12 Tips for Building Muscle Mass

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

On the Q and A front, I've been getting
lots of questions about building muscle
mass. So let's cover some of the high
points:

1. Basic, compound exercises.

1a. This means squats, deadlifts, presses,
etc.

1b. Himalayan curls are not basics -- 
not even if you do them for 8 x 8, 10 x 10 
or 50 x 50.

1c. Neither are triceps kickbacks, french
presses, pec deck work, flies, lateral
raises, leg extensions, leg curls, hack
squats or bunny blasters. 

2. Focus on your legs and hips, your back 
and your shoulder girdle.

2a. In other words, do squats, deadlifts, and
presses -- oops, I already said that.

3. Train progressively -- which means, always
try to improve your performance.

3a. More weight, more reps, more sets or 
better form.

5. To make significant gains in muscle mass,
you need to make equally significant gains
in strength.

5a. Sorry, that's the way it is. Don't bother to
send me hate mail about it. 

5b. Even if you just want to look good, you 
might as well be strong, too. (Heck, it might
come in handy some day. Being strong, I 
mean.)

6. If you add 100 pounds to your top weights 
in the squat and the deadlift, and 50 pounds to
your top weights in upper body movements, you
won't have any more problems with muscle mass.

6a. See point 5, above.

6b. In his prime, Reg Park was the biggest and
most massively developed bodybuilder in the
entire world. He was also the strongest 
bodybuilder in the world. Maybe, just maybe,
the two were related.

7. You need to eat more, and better food --
with an emphasis on protein. You do NOT need 
supplements, and you do not need any sort of 
special diet or eating plan. Your workouts will
create a need for high quality food, and will
increase your appetite. So TRAIN -- and then
EAT!

7a. Force-feeding is a mistake.

7b. Chugging gallons and gallons of milk is
a mistake.

7c. The Get Big Drink is the worst mistake of
all, unless you enjoy a three day belly-ache.

8. Yes, older trainees CAN build muscle mass. 
Don't listen to the folks who try to tell you
it's impossible.

8A. The key to gains for older trainees is to
limit the amount of training you do, cycle the 
intensity of your training, follow a simplified 
cycling system and avoid overtraining. See 
Gray Hair and Black Iron for details and
for workouts. (It has more than 50 of them.)

9. Contrary to popular belief, you can build 
serious mass with bodyweight exercises -- but
they have to be the right kind of exercises, 
meaning they have to be difficult, demanding
and progressive in nature. See Dinosaur
Bodyweight Training for details.

9A. The old George Jowett idea of training
progressively by moving from easy exercises to 
more difficult exercises works very well for 
bodyweight training. 

9B. Bodyweight training and weight training 
make an excellent mass building program.

10. Rest and recovery are critical. It is
impossible to make good gains in muscle mass
if you are over-trained.

11. Sleep is so important they ought to bottle
the stuff and sell it. Seriously.

11a. See my new book, Dinosaur Sleeping,
for details.

11b. Sorry, just kidding about the new book.
But it's actually a good idea -- because sleep 
is super important when you're training hard
and heavy -- and when your body is in gaining 
mode.

12. John Grimek said it best: Skinny guys worry
too much. To build muscle, you need to slow
down, chill out, stop stressing, and RELAX a
little. 

12A. As Bradley J. Steiner put it, MAINTAIN 
A TRANQUIL MIND! That's way more important than
most people realize.

12B. Spending all day on internet forums arguing
about strength training and muscle building does 
NOT promote tranquility.  

So there you have it. Some very simple, but very
important, keys to muscle mass.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great 
day. If you train today, make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. I mentioned that bodyweight training and
weight training is a good combination to pack 
on the pounds. I detail how to to do it in a 
special report that you'll get when you order
Dinosaur Bodyweight Training:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html

P.S. 2. For all other Dinosaur Training books
and courses, including Gray Hair and Black Iron,
go here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "If you're gonna be
a bear, you might as well be a grizzly. And if you 
want to be a grizzly, you need to train hard,
heavy and serious." -- Brooks Kubik

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The Dinosaur Diet (with Photos)

 

Dinosaur Lunch (the Movie).

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Several readers have asked me to share
a typical daily menu here at Dino Head-
quarters.

"Tel us what you eat in a typical day," they
say. "Including the in-between meal snacks."

So here goes.

First of all, there are no in-between meal
snacks. Three meals a day is more than
enough for this 58-year old Dino.

Also, there are no protein shakes or
blender bombers or pre-workout energy
drinks. I get my nutrition from real food.
Real food is cheaper, tastier, and much
healthier.

Note that everything other than salmon
comes from our backyard or our favorite
farmer's market -- meaning that we buy
our food directly from local growers. That's
good for the local economy, and helps
assure that we have local sources of
fresh, high quality food.

Our food is chemical-free and "organic"
in the true sense of the word. Grass-fed
beef, eggs from free-range, scratch in
the dirt chickens, veggies grown in
compost (rather than with chemicals),
etc.

It's affordable because we buy local
and we buy directly from the growers.
There's no middle man. My food dollars
go to the local farmer or grower, and to
no one else.

I eat a low-carb diet, and I don't eat any
grains or dairy products. Sometimes I
have rice with dinner, but usually I skip
it.

Anyhow, here's a typical daily menu:

Dinosaur breakfast.

Breakfast

4 eggs, scrambled or cooked in an omelet

Bacon (from pastured pork, minimally
processed)

one or two very small potatoes

salad made from mixed greens or sliced
tomatoes, cucumbers or radishes

coffee

Note: I usually mix the potato and the bacon
with the eggs, and serve the other veggies on
the side.

Dinosaur lunch.

Lunch

8 - 12 oz. ground beef patties

large green salad

in season treat: sliced apple or other locally
grown fresh fruit on the salad

Note: I don't use salad dressing, but
sometimes I put some olive oil and
fresh lemon juice on the salad.

water and coffee

Dinosaur dinner.

Dinner

8 - 12 oz. beef, pork or wild salmon

Note: the price of salmon has gone through
the roof, so we'll be sticking to locally raised
beef and pork unless and until it comes back
down.

salad (same as lunch)

1 or 2 cooked vegetables

1 glass red wine

water

And that's it.  Tons of nutrition, lots of flavor,
and it's all fast and easy to prepare.

You can read more about my daily diet, and
how I use real food to build lifelong strength
and health in Knife, Fork, Muscle.

Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter and
Instagram, and friend me on Facebook for
photos of my meals -- and other fun stuff.
You can find me at "Brooks Kubik" or by
using #brookskubik or #dinosaurtraining.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Go here to grab Knife, Fork, Muscle in
the hard copy edition:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

We're also releasing Knife, Fork, Muscle in a
series of four Kindle e-books. Go here to grab
the first three books in the series -- and note
that Kindle bundles them now, so you can
grab all three with one purchase by clicking
on the photo that shows all three books:

Knife, Fork, Muscle, Book 1

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle01_kindle.html

Knife, Fork, Muscle, Book 2

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle02_kindle.html 

Knife, Fork, Muscle, Book 3

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle03_kindle.html 

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right
here at Dino Headquarters:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Real food builds real
muscle." -- Brooks Kubik

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