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How to Gain Muscle By Eating NO Protein Learn how to manipulate your protein intake to literally FORCE your body to add muscle mass. You can gain 4 to 5 pounds of fresh new muscle in only 10 days!

Protein intake is absolutely crucial for building muscle mass. It is what muscle tissue is made of. So how can you possibly gain muscle by eating NO protein?

To help answer this question, we need to first look at a training technique known as carbohydrate or carb-loading. Carb-loading is used primarily by endurance athletes to increase glycogen stores in the muscles beyond what the body will normally store. This increased fuel storage equals greater endurance. This phenomenon is known as "supercompensation" and it is very well documented.

The basic technique for carb-loading involves first eliminating carbs from the diet for several days while continuing to train hard. Training is then reduced and the athlete eats large amounts of carbs, in effect "loading" the muscles with glycogen (stored carbohydrates). Since the body has been deprived of carbs, it reacts to the extra carbs by greedily holding onto every last one it can. This technique can result in glycogen stores up to 1 1/2 times greater than normal.

But what does carb-loading have to do with eating no protein and gaining muscle? Everything.

In the context of supercompensation, imagine the result if you were to remove protein from your diet for a day. Just like with carb-loading, your body will react by greedily holding onto every last bit of protein it can. But here's the major difference: when accompanied by appropriate training, unlike with carb-loading where the extra carbs are burnt for fuel, you can convince your body to hang onto that extra protein permanently. How does this happen? By using it to build muscle, which is the primary storehouse of protein in your body.

How To Do It:

Note: before I tell you exactly how to do it, please keep in mind that I am not a medical doctor or nutritionist. This information is for educational purposes only and you should always consult your physician before making any major changes to your diet.

The technique consists of 3 phases: lead-up, protein deprivation, and supercompensation. These phases work synergistically to produce the conditions for very quick muscle gain.

In a nutshell, the lead-up phase consists of your training and diet for the several days before the protein deprivation day. The protein deprivation day is simply a day without protein. The supercompensation phase is the nutrition and training techniques you will use to maximize the rebound off the protein deprivation day.

I first encountered this technique a number of years ago in the writings of Leo Costa Jr. of Optimum Training Systems. He originated this theory after noting that farmers in Bulgaria would rotate protein in and out of the diets of their livestock to improve the amount and quality of the meat in the animals. He applied this technique to humans and weight training with amazing results!

Phase 1 - The Lead Up

There are several ways you can go about leading up to your protein deprivation day.

The first way is to continue with your regular diet and training right up until the day you do the protein deprivation technique. Take it relatively easy on your training - work hard but don't push yourself. Take a full day (or two) off training the day before you do the protein starvation day to make sure you're fully rested.

The second method involves temporarily restricting your carb intake before the protein deprivation day. (It is important to check with your doctor before restricting carbs in your diet, especially if you've never done it before.)

Basically, during the 3 days leading up to your protein deprivation day, you will keep your carb intake to around 30 to 50 grams per day (don't change anything else in your diet, just reduce your carb intake).

Restricting your carbs will deplete your body's glycogen stores, forcing it to rely more on fat and protein for energy. Remember the example I used in the beginning of the article about carb- loading? In the supercompensation phase, you will see how restricting then reloading your carbs, when properly combined with protein deprivation, can really shock your body into new muscle growth.

Phase 2 - The Protein Deprivation Day

This is the day that will set up the supercompensation, muscle-building phase. Essentially, you will be eating only fruit today - nothing else. You will be completely eliminating protein (and fat, incidentally) from your diet. What are the results of this? Your body uses up its protein stores and, just like in carb-loading, this creates an urgent need in your body to store the missing nutrient when it gets it again.

Eat as much fruit as you want on this day - apples, oranges, strawberries, bananas, whatever. You don't need to limit your intake at all. As long as you keep eating fruit, your body will use up its protein stores (known as the free amino acid pool) and set up the supercompensation phase. Also, eating only fruit for a day is very cleansing to your body. You may even find this day helps your digestive system function better.

As far as training goes, you have several options:

1. You can take a day off training. Depending on how your body reacts to protein deprivation, you may not feel like training at all. This is fine. You'll still get the effect of the protein deprivation, just not as strongly as if you were training.

2. Do a normal workout. Train the way you regularly train, treating the day as just another day in your exercise routine. Working out will help to increase the effect of the protein deprivation day by creating an even more urgent need in your body to hold onto protein.

