After holding off for nearly two years, I’m posting this because too many people have asked for it. The lasses should read it, too, as the same principles can be applied to bodyfat loss.
I weighed 152 lbs. for four years of high school, and after training in tango in Buenos Aires in 2005, that had withered to 146 lbs. Upon returning to the US, I performed 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 lbs. of muscle, while losing 3 lbs. of fat, in 28 days.
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, and I had blood tests taken on September 30 and October 20. Though this ridiculous experiment might seem unhealthy, I also dropped my total cholesterol count from 222 to 147 without the use of statins. 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 4 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 (Ass at widest)- 34″ to 38.23″
Here are the six basic principles that made it happen:
1. Follow Arthur Jones’ general recommendations for one-set-to-failure from the little-known Colorado Experiment, but with lower frequency (maximum of twice per week) and with at least 3 minutes between exercises.
2. Perform every repetition with a 5/5 cadence (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) to eliminate momentum and ensure constant load.
3. Focus on no more than 4-7 multi-joint exercises (leg press, trap bar deadlift, overhead press, Yates bent row, dips, incline machine benchpress, etc.) and exercise your entire body each workout to elicit a maximal hormonal (testosterone, growth hormone + IGF-1) response.
4. 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 downregulation.
5. 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 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.
Once again, questioning assumptions leads to the conclusion: less is more. Detox from TV twice a week and put in your 4 hours a month!
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If you enjoyed this post, check out my latest book, The 4-Hour Body, #1 New York Times and #1 Amazon bestseller. You will learn: How to lose 20 pounds in 30 days (without exercise), how to triple your testosterone, techniques for producing 15-minute female orgasms, and more.
You can also pick up the Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek, which includes more than 50 new case studies of luxury lifestyle design, business building, reducing hours 80%+, and world travel.
Related and Recommended Posts:
Tim Ferriss interviewed by Derek Sivers
Tim Ferriss articles on Huffington Post
Tim Ferriss interview – common questions on lifestyle design and productivity
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I'm always intrigued by these personal experiments and enjoy that you share them with us all.
Well, there goes all that I've ever learned about diets and bodybuilding. If you can achieve this in four weeks then, my 4 years in the gym must have been a waste. I guess the only way to see if this is really true is to try it for myself and compare results
Hmmm. I guess the only way to find out if this is possible is to actually try it and see what happens. I wonder how many people who posted here dismissing it haven't even tried it. Why is this such a strange concept to people? The only way I'll know if it works, is to see if it works.
Hey have a question for anyone who knows about the supplements required of this regimen. So right now I am day 2 into my 'Geek to freak' experiment. I have all the supplements listed and am using them as Tim did, EXCEPT that the N.O. Explode I bought. I bought the decaf version (since caffeine has been shown in some studies to reduce the effects of creatine.) My question is, aside from normal creatine cycling, should I be not taking some of these supplements on certain days? I just don't want to overdo anything or want my body to adjust to them so they become less effective. So what's the deal? In the book Tim says that ALA should only be taken 6 days a week for 6 weeks I believe but what about Chrome Mate or a Decaf N.O. Explode. Please help we out with this!
Don't bother with the N.O. Xplode, it's a waste of money. See http://baye.com/no-supplements-no-way/ "At present, there is no research published in peer-reviewed journals to support the assertion that an increase in nitric oxide levels promotes greater muscle protein synthesis or improves muscle strength. There is also no evidence that the arginine alpha-ketoglutarate in “nitric oxide” supplements have any effect on nitric oxide levels in muscles."
Hi Tim, I read the additional explanation of your High Intensity Training, where is said, how to REALLY perform one set to muscular failure. Unfortunately I can´t find it anymore… Could you please send me the link! Thanks, and best regards Holger
Good shit man, I really like doing principle 2. Good ways to mix it up in the gym.
Will sex affect weight gain? did you during the 4 weeks of training have sex? I really need to know cuz i have a girlfriend and its really hard to resist. I havnt gained weight could it be the sex?
Tim, really interesting. I'll have to study out your regimen. Any joint issues with that rate of growth?
this is the H I T S system. it does WORK. i have researched this. you can find on the web, look up hits training system, it has produced world winning body builders. like anything in life YOU HAVE TO DO IT TO GET RESULTS, but you will get bigger faster when done RIGHT!!! you are exercising the larger muscel groups, and pushing your body to grow!!! read it on the web, then do it, JUST FOLLOW THE PLAN and it will work your friend ed GOD BLESS
Hi Tim Very interesting book I like the 6-pack exercises because you need no machines and you can do without the Swiss ball when you happen not to have it with you. It is very convenient when you have an agenda that prevents you to go to the gym as frequently as needed, plus you can practice anywhere even while traveling. For people not being total geeks, whose objective is not to become a freak but just gain reasonably more muscle, would you suggest a set of exercises in the same spirit (multi-joint exercises, elicit a maximal hormonal response, …) even if less efficient yet with the constraint of using no machine nor tool (except anything you could have in your luggage) ?
