15 Muscle Building Rules for Skinny Guys and Gals!
By Anthony Ellis 
WHY CAN'T YOU GAIN WEIGHT?
Though there may be many reasons why you may be thin, the most
apparent reason is because of your genetics. If your parents are
naturally thin or have a small body frame, then you will most likely
have the same small body type.
To some degree, your size can also be controlled by your metabolism.
If you have a difficult time gaining weight of any kind (fat or muscle)
then you most likely have a fast metabolism. That simply means that
your body burns calories at a faster than normal rate. You must take
this into account whenever you are considering a particular diet or
training program. Is it geared towards someone with your metabolism and
goal?
Now as you know, there are many ways to train. Hundreds, thousands
even. Some work and some do not, but for the specific goal of gaining
weight, there are a few UNIVERSAL things that all skinny guys must do.
Though much of the information I cover here is not as "magical" as
you may like, I consider these rules to be the basics with regard to
weight gain. These are not all of the answers, but they are definite
elements that MUST be addressed in any successful weight gain program.
You should be able to easily integrate these rules into your current
program to make it more suitable for your particular body and goals.
GENERAL RULES
1.Get the proper information that pertains to your SPECIFIC condition and goals.
The first big problem I find in most people is the lack of correct
information. Yes you are motivated and doing things, but your effort is
wasted on incorrect dieting and training information. Basically, skinny
guys are taking advice from people who have never had a weight gain
problem. Want to know how to gain weight? Then find someone who has
walked your shoes. Someone who has been where you are.
2. Set a specific goal and create a plan of attack.
If you were to drive cross country to another city, would you just
start driving randomly, or would you plan a route that would get you
quickly and efficiently?
Think of your plan as a road map and your goal as your destination.
Without a plan and a specific goal you will be without focus and can
easily get lost or side tracked. This happens more often than you know.
I see many people in the gym just doing whatever, or just eating
whatever -- no plan or specific goal. They wonder why they don't make
progress. They have no focus.
Having a specific program to follow allows you to take action each
day. This action is focused on specifically getting you to your
destination quickly. There is no thinking, debating or guessing. You
just do it. A specific plan provides necessary daily structure that not
only keeps you on the road moving forward, it also helps to develop
good eating and training habits that will benefit you long after you
have reached your destination.
3. Have confidence in yourself and belief in what you are doing.
Let’s face it; we live in a cruel world. Hate and jealously is
everywhere. For most people who begin a fitness program to improve
themselves, getting started will be half the battle. The other half
will be staying motivated throughout the constant onslaught of
negativity from others. A few negative words can do serious damage if
you allow it.
The most insulting things you hear may be from friends, co-workers
and acquaintances at the gym. People hate change. It makes them
insecure, because they suddenly discover there’s more to you than they
were probably willing to admit. They fear that you may actually achieve
your goal. It makes them look less “superior”.
Once you have begun your plan, you must have faith and believe in
what you are doing. Stay focused and avoid overly critical or negative
people. If you have to, keep your business to yourself. When I first
began my program, I stopped talking about what I was doing because I
got tired of hearing things like “you can’t do that”, “that’s
impossible”, “you’re wasting your time and money”. Funny thing is, now
those people are constantly bugging me for advice.
It’s your life. It’s your body. It’s your dream. Don’t allow your success or failure to rest in the hands of others.
WORKOUT RULES
4. Stop listening to every ridiculous piece of advice you hear in the gym or read on a message board.
Recently a client of mine informed me that someone in the gym stated
that he was training all wrong and he needed to train 5-6 days a week,
and aim for more reps during his workout. Somewhere in the range of
15-20 reps per set.
The person giving the advice was quite confident about his
recommendations, and he had an impressive physique that typically
elevates him to the elusive "listen to me if you want to look like me"
level in the gym. He was bigger than my client, so even though my
client's "intellectual" mind knows that advice is absurd; his
"unrealistic dreamer" mind took this information very seriously. So
seriously that he changed his program and didn't inform me until a week
or so later. This particular person had been making great progress on
his current program, yet he allowed this one person’s comment to
overshadow that progress and convince him that his program was
inadequate. This is a mistake and it showed in his lack of further
progress.
In addition, don't judge the validity of what a person says by how
they look. Just because the guy is huge doesn't mean he is spewing
pertinent advice for you. Many people that have big physiques are big
despite of their training, not because of it. I know some huge guys
that know very little about training and dieting correctly. They can do
whatever and still gain muscle; unfortunately we are not that way, so
we much approach things in a more intelligent way.
