In Part One of this series, we concentrated on what tools you should have in order to be successful in getting big / bigger. Part Two discussed what you should put into your body to achieve optimal training results. Now, read on to view a sample meal plan that will put you well on your way towards gaining some serious muscle.
Three meals a day is good. This is assuming that you get 2-3 snacks on top of your three meals. You should eat right after each training session. The more variety of food you can eat, the better… and of particular value is a variety of vegetables. Eat veggies of a variety of sizes, shapes, and particularly, COLORS!
And my friends, learn to cook!!! This is a lost art among the youth of today. McDonalds is ok now and then, but not all the time. Places like Chipotle, where you can make a burrito that is both tasty and healthy, are also fine sometimes. But why all the time? It’s expensive and needless. Learn to cook your own damn food! It’s better for you, much cheaper, and, if you spend the time to get halfway decent at it, it can be rewarding and even fun. And for the guys out there, let me just say this, women love a man who can cook. And the girls already know that the fastest way to a man’s heart is NOT straight through his ribcage… it’s through his stomach. Enough said.
If you are going to “cheat,” do it once a week in a big way, rather than everyday in a small way.
Here are a few sample meals--use them as guidelines.
Breakfast #1
Take four eggs, about a half-pound of pork sausage, some ham or turkey and some spinach. Cook it all in olive oil, and with two tortillas make two breakfast burritos. A little cheese mixed in doesn’t hurt anything – Pepper Jack is the choice of those who know best. Hot sauce is your friend, and Louisiana hot sauce IS the perfect hot sauce, just like the label says. Peppers and onions can take the place of spinach if you like that sort of thing. Now, get yourself some blueberries, strawberries or whatever berries you like, and put them in a bowl. Eat all of this along with a glass of milk.
Breakfast #2
Cook a small sirloin steak. Other red meat will do, but trust me--sirloin is best for breakfast. Add in some potatoes cooked how you want them (hash browns are good for breakfast). Slices of tomatoes and cucumbers round it out. Other vegetables will do, but cucumbers and tomato slices covered in vinegar and oil go good with steak and potatoes. Coffee goes well with this one--trust me. If this sounds boring, cut the steak into strips, cut the potatoes into little pieces, grill some peppers and put it all in a tortilla. Don’t forget a big glass of milk.
Breakfast #3
Make yourself some French toast--it really isn’t that hard. It isn’t ideal but hell, it tastes good and it’s different. Use berries and whipped cream on it instead of syrup. Sausage goes well with this, as does a big, cold glass of milk. And it won’t kill you to use some syrup. This is America and we are all allowed to use syrup some of the time.
Dinner or Supper #1
Chicken Fajitas. Most grocery stores carry ready-made Fajita mix…cut up chicken, onions and peppers. It takes about five minutes to cook this up with a liberal amount of olive oil in a pan. A pound of this, a couple of tortillas, some hot sauce (Louisiana preferably) and maybe even some cheese, and you have yourself a meal. Some folks use sour cream, avocado, or guacamole. There is nothing wrong with that. Some folks even use lettuce. I can’t stop you from using lettuce in your Fajitas, and it won’t hurt you—it’s not unhealthy in any way--but please don’t. There is just something wrong with lettuce in a Fajita. Save the lettuce for the Tacos and Burritos. If you get bored from this, substitute beef, or maybe even pulled pork for the chicken. And don’t forget to drink a big glass of milk.
Dinner or Supper #2
Salad with chicken or steak is tasty. Get a big bag of baby spinach, an onion, and whatever other tidbits strike your fancy. Peppers are sometimes good. Croutons can be good here also. Chop up the onion and whatever else you want to throw in there. Cook up a good amount of chicken strips or steak cut into thin strips, and make yourself a salad. Use a bunch of olive oil on it as dressing, along with squeezing some lemon juice on it. Just a bit of vinegar along with the lemon juice makes it taste better--trust me. Garlic bread goes good with this too, and don’t forget to drink a big glass of milk.
Dinner or Supper #3
Good old steak, potatoes and vegetables. The tastiest way of preparing this is to get yourself a good Tri-tip, and put it on the grill. If it’s between three and four pounds (which most Tri-tips are), get your grill to about 300 degrees and keep it in for about three hours. That’s the way it comes out best on my grill--it is pink in the center and tender and juicy. Make sure you’re not cooking it over direct heat. Put it on the opposite side of the grill as the burner you have on. You may have to adjust the temperature or time based on the idiosyncrasies of your grill. When the meat is 40 minutes or so from being done, put a pan on the stove with water, set it to boil and put a bunch of potatoes in it. Very simple. Get either another pan or use the grill, and “grill” some zucchini and yellow squash. If it’s in a pan, just fry it up in olive oil. If it’s on the grill, put in on aluminum foil and drip some olive oil on top of every piece. Did I mention that you have to slice it up? Whether a pan or a grill, put some sort of steak seasoning on it. Trust me, this makes it taste very yummy.
Donny Shankle, Jon North, and I had this very supper tonight. Between the three of us we had 7.2 pounds of Tri-tip. We also had strawberries for desert, which I recommend wholeheartedly.
Dinner or Supper #4
Many Hooter’s restaurants have an all-you-can-eat wings deal on Tuesdays. Get the naked wings, and eat a lot. Remember, the more wings you eat, the better a deal it is. Donny Shankle ate 100 wings the last time we took advantage of this deal, and he clean and jerks 464 lbs…draw whatever conclusion you want.
Dinner or Supper #5
Salmon and a salad with asparagus on the side. Any idiot can make a salad, so I won’t bother you with that, other than to ask you to please, please, don’t make some ridiculous concoction in which iceberg lettuce is the only veggie and think that you are making something healthy. The salmon is best made over a plank, cedar, mesquite, etc. that has been soaked in water and placed on the grill. To properly cook asparagus, you need a grill, some aluminum foil, some olive oil and whatever steak seasoning that you prefer. I think you can figure it out from there.
Dinner or Supper #6
Use your imagination. Some fish, red meat, pork, chicken, lamb, goat, whatever. Get some veggies, as wide a variety as you can stand, and maybe something starchy… and you have a meal. What do you like? Experiment. Learn to cook. You’re not really a full-grown man till you can whip out a tasty and healthy meal complete with meat and vegetables on your grill.
Snack #1
Nuts. Eat them, and stop smirking. And don’t ask how many. No sane person counts out 30 almonds. Just grab handfuls and put them in your mouth ‘til you can’t eat anymore. Cashews, almonds, etc.
Snack #2
Fruit. Any of it. It’s tasty and good for you.
Snack #3
Yogurt with ground flax in it. Flax is good for you. Figure out a way to include it in your diet.
So there it is. A guide to eating like a strength athlete who wants to gain muscle.
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.