Gain 31 Pounds Before Football Training Camp Part 2

I posted Part of 1 of this installment last week where Elliott talks about the mindset needed to succeed, so here's Part 2 where he gets into the nitty gritty of just how you should be eating to pack on size like never before!

By: Elliott Hulse, CSCS
Gridiron Strongman Program

“Eat Iron & Lift Food”

On this program you’ve got to eat. If you are skinny and weak, you need to eat a ton of food. And don’t just tell me that you “eat a lot”, I get this answer from a lot of kids and when I take one look at what they really consume it turns out to be nothing more than a few slices of Elio’s Pizza and some cereal all day long. If you plan on skipping this section because you think:

you already eat enough and eat well
you don’t have time to eat…
Pack it up right now and just forget the whole thing, because you are fooling yourself and you will never reach your potential no matter what program you use. You’ve got to eat more food, plain and simple.

Even you fat kids. You’re not only eating crappy food, you too are not eating enough or as frequently as you need to. An example of a typical fat kids diet would look like this:

Breakfast: Cheerios & Skim Milk

Lunch: Taco Bell’s Grande Cheesy Chalupa (hold the sour cream)

Snack: A Lean Hot Pocket & Diet Soda

Dinner: Spaghetti O’s with Hot Dog Pieces, Purple Kool Aid & Cookies

From the meal plan above it would seem like this kid would be skinny because he barely eats all day, but the truth is that he is fat - because he his malnourished. I don’t have time now to go into the reasons why eating too few empty calories per day makes you fat, but trust me… if this kid ate even 2,000 more calories per day, on my program he would not only get build massive muscles he will lose fat. When you eat more food your body also responds by releasing greater amounts of growth hormone and testosterone, yet another form of natural steroids.

Chances are that you or your athletes are either skinny and weak or plain old fat. And that’s why I thought it was important to write this section. Also, many athletes today are severely injury prone. This has to do with the fact that their bones, joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles are literally made up of Twizzlers and Coca Cola.

You become what you eat. Every cell in your body has to me made of something, right? Well every 30-90 days billions of cells are replaced with new ones and they are made up of the foods that you have been eating. So if you’ve been eating chips and soda then guess what your ACL is made of. Look at it this way, if you lifting weights and expect to get stronger, and the building blocks for that muscle is garbage food, how strong can you expect to become?

Eat more, and eat higher quality foods. In fact, just eat food! This may sound strange but most of what you eat is not even considered food. What the heck is a Hot Pocket anyway, and if you tell me meat and bread then I urge you to read the labels. This is NOT food. In my opinion if it wasn’t here 10,000 years ago then it isn’t food. Chicken, rice, spinach all comes from the earth. Even hamburgers, peanut butter and milk can all be traced back to something that was here 10,000 years ago.

Also, don’t be fooled by the term all-natural. Monkey balls and dog feces are all-natural but I wouldn’t eat them if I wanted to get stronger.

“OK Elliott, so what the heck should I do?”

Here is a sort list of my favorite nutrition principles as they relate to getting jacked and strong for football.

#1 Eat Like A Man

Dr. Weston A Price was a dentist in the late 1930’s who has documented the most comprehensive study ever, of the primitive man and his diet / lifestyle in his groundbreaking book Nutrition & Physical Degeneration. In this documentary he recounts the nutrition and lifestyle habits of several “uncivilized” tribes in order to uncover the means for their extraordinary strength and health. Among the 14 different tribes he observed were:

The North American Indians

The Native American’s lived for thousands of years completely isolated from “The White Man”. These folks have adapted to their given environments and have learned how to live WITH the land, not just on it.

They ate meat, meat and meat with some meat on the side. Every part of the animal was eaten. Of greatest importance were the organs of the animals that they ate. These wise people knew that it was in the organs that all of the potent nutrition resided… not in the lean meat. In fact if the meat wasn’t fatty enough it was fed to the dogs!

Think about that the next time some puppet tells you to eat only lean meats and chicken breast and fish.

