Are you too skinny? Do you want to bulk up? Then you’re on the right page. Over the next few minutes you’re going to learn exactly how to gain muscle mass.
Now this isn’t going to be some generic rehashed advice you will find in bodybuilding magazines or on some forum. This information is SPECIFICALLY for skinny guys who want to gain muscle mass. This isn’t for chubby guys… This isn’t for guys who already have a ton of muscle mass to work with…
With that said, here’s what you need to do to get started:
FORGET the image you have of yourself in your mind. You’re no longer a skinny guy. See yourself 50 pounds heavier than you are now and hang onto that image. That’s going to be the new you. And as CRAZY as it sounds, you must see it in your mind before it will ever become a reality.
If you don’t really believe you can do this then just quit now because you’re wasting your time. But if you can project an image of what you WANT to look like 3…4…5 months down the road, then we’ve got something to work with.
Now that we’ve got your mind right, lets talk about weight lifting.
In order to gain muscle mass quickly, you’ll need to lift heavy weights. You’re going to lift 3 days a week. No more, no less.
Why 3 days? Because I said so.
No seriously, 3 days is optimal to allow your body time to recover and grow new muscle tissue. You’ve got to let your body rest between workouts or else you’re not going to get bigger, plain and simple. If you’re training more than 3 days a week you’re probably overtraining and that’s going to keep you skinny.
Listen I KNOW it sounds crazy, and I have guys ask me all the time, “3 days a week?? That doesn’t sound like enough.”
Exercises To Gain Muscle Mass
Alright so what kind of workouts should you be doing in the gym?
Well, you should stick to all the compound exercises like…
…Things like that.
These are called compound exercises and they are going to slap the most muscle mass on your skinny body the quickest.
As you can see, you won’t be using any machines for the most part. Your main exercises will use free weights.
Workout To Gain Muscle Mass
So what is your muscle-building workout actually going to look like?Let’s talk about the rep range. The best rep range for gaining muscle is between 6 – 12 reps. Lifting weights in that rep range is how you gain muscle mass.
BUT… You’ll also want to throw a little bit of strength training in there as well.
The thing is, you need to lift heavier weights each week in order to make muscle gains. In order to lift heavier weights, your strength needs to increase. So you should also be lifting in the 2-4 rep range as well. This will increase your strength from week to week.
So now you get the idea of what you need to do to gain muscle mass when you walk in the gym… You need to focus on doing compound exercises, and you need to lift in the 2-4 rep range to build your strength, and also in the 6-12 rep range to build bigger muscles.
Diet To Gain Muscle Mass
Do you REALLY want to know the secrets of how to gain muscle mass? Here it is. Eat, eat, then eat some more!
You need to take in more calories than your body burns during your normal daily activities including your workouts. When your body gets this calorie surplus, it will do one of 2 things:
- Use the calories to build new muscle mass
- Store the extra calories as body fat
So the trick is to eat ENOUGH calories to give your body the fuel it needs to build new muscle tissue… But not so much that you gain too much excess body fat.
Everyone is different, so this is why you need to track your progress each week. (But I’ll get to that in a moment.)
First, lets figure out a rough estimate of how many calories you should be eating to stat gaining muscle mass.
To do this, you’ll simply use the formula of 20 x your bodyweight. That’s the number of calories you’ll need to consume to begin making gains.
So here’s an example: If you’re a 131 pound dude… You’ll do 131 x 20 = 2,620. So you’ll start eating 2,620 calories per day.
Do this for a week and check your results. If you’re hitting the gym and doing the things you’re supposed to be doing you should be making gains. If you’re not, then it’s probably because your calories are too low. If this is the case, then try bumping up your calories by 200 per day.
Keep doing this until you find your “sweet spot.” Maybe your sweet spot will be 23 x your bodyweight… Maybe it’ll be 18 x your bodyweight… I don’t know. But 20 is a good place to start for most skinny guys with a high metabolism.
Food To Gain Muscle Mass
Alright, so this is another important point that needs to be addressed… When I talk about eating more calories, that doesn’t mean eat pop tarts and Snickers bars. Of course what you put in your body will play a big part in how much muscle you gain.
So what’s the right food to eat?
Well you’ll need to pay attention to these 3 macronutrients:
Protein, carbs, and fat.
To gain muscle mass in the quickest way possible, each meal you eat should have these 3 macronutrients. Your body needs each of these to build muscle at an optimal rate.
So let me give you a few ideas of the kinds of food you can eat:
For carbohydrates you should focus on things like:
- Brown rice
- Whole wheat pasta
- Whole wheat bread
- Oatmeal
- Beans
- Fruit
- Potatoes
- Yams
For protein, get some of these things in your diet:
- Chicken
- Tuna
- Lean beef
- Fish
- Cottage cheese
- Whey protein
- Eggs
And these are my favorite fat sources:
- Natural peanut butter
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Flax seed oil
- Olive oil
- Fish oil
If you include this stuff in each meal you’ll be way ahead of 90% of the guys in the gym trying to gain muscle mass. Your diet will be a HUGE factor in how much muscle mass you gain.
As long as you get all your calories in and eat the food I just listed you’ll start making gains. It’s best to split your meals up into 6 meals throughout the day instead of 3 meals like most people eat.
This will help keep fat gains to a minimum, make it easier to take all those calories in, and it will ensure that your muscles have a constant supply of nutrients in order to grow.
So this is how to gain muscle mass the natural way. I hope you got a LOT of great info out of it. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
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