If you have been paying attention to what books have been selling lately then you probably have heard of The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris. He’s the fella that wrote The 4 Hour Workweek a few years ago. A self-promoting and marketing genius, Tim has now propelled himself to the forefront of health, fitness and exercise methodology with this new book. 
The book covers a wide range of topics including:
* How to lose those last 5-10 pounds with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails.
* How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)
* How to increase fat-loss 300% with a few bags of ice
* How to gain 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
* How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
* How to produce 15-minute female orgasms
* How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
* How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
* How to reverse “permanent” injuries
* How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
That’s a lot ground to cover, I guess that is why the book is over 550 pages long! But the thing that I am interested in is how to gain 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days. Is this even possible? Can a tall, lean guy like me gain muscle without getting fat? Here’s my plan.
My How To Build Muscle Plan
I am going to follow the chapter called “From Geek to Freak” that details how Ferris gained 34 pounds of muscle over 28 days. But given my age (38) and body type (ectomorph) I am not going to aim to gain that much, even if I could. I am going to try and gain 20 pounds of muscle in 28 days and not gain much, if any, body fat. I don’t even know if this possible but it should be an interesting experiment.
But here’s the thing. I do not want to gain all the muscle in my legs, hips and ass area. Those areas have the biggest muscles on the body and would be ones that could grow the biggest the fastest. Call me vain, but I don’t bigger muscles down there. I want a bigger chest, shoulders, back and arms. Those muscles are for the ladies, especially my wife. So just like Visual Impact Muscle Building, I am going to concentrate on building a muscular, lean body not just muscle for muscles sake.
There are three components to this plan that I will need to follow to even have a chance to succeed. I’ll explain each one in detail later. The first is following the lifting protocol. The second is following the eating protocol. The third is following the supplement recommendations. Let’s look at each one.
The lifting protocol will be as follows:
- Perform one set to failure for each exercise
- Use a 5/5 rep cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down)
- Focus on 10 or less exercises per workout (to keep it under 30 minutes per workout)
- Get adequate recovery time
- No cardio (except playing basketball once a week for less than a hour)
- No other working out
- I’ll use Olympic weights and dumbbells mostly and maybe a couple of machines
I’ll figure out what exercises I am going to do later and test what weights to start with for each one. I’ll do the same workout each time so I’ll only perform this a total of 8 times (every 3 days) for 4 weeks. Let’s hope less is more!
The eating protocol will be as follows:
- No added sugar or refined carbs (allowed in supplements but not the food I’ll eat)
- At least 20 calories per pound of lean bodyweight
- At least 1.25 grams of protein per pound of lean bodyweight
- As much organic and grass-fed meat as the budget allows
- Will follow a mostly Paleo based eating plan
I don’t know if I’ll track calories so much everyday but I will keep track of what I eat so I can increase the amount if needed. I also will not be doing any type of intermittent fasting like Eat Stop Eat while I’m doing this experiment.
The supplement recommendation is as follows:
- NO-Xplode, Slo-Niacin 500mg in morning
- ChromeMate, alpha lipoic acid at each meal
- BodyQUICK pre workout
- Micellean post workout
- Policosanol, ChromMate, alpha lipoic acid and Sol-Niacin before bed
- L-Glutamine for the first five days
- Creatine Monohydrate
That is a hell of a lot of supplements! I’ll let you know how much I spent on those for the one month experiment. Hopefully my stomach will handle everything okay.
How I’ll Record My Results
To try and keep some accurate records of what I am doing I am going to track what I eat, any supplements that I take and what exercises I did for the workouts and the reps/weight for each one. I also think that I am going to video tape one workout so you can see what I did and how long it took to do it. I won’t tape all of them but just one of them so you can get a feel of what the workout looks like.
I am also going to do a Bod Pod body analysis. I have done it two times in the past but I will do it once right before and once right after I am done with the experiment. That should tell me how much body mass I have and how much fat and muscle that I lose or gain. I’ll take some body measurements and photos also so I can measure and see what the difference looks like.
