How To Gain Over 30 lbs Of Muscle In Your First Year Of Training

How much muscle is realistic for most guys to gain in one year of weight training? I’d say on average about 30 lbs of muscle mass.

You can effectively gain about 30 lbs of muscle with consistent workouts and eating. Workouts don’t need to be elaborate, the basics have always worked for most guys!

The quickest way to build a starting level of strength is with some staple bodyweight movements with a few small weights combined, and then transitioning into full blown weight workouts will be much easier.

THE PUSH-UP

Pushups are highly underrated and probably the most effective way to get your chest to grow for a beginner.

The reason why is because it’s a natural movement and targets all of your upper body muscles, including your abs.

Think of the push-up movement for a minute. Your abs need to tighten like performing a plank to keep your body straight, then your lats need to engage as the antagonist muscle for the chest to perform the work, then the triceps get hit as well.

To this day I still perform many push-ups on top of weight workouts because of the pump I get in my chest.

I started my journey in fitness with the push-up as my #1 go-to exercise.

Try to perform 5 sets of 25 reps every day for 6 weeks straight until you see your chest begin to stick out.

If you fail before reaching 5 sets of 25 reps, take as much rest as needed and pick back up until 5 sets of 25 reps are completed.

THE CURL

You do not need an entire rack of dumbbells to start getting biceps. I started with just a couple handles and weight collars to make adjustable DBs out of.

A cheap at-home starter weight set combined with bodyweight movements will be plenty to start with.

The point to what I’m saying here is even if you only have 2, 15 lb dumbbells, you can be on your way to getting some biceps.

If you have an at-home starter weight set then you can adjust upwards as you get stronger.

You have the ability to perform standing curls, seated curls, hammer curls, barbell curls, and concentration curls all in the comfort of your own home, bedroom, garage, or dormitory.

THE ABS

Ab training to me isn’t just about abs as it is a measure of overall athleticism and what type of shape you’re in.

Think about it, you don’t see fat guys belting out 5 sets of 25 crunches, so doing some sort of ab routine like this was a solid way to know I was staying in shape and not getting fat.

To this day I still use abdominal work as a measure of what type of overall condition I’m in.

An old time bodybuilder named Serge Nubret used to do the same thing, only he would perform 1,000-2,000 sit-ups every day, 7 days a week! He said he did it not just for abs but “for overall health and conditioning.”

My advice is to sit lay on the floor and pound out your crunches or sit-ups with each workout.

The beauty of abdominal training is that it can be performed anywhere!

When I first began building my body all my ab training consisted of was 5 sets of 25 crunches on my bedroom floor. Remember that you’re hitting abdominal work in all of your exercises as well.

THE SHOULDERS

You can use your dumbbells for lateral raises, front raises, and overhead presses.

All you need is a sturdy wooden chair. Hell, you could probably find someone giving one away and get your shoulder press station for free!

That is exactly what I did my first year and it worked fine.

Your shoulders will also be getting bigger from performing your push-ups each night. You could even do inverted push-ups against a wall to build some big deltoids!

THE BACK

Pull-ups or chin-ups are the #1 way to a wider back.

Don’t be fooled by anyone telling you that lateral pull-downs are superior to pull-ups because they’re not!

Think about it for a second, which one is more difficult to perform?

Get a chin-up bar that goes in a door frame or a rafter in the garage, not complicated.

1 arm dumbbell rows can be performed with adjustable DB’s and just something to set your hand on. Your wooden chair will work fine, this doesn’t need to be some weight bench that you have to set your knee on!

Hell, I can remember putting my hand on a firewood pile outside to perform these at one time!

THE LEGS

Bodyweight squats work wonders for a beginner. You can also do some light-weight squats with your at-home barbell set.

Just pick it up over your head and rest it on your shoulders and start squatting. Too light? Do more reps

Jogging outdoors or running stairs can also build your legs and help give you muscle definition.

I used to jog for about 20 minutes each day on a route I made up around the neighborhood. I remember even doing it through snow sometimes during the winter.

I wanted to be big and strong more than anything!

FREQUENCY OF TRAINING

In the beginning your muscles will respond to almost anything because you don’t have any muscle on your frame yet. So almost any stimulus gears a positive response to resistance training.

Yes, you’ll hear me talk about over-training and recovery in many of my articles here, but this doesn’t apply to a new trainee in my honest opinion.

I say to take full advantage of stimulating muscles frequently in your first year of training.

I did push-ups, crunches, curls, overhead pressing, and jogging almost every single day my first year of working out, and I was still able to gain roughly 36 lbs of muscle.

Take 36 lbs of steak and put it on your chest, arms, legs, and back. It makes a big size difference if you think of it this way!

THE NUTRITION

The food doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Whole eggs, ground beef, oatmeal, milk, and homemade weight gain shakes were the bulk of my nutrition when I started out.

These foods were more affordable for me to purchase and they went further off a buck than fish and chicken did.

Calories is what you’re looking for right now if you’re looking to pack on muscle mass!

Milk nowadays isn’t what it used to be and most people chalk it up as shit, but it’s liquid calories and it’s substance!

PROTEIN POWDER

Protein powder isn’t the cheapest thing in the world, but it’s convenient and it makes it easier to get your protein intake higher when you’re trying to grow some muscle.

Nowadays I mix 2 scoops per serving w/ water, but as a beginner on a tight budget and trying to grow, I used to just use 1 scoop mixed with whole milk, a couple whole eggs (you don’t even taste them) a little chocolate syrup, and a scoop of oatmeal. Presto, you’ve created your own weight gain shake!

Protein powder has come a long ways since I first started using it. I myself would go with chocolate since I’d be using it with chocolate syrup, a couple whole eggs, and milk and oats, and chocolate just sounds more appealing to me than trying to mix with a different flavor to nullify the eggs.

