The No Bull Muscle Building Plan

84 Pages·2006·0.355 MB·English

by  Kelly Baggett

The No Bull Muscle Building Plan

How to Add Slabs of Muscle Without Turning Into a Tub of Lard In

the Process
“Defying The Curse of The Natural Muscle Seeking Athlete”

By: Kelly Baggett

Copyright 2006 © by Kelly Baggett. All Rights Reserved.

1
No portion of this manual may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic of mechanical, including fax, photocopy, recording or any information
storage and retrieval system by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This
manual may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Kelly Baggett, except in the case of a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages for the
sake of a review written for inclusions in a magazine, newspaper, or journal – and these
cases require written approval from Kelly Baggett prior to publication.

For more information, please contact:

Kelly Baggett
649 Fruit Farm Rd.
Hollister, MO 65672

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.higher-faster-sports.com

Disclaimer

The information in this book is offered for educational purposes only; the reader should
be cautioned that there is an inherent risk assumed by the participant with any form of
physical activity. With that in mind, those participating in strength and conditioning
programs should check with their physician prior to initiating such activities. Anyone
participating in these activities should understand that such training initiatives may be
dangerous if performed incorrectly. The author assumes no liability for injury; this is
purely an educational manual to guide those already proficient with the demands of such
programming.

2
Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…….5
Defining the problem……………………………………………………………….….….5
What the heck are genetics anyway?………………………………………………..…….6
We’re really no different than animals…………………………………………..………..7
What is muscle mass good for?…………………………………………………….……..7
Genetics are quite powerful………………………………………………………….…....8
Bodybuilding – A contradictory adaptation?……………………………………….….….9
Genes and the Hunter-Gatherer………………………………………………………….10
Spendthrift genes vs Thrifty genes………………………………………………………11
Unfortunate seasonal residents…………………………………………………………..12
Native Americans vs African Americans………………………………………………..12
Why fat people build muscle and shed fat so easily?……………………………………13
How hormones communicate……………………………………………………………13
Good vs bad genes……………………………………………………………………….14
Variable genes……………………………………………………………………………15
What food does?……………………………………………………………………..…..16
Hormones that build muscle – hormones that eat up muscle………………………...…..16
Muscular variation – Number of muscle cells is key…………………………………….17
DNA Testing and Manipulation – The future of sport……………………………..…....18
Making sure you create the right adaptations – Inefficiency vs efficiency……..…….…19
The fed state=anabolic state………………………………………………………..….…19
Summarizing the problem…………………………………………………………...…...20
Genetic Limits = Bull? (Powerlifters know mass)..…………….…………………..……21
How much does it take to build muscle?…………………………………………..…….22
The anabolic effects of under-feeding…………………………………..…………..…...22
Fat loss benefits from over-feeding………………………………………………..…….22
Work capacity……………………………………………………………………..……..23
Manipulating Insulin – Insulin and fat burning – Insulin and muscle growth……..…….23
Training for mass…………………………………………………………..…………….27
Various types of growth…………………………………………………..…………..….29
How important is fatigue?…………………………………………………………..……32
Strength training vs size training………………………………………………….……..33
Neural efficiency – you gotta practice…………………………………………….……..34
Bodybuilding and strength training……………………………………………….……..36
Forced Reps……………………………………………………………………….……..36
Training Frequency?…………………………………………………………….……….38
Muscular vs Neural Recovery…………………………………………….……………...38
Factors affecting neural recovery…………………………………………………….…..40
Feeder workouts……………………………………………………………….…………44
Organizing the loads…………………………………………………………….……….46
Training to failure?……………………………………………………………….……...47
How many reps?………………………………………………………………….……...47
How many sets?………………………………………………………………….………49
3
Getting the most out of your training – You have to eat!………………………….…….50
Training for fat loss………………………………………………………………….…...50
Glycogen levels and carbohydrate requirements……………………….………………..51
Manipulating glycogen stores……………………………………………………………51
The need for cyclical training……………………………………………………………53
What you will probably love about this program………………………………………..54
The No Bull muscle gain plan………………….………………………………………..55
The Diet………………………………………………………………………………….55
Training…………………………………………………………………………………..61
Modifying the Scheme…………………………………………………………………...68
Monitoring body composition……………………………………………………………70
Alternative plans…………………………………………………………………………70
Troubleshooting………………………………………………………………………….71
Q&A……………………………………………………………………………………...73

4
Introduction

Regardless of whether you’re a bodybuilder or athlete, male or female, young or old,
I know you probably bought this manual for one of 2 reasons:

1. You’ve seen the ads and the transformations and watched other people gain 30
pounds of muscle in 8, 10, or 12, weeks, - all while simultaneously losing fat, and
you wish you could do the same. You’re unhappy with how much muscle you
carry or how much muscle you’ve built, yet you also may not be entirely happy
with the amount of fat that you carry either. You want to gain a significant
amount of lean body mass yet you can’t really afford a traditional “bulk-up”.
Or:

2. You want to gain some muscle, but you’re one of those guys or gals who busted
your butt so hard getting yourself lean, (or you have to bust your butt so hard to
stay lean), there ain’t NO way you’re gonna compromise and allow some of that
ugly, nasty, fat to jump up and stick to your gut, or your butt.

