A lot of beginners, especially skinny guys, struggle to gain muscle. Gaining muscle requires a lot of effort as far as exercise and diet are concerned. Listed below are some of the best tips that can help you gain pounds of muscle quickly:
- Limit your cardio workout – If you are a hardgainer then is it best to limit your cardio workout in the bulking phase. Even though cardio can help built up your aerobic ability, too much of this workout can burn excessive calories making it difficult for you to gain muscle and weight.
- Try to focus on heavy and compound exercises – One of the most common mistakes that skinny guys do is that they spend a lot of time on isolation exercises when they should be concentrating on multi-joint or compound exercises that stimulate more muscles at the same point of time. Some of the exercises that you should be including in your workout include squats, deadlifts, bench pressing, overhead pressing, rows, etc. These exercises not only help boost testosterone production but are also known to increase HGH secretion in the body.
- Eat irregularly – I have seen a lot of guys eating every few hours. Now, this helps boost metabolism and can speed fat-burning in the body. Now, the problem with skinny guys is that their metabolism is already very fast and this kind of frequent eating further elevates their BMR, making it hard for them to gain both muscle and weight. What it means is that you must have 2-3 meals a day and avoid frequent diets. This is the same strategy that sumo wrestlers follow and there’s no doubt that they are the kings of bulking!
- Eat a lot – In order to gain muscle and weight your body needs to be in a caloric surplus for which you need to consume a lot of food.
- Eat dirty if necessary – Clean bulking is quite hard and is certainly not the best option for skinny guys. Hard gainers tend to benefit from including cheat meals to their diet since they help increase their caloric intake. However, you must not forget that having quality and clean food sources that enhance protein synthesis is still essential to gain muscle and limit fat storage in your body. Thus, you must try to have as much clean foods including protein, unsaturated fats and unrefined carbohydrates in your diet as possible.
- Try to include negative reps into your workout – This is when you take the full load during the negative or the eccentric phase and complete the exercise in a slow and controlled manner. This training technique may help you experience more muscle soreness the next day and is usually great for bulking.
- Make sure your protein intake is in the range of 1.5/2 g/lb of body weight – Protein is essential for building muscle and if your goal is to gain muscle then it is important that you increase your protein intake. Normally, you should consume 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight. However, when you train hard and want to bulk up, you need to increase your protein intake to 1.5-2 g/lb of your body weight.
- Increase your carbohydrate intake too – In order to train harder, your body needs lots of energy too and this is what makes it important for you to increase your carbohydrate intake to 2-3 grams per pound of your body weight. This will not only give you the required energy boost but will also help in recovery and repair of muscle tissue.
- Add supplements to your diet – One of the most common supplements is whey protein. It is also a good idea to include BCAA’s in your diet. Moreover, you can also try natural alternatives to SARMs that can help you get excellent results without side effects.
- Get enough sleep -Gaining muscle not only requires proper exercise and diet but also enough rest. It is important that you sleep peacefully for at least 7-8 hours every night. You must keep in mind that lack of sleep can lower testosterone and HGH secretion in your body which can lead to a negative impact on your muscle growth.
Gaining muscle requires a lot of effort, time and sweat. However, if you stick to a rigorous training routine and a proper diet and follow the tips mentioned above, you should be able to bulk up quickly.