Part 3: Gaining Muscle without the Added Fat

Putting it all together

An overview of training & nutrition for lean muscle

Hey guys, so now we have an understanding about the speed at which we can gain lean muscle tissue, we know what we need to do with our training and to implement our nutrition. Things might seem complicated at first, but the simpler you keep things, the easier it will be to track and make progress. So always think ‘KISS’ Keep It Simple Stupid, get in a calorie surplus & train with progression in mind.

So lets re-cap what we looked at:
– The longer you have been training, the harder it is to gain muscle, and therefore the slower you should aim to add weight on the scale.
– Your workout programmes need to cover each rep range, to enable you to achieve every aspect of hypertrophy. The 6 – 10 rep range wants to be prioritised, and rep ranges can be periodised in multiple ways. Be sure to either progress the number of reps, sets or weight being used.
– To add weight you need to eat in a calorie surplus, make getting 1g per lean pound of bodyweight a priority, the amount of carbs and fat consumed is variable.

If you cover the three points above you’ll be doing everything right.

Some hurdles and how to overcome them:

‘However much I eat, I don’t seem to gain weight’ – My first question to this person would be is ‘are you tracking your calorie intake?’, likelihood is they’re not, and are not actually eating as much as they think. Yet, if you are tracking and are finding it hard to eat enough to grow there are some ways round this. Seek calorie dense foods; dried fruit, nuts, fatty meats & full fat dairy, use sauces, spreads & jams, blend your food, make calorie dense smoothies, have a protein shake with your meals, eat highly palatable foods. Essentially, you want to eat things that are easy to digest, nice to eat and calorie dense.

‘I was gaining weight, but now it’s stabilised’ – our metabolisms are not stable, they adapt to what we give them. So if you are now weighing more, you’ll take more calories to run, also our bodies are great at increasing our NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis), making the amount of calories burnt go up. Therefore, when your weight stable for an extended period you can be pretty sure you have hit a new maintenance, and you will have to eat more to gain weight once again.

‘I am not sure whether to continue gaining weight, or go for fat loss’ – This one is completely up to the individual, not comfortable with your current shape? Then do what makes you happy. Not bothered? Then continue as you are. However, I will add that if you are much over 15% body fat, but you want to gain more size still, you may want to introduce a ‘mini cut’. This in short is a fast, month long, fairly intense calorie deficit. Short enough not to impact our metabolisms, but long and harsh enough to drop a decent amount of fat.

So I hope you can now confidently go ahead and gain lean muscle tissue. Go on get jacked & strong in a healthy and sustainable manner! If you want more information or have any questions about what we have covered in this mini series, please feel free to contact me via email.

Scott Thomas- ‘performance in the gym increased dramatically’

Scott reached out to me explaining how he had developed a bad relationship with food and wasn’t seeing the results he wanted. Unfortunately he had got down to very low calories and was doing a fair amount of cardio to boot, his metabolism was far from healthy. Therefore, we decided it was best for Scott to start a reverse diet, building up calories slowly and bringing up his metabolic capacity before attempting to lose more fat. Scott managed to get from under 2000 calories with excessive cardio, to over 2500 calories with no cardio, after a brief fat loss phase Scott is now back re-building his calories up. I can proudly say Scott is now leaner, stronger and eating more than when he started, and has a great relationship with food.

Here is what Scott had to say:

‘I first became familiar with Steve through YouTube; I watched his videos as the content was always accurate, entertaining and honest.

I had been working with a online coach previously and although I had results I had now come to a point where I had developed a bad relationship with food and had begun to fear carbohydrates and eating in social and public. In addition to this I was at a point where I was not enjoying my training and was unhappy.

Finally I had enough and decided to branch out to Steve as I loved his outlook and attitude towards training and nutrition, a couple emails later and I had hired Steve.

Initially I came to Steve on very low calories couple with high amounts of cardio, Steve devised a plan to get my metabolism firing and bring my calories up to a healthy level as quickly as possible. After this we went on a short cut to reduce my body fat to a level appropriate for a long term lean mass phase.

I am now happy to say that after working with Steve the results have been fantastic, not only has my performance in the gym increased dramatically my whole outlook on nutrition has changed, I am now enjoying my food and do not fear food or “dirty” foods.

I am now in my reverse diet and have seen further results having a rebound and losing an additional 2lbs in the first 2 weeks while dropping all LISS cardio and substantially increasing macros.

All in all I would recommend Steve as a coach as he is very responsive to emails, approachable, very knowledgeable and honest. I look forward to working with him for the foreseeable future.’

