How to Build Muscle Mass While Increasing Stamina

One of the many semi-truth's of body development is you can't build stamina while building muscle mass. This is partially true; why do you think distance runners are so skinny? To build muscle, we know that you have to have a caloric surplus or else you're just wasting your time. This is why bulking is so popular; you make sure that you have enough calories to build muscle. However, for all of you athletes out there, this is a problem. Part of being athletic is having enough stamina to utilize your muscles in a way that'll bring you to victory. If you're big and strong but can only play for a few minutes, what's the point? There are many ways to solve this problem, but I'm just going to show you the philosophies I use for gaining muscle while building stamina.

Nutrition

They say that success in fitness is 80% diet and 20% effort. That is very, very true. I worked out for an entire summer and only gained one pound. This was because my daily nutrition plan only consisted of three meals and a post-workout shake. This is definitely not enough for those of us trying to get big. While there are calculators out there to help you determine how many calories you need per day to gain muscle, these tends to be a pain in the ass and pretty useless. Instead, remember that you need to eat probably six meals a day, not counting your shakes. Three of those meals will be big (breakfast, lunch, dinner). The other three will be small meals, obviously. As far as what to eat, you want to eat MEAT. I apologize to any vegetarians reading this article; I don't know how to gain muscle without eating it. Aside from that, you also need clean carbs. Things like bread and pasta should do the trick. For any of you out there who are thinking "Sweet, this means I can eat as much pizza and drink as much soda as I want", you are very wrong. What you want is foods that supply real nutrients to your body, not high fructose syrup and grease. Which means, if it comes in a can, you probably don't want it. Eat as naturally as possible. Also, water is a very, very important part of body development. It is the only miracle drink I know of. It cures acne, cleans out your system, and makes you feel good! You muscle growth will be slowed down if you're dehydrated, so sip on some water all throughout the day!

Workout (For Size and Strength)

I've n ever really been able to justify gaining size without strength, so for any people who just want to gain the look of strength, you can modify some things I say to help you reach you goals. My program at the moment consists of five sets of five reps for various compound workouts, such as the bench press, power clean, squats, deadlifts (which I'm not doing anymore out of fear of hernias. I'm a hypochondriac...), etc. I don't really use machines because you're body pumps out more testosterone and builds the stabilizer muscles when you use free weights. I use about 80-90% of my max for each exercise. Isolation exercises aren't really necessary to gain impressive "beach muscles" such as biceps, triceps, or pectorals. As far as the loading and reps goes, heavy weight with low reps (3-5) builds strength and muscle with more strength. Six to eight reps builds strength and size with a little more size. Pick whichever one works for you. For your program, you don't need to do a lot of exercises, so circuits are out of the question. Instead, pick four to six exercises per workout. If you are worried about not having enough time to recover a body part, splits are very effective.

Workout (Stamina)

Now for how to build your stamina. While gaining size, I don't really do any real distance running (as in running for miles). While running can be an effective way to get rid of lactic acid and recover faster, too much will bite into your calorie surplus and cause you to run the risk of not gaining size. Instead, I do high intensity running for a short period of time, or anaerobic training. Running sprints as hard as possible for fifteen minutes is an effective way to build up you stamina, recover, and clear your mind (it's almost impossible to think if you've been doing it right, and when you finish you will be left in a weird mix of euphoria and exhaustion). If you have a hill, sprint up the hill and down it three times for five sets. If that's too easy for you, add ten pushups in each time you reach the bottom. If you don't have a hill, on the route that your normally take for running, sprint hard for a set amount of time and jog for a set amount of time until you go about halfway and walk back. Don't make the amount of time to high, or you won't get the effect you need. Run in this manner about two or three times a week. After you get back home, make sure to get carbs and protein into your system before it burns up some of you muscle.

Rest

Something that can be very easy to forget by anyone trying to build a better body is that you don't grow when you're in the weigh room; you grow on your off days! While it is important to stimulate your muscles enough to force them to grow, you need to rest before the damaged muscles can grow (yes, you are damaging your muscles when you lift. But in a good way!). Getting enough sleep is more important than you can imagine for gaining muscle; I try to get at least 8 hours of it. Six hours of uninterrupted sleep is better than eight hours of interrupted sleep, so try to make sure you won't be disturbed. As for physical activity, you can play some basketball or tennis if you want, but don't overdo it, and make sure that you get enough nutrients when you finish.

There you have it, the simple way to get bigger. Get out there and lift something!