I’ll go ahead and say it – if you missed last day’s interview excerpt with Jason Ferruggia, then you’ll definitely want to go back and read through it…

…I don’t know how many times I get asked on Facebook for the BEST exercises to train the back, chest,  quads, hams etc.  So, if you’ve ever wondered the same thing, then head back to part 8, and find out the exercises Ferruggia recommends for building muscle and losing fat.

Today, we’re going to look at gaining mass, and training your calves. Ferruggia has an interesting formula he follows for both, so let’s see what he has to say….

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Craig Ballantyne: Okay. Just to wrap up some of the stuff here, one of the questions on Facebook was a simple mass question. Sets and reps range and overall workout time when training for mass, what are the basics there?

Jason Ferruggia: The basics are you have to keep the volume LOW. The most important thing is getting stronger, so you have to get stronger every week. If you don’t get stronger there’s no way you’re going to get any bigger.

The workout time should be about 40 to 45 minutes.

The sets should be probably about 12 to 18 per workout. Per body part keep the sets minimal, no more than five usually, two to five sets. I usually prefer to work up to a heavy set.

I don’t like to do too many sets in the same rep range at the same weight, so we’ll VARY the rep ranges a bit. We’ll work up to a heavy set and then maybe do a back off set in another rep range or something like that. The BEST rep range for building mass and the average should be about five to eight reps.

Then if you’re a little bit more advanced, the back off set of between nine and 12 is always good. If you just primarily nine to 12 it’s not always the best option unless you’re older and stronger and a little bit beat up, then that could work for you.

Frequency is important too, so full body workouts work great for beginners and intermediates. They also work for advanced guys, you just can’t stay on them too long. There’s a way you should rotate on and off of them, which I explain in Triple Threat Muscle.

Everyone else, upper and lower splits work equally as well. But, there is a way to use both to really maximize your results. Like I said, frequency with full body, obviously you’re hitting three days a week. With upper and lower you’re going to be hitting twice a week or once every five days, depending on how you train.

That is important as well. You CAN’T DO the old once per week per body part. That really doesn’t work that effectively. Anyone that’s not a high level elite bodybuilder.

Craig Ballantyne: Okay. Question from Omar comes. He sees people not making any progress, you see people not making any progess, what are they doing wrong generally?

Are there 2 or 3 things that people do that are just absolutely getting them nowhere? What are the big mistakes they’re making?

Jason Ferruggia: I’ve seen that. It’s funny, there’s a couple guys who email me all the time and I know they’re getting nowhere. It’s always the same thing. It’s too much over thinking, too many questions.

You really have to pick a GOAL and STICK with it.

Don’t overcomplicate your training. Just decide, “This is my goal.” You can’t say, “I want to get ripped. I want to get huge.” That’s not going to work. You’ve got to pick one or the other.

It’s just information overload with the internet, I think.

Craig Ballantyne: All that MMA stuff now too, because everybody thinks they want to be super conditioned.

Jason Ferruggia: Exactly. All the conditioning stuff is getting to be way too much, where it is getting so hard for skinny guys to get strong, because they think they have to do Shawn Turks’ workout where they train in those five minute circuits without taking a break and flip tires, into chin ups, into the prowler.

It’s never going to work for a skinny guy. That’s not how you or I trained 15 and 20 years ago, it’s not going to work now. Get that out of your head. Just get focused on the big lifts. Just make sure your numbers climb.

Get rid of the ADD and the information overload. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.

Just PICK a proven system and FOCUS on the numbers. The numbers have to go up on the squats, the deads, the cleans, the chin ups.  Keep pushing those up and keep pushing the calories up.

Those are the biggest mistakes I see. It’s just the over thinking and the lack of focus, too much conditioning and worrying about that kind of stuff.

Like I said before, if your main goal is to gain 30 pounds in the next 12 or 16 weeks or however long, don’t be obsessed with conditioning. Maybe doing no conditioning is your best bet. It depends on how lean you stay, but that shouldn’t be your main focus. Your main focus in on lifting heavy weights.