So this should be a pretty interesting experiment. I am going to start getting everything in order before I begin so I probably won’t start this until March and finish sometime in April.
Have any of you tried anything like this? Let me know in the comment section of what you did and how it worked for you. I’ll keep you updated.
David,
I read the 4-Hour Body back in December and I am in the middle of this same experiment, although my goal is to gain 5-7 lbs of lean mass within 6 months. I feel like for my body type and size, this is a realistic goal for me (I started the experiment at 135 lbs). So far, I’m about a month in and I’ve put on about 1.7 lbs of lean mass.
I’m using dumbbells for the most part and performing 6-8 exercises per session. The 5/5 rep cadence takes some getting used to, especially if you’ve never done it before, but you can really feel it working the muscles hard. My approach is similar to yours except I’m not taking as many supplements. I am using creatine, though, which is helping. I’m also doing quite a bit of cardio since I’m training for a race right now and about to begin soccer season. Good luck with the experiment! Keep us posted on your results!
Alykhan
Alykhan,
I am trying to push the limits and get more done in less time. So hopefully this will work and I’ll get some muscle.
David
I read the book do I think it works? No, but I would be more than happy for you to prove me wrong.
I do like some of Tim’s ideas and have adopted the easier suggestions ..
Like I’m doing Drag Curls … I’m eating along similar lines, even adding Cinnamon to my black coffee …but all else is just too extreme for me.
So good on you Dave I hope you get those results and I’ll be following closely cause I love experiments.
Raymond
Raymond-ZenMyFitness´s last [type] ..The Most Effective Cardio Workout To Drop A Dress Size Very Quickly
Ray,
Here’s my thinking: It’s only 30 days. It will take about 4 hours total. So time wise it is very doable. There are a lot of supplements to take but once I am done with the 30 days I’ll stop taking them. And if I fail to reach the 20 pounds but gain 10 instead I wouldn’t be too disappointed.
David
I have heard so much about “The 4 Hour Body.” Tim Ferriss is something else, as he is willing to try anything and use himself as an experiment. (I loved “The 4 Hour Workweek” by the way)
It would be interesting to see the results you get as I am somewhat skeptical that he was able to gain that much muscle mass while keeping very low body fat.
I am sure your body can handle the supplements but it looks like it will cost a pretty penny… I was actually on protein and creatine many years ago and I was ok with that. Some people thought that was “too much” but I think as long as you don’t touch HGH or testosterone in ridiculous doses then everything should be fine.
Looking forward to seeing your results.
-Sam
Sam´s last [type] ..The 5 Best Vitamins Supplements For Men
Sam,
I figure it will cost around $200. I’ll let everyone know what it was. The Bod Pod is like $40 each time also. So I’ll probably spend around $300 not counting food. Even if I gain 10 pound of muscle I’ll be impressed.
David
I just got the book recently so I’m looking forward to checking out that chapter. 20lbs of muscle in 28 days?? That’s quite the challenge. Good luck, man!
Srdjan – Bloom to Fit´s last [type] ..Are you Addicted to the Scale
Srdjan,
I guess I should clarify and say that it is 20 pounds that I could gain. We’ll see.
David
Looking forward to the updates. I too am an ectomorph. I went from 150 to 170 in 30 days when I was in the army by working out 6 days a week HEAVY, and taking creatine and andro for the first time. I now hover around 172, but just came off of ACL surgery and am probably about 165. I have the 4HB book and liked it so much I bought a copy for all my siblings and my Mom. My biggest obstacle has always been the cost of getting big. Aside from the cost of the supplements, in order for me to eat the calories and protein I need to gain weight I would have to spend about 3 times as much as I normally do. I did this before and was about 180 pounds with about 7% body fat for about 6 months, but as soon as I started backing off of the food…right back down to 170. So realize that if you are going to spend the time and money to get big, you also have to spend the time and money to stay big for the rest of your life. Good luck bro.