Hello there readers. I was just wondering If one could do traditional weight lifting technicquesw instead of using machines. I mean why not use squats, regular deadlifts, pull ups (or as a replacement the pull down machine), bench presses, a complete core routine, the dips, and the yates bent row, and in aditttion overhead/military presses. For what I personally believe, this could be the exercises that hit the most multy-joint movements used in everyday life. Of coarse, the arte other things I like to use to emphasise a few part like the curls and exercises that hit the triceps as well as bent foward rear delt flies to get the real delts good. A total of 11 exercises that I believe will suit me the most due to my current out of shape physique. And of course add in the running, nutyrriton and proper rest. Anyway will doing this 11 exercises, training the whole body, 3 times a week, get me results in the long run. By the way I am aware that exercises have ev olve in order to keep the body challenged and make more gains both in strenght and in cardiovascular capacity
This was a very interesting article may I mention. Thanks for all the insight.. I need all I can get being skinny and all…lol.. My weight as of today is 126 and it seems like it never goes up… no matter what i eat… it may go down a couple but never up…. I wonder is it because i don't eat those mom meals like i use to??? Meaning like those morning noon and dinner meals… I look at my high school pics and see weight on my face and all over… now its skinny athletic and im in my early thirties now… I feel great but just don't know if its a healthy weight for my age… my guess is "no"…Thats why im glad to find sites like these to help me on my weight gain journey…I also heard ensure is a great supplement for gaining… Im in the mist of trying that now
Did you measure your becepts while they were on a "pump" both before and after? Or did you just have a "pump" just when you measured them after?
Thank you for sharing this info sir. It's great learning that
You shaved your torso!!! LOL!!! Thanks for the advice. I bought your book and I have been ding this for a month and a half, I gained 32lb of pure muscle.
Hey Tim, Really thank you for the tips on repetitions and protein intake! I've been adding that to my workout regiment and I've gained 3 extra pounds 🙂 I've also used some tips and techniques from www.weightgainformen.org. With these tips I've gained an extra 11lbs of muscle and I couldn't be happier! Thank you Tim and I will be purchasing the 4-hour Body and I will let you know about my progress 🙂
This is classic good cop,bad cop scenario,here in comments!
The best thing I've picked up from this (and what was found in the four hour body) is the slower rep cadence. While I believe in faster reps for developing power, I've found incorporating the slower rep cadence allowed me to push past some plateaus I had reached. The best results I've seen have come from warming up with explosive movements (high jumps, explosive pushups or pullups), a few heavy sets done explosively (not to failure) for 1-3 reps, and then backing off to a 3-5 second rep cadence set done to failure in 6-10 reps.
I used to be really skinny and I struggled for years to gain weight and no matter how much I ate I couldn't figure out what was going wrong? after much frustration and lots of research I realized I simply wasn't eating enough since I wasn't counting my macros and I was totally eating the wrong foods. I read an article online and followed it's guide step-by-step and I have not turned back since. Results were excellent I went from 120lbs all the way to 170 while maintaining 8-14% bodyfat. Never Give Up!
I'm doing to the F to G exercises and eating a good amount of protein every day but I am not sticking to the low carb diet very well and I don't want to. Tim, If I continue to do the exercises exactly the way you show it with the 5 second cadence to failure, should I still see some results anyway, even though I eat some carbs throughout the day?
Hi Tim, After a month of slow-carbing and Occam's Protocol exercises minus the supplements, I've gone from 68 kgs to 60 kgs in exactly a month. After the binge days, I gain 2 kgs. Every time. Still, I find the amount of weight I'm losing frightening and and if I go down to the 50's I'm going back to adding carbs to my diet on regular non-cheat days. Don't get me wrong, I can finally see my abs (cat vomit and planking works like a charm), but I feel I'm going to disappear soon!! How can I tweak the Slow-Carb Diet if I just want to be a larger fellow and not wither away? Could I just add carbs for breakfast and not have them for lunch/dinner? Or maybe have two cheat days? Would that make sense? Hope you, or someone else can answer my post. All my best and thank you for your insightful books! Huge fan! Fernando
Quick question, what if instead of dividing one day for bench, one day for squats and one for day for deadlift/barbell rows. How about doing all those exercises on the same day three times a week. What would be the dangers?
