We posed the following question to 7 Testosterone
coaches:

What one thing has made the biggest difference in your
training when it comes to putting on muscle?

The answers varied enormously, but one of them might provide the
clue you've been waiting for.

Darren Ellis – Big Money Exercises

I don't train my arms much. I never work my
calves. And I can go weeks without doing any core exercises.
Why? Hey, I like to do arms as much as the next guy, but
I'm too busy.

I usually manage to free up an hour in the afternoon and by the
time I've been through a dynamic warm up, mobility drills, and
a foam roller session (which I consider essential if I want to be
lifting when I'm sixty), I need to make sure the exercises I
choose give me the most bang for my buck.

Roughly translated, "bang" means squat, dead lift,
snatch, chin, and press.

So why is it that so many people I see in the gym with limited
time spend it training their arms? It makes no sense
whatsoever, but I used to do it, too.

Years of wasted effort on isolation exercises such as leg
extensions, triceps kickbacks, and crunches. It took a long time
before the fog lifted and I could see more clearly, but once I
jettisoned the majority of small muscle work in favor of compound
lifts, my strength and muscle increased dramatically.

I still train this way today. Three to four quality exercises,
three to four times a week. The last time I had only a half hour to
train, I did dead lifts.

That's all, just dead lifts.

The time before that I super-setted front squats with bench.
Nowadays if I'm ever lucky enough to free up a little more
time for my workout, thenI might do a set or two of biceps,
a big core movement such as

windmills, or maybe some grip work. But more often than
not, I'll just do more dead lifts.

Justin Hardin – Better Nutrition

Without a doubt, the biggest thing that I did to add muscle was
to pay more attention to nutrition.

Proper nutrition and supplementation – at all times of the
day – were what took me from being one of the big guys at the
gym to being the biggest guy at the gym.

Realizing the need to be as smart about my nutrient intake each
and every meal is what took me to the level of looking like
a "bodybuilder." I'm as diligent with all
meals, every day, as I am in my "anabolic window" post
workout meal.

In short, I included complete protein, complex carbs, and
healthy fats in each of my meals and that sped up my progress
almost immeasurably.

Dan John – Five Days a Week

For me, it was meeting Dick Notmeyer, who badgered me into
working legs five days a week. I front-squatted twice a week and
did the O lifts three days a week.

So, deep and heavy triples in the front squat took me from being
a 162-pound high school senior to a 202-pound College Freshman in
four months.

Sometimes we'd only add five more pounds for another set of
triples and I can still remember double-checking to see that
we'd put just two and a half pound plates on each side instead
of quarters.

Yet, I blew up. I still push front squats on everybody
who'll listen to me.

Mike Roussell – All in the Timing

One of the most effective muscle building strategies that I use
is to increase feeding around the workout.

While people may sigh and say "Not just another 'eat
more' tip," hear me out as this is not the case. You
could always just eat more, but the key is not how much you consume
but how you assimilate it and how fast it gets into your system.

I call this the "Layered Kinetic Approach to Nutrient
Timing." The name comes from the fact that we're going to
"layer" on top of one another several different meals
that have different absorption speeds to maximize anabolism and
recovery.

Now, "Normal" nutrient timing is when you consume 1
serving of Surge spread across your workout, followed by a whole
food meal 45-60 minutes after your workout.

This approach is effective as it blunts cortisol, boosts
insulin, and prevents muscle breakdown.

That's fine and good, but here's my "Layered
Kinetic Approach to Nutrient Timing."

30 minutes pre-workout – Consume 10 grams of BCAAs. These
get into your system fast and ensure that when your workout begins
you have elevated blood amino acid levels.

15 minutes pre-workout - Begin sipping on 1 serving of Surge
with 5 grams of added micronized creatine. This is the second
layer. Surge contains dextrose, maltodextrose, protein
hydrosylates and BCAAs, all of which have very fast absorption
times, thus guaranteeing that your blood amino acid, blood sugar,
and insulin levels stay elevated throughout your workout. Continue
to sip on your workout drink until the end of your
workout.

End of workout – Finish left over Surge. The next
layer is another 10 grams of BCAAs. This will elicit another
blood amino acid spike to halt any chance of muscle breakdown while
setting the stage for maximum protein synthesis.

30 minutes post-workout - Consume 20 grams of whey protein and
Gatorade or fruit juice. This is the first layer where we choose
foods with a slower absorption profile. The whey protein
(preferably whey isolate) does not get absorbed as fast as the whey
hydrosylate in Surge, but it's still quicker than whole
foods.

