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My method works for me. I hope you get an idea from the answer. It is about goal setting.Have a plan of action. I mean set a goal and move forward with the program and accomplish the goals or make progress. Goal setting is critical to the success of a well-thought-out fitness program.For example, I use a plan that fits my current fitness to achieve specific goals. For the next 8 -12 weeks I work on individual routines and attempt to either maintain what fitness I have already built or increase performance, etc.The plan includes specific caloric and nutrient intake in addition to recovery methods and avoiding overtraining. Blueprint for Safety is the number one priority.At the end of the cycle, I evaluate my last progress report and determine the course of action for the next period. See if you have a plan and a pre-determined goal, you increase the chance of success.At the end of 8 to 12 weeks cycles, I also take a few days off. Meanwhile, I plan for the next set of goals.I hope this short answer is useful to you

Maybe “despised” isn’t (?) the right word. The client’s story disgusted me. (Details are blurred for privacy.)The agency told me Ken was convicted of repeated sexual abuse of a baby girl, his own child, causing significant injury. Individual therapy was one of the many conditions of his parole.I hesitated.If he was coming for an evaluation, no problem. I know how to be neutral and professional and get the information I need to write a report.Therapy is different.I’d have to show unconditional positive regard and empathy. I have to commit myself to Ken’s well-being and progress. At least Ken was remorseful, they told me. He’d made progress through a prison program, even though he was kept out of general population for his own safety.OK, I think I can work with that. I delayed his first appointment for a couple of weeks to get my head and heart ready. I only skimmed the stack of documents I’d been sent, especially details of his crimes. I wanted to hear his story told in his own way.Ken showed up with a long sleeved white shirt, jeans, and very shiny black cowboy boots. I remember the boots most of all.He sat across from me. We ran through informed consent, etc., and then I looked at him, spread my hands, palms up and said “So. . . .”Ken said something like “I know you think I’m disgusting. Everybody does. I totally agree with them.”I said something like “Ken, that sounds like a great place to start.”Other than that I don’t remember much about the actual therapy, but I believe it was at least a limited success for both of us. I know Ken made me a better therapist.

How are some people able to gain muscle faster than other people?I’ve worked as a trainer and wellness coach for several years. I’ve helped plenty of people of all different kinds achieve the body they wanted including adding muscle. Over that time I’ve observed 4 different reasons why some people to add muscle after than other people.GeneticsThe first, most obvious, and the least inspiring reason some can build chiseled physiques in record time while others must work for years is genetics. Genetic is complex and there are many genes that can determine your success. There are genes that directly affect how much muscle your able to build and how fast you can build it, but there are also genes that affect your fat distribution, insulin sensitivity, your body type, body proportions, injury recovery capacity and everything else about you.Myostatin is a gene that regulates how much muscle someone can put on. There are several examples of genetic mutations in animals and a few children where this muscle stopping gene does not work normally. The picture below is a picture of a Belgian blue bull muscled to the gills. I use myostatin as just one example of how genetics plays a role.While genetics are important, I don’t like spending too much time on them because they are constants. I’d rather focus on what one can change. However, I feel it’s important that we learn to accept our genetic dispositions is important to self-love and success.Below is another example of how genetics shapes us. The picture shows the 3 main body types - Ectomorphs, Mesomorphs, and endomorphs.Mesomorphs in the middle are characterized by their athletic physique and ability to build muscle. This is one reason people build muscle faster than others. However, each of the body types comes with their own positives and negatives and I believe it’s important weUnderstand the differences so we may adapt our training to our unique genetic differences.Understand the differences so we can learn to accept and love that uniqueness.I am very much an ectomorph. Positives - Skinny, fairly high metabolism, good carb sensitivity, an ability for endurance activities. However, some negatives are that it is difficult to put on muscle, or size, or overall strength.Endomorphs are bigger, poor carb sensitivity, more likely to put on fat, but also able to add muscle and size. These people are good at activities involving strength and mass.We're all unique and we should embrace that uniqueness. If we fail to do so, then we will always feel shame about our bodies or feel like they have shorted us in the genetic lottery. Instead of focusing on the drawbacks of our bodies lets focus on the positives. Shame ruins self-efficacy and is a terrible motivator.My final point on genetics is that while we are all unique, we are also more alike than we are different. We are all human, and our bodies all work the same way. So while each of us has genetic dispositions we can still