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How to Build Muscle When You Are Skinny - Your Guide to a Stunning Muscular Physique

How to Build Muscle When You Are Skinny - Your Guide to a Stunning Muscular Physique

The most common mistake of skinny hardgainers is spending too much time in the gym and not enough time at home on the couch and in the kitchen. If you are a hardgainer, you know it by now. You train like crazy and never build muscle. You see a little gain and then it's gone. You go back to the gym and train even harder and longer, thinking surely this will add some poundage to this bag of bones but it does not. It is a vicious cycle that never ends until you end it.

Here's how to do it right. Skinny guys must train less frequently and use heavy weights. Train no more than three times per week. Forget about dumbbells. Use compound movements with barbells. Work on the core strength of the body, bench presses, dead lifts, squats, pull ups and crunches. Never get away from these exercises. Forget about isolating muscles, one handed exercises to tone. You first must build something to tone. Barbell curls will develop more core strength.

What you need to do are the 3 major compound exercises that are King in building muscle mass: Deadlift, Squat, and Bench Press. If you are not familiar with these exercise, please seek help from a personal trainer or somebody at the gym who knows how.

Deadlift - This works so many muscle groups. You cannot be a crybaby so you can't avoid this exercise.

Squat - Your legs are the biggest part of your body. You are a sissy if you skip working out your legs because you "can't walk" the next morning.

Bench Press - Out of the three, this is the least important. This exercise is also one of the biggest ego booster.

Instead of doing 3 sets of 10 like any typical person would tell you, you need to do heavy sets and low reps. A simple routine for you to follow:

Monday: 2 sets x 5 Deadlift
Wednesday: 2 x 5 Bench Press
Friday: 2 x 5 Squat

In between sets, you should rest about two minutes. Workout routines for hardgainers should be simple, and not complex. Quality over quantity concept applies to exercising.

A hardgainer needs to eat a lot. Even if you think you are eating a lot, you need to eat a lot more. For example, if your morning breakfast consists of 2 cups of oatmeal, then you should start eating 3 cups instead of two.

If you are just eating 3 meals per day like a typical person, then you need to start eating six to seven times. When you starve yourself in between meals, your body will use your muscles for energy.

Your Carb/Protein/Fat mix should be 50-35-15 percent. Carbs and protein are both 4 calories each while fats are 9 calories. If you eat 2,000 calories, then you will need about 250 grams of carbohydrates (250 x 4 = 1000).

Food sources should be from animal proteins like eggs, milk, beef, chicken, and fish. Carbohydrates should come from complex sources like brown rice, oatmeal, whole-wheat bread. Fat sources should be from olive oil, flax seeds, nuts, etc. They are very healthy to supplement a balanced diet.

You do not need supplements. Eating properly is simply all you need as a hardgainer to build muscle. Multi-vitamins, water, and protein powder are all you really need. Protein powder are very convenient, but don't neglect natural protein sources such as the ones mentioned above. Don't forget to get proper sleep. Aim for 8+ hours per night to ensure proper rest for your muscles to grow. A hardgainer might not be gaining weight simply because he is not getting enough sleep.

This is why many hardgainers have a problem to gain weight. Building muscle mass is not just all about lifting some heavy weight in the gym. Exercising is only one piece of the puzzle.