Best Way To Build Muscle Without Those Dreaded Plateaus

Have you wondered what the Best Way to  Build Muscle without hitting those dreaded plateaus is? Check out my video on this subject and learn how I've managed to maintain my growth rate.

5 Less Popular Muscle Building Carbohydrate Foods You Must Try

Muscle and fitness enthusiasts can get a little crazy and overly cautious when it comes to carbohydrate consumption - and rightfully so. The type of carbohydrates you consume can make or break your physique.

In this article we’ll look at five less common carbohydrate foods that provide an alternative to the muscle and fitness enthusiasts’ typical staple diet of brown rice, sweet potatoes and oatmeal. Start rotating these less popular nutrient-dense carbohydrate sources into your food arsenal so you continue to increase your muscle gains with enthusiasm.

1. Black beans

Why they’ll make you grow: Just one cup of black beans (dried) yields 227 calories, less than one gram of fat, 41 grams of carbohydrates and 15 grams of protein. For skinny guys who require more calories to pack on some weight, beans give you a great bang for you buck. Beans are one of the few foods that give you a combination of high carbohydrates, proteins and calories, void of the fat, all in the same food source.

Lately I’ve been eating at Chipotle, my new favorite Mexican restaurant, and getting the chicken bowl with cooked rice, brown beans, black beans and guacamole - a powerful muscle-building meal that provides you with all the nutrients you need to get you out of those medium sized t-shirts in no time.

If black beans don’t get your taste buds juicing, then consider kidney beans, navy beans, garbanzo beans, or pinto beans. Green beans are the only type of bean low in calories and better to use as a vegetable source, not a muscle-building carbohydrate source.


2. Dark Leafy Greens

Why they’ll make you grow: Whether you get your dark leafy greens from kale, Swiss chard, collard green or spinach, these are some of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world. Known for their extremely low caloric value, they are packed with an encyclopedia of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, making it even more critical to make greens a part of every meal. 

Dark leafy greens are also excellent sources of natural nitrates, which increase levels of nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide helps deliver more oxygen and nutrients to working muscle which results in all-out training sessions feeling less brutal. 

Dark leafy greens take the top of the class when it comes to Vitamin C, an antioxidant involved in the production of carnitine. Carnitine is required for fat oxidation. Strive for at least five servings of dark leafy greens every day. Once that becomes a natural routine, boost it up to 10 servings for optimal health and performance.

3. Quinoa

Why it’ll make you grow: Just one cup of cooked quinoa will give you 254 calories, four grams of fat, 47 grams of carbohydrates, and nine grams of protein. This is easily one of the most nutritionally charged types of grains and has been historically noted for being the main power food for the ancient Incan armies.

Unlike rice and pasta, quinoa contains a full complement of essential amino acids, making it a complete protein source, so if you’re a vegetarian this is a no-brainer option to meet your needs.

Quinoa is nutritionally high in manganese, folate, fat fighting fiber, iron and magnesium, a mineral that is shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which can keep fat gain at bay. Compared to refined carbohydrate sources like white rice or white pasta, quinoa digests slower, providing more sustainable energy and less chance of fat storage. 

4. Perogies

Why they’ll make you grow: A serving of four perogies contains 190 to 210 calories and the calorie count rises when you include higher-fat cheeses or meats such as bacon. I prefer the traditional Polish variety stuffed with mashed potatoes and cheese. This will give you about 41 grams of carbohydrates, seven grams of protein, 4-8 grams of fat and 2-4 grams of fiber.

The best part about perogies is that they pack a lot of calories into a small meal, they taste amazing and they give your body a break from all the standard oatmeal, sweet potatoes and brown rice that become too common and boring in the quest for muscle mass. 

I’m no Italian chef so I keep my preparation strategy simple - all I do is boil them in water and then lightly fry them in a bit of olive oil. This can make an amazing post workout meal when you combine them with some cottage cheese to achieve a higher protein intake.

5. Ezekiel 4:9 Cereal

Why it’ll make you grow: This organic sprouted whole grain flourless cereal contains all organic sprouted ingredients including whole wheat, malted barley, whole millet, whole barley, almonds, whole lentils, whole soybeans, whole spelt, filtered water and sea salt. It’s so healthy, I’ve used it has a diet food as well. You can choose from three different flavors: Almond contains almonds, Golden Flax contains organic golden flax seeds and Cinnamon Raisin contains organic cinnamon and raisins. Use all three!