‘Joghurt’ Easy 2 Ingredient High Protein Dessert

So lately I have been experimenting with my foods, contest prep, it does funny things to you. You try and mix all sorts of things together. Well I love 0% Greek Yoghurt, but it is a bit plain, so I wanted to mix it up, so I came up with Joghurt. Check out how it looks:

When I say this is high volume and perfect for a dieter I am not lying, check out the size of it above, and then look at these Macros:

53g Protein 20.5g Carbs 0g Fat – 293kcal (without fruit)

Woahh pretty good right? And further to that, it tastes damn good too, and has great texture. Check out the video below to see how to make it:

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Part 3: Gaining Muscle without the Added Fat

How to eat for muscle

To bulk or not to bulk…

We’ve all heard it, ‘gotta eat big to get big’, and by all means this is true, but how big to we want to get? As explained in Part 1 we can only gain a certain amount of muscle before the rest of our weight gain is just adipose tissue. So really we should be thinking ‘gotta eat a little bit more than usual to get a little bit bigger’.

To build muscle we need a calorie surplus, because without that where are we meant to get the energy to develop it from? The degree we go over our maintenance calories depends on how much muscle we think we can realistically gain, as seen in Part 1.

This may leave you thinking ‘I have no idea how many calories that means I need?’ and that in itself is a tricky question, and there is no easy answer. There are many formula’s out there, and I have my own personal approach in how I work this out. However, a very simple formula made by Alan Aragon is the following:

Target BW X (9-11 + average total weekly training hours)

So we know we need to eat more than we burn off, where we get those calories from however matters, and by that I mean the macronutrient ratios. As a general rule of thumb you’ll want 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, of course everyone is a little different, but this seems to be a good standard. The rest then comes from fat and carbohydrates, and the way we set these is highly variable. Some people seem to perform better from a higher carb bias and vice versa for fat. I like to set fats at around 0.3-0.6g per pound of body mass, leaving the rest to come from carbs. From there making small adjustments to see what works best for you. However, please note both fats and carbohydrates are important for sports performance and overall health, so don’t be too extreme with your bias.

Now we can go about gaining lean muscle tissue, as we are eating in a calorie surplus with the correct macronutrient amounts. Next time I will be putting what we have learnt together, making gaining muscle without the added fat easier than ever before!

Further Reading:

• Part 1: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 2: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 3: Building Muscle with the added fat

Part 2: Gaining Muscle without the Added Fat

Training for Maximal Muscle

Reps, sets, periodisation & more…

Getting bigger and stronger comes without much hassle at first, we pick up a weight, lift it a bit and before you know it your muscle grows. However, past the first few months of training things get trickier, we need to do more to push our muscles to develop. Furthermore, if we haven’t followed a balanced routine, we may have imbalances (watch my YouTube video here to help you develop a balanced routine). Plus if we really want to maximise our growth potential we need to get savvy about the exercises, reps, tempos and sets we choose. Here I am going to tell you why, and how to apply it practically.

There are 5 basic tenants to training; specificity, overload, individual differences, variety and recuperation. The growth of lean tissue is called hypertrophy, and there are three main mechanisms for this; mechanical tension, metabolic stress and muscle damage. To achieve our growth potential our programme needs to adhere to the 5 basic tenants of training and use all three hypertrophy routes.

Mechanical Tension is the load lifted, the closer to our 1 rep max, the higher the tension placed on our muscles. Metabolic Stress is achieved by pushing ourselves near exhaustion, as this causes a build up of metabolites, increases fibre recruitment, elevates anabolic hormones and causes our cells to swell, all stimulating a hypertrophic response. Muscle Damage is caused when we lift weights that challenge our muscles, causing them to tear which forces a need to grow and repair.

Essentially to get the most growth from your muscles you will want to design a programme that incorporates all the above. That means you will want to work in all rep ranges, and you can choose to periodise that in a variety of ways. The way you choose to split your routine will also be highly individual, however I recommend you train every muscle group twice a week, to maximise the elevation of protein synthesis.

Furthermore, exercise selection is key, and again highly individual. The compound full body exercises however should be staples within your routine, that’s squats, deadlifts and presses. The rest is assistance work, that will help you develop your own specific weak points. You’ll want to vary these, so you can work the muscles at a variety of angles to maximise fibre recruitment.
So we have touched on specificity, overload, individuality and variety. The last tenant to training is recuperation, otherwise known as recovery. Obviously by continually putting our bodies through the works at the gym it will need time to build back up. This is where periodisation comes in, as when implemented properly it allows you to maintain performance, maximise results yet prevent the body reaching a state of exhaustion. As previously stated there are numerous ways of doing this, one way is ‘step loading’. Every month you will take a ‘back off’ week, in which you either lower intensity or volume, to allow you to ‘super compensate’ and come back stronger.

If you took home anything from this it should have been; there is no one best programme, only the best programme for the individual. There are core concepts to abide by, but no one best way.

