What do you see when you look in the mirror in the mornings? A skinny body devoid of all muscle? Do you look like a long distance runner that has not had a good meal in a long time? Are you fed up with the laughs at the beach and pool when you take off your shirt? No worry, you can start making a difference today through a simple, but effective weight lifting program. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to a stronger, more muscular body.
First let's talk about where you are at now. There are many young men who have a difficult time building their muscles. Sometimes it is due to genetics. Sometimes it is a hormone issue. No matter what the challenge is skinny guys must take a different path to building lean muscle mass. These guys must use a somewhat different weight lifting strategy than those who have been blessed with great genes and can build muscle quickly.
You are doing the right thing by doing your homework on weight lifting and how it can help you make the transition from a skinny pushover to a ripped, muscular stud.
Here are the steps for you to follow to develop that lean muscle mass that will have the ladies lining up to be with you. My friend Vince Delmonte calls them the No-Nonsense Steps to Muscle Building.
GET IN AND GET OUT!
Get in the gym do your workout, then get out. Weight lifting burns a huge amount of calories, so as a muscle-challenged young man you need all the calories you can get. You won't grow lean muscle if you are constantly burning up your calories. Remember Get In and Get Out; no exceptions!
You need your rest, young man. Muscle growth takes place when you are resting, particularly when you are a very skinny person.
We need to get one thing straight. I am not telling you to become a couch potato between workouts. That would be self-defeating to your plan. You cannot keep doing set after set of grueling weight lifting and expect to build muscles that you will be proud to show off on South Beach.
If you are going to put on serious muscle mass you have to have big workouts with heavier weights. You have to be pushing yourself constantly. You are not strength training here; you are body, or more correctly, you are muscle building. You need to be working to your maximum each and every workout, then get out of the gym and get some rest. Let your muscles recover after you have broken them down.
FOCUS ON COMPOUND LIFTS
As a thin man with understated muscles, you do not need to be doing any exercises that isolate specific muscles. You will have plenty of time to work on those exercises once you have packed on some quality muscle.
So focus on doing compound weight lifting exercises like squats, military press, bench press, deadlifts and rows. These will work several muscles at the same time and give you more return on your invested time. Stay away from doing things like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, leg extensions, chest flys and other exercises that work specific muscles. These isolation exercises take time and burn lots of calories that skinny guys cannot afford to burn.
Build your bulk first, then you will have plenty of mass to chisel into that neatly-defined hunk of a man you want to be. Focus on a full body workout program and steer clear of the five-day split programs. With this plan, you will begin to see new muscle mass developing all over your body in a few months.
LIMIT YOUR CARDIO WORK
What? Limit cardio work?
I know you do not want to become fat, but that is really not something you need to be concerned about with your high-metabolism, skinny body. Cardio burns far too many calories that you need to use to build solid muscle. Doing cardio exercises is not going to help you acomplish your ultimate goal of growing your muscle mass.
It is fine to do some cardio work to maintain your overall fitness, but limit it to a few twenty minute workouts each week. You are not training for a marathon here, so your cardio workouts need to light to moderate in intensity. Use your hard-core intensity in the the weight room only.
By the way, the main problem most overweight people have has nothing to do with their lack of cardio exrecise, but has everything to do with their poor eating habits. So if you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and become a beast in the weight room you will not have to worry about becoming fat. Muscle, baby, that is the name of game!
GET PLENTY OF REST
So far, you have learned how to get your muscle- building machine going; you know what you need to work on in the gym and you know what to avoid, now you need to rest. Those intense workouts and the proper nutition are going to pay huge dividends, but ONLY if you give your body time to recover.
You have to get lots of quality sleep to allow for your muscles to repair and rebuild themselves. You do not want to do all of that work in the gym and not get the full results you expect. Rest is truly the key to building solid muscle mass. Remember you tear down the muscle in the weight room so it can rebuild itself bigger and better than before.
You do not have to say goodbye to your social life completely, but too much late night drinking and partying will undermine your muscle-building efforts very quickly. Simply put, you need your rest young man, so chill out and go to sleep to wake up with bulging muscles. Okay, it is not that easy, but the rest is an important part of the process.
PROPER TECHNIQUE MATTERS
We have all seen the guys in the gym slinging their barbells up and down, backwards and forwards using the momentum of the weight to get it above his head or to his side. That will not get you anything, but a bad back and deflated mental attitude when the results do not come.
Technique in weightlifting really matters. Having proper form will get you measurable gains faster and help you to avoid injuries. No form; No results! If you are not sure what the proper form for each exercise is you need to find a good weight training book or seek advice from an experienced trainer who can help you.
And that leads me to my final point.
