Finally! Muscle Gains Again thanks to Ryan Hughes’ Workout – Secret Muscle Growth Hack

Many elite bodybuilders and fitness models can trace their origins back to being the skinny kid who wanted to get bigger. But IFBB Pro Ryan Hughes takes this story to the extreme because, at age 16, the first time he entered a gym, Hughes had a gangly 6-foot, 135-pound frame. Nevertheless, in just over 10 years' time, he's managed to add 80 pounds of muscle, become a professional bodybuilder, and train celebrities and athletes to achieve their optimal physique goals.

And if you read Ryan's interview below, you're going to learn tips and philosophies that can help you break through muscle-gaining plateaus and achieve incredible workouts in the gym. Not only this, but you're also going to find out about Hughes' dynamic training techniques that will give you the cut, muscular physique you've always dreamed of. But first, I'd like to briefly provide a little background on Ryan.

Hughes has been competing in bodybuilding competitions ever since he was 19, finishing first place in the Men's Novice Division and third in the Men's Open Heavyweight division in his first-ever contest. The success has continued ever since, with Ryan becoming one of the first two IFBB Men's Physique Pros, gracing dozens of magazine covers like Men's Health and Muscle & Fitness, appearing on ABC's 20/20 and Good Morning America, and training over 1,000 clients to bust through their muscle-gaining and strength plateaus.

It is the latter that I'm most excited about discussing today, because Hughes is ready to share his secret “growth hack” that will give you an extremely fast shortcut to making your body explode with lean muscle mass. More on this later, but right now, you can check out my interview with Hughes, which explains how he conquered low testosterone, a super-skinny frame and countless naysayers to become the ripped bodybuilder that he is today.

George Spellwin: Obviously anybody who sees you can tell that you're a ripped, muscular guy. So what motivated you to start down the bodybuilding path?
Ryan Hughes: I began just like many guys. I wanted to ‘get big’, mainly because I was extremely thin. I stood six feet tall and weighed roughly 135lbs at the beginning of my journey. It started as an activity, grew into a hobby and became my passion. I competed for the first time at age 19 and began personal training shortly thereafter. I wanted to bring others into my world and let them experience the benefits of living a healthier lifestyle. I love working with motivated individuals and I believe regardless of where I am in my career; training will always have a place in my life.

GS: What's the Biggest Mistake that you see many guys make with regard to their training and dieting?
RH: Interestingly enough, I feel a lot of guys are just uneducated with regard to optimizing their training. Anyone can enter a gym and toss some weight around, but there are so many other factors that come into play when trying to add lean muscle mass or get ripped. For example, your body’s natural hormonal response to exercise is effected both positively and negatively by a host of different factors. I have spent years studying and mastering these factors to optimize each and every gym session. As a result, I make gains in the gym where other guys simply do not. Recently, I actually made my training journal available to the public, which is now helping thousands of other guys maximize every minute spent in the gym. The results have been pretty awesome, to say the least.

GS: You're definitely somebody to look up to in the bodybuilding world. But what bodybuilders did/do you admire in the industry when coming up or even now?
RH: I always admired the old school aesthetic – guys like, Frank Zane, Bob Paris and of course Arnold. However, when it comes down to it, you have to do this for you – not to look like anyone else. Spending too much time trying to achieve someone else’s physique can lead to frustration and discouragement.

GS: What is your favorite type of workout?
RH: As I mentioned previously, I train to optimize my hormonal response and maximize every second spent in the gym. I coined this method “The Muscle Matrix.” Essentially this training system incorporates various training styles and techniques in a unique format that elicits a significant hormonal response. This style of training has helped me greatly increase my free testosterone and IGF-1, while also lowering cortisol levels and ridding unwanted body fat. It took me years to sift through all of the bullshit out there and put together a program that is incredibly effective. Now, it’s the only type of workout I do.

GS: In your opinion, what's the biggest struggle to achieving a great physique?
RH: This one’s easy – the lack of knowledge or understanding of exactly how the body and hormones truly work. There should be synergy between your body and its hormones, but for most guys (especially those over the age of 23), they are working against each other. The sad part is guys are feeling like complete shit or getting little to no results in the gym and don’t even know why. I know this because a few years ago, I was one of them. My testosterone levels were under 200 (normal range is 250-850) in my mid-20s! My levels should have been in the top of that range and I couldn’t understand why they resembled that of a guy 3 times my age. That’s when I began studying and experimenting with different diet and training concepts, all focused around improving hormonal production. Now, a few years later, my levels are over 800 – near the top of the normal range and I am seeing results like I did when I first starting working out! Understand the connection between your body, its hormones and exercise and you to can achieve some awesome results.

