When you’re a drug-free lifter, it can sometimes be very difficult to look big and muscular.
Even if you actually have a lot of muscle mass, if it isn’t distributed in the right places, you will not physically appear large.
For instance, I know tons of people who can bench press 315lbs for repetitions, yet they look way smaller than some who only bench 225lbs.
Even though the 315lb bencher has more total muscle mass than the 225lb bencher, the 225lb bencher has certain body proportions that automatically make him look bigger.
So maximize your size immediately with these little-known nutrition and supplement tricks.
Let’s get started.
1) CARB UP
The easiest and most effective way to put on a few pounds quickly is to carb load. The lower your typical carb intake, the more impressive the results will be.
Those who routinely eat less than one gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight will see the best results from this.
Eating carbohydrates fuel your muscles for training, and they also fill your muscles with glycogen. Your muscles are one of the main storage units in the body for glycogen because they use the glycogen for energy. Glycogen, like creatine, pulls water into the muscle cells.
The effects of carb loading will be greater if you are initially not eating too many carbs in your diet. For about 3 days before you load up, try to eat about 1/2 gram of carbs per pound of body weight daily. When you start to load, eat about 4 grams of carbs per pound of body weight everyday. Start your loading period a day or two before you want your results to peak.
In the first 4 to 6 hours of your day you can eat simple carbohydrates. The last part of your day eat complex carbohydrates that provide longer lasting energy. This will prevent the carbs from being stored as fat.
2) CHOOSE YOUR CREATINE WISELY
We’re not telling you anything new when we say that creatine pulls large amounts of water into the muscles to increase their size in a hurry. But there’s one problem if you grab a container of creatine monohydrate: time.
Creatine monohydrate works fine, but it can take weeks to produce the impressive size gains you’re hoping for because creatine won’t maximize muscle cell volumization until its levels are maximized within the muscle cells. With creatine monohydrate, this can take a week and often longer, even if you go through a loading phase.
Instead of monohydrate, go with another fast-acting form of creatine likecreatine hydrochloride or Kre-Alkalyn.
DO THIS
Go with 3-5 g of either creatine hydrochloride or Kre-Alkalyn both before and after workouts.
3) INCREASE BODYFAT PERCENTAGE
This is a trick that goes against what many fitness “gurus” are currently stating.
Everyone says that if you lower your bodyfat, you will appear bigger.
This is true when you are overweight or chubby, but not when you are already lean.
If you are sub 15% bodyfat, you are not maximizing your overall size.
You see, for drug-free lifters it’s almost impossible to look big and cut at the same time.
Instead, you will appear small, flat, and depleted.
Therefore, it’s better to stay around the 12-15% bodyfat area than to go leaner, because this will ensure that you still have some definition, but without the loss in size.
Remember, having a bit of extra fat will add cushion around your entire body.
This can severely alter your bodypart measurements, which can affect the overall appearance of mass.
For instance, if your arms are 17 inches at 10% bodyfat, they might be 18 inches at 15% bodyfat.
This is a HUGE difference, and will have significant implications on your physique.
And no, you will not have “fatceps” or anything like that, because your bodyfat will be in a sweet spot.
If you overdo it, however, there will obviously be diminishing returns.
So it’s all about finding the right spot.
This falls within the 12-15% range, depending on the person.
4) DRINK PLENTY OF WATER
Think of a dehydrated muscle cell as a raisin and a well hydrated muscle cell as a round juicy grape. If your muscles are dehydrated they will not look as full and prominent as they should. Hydrating your muscles is an extremely cheap and easy way to increase your muscle tone.
Water also has some other tremendous health benefits that you can read about in the article, 10 Reasons Why Water Is The Ultimate Health Booster
Dehydration is very common. In a study done on athletes only 15% of the participants were considered well hydrated. Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink water. You can set a goal for yourself to drink a gallon per day. An easy way to do that is to get a gallon jug and take with you wherever you go throughout the day.
5) TAKE AN NO BOOSTER
Nitric oxide boosters typically provide arginine, which gets readily converted in the body to NO. NO boosters also provide a host of other ingredients, such as Pycnogenol or ginseng, that catalyze the conversion of arginine into NO, as well as ingredients that reduce the breakdown of NO, such as horny goat weed (Epimedium).
WHY IT WORKS
The point of increasing NO levels is to relax the blood vessels that feed the muscles. Relaxed blood vessels are wider in diameter, which means more blood flows through them to the muscles, increasing their volume.
With agents such as glycogen, creatine, glutamine, taurine, potassium and glycerol stocked up in the muscles (assuming you’re following the aforementioned tips), this greater delivery of water will be quickly pulled into the muscles for maximal swelling.
Greater blood flow may help deliver more glucose to the muscles to create more muscle glycogen.
DO THIS
Follow dosing instructions on the label and take your NO booster both in the morning and about 30-60 minutes before training.