My Muscle Building Transformation – 40 lbs of Muscle in 6 Months!
3 Biggest Skinny Guy Mistakes You're Making. Click Here to Avoid Them!
If you are anything like I was, you are frustrated with the inability to gain weight and build muscle. You may feel like putting on size is just not possible due to your genetics. Or you may have even gotten great results once before and are unable to see any more physical changes. These are all things that naturally skinny guys like me have gone through FOREVER. We have all spent hours in the gym with no results, we have all tried eating more and failed to move the scale, and we all have thought that maybe our body type will just not allow us to put on muscle.
Why You Fail To See Results
Let me explain why we fail to see results and why we begin to feel hopeless. There is tons of information available to us via the internet, muscle magazines, acquaintances at the gym, and personal trainers. You would think that with all these resources we could get a straight forward answer to how we should eat and train but that is not nearly the case. You see, everyone has their own approach at lifting and 9 times out of ten, these approaches work. The problem lies with all of the contradictions these programs bring out of one another and don’t allow us to stay consistent. Consistency is by far the biggest challenge most of us have when trying to build muscle. We are either skipping days at the gym, eating right but not on a daily basis, or switching up the gym routine much too often. Another HUGE mistake we make when trying to pack on muscle is following a muscle building diet plan and workout routine created by and for bodybuilders with great genetics. We must understand that as hardgainers, we must train and eat differently than the “average Joe”. Our bodies are different and we require different things in order to add size to our scrawny frames. With that being said, I would like to share 5 things that I changed in my routine that helped me pack on over 40 pounds of solid muscle. These 5 things not only helped me change my body, but they also allowed me to create “Bony to Brawny”, a workout routine created by me (a hardgainer) that has helped hundreds of guys just like us to pack on serious mass in record timing.
1. Eating the Right amount of the Right calories
As hardgainers we have been blessed with a naturally high metabolism that allows us to maintain a lean frame. Unfortunately for most of us, this high metabolism could also become our downfall when building muscle. Because of our genetic makeup, most of us with an ecto-morphic body type must consume almost DOUBLE the amount of calories as your average weight lifter/bodybuilder. The first and most important thing we should be doing is creating a muscle building diet plan that is targeted strictly to our somatotype. Eating the right foods at the right times in the right amounts will allow us to blow past our genetic potential and build muscle practically on queue.
2. Trigger Anabolism and Avoid Catabolism
Anabolism or being anabolic is the state in which your body is in when it’s growing. Catabolism or being catabolic is the exact opposite, this is the state in which your body is in when it’s burning muscle and sometimes creating hormones that eat away at your muscle tissue. It would be extremely easy to just say “stay in an anabolic state and avoid becoming catabolic in order to build muscle”. However, for the average person that would mean absolutely nothing at all considering they are unaware of the “windows of opportunity” we get to stay anabolic. They might also be unaware of how and when our bodies go into a catabolic state and result in muscle wastage.
Catabolism can be avoided by:
* Keeping a steady stream of nutrients in your body throughout the day.
* Consuming the best pre workout meal to keep you from catabolism during your workout.
* Consuming the proper post workout nutrition in order to avoid muscle wastage immediately following your workout.
* Taking advantage of the 3 phases that follow your workout that could make or break your entire muscle building goals.
* Making sure to consume the right nutrients 30 minutes before bed in order to keep a steady stream of nutrients while your body attempts to rebuild broken muscle fibers in your sleep.
3. Rest More, Lift Less
Before we can attempt to build muscle, we must understand how muscle building works. Most people live with the misconception that muscle is created in the 5-6 hours a week you are spending in the gym. Luckily for you, this is completely wrong and we in fact build muscle in the 162-163 hours we spend out of the gym on a weekly basis. While we are in the gym busting our hump, we are actually breaking down the muscle fibers and preparing them for the magic that happens out of the weight room. Once we have created enough strain on the muscle, our body uses the resting time in between workouts to rebuild and recreate new stronger and larger muscle. This is when proper nutrition and proper rest allow you to yield amazing results (if done properly). By consuming the proper nutrients, spending the right amount of time OUT of the gym, and getting at least 8 hours of HIGH QUALITY sleep per night, you will allow your body to maximize the amount of muscle it can create.
