Gaining 30lbs of mass in a year
The year is Jan 2018, I weigh 145lbs and I’m 5’11.
I’d been stuck at 145lbs for a decade. There have only been a few times in the past decade that I’d gone up to 149lbs. But I always lost it.
I’d been wanting to gain mass for years. I just didn’t know what to do, how to go about it, or how to even maintain it.
Fast forward to mid-2018, I jump out of the shower and I’m staring in the mirror. I look like a starving kid from India. I got the muscle definition but that’s mainly due to my lack of mass. A gust of wind could sweep me off my feet.
But here was my dilemma. Even though I’ve always wanted to put on muscle mass I never wanted to be big just to look intimidating. It’s close to useless if you have mass but you can’t defend yourself in a fight. But now I had been training Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) and wrestling for about a year at this point.
I felt it was time to gain some mass. So from mid-2018 to around mid-2019 I went from 145lbs to 175lbs. That 30lbs of mass.
How did I do this?
Simple answer, I hacked the system with a system. And I’m going to tell you exactly what I did to gain mass.
Here’s how a typical session went for me (the weights increase over the months). I got my heart rate up on a bike. Do 3 sets of 5 pull-ups. Swing light kettlebell for 3 sets of 10. Now the fun begins. I start with a 5lbs sand ball between my legs and did 3 sets of 5. Then I move onto kettlebell swings. Bells are around 20-25lbs. I do them for 3 sets of 10. Return to pull-ups with increasing the sandball to 10lbs. Do 3 sets of 6. Then back to the bells with increased weights (30-35lbs) for 3 sets of 10. Finally, I max out my pull-ups with a 20lbs sandball. If I was doing biceps I would replace pull-ups with curls. The same principle applied to the curls, the weights progressively increased.
An important thing to note is that before I felt ready to move onto heavier weights, I would move onto heavier weights. I tried to keep my body in shock. Yet, if my posture was compromised then I would reduce the weights. But if I could do at least two or three in a set with good posture, then I kept the weights.
I lifted 4x a week.
What did I eat?
Now here’s what I ate: besides eating more food which is a must. I drank more milk (my stomach didn’t like that at all). I started eating 2 boiled eggs every night an hour before bed. Then about 2 or 3 months I increased it to 4 eggs per night.
I had protein shakes but, for some reason, it was always bad for my stomach. So I decreased drinking them to thrice a week. One thing I consistently took was creatine. First I would mix it with my water but it took ages to dissolve. So instead I would take the scoop right into my mouth. It tastes like dirt.
But how is this hacking the system?
It’s continual progressive resistance + shocking my muscles. 50% of the time after I warmed up I would immediately begin with my max sets or heavier. I was getting my body prepared to do heavy weights. This ties into me moving onto heavier weights earlier than my body expected.
This was my system and I did it consistently. I never let my body feel comfortable.
Lastly, I made sure I had good sleep. Magnesium and CBD were key here.
Here’s a before and after of me.
