Muscle Building Diet for the Asian Male

As a strength trainer with an Asian American background, I often get questions and comments from Asian dudes all over the world. A common theme that pops up among Asian lifters is the belief that their Asian genes are limiting their progress in their quest for a muscular physique.

I always tell them this: don't let race or ethnicity be a limiting factor in your training goals or any goal. It does not matter if you are Asian or a skinny bastard or a woman. If your goal is to be bigger, faster, stronger, then you still travel the same road that everyone else travels to size and strength.

I mean look at Tommy Kono. Here was a Japanese American who grew up in an internment camp, and he became arguably the greatest Olympic weightlifter the US offered to the world.  He was also a successful bodybuilder, winning the Mr. Universe title in 1955 and 1957.  He built a phenomenal physique in an era before steroids. He didn't let race or ethnicity be a limiting factor in his mind or on his body.

Although every lifter is different and has unique physique and training goals, the one physique goal that pops up most often among Asian lifters is increased muscle mass.  Let’s face it: Asian guys are stereotyped as small, skinny and weak.

A lot of it has to do with diet.  Traditional Asian diets are very healthy and will keep you trim.  The problem is that it’s very hard to gain muscle on traditional Asian diets, which are typically low in protein and fat. Protein provides the building blocks for muscle, while fats (as long as it is not trans-fats) provides the building blocks for hormones, such as testosterone.  Testosterone is the singular reason why men typically have more muscle than women.

The one exception to the low protein Asian diet is Korean barbecue.  Korean restaurant cuisine most closely resembles a Paleolithic Diet: lots of meat and vegetables, minimal sweets and starchy carbs. This is the ideal diet for those wanting a lean muscular body that is also healthy on the inside.  The only caveat would be to avoid tofu, as it is estrogenic and will convert your circulating testosterone into estrogen.

The other reason why a lot of Asian men aren't that muscular is that we don't grow up in a culture that values physical strength and size.  Asian cultures tend to value moral character in men as opposed to physical strength.  Bodybuilding is seen as vain and narcissistic, and let's be honest, it is.  Vanity and narcissism are traits that are discouraged in Asian cultures.  You're not supposed to toot your own horn.  Plus manual labor is seen as low class, and weightlifting builds a working class physique.

In American society, people tend to respect strong muscular men and inversely they tend to disrespect weak skinny men.  We inculcate our boys that they must be strong and fit and that physical weakness is an indicator of character weakness.

I get a lot of questions from Asian guys on how to gain muscle, so I thought I'd point out some common dietary mistakes many skinny men (not just Asian men) make in building up their physique:

Not eating enough protein.  This is such a basic thing, but most skinny guys fail to get enough protein in their diet to build muscle.  Eat a wide variety of meats, poultry, eggs and fish.  Supplement with protein powders.  Every meal should have a big chunk of protein occupying at least a third of your plate.

Eating too clean.  Weight training is very demanding on the body, so you need to eat more calories.  For you skinny guys with high metabolisms, you can eat quite a bit of junk food to get those extra calories.  Skinny guys have bodies that are better at "nutrient partitioning."  In other words, nutrients go where they're supposed to go (building muscle) instead of being deposited as fat.  So for young skinny guys, you can bulk up by eating pizza, burgers and burritos.

Not eating breakfast.  It is the most important meal of day.  If your idea of breakfast is a coffee and pastry or a bowl of oatmeal with some OJ, then you're not going to gain body weight.  Like I said before, every meal should have a big chunk of protein occupying at least a third of your plate.  For breakfast, I like a large omelette with coffee and toast.

Skipping meals.  Going hungry for long periods of time puts your body in a catabolic state.  In other words, your body cannibalizes its own muscle in order to feed vital organs.  It's OK to feel a little hunger so you know it's time to eat.  But don't skip meals.  You should be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with one or two snacks in between.

Stressing out too much.  The young skinny guy always frets about how he's doing everything and eating a lot and not gaining any weight.  I get a lot of emails from frustrated skinny people who sound frantic.  And there in lies the problem.  Stressing out over everything does not set up a good hormonal response to gain weight.  A lot of skinny guys are Nervous Nellies.  They can't sit still.  They're constantly tapping their fingers or feet.  They overreact to everything.  They can't seem to calm down.  You tell them to take a deep breathe, and they hyperventilate.

Stressing out over everything releases cortisol in your body, and cortisol hampers muscle growth as well as deposit fat in your midsection.  So if you're a Nervous Nelly or Frantic Frank, then lay off the stimulants.  No  Red Bulls or Monster drinks.  No coffee or soft drinks.  If you need something to wake you up in the morning, then drink some green tea, since it has a moderate dose of caffeine but also has theanine.  Theanine promotes alertness and focus, but also keeps you calm and relaxed.


Diet is only half the story of course.  Eating a lot will only make you fat if you don't train a lot and train correctly.  Strength training stimulates your appetite so that you can eat all of the extra protein and calories.  Strength training sensitizes your body's ability to nutrient partition.  So when you ingest protein and carbs, they're being deposited into muscle.

But not every strength training program facilitates nutrient partitioning and builds muscle.   The primary  training factor in muscle building is HIGH MUSCULAR TENSION.  In other words, we choose exercises and weights that put tension on certain muscles to build them.  Muscle fibers placed under mechanical tension grow bigger by thickening up, absorbing amino acids and storing carbohydrates in the form of glycogen.

All exercises work muscle, but not all exercise BUILD muscle.  Some exercises are better than others at creating high muscular tension.  When I do my YouTube videos, I always try to showcase little known high tension bodybuilding exercises.  These are exercises that very few people know about, and yet they're extremely effective at targeting specific muscle groups or building overall mass.  My viewers always wanted more videos on these hidden gems.

I've now compiled these forgotten bodybuilding exercises into a book:

Strength and Physique: High Tension Exercises for Muscular Growth showcases exercises that build muscle and build muscle in all the right places. Many of these esoteric exercises create high muscular tension and can be performed in a home gym with barbells, dumbbells and body weight.  You'll learn things such as:

• Exercises to hit your musculature at different angles and with different resistance curves.
• How to build MASSIVE MUSCLE over your entire frame.
• How to refine your musculature and give it the classical V-taper.
• What rep ranges are best for each muscle group.
• How to manipulate the speed of your reps to ignite muscle growth.
• How to increase your pull-ups for a powerful, wide back.
• How to forge an armor plated chest.
• How to develop thick toned triceps.

SPV5: High Tension Exercises for Muscular Growth is available at Amazon.com.