Scrawny to Brawny The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way
Scrawny to Brawny The Complete Guide to Building Muscle the Natural Way
A state-of-the-art weight-lifting and nutritional blueprint for “skinny” guys who want to pack on muscle
Let’s face it, naturally skinny guys are at a distinct genetic disadvantage when it comes to building muscle mass. But with the proper advice, these “hardgainers” definitely can realize their fitness goals. In Scrawny to Brawny, the authors draw on their years of practical experience as private strength and nutrition coaches to provide hardgainers with:
o A progressive, state-of-the-art program that optimizes results with shorter, less frequent workouts that maximize compound exercises
o A unique, action-based perspective on nutrition that shows how to prepare quick muscle-building meals and snacks-and how to take advantage of several critical times in the day when muscle growth can be stimulated by food intake
o Vital information on how to identify and fix any weak links in their physiques that may be precursors to injury
Designed not only for frustrated adult hardgainers but also-with its strong anti-steroid message-a terrific book for the large teen market, Scrawny to Brawny fills a significant gap in the weight-lifting arsenal.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars A review by someone who did the whole program
Many of the reviews on here seem to be from people who are just starting or who gave up on Scrawny to Brawny. I went in determined to do the whole four month program and am proud that I finished it up through the last day.
MONTH ONE
Phase I is the Corrective Phase and, I feel, the best part of the whole book. A series of precise tests show you your weak points and then you spend 2 to 6 weeks correcting them. This is especially important for skinny guys who can seriously hurt themselves if they start squatting loaded barbells without the underlying tissue support. The stretches and small lifts are HARD work and I really felt my ligaments and support muscles getting stronger. I had a “bum knee” which tended to feel weak or have pangs before I started this program and since I finished it, that never happens. Great workouts.
The food portion was far less successful. Similar to others who have mentioned this, I could not humanly consume the amount of calories they wanted each day. On the very first day, I found myself laying on the sofa groaning in gut pain at 9pm because I was so engorged. And I was still supposed to eat another meal before bed. I cut back just enough to make my consumption actually possible without vomiting from then on, but my body fat still soared in this first month. I continued to monitor food amounts each month as directed by their Decision Making Matrix, but it was shocking to start off the program with the first serious paunch I’d ever carried.
MONTH TWO AND A HALF
It was in this month that I strained my back doing one of the lifts and had to take a couple weeks off and start using a lifting belt to continue. Keep in mind that most lifts are illustrated with a single photo and the description of how to execute them assumes some familiarity with the equipment and proper form. I’d taken a weight training class in college and used dumbbells a lot before but strained my lower back lifting a barbell above my head and arching too much. If you’re going to sink the significant amount of money that’s called for (see below) into this program, you might also plan on a once-a-month meeting with a personal trainer just to assure you’re doing everything properly, unless you’re versed on full body barbell lifts.
Also, they wanted me to do several chin-ups at a time during my workouts and I could barely do one. There was no guidance on what to do if you’re not ready for an exercise yet. Do fewer? Do them halfway? Who knows?
On the plus side, people started making comments about how much bigger I was this month. One co-worker even flattered me that I was getting “huge”.
MONTH THREE
This month focuses on building strength for the last big push of muscle enlargement. Good workouts with noticeable growth on my legs and butt.
MONTH FOUR
This was the weakest part of the program. Workouts moved up to four a week to increase growth and left me feeling tired most of the time, even on days off. I’d start workouts not feeling 100% because I was still tired from my last workout. Muscle growth kind of stalled as a consequence, even though I really put everything I had into it and was still eating enough to keep my body fat higher than average.
PLUSES
The general info presented here (less the excess calories) is solid. i learned a lot and appreciated the mix of technical info with practical tips. Although not a lot larger, my legs and butt are more shapely than ever before- I don’t have chicken legs for the first time. And the corrective phase was very effective in building a strong core.
MINUSES
I have a partner who is pretty independent, no pets nor kids, and I work half-time. Still, the shopping, preparation, storage, packing, unpacking, cooking, and washing up after the meals took almost all of my free time. Commute and changing time at a public gym would be added to that for those who don’t work out at home. If you have a full-time job, a spouse who wants date nights, kids and a pet, you will find it very, very difficult to complete this program.
Between equipment and extra groceries, I probably spent a couple grand on this program, and that was getting super, lucky deals on used equipment via craigslist. At the end of the program, you’re just left with the suggestion to sign up for their expensive online extension rather than any practical plan on how to convert what you’ve learned into a normal lifestyle.
The diet of almost all lean proteins got very monotonous after a while, even for someone who has spent much of his life in the food business and knows how to make simple food tasty. Before you even think of ordering this book, prepare and eat six meals tomorrow, all of them primarily consisting of lean protein (fat free yogurt, chicken breast, fish, turkey burger, 95% or more lean beef, egg whites…). Protein shakes do not count- those would be on top of your six meals if you had them. Then imagine doing that for four months straight, seven days a week.
Finally, the low amount of carbs in the diet really affected my energy level and mental quickness by month four. I just hadn’t had the easily convertible energy of carbs for so long that I felt generally hazy and tired. After one day of going back to my normal eating patterns, I was surprised by a noticeable jump in my alertness, interest in intellectual pursuits, and energy for everyday activities.