Regardless which of those descriptions best fits you I’m sure you know what you
want. You probably also know the situation and you know what the deal is. Being a
natural muscle-seeking athlete can be difficult. It's hard to build muscle without fat and
the worse your genetics are the more difficult it is. To start off, I’d like to spend some
time talking about the problems people have building natural lean muscle and some of the
basic principles behind what I’m going to talk about in this manual. Feel free to skip this
if you want and move ahead to the Program section on page 54 if you want.

Defining The Problem

Muscle growth occurs through a process of stimulation, signaling and supply.
Training “stimulates” muscles to grow. Your natural levels of various anabolic
hormones “signal” muscles to grow, and food “supplies” raw material for growth. Those
3 things together determine how effectively you put on muscle. Unfortunately, it could
be argued the most important of those factors is the one you have the least amount of
control over, and that is the growth “signaling” that occurs from various hormones like
testosterone and IGF-1. When you think of growth signaling, simply think of this as an
aspect of your genetics.

How important is growth signaling? Well, ask yourself this: When, during his
lifetime, does the average male gain the most muscle mass? When he trains and eats
well? Not necessarily. How about puberty? There you go. The average male gains
about 40 pounds of near permanent muscle during puberty, and that’s without any
training. Now, what causes puberty? Changes in hormone levels.

Think of the difference between a male and a female? It’s all hormonal.
Someone labeled with good genetics vs someone labeled with bad genetics? All
5
hormonal. Whenever people take steroids they’re basically changing, or over-riding,
aspects of their natural hormonal signaling related to muscle growth. The hormonal effect
is so strong that in one study testosterone use all by itself, even in the absence of training,
was shown to stimulate an 18-pound muscle gain in 20 weeks. In another study, 3 groups
of people were divided up into the following 3 groups and followed for 8 weeks:

Group A: This group took 600 mg of testosterone per week and sat on their butt.

Group B: This group took no testosterone and trained with weights for 1 hour 4 days per
week.

Group C: This group took 600 mg of testosterone per week and trained with weights 4
days per week.

At the end of the study group A gained 9 pounds of muscle, group B gained 4.5
pounds, while group C gained 16 pounds of muscle. Look at that again. The people who
sat on their butts and took testosterone still gained twice as much muscle as the poor
souls busting their butts in the gym naturally 4 days per week! Those who trained (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)
took testosterone gained 4 times as much muscle as the natural group.

It should be noted that in this particular study the natural training group wasn’t
making any concerted effort to improve their nutritional status, yet with that information
it should be pretty clear why people take steroids. The damn things work!

Another important thing to note about this information is that we also tend to see
a heck of a lot of variance between natural athletes just like we do between steroid users
and non-steroid users. You’ll see a few freakish looking natural athletes who preach
“just train hard and eat right and you can do it”. Maybe so, but chances are their
physiology is not like yours. If it were you probably wouldn’t be reading this. If you
were to take a group of college football players and a group of typical IT workers and put
both groups on a bodybuilding program and charted the results, you’d probably find
about the same muscle building variance between the 2 groups as you do between steroid
users and non-steroid users. Not really a happy thought, but hopefully we can do
something to bridge that gap. Let’s talk a little bit more about genetics.

What the heck are "genetics" anyway?
(cid:4)
When it comes to muscle building, we hear the word “genetics” thrown around as
often as any other concept. “So and so has good genetics.” “I have crap genetics.” What
the heck does this mean anyway? Well, genetics refers to the mechanism of hereditary
transmission and the variation of inherited characteristics among similar or related
organisms.

For our purposes, when you think of bodybuilding genetics, think of things you
have little to no control over such as the:

6
A: Length and size of your bones

B: The length of your muscles and number of muscle cells you start out with

C: Length of your tendons

D: Hormonal tendencies

The end result of what happens when you place your body under a stimulus like
weight training is dependent on both your environment and your genetic code. With
regard to the stimulus of bodybuilding, the response is around 50% genetic and 50%
environment. Environment includes things like nutrition, training etc. When you
combine your genetics with the environment you get genetic expression.