work through them. I’ve known plenty of ectomorphs who through hard work and consistency built a muscular physique. Just as I’ve seen plenty of endomorphs do the same. Genetics may make the journey easier or harder and will determine you've overall potential. We may not all have the potential to be elite athletes, but we are all capable of doing amazing things and building physiques we love.Training StatusHow long have you been training will strongly influence how quickly you build muscle.Beginners are full of untapped potential capable of building muscle quickly and with just about any kind of training program.A beginner can be capable of building a half pound of muscle a week. Depending on their starting point a beginner can build 10 - 25 lbs of muscle over the course of a year. After the beginner stage, muscle growth slows as you become fitter. Elite bodybuilders even on steroids may only build 2–5 lbs a year.Previously Gained Muscle30lbs of muscle in 30 days! You’ll see lots of these claims online but are they true?In most cases the answer is no. Muscle is a hard to gain and building that fast is unrealistic. However, it’s not impossible.In May 1973 Bodybuilder Casey Viator began the Colorado Experiment. He was trained by Arthur Jones himself - the founder of Nautilus and of the exercise machine era.Casey was reported to have put on 63 pounds of muscle in 28 days.It sounds impossible, but what's left out is that Casey was in a car accident in the months before. During his immobility, he could not work out and lost a lot of muscle mass.Casey didn’t put on 60 + pounds of new muscle in a month. He was simply regaining old muscle. For any athletic endeavor, there’s muscle memory and with that - structural memory. The body remembers where it once was and makes it much easier to regain fitness than it is to gain new fitness. So answering your question - someone whose regaining muscle will gain it much faster than someone who is doing it for the first time.The Colorado Experiment: Fact or Fiction | T NationSmart TrainingThe last factor that affects how quickly you can build muscle is training. Who would’ve thought?Good training makes all the difference but what makes good training?A good program should:Specifically, address the goals you want to achieve.Be individually tailored to your needs, fitness level and movement ability.Progress over time.Use exercises that match your needs, goals and fitness level.Address recovery. Nutrition, sleep and coping with stress all help aid in the recovery process.There is no perfect program. But what distinguishes a successful program from a failing program is one that is safe, adheres to the 5 principles I have listed above, and that you can stick to it.For the full breakdown see the article -Principles of Training -The keys to a successful training programI will provide a quick insight into the principles as they apply to muscle building.Specificity - Training is specific to the goal you have. The body adapts to stressand muscleis one of those adaptations. If you want to build muscle, then you must provide the right stress.There are 3 ways to stimulate muscle growth -Muscle Tension (Strength Work - Low reps with a high weight.)Muscle Damage (Think muscle soreness, eccentric exercises)Metabolic Damage (Muscle Burn - typically with higher rep work)An effective muscle building routine will use each of the aboveProgression - To gain muscle you must increase the amount of stress you apply to the body. If you want more muscle, then you must do more. There are many ways you can progress an exercise (the simplest to is adding reps or weight) but you must progress in someway if you want to see a change.For a complete breakdown of the many ways you can progress an exercise or workout see - How to Progress a WorkoutExercise Selection - The best meals start with the best ingredients - in a workout the exercises are your ingredients. The exercises you pick should match your needs, goals, and fitness level. The article below will give you a blueprint for how to select the best exercises to see your best results.How To Choose The Best ExercisesRecovery - Workouts don’t make you sexy and strong. Those desired results only occur after the body has recovered and adapted to the stress from the workout. The decisions you make outside the gym are just as important as the work done in the gym - We adapt only when we recover.What is Muscle Soreness and How to Fix itNutrition also falls under this category.Individualization - Each of us is different and if you want to be your best you have to train according to your body - this is smart training.I offer two ways to do so. The first is through experimentation. To learn more about how to individualize your workouts to your body see the article below.How to Individualize Your Training and Diet for The Best ResultsThe other way we can learn to individualize our training is to relearn how to listen to the many signals of our body. Our bodies are immensely complex and intelligent machines that have developed many ways of telling us what it needs. Learning how to identify these signals and respond accordingly to them is key to feeling good and being in health. These same signals apply to your training and diet. Learning to recognize them can teach us how to individualize our workouts to see our best results.The Art of listening to your body is the subject of my upcoming book. So if you are interested in being your best self then visit the website, read our articles, and subscribe to receive each article in your mailbox along with updates on the new book.Fitness Made Clear