But I assure you that all of the flavors taste really good, chocolate is just my preference for the homemade weight gain shake.

I’ve been using a protein powder with 24 grams of protein per scoop so when I use just 1 scoop combined with 2 whole eggs, some oats, and whole milk, you’re talking like 50 grams of protein and around 700 calories a shake.

When doing this 2 – 3 times a day in between your major meals, it’s a great way to boost your daily intake by about 1,400 – 2,100 calories a day!

Using just 1 scoop at a time makes it last longer, which is why I suggest that if you’re using it with the other ingredients.

I’m going to be brutally honest here, if you’re trying to grow some solid muscle then FUCK DR. QUACK’S JUICE GREEN SHAKES!

Remember, you need consistent calories to grow!

Also, what you’ll find happening is the caloric adjustment will directly reflect in your strength gains, so as you put on more muscle mass you’ll naturally burn fat quicker since muscle is a fat metabolizer.

Doing all of this isn’t going to just throw a bunch of fat on you, especially if you’re a hard-gainer!

What you’re going to see is some solid gains and a new build that will bring you a shit-ton of compliments and command a little respect!

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT WORKING OUT AT HOME

I liked the fact that I started at home. I liked it because there was nobody to compare myself to and no distractions around me.

It also allowed me to focus more and just think about what I hoped to look like one day.

I had pictures of all of my favorite bodybuilders on the walls of my room for motivation too.

I used to do a set of push-ups and then look at a photo of Arnold on the wall, and just be thinking to myself “Okay, he would have done another set of push-ups so I need to hit all 5 sets of these!”

Working out at home was simple! The simplicity of it all allowed me to stay focused.

There weren’t all of these fancy machines and people walking around, it was just my cheap set of weights and my wooden chair!

Oh yea, I also can’t forget my Casio cassette player boombox and my favorite workout cassette tape of all time, “Metallica’s Kill em’ all” tape.

Right after my workouts I instinctively walked straight to my kitchen to eat dinner.

Milk, oats, hamburgers on the George Foreman grill, or whatever the hell I was eating that night!

THE TRANSITION

After a solid few months performing that style of working out in my bedroom I upgraded to my basement dungeon workouts.

This was when I traded my bicycle to an older fat guy for a weight bench with a tricep pressdown attachment.

Half the bench was duct-taped together and the rusty tricep pressdown made 20 lbs feel like 100 lbs! But that’s another story…

Train hard!

– JD

Becoming The Bull ebook

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11 thoughts on “How To Gain Over 30 lbs Of Muscle In Your First Year Of Training”

  1. Ya know JD, it’s funny because on pretty much every internet forum push-ups get rubbished. Yet every single bodybuilder (i.e. someone with 40lbs plus of hypertrophy) seems to do them! Who to trust, eh?!!!!!

    As a teenager (back in 19……never mind!) I made significant visible changes to my body from push-ups, sprints and pull-ups. Mass was definitely added.

    Unrelated but I remember the time my friend got a (roughly) 100lb barbell set for his birthday or something, and that summer we were all taking it in turns to clean and press that phucker overhead, aged 15 or so. Somehow nobody was injured, as we didn’t have a clue about technique. We just used to gather in the communal gardens after school a couple of times a week for “clean and press followed by milkshake day”. Good times :)

    Reply
    • Thats a nice story man, bet great memories too!! Yea, my form was horrible in the beginning too. Actually, I never fully grasped the concept of super strict form and time under tension until I was about 13-15 years into my training. I was just training balls heavy all the time, once I focused on form and dropped the weights to things I could handle with solid form, my body really took off much more

      Reply
  2. I’ve tried doing the press-ups, squats and crunches every day (as recommended in Victor Pride’s 30 Days of Discipline) which is not too different to what you are suggesting here. But the problem I find is that doing that, leaves me SO tired. I only manage 5 -6 hours of broken sleep a night due to kids and work which doesn’t help. It’s quite frustrating as I want to get stronger, but I feel so weak and the exercise leaves me like a walking Zombie. I’ve tried vitamins, guarana, ginseng, coffee, none of it helps either.

    Any suggestions please?

    Reply
      • Thanks! I guess that makes sense because I was thinking/taking the advice to be in the gym 5 – 6 days a week (or in this case do the exercises 7 days). Am I right in understanding that there’s no point doing so many days if I can’t lift heavy anyway, and lifting heavy is the best way to grow?

        Reply
        • yes and no, in the beginning you just need stimulation. It’s easier to naturally get stronger with frequency, much easier in the beginning than when you’re seasoned. Listen to your body, if you think you’d benefit from a day off then take a day off. Even I don’t have the answer for what is best for everyone, I pretty much just come on here and say “hey, this worked for me and I think it could work for you too.”

          Reply
  3. Back in the gym after a few years hiatus, had low testosterone and didn’t realize it.

    Total test of 268 at 26 years old AFTER losing 115 lbs. Now on TRT it’s like newbie gains all over again and I plan to capitalize.

    Good thing, too. Ten years ago I followed dipshit magazine advice. I’ve found a much better source Here!

    Thanks for doing what you do, big guy. I came for the fatherhood articles and stayed for the gritty truth.

    Reply
  4. I see that you recommend whole eggs, ground beef, and milk when looking to gain mass. What’s your take on eating more saturated fat/cholesterol to keep testosterone high as possible?

    I used to only stick to lean meats and olive oil, but now I incorporate butter and fattier proteins. So far, I feel like a fucking beast in the gym and I’m smashing PRs.

    Reply
    • then keep going, dont worry about low fat dieting or anything like that until you’ve gained enough mass that you can cut up and still be happy with your size

      Reply

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