I make this point only to bring to your attention the blatend disconnect between what is commonly called ‘good nutrition’ and what man is meant to thrive on. When choosing foods, always make choices that most closely resemble what primitive man would eat (and I don’t mean Fruity Pebbles).

#2 High Octane Fuel

The quality of what you eat is just as important and how much you eat.

Remember, ‘You Are What You Eat’… from the moment that you put something into your mouth your body begins using it to create new cells somewhere in your system. Are you going to be made of Cheese-Its and Pop-Rocks or are you going to be made of a robust free-range, organic turkey and unprocessed milk?

The Choice is ALWAYS yours! Here is a short list of pointers to consider with regards to food quality:

1. Eat Whole Food - the soil that organic food is grown in is much more nutritious than that of conventionally raised crops. If the nutrients aren’t in the soil, they can’t get into the plant. If the nutrients are not present in the plants, they will not be present in you when you eat it… its as simple as that.

2. Avoid Processed Food - I am appalled at what people think is food these days! Just look at some of the garbage that we are feeding our children… what this heck is hotdog anyway? Nothing on the labels of any of these foods even resembles a food. I guarantee that over half of the “stuff” on the ingredient labels, you can’t even pronounce! It looks more like a label for nail polish remover than a food. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it!


#3 The Mighty Calorie

The calorie has gotten such a bad reputation lately, and it’s a shame. “Low Calorie” this… “Low Calorie” that… “Cut Calories”… blah, blah, blah! But in my program, the Mighty Calorie has made a comeback! We eat tons of this stuff and it makes my football players super strong, jacked and fast. In fact with my incredible “High Calorie Breakthrough” kids gain as much as 10 pounds in the first 2 weeks at my gym. (while at the same time improving relative body strength)

The Groundbreaking, Earth Shattering, Never-Has-Been-Seen-Before, Super Brand New formula that I use to calculate calories for my athletes!

Total Daily Calories for getting jacked for football:

Bodyweight X 20 (18 if you’re a little chubby) =
Total Daily Calories
(Total Calories / number of meals per day or 6) = Calories Per Meal
Next, we need to calculate your nutrient breakdown. This mass building diet will consist of 30% protein, 40% carbs and 30% fat.

First, we calculate your total amount of protein in calories. Simply multiply 2,430 (total calorie intake) by .30 (30%). This gives us 729 total daily calories of protein. Next we need to determine how many grams of protein these 729 calories should contain. Since protein is 4 calories per gram, we just divide 729 by 4. This gives us 182g. Now we know we need to eat 182 grams of protein each day. To find out how much we eat at each meal, just divide that by the number of meals or 6. This gives us 30 grams. So, to get 30% of my total calories from protein, I have to eat about 30g at each meal.

To get the total calories for fats and carbs we follow the formulas below:

Carbs

Total daily carb intake in calories: (2,430 x .40) = 972 calories
Total daily carb intake in grams: (972 / 4) = 243 grams
Amount of carbs needed at each meal: (243 / 6) = 41 grams
Fat

Total daily fat intake in calories: (2,430 x .30) = 729 calories
Total daily fat intake in grams: ( 729 / 9) = 81 grams
Amount of fat needed at each meal: (81 / 6) = 14 grams
So, at each meal we will eat roughly 30g protein, 41g carbs and 14g of fat. Remember this is just an overview to help you understand how to spread your calories through the day. Also, I provide actual meal plan breakdowns that you can follow to the letter without all of the mind-boggling calculations in my Football Strength System.

Stay tuned for part 3 of this series: Lift, Jump, Drag and Win!

Elliott Hulse, CSCS
Author, Gridiron Strongman Program

About the Author

Learn about the "Top 10 Gym Exercises For Explosive Speed" in the free report from Elliott Hulse at Gridiron Strongman Program Elliott is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist who trains football players to get bigger, stronger and faster at his gym in St. Petersburg, Florida. His Football Strength System has helped hundreds of football players, coaches and parents prepare for game winning football seasons. For more information on the Football Strength Systems that will help you gain serious mass, strength and speed visit Gridiron Strongman Program