One of the most controversial topics talked about in health and fitness is the debate between being natural and on steroids. The thing i don’t think a lot of lifters know tho is that if you are natural you can not train like the people that are on something. Being natural requires a certain knowledge base to get the best out of your training sessions. I’ve been natural all my life and chances are i will continue to stay natural. Let me also say that i have no problem with people who do choose to take steroids. It’s all a personal choice. Just know whatever route you choose there is always some general guidelines that can help you. Today i am going to discuss 5 rules that all natural lifters should follow to get the best out of their program.
Why So Confusing?
Being a natural lifter can sometimes be pretty confusing. Should you train bodypart split or should you train upper lower or total body? Does a natural lifter need more protein? Does a natural lifter need as many calories? There is so much confusion about how to train naturally that it probably makes you sometimes consider going the geared route. Don’t worry tho. Follow these simple rules and you will be on your way to natural gain central!
5 Rules All Natural Lifters Should Follow
Train Each Muscle 2-3 times a week
Being natural means that the typical bro split of mon-chest, tuesday legs, and so on will not be optimal for long term gains. Beginners can start on this as it’s a great way to get your feet wet in general training and progressive overload but you will need to eventually up your frequency of each muscle group and the best way to do that is train in a upper lower fashion and for some people total body sessions also work well. When you are on steroids it allows muscle protein synthesis to be carried out for several days after a session. Which is why the majority of geared lifters will use a bro split as it allows them to hammer one body part and then have a whole week of recovery for it to grow.. The problem with natural lifters following this is that once we train a muscle it only takes around 48 hours for their levels of MPS to be back to baseline meaning that if we don’t train that muscle for a whole week we are missing out on serious potential for more growth. I used to train with a bro split for a long time before switching to an upper lower approach and the year i switched to an upper lower split (very similar design to my SHDUPA program) my body completely changed. I got bigger all over. Stronger in all my lifts, and just a better more experienced all around lifter. At first you may be a little lost on how to train an upper lower split so feel free to use my quick start guide as a reference as i have several great splits on that page for your choosing.
Eat In A Small Surplus For At Least 3 Years Straight
Now if you're used to staying really lean year round then you probably won’t like this one but trust me. This one i really recommend for most natural lifters. The only exception are those that are over 15% bodyfat. If you're above that i recommend getting down to about 12%- bodyfat and then you can get into a surplus.
Why is it that most lifters you see in the gym tend to look pretty much the same year after year? It’s because these people are afraid to put on a little bit of fat and just eat in a surplus for a while. Being a natural lifter we don’t have all the crazy high hormone levels that geared lifters have and for that reason it is a lot harder for natural lifters to gain muscle. Being natural means that in order to make some significant gains i recommend getting into a small surplus about 16-18 calories per pound of bodyweight and stay at that for 3 years straight! It will be hard if you're used to cutting in the summer months trust me but if you can stick it out the reward can’t be matched After those 3 years you will be amazed with how much stronger and bigger you are. After that 3 years then you can cut down and see all the work you have done! Don’t use this 3 years as an excuse just to get fat though. Eat appropriate for your training goals. If your bodyfat does get out of hand and i'm talking more than 17% then you have my permission to dial things back a bit, but trust the process, you will be glad you did in 3 years.
I Did this 4 years ago and here is what i accomplished.
Starting
- 130lbs
- 8% Bodyfat
LEAN BODY MASS: 119.6 LBS
3 years later
- 155lbs
- 11% Bodyfat
LEAN BODY MASS: 138 LBS
That is 18.4lbs of lean muscle gained in 3 years!!!
That does not seem like a lot but for a natural lifter that is great progress!
Don’t Always Train To Failure
Look at most geared lifters and you will see them almost always taking a muscle to failure within drop sets, strip sets, run the rack sets - you name it. Being natural you simply can’t tolerate that type of training and expect to actually grow. Being natural you will not recover no where near as well so our training approach must be different as well. Personally i recommend no more than 20% of your total training for the week be taken to failure. That breaks down to maybe a couple days taking a couple exercises to failure that's it! This was a big one for me. After i stopped training to failure all the time it was shocked how much more muscle i put on. It makes sense too if you think about it. When taking things to failure you are really breaking down muscle tissue, so if you are training to failure more often than not then how on earth can you expect to build and recover from your training? Also not always training to failure means that you are able to rack up more training volume which is the number one thing that relates to hypertrophy. I understand it’s fun to take things to failure, i get that completely. So don’t be afraid of using some failure methods as i know we all like training like Arnold just don’t abuse it. Failure is a tool, use that tool when the need arises.
Train Legs 2 Times A Week!
“But Shawn if i train legs two times a week i won’t recover. Also i don’t want to train legs twice a week..”
I just don’t understand people that say this. Believe it or not the more often you train a muscle the less sore it will become. If you go from squatting once a week to 2 times a week you will be sore at first but then you will adapt. I also don’t understand why so many people mainly men don’t like training legs. LEGS ARE THE BIGGEST AND MOST POWERFUL MUSCLES IN THE BODY! Along with that being a natural lifter means that you need to do everything in your power to maximize your testosterone levels. More testosterone always equals a better all around physique every time. Training legs also causes a huge testosterone rise following the workout as well which is great if you want to get strong and jacked. Many people don’t believe this but if your legs are stronger and bigger than other muscles will get bigger as well to create balance in the body. I noticed this greatly when i started powerlifting 5 years ago. When i used to be able to squat and deadlift 2-3 times a week my arms and back also increased greatly in size and i also just appeared more muscle dense. It will take time to get used to training legs 2 times a week but that will build serious muscle and more important it will build character and discipline. Both of which you can use to better your life inside and outside of the gym.
Benefits of 2 leg days a week
- Higher testosterone rises in the week
- Higher libido
- More muscle protein synthesis
- Higher weekly calorie expenditure
- Stronger back and core
AND SO MUCH MORE
TRAIN YOUR LEGS!
Get Enough Recovery
The last thing i want to talk about today i recovery. Like i stated above being natural means you have to put a lot more focus into recovery because you don’t have the extra hormones helping you out. For that reason we need to talk about rest days. Being natural means that you probably should not train 6-7 days a week. Training too often will simply not allow your body to recover and get stronger. Like i talked about 2 weeks ago in my blog about rest days and how to go about incorporating them into your program. Rest days need to be taken seriously and for that reason most natural lifters should lift in a 4-5 day rotation. With 2-3 rest days depending on the rest of your lifestyle out of the gym.
Nothing Wrong With Being Natural
You might think that being natural you will never get as big and strong as you want but you would be surprised at how far you can get with just staying natural and training properly. Now will you ever be able to be 200lbs and 7% bodyfat? probably not. but that does not mean you can’t get to 185lbs and 8% bodyfat. Focus on these rules in and out of the gym and you will make the most gains you have ever made since starting on this path, i guarantee it.
To recap;
- Up your frequency and switch to a 4-5 day split training everything at least 2 times a week
- Eat in a small surplus for 3 years and watch the gains appear
- Don’t always train to failure, use when appropriate but don’t abuse it
- Train Legs 2 times a week to maximize natural testosterone and build size, character, and discipline all around
- Take recovery seriously
Till next week guys,
Stay Strong
Shawn Fausey
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