Craig Ballantyne: And not jumping around from program to program, right?

Jason Ferruggia: Exactly, yes. Stick with something for a minimum of four months.

Craig Ballantyne: Actually, his question was about calf muscles specifically. I didn’t ask you for your best calf exercises. I’m pretty sure you and I have had discussions about this before. What’s worked for you and your guys?

Jason Ferruggia: Calves are probably definitely the hardest muscle to build. Genetically if you’re blessed with calves you’ll have good calves. If you don’t, they’ll be string beans.

Really, that’s the one muscle that I would say you have to go HIGH VOLUME.

There’s two options:

#1. You could go high volume, which I would alternate phases. I’ll go high volume for a month and alternating maybe every set you do.

EXAMPLE

Let’s say you do a set of chin ups, then do a set of calves, then do a set of bench presses, then do a set of calves. Alternate a set of calves with every exercise you do. You’re going to be working up to 10 or 15 sets of calves in a workout.

Obviously, don’t do that tomorrow, you won’t be able to walk. Work up to that level of volume. Do that twice a week and that works really well. High volume.

Stretching your calves is huge. You have to stretch them. I would stretch them on every set, in between reps, in between sets.

#2. Then I would alternate the high volume phase with a lower volume phase where you cut the volume down to maybe a third of that, but do slow eccentrics and pause in the bottom of the stretch position for five or even ten seconds, which will be excruciatingly PAINFUL, but that does seem to work.

Then…

…I would FINISH up every one of your calf workouts with 10 minutes of jumping rope. I’ve seen guys put two inches on their calves in about eight weeks doing that. It’s brutal, it’s boring, it’s not exciting training calves, but if that’s your goal that will work.

Craig Ballantyne: That’s pretty crazy. A quick question from Keith Scott. He wants to know which year was better, 1989 or 1992?

Jason Ferruggia: I’m going to have to go with 1992.

Craig Ballantyne: All right. I told him that was an entire call right there.

Jason Ferruggia: I didn’t think you’d want me to elaborate, because we’d be here for quite awhile.

Craig Ballantyne:  Haha…okay.

Let’s have Ferruggia finish off the interview with him detailing his formula for using the 5×5 method to build muscle.

When I went back to my parent’s house on Easter Weekend I was thrilled to see my Mom had added dumbbells to her little workout area along with her treadmill, mat, and ball. It helps her to be strong for all her yard work and to improve her health.

(And it’s cute to catch her working out in the morning, with Bally the Dog sitting right beside her, waiting for a treat.)

Plus, when my old man was still around, he had a fair amount of lean mass from all the farm work. That was until he got sick…and then it was just painful to see his hard-earned strength & mass disappear.

You know, one of the saddest moments of my life was when he asked me to carry one of his 20 pound tractor batteries out of the garage…simply because he just couldn’t lift them anymore. That’s when I knew it was bad.

But if he didn’t have that base of strength and lean mass that he built up over the years, he would have worse off a lot sooner, so thank goodness for that, right?

Now why do I keep harping about the need for lean mass?

Because it’s the most important fitness attribute you can build. Your life literally depends on it.

That’s right, it’s MORE IMPORTANT than “cardio”. And here are the top 10 reasons why:

Ready?

1. Lean Mass = Metabolism

There is nothing else you can do – and certainly nothing you can eat – that will actually boost your metabolism, except for adding lean mass and moving your lean mass.

Forget about the supplement ads that claim Green Tea, protein, or some berry from the Amazonian jungle can boost your metabolism.

They are LYING.

The truth is only lean mass boosts metabolism. Period. And everyone knows how important your metabolism is for staying lean and healthy.

2. Lean Mass = Curves in all the right spots

Here’s the equation to putting curves in all the right spots, no matter if you are a man or a woman:

Build lean mass + boost metabolism + burn fat from bad curves + add lean mass to right curves = Totally sexy body

Let’s see cardio do that. Won’t happen.

