Building MASS w/P90X!
As you all know, I’m giving a lot of attention this round to building muscle mass. I’ve been researching it quite a bit, learning as much as I can about workout techniques, nutrition, and supplementing to maximize the effects of a “clean bulk” (building muscle mass without gaining a ton of body fat).
Things I’ve learned and am putting into practice myself this round for building muscle mass:
- Lots of calories = No matter how hard I workout, I won’t build mass unless I am taking in a surplus of calories. I want to do it right, with the right foods, so I’ve been working with a sports nutritionist friend who used to be a powerlifter, and I have developed a diet that I will be using this Round.
- Eat often = I will be sure that I eat every 2.5 – 3 hours all day, and that at each meal / snack I get a good balance of protein and carbs to give my muscles all the fuel they need to repair and grow.
- Creatine = Creatine allows the muscles to work harder during contraction, and it causes the muscles to volumize slightly with more fluid, which allows the muscles to recruit more nutrients for recovery after a workout. This supplement has been studied intensly for years, and most agree that there are no detrimental side effects of using it. Before you decide to use it yourself, do your own research though!
- Pre-workout = I will be using MuscleTech NanoVapor on lift days, because it makes me feel like the Hulk! The combination of caffeine, creatine, and arginine (which is an amino acid that causes vasodilation) will help my muscles get more blood flow and nutrients both during the workout for increased strength and endurance, as well as after the workout to speed recovery.
- Results/Recovery = Replenishing what my muscles have lost during the workout is critical. If I leave them depleted, they won’t grow. I want to reload them with nutrients as quickly as possible after my workout, and R/R will do that for me.
- Decrease cardio = Cardio that is too often or too long in duration will impede the mass building process. I don’t want to let my cardio conditioning fade, so I will still do 2 Insanity workouts per week, but that’s it. The rest of the time I will either be lifting big or resting (so the muscles can grow).
- Heavy weights = I am looking back over all my old worksheets and going UP on every weight in every exercise! I want to fail before rep 8 on everything. If I can get 8 reps, I will up the weight more! I will also increase the weighted backpacks for pullups and pushups. For pullups, it’s realistic to shoot for the 8 rep range, but on pushups I can’t get enough weight in the pack to make that possible. I will still plan on making it impossible to do more than 15-18 pushups by weighing myself down.
- Longer rest between sets = Since the P90X lift days are circuit-style (with nearly no rest between sets), I will make use of the pause button a few times during those DVD’s to let my heart rate drop back down. This will allow me to push harder on each set and lift bigger! I will typically add about 10 minutes to each lift routine by taking small pauses between the sets.
- Rest = I will make sure I get a good night’s sleep (as often as possible LOL!) because muscle growth is at it’s peak while a person sleeps.
*Ultimately the proof is in the pudding, so on Day 360 we’ll see how it’s worked for me! I hope to weigh in at 220-222, with a body fat of 7-7.5%. That would be an increase of 12-14 total pounds, with a body fat increase of 1-2% (thus a total lean muscle mass increase of 8-10 pounds).
If I can do it, this mass building round will have been a success! And I don’t like to fail, so I will be Bringing It! Day 360 will be the last week of Feb, 2011, so I will be posting the results then. And I’ll keep y’all updated in the meantime on my progress.
UPDATE***** 12/23/2010******
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79 Responses to “Building MASS w/P90X!”
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Hey Coach Wayne, I’m really lacking in my chest both strength and size. I can do about 30 push ups for 2-3 rounds, but after that I’m too burnt out to get past 20. would you recommend adding weights and going lower reps(im sure it wont be much weight) or just try to keep my reps above 20 every round? also, I have a bench. should I substitute the push ups with bench press where I can keep the rep range below 8?
Thanks.
Hey Kevin, if you have a bench, yes, use that for some of the pushup exercises so that you can keep it in the 8-10 range. Otherwise, use weights to keep your pushup totals below 20.
What Insanity Workouts do you prefer? Especially considering the goal is to add mass. Was figuring I would keep the schedule essentially the same with the Insanity Workouts on tuesday and saturday.
