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!
###
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
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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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.
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.
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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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…
🙂
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
How did this spam get through?
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.
this has got to be a lie. i dont care who you are that kind of gain in that short of time and with so little time in the gym is impossible even on steroids. The most I have ever gained in that time period is about 7-10 lbs. and that was when i first started, Im sorry but this is highly unlikely. arnold Shcwarzeneggar(forgive me for probably butchering his name) was known for adding an inch in a month and it is thought of as almost impossible. one inch is about 10-15 pounds of muscle. sorry bro but please dont get these peoples hopes up. you cant gain 34 lbs in 4 weeks. Impossible
To Everyone who is saying that he just shaved his chest hair and put some pro-tan on, you obviously are ignorant. Now I’m not saying I fully believe this method of working out, but the before and after pictures were taken at two different times. For example, the lighting in the pictures is different and there is a shadow in the before pictures. Plus his overall build is bigger in the after. Although they were taken at different times, it seems like he wasn’t even flexing in the before pictures. Me personally I don’t think an hour a week (especially only two days) would be sufficient for a gain like that in one month
Dude, it works… Ive had success doing it as have thousands of others. Take a look at this post for further proof… http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/05/11/how-to-gain-20-pounds-in-28-days-the-extreme-muscle-building-secrets-of-ufc-fighters/
Please don’t comment until attempting. This is my 3rd comment on times site. 2 here and 1 losing 20bs in a month. YES IT WORKS. how quickly people are to judge something they’ve never tried and how quick they will regurgitate some obscure harvard medical study about how it’s impossible to add more than x lbs Ina lifetime etc etc. I have twice added over 30lbs of muscle in under 1 month. 2 yrs ago I went from 183 to 205 my heaviest/fattest I’ve I’ve been I didn’t look or feel sexy so I then dieted losing over 20lbs in 30 days getting down to as low as 179lbs and 16.8% bf. that was day 1. I spent the next 30 days going to 18lbs and 9.8% bf. that transformation equates to losing 12lbs of fat while adding 22lbs of muscle in the same time period. So before u run ur mouth and say what is or isn’t possible, try it first. You may fund yourself wrong and fit rather than right and fat!
Hi Tim, firstly thanks for everything, but i was wondering whether you had any experience with how well this works while on the keto diet?
Thanks, Koray
People are so predictable on naysaying. So easy to judge sitting in your chair. One should do first then comment later.
So disappointed in this article Tim. This is physically impossible without exogenous compounds or substances. Thought you were more honest and genuine than this.
Source: I’m a bodybuilder.
Yes I’m a naysayer, and yes I’m more qualified then all of you trying to refute my argument.
I really looked up to you. Not anymore.
Than*
It’s about time people caught on to this phony baloney and it’s “I’m more qualified “than” all of you, not “then.” The guy is a fake in every way – blowhard. but he made a lot of money as a consummate bullshitter.
Found this on wiki. Might of used steds on this experiment
Ferriss has acknowledged using steroids, specifically “a number of low-dose therapies, including testosterone cypionate,” under medical supervision following shoulder surgery, as well as using “stacks” consisting of testosterone enanthate, Sustanon 250, HGH, Deca-Durabolin, Cytomel, and other unnamed ingredients while training.[94]
I have a few questions from a girls persepective – 1) Are the supplements you have mentioned in the book required to achieve muscle growth or would I be able to achieve that solely on exercises and slow carb diet? 2) You mention to reduce rest period between sets from 3min to 30 seonds between each set – would I still be able to achieve muscle growth? My goal is gain muscle. I am 55kg and 164cm tall so I don’t want to loose weight but I’d like to see more muscle growth while still not being bulky. 3) What happens after? Can you just continue to exercise twice a week with the slow carb diet to maintain muscle and not loose it? Do you keep adding weights? Confused as to what happens long term.
I have no huge problems with the workout described. I do however have huge problems with the claimed results in 4 weeks. There is literally no way that it is humanly possible to gain over 30 pounds of muscle in four weeks. Just think of it from a food intake perspective. Over each of the 28 days you will have had to eat more than a pound of food that you didn’t burn off. AND you will have to have kept that weight as muscle. Not possible. Furthermore, the pictures don’t even show a gain of over 30 pounds of muscle. He’s not flexing in the first set of pics. He also shaved and put on tanner for the second pics. The pics also aren’t the same scale. He’s definitely in better shape in the second set, but that’s not 30 pounds of muscle. It’s really somewhat irresponsible to let people think this is achievable. Set realistic goals for yourself and stick with a workout. You have to walk before you can run. Get in a routine and you will be healthy for life.