FIND A MENTOR
Going from a skinny kid who gets pushed around a lot to a totally ripped hard-body takes time, effort and focus. You probably are going to need someone to guide you that has been where you are now and has accomplished what you want to do. A mentor can make the process easier and more productive.
When I was a skinny little guy I did not want another skinny cardio geek trying to tell me how to build serious muscle mass. What did he know about muscle building? His body was devoid of muscle from what I could tell.
I found a buff hard-body guy that understood what I was going through and really wanted to help me. My mentor helped me to stay focused and motivated during those days I was trying to avoid working out.
He challenged me and showed me things that I would have never have know without his guidance. A mentor who is an experienced, muscle-building gym rat will save you lots of time and effort in your process to get that ripped body.
Put that skinny, muscle-less body behind you by taking some very simple, but effective steps. Get in the gym, workout hard by doing compound lifts and using proper technique. Limit your cardio work so you do not burn precious calories, then get out of the gym. Rest those hard worked muscles by getting lots of quality sleep. And maximize your results by finding a mentor who has been there and done that.
Following these steps over the next few months will having you looking into the mirror to see a ripped, well-muscled physique looking back at you.
Exercises such as the bench press (for the pecs), squats (for the quads), deadlifts (for the back), military presses (for the shoulders), and bent-over barbell rows (for the lats) have for the longest time been praised as the main "mass builders".
Everyone says that if you want to build the largest amount of muscle in the shortest amount of time, focus on these compound exercises in your workout routine.
To make it clear, a compound exercise is any exercise that forces more than one muscle group to work.
For example, in the bench press, which everone thinks is hands down the best movement for building a thick chest, is considered a compound exercise because not only does the chest have to work, but the shoulders and triceps come into play a great deal as well.
A compound exercise would be considered different from an isolation exercise, which only uses 1 muscle group for the movement.
An example of an isolation movement would be the flyes, which works the chest almost exclusively.
Now, here's where the whole "compound exercises are the best muscle mass builders to gain weight and muscle" myth starts...
When you compare the amount of weight that you can lift with a compound exercise and an isolation exercise, there is almost no comparison.
You can lift far more weight with a compound exercise than an isolation exercise.
So, everyone seems to reason "Hey, if I can lift 250 pounds when I bench press, as opposed to 90 pounds with flyes, then because I'm lifting a lot more weight in the bench press then I must be building more muscle!!!".
Sorry to be the bearer of the truth, but that isn't how it works.
Sure you can lift way more weight with a compound exercise. But why is that?
Because with a compound exercise you have 2-3 different muscle groups, sometimes more, all helping to lift weight.
Of course you are going to lift more, since with an isolation exercise you are only using 1 muscle group.
But here's where the reality of the situation comes in...
Sticking to the example of the bench press: 9 times out of 10 if you are performing the bench press it's because you are trying to build a bigger chest.
Well, realize that out of the total amount of weight that you may be lifting, the muscles that do most of the work are the
triceps, then the shoulders,......then, and only then, does the chest come into the picture.
You're chest is not doing even half of the work it takes to bench press, regardless of how well you perform that exercise and focus on the pecs.
Now, take flyes, the isolation exercise for the chest, into consideration.
With flyes the chest is forced to do over 90% of the work! Almost all by its little self.
You will focus more tension and work to the chest muscles from an isolation exercise, like flyes, then you will ever from any compound exercise, like the bench press, and as a result stimulate more muscle.
Just because you can lift overall more weight with a compound exercise than an isolation exercise, don't let your ego or overall numbers get in the way of you doing the right thing to help you build and gain muscle weight.
Have you ever noticed that there are some individuals that can bench press a ton of weight, yet they have almost no chest to show for it?
Have you ever observed someone that can squat a house, yet when you look at their thighs / quads, you would never think that the person even works out?
Have you ever seen all of these people that love benching, have huge shoulders and triceps, yet they are flat-chested?
It proves my point.
Sure, you may not be able to lift as much weight with an isolation exercise, but you'll build bigger muscles.
Who cares how much you can lift. Let's be honest. What matters more is how muscular, defined, and big we look.
Both Deborah Schaefer & Jonathan Perez are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Deborah Schaefer has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Real Estate and Build Muscle. Deborah Schaefer is the publisher of Growing up extremely skinny herself, Deborah has been inspired to. Deborah Schaefer's top article generates over 1900 views. to your Favourites.
Jonathan Perez has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lose Weight, Build Muscle and Cardio Training. How did a Cleveland Firefighter discover how to gain over 40 pounds of muscle weight WITHOUT using any supplements, no special diet, eating very low protein, and working out only 2 hours a week? Jonathan Perez has exposed the truth - "From Skinny To Muscu. Jonathan Perez's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.