Deadlift in Muscle factory - Bangkok

It’s been a year since I started training consistently. It’s been quite a journey. And this is just the beginning.

I made a lot of mistakes. Also had some AHA moments. Consider this article as a shortcut. Cause I don’t want you to repeat my mistakes. Learn from them and find your own way.

Eat like a MADAFAKAAA

This goes out especially for the hardgainers. I am one of you. And you know what is our biggest problem? We think that we eat enough. And then we just don’t get why the hell we are not gaining the god damn weight!

Math is simple. If you don’t gain the weight… Just eat more. I mean a lot more. No. That is not enough. You gotta eat a SHIT TON!

Gaining weight, for us, hardgainers is a very painful process. People say, that we have fast metabolisms. I have no idea what is the cause. But, I am certain, that if you want to gain some weight, you gotta walk through the hell.

3,000 kcal. Daily. That is the amount I had to get into my body to grow. That is about 4-5 HUGE meals. I absolutely hated it. Training, compared to eating was effortless. I kid you not. The food became my nightmare.

My diet looked like this

Breakfast - eggs with oats Breakfast: 5 XL eggs with about 150g of oat meal. Don’t worry, I used two plates. Unfortunately, just one stomach for digesting it. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I used to pour eggs in Sriracha (don’t ever buy this, it is highly addictive substance)

Peanut butter with dragon fruit Snack: 4/5 loaves of bread with huge amount of peanut butter on top of it and some fruit (papaya, dragon fruit, melon etc.)

Rice with chicken curry Lunch: 200g of chicken breasts with curry, coconut milk and 150g of raw rice

Snack: a can of baked beans (sounds healthy, right) combined with a can of tuna (because there is always room for one more can)

Dinner: 200g of chicken breasts and 150g of rice

Sometimes, the snack was my last meal. Cause I just didn’t have the energy to eat 5 whole meals. I think, that 3,000 kcal was actually 4 meals. And these complete 5 meals should contain about 3,500 kcal.

Just imagine eating all of this. Sometimes, I wanted to cry, because I didn’t feel strong enough to keep at the pace.

I managed to gain 5.9 kg in just a month. Just by following this eating plan and doing trainings regularly.

Conclusion of this. Math is simple. You aren’t gaining the weight? Means, you don’t eat enough. EAT MOAAAAAR!!! A lot more…

Nobody said it was going to be easy. It will be tough as fuck. But, hey. Look at the brighter side of this. Take it as a challenge. It can help you grow as a person.

Another thing. Very important. Eat big. But get there gradually. Otherwise, you would be just spewing your money away. Your body needs some time for adaptation.

By doing this. You will go against your intuition. You know as they say: listen to your body. So, you will act deaf and blind for some time. That is the only way to get what you want.

I guess, you can put on some muscle, even without going extreme. I did this just as a personal challenge. To see what I am capable of.

Anyway, I am not same as I was when I did this challenge. Remember – everything is always changing. So here are the changes I would make to this diet plan.

Definitely less meat. Maybe no meat whatsoever.

Definitely less eggs. I’d soak the oatmeal. Since I found out it contains antinutrients. Go google that term. It is very interesting topic. And I feel like people should know more on this.

Rice. Brown one is definitely better. But who got time to cook it and eat it, right?

No cans! More vegetables and fruit.

Peanut butter. Maybe. If you can find some healthy version. The one I was eating was full of salt, sugar and palm oil. I realized this just afterwards.

Bread. Up to you. I mean, I will still eat it. Cause I am addicted to it :D

To conclude, it is important to eat as much whole foods as possible. And according to meat and animal products in general. Totally up to you. But you know that.

For Slovak/Czech speaking audience. Here is the guide written in Slovak. It is called The art of veľkovýkrm. Probably the best material you can find on bulking:

http://new.biomag.sk/show_article.php?id=95

Definitely must read. It is like a Bible on bulking.

Surround yourself with the right people

The enviroment you live in matters a lot. As I started hanging out with DOers, I started to become more active myself.

By active I mean: hard-working people, determined, goal-oriented and doing some kind of physical activity.

And most of all, they should be further ahead on the road. You can‘t really learn anything from people, who are not willing to push their boundaries.

As I came to Thailand, I decided that I should finally put on some muscle. Shout out to Glenn, who helped me to make a meal plan. I could see that he knew what he was talking about. Because this guy is huge.

Apparently, he is doing it right. Glenn simply showed me, that all I need to do is: traing hard and eat big. And get some sleep as well.

So I figured if he could do it, why not me? And I started eating like a motherfucker. After a month I gained 5,9 kg‘s. I guess that most of it was water. Then some fat and a bit of muscle.

That was not even important. All that mattered was that I finally rewired my brain. That was very important AHA moment for me. I realized that it is possible. That I am a healthy boy. And I can pack the weight on.