The Amazing Bodybuilding Adaptation - We're Really NO
Different Than Animals……..
(cid:4)(cid:4)(cid:4)(cid:4)
The way physique enthusiasts look for and expect dramatic physical changes as
normal, ordinary, everyday occurrences is something I believe we all need to think about
from time to time. In no other animal species do you see mature animals make such
dramatic physical changes. Even though animals have more specific genetic tendencies
and less adaptability, I still feel the following is worth an illustration. How many times
have you seen mature adult animals of any species gain pounds of muscle mass? Think
about that for a second. The muscle mass a mature animal will carry is mostly
determined before it was even born. Large muscle mass increases normally don’t happen
once adulthood has been reached and, for reasons having to do with our natural wired in
code for survival, humongous muscle mass increases really weren’t designed to occur in
humans to a great extent either. When a person hits their mature adult height and weight
that should be about it as far as muscle mass is concerned. Increased muscular
hypertrophy was designed primarily to make work and physical labor more efficient. In
the real world, lots of people do a lot of physical labor and do get (cid:5)(cid:5)(cid:5)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:6)(cid:6)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:7)(cid:7)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:8)(cid:8)(cid:8) growth, but still
don’t really grow enough to change their entire physical structure. The fact that we are
able to over-ride nature and change our structure to such a large extent through
bodybuilding is something I feel we should really appreciate.

What Else Besides Work is Muscle Mass Good For?

From a biological perspective, a mammal’s physical characteristics such as facial
symmetry, teeth, structure, and muscle mass, tend to be a marker of the quality of that
animal’s genes. Being outwardly healthy and strong can help an animal or person do 2
things:

1. Survive
2. Reproduce
7
These 2 things are also the same things that drive all life – survival and reproduction.

The external features that express health and vitality contribute to both the ability
to survive (through the ability to do more efficient work), and increase the likelihood of
reproducing, as qualities demonstrating a good physical constitution also tend to make an
animal more attractive to the opposite sex, and for good reason. In the animal kingdom, a
good structure with a muscular, healthy body means that a mammal can probably defend
its family in event of a conflict and support its family being strong enough to work, hunt,
and find food. Those with good physical qualities are more likely to have an easier time
both surviving and reproducing than those with inferior qualities. The superiority of
good physical qualities is like a built in safe-guard to ensure survival of the fittest among
a species. I’ve spent most of my life around deer hunters and all you have to do to see
this illustrated in the real world is look at bucks. During the rut, who is more likely to get
the doe, the scrawny one horned spike, or the big ol’ buck with a nice set of antlers? It
should be obvious that any species wishing to thrive and avoid extinction would do well
to ensure that the fittest of its species are the ones who pass along their genetic code.

So, besides making work more efficient, things like our natural level of muscle
mass also express our vitality, which is why, even in our modern day society, our primal
instincts play a large part in our behavior. Women find a fairly muscular man with a
good build, good teeth, and good facial symmetry (and perhaps a crap-load of money),
more attractive than a scrawny or fat man, and, even though the anorexic supermodel is
promoted as ideal, most men naturally find a more normal looking woman with good
breasts and a J-Lo booty, (indicators of good reproductive capacity), more primally
attractive.

In the animal kingdom there is nothing animals can really do about physical
qualities but we humans are different. Because we are so smart, we're able to cheat and
do things to over-ride some of the outward expressions of our “health and vitality”. If
you have naturally bad teeth you can get braces. Got bad skin you can get a face-lift. If
you’re a woman with small breasts you can get a boob job. Got a big ol’ nose you can
get a nose job. Losing your hair you can get extensions. If you’re too old you can just
take anti-aging hormones. If you don’t like your skin color you can just pull a Michael
Jackson. If you don’t like your sex you can change that. If you’re fat you can either
starve or have liposuction. And if you have a less than optimal structure with less muscle
than you desire, you can change that too, - you can lift your butt off and eat like there’s
no tomorrow.

But just to keep things in perspective, imagine if your dog didn't like the way he
looked and he went out in the backyard and started hauling around all kinds of crap from
one end of the yard to the other in an effort to resistance train and increase his muscle
mass? It sounds crazy, but that is more or less what we do when we body-build.

Genetics Are Quite Powerful…….

8
Additionally, many people lose sight of the fact that their basic structure and level
of muscularity are, for the most part, something they’re born with. People have no
problems interpreting the fact that the thick legs and musculature of their Pit Bull named
Buffy, (who sits on his butt 23 hours per day and does no exercise), was determined
before it was born, but when it comes to our own physiques, few people or observers
recognize the strong genetic connection. Instead, they give credit to a favorite sport,
activity, or exercise. You'll hear teenagers with naturally big legs say stuff like "Oh,
when I was 8 years old I used to ride my bike to school everyday and that’s why my legs
are so big", and so forth.

