How to Gain Weight and
Build Muscle
Posted By: Mark Sisson
So you wanna put on some lean
muscle mass. And you want to do it within the context of the Primal Blueprint, but aren’t
sure where to start. It’s a common question and it’s
about time I addressed it head on.
As I’ve made pretty clear, our
ultimate goal is to achieve positive gene expression,
functional strength, optimum health, and extended longevity. In other words: To
make the most out of the particular gene set you inherited. These are my end
goals, and I’ve modeled the PB Laws with them
in mind. But that doesn’t mean packing on extra muscle can’t happen with
additional input. After I retired from a life of chronic cardio and started living Primally, I added 15 pounds of muscle,
while keeping low body fat levels without really trying, so it’s absolutely
possible for a hardgainer to gain some. The question is how much and at what
expense?
I’d be the first to tell you that
lean body mass is healthier than adipose tissue. Generally, the more lean mass a
person has, the longer and better they live. But to
increase mass at the expense of agility, strength, or speed is, in my opinion,
counterproductive. What would Grok do – go for
enormous biceps or the ability to haul a carcass back to camp? Unless you’re a
bodybuilder (nothing wrong with that, mind you; it’s just not my focus), I
can’t advise simply packing on size without a proportional increase in actual
strength. Those bulging biceps might look good on the beach, but then again, so
does the body that comes with keeping up with the younger guys, knocking out
twenty pull-ups in a row, and lifting twice your bodyweight. Form is best
paired with a healthy serving of function. The two are quite delicious
together, and, luckily, following the PB allows us to get both without
sacrificing either.
Of course,
we’re all built a little differently. It’s why some people are short and some are
tall, or why some of us respond better to carbohydrates than others. Even
though we all pretty much operate the same way, there IS a range of possible
outcomes that is proscribed by your direct ancestors. By that same token, some
people just naturally have more muscle mass. They’re usually innately more
muscular than the average person, and putting more on through resistance
training is often an easy task. Then there are those who can’t seem to gain a
pound: the hardgainers. They might be increasing strength,
but it doesn’t seem to translate into visible muscle mass. Now, my initial
advice for a hardgainer is this – don’t worry too much about it! As long as
you’re getting stronger, you’re doing it right.
Let’s face
it, though. You’ve probably heard that enough already. It’s fun being the lanky
guy at the gym who can lift more than most, but you’re dead set on bulking up
(who doesn’t like a bit more muscle to go along with that strength?), and you
want to do it in a Primal context. Besides, continuing to increase strength
will eventually require increasing size. To do so, you have to target the very
same anabolic hormones that others use to get big, only with even more
enthusiasm and drive. Like I said, we all have similar engines, but some
require more fuel and more efficient driving (sorry for the corny analogy).
Activating these hormones will work for anyone, provided they work hard and eat
enough food.
The main
hormones that contribute to muscle anabolism are testosterone, growth hormone
(GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). A little more about each and
how to utilize them:
Testosterone
Crazy
bodybuilders don’t inject themselves with anabolic steroid hormones that are
based on testosterone for nothing. Among other roles, testosterone is an
important muscle-building growth factor that favorably affects
protein synthesis in addition to working with other
hormones (like GH and IGF-1) to improve their function (more on this later). If
you want to increase strength and build muscle, testosterone is absolutely
required (don’t worry, though: no injections necessary!).
It’s right
there in the name, isn’t it? Growth
hormone. It helps muscle grow and, perhaps more importantly, it burns body fat.
After all, leaning out is a big part of building muscle (or else you’ll just
look puffy) and GH will help you do it.
Insulin-like Growth Factor 1
IGF-1 is
extremely similar in effect to GH, as it should be – GH stimulates IGF-1
production in the liver. In fact, it’s suspected that IGF-1 is actually
responsible for most of the “growth-promoting effects of circulating GH.”
Anabolic hormones all
work together. In fact, to maximize their
muscle-building potential, you must have all three present. Testosterone
increases IGF-1, but only in the presence of GH. GH promotes skeletal muscle
cell fusion independent of IGF-1, but the two are most effective in
concert. Luckily for you, the types of exercises that
stimulate the secretion of one will generally stimulate the secretion of the
others. Funny how that works out, huh?
Enter The Central Nervous System
In order for
your body to start pumping out these delicious anabolic hormones, you must
first give it a reason to do so. I might even say you should give your genes a
reason to express themselves. The most effective way to do this is by notifying
the central nervous system. Now, the CNS can be a stubborn bastard, but he’s
all you got when it comes to interpreting stimuli and relaying messages to the
rest of the body. He’s not easily perturbed, and he won’t bother if you aren’t
serious. If you insist on doing nothing but light aerobics or tiny isolation
exercises, your CNS will barely notice. If you want to get your CNS’ attention,
pick up the intensity. Run some sprints or do some heavy lifting. When you do an exercise like the squat with a heavy
weight, all hands are on deck. Your CNS realizes that some serious exercising
is going down and notifies the hypothalamus, which in turn talks to your
pituitary gland. This tiny – but vital – member of the endocrine system is the
gland that dispatches luteinizing hormones to tell the testicles to secrete
testosterone. It’s also the gland that synthesizes and secretes GH. IGF-1 is
mostly produced by the liver, but its production is facilitated by the presence
of GH, so we can see that it all comes down to CNS stimulation. Chronic
cardio doesn’t affect your CNS in any meaningful way,
so that’s why we tend to avoid it; vigorous sprints, hard and heavy lifting,
and anaerobic output will get its attention, so do plenty of these to maximize
muscle growth.
will continue...