Does anyone know how many rest days Tim had between lifts during this Geek to Freak experiment? Was it the same as the rest days he described in occams protocal? thanks – jack
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
This is a scam. It is physiologically impossible to gain more than 1 lb of muscle a week. If this was real, body builders that put years into body building would be much bigger with the 1000s of hours they put in to the gym professionally.
I think this article fits newbies
plz tel me how to gain muscle in a good way
Tim — what are your thoughts on recent trends on Carb Backloading? Have noticed a significant increase in muscle mass and energy without any fat gain following this method for the past 4 weeks.
I believe you. Your body is perfect.
Ridiculous. This is a fairly active, young man. I've seen a million of these so-called advice columns and youtube videos on weight loss and muscle gain. When one of you can consistently take non-active women, who are between the ages of 40 – 60, who have at least 40 plus pounds of extra body weight for their size and help them lose the weight without drugs and keep it off – then I might believe you. As long as you use a younger, healthy, active male as the example, your system is bunk. Men can lose weight the moment they cut out junk food and start to move around.
Very interesting and inspirational. I like the post and I always follow this tip: "Focus on no more than 4-7 multi-joint exercises"
Thank-you for sharing your knowledge with us; you are an inspiration. I love your well researched tips on eating.
How many reps per exercise were you completing?
This blog has been up a long while, but as I have read through it contemplating wether to try this experiment or not many others may still, so some of you might find this interesting. I commenced this experiment after 2 weeks off doing nothing over Christmas and had gone from 88kg pre-Christmas to 91kg post (Probably important to note here I fit in the Endomorph category and gain weight easily). I basically stuck to a low carb diet during this with increased portions and some added carbs. The only nutrition in addition to this was a simple protein powder which I only consumed for the second month (half before/half post workouts). Also I had done no heavy weight based exercises in over a year due to a shoulder injury. I used the Machine workouts A & B but using smith machines mostly and after the first session added chrunches+prone holds to Workout B and Kettlebell Swings to Workout A. My overall result after 2 Months (7 Complete sessions of both workouts) is Weight from 91kg&17.7%BF to 94kg&18%BF, about 2kg gain in lean body mass, 3cm increase arms, 7cm increase legs, 2cm decrease on waist. Strength wise the increase from start weight (70% of Max) was: Sholders=35kg>55kg, Back=60kg>85kg, Chest=45kg>75kg, Legs=110kg>190kg!! (go-go gadget legs). Did I experience the same level of gains ? No. but honestly Tim’s results are freakishly good! Was it a waste of time ? No. Overall considering the time I put in v’s results I got out I think it was a successful experiment, I expect that if I continued longer I would see more gains (Have to change to more speed based training for sport) Would I recommend it to a friend ? Yes. Especially trying to get someone started for the first time or back into it after time off like I had as it is simple, time efficient and effective in muscle gain. Overall I would say give it a go, the more you can follow the timing and nutrition to the letter the better the results will be. I plan to use it in the future as a bulking routine (post breaks) and a precursor to high rep based routines.
Great Read alot of good tips. looked like you were in pretty good shape before also.
Awesome tips and goes to show what can be achieved with focus and determination combined with Science. Employing the mind by adding some visualisation would also add further icing to the cake.
Interesting experience. It seems a little bit complicated to follow but very inspiring.
I'm always amazed by the things you come up with! Very interesting that the body responds in this way… I'm sure you've shocked fitness trainer everywhere!
Tim, all the bashing aside, I really appreciate the discipline it takes to do something like you have. I've been considering starting to put on some muscle bulk, and you may have me at a tipping point. Really cool ideas, thanks!
Dude you guys have got to be kidding me. Are people really saying "This is the typical “I can’t do that so it must be a lie"'?! It's just NOT possible to gain that much muscle.
One of the best post on gaining mass !
Good article but there a few things which still need clarification
Bought the book, read the blog, searched the comments – one question remains before I try this experiment for a month: Is there a best/recommended method to determine starting weights for this program? There was the bit used for Occam's protocol, but that utilized multiple sets – is there a similar mechanism to better determine a good starting weight for a single set at a 5/5 cadence? Considering the infrequency of the training I'd hate to squander the first session or two. Thanks.
I can't find the Occums Protocol PDF anywhere on the site. Can you post a link please.
5 second cadence? Specific # of reps? Studies have proven slower movements do not result in greater effect. Specific rep numbers and sets? There is no magic # , each person is different. Try researching FACTS from scientific studies which aren't selling something. Bottom line, there is no substitute for desire, determination and dedication. As for this guy, so he got a little bigger and bloated and fatter. I wouldn't take advice from someone who increased their waist size over 4 inches in 4 weeks. I train and am a trainer. My last client took 1st place OVERALL. Its simple in concept but hard in execution. Stop looking for a workout secret and start actually working out!
