar Shrugs 10 10 Rules:

• Here I’ve used a typical 3 day split of Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can use any 3 day split as long as there is one rest day between each workout day.

• Don’t freak out because of the workout volume. You’ll only use it for 4

weeks. And the payoff will blow you away.

• During this month, protein deprivation will only last for 1 week (week 21). Remember to take only 40 grams of protein a day immediately after your workout.

• For exercises with 10 sets, take a maximum of 10 seconds rest between

each set.

• Have a 4 minute break after each 10x10 group is completed.

• For exercises with only 2 sets, take 30 seconds rest between each set and 2 minutes rest after the exercise is completed.

• Maintain good form, and don’t do any momentum bounce reps.

• Avoid the temptation of resting longer than you should.


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Week 22-24 Day Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps

Chest Decline Pushup 10 10 Monday Back Pullups 10 10

Hams/Quads Hindu Squats 10 10 Abs Ab Situps 10 10

Wednesday

Calves Calf Raises 2 20 Triceps Bench Dips 10 10 Biceps Chinups 2 15

Friday

Shoulders Dip Bar Shrugs 10 10 Rules:

• Restart your protein intake (2gms per pound of bodyweight.)

• Double your amino acid and multivitamin intake.

• Add 500ml of whole milk to your lunch and pre-bed diet.

• For exercises with 10 sets, take a maximum of 10 seconds rest between each set.

• Have a 4 minute break after each 10x10 group is completed.

• For exercises with only 2 sets, take 30 seconds rest between each set and 2

minutes rest after the exercise is completed.

• Maintain good form, and don’t do any momentum bounce reps.

• Avoid the temptation of resting longer than you should.

• Take a good 5 days off training after completion of week 24. Congratulations! You’re officially a meathead! (Hey, it sounds better than being called a skinny guy.) So now you’ve packed on some serious muscle mass over the last 6 months. You’ve proved to your family and friends that you could build muscle without the use of weights. Many of your clothes don’t fit any more. But now what? By now you know a lot more about your own body than you did six months ago. You know your strongest and weakest muscle groups. You know how much load your body can endure in 45 minutes. And so much more. And so together with your newly acquired knowledge, let me give you some general guidelines on how to continue building new muscle after the 6 month program:


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From month 7 onwards: Use the table given below as your workout template and try to increase your load by 5 reps per exercise every 2 weeks without extending the workout session length. This means that your rest periods will have to be shortened.

(Use this as your template for month 7 onwards) BODYPART Exercise Sets Reps Chest Decline Pushups 2 20 Back Pullups 2 15 Hams/Quads Squats 2 10 Calves Calf Raises 2 20 Triceps Bench Dips 2 20 Biceps Chinups 2 15 Abs Ab Situps 2 25

Here are additional tips to guide you as you move ahead:

• DO NOT insist on adding more reps if you can’t perform all your current reps in strict form. Being unable to perform all your reps in strict form simply indicates that you haven’t fully stimulated all your muscle fibers for that particular muscle group.

• Slow down your tempo to at least 2 seconds up, 2 seconds down. Do this for

chest, bicep and back exercises. • Switch come of your current exercises with the more advanced alternatives

provided in the exercise database.

• Increase your static holds to 60 seconds each. Do not cheat by grasping too close.

• If you’re unable to keep up with the given load progression, don’t beat

yourself up over it. Just push hard enough each and every single time you work out.


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Conclusion I hope this book has opened up your eyes to a whole new level of things. You’ve learned to build muscle in ways most people couldn’t even dream was possible. And that ought to be an important life lesson to the world. You should never restrict yourself to the limits other people have imposed on themselves. There’s an ancient Chinese saying that reads: “The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt them man doing it.” I’ve shown you it can be done. I’ve shown you how to do it. Now it’s your turn. Get action oriented and go beyond just reading. Envision yourself 6 months down the line with an amazingly muscular physique. All the attention you’ll get from people eager to learn from you…from the ladies…from everyone. No more surfing through the forums looking for the best muscle building system. No more “Googling” for the latest breakthrough bodyweight training technique which you’ll never use. Now you have an arsenal of weapons to destroy every single muscle growth plateau that ever attempts to come your way. Now you know what works to build muscle and what doesn’t. Now you decide how much muscle you want to gain. How bad do you want it? See you on the other side, Your friend, Mike Thiga


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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Is it really possible to build muscle using bodyweight training? Absolutely. And that’s what this whole program is about. I want to show you how you can build all the muscle you want without ever having to lift a weight. The exact amount of muscle you will gain depends on your training, diet & lifestyle protocols. So yes, it is possible. Let nobody tell you otherwise.

