As part of Guyana’s national team, I competed at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship last weekend in El Salvador, where I placed second in the Men’s Physique class.
Following the silver medal performance, I got some feedback from the judges who ultimately stated that I need to add a bit more width and muscle mass to my frame in order to win the elusive gold.
Immediately, I started to research how I could continue to pack on lean muscle mass in order to win at next year’s CAC championships. If you are like me and plan on adding some muscle mass to your frame, here are some tips that you can use to achieve your goal.
Enjoy a routine that is sustainable
Start with a routine that you enjoy so that you will be able to do it consistently. Oftentimes, people fail to achieve their goals not because they don’t have the perfect routine, they fail at their goals because they become frustrated and quit.
Progressive overload
In order to continue to force your tissue to adapt, you must challenge it. This is the principle of progressive overload. There are a variety of ways to achieve this:
1) Increase the weight on the bar, but you can only do this for so long
2) Increase the number of reps at the same weight
3) Once number 1 and 2 plateau, increase volume by 5-10% and repeat. Simple but if you just do that basic principle you will make progress for several years with nothing fancy.
Use sufficient intensity
It’s probably a wise idea to avoid going to failure excessively as this tends to induce excessive fatigue relative to the stimulus imposed. Most sets should probably be taken within 1-3 reps of failure to maximize stimulus and minimize fatigue. Free weight compounds should generally be kept further from absolute failure and machine isolation exercises can be taken closer to failure with less fatigue.
Eat sufficient protein and calories
For protein, 1.6 to 2.4g per kg of body weight appears to be sufficient for most people to max out gains. However, there do not appear to be downsides to eating more. So if you like more, eat more. Also being in a slight caloric surplus, approximately 10 to 20% above maintenance, helps.