90 Day Bodybuilding Program for Mass & Power - Part 1
90 Day Bodybuilding Program for Mass & Power - Part 1
This One’s for You!
The last couple of years have seen a huge upsurge in talk about “aesthetics” and building a “classic physique.” These are the ideals upon which the art and sport of bodybuilding were founded on, going back to days of men like Eugen Sandow, John Grimek and Steve Reeves. But hold up, wait a minute— isn’t this thing we do called body “building?” When I started furiously pumping iron way back in the early 1980s, I wasn’t concerned with my shape or aesthetics. All I knew was that I was a 95-pound runt, and I wanted to get huge and strong so that I would no longer be the skinny little kid girls ignored and guys had no respect for. My first role models weren’t even bodybuilders. They were powerfully built pro wrestlers like Ivan Putski, Superstar Billy Graham, Kerry Von Erich, Superfly Jimmy Snuka and others in the pre-WWE era. I had also seen “Pumping Iron” as a prepubescent, and had been vastly inspired by the rugged physiques of Arnold, Franco, Lou Ferrigno and Ed Corney. All these men were larger than life, and looked like they could take out King Kong with a few deadly punches.
Times have changed, and so has the sport of bodybuilding. Yet in reality, little has changed among the millions of young men around the world who pick up heavy iron every day. Many don’t follow the sport or even have a passing interest in it, but they know one thing— they hit the weights hard because they want to get bigger and stronger. This is what drives them to endure the pain of lactic acid burn, what spurs their maximum effort as they push. They want to be that guy, the one who women can’t help but stare at, and who men instinctively move out of the way to let pass. And you know what? There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is, a lot of those who aspire to these goals are either going about it the wrong way out of ignorance, or have been doing things exactly the same way so that their bodies have long grown accustomed to it, and stopped responding many moons ago. MD is here to help. If you choose to have a little bit of faith and adhere to a structured training and nutrition program for the next 90 days, I promise you will come out the other side stronger and with more size. How does that sound? I thought so. In this first part of a two parter we present the groundwork and philosophy of the Get Big and Strong program, while Part 2 will detail the actual workouts and the diet to maximize gains.
Under Construction – Building a Bigger Base
When you are building a structure of any kind, the focus must be on the foundation and frame. This determines the overall size of the edifice. You don’t bother with things like the flooring, painting or decorations at that stage. All that comes later. And so it is for our mass program. For the next 90 days, you will not concern yourself with your biceps peak, your quad sweep, the cap of your side delts or your pec striations. You will not be shaping, detailing or chiseling. Instead, you will be building. Nearly all your exercises are going to be free weight, compound movements. There will hardly be any isolation exercises, because they do not provide you with anywhere near the same “bang for your buck.”
You will be working hard and heavy on a fairly short list of time-proven basics that have slapped millions of pounds of raw meat on to millions of bodies over many decades. They have delivered excellent results in increasing mass and power for legions of men before you, and they will do the same for you too. There will be nothing fancy or overly complicated about your workouts, even though many seem to believe such is needed. No, my friends, it will seem almost laughably simple on paper. But if you give it a chance, you will soon see how shockingly effective working your ass off on the basic movements truly is.
Eating to Grow – So Let Yourself Grow!
One reason many men fail to make gains is that they don’t fully commit to it on the nutrition end. Here is one basic fact that you must comprehend and take to heart. To gain new lean tissue, you must be in a caloric surplus; that is, you must be taking in more calories than you expend on a consistent basis. The problem is, a lot of guys are addicted to staying pretty lean at all times and are afraid to eat more. They might lose their precious, clearly cut six-pack— heaven forbid! To stay that lean, all but a rare few genetically blessed people will have to eat only a maintenance amount of calories. This will absolutely prevent you from adding any more muscle mass. Your body simply doesn’t have the necessary raw materials to complete the process of recovery and growth. That’s perfectly fine if you are totally satisfied with the amount of mass you have. If you aren’t, and you wouldn’t have read this far already if you were, then it’s time to stop worrying about your cuts and definition, at least for 90 days.
I’m not saying you should let yourself get fat. That’s not needed. But I am saying it’s OK to gain a little bit of fat as long as the end result is putting on a significant amount of muscle. A reasonable ratio of fat to muscle gain is around 1:3. If you gain two pounds of fat and six pounds of muscle (a very realistic goal, by the way), you will still wind up with six pounds of fresh new muscle mass. And it’s not that hard to lose two pounds of fat. The diet outlined will be a framework rather than an exact plan that must be followed exactly. I say this because the amounts will vary among people due to varying metabolisms and caloric needs, and some of you simply will not like all the suggested foods listed in the meals. I really like keeping things simple, if you haven’t already picked up on that.
Here is how to figure out how much you should be eating. Start with a base amount. After a week, if your weight hasn’t budged, increase portion sizes/calories. I suggest bumping them up by about 400-500 calories, evenly distributed among the day’s meals. After another week, weigh in again and adjust as needed. You should arrive at an amount where you are indeed gaining about three-quarters muscle and only one-quarter body fat. If you find yourself making half or more of your gains in fat, which you could track if you want via weekly testing of some sort, just cut back on the calories by 400-500.
There is no cardio on this 90-day program. It would be counterproductive to start trying to lose fat in the midst of a gaining phase of such brief duration. Finally, though five solid meals and a shake are listed, feel free to add in a sixth solid meal if you can squeeze it in every day, based on your schedule and appetite. You should never be overly hungry, but you shouldn’t feel stuffed and uncomfortable either.
The Split: Pull/Push/Legs
This is a slight variation on the widely used split that many have followed with great success over the years. Why did I start with the pull day instead of push? It’s because you will be deadlifting on that day and squatting on the leg day, and doing deads and squats on consecutive days would have your lower back in agony very quickly. It would be constantly sore, and the risk of injury would be enhanced. If you’re hurt, you sure ain’t gonna be lifting hard and heavy, and growing. As far as exercise substitutions, I would rather that you not make any unless absolutely necessary due to previous or current injuries. Compound barbell movements are just the best tools to build a beast with.
Warm-ups and Spotters
Warm-ups will not be listed in our workout charts, but you must include them. Never jump into heavy weights without at least two or preferably three warm-up sets of gradually increasing resistance. Do not take warm-up sets to failure. They are done to increase blood circulation and raise the core temperature so that your connective tissues will be more pliable and elastic, and thus less likely to rupture or tear. On leg day, not only do I advise you to do the warm-up sets, but also precede the workout with seven to 10 minutes of cardio on the stationary bike or treadmill. You should have a very light sweat by the end of that.
Spotters should also always be employed on three movements in particular— barbell bench presses, incline presses and military presses. If you are unable to procure a spotter for those, substitute the dumbbell versions of those exercises instead. You can simply drop the dumbbells if you have to. If you get stuck with a heavy bar on your chest or on your shoulders, good luck. You’re going to need it. For squats, squat inside a power rack and set the pins so you can dump the bar if you have to. Even if your gym only has the “step” type of squat rack, you can still set the bar down on the lower horizontal part of the rack if you get stuck and can’t stand back up.
I am telling you to employ spotters, but I don’t want you relying on them to lift the weight for you. They are there to help you unrack and re-rack the bars, and get you out of a jam if you get stuck. You should not be doing many forced reps on this program. Lift the weight and get the reps on your own power.
So there you have the framework of our Get Big and Strong program. In Part 2 we will detail the actual workouts as well as presenting a diet plan and reveal other elements that will help you Get Big and Strong.
Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989, and maintains the popular website www.ronharrismuscle.com, most notable for its blog “The Daily Pump.” He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area.