Sorry I don't believe it. As an unnatural recreational lifter i know that 30 lbs can take me as long as 8-10 weeks. 30 lbs naturally would be about 6-10 months or even more. There is no shortcut to dedication and hard work. Its just mainstream media contributing to the number of fat Americans. Gaining and keeping muscle natural or unnatural requires a lot of time and perseverance. There's nothing easy about it. I dont doubt that this man gained 30 lbs but to flaunt that he did it in 4 weeks is ludicrous. Don't give in to these claims guys. These types of body transformations are undoubtedly achievable but TAKE TIME.
Muscle growth is one thing and the result are impressive but to say you went from a 40 short to a 44 reg in a suit is ridiculous unless your muscle gain also helped you grow several inches taller. I am a professional Tailor.
Ok check it.. I agree with most of the comments on this post for one reason only… THERE'S SOMETHING FOR SALE!! If this was just a forum I may have believed this guy put on 30+ lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks lmao… Reminds me of all the guys in the gym walking around thinking they're fooling everybody, as if its not noticeable they're on steroids… And this has nothing to do with hating on anyone, it's about reality.. Although everyone is different, there are just some things that are physically IMPOSSIBLE.. I am a certified nutritionist and trainer aside of the fact I've been weight training for over 10 years NATURALLY… I started at 135 lbs and am now 170 lbs.. Took me 10+ years to put on 35 lbs of lean muscle while keeping my abs all throughout the process. And for the ppl that may say its cause I don't push hard enough; you try doing 50 wide grip pull ups or 150 push ups. My favorite part is how he only worked out 4 hours a week aaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha this guy is a joke.. If you're reading this Tim Ferris, I challenge you to any physical activity of your choice! It's just frustrating watching ppl get scammed based on their insecurities.. Everybody wants the fast and easy way out but unfortunately with fitness t doesn't work that way.. You have to PUT IN WORK!! And TIME. PERIOD.
DAYUM! I wish the photos were equidistant. It's hard to compare them because they're taken from different vantage points.
I just had to read this post and boy…amazing results with the muscle gain! I just have to head over to Amazon and check the The 4-Hour Body book.
If anyone doubts the gains of muscle and loss of fat in 4-6 weeks, read up on Dr. Darden (Arthur Jones disciple). Plenty of his work have shown these type of gains. I've only done this type of workout for years and most guys say the same thing that's in these comments, there's no way only 2-3 workouts a week @ 30mins can get you results. Funny part is, why would I (or anyone else) lie about this? It would be one thing to lie about your total gains, but even if Tim gained half of what he said, that's still 15-20 lbs of muscle. Lastly, why do most guys think they need 5 workouts a week and 1.5 hour in the gym? Because they've read that's what bodybuilder XXX did, so it must work. The average guy will see much greater gains by higher internsity/lower volume workouts. Please just don't call BS unless you've given the Arthur Jones/Dr Darden/Mike Mentzer plans a chance.
I have found the 5 second UP and then 5 seconds down reps (10 second reps!) to be probably the most powerful aspect of this style of workout. Eating exactly 1.5 hours BEFORE and then again 0.5 hours after the workout is probably just as important, I do it because Tim 'says so' and because I am seeing good results, there is no reason to stop ! thanks Tim.
I will take these tips and advice and work them into my workouts and eating plan Thanks!
Short-term results are easy, it's maintaining them that's the trick/ You don't want just some nice pics to show people and say "that was me!" You're better off photoshopping.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
I don't see why people think this is impossible to achieve. It's really not that hard. And there isn't much of a trick to it either. Work each muscle group once a week. Find out how many calories your body needs to survive in a day then add on calories for activity level. so if you need 2500 calories to do normal functions and your cardio and weight lifting burn another 500 then you need to add another 500 calories per day to allow for growth and recovery. If you've been going at it for a month and you don't see any gains then add another few hundred calories until you find how many you need. If you want to lose fat then do the opposite. Find how much food you need to live and subtract some more calories to be in a deficit every day. If you don't see results then you need to eat even less. And btw ALWAYS eat healthy obviously. I'm not gonna get into health food tips. What bothers me is that this guy does the whole get fit quick bs. It's corrosive to people. Get that mentality out of your heads guys. Achieving your goals is a lifestyle change. What this guy did for himself was great and good for him, but please make life changes and stick with it. Learn how your body works and you can do whatever (humanly possible) you want with it.