Q: How do I balance your program so that it doesn’t clash with my extra curricular activities (e.g. martial arts, soccer etc.)?

You can continue with your extra curricular activities as long as they don’t affect your recovery with the training program. But if those activities are hindering you from making proper progress, then I suggest you re-evaluate and cut back on them. It really boils down to how much this muscle building program means to you. Isn’t it worth abit of sacrifice?

Q: Why is your program based on full body workouts? Full body workouts are designed for people looking to gain pure size. Forget the one bodypart twice a week philosophy. Three day full body splits are the best (especially for bodyweight trainers) if you want to pack on serious amounts of muscle mass.

Q: I’m very busy and can’t eat more than 3 times a day. What can do?

If you can’t eat as frequently as the program requires, simply start eating MORE of what it is you are already eating. This way you will be increasing your caloric intake without having to take extra meals. Just make sure you’re taking in the correct balance of protein, carbs, and fats, and that the caloric increase is considerably more than before…enough to promote new muscle mass.

Q: What’s the difference between Chin-ups and Pull-ups? Chin-ups work the biceps, and they are performed in close grip, with your palms facing towards you. Pull-ups on the other hand work the lats (upper back) and are performed in wide grip with your palms facing the opposite direction. Pull-ups are generally harder to do because they require you to use muscles which haven’t been highly developed by day to day activities.


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Q: Do I have to follow the Monday, Wednesday Friday rule?

You’re not restrained to follow this exact pattern. As long as you have one rest day between each workout day things should work just fine.

Q: If my muscles are sore from a workout, should I take a day off to rest?

It depends how sore you are. General soreness is normal and shouldn’t prevent you from training. But if it’s an extreme pain of some kind, take a break until you have properly recovered. Soreness can generally be avoided by properly stretching and massaging your muscles before and after your workouts.

Q: How do I figure out the number of calories I should be consuming?

The anabolic calorie calculator provided should give you a good estimate of the number of calories you ought to be consuming. Remember that the bigger you get, the higher you metabolic rate will be. Therefore you can’t continue to eat the same amount of calories as you move up the scale. Your intake must continue to increase.

Q: I do hundreds of sit-ups every day. How long will it take to get a six pack? Here’s the thing: Your abs are muscles, just like your biceps or your lats. And if it takes you hundreds of reps before you begin to feel a burn then you're honestly just wasting time. A true abdominal workout should get your abs burning at no more than 25 reps. Slow down your workout tempo during each rep and make sure you contract your ab muscles hard. Q: Are there exercises in this book that require special equipment of some kind? Is there any way I can improvise due to lack of equipment? Actually most of the exercises here don’t require any special equipment of any kind and can be done literally anywhere. You just need to get abit creative and improvise where you think you might need to. For example, if you don’t have any place you can perform chin-ups/pull-ups, buy a cheap set of C-Clamps and attach them to your rafters. If you need to do bar dips, take two firm chairs and do your exercise between them. The beauty of bodyweight exercises is that the most crucial piece of equipment you’ll ever need has already been given to you: your body.


