Feeling scrawny? Don’t despair — a new book by former Crestonite Nick Nilsson holds the key to gaining five to 10 pounds of muscle in less than a month.
“I tried to take everything I knew about building muscle fast – techniques and training strategies that trick the body into building,” said the bodybuilder and former personal trainer from his Hainesville, Ill., home. “They’re strategies I’ve learned about and read about and come up with over 20 years of training.
“I do a lot of experimentation on myself. Once, I stuffed myself silly for a week and put on 25 pounds.”
Muscle Explo-sion: 28 Days to Maximum Mass doesn’t recommend that, of course, but its program starts out with a low carbohydrate diet and a week of fat loss followed by three weeks of muscle building and targeted training, as well as a diet that overloads the body with food and nutrients.
“People get rebound weight gain when they come off a diet,” he said. “This takes advantage of that.”
The book is aimed at intermediate to advanced trainers, and an effective way to break through a plateau. It contains explanations, how-to charts, tips on eating and supplements, and a lot of encouragement.
Nilsson has published about 10 books, mostly ebooks, on fitness, but Muscle Explosion is, as he said, “the first one published by a real publisher,” Price World Publishing, which is interested in doing more.
“They actually had spotted my stuff online and decided they wanted to publish it after reading through it,” he said.
Nilsson has used the Internet to promote fitness — his online newsletter, which is about eight years old, has 35,000 subscribers.
He began weight training when he was 17 in his dad’s basement gym.
“I was a cross-country runner,” he said. “I got tired of being skinny.”
He left Creston to attend college in Lethbridge, then worked on cruise ships for three years where he was inspired to use what he’d learned to help others.
“As I was working on the cruise ships, and even before, when I was in college, I started taking notes on stuff I had invented,” Nilsson said. “It came to a point when I said, ‘You know what? I could probably write about this stuff.’ ”
As he’s experimented and recorded observations, Nilsson, whose degree in physical education covers advanced biomechanics, physiology and kinesiology, had adapted his workouts to fall in line with what he’s learned.
“When I started training, I pushed myself to the point of falling down sometimes,” he said. “I’ve realized that pushing myself to failure isn’t always the best. … It’s not necessary to totally trash yourself every time.”
Nilsson is always ready to encourage others to exercise, whether their desire is to get buff or simply stay fit.
“It’s just nice to be strong and to know that what you’re doing is going to make you strong and keep you healthy. … When you train every day, everything else doesn’t seem quite so hard.”
And he certainly doesn’t suggest jumping into anything too strenuous, although weight training has a lot of benefits for anyone.
“Find an activity and do that,” he said. “It’s what the body is meant to do. People who don’t move are the ones who deteriorate as they get older. … Anything that is going to get you up and active is going to be useful.”