60 minutes post-workout – Eat a plate of scrambled egg
whites and white rice. Whole food meals are digested slower than
liquid meals but because there's no fiber or fat in this
combination; it gets into your system very quickly, allowing for a
fast and continuous stream of nutrients to be shuttled to your
re-fueling muscles.

105 minutes post-workout – Chicken breast, broccoli (or
fibrous vegetable of your choice), brown rice (or sweet potato),
and olive oil. This meal contains all whole foods with fiber
and fat, allowing for slow digestion.

Amino Acids and carbohydrates will now be slowly spilling over
into your system, allowing for maximum recovery and growth but also
preventing a blood sugar crash (which isn't conducive to
muscle growth).

Jimmy Smith: No Fear

The single most beneficial thing that I ever did to increase my
muscle size was to get over my fear of carbohydrates.

It's not the sexiest choice and most people are looking for
some type of magic bullet but until they get over the misguided
fear of carbs, no new supplement or training method is going to do
the trick. For one, carbs are protein sparing, which means
that we won't have to consume anywhere near as much protein as
we currently are.

When carbs are high, the amino acids in our blood stream are
better used. Second, amino acids plus carbs has been shown to lead
to greater rates of protein synthesis, which ultimately determines
how much muscle we add.

In short, they aren't the big, ugly girl in the corner of
the school dance, as most people would lead you to believe. Put
them in a properly structured diet and the fat gain will be small
and the muscle mass will go through the roof.

Christian Thibaudeau – Blast the Biceps

Arm flexors (biceps, brachialis, and brachioradialis) have
always been a weak point of mine. Over the years I've tried
pretty much every routine known to man to make my arms
grow.

Nothing really worked, until I began to train my arm flexors
according to proper biomechanics. Now my arms are a strong point.
Here are some lessons I learned to maximize arm
growth:

1. To maximize arm growth you must develop all portions of the
upper arm flexors. This means both portions of the biceps,
the brachialis and the brachioradialis.

2. To do so, you must select the exercises and training methods
best suited to do the job.

To work the inner portion of the biceps, do wide-grip, elbows-in
curls, focusing on ''squeezing'' the elbows in when you lift the
weight.

To work the outer portion of the biceps, do close grip,
elbows-out curls, spreading the elbows out when you lift the
weight.

To work the brachialis, use a hammer grip or a slower lifting
speed – or even isometrics – as these increase the involvement
of the brachialis over the biceps.

To work the brachioradialis, use a reverse grip curl, and
don't forget to flex the wrist as you lift the
weight

One last thing: arm flexors respond especially well to constant
tension training (CTT). CTT means performing an exercise without everrelaxing the working muscle.

The tempo is slow and controlled (3-0-3 is fine) and you must squeeze the biceps as hard as you can on every inch of every
rep. The key is to never relax the muscle to prevent oxygen from
coming into the muscle.

This increases the release of growth factors and makes the
muscle more responsive. Such a technique is better left only to
isolation work, which is why it's so effective for building the
biceps.

Looks good, but the arms are flat.

Ready for War.

Christian Thibaudeau #2 – Suck Down the BCAAs

I've always been a huge proponent of a properly designed
post-workout shake and for one good reason-it works big time!

In fact, optimizing post-workout nutrition (Surge being by far
the best product out there, especially the new version) is one of
the few supplement strategies that really lives up to wildest
expectations. (That's not to say that other supplements don't work,
but rather than post-workout nutrition is that damn good!)

In fact, I never thought I'd actually find a strategy that
would give me results on par with proper post-workout
nutrition...until I listened to Coach Poliquin, Dr. Serrano, and
Dr. DiPasquale and started to use high doses of BCAAs during my workouts.

Using at least 20g of BCAAs (and preferably up to 40g) spread
throughout your workout will really jack you up. Just like the
post-workout meal, it's simple, not very ''sexy,'' but well worth
it!

Chad Waterbury – Increase Your Training Frequency

I've never used a more powerful muscle-building approach
than a properly planned High Frequency Training (HFT) program. Your
worst body parts can become your best within a matter of 6 weeks if
you dramatically increase your training frequency.

Why? I believe it's simply an issue of forced
supercompensation. The human body will respond to any demand
that's placed on it. If you've been training your
hamstrings twice-a-week for the last few years, it really
doesn't matter what you do in those two sessions because your
body has adapted to that frequency.

Once you dramatically increase your training volume through more
frequent training sessions, you immediately put a huge stress on
the muscles by overloading them. The only option is for those
muscles to get bigger and stronger.

Work up to 8-10 workouts per week for your lagging body parts
with a different exercise each session during the week and
you'll be amazed at your results.