I don’t even know if this is the right place to post this, but I just wanted to say thanks Tim for a great programme (Occam’s Protocol), and share my results. I followed Occam’s Protocol to the letter for six weeks and gained 6.5kg (14.3lbs) while dropping my body fat from 13% to 9.16%. I know, it seems crazy that you can do so little in the gym and eat so much (I also drank a litre of raw milk every day) and still gain mass while losing body fat, but I tracked the data and that’s what happened.
Complete BULLSHIT
30 pounds in one month…. so basically it should only take 3 months to get on stage with Mr. Olympia….. seems legit lol. A pound of muscle a day… not EVEN possible with the fattest stack of steroids. And the diet too… hilarious. You’d have to eat 3500 calories on top of your maintenance, somewhere close to 6 thousand calories a day AND not gain a pound of fat. I used to wonder why these scam artists keep trying to spread this nonsense and then after reading some of these comments I realize that some people actually believe this is possible. Just mind boggling how people can be so out of touch with reality… completely blows my mind.
Why is there always a book for sale?
Next book for Tim: “The 4 hour hunchback to hot stud programme”
Why not?
After trying a lot of other of your awesome lifehacks, I’m currently on this one. Today I did the first session according to your book 4HB. I’m fit with pull-ups already, but I have a problem with the “close-grip supinated pull-down x 7 reps (5/5 count)”. The muscles that fail first are the ones in my forearms. Meaning I can’t hold the grip with the hands any more, but still have lots of reserves with the muscles that actually pull down the bar. So I don’t get to the point where I actually train until those targeted muscles fail. What can I do?
(I’m weighing 165 pounds and I’m able to do the 7 pull-ups with the 5/5 count with a weight of 200 pounds. Then my grip fails, but I could actually do more reps with the rest of the muscles.)
Hey Tim, I’m reading your book and I’m confused, you say that you did the 10 exercises you listed for the experiment, but then later you have the A and B exercise sets. I don’t know which to do, the 10 exercises you did or the A and B. I’m going to do this for an acting role, thanks Tim.
From what I understand, Occam’s protocol uses 4 exercises total and two workout days a week doing 2 exercises each day. Tim says to fight the urge to do more exercises because this is the minimum dose you need to get the results. However, with Geek to Freak, he states to use 4-7 exercises. Wouldn’t doing more exercises defeat the purpose of minimum effective dose? I’m confused.
Any lean red meats will work great for building muscle. Having a couple of servings per day. Red meat is definitely on the top of the list of foods that build muscle.
It would be even better if you could get grass-fed red meat to a local farmer. Check around and you can find one. Tastes great too!
http://nitricmaxmuscledenmark.com/
Can you post a workout example for one week as a reference?
How many days (if any) before the first workout should I start eating like crazy?
Looks like he got shorter too LOL!!
I love how when you click on “a little known Colorado experiment” it directs you to a bodybuilding website with unsupported gibberish that trys to get you to buy a $47 dollar product.
Oh, geez. They must have realized the traffic I was sending and changed the site. Sorry about that. I’ll change the link now. Ugh.
Hi Tim,
Just wanted to say something here so I could apologize for my fellow human beings being so negative in the comments. I love your posts and tweets, but I rarely comment on them. Please keep in mind the bias of negativity on the internet. Love your work dude, and thanks for the post.
I just started this routine today and after my morning supplement and first meal supplement I am noticing that I am super hot. My skin has gotten really red and I kinda feel like I am on fire. Has anyone else experienced this? Am I dying?
From the comments, it would appear that Tim Ferriss is a genius. He has successfully duped over a thousand people into actually believing this is legitimate, and in doing so helped sell more copies of his book and put more money in his pocket!
To all the people who say: “You don’t know until you try it!” My only question to you trolls is: “Do You Even Lift, Bro?”
The Colorado Experiment was a hoax. Bill Starr of Iron Man magazine wrote an article on Casey Viator along with Arthur Jones, and revealed the truth to whole thing. Casey was being paid by Jones but eventually left to join the Weider organization.
I am using a herbal formula testosterone booster containing ashwagandha, mucuna pruriens, gokshura, Chlorophytum borivilianum. I find fascinating the idea of herbs working together in synergy, my mood is better and I have great stamina and energy to get my work done and to make my wife happy
I dont understand, what is the workout routine? I read the whole article on the colorado experiment and it didnt tell me anything about what the routine actually is.
