Column 41 | Fast and Effective

ANSWER

First of all, you should make sure that you eat a healthy, varied and, above all, protein-rich diet, because without a sound diet, nothing works in bodybuilding. You write that you don't eat more than three meals a day. Why is that? As we all know, if you want to, anything is possible. Even if your job doesn't allow you to eat more than three meals a day, for example, there are always ways and means of preparing another meal quickly and easily.

Since you are interested in building mass, I recommend the Use of liquid food for two reasons: firstly because it saves time and secondly because of the enormous calorie intake. In contrast to solid food, liquid food takes much less time to digest and is therefore available to the body more quickly, which can accelerate muscle building. It also has the unbeatable advantage that it can be prepared and consumed in a very short time. You should eat five meals a day to get noticeably closer to your goal of building mass. One such meal - for example meals four and five as a daily snack - can be a protein shake with milk and oatmeal or with maltodextrin powder: Put everything in a large blender, mix well and pour into a shaker - your snack to go is ready. If you don't have a blender, I recommend the following recipe, which can easily be prepared in a standard hand shaker: Both shakes are ideal for a quick snack and provide your body with important proteins and carbohydrates for muscle building. By the way: It has been scientifically proven that several small meals are better for the body than a few large ones!

Since you've been lifting weights for a while and are no longer a complete beginner, I recommend a four-way split. This means you train your body completely once a week, divided into four workouts. The breakdown could look like this:

Make sure that you do not do these four training days one after the other, but plan in rest days in between. However, I do not think much of alternating between pushing and pulling exercises. When training, you also have to be careful not to put too much strain on the cardiovascular system. This could be the case if you alternate between pushing and pulling exercises - especially with the chest/back combination as antagonist training - and could result in muscle growth stagnating or even overtraining. Instead, I recommend that you train each muscle group individually, one after the other and not all at once.

As far as your back problems are concerned, I advise you to always train with good technique. Stick to the correct movements and a moderate pace, without cheating. If you still feel pain during one or another exercise, switch to another. Never train when you are in such pain. It may work in the short term, but in the long term it will cause enormous damage to your back.