This gives me hope.
The book encourages readers to be skeptical. Congratulations most of you. The book then encourages you to experiment. Most of you are failing there, congratulations ¬.¬ Measure yourself. Try the program. Measure yourself again. Post results. You don't do this, then you deserve nothing.
thank u thats is really encouraging
Impressive gains.
Nice job, Tim. Really slick marketing! 😉
This is not possible, even with steroids and growth hormones.
A doubt i have from reading the book 4HB. You say "I chose to exercise my entire body each workout to elicit a heightened hormonal response (testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1, etc.)." This confused me, with the calendar for workout A and B in Occam Protocol. To the sum of 4 hours, did you exercise the entire body every workout (with 2 days rest between, and later 3) or did you go once every 4 days to the gym? Is there a workout A and B like occams protocol for the "geek-to-freak"? Thanks!
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what you eat
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Tim, you are leading people to beleive that you went from 146 pounds and gained 34 pounds of muscle but that is not what you did is it. You say you went from 152 in highschool and withered to 146 in 2005 like you were always that weight. You are forgetting (or on purpose not) mentioning that you graduated around highschool around 1995 and even won the 165 lb. weight class at the 1999 USAWKF national Sanshou (Chinese kickboxing) championship. Plus from what I have read you were already a lean 185 lbs some time in the early 2000s. So you in fact did not build 34 lbs of muscle at all. You in fact didn't build any new muscle you only rebuilt old muscle which is easy compared to building muscle. Also you reference the colorado experiment which was two indaviduals who were regaining lost muscle and admitted to using steriods, rummors are they also admitted to spending many hours in their local gyms after their colorado experiment workouts as well. I am not saying that the work out can't be a good work out but what you are doing is like selling a pontiac fiero with a body kit and telling everybody it is a Lambo.
Nobody likes obesity… When You raise your metabolism you lose weight… A good tip is to watch what you eat… Having less fat on your body will allow your organs and bodily functions to perform better…
The truth shalt make you thinner… The key is to burn more fat than you are taking in… People feel better (not bloated) when they eat less… Sit on the couch all day you get fat… 🙂
The key to building muscle fast is to completely exhaust your muscles. You should only finish a set when you absolutely can not do another rep and can't hold the weight. If you stop and suddenly realize, "I could have done another rep" or "I feel good", you cheated yourself – the end of a set should never feel good. You only build muscle during the last few reps when you are really pushing your limits. Before that, all you are doing is tiring your muscles out in preparation for your new gains. This is where a lot of people fail. [Moderator: Link removed]
I suspect many of the skeptics have never competed in bodybuilding or athletic events requiring extreme manipulation of bodyweight or they would understand how it is possible to make these kinds of gains in bodyweight in such a short period of time. While it may be impossible to increase pure muscular bodyweight (dry protein) by anywhere near this much in this time, since muscle is largely water and glycogen it is not only possible but not difficult to increase muscular size, including these, by this amount in this time. I screwed up my timing with carb loading for a bodybuilding competition (see my photos in the ab section of The Four Hour Body) and ended up gaining ten pounds of muscular size due to increased glycogen and water in the week following the competition. Had I restricted myself further prior to the competition and intentionally loaded up heavily after, this could have been increased further. Read Tim's other articles on manipulating bodyweight and you'll have a better understanding of how this was accomplished, and how to use the mechanisms to maintain relatively "full" looking muscles while losing fat.
Had you ever had previous muscle hypertrophy experience? Did you continue training? & what were your follow up results.
This is IMPOSSIBLE! i agree with all the people who wrote on here saying it is impossible. Just look at the actual science of it all tho! do some research from propper sources, the time it takes for your muscles to repair themselves after a workout is quite a long time, but not so long that you have to workout twice a week! he could workout probably double what he did. plus, you can not gain that much weight in muscle mass from only working out 4 hours in 4 weeks. the micro tears in the muscle have to be repaired with protein, and een if you are eating 140g-170g of protein each day thats going to repair the muscles but that more than enough for him, and ther will be protein to spare which will just be used as fat or peed out. this guy shud workout more. i do agree though that his workouts should be 30 mins long each, as any longer than that, you might risk muscle tissue breakdown for energy, so if your trying to build muscle youl be contradicting yourself, cos youl go in to a catabolic state and destroy muscle while you workout. so hea good to stay 30 mins to stay anabolic.