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Q: How long will it take before I start to see some gains? That will vary as per the individual. But in the end it really all depends on how well you train, in addition to a proper nutrition and recovery schedule. With all things followed you should begin to notice gains in just a matter of weeks. Q: You haven’t mentioned the more common bodyweight exercises e.g. Planks, Burpees, Lunges etc. why? Simply because they will do NOTHING to aid your muscle building efforts. The problem most bodyweight trainers make is to pick any exercise labeled “bodyweight exercise” without judging to see if it’s going to do them any good in their desire to build muscle. Let me ask you this: If you wanted to pack on 10lbs over the next 2 months, what purpose would doing burpees and lunges be? They are good for conditioning but useless for muscle building. I have provided a database of the 29 most powerful muscle building bodyweight exercises in existence so you’ll never have to guess again. Q: I have some weights at home. Is it okay if I combine them with your training program? If they are heavy enough, use them to increase the extra load on your workouts. For example, if performing bench dips, place a plate on your laps to increase the load. Q: When is the best time to train? The time during which you train really doesn’t make that big of a difference. Just pick the time that’s best for you. When do you have the most time and energy to dedicate to your training? Whatever suits you is great. Q: I calculated my required caloric intake using the Anabolic Calorie Calculator and the numbers seem abit high. Any feedback on that? If you want to get big then you must eat big. There’s simply no way around it. You see, to build muscle your body needs ‘building material’. If you wanted to build a massive castle you would need more bricks than if you wanted to build a small bungalow. Ever seen a bodybuilder who eats 2000 calories a day? I don’t think so. Q: What if I can’t do a particular exercise in your program because of an injury? If that’s the case, substitute that exercise with another one from the exercise database. Remember to consult you physician before training if you have any injuries.


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Q: I’m a female and was wondering if I use this program will I get very muscular? I take it you want to add a few pounds and look lean and sexy? That’s cool. Just use the program until you get to the point where you are satisfied with your own results. If you think you’re gaining more than you wanted, simply slow down. But you won’t suddenly wake up one morning looking like Hulk and your family thinks there’s an imposter in the house ;-). Q: Do I need to take supplements in order to really gain muscle? The short answer would be no. Most supplements are just hyped up tubs of sugar and fart enhancing chemicals ☺. There are a few which are good when combined with proper training and nutrition, but keep in mind that they are not THE chief reason for muscle growth. Q: Is it possible to build muscle while dropping my fat % at the same time? If you want to become SuperFreak, the rule is simple: You either train and diet to gain weight or to lose fat. Never both. People who try to build muscle while losing fat simultaneously never make any progress. The key is to pack on the mass first, then once you get to your target weight you begin to cut the little fat that you gained. Look at pro bodybuilders. They will spend about 6 months bulking, then a few months ‘cutting’. That’s the secret to rapid muscle gain.

Q: Will consuming large amounts of protein harm my kidneys?

No. The only time eating a lot of protein might harm your kidneys is if you already have kidney issues. But you should drink plenty of water on the daily to increase your kidneys’ efficiency in eliminating waste products. If you have any pain in your kidneys, consult your doctor.

Q: How do I convert kg to lbs and vice versa?

To convert kgs to lbs, simply multiply your weight in kg by 2.2.

To convert lbs to kgs, simply divide your weight in lbs by 2.2

Example: If you weigh 160 lbs and you want to convert your weight to kg, do 160/2.2 = 72.7 kg.


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Q: Do I have to feel a ‘pump’ when training?

A muscular ‘pump’ is good but not a requirement. If you feel it, great. If you don’t, no sweat. As long as you are continually progressing in your training, muscle gain will be inevitable.

Q: Can I just eat anything that is available if I can’t afford the meal plans?

If that’s the case, just make sure you eat the good quality food that is available. And eat lots of it.

Q: How can I speed up my recovery after training?

Make sure you drink enough water throughout the day (at least 4 litres), and get at least 7 hours of good quality sleep each night.

Q: What makes your system so different from other bodyweight training programs?

For one, this system teaches people how to actually build muscle using bodyweight training. You’ll notice that 99% of bodyweight training programs out there avoid the issue of muscle building and focus on other areas of physical fitness. They either don’t know how to build muscle without weights or they seem to have forgotten that there are countless skinny guys who don’t have access to the gym and still want to pack on the pounds.

Secondly, the concepts and techniques I teach in this program have never been seen anywhere else. You won’t just read the same old stuff you read from some other source. The content here is unique and clear cut facts. This isn’t some 200 page book filled with scientific jargon aimed to sidetrack you from your main goal which is to build muscle. I’ve given you only what you need to build your perfect body. Nothing more, nothing less.


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About The Author

Mike Thiga is a graphic designer, bodyweight training fanatic and freelance writer. His writings have been featured on several top muscle building sites, including BodyBuildingForYou.com He is the founder of www.The-Muscle-Experiment.com, a website dedicated to teaching people how to build muscle without the use of weights. He is the author of “The Muscle Experiment – The Lost Secrets of Bodyweight Training Revealed”.


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http://www.the-muscle-experiment.com/

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