Pack on Muscle Like a Pro

I often help celebrities slim down for film roles or TV appearances, so the mandate to add size to Indiana Pacers players Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr. for this NBA season was a welcome challenge. If you think squatting is hard, try dropping till your thighs are parallel to the floor when you're 6'11" and 6'9", respectively, as those guys are. 

Yet such moves -- done with weights, reps, and rest periods, as described here -- unleash a hormonal cascade that allows any skinny dude to break free from hard-gainer hell. By the end of our summer together, Troy, a forward, had packed on 22 pounds. Mike, also a forward, was plus 12. What's more, their bigger bodies had become even more athletic. For example, Troy would walk into my office, jump, and slap his palm flat against an 11'6" ceiling, good for a 5" increase in his vertical leap. If my regimen worked for them, it can work for any guy, including you.

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Build a Bigger, Stronger Body in Record Time

Kickstart your best year in the gym with this total-body workout. Stick to it for a month, and you'll lay a foundation for impressive fitness gains

Directions: Perform this workout 3 days a week with at least a day of rest between sessions. Alternate exercises with the same number (1A and 1B, for example) until you complete all of the sets in that pairing. Only then should you move on to the next pairing. See below for details.

Weeks 1 and 2

•  Perform 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions of every exercise except 1A, the hang clean. For 1A, do 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps. Rest 60 seconds between all sets except the hang-clean ones, after which you should rest for 90 seconds. Rest 60 seconds between exercise pairings, as well.

•  Aim for a lifting tempo of 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down for exercises 3B, 4A, and 4B. For 1A, explode up and then go back down in 2 seconds. For each of the others, take 1 second to go up and 3 seconds to go down.

Weeks 3 and 4

•  Perform 4 sets of 6 to 8 repetitions of every exercise except the hang clean (1A), the dumbbell curl (3B), and the plate crunch (4B). For 1A, do 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps; for 3B and 4B, do 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps each. Use the same rest-period protocol you used in weeks 1 and 2.

•  Your lifting tempo should be 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down for exercise 3B. For 1A, 4A, and 4B, explode up and go down in 2 seconds. For the others, it's 1 second up, 3 seconds down.