Further Reading:

• Part 1: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 2: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 3: Building Muscle with the added fat

Part 1: Gaining Muscle without the Added Fat

This was my first newsletter post, made over a month ago, but I decided to let it go live as many past subscribers missed out! But so not to miss out be sure to subscribe by clicking HERE. Without further ado, here it is, part 1 of how to gain muscle without the added fat.

How fast can you gain muscle?

Setting realistic goals

We all want everything at once; fat loss and muscle gain, however sadly, more often than not, the two simply cannot occur at the same time. Why? Well to build muscle we need to eat more calories than we use, to give the energy to build tissue, whereas the opposite is true for losing fat, we need to consume less energy than our bodies use, so we burn fat tissue.

So now we know we cannot gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously, we need to understand how fast we can gain muscle, because if we aren’t adding lean tissue, we’re adding the stuff we don’t want, fat.

You may have heard ‘you gotta eat big to get big’ and this is simply not true for everyone, and it is what led me to gaining pounds of fat. You want to avoid this, because everyones nutritional needs and ability to gain muscle differs. However, there are some general recommendations for the amount of weight to gain each month, that if you meet will ensure you are adding lean tissue to your body.

At the start of our resistance training career our bodies are very adaptive, and grow quickly, this is what is referred to as ‘newbie gains’, which last about a year. After this gaining muscle becomes much harder, we need to do more to cause our bodies to develop. Therefore, the longer you have been hitting the weights, the less lean tissue you can add each month. Many fitness professionals have come up with general recommendations for lean weight gain, and below are the ones I like to use (women can half these figures):

As you can see the amount of lean tissue added for every year of proper training decreases dramatically. And by proper training I mean planned, progressive resistance training, not just going along and doing what you please.

So there we have it, some realistic goals to plan our lean mass gaining journey. Next up will be the training required to best optimise our gains.

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Further Reading:

• Part 1: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 2: Building Muscle with the added fat
• Part 3: Building Muscle with the added fat

George Green- ‘I have increased my strength, speed and agility’

I need not say much regarding George’s progress and achievements, his words below cover everything. What I must say is he lives the health and fitness lifestyle just like it should be, loving life and getting great results, it has been and continue to be a pleasure working with George. Without further ado enter George:

‘I purchased a 3 month package from Coach Hall. I have followed Stephen Hall’s progress over youtube for some time, and I was impressed. Stephen’s  knowledge and progress were the reasons I came to him.

I started at 172lbs after a year bulk. I did a few weeks by myself then decided to inquire about Stephen’s coaching packages because he is much more knowledgable than myself. I finished my mini cut at a lean 157 lbs, I have increased my strength, speed and agility. This is important as I am a Tennis scholar.

I was impressed with the presentation of my programme, my nutrition and the response I get from Coach Hall. If i had questions, they would be answered within the day. I had weekly check ups, which made sure I was in check, and I was told about any weekly changes whether it be programming or nutrition. Coach Hall also walks you through the training, so you gain an understanding of how the programme works.

My results speak for themselves, and I was incredibly difficult because of the fact I travel so much, go out a lot, and sometimes send pictures of my food to Coach Hall because my guessing was not as good as his.

I have enjoy Mcdonalds, burger king, doughnuts, pizza, cookies and I did not mess up on my diet. I stayed flexible and I did not suffer from any cravings.

I would suggest Coach Hall to any of my friends. I will also be staying with him for the foreseeable future.’

For further information about my coaching services please click HERE.

Body Fat ‘Set’ Point Theory – Fact or Fiction?

Here I take a look at some of the recent models and theories regarding our body composition and body fat regulation. What each suggest and whether or not we should worry about them at all.

Set Point Theory:

Our bodies have a fat level they look to maintain, if we go away from this point it will try and get back to it via a variety of biological mechanisms. So if there is a discrepancy between our energy intake and output we will try and equalise it, either by increasing or decreasing expenditure until we are back to our base set point.

This can clearly be seen when people cease dieting, they tend to regain any fat they had once lost, returning to their original fatness.

Problem:

We have gotten fatter and fatter in western societies, and continue to do so, furthermore it is regularly seen that people gain weight at college, after getting married and after moving from Asia to Western countries.

If the set point changes in response to our social class, our marital status, or whether or not we watch TV, then it is not a ‘set’ point.

In comes Settling Point Theory:

Here we see a non-regulated energy system, unlike the set point model that is regulated by various biological systems. This model is based around having a changing input, which in our case is food, as the amount increases our body fat levels increase till they reach a new settling point, at which our energy output then equals the higher input. Conversely, if the input decreases, our body fat levels fall, again until reaching a new settling point, where energy balance occurs. So in this system our fat stores settle to an equilibrium that is determined by the amount of energy intake, which is matched to our energy expenditure.

So this model determines that we do not have a ‘set’ point, but an ever changing ‘settling’ point.