Jeremy,
Interesting comments. I know that I am going to spend a lot on food also so yes the long term stability of maintaining the weight could be an issue. The supplements should be around $200 or less and food will cost whatever it does. I’ll try and track that but it might be a little difficult.
David
Good luck mate. As Jeremy says though, once you get big, you need to eat enough to stay that way otherwise you’ll shed it all in no time.
Looking forward to the results though
Clint – Crude Fitness´s last [type] ..Shocking your guns into action plus other ways to get bigger and more impressive arms
Clint,
Finding that calorie level to maintain the weight might take a few weeks. I’m sure it won’t be 6000 calories though!
David
It may be closer to 6000 calories than you think if you want real results. I think that you are setting your goals too high for the amount of work that you are preparing to put in. I am the stereotypical ectomorph, eat everything and don’t put on a pound. To gain 20 pounds as an ectomorph under any program regardless of how ingenious you need a lot more dedication. I only put on 8 pounds when I increased my bench from 140-215. Also I suggest have 2 different routines instead of just one because you get significantly less results in strength gain when you perform the same workout repeatedly. Looking forward to seeing the results and what you learn from your experiment.
Joe
Joe,
I know that it is pretty ambitious. I’m trying to follow the program that is in the book as close as I can. I too used to eat anything I wanted and not gain a pound. In college when I played basketball I was about 200 pounds and very lean. But when I stopped playing and keep eating the same way I did gain weight. So I think that food consumption will be the biggest factor in this. We’ll see.
David
Look forward to hearing how it goes – good luck!
Darren@moreprimetime.com´s last [type] ..Visual Impact For Women
Any updates on this challenge??
Srdjan – Bloom to Fit´s last [type] ..5 Push Up Variations You Need to Master
This is such bs…gaining 20 pounds of muscle in a month is not possible unless someone is on some kind of steroid and even then it has a very slim chance of happening…workout…take your bodyweight and multiply it by 20 eat that amount in calories per day and you’ll put on your mass…i hate these bs gimmicks that anyone will buy because they think it’ll work…
Bill,
That’s why I am trying it. I think that it is very improbable too. But why not try it and see what happens.
David
Let me start off by saying that I discovered ur site just yesterday and read all the articles the same day. I agree with almost everything you’ve posted except this one…
It’s one thing to see if this theory works…it’s something else to have to deal with physical and psycological consequences of all the chemicals (in the form of supplements) you are introducing to your body and the drastic change in eating and workout habits…I don’t believe it’s healthy in the long run…and not even sustainable. Not sure why the same person who talks about eating non-processed food is also talking about taking a dozen “supplements” and putting undue stress on the body…I don’t think this will help you any (even if u achieve your short term goal).
Gaining 34 pounds in 28 days would be crazy hard. Even with how difficult it would be it is worth a try. Why not? Your goal of 20 pounds is certainly more reasonable. It is always fun to experiment when weightlifting to see what works best. I have been doing high intensity 1 set to failure workouts for a while and I gained pretty quickly initially and I kind of peaked. It gets hard mentally to keep pushing to failure every workout. I like lifting that way so I don’t plan to change. I am 38 also and doing the one set to failure routines saves a lot of time for focusing on other things in life.
Good luck with your plan and I look forward to reading about your progress.
Ryan´s last [type] ..Become A Spartan
Looking forward to seeing the results and good on you for giving it a go. The one thing that I can’t wait to see is what will the effect be on the way you look. Thats a lot of weight and the effects on the look and shape of your body could be pretty dramatic!
I tried something similar a few years back, gained 14lbs in 3 weeks (not all muscle looking back on it) and I looked like a new man……not a better one to be honest, but thems the breaks.
All the best
Michael
The Underwear Body´s last [type] ..Muscle Building Foods- The route to a more attractive body
Because I don’t have some sort of money to buy the book I have just borrowed it from my friend. I’m still reading the first half of the book and It’s very nice. I’ve learned a lot of techniques from the book and I’m counting for other techniques after finishing the book.
Matt@Muscle Building´s last [type] ..How To Gain Muscle Quickly