Last night a couple of good friends came over to the house. It was great to catch up with good friends and have a few laughs. Now Dale and Howard are in the early 50s and they both look amazing. Theyve followed my training and diet strategies for several years and look and at least 20 years younger than their chronological age. In fact they run circles around their friends who are half their age.

After we caught up on all the developments in our personal lives the topic quickly changed to yep, you guessed it diet and exercise. Both of the guys commented on how much bigger I am since we last spent time together a little over 6 months ago. IN fact they said okay Wade, whats are you doing to pack on so much muscle? Are you eating a ton of protein, come up some wild supplement, or invented some new training strategy? Tell us what your doing!

I had to laugh. Well, youre never going to believe it but I am lucky if I take in 50 grams of protein a day. I wish you could have seen the look of shock on their faces. Of course I was quick to follow up with the science behind the way I eat.

First off, I only consume protein that is live. In other words, protein that has not been denatured by heat, cooked, irradiated, or processed at high temperatures. My only sources of protein are plant proteins. In fact my favorite super protein is called Hemp protein, which is probably one of the most anabolic proteins on the planet.

First off I am doing a high-bred FBN training program but thats been standard training science for me for the last few years. While its definitely high-level training, its no secret. Everybody who is a Freaky Insider is on one of the variants of the program.

How did I get big on 50 grams of protein a day when everyone else is slamming down two, three, even four hundred grams of protein or more a day in a futile attempt to gain muscle?

First I would like to say I know what this is like to be frustrated on the Mega Protein ingestion program. I slammed shake after shake for years. I ate chicken and tuna until I couldnt eat it no more. (I got so sick of meat that I became a vegetarian). I ate so many eggs, I could have fueled a small country from the methane gas I was producing daily.

Guess what? With all that protein consumption I still never grew any more muscle. If that sounds familiar? read on.

A wise man once said, The definition of insanity was doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Well I did the same thing for about 14 years before I figured out. Hey, this high protein diet being hyped in all the mags by supplement companies doesnt work.

I mean if was as simple as eating more protein, everybody would be 500 pounds ripped, wouldnt they?

The problem is the bodybuilders have become terrified, to lower there protein intake because they feel like they are going to shrink up and lose there muscles. I know when I switched to a low protein diet, I checked my muscles daily, to see if I lost anything.

Guess what? I didnt lose any muscle in fact I started getting bigger, and bigger. This was in complete violation of almost every single bodybuilding expert recommendation I have ever read in the last 20 years.

Only recently did I finally discover why or how all these experts missed the boat?

Dale and Howard both pressed me further. How could all these experts be wrong?

I quickly explained that the experts are all looking for one thing to cause another. Like eating protein, or taking a supplement, a special exercise. While no ONE thing causes growth, a variety of conditions must exist and growth happens automatically. Can you see the difference to what I am saying?

The both paused to think about it for a moment. I could see the wheels turning but I hadnt got the picture clear yet.

You see growth simply occurs when all the conditions are right. Its not Caused by training, massive protein intake, or enzymes. It simply happens when all of these factors are working together.

If someone is not growing muscle daily, its simple the conditions are not present that allow for growth. The question now becomes what are the conditions.

I go into detail about this on my training program Freaky Big Naturally, but will some up it as best I can here for you the enquiring reader.

1. Training If you want bigger than normal muscles you must provide stimulus to them in the forum of regular workouts. This is best performed by a systematic scientific training regimen.
2. Diet - You must provide sufficient enzymes, protein, minerals, vitamins, water and air. This is far less complicated than most people make it. Consider you breath in about 80 pounds of oxygen a day, means its a far more important nutrient than chicken breast. Try living without air. But lots of people live without chicken.
3. Mental Attitude - Most people are sorely lacking in this area. Every body talks a good mental game but few people employ mental training as part of their program. They ascribe to the I am small mentality, or limiting mental belief systems that prevent them from really excelling. One of the biggest things I teach is how to Think Big.

Thats basically it. While they are lots of details within those 3 core components of getting big I can say with absolute certainty that eating mega high dosages of protein is not one of them. Youre far better off investing in a high quality coach to train your body than wasting thousands of dollars on buckets of protein goop that will never build any muscle.

Dale and Howard both echoed. Its really simple isnt it?

You bet it is, I echoed. Unfortunately most people just get in the way of themselves and listen too to many people.

Getting big is simple. Train properly, eat the right food, and adopt a winning attitude and you can get as big as you want. Most people have a hard time believing it but after all my years in the game, I have learned how to create those conditions and it works every time. Its not rocket science once you understand and apply the basic principles.

The bottom line is, if youre not getting as big as you want, its because youre not creating the conditions that create growth in your muscles and you need to alter one or all three of the components I listed.

Knowing when and how to do that takes expertise and the best way to eliminate the guesswork is to hire a professional coach to examine where youre going wrong.

Wade McNutt

Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Championships competitor. He has combined the secret techniques of Eastern Yoga Masters with cutting-edge, scientific, muscle building methods to produce a revolutionary new system called Freaky Big Naturally.