Hey Cory, during mass building you have to be cautious not to overdo the cardio, so consider using the “shorter” workouts (which are about 45 min as opposed to the Max workouts that are an hour.
hey coach I was wondering how often I should up my weight on exercises..I feel like I am still a long way from catching up to Tony and the gang on the bicep video for example..
Hey Ryan, don’t worry about how much weight Tony or anyone else is doing. You stick with a weight that you can do, using PERFECT form, for 8-10 reps (or 6-8 reps). By trying to increase weight over what you can do with perfect form, you will start “cheating” to get the reps, and it doesn’t work the intended muscle group as well (for instance, swinging the arms a bit on bicep curls). So do the most you can do and don’t worry about anyone else! Bring it!
yo Coach,
im currently at a HUGEE BODY FAT PERCENTAGE (but low weight _)
is it possible to lose that fat without losing weight.?
can i replace it with muscle? if so how?
Sure Vince, it’s possible, but it will take a LONG LONG time and I don’t recommend doing it that way. Even if your long term goal is to be ripped at your current weight, you are much better off to focus on shedding that excess body fat first. Then, once the body fat gets low you can start building muscle mass.
If you try staying the same weight, you simply won’t notice much change for several months because it will all be covered with fat, plus for the sake of your health you need to get rid of the fat ASAP!
Hey Coach Wayne,
Hope your having a great time on your well deserved vacation.
I am in need of your advice!
I had a meeting with a the personal trainer that the city in which i am employed offers to check body composition etc.
my body fat was at 16.7% on April 10th and today my body fat measured at 10.2%.
i am a little frustrated, I was hoping to have gotten into the single digits. I am 6’3 and weighed in today at 198lbs.
How do I get my body fat percentage to 7-8%. In my last two weeks of my first round of p90x I was doing a 1700 calorie diet clean eating and found myself getting dizzy and having hot flashes (weird right?) anyway any help I can get to get on the right path to getting shredded would be awesome and by the way today is my first day on your p90x/insanity hybrid.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Sherief
Sherief,
Caoch Wayne is off for the week, but I can help. Okay 16.7% down to 10.2 % is huge gains for that amount of time!! Please don’t beat yourself up over bodyfat %. I know coach wayne sees this the same as I do – Its not a race to get shredded, this is a lifestyle change! SO if it takes 120 days to get under 10% bodyfat then who cares. Next thing your 6,3 198lbs and you were eating 1700 calories per day and you were getting dizzy and hot flashes – simple your body was not getting enough food or water. You should never starve yourself to get results with fitness – thats so dangerous. Honestly, just listen to your body, if you feel like you need more food then eat something clean. Its so harmful to you if you look at your calories for the day and think to yourself “I can’t eat anything else” That could have been the main reason you didnt get below 10% bf. When you don’t eat enough your body starts to store fat because its not getting feed enough food! So my advice would be forget about the #s and listen to your body – the % will get there just keep on pushing yourself, but dont starve yourself !!
Coach Paul
“DO WORK”
Coach Paul,
Thank you for taking the time to read my post and give me your valuable advice. I appreciate it. I will take your advice.
GOD Bless!
Sherief
Hey Coach Wayne! I know you aren’t my assigned coach but I still love your website and take in your info. I was wondering about right and left side strength. With the back and biceps workout, for instance, I have found that my right arm is weaker than my left and can’t curl as much. Should I keep the weight and reps the same on both sides so I don’t look uneven? And what is a good way to get my right arm caught up quickly with my left? Thanks!
Grace and peace,
Matt
Hey Matt, yes keep the weight and reps even. That’s the best way to force them to even out. You just have a discrepancy right now since you use your dominant arm differently, but as you workout more that will even out.
Wayne, Just a check to see if this e-mail goes through.