GS: Do you have a lot of people coming up to you, asking for bodybuilding advice?
RH: All the time, especially at the expos and trade shows. I actually enjoy the discussions though, as it always interests me listening to what everyone else is doing and where they began. It always amazes me how many guys are still “bro-dieting” and are completely miserable. I will never forget this one guy who came up to me in Madrid at the Arnold Spain (big bodybuilding expo) and was asking me for dieting advice, claiming he couldn’t for the life of him get shredded. He wasn’t in horrible shape; to be honest he just looked like a normal dude. I asked him what his current diet looked like and I shit you not, he said “I eat 6 meals per day all of them the same.” I said ok, what are the 6 meals? He responded, “6oz. Chicken and 1 Cup Asparagus.” I couldn’t help myself; the first thing I said was “what the fuck?” This guy was eating zero fat or carbs and wondering why he couldn’t get ripped! I am surprised he was still able to function. Your body needs fat AND carbs to build muscle and burn body fat. Long story short, I put the guy on my Muscle Matrix program. We added in nearly 1,500 additional calories over the course of 4 months and completely changed his workout regimen. He is now eating double what he was a few months back and working out LESS.

GS: If there's anything that you could do over regarding your fitness/physique competitor career, what would it be?
RH: When I first started out I was completely miserable. I moved to New York City to pursue my dream and wanted to give it 110%. I thought this meant I had to be miserable until “I made it.” I would watch all the hardcore bodybuilding documentaries and YouTube videos of guys training for hours and shoveling down tilapia and green 9 times a day. I made this my life and almost lost everything I had worked for - my physique, my girl, my job, etc. To be honest, I was a miserable prick and thought that I had to be to make it big. That is all bullshit. You don’t need to do hours of fucking steady state cardio and eat some shit-eating fish to get shredded. You don’t need to spend 3 hours hitting chest for it to grow. Train and diet smarter not harder. I built my Muscle Matrix program to save guys from going through the misery that I did. I almost lost it all because of the person that I had become, so don’t make the same mistake I did.

GS: What is your proudest accomplishment in the bodybuilding world?
RH: The “bodybuilding world” is full of people who love themselves. I could easily say my biggest accomplishment was being on covers of magazines or earning my IFBB pro card, but really those things mean very little to me. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool and I enjoyed the moment, but it’s short lived. What I am most proud of is mentoring other guys and helping them achieve some sick results. When you watch other guys transform using a program that you developed and you see it work – that is fucking awesome.

GS: Do you have any advice for any of our members who are already competing in competitions, or might be interested in doing so one day? Specifically, what they can do to improve their competition results?
RH: My single most important piece of advice I can give for those competing or thinking about competing is to do it for no one other than you. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t let your boys push you to get on stage. Every time you get on stage, strive to beat the previous stage-version of you. You can easily get caught up in the scene and lose sight of why you got into this in the first place. You can lose the enjoyment of simply hitting the weights and training. All of you reading this right now love training, love hitting the gym and love the feeling you get following an awesome session. Don’t lose that because a lot of people can never even get there to begin with. I have seen people, including myself, get too caught up in the stage only to lose sight of why they started competing in the first place.

GS: Is there Anything Else that you'd like to add?
RH: If there is one thing you take from this interview, let it be that you should never assume you know everything. I am always learning, always evolving and trying to improve. When I was much younger I thought I had “mastered” fitness, only to find that I had just scratched the surface. Diet and training are only two factors; your hormones actually trump both of them when optimized. Check out the Muscle Matrix and let me what you think.

So what is the Muscle Matrix, and how will it Dramatically Boost your Testosterone?

It seems like every bodybuilder or personal trainer out there wants to sell you on some “revolutionary” or “underground” secret that they've developed. That said, you may already be wondering, as did I, what makes Hughes' Muscle Matrix program any different from the rest.

Well, I've been in the fitness industry for over 20 years and can honestly say that Muscle Matrix provided the most-rapid body transformation I've ever made through a single training program alone – and with far less hours spent in the gym than I normally spend!

Through a combination of hardcore workouts, nutrition and supplementation, Muscle Matrix will dramatically raise your natural testosterone and growth hormone production, while simultaneously dissolving body fat. And don't worry about the supplementation part of this program – the recommended supplements are dirt cheap and can be found anywhere.

Muscle Matrix targets your eating, training and supplementation around hormonal optimization, in order to create the perfect conditions for your body to add slabs of lean muscle mass, shed pesky body fat and enhance your physique faster than any over-price supplements ever could.

And what's great here is that Muscle Matrix is designed by IFBB Pro and top fitness model Ryan Hughes, who's spent years in the fitness industry, attaining the billing as one of New York's top fitness trainers. It's easy to see from the interview above that he knows his stuff, so heck out his Muscle Matrix program and see for yourself that your growth doesn't have to be naturally capped, nor are you destined to experience agonizingly slow muscle gains for the rest of your life.
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Author: George Spellwin