4. Progressive Overload – Sets, Reps, and Rest
Now I mentioned before that in order for us to build muscle, we must first break it down by causing strain. Now, if you are someone who has built a significant amount of mass but just can’t seem to build anymore, you have more than likely hit a plateau. A plateau is typically met when the individual has not increased the intensity of his/her workout thus not forcing the body to need to build stronger or larger muscle. This is the reason that most weight lifters see the majority of their gains when they first begin to lift weights. Their body is not used to the strain and therefore is shocked into building muscle in order to perform the given activity again. So what happens next? Well, you build a good amount of size and get comfortable with the amount of weight you are lifting because it has gotten you this far. However, your body eventually gets used to the strain and no longer feels the need to grow. So your goal is simply to increase the intensity of the workout by:
*Adding reps without sacrificing weight.
*Adding sets without sacrificing reps or weight.
*Increasing the weight without sacrificing sets or reps.
*Decreasing rest time in between exercises.
5. Following a workout created for your somatotype
If you are a hardgainer/ ecto-morph who finds it nearly impossible to gain muscle, you need to stop following bodybuilding workouts out of mainstream magazines. Instead, you should be following a workout routine created for your specific body type that is going to allow you to build muscle just as fast as those genetically gifted individuals who build muscle easily. Your workout routine should consist of heavy compound lifts that require a large amount of muscle fibers as well as trigger the production of the most important muscle building hormones. Although isolation workouts are extremely beneficial, compound lifts should always be the focal point. Focusing on these types of lifts will allow you to maximize all your efforts toward building muscle in and out of the gym.
In Closing
These are 5 major steps that allowed me to build over 40 pounds of solid muscle in less than 6 months. They are the same focal points in my “Skinny Guy’s Guide to Explosive Muscle Gains Revealed” titled Bony to Brawny and are the same keys that have allowed my clients to see similar results. If you are looking to blow past your genetic potential and see results similar to mine and my clients, I highly recommend you start following programs targeted towards your hardgainer body type.
Recap
1. Find out how many calories you should be consuming on a daily basis as well as where these calories should come from.
2. Take advantage of every window of opportunity you have to keep your body in a growing state while avoiding the very common muscle wastage state.
3. Give your body enough time to rest, recover, and rebuild in order to maximize muscle gains.
4. Continuously increase the intensity of your workout in order to trigger continuous muscle growth.
5. Follow a workout routine created for hardgainers that is proven to increase muscle building hormones as well as recruit large amount of muscle fibers.
April 8th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
SO IM ONE OF THE SKINNY GUYS TRYING TO GAIN. MY QUESTION IS IM TAKING MASS GAINER AND AFTER WORKOUT PROTEIN.
AT SAME TIME I WANT TO AVOID GAINING SIZE ON MY STOMACH, SO QUESTION IS AFTER THE FULL BODY WORKOUT, SHOULD I TAKE MY PROTEIN SHAKE RIGHT AFTER, OR SHOULD I DO CARDIO FIRST THEN TAKE THE SHAKE AFTER THE CARDIO?
OR TAKE SHAKE FIRST THEN DO CARDIO?
PLEASE HELP.
April 8th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Mass gainer typically has fat in it, fat is not a good choice to consume after your workout. I would take a whey protein with a mixture of simple and complex carbs. If you want to burn some fat, i would perform the cardio immediately following your workout routine. Once you are done, then you would consume your post workout shake/meal.
July 6th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I weight 136 at 5’8,how many calories am I suppose to be taking in?
July 6th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
My simple answer to you without knowing what your physical activity level is, is 2500-3000 calories per day.
October 13th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
So I am one of those hardgainers what should be my calories intake if I am a traceur (free runner) and my stats are these: 15.7% fat, 60.9% water, 37.8 % muscle, 3179 K 145 pounds on 6″0 tall dude <_<