Wayne,
I am on my 5th week of P90X. I just completed the chest, shoulders and triceps workout for the first time. I feel like that I have gone backwards on strength due to that fourth week of cardio and stretch. I am 6’3” and 193 lbs. and have always been lean. At my biggest I was 215 lbs. but that extra 20lbs I lost was all fat around the mid-section. I am in this for getting into shape but want to gain size at the same time. I bought some whey protein at Wal Mart but it taste awful so I stopped taking it. If I where to buy one thing to accomplish my goal for weight gain what would you recommend?
Hey Chad, that’s not an email. It’s a comment on this post. But yes it obviously was posted successfully :-)
You aren’t going backwards Chad. That’s the muscle confusion working! When you switch up the workouts, you shock the system all over again which is what leads to the gains.
“One thing”? Commitment! Another thing? Nutrition. One supplement? Start with whey protein (try a different brand if you didn’t like the stuff from walmart). And remember, before you focus on gaining mass, be sure your body fat is where you want it (read “body fat vs. bulk”).
Hope that helps man!
Hi Coach,
Currently making tremendous progress with my round 2 about to go into phase 3. I just wanted to get your thoughts on whats been on my mind recently. I am well informed now that to build mass you need to lift heavy(8-10reps) amongs other things. Over the past weeks i seem to have made tremendous gains in strngth and probably mass because i can almost lift double the reps for upper body excercised than i could a month ago. I end up having to do about 15-20 reps with my heaviest weights jus to feel the burn. I know this is not optimal to gain mass and was just wondering if there any tips or tricks i could do to still benefit mass gains with the weights i have and if doing these high reps would have any negative effects on gains. I am saving up for heavier weights anyways but wont have it until my 3rd round.
Regards
John.
Hey John! Way to go. Sounds like you are getting much stronger. That’s a good thing. Unfortunately it also means you’ll have to get some bigger dumbbells in order to be able to get the burn by rep 8-10. The higher reps are okay until then, but ideally you don’t want to have to do that many reps because it makes building muscle hard. You’ll mostly just develop muscle endurance.
Hey coach, for mass, should I lower the rep range to 6-8 instead of 8-10? Thanks in advance.
Hey Luke, 6-8 is great. I shot for about 8 reps during my bulking round.
hey coach!
i was just wondering, if i were to cut cardio for p90x, in order to help my muscles grow bigger and faster, which one should i cut out? i’m not sure which one to get rid of in order to maximize my classic routine potential
Hey Stephen, I don’t think you need to cut any cardio from the P90X Classic schedule. There are only 2 cardio days — plyo and kenpo. Plyo is great for leg strength so you don’t want to cut that, and kenpo isn’t that rigorous anyways. I’d keep the schedule as is.
Hey Coach, You say that you increase weight so that you fail before rep 8. How does that play out in a move that has a set number of reps; Twenty-Ones, for example? Do you up your weight and fail before 8 reps, or do you up your weight.and struggle through the set? Thanks.
Hey Bradley, on things like 21′s, instead of doing 7,7,7 I did 3,3,3. On the static arm curls, instead of 4,4,4,4, I did 4,4.
Hey Coach, what if you can’t eat every 3 hours? is there still a way to build some mass
Why can’t you eat every 3 hours? Just curious. I can eat a protein bar in about 30 seconds, or down a protein shake (whey mixed in water) in about 10 seconds if I need to. It takes longer than that to take a potty break.
Hi Wayne,
Greetings from Spain, can you tell more about the longer rest between sets or maximum heart rate target?
I´ve have done a bulk Phase but i´m not sure how to deal whtih the extra rest, i feel that i need more rest as the workout ends (higher heart rate) than at the begining, any tips on that? i have done it whith almost no extra rest !!!
I´m now on p90x2 and i feel that the lifts workouts are a little better for bulking than the p90x ones.
Going to he PAP Phase soon, i´m glad (and scared) to see you in the Upper Workout.
Thanks.
Hey Luis, when I was using P90X to bulk, I ended up taking about 10-15 minutes longer to get through the entire workout due to pauses when I felt I needed them. I didn’t have a set time per pause. I just paused if I was too out of breath to get maximum benefit from the next exercise. That will be different for all of us.