According to Food for Life, the creator of Ezekiel 4:9 Cereal, most grocery store breads contain whole-dry or milled grains. Food for Life takes whole grains and allows them to sprout before processing them instead. This process lets the grain release enzymes, which increase the nutritional value of the grain.

You will not find dough conditioners, artificial additives, flavors, colors, or preservatives in any of Food for Life products. Nutritionally, this is the only acceptable cereal for muscle and fitness enthusiasts because they are far superior to the processed and sugary cereals you normally find in a grocery store. 

Just one cup of Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Cereal, Almond flavor, jams a whopping 76 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fat and 16 grams of protein. Mix your cereal with your favorite chocolate or vanilla protein powder and you have one heck of a tasty and nutritious post workout muscle building meal.

Conclusion

Expanding the size of your muscles simply requires you to expand your food options to prevent boredom and offer your body a variety of nutrients to keep your muscles growing from week to week.

Five Rare Muscle Building Tips For Skinny Guys

I'm going to share five rare muscle building tips for skinny guys who want to build muscle quickly and naturally. The information below will require you to read with an open mind and really think about what you are reading and why it works.

Tip #1 For Skinny Guys: Clarify your goals

Here is what most skinny guys say, “I want to gain a lot of mass!” Can you be any more vague? A better goal is, “I want to gain 14 pounds of muscle by July 1st.”  You need specific and measurable goals if you ever want to see them become real.

Tip #2 For Skinny Guys: Train on a stable surface 

Trying to build your chest up on a stability ball is a big waste of time. Unstable surfaces are more neurologically challenging but you are not overloading your “core” muscles with sufficient stimulus to trigger growth.

Let’s compare a supine dumbbell chest press on a ball versus a dumbbell chest press on a bench.  During a dumbbell chest press on a ball, most skinny guys will barely be able to press 50 pounds a side and the unstable surface will result in triggering the lateral stabilizer motor units you don’t need to keep you from flipping off the ball, so it reduces neural drive from the muscles you do need and are trying to improve (pecs, shoulder flexors and triceps).  Whenever the body recognizes an unstable foundation for force production, its force generating output is down-regulated accordingly.  In short, overloading the muscle is required to stimulate new muscle growth so why limit the load? There’s no point!

Tip #3 For Skinny Guys: Stop believing, “You got to shock the body.”

Even today, you’ll hear this quote come up in gyms, forums, infomercials and other media with the belief that “you have to tear down the muscle and then build it back up.”  But is this true? Absolutely, the catalyst for change is variation from your norm level of fitness. But the idea that one has to annihilate one’s tissues and physiological/neurological processes must be brought to question. 

Is getting a sun burn necessary to experience a tan? Does increased bone density require a fracture? Do calluses require lacerations? When seeking adaptation, the goal should be to seek out least amount of unaccustomed activity. In fact, you want the stimulus to be virtually imperceptible as an increased challenge. This would be considered the ideal stimulus for the most immediate adaptation response, especially in the beginning.  In weight training, we strive to increase our loads approximately 2% each workout. Anything more and you’ll move more towards microscopic tissue damage and associated signs to injury including delayed onset muscle soreness, edema and lengthy recovery period.

 Tip #4 For Skinny Guys: More is less! 

90% of people use volume as the primary stressor and get the result they seek 10% of the time. 10% of people use intensity as the primary stressor and get the results they seek 90% of the time.

This training principle extends from tip #3, and stresses that for many instances, you will get a quicker training effect from doing a smaller amount of training.  In short, you will see more results when doing less training.

Tip #5 For Skinny Guys: Always ask, “Is there anything I can do before this… to better prepare for this… to lesson the leap?”

Can running have a positive influence on your health? Of course, but the level of participation is key. Why do people spend months recovering from a marathon? Was 26.2 miles the perfect distance for each of those 20,000 people to run on that given day at that time of the day?  There are many variables that must be progressed based on what you are currently accustomed to.  Here are some areas of progression that must be considered:

• From none to some
• From sloppy to controlled
• From small range of motion to large range of motion
• From stable surface to unstable surface
• From light to heavy
• From slow to fast
• From minimal volume to more volume
• From minimal effort to maximal effort

Understand that “micro progressions” are not “wimpy”. It simply means, “You’ve got to earn the right to do more, go faster, lift heavier etc. Controlling everything you do is the key!” It’s not about how much you do but HOW WELL you do it!  Remember, we’re trying to get a sun tan, not a sun burn!