Nutrition

You can train like crazy, but you can’t successfully follow Arnold’s Blueprint without eating enough. Don’t be fooled—this is no dirty bulk. You won’t be raiding buffets and eating ice cream every meal to gain indiscriminate weight. Arnold’s Blueprint meal plan was built to ensure that you don’t just add mass, but lean mass. You’ll eat foods rich in protein, carbs, and fats to grow and recover at an impressive rate.

Although you’re working on a bigger, more imposing body, you need to fuel your efforts with quality nutrition at the right times. A great macronutrient profile coupled with smart nutrient timing ensures your body is getting everything it needs to build some serious muscle and strength.

Without a doubt, this Arnold-approved formula will take your body to a new level!

PROTEIN MATTERS

In his prime bodybuilding years, Arnold knew that the most important macronutrient for growth was protein. “There’s always a debate about how much protein the body actually needs,” Arnold says. “I always lived off the rule that for every pound of bodyweight, I needed one gram of protein.”

As a 250-pound mass monster, the challenge for Arnold was eating nearly 250 grams of protein daily and making sure that his body could use it all. “I felt like it worked best when I had five meals per day. There are some people who can work with three meals. For me, five meals was the answer because I never was a big eater. I always felt comfortable with a regular-sized steak. If you gave me a 10-ounce steak, even in my heyday, I was happy.”

In the morning, Arnold would often eat a few scrambled eggs, some bacon or sausage, and some tomatoes and onions. “I was fine with that,” he says. “The only thing is, two hours after that breakfast I was hungry.” To supplement his whole food meals and get the protein he needed for substantial growth, Arnold never went far without a protein shake.

“As I was sitting there at Santa Monica City College or doing construction, I would pull out of my bag a little plastic container full of milk and protein powder. That was the additional 30 grams of protein that I needed at that time.”

An hour after his protein shake, Arnold would be at the gym doing what he did best—lifting big weight. After the gym was a late lunch of steak and vegetables. Two hours after lunch, Arnold would have another protein shake. “So, two times per day, I would have protein drinks in order to get up to the 250 grams that I needed,” he says.

BLUEPRINT TO MASS MEAL PLAN

Although you’re working on a bigger, more imposing body, you need to fuel your efforts with quality nutrition at the right times. This meal plan has a great macronutrient profile coupled with precise nutrient timing that will ensure your body is getting everything it needs to build some serious muscle and mass.

Feel free to customize this meal plan to fit your needs. However, the main goal should be to get nearly one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. It’s also important that you fuel with enough carbohydrates. You’ll be doing some serious high-volume workouts, and you’ll be doing them frequently—so don’t fear the carb!

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