5. Workout Infrequently
This is the most difficult concept for many to grasp simply because
it involves less action, instead of more. When we get motivated and
start a new program, it’s natural to want to do something. We want to
train and train and train. Thinking all along that the more you train,
the more muscle you will build. Unfortunately, this could not be
farther from the truth.
More training does not equal more muscle growth. Understand that the
purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle growth. That takes
very little time. Once that has been done, the muscle needs to be
repaired and new muscle needs to be built. That only happens when you
are resting. You do not build muscle in the gym, you build muscle when
resting! If you never give your body any essential “non active” time,
when will it have a chance to build muscle? Think about that.
Now, add in the fact that you have a difficult time gaining weight
and the importance of rest increases. Individuals who are naturally
thin and have difficulty building muscle tend to require less training
and more rest.
6. Focus on Multi-Jointed Lifts
Multi-jointed exercises are those that stimulate the most amounts of
muscle fibers. Unlike isolation exercises which only work individual
muscles, multi-jointed lifts work many different muscle groups
simultaneously. For those needing to gain weight, this is ideal because
these lifts put your body under the most amount of stress. This is the
stress that will shock your nervous system and cause the greatest
release of muscle building hormones. This results in increased muscle
gain all over the body.
You can still do some isolation work; however it should not be the
focus of your workouts, and should only come after your multi-jointed
lifting is complete.
7. Focus on Using Free Weights
Free weights are preferred over machines for many reasons, but most
importantly because they allow the stimulation of certain supporting
muscle groups when training. Stimulating these stabilizer and
synergistic muscles will allow you go get stronger, and ultimately
build more muscle faster. Yes, some can most likely still build large
amounts of muscle using machines, but why make it more difficult if you
already have a difficult time gaining weight?
8. Lift a weight that is challenging for you
Building mass involves lifting relatively heavy weight. This is
necessary because the muscle fibers that cause the most amount of
muscle size growth (called Type IIB) are best stimulated by the lifting
of heavy weight. A heavy weight as one that only allows you to perform
4-8 reps before your muscles fail.
Using a lighter weight and doing more reps can stimulate some Type
IIB fibers, but again if you have a difficult time gaining weight, why
make it more difficult? You need to try and stimulate as many as you
can with the use of heavy weights.
9. Focus more on the eccentric portion of the exercise.
When you lift a weight, it can be divided into three distinct
periods. The positive, the negative and midpoint. The concentric or
“positive” motion usually involves the initial push or effort when you
begin the rep. The midpoint is signaled by a short pause before
reversing and returning to the starting position. The eccentric, or
“negative” portion of each lift is characterized by your resistance
against then natural pull of the weight.
For example, when doing push-ups, the positive motion is the actual
pushing up motion. Once you have pushed all the way up, you hit the mid
point. The negative motion begins when you start to lower yourself back
down. Most would simply lower themselves as fast as they pushed up, but
I recommend extending and slowing down this portion. Slowing down the
eccentric part of the lift will help to stimulate more muscle growth.
It actually activates more of the Type IIB fibers mentioned about in
Rule 7.
10. Keep your workout short but intense.
Your goal should be to get in, stimulate your muscles and then get
out as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to do large amounts of
exercisers per body part trying to target every muscle and hit every
“angle”. This should only be a concern of someone with an already
developed, mature physique who is trying to improve weak areas.
If you have no pec, don’t concern yourself with trying to target
inner, outer, upper, lower or whatever. Just work your chest. You
should do no more than 2-3 exercises per body part. That’s it. Doing
more than that won’t build more muscle, faster. In fact it could
possibly lead to muscle loss. Long training sessions cause catabolic
hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible
for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. While at the
same time, long training sessions suppress the hormones that actually
build muscle.
If you don’t want to lose muscle during your workouts, I suggest
limiting your sessions to no more than 60-75 minutes MAXIMUM. Less if
you can.
11. Limit your aerobic activity and training
Honestly, I do not do any aerobic activity when I am trying to gain
weight. This is mainly because it interferes with the important
“non-active” time my body needs for muscle building and recovery. I do
understand that people have lives and other activities that they don't
want to give up, so it must be kept to a minimum. It won’t hurt your
progress as long as you don’t over do it. If you find that you are
doing more aerobic activity weight training, that’s overdoing it.
I also don’t recommend it because people tend do it for the wrong
reasons. Many start aerobic activity because they believe it will help
them to lose fat. While that is true, it won’t do so on a high calorie
mass diet. To lose fat, you need to be eating fewer calories.
12. Don’t program hop
Here’s how it usually happens. You’ve just read about a new exercise
or workout that is supposed to pack on the mass. Now, even though you
had already started another training program a few weeks ago, you are
tired of it and really want to start this routine instead because it
sounds better.
