Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
3/22/2011 8:39 AM
Many trainees complain of frustration when trying to break through muscle building plateaus. Sometimes it has to do with the training, sometimes with the diet. Here are the top 3 tricks I use with clients who experience difficulty gaining lean body mass.
1.Glutamine Load:
If you have a hard time gaining muscle mass, I would advise you to do this: take 80 grams of glutamine a day for 5 days, yes 80 grams, best is to do 8 x 10 grams. When NHL recruits were at a plateau gaining mass, that was my best quick and dirty trick.
Do I have peer reviewed studies for it. No. Just plenty of clients and students who had had success with it. I find taking 10 grams every two hours diluted in a cup of water works very well. Timing with meals does not matter. How does it work? Many possibilities, including:
A - glutamine is the primary building block on the intestinal lining. Many people suffer unknowingly from leaky gut syndrome. The glutamine overload phase seals the lining, which diminishes food intolerances and inflammation.
B - muscle gains are correlated to how strong the immune system is. Glutamine loading boosts the immune system. Conversely, when you overtrain, your glutamine levels drop dramatically.
2.Increase good dietary fats:
Too many trainees are fat phobic. I tell them to start cooking meat in butter. Butter supplies butyric acid, a short-chain fatty acid that feeds good gut bacteria, which helps absorb more nutrients and provide great source of calories to achieve muscle mass agains. You can also use olive or coconut oil. They respectively supply Omega 9s, and medium-chain triglycerides.
3. The 150% calories day:
This tip I learned from former World Powerlifting Champion, Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale M.D.. Once every 5 days, I increase the calories of my clients to 50% above of what they regularly eat. Works like magic. Are all the calories clean? Hell no!. But the key is too avoid transfats like you would find in crappy protein bars.
I prefer to use things like protein pancakes, with maple butter, organic certified gluten free oatmeal cookies, coconut milk cooked rice etc… So in practice, to determine their caloric need, most weight trainees should take their weight in pounds, multiply by 16. So if you weigh 200 lbs, you need 3,200 calories to maintain weight. On your 150% day, eat 4,800 calories spread out over 6- 7 meals. Make sure that the hyper-caloric day is an off day from training.
Copyright ©2011 Charles Poliquin
21 comment(s) so far...
Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Just did the glutamine load. Worked very well!
By Eric Benedict on
3/22/2011 8:54 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Absolutely. Had an athlete put on 8lbs in 5 days doing the gluatmine load. What about the corn flake shake diet?
By Preston on
3/22/2011 9:05 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
I work very well on Dr. D's metabolic diet and that calorie splurge every weekend works awesome. Even better now since incorporating the clean carb knowledge from your website and books. I gotta try that coconut milk rice.
By jance footit on
3/22/2011 9:23 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Glutamine Load-A true GEM! Superb!
By Marcus on
3/22/2011 3:00 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Thanks for the tips!
By Mark on
3/22/2011 4:17 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
That glutamine load is an interesting idea that I have to try. Many people, including myself, have taken glutamine but spread out the doses. Because of this people don't notice anything and stop taking it.
By Nathan on
3/22/2011 10:37 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Coach is there any drawback to starting the glutamine loading at the same time as the HCL supplementation?
By jim wood on
3/23/2011 11:23 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Coach for the 150% method, can we just integrate the 6-7 meals into one big dinner? Surely, pancakes will supply the body with far more calories than I take in on a typical day.
By Jeff on
3/24/2011 3:53 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
I'm definitely going to give the glutamine thing a try, what a tip! Cheers!
By @Jschoftraining on
3/24/2011 9:49 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
damn you mr know everything now i gotta buy some glutamine lol :p
By @Jschoftraining on
3/24/2011 9:53 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
@ Jim, not a problem.
By Coach Poliquin on
3/25/2011 5:32 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
great post mr poliquin! i love the once every 5 days calorie loading idea but i particularly like this idea of loading on glutamine, will definitely be giving it a try as im also partway through recovering from leaky gut syndrome so hopefully this will speed it up a bit!
By Joe Grigg on
3/26/2011 8:48 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
That glutamine loading technique netted me just over 1-pound of mass (lean!) in five days. VERY impressive. Thank you for that tip! But now what? Current intake of l-glutamine is 30g in post-workout drink with minimal results. Everything else being equal, increase my daily consumption to a higher level or cycle this five day technique?
By Jim on
3/30/2011 12:30 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Would you suggest a women do the glutamine load?
By tanya on
3/31/2011 6:18 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
@tanya
I DO!
By Anna on
4/24/2011 1:20 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Hi, As always, I enjoy reading what otherspeople who are interested in health and alternative approaches have to say about alternative medicine. I myself writetry to write regularlyon a daily basis on Ayurveda. I am the author of "Natural Ayurvedic Cures," which your readers are welcomed to download a copy for free. Muscle Building.
By D. More on
5/13/2011 7:20 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
I've never heard of that Glutamine protocol. It makes sense though, thanks for sharing that tip!
By BJN on
6/2/2011 1:29 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
About the glutamine loading tip. Is it a one time thing or you can do it more than once after some months?
By Pan Sk on
6/9/2011 10:55 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
There are other factors beside diet that could affect the progress of your muscle building plateaus. Talking about diet, make a constant effort to take in more calories each and every day in order to generate that extra lean muscle mass. Don't ever let yourself go hungry. Utilize plenty of high calorie protein shakes and high calorie density foods.
By Cecil Kelly on
8/12/2011 6:02 AM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
Just read an article by Dr. Rosedale and he suggests Glutamine for a reduction in carb cravings when beginning a low carb lifestyle. Any thoughts on that? Also is there a difference between Glutamine and L-Glutamine?
By Gina Faubert on
10/27/2011 12:01 PM
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Re: Three dietary strategies to blast through muscle building plateaus
I have summer from excess glutamate and ammonia due to some health issues.
I also have leaky guy.
I am extremely leary of taking any glutamine at al for fear of conversion to glutatate.
Is this a valid fear, or will my body use it up in other processes?
Thanks
By Josh Collins on
2/28/2012 10:40 AM
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