Problem:

You cannot get away from the biological systems, they are real and have a major impact on our bodies. For example during the semi-starvation Minnesota Experiment in which normal weight individuals were placed on a very low calorie diet saw a massive 25% loss in body weight. This would have been predicted by the settling point model, as their weight loss met a plateau, a new settling point.

However, on release the subjects didn’t just return to their old habits and gradually fall back to their old weight, rather they increased in body weight and fat mass rapidly. This suggests they over-ate and were under a form of biological regulation, as per the set point theory, attempting to drive up their fat mass. It seems that this response was driven by a psychobiological system, due to the dietary restraint and the loss of mass. Strongly suggesting that there is some active control over intake that is related to changes in body composition.

What next?

The set point model is rooted firmly in the domain of physiological and genetic determinism, whereas the settling point model is more grounded in the effects of social, nutritional and environmental factors. Understanding the gene-by-environment interaction is therefore of paramount importance if we are to reach a complete understanding of this.

In comes ‘The General Model of Intake Regulation’

This model combines both theories, asserting that food intake is impacted by physiological, environmental, social, psychological and dietary factors. In which some of these have negative feedback loops, whereas others are completely independent. Each factors impact on our intake varies person to person.

It doesn’t assume there are any ‘set’ points for intake or body weight, but that the levels are changeable. With a change in factors leading to a new defended level of body weight.

In comes ‘The Dual Intervention Point Model’ 

Here there is no single set point, but an upper and lower limit in which we are regulated. These limits range vary person to person, and individual variability in the distance between the upper and lower intervention boundaries is a key aspect of the model.

The Bottom Line

There are a myriad of aspects impacting the amount we eat and move, which in turn determine our body composition:

• Psychological: We want to eat. We need to eat. Eating for stress relief. We eat for reward.
• Genetic: ‘Thrifty’ genes. Different genes are involved in food selection, food intake, absorption, metabolism and energy expenditure, including physical activity.
• Environmental: Food Availability. Food Preparation. Our Job. Our Marital Status. The time of Year. Social Cues.
• Biological: Hormones. Metabolism. Hunger. Activity.

In reality it is a combination of the above that determines what body weight and fat mass we hold. Their impact will vary person to person, and will also change over time.

In my opinion, don’t let the idea of having a certain ‘set point’ hold you back, as shown the evidence for it isn’t concrete, and if anything new ideas are coming out showing that it is malleable.  Instead, look at the above influencers of our body fat levels, and understand which might be impacting you the most, and then use the ones you have control of to best get to your ideal body composition.

For more information on how to set up a diet check out Part 1 & Part 2 of Need to Know Nutrition. Or for information about the coaching I provide please click HERE.

 

Natural Bodybuilding – 13 weeks out update

Hey guys, been a while since I got a video up but here are two from this weekend. I touch on foods I have been eating, current nutritional intake, how my training is going and also my mindset at this point. Plus a posing update.

Enjoy

Ryan Synnott- ‘completely changed my outlook on dieting and nutrition as a whole’

I have been working with Ryan for the past 12 weeks, it’s been a pleasure seeing someone who is incredibly dedicated to my coaching but also balancing it with other commitments.  Ryan is a University student, so obviously there are the occasional nights out, lots of studying accompanied with partying. I’ve been there and it makes being consistent with the gym and nutrition very hard, I used my experiences and my knowledge today to make it as easy as possible for Ryan.

To date he has lost over 20lbs and looks great for it. His strength has also shot up, especially on the lower body lifts, mainly thanks to an increase in frequency, but also due to correct periodisation. Lets have a look at his lifts:

Week 1- Best Lifts at 226lbs : 

• Bench – 120kg x 4
• Squat – 140kg x 7
• Deadlift – 160kg x 5
• Total: 2260kg

Ryan Benching – follow him on IG

Week 12- Best Lifts at 205lbs:

• Bench – 115kg x 6
• Squat – 140kg x 7
• Deadlift – 185kg x 5
• Total: 2595kg

Ryan saw more than a 10% increase in strength, at more than 10% lower bodyweight!

So lets have a look at what he is looking like:

I am extremely proud of Ryan, he has been the perfect client, asking a lot of questions, getting whats needed done and not stressing over the small stuff. What makes me incredibly happy is his own thoughts on my coaching:

‘Steve would take you past all plateaus, make you understand nutrition, exercise form and things you hadn’t even thought about in the past. Steve has completely changed my outlook on dieting and nutrition as a whole. I’m the strongest I have ever been pound for pound, and that’s thanks to the routines I have followed, with the weekly adjustments and monitoring provided by Steve. Steve is the best supplement I have ever used!’

All that’s left for Ryan is to get him even more ripped for his holiday!

Client Update:

4 Months, over 2 stone lost, Ryan is looking better than ever!