3. Break it down hard. To maximize the supercompensation effect of the protein deprivation day, train for maximum muscle breakdown. Use heavy, basic exercises and really push yourself, e.g. use exercises such as squats or deadlifts, bench press, bent-over rows, shoulder presses, barbell curls and dips. Training like this on a protein deprivation day will send your body into a panic. It will really be ready to suck up that protein!

Be very careful when training on the all-fruit day for the first time. You may not have as much strength as you normally would. Be sure to eat a lot of fruit or drink fruit juice immediately after you've completed your workout. It is also important to drink a lot of water on this day as your body will be flushing out a lot of toxic byproducts from the system.

Phase 3 - Supercompensation

This is the phase you've been waiting for. You've just finished depriving your body of protein for an entire day and it's ready to start sucking it up.

The first day is the most important day. Start your day with a protein shake (if you have that available) immediately upon waking. Every meal you eat today should be very high protein. To maximize the effect of the protein deprivation day, you should try to eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight MINIMUM (i.e. if you weigh 200 pounds, eat 200 grams of protein). If you can eat more, do it.

Continue eating very high protein meals for the next 3 to 5 days. Your body is in the process of reloading with protein and you want to make sure you give it as much as you possibly can (just like with carb-loading). Your body will be supercompensating for the protein deprivation day by grabbing and holding onto a lot more of this protein than it normally would.

Now you must train to consolidate into muscle the extra protein your body is holding on to. For best results, you will need to train hard and heavy. Utilize basic exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc. for sets of 6 to 8 reps. Because of the protein deprivation and supercompensation effect, your body will be looking to hold onto a lot more protein, i.e. muscle mass, than usual.

Now, remember in Phase 1 where I described a restricted carb version of the lead-in phase? Here's where it really shows its power. Not only are you doing a protein-load in the third phase, you will also be doing a carb-load! What does that mean for you? It means even greater muscle growth.

When you eat carbs, your body secretes the hormone insulin. Insulin is the body's major storage hormone. It helps the body store carbs. It helps the body store fat. But, most importantly for us, it also helps the body store protein. By restricting carbs for a few days, you sensitize your body to carbs and insulin.

Here's why this is important: you've just eliminated protein from your diet for a day and your body is ready to suck up every last bit of protein it can. Now you can also flood it with carbs (and insulin) which your body is now more sensitive to because of your previous carb restriction. The result: your muscles take up even more protein, which means you can gain even more muscle very quickly!

Conclusion:

It's truly amazing what an incredible effect purposefully restricting or removing a major nutrient such as protein (or carbs) can do for muscle growth. Your body is greedy. It doesn't like to be deprived. By taking something away, you can fool your body into holding onto a whole lot more of it when you bring it back.

With the techniques described in this article, you can add pounds of new muscle to your body in a very short period of time.

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Are You Cheating Yourself Out Of 50% or More Of Your Hard-Earned Results? What Every Trainer, From Beginner to Advanced, NEEDS To Know About Post-Workout Nutrition and The Four-Hour Window of Opportunity.

I have one question for you. What is your post-workout nutritional regimen?

If you answered "nothing," you are cheating yourself out of results that are rightfully yours. You may be wasting as much as 50% of your effort in the gym by not maximizing your post-workout nutrition!

When you exercise, your body burns carbohydrates for energy and breaks down your muscle tissue (especially if you are weight training). Immediately after a workout, the body has an enhanced ability to utilize nutrients such as glucose (sugar) and protein (your body's main building blocks) in order to rebuild and recover from your exercise.

What this essentially means is that your body is turbocharged and ready to grow! This period of power lasts for approximately four hours after a workout, hence the name "Four-Hour Window of Opportunity."

Taking in nutrients immediately after exercise helps you to recover faster and feel better after a workout. This can help you to not only gain muscle faster, but also keep your metabolism fueled so that you lose fat at a faster rate too!

But what happens if you don't eat immediately following a workout? Let me put it this way: it's definitely a situation you want to avoid.

First, your body starts breaking down muscle tissue in undamaged areas of your body in order to get raw materials to help repair the areas you just worked. Over time, this will result in a loss of muscle from your whole body.

Stress hormones in the body (primarily a hormone called cortisol) speed this process along. The stress hormones are produced because working out is a stress on the body - it's a totally natural but results-stopping reaction. How do you control the effects of cortisol? You eat as soon as you can.

