For a lot of people out there, building muscle and gaining weight is a tough thing to do. For others, gaining weight is just a matter of looking at a barbell. While I've never had a tough time gaining lean muscle, I've helped numerous people gain weight. So read on and find out about how I've helped some of my skinniest friends pack on loads of muscle.
The first thing you need to realise is that it is possible. It doesn't matter if you are built like a rake, building muscle and gaining weight is definitely doable. You just have to work harder and smarter than the average joe who puts on muscle quite easily.
Firstly, you need to make sure your lifting routine is great. If you think you can stroll into a gym and just lift a few weights here and there, think again. You need to hit the gym with purpose and a goal in mind.
It doesn't matter how big you are, you still need to lift heavy. Now, heavy is a very relative term. Just because your mate can bench press 150kg, doesn't mean you have to try and match him. If 50kg is heavy for you, so be it. Get over it!
As well as lifting heavy, you need to be lifting smart. Doing one set of bench press won't help anyone, so don't think it's going to help you either. If you don't know how to put together a great workout plan, either find someone to do it for you, or educate yourself. Since you have found this site, being able to educate yourself shouldn't be too difficult.
If you have always been a skinny person, then this is going to be the single most important thing you will hear, if you want to gain weight and build muscle. Eat, eat and eat some more. The reason you are so skinny is because your body burns energy so quickly, theres none left over to add some bulk to your frame. So what do you need to do? You've gotta make sure you eat more than your body burns. This way you can finally begin to gain weight and build some muscle.
How much should you eat? Well, that all depends on your body. If you are eating 2000 calories a day and still not gaining any weight, it means you need to up your daily calorific intake. Some of my friends who have struggled to gain weight have found that around 3000 calories a day is needed to gain weight. Is this hard to achieve? If you break your meals into 6 daily, then thats only 500 calories a meal, which isn't hard to do at all.
A lot of "hard gainers" ask me about weight gaining pills or powders. They want to know if they should believe the claims on the packaging. Will they really gain "monster" amounts of mass by drinking some wonder shake? The straight forward answer is no. There are no magical ingredients in these powders. However, they can be of some use. A good quality whey protein is great muscle building food and ideal for those looking to gain weight.
It's not because of it's magical properties that I like it, but for it's convenience. To get the same nutritional value out of normal food, you'd have to cook up a steak, or fry a chicken breast or whatever. That takes time, so blending up a quick protein shake is really handy. Just don't expect to have "steroid like gains" or anything like that from them.
So there you go, a few quick tips on how to go about building muscle and weight gain if you have always had trouble doing it. Make sure you take note and actually apply what you learn. That will be the difference between those who succeed and those who don't.
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