Once you get to this point, there is no return. You will never look back. Such achievemt will keep you going even further. And push yourself. To the limit. To the sky.

Remember. Enviroment could be stronger than your will power. Check out more on this here: https://howfarwillirun.com/2013/07/01/environment-is-stronger-than-will-power-paramahansa-yogananda/

Water. Drink. It.

I think many of us underestimate the importance of getting enough liquids into your body.

One of the first things you should do in the morning is to drink water. When you think about it, it all makes sense.

Body is dehydrated after sleeping. So, most of the liquids should be drunk in the morning. Just listen to your body. It is the best guide out there.

Thing is, that if you are not used to drinking enough water, your body will store it. Problem is, that it will not store just the water, but also a lot of toxins.

So you have to rewire your brain and body. Because, if you are used to drink just a bit of water. And you think, that is enough. It will take probably few months to realize, that you need much more than that.

I don’t wanna tell you how much water you should drink. Because it depends on so many factors. But if you need some guide for the start, check this out: https://www.healthline.com/health/how-much-water-should-I-drink

That should give you an idea. And again, it depends what’s the weather like in your country, what is your gender, how much physical activity you do and so on.

Sleep

You will find a lot of information out there on how much you should sleep.

Thing is, that nobody knows better than you. You just need to perform a very simple test. So that you know how much sleep you actually need.

Just go to sleep. And then, wake up when you feel like it. No alarms. Do this for few days and you will realize, that your needs varies. Sometimes you will get by with 7 hours. Some night you will need 9-10 hours. I am just making up the numbers, but I think you get the point.

The more physical or mental activity you did that day, the more time it will take to recover fully. But I am not telling you anything you would not know already, right?

In ideal world, nobody would have to use stupid alarms. I have been trying this method for some time and it works like charm. You just wake up when you feel fully rested.

If you have to wake up and go to work or go to to school, that is different. Then, you definitely need the alarm. But if you know how much time you, approximately, need to recover, it is easy. Oh, and there are also these smart alarm nowadays. So just try them out.

Never underestimate the importance of sleep. This may sound so obvious, but many of us compromise the time that we spend doing this very pleasurable activity. That is something to think about.

One of the worst days (speaking energy wise) that I remember from last year, were so bad and painful because I just did not have enough rest. Sleep deprivation is your enemy.

But, if you don’t believe me. Go try it for yourself. Don’t sleep for one night and see what happens with your body.

You will feel sluggish as fuck (thank you Rene, for teaching me this word haha). Coffee, cold shower, physical activity… These things will help you for a moment. But then you will be back to dying mode again.

It is just not worth it.

And most important thing here. You don’t grow while you exercise. You don’t grow while you eat. You grow in your bed!

This training might help you pack on some muscle

Before I started my gaining weight challenge, I read the book from Tim Feriss. It is called: The 4 hour body. There is a plenty of interesting information.

I will share the most valuable one with you. The one that can help you a lot.

Tim Feriss did this 30 day experiment as well. I don’t remember how much weight he gained. But it was a ridiculous number.

His method was very simple. He picked 7 compound movements. One set per 1 movement. Until failure. It may seem like a lol number, but wait. Here comes the magic.

Eccentric phase should be performed for 5 seconds. Concentric phase for 5 seconds as well. And pause for about 1 second in both, top and bottom positions.

You can pick whatever exercises you want. That is completely up to you.

I was training this 3-4x week. And it worked like a charm.

You can check out my gaining weight challenge right here: https://vili.am/skinny-body-to-beast-body-in-28-days/

And here are the results of it, with pictures included: https://vili.am/gained-59-kg-28-days/

Photos below were taken few months back.

Selfie time

Deadlift in Muscle factory Bangkok Caption: There must be more to life…

And honestly, it was one of the most demanding routines I have ever tried. And also one of the boring ones. Because training for hypertrophy is not really my thing. I just did this as an experiment.

Anyway, there are many other ways how to let the muscles grow.

This article might be helpful for you: https://www.t-nation.com/training/prilepins-table-for-hypertrophy

Most of all, don’t spend too much time looking for the BEST routine. Because such routine doesn’t really exist. And you will use your time in a more efficient way by taking the action. There is this 90/10 rule. Which says that you should be practicing the skill 90 % of the time. And studying the rest. I totally agree with this approach.

Because real life is never like the theory. Besides, in theory everything seems to make sense. And then you realize, that it is totally different than what you expected it to be.

Don’t take this as a dogma. What worked for me, doesn’t really have to work for you.

There is this saying. It goes like: Run away from people who found the truth. And surround yourself with people who keep looking for it.

Conclusion

Let me know in the comments how this approach works for you.

Frankly, I wouldn’t do it again. Cause I know, that it is not healthy for my body.

I wrote this article a while ago, so my opinion is totally different now. But if you really wanna do it, go for it. Trust your gut feeling and not some random dude on the internet.