These tips are great but this is definitely not the same for anyone. People will react differently due to their genetic disposition. While Tim may have made it in 4 weeks others may not achieve the same results in two years. I highly recommend to watch Michael Mosleys BBC documentary "The truth about exercise". It is an eye-opener. Combined with his other documentary "Eat, Fast, Live longer" for me it was even more intriguing [Moderator: Links removed.] Enjoy!
Thank you very much for the info. Gain 10 pounds of muscle in just one month. While such results are aggressive and can’t continue at the same torrid rate indefinitely, I've seen firsthand individuals who has followed our mass-gaining programs and reached double digits in four short weeks, averaging gains of 2-3 pounds a week.
Hey Tim, I weigh 147lbs and my height is 5'8". My body fat is around 16%. For this particular program, how many calories, roughly, might I want to eat every day? 3700? 4500? 5000?
Hi Tim, Huge fan from the UK here, you once sent me some Merrell shoes as a competition winner! I love them! I had a query as I just finished reading the Body by Science book. This workout regime has some things in common with Body by Science and I just wondered how come you worked out twice per week rather than once per week? Is the shorter recovery time enough even after a full-body set-to-failure workout? Do you think it was the high food consumption that helped this? Ha, I feel like a interviewer asking you questions in a post-game review. Anyway, great work in all your endeavors and books. You've completely rewired my perception of the world in a very positive way 😀 Top Lad Mike
Hey Tim, I'm having a second go at this with a better diet and more protein based off of my bodyweight. The last time I did this I gained 8.5 lbs, but almost none of it was muscle. Maybe 1lbs… I was very discouraged. Is 1 set really better than 2 sets per say? I'm eager to do this again with 2 sets.
You lost all credibility with the last few claims
OK – this post was most intriguing to me as while I've known a lot of this info in snippets, Tim just put it together cohesively, and I'll be damned if the results don't speak for themselves. What I found most intriguing, and what I have been discovering in "my own" experiments, is his comment on reducing workouts and getting more REST. He is absolutely right here as muscles don't grow in the gym, the grow when you sleep and rest – recovery is key – great post, glad I found it!
I just bought the 4HB and I am looking forward to understand all the principles you are sharing there and apply them! I read the 4HWW and I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to create a better live for themselves! Thank you Tim!
Very impressive transformation Tim. You look great! In my opinion… it really takes dedication to setting goals for yourself on your ideal weight and how you want to look i.e – amount of muscles and where, then committing to doing the work necessary to making it happen. Nothing's a quick fix. Eating regularly, and properly combined with proper rest, and workouts are also key.
Wow. That's a amazing. I too have had that struggle of always being around the mid 150s. I still haven't been able to increase that but after reading this, you give me some hope.
Great way to be good looking
Awesome transformation, Tim. I don't quite understand all the hate and doubt here, people. Take a look around ya – there's plenty of evidence for the efficiency of high-intensity training. I myself gained quite a lot of weight last year with the basic protocol of 4HB just for the sake of experimenting. Originally though I gained something like 63lbs through Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength and Bill Starr's 5×5 programs. [Moderator: Link Removed] If i were to compare 4HB HIT protocol with 5×5 basic programs – I'd say you can gain equally massive amounts of muscle with both. The former takes less time from your life, unless workouts IS your life (=you enjoy them SOOOOMUCH) which in that case you'd probably enjoy the latter more.
i recommended this to my fiance who is over 60. should he be modifying it in any way? He is in relatively great shape but wants to bulk 🙂
Ivette, The program Tim writes about here would be appropriate and effective for a man of any age (assuming no health problems which would contraindicate any kind of strength training). I would recommend being very conservative with the repetition speed though, moving in a very controlled and deliberate manner and reversing direction as smoothly as possible. This will help to maintain more consistent tension on the target muscles while minimizing the risk of injury. Additionally, close attention should be paid to avoiding breath-holding, and maintaining a neutral head and neck position (looking straight ahead, chin slightly down). I have trained many older men using the same principles, up to 86 years old, and all have gotten stronger and more muscular (the 86 year old was able to drive a golf ball over 30 yards further after only a few months of training) without any adverse effects.
I hold a PhD in Physiology and an MD degree. Unless you were pushing anabolic steroids in such a short period of time, you could NOT have possibly gained 34 lbs of muscle and with only 4 hours of gym time. It is just metabolically impossible, in fact, you'd be a millioner by now. Only the ignorant would believe such a statement. In other words, you are not telling the full truth.
