7 Coaches Give Their Number 1 Tip
Compiled by the Editors
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.
Always keep post-workout nutrition nearby (photo by Irv Gelb).

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.
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