All he’s done is shaved his chest and got chubby
I thoroughly enjoy Tim Ferris, but this article is just plain disingenuous.
Firstly, Tim added muscle that his body previously carried, which is a far faster process than building new muscle on a beginner’s frame.
Secondly, Tim could easily have used dehydration in the “before” shot and super-hydration for the “after” shot to boost his “lean mass.” This practice can account for dramatic changes in bodyweight over the course of 2 days or so.
The idea that anyone can follow these “six basic principles” and achieve similar results is ludicrous.
It was noted for those who don’t want to ” become the hulk” lol but is the slow carb diet what tin used during this ? IF someone can clear iffy I would be very appreciative
Tim – Love the 4HB! and the 4HWW of course! (The 4HC is on deck… used it for a number of recipes already though!)
In regards to the increased caloric/protein intake, I was wondering if there were any specific precautions to take when coming out of the G2F bulking program as it relates to diet? i.e. cutting back to a simple SCD immediately, maintaining, or adjusting down gradually over time, etc.
Thanks!
ok It’s fake, on the first foto’s there is hair on the breast, on the second picture there’s no hair anymore, the hair wil cover the muscle so you don’t see it.
And, the lighting has much effect, i know that i am speaking dutch englisch, butt i trying to warn you
I need these tips in simple language to understand faster
This is incredible, I read the Colorado experiment with Mr Jones & love the science behind it!
Question though- what was the calorie intake like on a daily basis?
Impressive Tim. I remember reading this in 4hbody, at the time I was experimenting with the slow carb diet. Do you think this will have a similar effect to build muscle mass for a female a well? I would also like to lose a little more body fat as my abs are finally starting to show. I lift heavy 5-6 days/week and am somewhere between 18-20% bodyfat. I have hit a plateau with both muscle gain and fat loss. if I could kill two birds with one stone that would be great. I’m also just wondering how feasible it is for a female to gain a lot of muscle mass in such a short amount of time. We have a much harder time putting on muscle mass than men. It has taken me a couple of years to gain the muscle I have now. I also must say that to cut down to working out twice per week would take a HUGE leap of faith for someone that works out regularly. It’s intriguing!
Just started up, but I’m modifying this for my age group (64) and doing 4 days in a row, Mon. upper, Tues. lower, Wed. upper, Thurs. lower, then nothing til’ the next Monday. That way both upper and lower get hammered (my version of hammered, 3 heavy sets on all muscle groups, but careful on the joints) every other day, then each gets a full 5 days rest…will keep ya ‘posted’.
As a follower of the slowcarb diet and as someone who is interested in pursuing Geek to Freak, how many grams of protein per kg of body weight would you suggest, and if its already in your book could you suggest a page number?
34 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks? Not only far fetched, it’s literally impossible, even on steroids
awesome content. thanks for the information.
Sunestron is the best way to gain muscles fast i also brought this for my husband and he was really excited about this when I told him about it, and is loving the results so far. He’s been working out and pushing harder at the gym, and he’s already seeing a difference in his lean muscle mass. His arms are becoming bigger and more muscular. He’s a happy man, and he looks even better than usual!
Does anyone know his daily exercise routine in achieving these results? Maybe I just missed it
Does anyone know what workout routine he used?
This would have more credibility if poses, wardrobe and effort were obviously staged for the illusion effect. Pity. Everyone wants so desperately to believe and deceptors prey on that desperation.
“exercise your entire body each workout to elicit a maximal hormonal (testosterone, growth hormone + IGF-1) response.” Dose it matter if its before or after whatever workout you are doing?
Hi,
where can I find information on diet on the geek to Greek training program.
I brought the 4hour working week and the 4 hour body. Both life changing books if you take the advise. Great books.
Thanks Sean
Beastly bulk with less fur! Not sure about advice for ladies, you guys assume that our bodies react the same way. In fact, depending on lifecycle age, we react much differently.
I love Tim and have watched many of his videos and learned quite a bit — but as someone who has been lifting for a long time, I can tell you it’s not humanly possible to add 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks…or maybe even 4 years.
34 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks? Riiiiight.
Hi. I read the Colorado experiment. I’ve read 4-hour body. I’m female desiring to drop body fat and increase muscle. How would you adapt this to p90x? A 5/5 cadence? Do total body workout 2 times a week? What would be a good total body workout? Thanks.