Here are some basic requirements for adding muscle naturally:

Eat enough quality protein! This is absolutely essential. I made the mistake at first of just eating a lot. Unfortunately, I did not realize that I was eating mostly carbohydrates. Once I began to eat lots of tuna fish, chicken, lean red meat and whey protein drinks, gaining muscle was much easier.

Learn to enjoy working out. We all have favorite days to workout usually it’s chest and biceps day! Yes, but unless you work out the rest of your body you’ll look woefully unproportionate. Try to convince yourself that you love to work legs, back, shoulder and triceps. Hell, even forearms and abs. Once you do, you’ll start seeing results, and then it becomes a cycle. Work out hard -> see results -> workout harder -> see more results -> and on, and on.

Don’t waste your time. Don’t baby yourself in the gym. It’s neither the time nor the place. You are there to WORK, not to talk or read the newspaper. If you’re doing it right, your workout should only take
from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. That’s it! If you are there for longer, then you are wasting time. Keep focused and intense.

Get enough sleep. That means sleeping until you wake up without an alarm. I usually try to get around 8-10 hours of sleep a night. This may seem like a lot, but trust me, if you’re working out intensely
you’ll need it!

Use “heavy” weight. I have the word heavy in quotes because it’s all relative to where you are right now! Don’t try to imitate the big boys in the gym – you will just get hurt. Trust me, I tried it, developed chronic tendonitis, had surgery, and had to take 2 years off. Just use enough weight so that you have to stop at 6-10 reps. If you can do more, then you need to increase the poundage. Even a 2.5 pound increase can seem like a lot, so just progress slowly.

Learn to love SQUATS. Squatting is the best full-body exercise you can do – period. If you want to get bigger, squats are the way to go. In particular, a 20-rep squatting program is excellent for putting on
leg size and overall mass. But be prepared because 20-rep squatting is BRUTAL work. Simply put, you pick a weight you normally can do 15 reps with, and try your damndest to get 20 reps with it. If you REALLY can’t get 20, then stay with that same weight until you can. Then move up by 5-10 pounds next week and try to hit 20 again. It works!

Don’t compare yourself to other people – only to what YOU used to look like. Comparing yourself to others is a great way to get discouraged and quit. The whole purpose of bodybuilding is to better yourself. How can you do that by comparing yourself to someone else? Sure, it’s okay to look at someone who’s big and say, “Man, I’d love to look like that someday…” but end it there. Don’t obsess on it. Just do the best you can and keep making improvements. As long as you are continually progressing compared to where YOU used to be, then that’s all that matters.

Cut calories – By cutting calories, your body will lose fat.
Cut out carbohydrates after 4pm. Carbohydrates are foods, such as, fruits, breads, pastas, cereals, etc.
Reduce sodium.
Eat 4-6 small meals, instead of 3 large meals. By eating small meals, your body uses the food as energy, instead of storing it as fat.

Now, 8 weeks into my plan, I was lean, abs were there, but they weren’t sticking out… not as much as I was hoping. I decided I need to bring my abs out even more, add even more muscle. But does doing 100 sit ups bring the abs out? No! You need resistance to build muscle. So, I decided to add ab workouts every three days. In my opinion 3 nights rest is enough time for the abdominals to recover. I trained abs at the end of my regular workouts, for approximately 15-20 mins. Here are the three workouts I did.

Weighted Decline Sit-Ups (Most gyms will have a bench designed for this).
The bench looks like a regular bench, on a decline, with places to hook your feet under at the top. With my feet hooked in, I would hold a 35 lbs. plate on my chest and do 12-15 reps. I suggest starting with no weight, then building the weight each week

Hanging Leg Raises. This exercise is performed by hanging from a bar (usually a chin-up bar), and raises your knees, until your thigh is parallel to the floor. This exercise helps on the lower abs.

Bench Raises. This exercise is also good for the lower abs, and targets them directly. You lie on the floor, with your legs should be bent at a 90 degree angle. Now, point your toes to the sky, lift your lower back/butt off the ground slightly, and you will feel your lower abs contracting. This exercise is great because it takes the hip flexors out of the movement.

