As far as building mass is concerned, one thing we learned as kids holds true today: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
It sets the tempo for making sure your diet is straight. Most people think breakfast is coffee, some processed cereal that's 95% sugar, donuts. That's a sure-fire recipe for disaster. It's really bad in college, because kids are rushing to class and don't prepare to eat right.
When I was in colleged a decade ago, I found myself falling into that same trap, either eating junk for breakfast or not eating at all. The food in the cafeteria wasn't all that great at breakfast (which is part of the reason I was skipping that meal). So, I fixed that, via my "Poor Man's MET-Rx" shake I mentioned earlier. A half-dozen eggs, 16 oz. milk, and one scoop of milk-and-egg protein powder, all blended up together. That rendered at least 65 grams of protein.
Now, I have more time and can actually eat a solid meal. But, the key is still to get that FIRST good meal in your system. The rest seem to fall into place after that.
I agree, breakfast is very important. I think that most new trainees, the ones that are really excited about getting bigger, shoot themselves in the foot so to speak. They tend to go to the gym too much (most people make best gains weight training 3 times a week max), they tend to under sleep, they tend to be wowed by nutritional supplements, they tend to not focus on getting stronger on compound exercises, they use to much isolation exercises, and their form really sucks.
Add all that up and is it any suprise that most people don't gain well. Unfortunately the popular magazines are filled with information which is worse that useless, in in some cases outright hazadous to health, fitness, and muscular development. Who really cares about Greg Valentino's feces, or about some new exotic supplement that increase testosterone in male butterflies, or how big some fitness chicks new tits are? what does this have to do with building a stronger body?
So people who read and follow the advice in the magazines are left with information that will either cause them to fail, make progress at a snails pace, or encourage them to take drugs to grow on the ridiculous advice.
Like I said getting bigger muscles is simple, it could be summed up in the following
1) apply sufficient
intensity of stress to a muscle group to stimulate muscle growth; leaving sufficient recovery reserves left to allow for recovery and more importantly supercompensation (i.e. muscle growth and strength gains)
2) Eat enough calories along with sufficient protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water to support full muscle recovery and growth
3) Allow enough time (days) to go by for a muscle that has been worked as well as all the other systems (particularly the nervous system) of the body to recovery and supercompensate. Also means get sufficient sleep and relaxation.
4) When supercompensation has been completed (gains in strength typically come before gains in new muscle) then train the muscle again with a slightly greater intensity (ex. increase resistance, or reps, or make careful use of intensity enhancers)
Another important factor that most motivated trainees ignoreAs a trainee becomes stronger his ability to place greater stress on his body with exercise becomes greater. Even though a trainee will also build recovery has he builds strength (and muscle), eventually his strength will overtake his recovery ability. Eventually if a trainee continues using the exact same amount of sets, exercises, off days that produced gains earlier; he will eventually hit a plateau in strength and muscle size because the workout will have become to stressful (owing to the increase in strength).
The remedy:
Reduce the amount of work done, this can be done by reducing the amount of sets performed in the workout. The best way is to take additional rest hours or days before training not only the muscle group again but the body. For example if you are training every other day and reach a plateau for a few week, then schedule in an extra day or two between workouts to recover, and fight the desire to go into the gym and you will start progressing again. (most people do the exact opposite when they plateau, training more, adding more sets and exercises, and usually end up injured, tired, overtrained= no gains)
I figure most people will ignore this advice, not because it doesn't make sense but because most people are motivated to train out of emotion. They don't want to risk the chance, despite the logic, that they will shrink. Because of this they probably will not reach their goal, if they do it will take them years when it could have taken months.
Lawrence
(understand that genetics have a profound effect on what you can develop, but the application of the right technology and knowledge allow for greater strides.
Most people get wrapped up in the nonsense, and I really blame the magazines for this.