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In Part One of this series, we concentrated on what tools you should have in order to be successful in getting big / bigger. Here in Part Two, you’ll find out about what you should put into your body to achieve optimal training results.

 

Eating To Get Big

 

This article is not for bodybuilders cutting for a contest (although a lot of bodybuilders could benefit from reading it). It’s not really for the average 17-year-old “bro” who is doing bench and curls three times a week at the local Gold’s Gym. This article is for hard training strength athletes, whether they are Olympic lifters, powerlifters, shot putters, or just a guy who wants to gain 30 lbs. of muscle, bench 400 lbs. and is willing to train hard and eat right to get there. This article is not going to be long on science, although I could certainly go that route. It is going to be about what the last 20 years of competing as a strength athlete and coaching strength athletes has taught me about what one has to put into their body in order to train as hard as is necessary to get to the highest level that is possible.

 

General Guidelines For a Shopping List

 

- Use olive oil whenever possible when cooking. Drinking it straight when trying to gain weight is good if it can be tolerated.

 

- Use Flax seeds. Not flax seed oil. Grind them yourself using a coffee grinder. Sprinkle them into anything that you can. Find a way to get some down the hatch at least every other day. If you eat yogurt, don’t eat yogurt without them.

 

- Drink milk everyday. My palate prefers 2 %, but whole milk is also good.

 

- Eat fish a couple of days a week. Salmon is great. Learn to grill it; it tastes great and is good for you.

 

- Eggs are good, yolk and all. You should have eggs most days. Most breakfasts should be built around eggs.

 

- Red meat is your friend. Eat it everyday. Do yourself and your pocketbook a favor, and learn to cook brisket. It’s the worst cut of meat at the butcher if not cooked right, the BEST if cooked correctly. It’s also very cheap. If you don’t know how to cook it right, make friends with a Texan and ask him or her. Probably him, cause in Texas it’s the men who do the grilling and smoking and the BBQ.

 

- Figure out a way to eat vegetables. I don’t care if you don’t like them, do it anyway. There are plenty of very tasty ways to cook and eat veggies--many of them even come from a grill. Again, if you don’t know how to do it, it helps to know a Texan so he can help you with grill technique.

 

- Nuts are your friends, and I’m not just talking about your nutty friends. And stop smirking. Cashews, almonds, etc. Places like Costco and Sam’s Club have pretty good deals on big jars of various nuts. Keep a jar around the house and snack on them.

 

- Eat berries, all varieties of berries. Have some everyday if you can afford it. Besides being tasty, berries of various kinds have anti-inflammatory properties.

 

- Use ginger when you are cooking. I personally don’t like to cook with it much, so every few days I just take a bite of a raw ginger root. This is not something most people can do, so I urge you to learn some recipes that call for ginger. Ginger fights inflammation.

 

- Take fish oil supplements. If you want to know how much, Google is your friend, but I personally recommend as much as you can stand or as much as you can afford. Fish oil is a great way to even out your Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio, and is especially important when you are eating a lot of red meat and don’t have the cash to buy the grass-fed kind.

 

- Get some sun, without sunblock, several times a week. If you can’t, take vitamin D supplements - make sure it’s D3, and take at least 5,000 IU a day. But seriously, just get some sun.

 

- Vitamin C is cheap and is your friend. But don’t bother taking it if you’re not willing to take 2000 or 3000 mg a day.

 

- A multivitamin isn’t a bad idea, but it’s not as good an idea as eating a large amount and large variety of vegetables. Doing both is an even better idea.

 

- A good mineral supplement is probably as or more important than a good vitamin supplement.

 

That should take care of your shopping list. These are the foods you should be buying when you go to the grocery store. In Part Three, we will look at a sample meal plan.

 

Glenn Pendlay - Glenn Pendlay has a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology and has published a number of papers in Endocrinology. After competing in the Junior World Powerlifting Championships in Moscow, Glenn was invited to study Olympic lifting under Alexander Medvedyev, and has since emerged as the top weightlifting coach in the U.S. In 1999, Wichita Falls Weightlifting was founded with Glenn as its Head Coach, and during this time Glenn produced over 90 national champions, over 20 medalists in international competition, and his athletes have broken as many as 10 American records in a single year.

He has coached successful athletes all the way from 10-year-old School Age National Champions, to a Senior World Team member and Pan American medalist, to a Masters World Champion and World Record holder. His teams also competed successfully for team championships, including six men’s collegiate national team titles in seven years, and a string of three Junior National team titles in a row! Glenn is now the head strength coach for the California Strength Academy in San Ramon, CA and is personally coaching three of the six lifters on the U.S. Pan-Am Team.