RESULTS
My neck, thighs and calves are the same at the end of the program as they were at the beginning (although all did peak larger at different points along the way). My shoulders gained four inches, my chest gained two inches, my waist gained three inches, and my butt and arms both gained an inch. My body fat ended one percentage point higher than when I started.
5 Stars A SCRAWNY PERSONS MUST HAVE !!
This book was very informative, more than just hype. It gives details, meal plans and exercise routines.
3 Stars Very expensive!
While the plan laid out in this book may work very well, purchasing all the food and supplements suggested is very expensive. I think the important takeaway is eat a ton and do football player workouts like hang cleans, squats, bench press, and deadlifts.
5 Stars A truely life-changing book
About a year ago I was preparing for a two week, trip to Hong Kong, which meant over 20 hours spent on a plane, among other free time. I was unhappy with where I was in my workouts, and since I was all of 5’10″ and 140lbs, it seemed like a perfect fit for the kind of book I needed. Let me backtrack: Up until this book, I had worked out regularly for 7 years using various books and even two personal trainers, but I never got the results I was looking for. When I finally opened this book on the plane, it seemed to all fit together as to why I hadn’t put on the muscle I had always hoped to. More importantly, I realized that I had basically wasted most of my time in the gym on isolation excersizes that were doing me little good. As good as the workout advice was, the nutrition section provided even more insight. I always reasoned that I ate healthy, and felt like I was eating a lot of food, so I figured I was doing everything right. After doing the calculations, I found out I needed to be eating a lot more calories. After two weeks and two long plane rides, with my feet back on the ground in the US, I was ready to put the program to the test.
Usually I would pick and choose the elements of a program that appealed to me, but better sense took over, and I followed this program to a T. Did I have to spend a lot more on groceries? Yes. Did I get some funny looks from extremely attractive girls in the gym while doing some of the warm-ups and corrective excersizes? Unfortunately, yes again. Thankfully though, I have gotten the last laugh, as I have put on over 30 lbs in the last year. I look and feel better than I ever have, and I would have never gotten there without the knowlege from this book. Just be prepared to buy some new clothes, your old ones will not fit for long…
3 Stars From Scrawny to Fat?
Even though this book is written especially for those who find it difficult to gain muscle from their workout plans, it doesn’t effectively address the main underlying problem for such individuals. And that problem most often lies in their workout plans, not in their diets. But the authors would have you believe that as long as do the same old conventional, low-intensity weight-lifting exercises that everyone has been doing for years, and then increasing your daily calorie intake to at least 4000 calories a day, your problem is pretty much solved, and you will go from scrawny to brawny. But actually, you’re more likely to go from scrawny to fat that way, because consuming a lot more calories does not compensate for an ineffective workout plan. If you do gain weight from such a program, all it will do is put on more fat, not muscle.
For example, one reviewer here (who has submitted only one review total on amazon) claims that he put on 15 lbs in just 7 weeks from this plan.
Well, here was my reply to him:
“If you’re an ectomorph and you actually did put on 15 lbs in 7 weeks, much of it was certainly fat, not muscle. And that would be no surprise, if you’re following the advice in this book and eating 4,000 calories per day.”
“No ectomorph is going to build 15 lbs of muscle in 7 weeks, even with the best workout plan. That would be comparable to building 56 lbs of muscle in a year, and nobody (unless you’re on steroids) is going to build that much muscle in a year, even if you have the genetics to build muscle easily. The most muscle an ectomorph is likely to build is about 15 lbs per year, since muscle growth is a very slow process, and is vitually imperceptable on a daily basis. Putting on fat on daily basis is easy (if you eat enough), and that’s something you can detect on a daily basis by weighing yourself each day. But muscle growth, no.”
The fact is this: in order to build maximum muscle in minimum time, you need a workout plan that enables you to achieve “maximum intensity” for every weight-lifting exercise that you do. And to accomplish that, you need to have the right definition for intensity to begin with, which this book doesn’t provide. Obviously, without that definition for intensity, you won’t know which strategies work best to maximize the intensity of any exercise that you do. So it’s not surprsing that the exercises in this book will actually prevent you from achieving maximum intensity, since they are not based upon the right definition for intensity to begin with. And if you don’t generate maximum intensity, you will not obtain maximum results in minimum time, regardless of how many caloroes you consume; it’s that simple. Unfortunately, no published book that I know of has ever revealed the right definition for intensity as it relates to strength-training; and that has always been the missing piece of the puzzle that has prevented so many people form building maximum muscle in minimum time.
The only book that I know of that provides you with the right definition for intensity (as it relates to strength-training) is a book that I wrote. And when I applied that definition for intensity to my workouts, that’s when I really started putting on muscle at a pace that I could never achieve with conventional workout plans. But unfortunately, I’ve never had that book published.
So currently, the only workout plan that I know of that enables you to achieve maximum intensity, and build maximum muscle in minimum time, is that found in John Little’s book, “Max Contraction Training”.If you apply the principles in that book and eat just 2,400-2,600 calories per day (or even less), you will get muscle growth that is simply beyond the reach of conventional workout plans, such as the one found in this book, “Scrawny to Brawny”.
