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. The basic building
blocks are the same in everyone, but sexual reproduction (as opposed to
asexual reproduction) has the funny habit of producing unique genetics
and small variations that affect the way we respond to our environments.
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!).
Growth Hormone
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.
Cortisol: A Hormone to Avoid
Promoting muscle and strength growth also requires avoiding excess amounts of catabolic (muscle wasting) hormones like
cortisol. Cortisol is the
major stress hormone,
and it exists for a very legitimate reason (dealing with “flight or
fight” incidents, inadequate sleep, anxiety), but in large amounts
cortisol increases serum amino acids by breaking down muscle, inhibiting
protein synthesis and reducing amino acid uptake by the muscles – all
awful things for muscle growth. Compounding the problem even further,
the broken-down muscle is converted into blood glucose, which then
raises insulin secretion and increases insulin resistance while
promoting fat storage. And we all know how great those muscles look with
a nice layer of adipose tissue covering them up! On a serious note,
most people following the PB already minimize cortisol by getting plenty
of sleep and reducing stress, but if you’re preoccupied with building
muscle mass and engaging in extended workout sessions to achieve it,
avoiding excess cortisol can get tricky: excessive exercise without
enough recovery time actually increases cortisol. It makes sense (think
of it like your body’s telling you it needs a day or two off), but the
desire for more muscle mass drives many to work out to the point of
counter-productivity. Just be careful, and give yourself
at least a day of rest after a particularly grueling session.