3. Lean Mass = Strength in old age

Having strength in your 60′s, 70′s, 80′s, and beyond is far more important than cardio fitness in old age. People don’t fall because they lack cardio fitness. They don’t get put in wheelchairs because they can’t jog 10k. They get disabled because they have no muscle or strength.

I know. I’ve volunteered in geriatric hospital wards. These people can still move – IF they can get up. But they aren’t strong, so they remain confined to beds. It’s really, really sad.

The majority of obstacles to living a full life as you grow older come from not having strength or muscle. That’s a fact.

4. Lean Mass = Keeping up with your kids.

And it means keeping teenage boys intimidated and out of the house if you have a teenage girl.

Lean mass also equals less embarrassment if you have teenage boys. No one wants a fat, weak, wimpy old man.

I mean my old man was a wiry guy – and trust me, he found plenty of novel ways to embarrass me – but it wasn’t because he was weak or out of shape.

He was still stirring things up and picking fights with my friends all through high school – even when we went from boys to men.

And I’m proud of him for that.

5. Lean Mass = A good reason to eat more food…and the ability to burn more calories.

Listen, most of the guys I know who have lots of lean mass need 3000 calories per day just to MAINTAIN their size. And Holly Rigsby needs over 2000 calories – and she’s a hot momma with lean mass.

It’s a win-win. You get to eat more to build lean mass, and you get to eat more to keep lean mass. Not so with lame ol’ cardio.

6. Lean Mass = Functional Strength

Whether it is carrying groceries, controlling your crazy dog on a leash, or cleaning out the garage, the more lean mass you have, the easier everything will be. Lean mass = POWER.

7. Lean Mass = Confidence

Every where I go the folks with lean mass are the ones with a crowd around them, attracting high-energy, positive people. And it seems like the skinny ones…they all seem to walk around with their head down…a little shy and ashamed…hey, that’s just the way it is. Don’t get mad…get lean mass instead.

8. Lean Mass = Looking awesome in a t-shirt, no matter what gender, no matter where you go.

Again, just another example of how lean mass gives you power, confidence, and a reason to buy really nice fitting shirts.

It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting NYC, Vegas, Miami, or the lake that you go to every summer with the family, looking good in a t-shirt (or bathing suit) is a great feeling.

9. Lean Mass = The Beach.

When you have lean mass, the beach becomes the place to be. When you don’t have lean mass, the beach becomes a dirty word…a place to avoid…and who wants to avoid the beach, baby? Not me or Bally the Dog, that’s for sure. Heck, he wants to show his six-pack doggy abs off at the beach more than I want to show off mine. That’s the power of lean mass.

(Someone get this dog to the beach!)

10. Lean Mass = No regrets.

Listen, here’s an embarrassing story…after my second year of University I made a mistake with my training and focused too much on cardio while preparing for soccer.

I got way too skinny. I lost lean mass. And I regret it.

But more importantly, like 75% of people in life, I regret something that I didn’t do…I regretted that I didn’t try to build lean mass.

I regretted it because I was missing out on many of the 10 reasons I just listed above. What a mistake.

I felt like such a fool for sacrificing lean mass…and it’s been my mission since then to show people that when you have the choice between lean mass and cardio that they should ALWAYS choose lean mass – no matter what the politically correct magazines say.

Fortunately, before the end of that summer back in 1996, I changed gears and got back on track with my training, eating, and lean mass building program. And I’ve looked better, had more confidence, and simply kicked-butt since the day I decided to get serious about building lean mass.

Listen, I don’t want you having the same regrets because as my friend Vince Del Monte says, “living a life of regret SUCKS”.

So here’s what you need to do to avoid a life of regret. You need to avoid missing out on those amazing lean mass benefits I just listed. You need to focus on getting lean mass.

I guarantee you’ll love the confidence, power, and metabolism boosting benefits of having more lean mass.

I’ve built my life around this message and I know you’ll believe it when you experience these 10 benefits.

Check out this interview I did with Vince Del Monte on building lean mass.

=> Vince Del Monte Lean Mass Interview

Your friend and coach,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TT Bodybuilding