I call these people, “program hoppers”. They are very enthusiastic
when starting a new program, but they never follow it long enough to
actually see any results. They are easily distracted and love to drop
whatever they may be doing to follow the latest "hot" workout or
exercise.
My advice is don’t do it. This is a bad habit that never leads to a
positive outcome. Understand that it takes time for any program to
work. To be successful, you must follow your program consistently. Yes,
there are many different training methods and interesting routines out
there, but you can’t do them all at the same time and jumping around
won’t allow enough time for any of them to actually be effective for
you. Pick one that is focused on your current goal and stick with it.
There will be plenty of time to try the others later, but NOT NOW.
EATING RULES
13. Eat more
This rule is pretty simple, but usually the one that is not done
correctly. If weight gain is your goal, then you will need to eat more
food. Period. In most cases, you will need to eat more than you are
normally accustomed to.
One large problem that I had when starting out is I just had no
appetite. I knew I needed to eat more, but I just did not want to. I
had to force myself to eat at each meal. Thankfully, after about 2
weeks, my appetite grew. I was becoming hungry before each meal, and if
I didn't eat my meal at the normal time, my body knew it.
If you have this problem, you still must eat something, no matter
how much. Start off making yourself eat something small like fruit
every few hours. Then, as your appetite becomes more active, gradually
move into more real food.
What this will do is gradually get your body accustomed eating at
regular intervals. Eventually you will be hungry before each meal time.
When eating more, you will need to make sure that you are getting
plenty of good quality protein. Protein is a nutrient that is essential
for building muscle. Every meal that you eat should contain some form
of protein. Meal Replacement Powders like Myoplex are excellent for
this purpose. They enable you to eat large amounts of good quality
protein in a very convenient manner.
14. Eat more often
In addition to eating more calories, you should also strive to eat
more often throughout the day. Eating infrequently, or going long
periods without eating, will cause your body to breakdown muscle tissue
for the calories it needs. This is especially true for those with fast
metabolisms.
Spreading your meals throughout the day will give you more
manageable meal sizes, improve nutrient assimilation, and make sure
that your body always has the calories it needs for muscle building and
repair. I recommend eating a high protein meal every 3 hours. During
normal waking hours, that usually equals about 6 meals.
Now, I know what you are saying, “I’m too busy to do this”, or “how
can I do that with a full time job and school?” Don’t let the thought
of this being too difficult keep you from doing it. It may seem very
inconvenient at first, but once you get in the habit of doing it, it
becomes second nature and you don’t have to give it much thought. Trust
me, I’ve been doing it for years and do not feel that it’s limiting or
time consuming.
15. Use Nutritional Supplements.
Before you buy any product, remember that supplements are not magic.
Too many people think that just because you buy the latest product, it
guarantees that you will automatically begin to pack on the pounds. The
truth is that supplements are only there to enhance an already solid
diet and workout program.
They can give you the extra edge by:
* Adding More Convenience: Using food supplements like Myoplex or
Designer Protein help to eliminate the common problem of 'not enough
time', by providing you with a quick, efficient way to get your
required nutrients each day. They make eating large amounts of calories
and protein easier for people with low appetites.
* Increasing Strength Levels: Products that contain Creatine, like
Phosphagen HP or Cell-Tech enable you to swing the odds of gaining more
weight in your favor by increasing your strength output. Creatine
enables you to lift heavier weights, which will stimulate more muscle
fibers and cause more muscle growth.
* Decreasing Recovery Time: Vitamin C is essential to prevent free
radical damage, which is accelerated after the heavy trauma of weight
training. It is also essential is helping to repair connective tissue.
All of this helps decrease the amount of time you are sore.
* Enhancing Your Immune System: Weight training increases the body's
need for many minerals like magnesium and selenium. I always use a good
multi-vitamin ensures that I am not deficient in any major essential
vitamin or mineral. Deficiency symptoms include muscle weakness and
suppression of the immune system, muscle cramping and fatigue.
I can honestly say that I could not have built the body I have today
without the convenience and enhancements supplements provide. I simply
don't have the time or desire to do it any other way. This is a choice
that you must decide for yourself. You will be spending your money on
these products, so make sure that you know their place in your program.
IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Yes, but I have to be honest and say that from my experience,
gaining weight is much more difficult than losing fat. Even if you are
doing everything right, it will still be difficult because you are
fighting against what your body naturally prefers. If you are naturally
thin, building an impressive physique involves persistence and
determination, but no matter what anyone says, it is well within your
ability.
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