But what do you eat after a workout to maximize your results? Both protein and carbohydrates are important for fast recovery.

Protein - Immediately following a workout (within a few minutes of completion) take in some protein. The easiest and best way to do this is in the form of a protein powder (whey is an excellent choice), though a food source such as milk will do.

Taking protein gives your body something to rebuild with instead of tearing down its own muscle tissue for raw materials. Do not take protein right before a workout as it will just sit in your gut and possibly cause bloating. Try to get about 30 to 40 grams of protein in as soon as you can after you're done.

Carbohydrates - Take in about 60 to 100 grams of carbohydrates to help the body refuel. Your body is most efficient at rebuilding its carbohydrate stores immediately after a workout. It's important to take advantage of this period.

A few common examples of healthy carbs to take after a workout include juices, fruits, and sports drinks. Examples of protein foods include milk, eggs, poultry, fish, meat, or soy products. Flavored yogurt is an excellent example of a post-workout snack. It contains carbs, protein and calcium all in one.

Post-Workout Meal - About one hour after your workout, take in a high quality source of protein (as in the examples above) and a good supply of carbohydrates such as grains, potatoes, cereals, etc. At this time, the body has settled down from the stress of the workout and is looking to rebuild.

If you're looking to get as much from your workouts as you possibly can, you can see that post-workout nutrition is critical. By supplying an ample amount of raw materials right after you're done, you will be preventing the body from breaking itself down in order to recover. This means more results from the effort you put into your workouts!

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Secret Training Tip #579 - Power Rack Dips - A Unique Set-Up For a More Powerful Dip The bodyweight dip is one of the most effective chest, tricep and shoulder exercises in existence. But what do you do if you don't have access to dipping bars? You do Power Rack Dips.

The dip should be a staple of any complete strength and muscle-building routine. It's one of the best upper-body movements you can do. But what do you do if you don't have dipping bars in your gym? Are you doomed to miss out on all the incredible benefits this exercise has to offer? Not anymore.

Just because you don't have dipping bars in your gym doesn't mean you can't do dips. In fact, the dipping set-up I'm going to show you is much more versatile even than bars that are built specifically for the exercise!

In order to use this technique, all you will need is a power rack and two Olympic bars. That's it.

First, set the safety rails in the rack to approximately chest height. Now set two Olympic bars on top of the safety rails about 18 inches apart and voila! You've got a dip station. You can choose to set the bars perfectly parallel or set them in a V-shape (I prefer a V-shape for best results).

But the functionality of this set-up doesn't end with it just being a simple dip station. You can take your dipping to a whole new level with the following techniques:

1. Partial Dips

Instead of setting the safety rails at chest level, set them at just above waist level. When you are standing in between the bars, you will notice that you only have a few inches in the top range of motion in the exercise now.

The partial top-range dip is excellent if you are just beginning with dips and need to build up strength or if you are an advanced trainer doing heavy partials with extra weight (either on a hip belt or with a dumbell between your feet). Instead of climbing up onto something or using an elaborate set-up to do partials all you need to do is adjust the height of the safety rails!

For more information on partial training, read the following article entitled "Partial Training For Full-Powered Results":

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue16.htm

2. Negative dips

The negative dip is very useful for building up strength in all levels of trainer from beginner to advanced. If you are a beginner and have trouble doing full reps with your bodyweight, you can almost always at least lower yourself down under control. If you are an advanced trainer, add some weight to yourself and do heavy negatives!

Set the safety rails somewhat lower than your waist so that your arms are straight when you're in a standing position. Set your hands on the bar then bend your knees, lifting your feet off the ground. Lower yourself to the ground slowly until you are either kneeling on the floor or until you have lowered as far as you can safely go. Stand up, set your hands on the bar and repeat the movement.

For more information on negative training, read the following article entitled "How to Do Negative Training Without A Training Partner":

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue15.htm

3. Incline and Decline Dips

These unique variations are only possible using the Power Rack Dip set-up. To do the incline and decline dip, set one safety rail higher than the other then set the bars on top. The one rail can range from being only a few inches higher to as much as a foot or more. The higher the other bar, the more challenging the exercise will be.

Set the bars parallel to each other on the rails for this variation. The collars on the higher ends of the Olympic bars should be braced up against and hooked onto the safety rails so that the bars don't slide as you're doing the exercise. You can even put weight plates on the ends to ensure they don't go anywhere.