Following the hard science, it has been shown that gaining more than 2 lbs of lean mass per month is nearly impossible. New trainees are something of an exception, but even new trainees are only expected to gain about 20 lbs in their first and second years, then about half the value of each previous year after that (i.e 10 lbs in yr 3, 5 lbs in year 4, etc.). Considering I have used my own body as an experiment and inflated from 115lbs to 165lbs over the course of 2 years, I've seen that my own physiology has followed this trend. The diminishing returns have already begun, as I have seen my ability to gain slow down significantly in the last year. The body can only synthesize a small amount of protein in a given week, which is why it is so important to rest following your workouts and maximize the recover / repair phase of your training. I'm completely knocking your regiment, and I honestly think you don't look much bigger between your before and after picks. Shaving body hair and getting a tan are recommended ways to help enhance the definition and shape of your muscles — assuming you're fit. Beyond that as other comments have pointed out, you're also standing physically closer to the camera. All are well known tricks to help you "look bigger". It's basically a mirage.
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Hey! Need your advice real quick! I have to sign a contract with a model agency in like a month and need to get in shape (I'm skinny) and get rid of my acne on face. I stopped consuming milk products to prevent acne, but I baught some supplements like protein and creatine and I think the protein might be causing the acne, cause after a couple days of cutting milk it keeps popping up. Any ideas would be helpful. Cheers 😉
Tim, I've had great success with the slow carb diet (183.1 – 165.0 in exactly a month), and I now want to try from geek to freak. I can't really afford the No-Explode or the Body Quick as I'm a broke college student. I also accidentally bought Whey Protein instead of Casein. Will changing the supplement regimen like that negatively effect my results substantially? Thanks ~Ethan
That's really impressive! I love reading success stories like this. Keep it up!
I downloaded the Hitman manual. So should I do the whole weeks workouts in one day. And just repeat they workout twice a week?
I know of a friend who did this and he told me "Yeah dude it works! I got huge." I've also seen people on youtube tracking there gains from this which amazes me. The funny thing is, almost everybody I researched who gained muscle from this had little to no strength training or bodybuilding experience and they had slim and lean body's. It's no wonder they gained so much. These guys gained about 10 – 20 lbs of MUSCLE and even that is extraordinary for 1 month of training. In my opinion, this crazy experiment works, but not for everyone. I have 2 years of strength training experience, so when I tried this after calculating carbohydrate and protein needs, I might have gained about 1 or 2 lbs of muscle. I read this section of the book over and over and over again to make sure I was doing everything right. Unfortunately after 2 more attempts, I was still empty handed. We are all so different. I really think some people (like me) just need to do more "Arthur Jones" sets if they're doing everything else right and not building muscle.
Ok I got the Hitman program. So should I follow it to the T, or should I do more since your saying work the entire body every workout? Thanks.
For the guys who want to try this but aren't sure if it works, it seems that there are people who have had success with this. One being a friend of mine. In my opinion, it does work, but it really depends on a few important things like your experience level and the kind of training you have or haven't done before. here's my little theory, Tim mentioned that he gained lots of muscle mass like this in 4 different occasions in his lifetime BEFORE this experiment. Tim is the only person I've researched who has gained 34 lbs however. It's my theory that his body is probably very accustom to this kind of training so the reason why got so big was because of his muscle memory.
34 pounds? try 2. It's impossible to gain 34 pounds of muscle in a month, even on steroids. The average male has the genetic capability of building 40-50 pounds of muscle in his lifetime. To suggest that someone can reach 75% of their genetic potential in 4 weeks is ludicrous.
I have had very good results with a 3/5 cadence as negative resistance is very effective in growing muscle. I even have someone push down on the weight as I am lowing the weight to add even more resistance.
It was a great read.. and especially enjoyed the comments. You might have set some world records in regards to putting on muscle mass. 😉
Thanks for that tip but I take the N.O. Explode exclusively for it's creatine matrix. And even if the Arginine or Citruline or any other 'ine' ending amino acid in it doesn't effect muscle growth, it does give this non caffeine drinker a nice kick in the morning to get stuff going. Any insights into the things I was enquiring about?
Your girlfriend said to tell you no, because only a minute or two of additional physical activity a few times a week isn't going to burn that many calories or lead to overtraining.
If you must have sex, make sure it's brief, infrequent and performed with hight intensity ;-).
Tim's book answers all your questions, Jon. If you don't already have a copy it is the best investment you could make for understanding how to do a really efficient workout that gets top results quickly.
And how many people posting here claiming there were going to try it never came back to post about their wonderful results?
@Bill And no-one ever put on muscle by making negative posts. Try this thing yourself. And for the record, there is enough information here, for free, for anyone who's serious. Tim does't need the money, he got rich from his previous businesses and another bestselling book years ago.
you should look at his page about the slow carb diet it has worked for lots of women and he has before and after pictures on his site as well
MG, I've been training people for two decades now using similar workouts (brief, high intensity strength training workouts, twice weekly, no additional "cardio") and have worked with many middle aged and older women who were able to lose fat and keep it off without drugs doing this as long as they changed their diet.
