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Timothy was tired of being the
skinny kid on the block and decided to make great changes to his body.
Learn more about his training and how he gained 34 pounds of muscle,
while losing 3 pounds of fat. All in 28 days!
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Before:
146 lbs |
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After:
177 lbs |
Vital Stats
Name: Timothy Ferriss
Age: 29
Weight Before: 146 lbs.
Weight After: 177 lbs. (183 three days after last official weighing)
Body Fat % Before: 16.72%
Body Fat % After: 12.23%
Total Muscle Gained: 34 lbs.
Total Fat Loss: 3 lbs.
Time Elapsed: 4 weeks
Favorite Exercises:
Supplements Used For This Transformation:
Why Did I Decide To Do This?
I weighed 152 lbs. for four years of high school,
and after training in tango in Buenos Aires in 2005, I had withered to
146 pounds. I was born premature and suffered bullying for the first 12
years of life, and I had no desire to once again be the skinniest person
in the room.
Hence the decision - upon returning the U.S. - to perform an exhaustive
analysis of muscular hypertrophy (growth) research and exercise
protocols, ignoring what was popular ... to examine the hard science.
The end result? I gained 34 pounds of muscle, while losing 3 pounds of
fat, in 28 days.
 Click Image To Enlarge.
Timothy Ferriss.
Before and after measurements, including underwater hydrostatic
weighings, were taken by Dr. Peggy Plato at the Human Performance
Laboratory at the San Jose State University. Though this ridiculous
experiment might seem unhealthy, I also managed other health goals
without the use of statins (see the pre-bed supplementation). No joke.
Here are a few comparative shots. Oh, and I forgot to mention, all of
this was done with two 30-minute workouts per week, for a total of 8
HOURS of gym time:
How Did I Do It?
First, some select stats on the 4-week change (9/21-10/23):
- Bodyfat % - 16.72 to 12.23
- Suit Size- 40 short to 44 regular (measured at Brooks Brothers at Santana Row in San Jose by a professional tailor)
- Neck - 15.8" to 18"
- Chest - 37.5" to 43"
- Shoulders - 43" to 52"
- Thigh - 21.5" to 25.5"
- Calf - 13.5" to 14.9"
- Upper Arm - 12" to 14.6"
- Forearm - 10.8" to 12"
- Waist - 29.5" to 33.1"
- Hips (@ss at widest) - 34" to 38.23"
Click Image To Enlarge.
Timothy Ferriss.
Here are the six basic principles that made it happen:
1. One-Set-To-Failure:
Follow Arthur Jones' general recommendations for one-set-to-failure (80-120 seconds per set) from the little-known Colorado Experiment, but with lower frequency (maximum of twice per week) and with at least 3 minutes between exercises.
2. 5/5 Cadence:
Perform every repetition with a 5/5 cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) to eliminate momentum and ensure constant load.
3. Focus On 4-8 Exercises:
Focus on no more than 4-8 exercises total (including at least one
multi-joint exercise for pressing, pulling and leg movements: leg press,
trap-bar or conventional deadlift, overhead press, Yates bent row,
dips, incline dumbbell bench press, etc.) and exercise your entire body
each workout to elicit a maximal hormonal (testosterone, growth hormone +
IGF-1) response.
Here is one of the more effective sequences I've found ("+" = superset):
4. Protein & Low Glycemic Carbs:
Eat enormous quantities of protein (much like my current fat-loss diet) with low-glycemic index carbohydrates like quinoa, but drop calories by 50% one day per week to prevent protein uptake down-regulation.
5. Increase Recovery Time Along With Size:
Exercise less frequently as you increase strength and size, as your recovery
abilities can only increase 20-30%, while you can often increase
fat-free muscle tissue up to 100% before reaching a genetic set-point.
6. Record Everything:
Record every workout in detail, including date, time of day, order of
exercises, reps, and weight. Remember that this is an experiment, and
you need to control the variables to accurately assess progress and make
adjustments.
For the ladies not interested in becoming the Hulk, if you follow a
"slow-carb" diet and reduce rest periods to 30 seconds between
exercises, this exact workout protocol can help you lose 10-20 pounds of
fat in the same 28-day time span.
Questioning the basic assumptions about resistance training led me to a
surprising conclusion: less is more. It just requires working out
smarter instead of more often.
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Diet
 Rule #1: Eat The Same Few Meals Over & Over Again:
The most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle
gain or fat loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and
match, constructing each meal with one from each of the following
groups. I've put an asterisk next to my most common defaults:
Proteins:
- Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor
- Chicken breast or thigh*
- Grass-fed organic beef
- Tuna*
- Pork
Legumes:
- Lentils*
- Black beans*
- Pinto beans
- Dal
Starches:
- Yams/Sweet Potatoes
- Steamed Rice
- Quinoa* (higher protein content than rice and keeps 3-4x longer)
- Macaroni*
Eat as much as you like of the above food items. Just remember: keep it simple. Pick three or four meals and repeat them.
Note To Vegetarians & Green Eaters: a 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories. Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes or starches for caloric load.
Meals Per Day:
Some athletes eat 6-8x per day to break up caloric load and avoid fat gain.
I found this unnecessarily inconvenient, particularly when you are on a
regimen of supplements (chromium polynicotinate [not picolinate], ALA,
etc.) that increase insulin sensitivity. I eat 4x per day:
- 10am - breakfast
- 1pm - lunch
- 5pm - second lunch
- 7:30-9pm - sports training (if in-season)
- 10pm - dinner
Favorite Meal:
My single favorite meal for mass is simple: macaroni (preferably durum
whole wheat), water-packed canned tuna, and fat-free turkey/bean chili.
Use a little skim milk instead of butter with the macaroni (also only 1/3 of the orange flavor powder) and bulk prepare that in advance.
Mix the macaroni with a can of tuna and as much chili as you like,
microwave it for one minute on high, and have it for breakfast in a
bowl. It actually tastes fantastic. I sometimes had that meal 2-or-3
times per day, as prep time was less than 3 minutes if you prepped the
macaroni two times per week in volume.
Breakfast:
Most people fail because they work out too often and eat too little, usually due to skipping breakfast. Never skip this first meal, as you've already been fasting for 6-12 hours.
Breakfast:
Post-Workout Drink:
Last but not least, consume a high-glycemic post-workout drink, usually
sold at the gym (or just prepurchase Mass Recovery), within 30 minutes
of working out, when glucose transporters like GLUT4 are temporarily
brought to the muscle cell surface. I actually mix Mass Recover with
water in a 50/50 ratio and sip from the bottle between sets, polishing
off the remaining 50% of the Mass Recovery immediately after the
workout.
Additional Training Data
For exercise sequence, I recommend doing one or two exercises (upper
body) to prep the nervous system, then move to legs. If you want an
alternative to whole-body session, I have also experimented successfully
with a 3-workout split:
- Pushing movements
- Pulling movements
- Legs
If you are unconditioned or deconditioned (atrophied), take one day
between workouts (e.g., PUSH, one day off, PULL, one day off, LEGS, one
day off, ad-nauseum) for the first two weeks, two days between workouts
for the next three weeks, then move to three days between workouts.
My favorite movements for pure mass using this split are below. Don't
forget at least 3-5 minutes between exercises and just one set to
concentric failure for each exercise:
Push:
Pull:
Legs:
To minimize leg soreness, do about 5 minutes of light stationary biking after finishing the legs workout.
Click Image To Enlarge.
Timothy Ferriss.
About The Author:
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Click Here For A Printable Log Of Push Workout.
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