The above three exercises, along with cardio and diet, have brought my abs to a new level. The exercises consist of one for the upper abs, and two for the lower abs. The lower abs are hard to bring out, so I include two exercises instead of one. Within a few weeks you should notice larger upper abs, and less fat, more definition on the lower abs. For quicker fat loss, a thermogenic supplemgnt can be added. For the first two weeks, rest 90 seconds between sets. For weeks three and four, rest 60 seconds, and for weeks five and up, rest only 30-45 seconds between sets. Hanging leg raises can also be done
without bending the knees, keeping the legs straight. This is a little tougher, and you can also put a weight between your feet for added resistance. After the first two weeks, I recommend adding weight for the decline sit-ups, so you struggle to reach 15 reps. Always warm up before adding weight, or you may injure yourself.

If you’ve been using my method above for several weeks, and still aren’t getting the results you’ve hoped for, there is a good chance it is because of your diet. You may need to try and lower your calories even more.

Training for wrestling is extremely intensive and grueling. It forces you to work in an anaerobic environment where you are almost begging for air. Muscles grow when under stress, and the goal in wrestling is to make them grow as quickly as possible. This is the main reason why wrestlers are the most overtrained athletes in the world. There training split emphasises each muscle group during every workout session. Many university wrestling teams use a “full-body workout” such at this:

* Manual Neck
* Shoulder Shrug
* Shoulder Press
* Chin ups
* Bench Press
* Rope Climb
* Straight Bar Curls
* Dips
* Leg Press
* Calf Raise

Wrestling is a combination of two different types of athletes:
Power distance and endurance. A wrestler must get optimal energy from each of the three different energy systems. That means as a wrestler, you should plan your nutritional intake to support all three systems of energy. You also need to adjust your caloric intake in the off-season to suit your fitness goals. That  means if you want to become quicker, simply cut your calories. If your looking to get stronger, then you should increase your calories.

As a wrestler, your body is craving more nutrients than that of the average person. That means it is vital that you supplement your already strong training and nutrition program.
A good multivitamin that contains an adequate amount of Vitamins A, B, C, and Zinc should be at the top of your supplement list.
However, the following supplements are also useful in helping you become a better wrestler:

* Ginkgo Biloba
* Citrulline Malate
* Calcium
* Whey Protein
* Glucosamine Sulfate
* Creatine
* Glutamine

But what about someone who is not only “jacked”, but also smart about life, nutrition, and his physical conditioning? Hugh Jackman is 37 years old, at 6’3? and enough muscle mass to bench press Ruben Studdard for five reps he is in a league of his own.

He thinks that goal setting can prevent us from achieving our true potential. When it comes to his workout, he does not set goals; rather, he seeks defining moments that reveal what he is made of.

I am not a shrink, far from it, but over the years people thanked me for a little anger management trick I have shared with them. It did not work for Pauly Shore, and I never met Hugh Jackman, but Jackman figured it out on his own – save your anger for your workout.

Popularized by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his golden years, “Go Hard or Go Home“, became one of those trite lines that many strength and conditioning coaches are still using today. But where do you find that something extra to give your workout all you have got?

Every workout Hugh Jackman channels his anger into heavy iron. When he wants to bench press 315 pounds, he gets insanely pissed off at that weight. His workout is about an hour and a half long. To keep his body from adapting to the same exercise routine, he likes to keep things fresh.

He does 3 weeks of heavy lifting, followed by a mix of explosive lifting, slower reps, and lighter weight loads. On a day of a workout, he is not shy about eating, chowing down a thousand calories more than on a regular day.

The workout itself highlights his understanding of the importance of multi-joint, compound movements such as squats, leg presses (he can press 1,000 pounds), barbell lunges, and bench-press variations.

Remember ladies and gents. Do not litter with your anger, embrace it, nourish it, and let it all out in a gym. Just make sure that when the time comes to bench press 300 pounds, Macaulay Culkin is not your spotter.