To do incline dips, set yourself so that you are facing the higher end of the bars. In this variation, gravity will not only be pushing you down but also pushing you backwards. This places more tension on the triceps because you not only have to push yourself up, you have to also constantly push yourself forward to keep from falling backwards.

To do decline dips, all you have to do is face the other way. Turn around and face the lower ends of the bars. Now the stress on the triceps is different because you must constantly lean back to keep from falling forward. Leaning back during the dip is a great way to increase tricep involvement--this version forces you to do it.

To see pictures of incline and decline dips, go to the following URL:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue19-dips.htm

4. Travelling Incline and Decline Dips

This is the most challenging version of the dip. You must have very good dipping strength in order to properly do this movement.

Start with the incline dip. Set yourself up at the very low end of the bars, facing the top. Lower yourself into the bottom of the dip then push yourself explosively up and slightly forward. You should end up slightly higher on the bars. Repeat the movement, shifting yourself a little higher with each explosive rep until you get to the very high end of the bars.

Set yourself back down on the ground, turn around and do the same thing back down in decline dips. It will be a little easier to move yourself forward because you won't be climbing in altitude. Don't let that fool you, though. Remember, you'll have to catch yourself each time you move forward!

Catching yourself on each rep is exactly like doing plyometrics for your triceps (Note: plyometric exercise is basically catching yourself then explosively pushing back up again. For example, when you jump up in the air, land, then jump back up again, that's a plyometric movement. Plyometric exercises are very effective for building explosive strength and power.). Repeat this procedure all the way back down to the bottom of the bars. If you're still feeling good, try and go back up and down again.

Travelling Incline and Decline Dips will build tremendous explosive power in the pushing muscles of the upper body. Not only are you doing explosive movements on the way up, you're doing plyometric movements on the way down. This can translate into dramatic improvements in exercises such as the bench press.

With the information in this article, it's time to unleash your upper body strength and muscle mass potential. The dip is one of the all-time great upper body exercises. Work it hard and you will be guaranteed results!

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Bodybuilding Supplements That Never Made It Past The Drawing Board Some supplements are good. Some supplements are amazingly good. These supplements aren't even close!

As a long-time trainer, I've tried a lot of bodybuilding supplements and I've seen a lot of supplements come and go. Some have been good; some have been garbage. Here's a few that never even came close...

1. The Protein Powder Keg - a 100 pound barrel of explosive protein (don't light a match after ingesting). Contains over 100 megatons of power per keg.

2. Cheese Whiz Creatine - if creatine is unstable in a liquid, surely it must be stable in a thick, cheesy goo.

3. Saw Clamato - a Saw Palmetto and Clamato juice knock-off. It doesn't do anything for your prostate but it tastes really good when mixed with other supplements.

4. Sucker 2, The World's Strongest Fat Burglar - burns the fat off your body while you sleep! Unfortunately, you will never sleep again if you take it regularly.

5. DHEAHMBCLANO2WWECNN - the latest innovation in shotgun supplementation. Fire it all in - something's gotta work!

6. Ephedra-Free Ma Huang - works best in combination with caffeine-free guarana and aspirin-free white willow bark.

7. The Super-Complete Trainers Multi-Vitamin - contains every single nutrient in optimal quantities for hard-training athletes. Each pill weighs six pounds and must be held under the tongue for 3 hours. Also available in a gel-cap the size of your head.

8. High-Protein Kibbles & Creatine Bits - Purina's first (and last) foray into the supplement industry.

9. Meal Replacement Bar - instead of eating, you go to a tavern and get loaded.

10. Krazy-Glue-Cosamine - seal up joint injuries permanently.

11. Vitamin C Biscuits - a shameless marketing ploy by Hollywood to promote a film. Nothing but orange-flavored horse manure.

12. CLBA - Conjugated Linoleic Battery Acid - for use whenever you need a jump-start in your training.

13. Hydrogen Dioxide - this chemical is currently under investigation by the International Olympic Committee for its powerful performance-enhancing effects in the human body. Although it is available in many fruity flavors, the generic version of H2O is by far the most popular among athletes.

As you can see, supplementation can be confusing, but, if you're looking for that extra boost in your training, stick with proven supplements such as protein, creatine, glutamine and multi-vitamins (and plenty of hydrogen dioxide!) and you can't go wrong.

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