I was reminded of this the other day at the gym. The "Power Team" was in town
doing some demos at a local church. One Saturday afternoon one of the performing
members came into the gym for a workout. This guy probably went 6'1 and 280 and
evidently was a defensive lineman for a major Div. I program at some point. Some young
kids went up to him and started talking to him, asking him how he got so big. Now, it
was obvious to me that this particular athlete was just naturally big. He had humongous
bones, humongous muscle bellies, and just lots of natural looking muscle. He'd probably
weigh 260 even if he never did a thing. Yet, when asked how he got so big, he said that
when he was a teenager he used to do a lot of work on a farm and eat a lot. The
conversation then went in the direction of, “Yeah my uncle used to work on a farm as a
teen and got up to 250 lbs doing this, that etc." I'm sure most of you know what I mean.

Not to say that hard physical work doesn't account for something, but when
people compare and note the muscle mass differences between two types of dogs, like a
Greyhound and a Boxer, nobody ever accuses the Greyhound of being skinny because he
didn't do any physical work when he was a puppy, - and they never credit physical work
for the Boxer’s superior muscle mass. The huge difference in muscle mass between the 2
dogs is purely a genetic thing. Assuming a decent environment where they get enough
food and stay healthy, the size difference was mostly determined before they were born.

Additionally, if you were to resistance train those dogs you would probably see
the same sort of variation with regards to how much muscle mass they gain from
resistance training. The boxer would probably out-gain the greyhound at a rate
proportional to his already existing muscle mass. People are the same way. Some people
are naturally more like a Greyhound and some people are more like Boxers. Gaining tons
of additional mass won't come as easy for the greyhound, but it will probably fly on the
boxer with hardly any stimulation at all. That doesn't mean the greyhound can't gain a lot
of mass, but he's gonna have to bust his butt for it.

Bodybuilding – A Contradictory Adaptation?

The bodybuilding adaptation could also be considered somewhat of a
contradictory adaptation for a couple of reasons. First, we still have the same genetic
code as our hunter-gatherer ancestors, many of whom faced harsh conditions like
starvation, which means we’re still genetically geared to survive harsh conditions. Thus,
nearly all adaptations by the body to stress are adaptations that make the body more
9
efficient at dealing with potential hardcore stressors. In other words, any stress
encountered by your body will be dealt with in a manner that makes your body better live
to see another day based on its interpretation of your external world. Adaptations geared
toward survival are preferred to adaptations towards performance. Efficiency is
preferable to proficiency.

Think about that for a second. If you had to push a 300-pound wheelbarrow up a
mile hill each and every day, initially it would be a real challenge. Your hands would get
blistered, your arms, traps, and legs would get sore, and you’d probably feel like you
were gonna die. You’d be huffing and puffing and probably be sore for days. After a
while though your body would adapt to make that task more efficient and you’d be able
to push the wheelbarrow up the hill without any problems whatsoever. You might see a
few physical changes and a tad more muscle mass in certain areas, yet your improved
efficiency in pushing the wheelbarrow would likely greatly overshadow any physical
changes. In other words, you’d get stronger and your ability to push the wheelbarrow
would probably improve 10 times, yet your muscle mass wouldn’t increase all that much.
The same thing occurs to a large extent when we lift weights. We may or may not make
a ton of physical changes, but if nothing else we get better at tolerating the workloads.

Now, what makes our preferred adaptation sort’ve contradictory and helps explain
why it doesn’t come easy is because our goal of bigger muscles and leaner physiques
could be considered an adaptation towards inefficiency. Getting stronger and increasing
the ability to tolerate workloads is relatively easy for the body to do, yet adding muscle
mass is a costly adaptation. Here’s why: Bigger muscles burn more fuel and serve to
make your body more like a gas guzzling SUV than a Honda Civic. A big bodybuilder is
like a big fuel guzzling monster truck. He is terribly fuel inefficient. A big bodybuilder
burns up 3 gallons of gas just getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. Now, why
would an organism designed to adapt to stressors EFFICIENTLY, make it easy to go
from operating like a 55 miles per gallon economy car to a 3 miles per gallon monster
truck?? Our bodies don't know that today we have a McDonalds and a supermarket on
every corner and an endless supply of food. Chances are your body is still trying to adapt
to the environment as efficiently as possible.

Genes and The Hunter-Gatherer

Many of our ancestors were periodically faced with food shortages, famines, and
harsh cyclical climates (depending on where they lived). Those who could survive those
conditions were the ones who would thrive. Obviously, lean and highly muscular bodies
(which burn up a lot of fuel), aren’t gonna do well when faced with food shortages.
Muscle is metabolically costly tissue and an organism seeking to avoid famine would be
best to avoid accumulating a whole lot of it. Those with very lean bodies and a lack of
fat obviously wouldn’t last long in a famine.

To get to the point, if for whatever reason today we had to once again face the
same conditions our ancestors faced (such as periodic food shortages and harsh climates),
and we were also faced with the challenge of bodybuilding workouts; - those who would
10