Day 2: 5 essential tips to maximise muscle size I wish I knew a decade ago

Adding lean muscle mass has been shown to improve health and longevity in many ways.

Many people struggle to increase muscle size, however.

Personally, I did for years. I would sweat it out in the gym; high intensity, multiple muscle groups, compounding, supersets.

I thought I was doing everything right but I was still skinny and weak.

But then I found a plan from an expert who had dedicated their life to solving my problem.

And as soon as it clicked I realised muscle building wasn’t that hard — I was just doing the wrong thing for so many years.

Here’s what I should have done instead:

1) Prioritise I prioritised my specific goal. I found time in my schedule to train for 45 minutes, 5 days a week.

2) Perform At least 10 resistance exercise ‘sets’ per week per muscle group (chest, quads, lats etc). Between 6–15 rep range per set with good form to avoid injury. Finishing each set with 1–2 ‘reps in reserve’.

3 Increment Every week I added 5% extra volume or weight.

4) Recover Protein 2g/kg bodyweight from whole food and/or powders, split into 4 separate servings over the day. Carbs during and post session. 10% more calories than my baseline. Supplements: Creatine, Ashwagandha , a multivitamin and magnesium malate for stiffness. Slept 8 hours a night. No cold plunge for 6 hours post session (cold showers ok)

5) Persist I saw hardly any growth for 8 weeks but I continued with faith that the plan would deliver because I felt stronger and healthier. I craved a workout when I missed one. I enjoyed them!

By warming up and not risking injury by pushing to failure, I was able to stay in the game for long enough to see my results at 12 weeks.

5kg extra lean mass, feeling strong, energetic and confident.

Comment if you struggle with a similar problem and want to change.