Brad, in reality, Occam´s is sort of a "prelude" or "refined version" of Geek to Freak (both are one set only). For this reason, the method to determine starting weights is the same of Occam´s. Hope it help.
You don't have to believe it. But you're fooling yourself if you don't try it. I got 10 pounds in 5 weeks. Spent 15 minutes twice a week in the gym. Not 30 pounds, but I didn't need 30. And I'm maintaining it with 15 minutes in the gym once a week and a normal (healthy) diet. If however you like spending hours a week in the gym, that's a different style and you're welcome to it. I'm happy. Thank you Tim.
With a rep range between 50 – 150 it's not surprising you find it difficult to gain muscle ;). As usual it's a case of 'because i can't do it, it has to be impossible'. I experience similar muscle gains to tim when I first started weight training but over a three to four month period, using an abbreviated whole body routine 3 days a week, I realised later I would have gained faster if i have exercised far less, If only I had known it was impossible to gain at such a rate, fortunately I did not.. Of course you will refuse to believe this because it would mean you had misspent the best part of 10 years and you're not the 'expert' you think you are.
You obviously didn't read the book. Tim Ferriss does no calorie counting, and neither do the people currently on the Slow-Carb diet. Anyone has read the book will A) Have intiative and B) Know what to do with information. The way it works is you lose some weight via Slow-Carb and then when you are happy and don't want to lose any more, you cycle carbohydrates and dairy back into your diet. I've read 5 other 'diet' books after 4HB and none of the authors used science like Tim. It's not a diet book, it's information.
If you read the book fully you will see that, before he conducted this experiment, Tim's weight fluctuated a lot. He'd gone low. He'd gone high. I've read criticisms, but even when you take them into consideration this is still a good training program. It is quite possible to gain 10lbs of muscle in a month by using these principles, which is a lot. If you were to go over to Scoobysworkshop, he would have you believe that the average person can gain 1-2lbs a month. This program will give you at least 400% more muscle. *insert not bad obama meme* You do have to remember that Tim is an author, and he probably wanted to WOW his reader. Claiming that he gained 34 lbs is a good way to go around that. The only reason I read his book was because of the, what seemed impossible, claims on the cover. You shouldn't dismiss claims just because you think they're impossible. And if you're not willing to switch your normal workouts for 4 hours of gym time in a month, then you probably don't have much going on in your life…which is sad.
Before you say it doesn't work, try it yourself. Do it for a month and post your results. Glad you're skeptical, but put that skepticism to good use. Also, if one is consuming too much protein, the most likely course of action is gluconeogenesis. Familiar with that? Did that crop up in your science. Any way, gluconeogenesis is the process of turning protein into glucose, which is where the caloric value of protein comes from. If it just got stored as fat, then there wouldn't BE a caloric value because you would get no energy from it. I'm also just going to assume that you're on of these people that use online calculators to measure BMR, which can only be calculated by using a douglas bag for 48 hours or shoving yourself in a metabolic chamber.
Indeed, Tim stated in his book the 4 Hour Body that he has used this method to gain muscle many times…after he lost it. The claim that one will gain 34lbs of muscle is a bit too much, but 10lbs? 15lbs? That's a realistic goal. 10lbs a month. 120lbs a year. Id' be almost twice my size if I did this, which I will soon enough.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz2fwb_the-truth-about-exercise_lifestyle https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms These ones? (Link Master :D)
Assuming consistent relative amounts of muscle glycogen and water, yes, but if you manipulate those two you can produce a huge increase in apparent muscular size (as opposed to actual increases in muscle proteins) over a very short time frame. I have clients do this type of training and it is not unusual for new trainees to make consistent gains of between one and one and a half pounds of muscle per week for the first few months without manipulating these (and without drugs) but nowhere near this. It works, it just doesn't produce this rate of actual muscle gain in the majority of people under normal circumstances.
The rate at which it is possible to increase muscle mass varies considerably between individuals, and while there is certainly an upper limit it is higher than this. Although the rate usually slows over time, with proper training and diet it is not unusual for trainees to gain over twice this much per month during the first few months of training even without drugs.
There's not a whole bunch coming back to say it didn't work, are there. And seeing as how most people love to complain about things like that, that ought to answer your question. But in case it doesn't, I'm 8 days in and so far, up by around 7 lbs. Well on track to get results very similar to Tim's by the end of the month. How about you try it yourself, and when you see how well it works you can come back and tell the world 🙂