How to Gain Weight But Not Get Fat
As a hardgainer if you expect to gain a significant amount of muscle weight you will often have to put on a bit of fat in order to make progress. In large part overeating will make up for bad genetics. That is, you may not have the best muscle building genetics in the world but if you give the body enough food and nutrients it’ll be gaining weight and muscle size regardless of what else you do. Heck, even obese people gain muscle without exercise. If you aren’t gaining weight then you need to slam down more calories. Calories will make you gain mass, this is fundamental to weight gain. Period. If you eat enough calories your stubborn arms can’t help but grow. Eating is actually just as if not more anabolic then training.
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If you have previously attempted weight gain for women or men with no success, ask yourself if you were paying enough attention to diet and nutrition. You could have been pushing yourself in the gym but if you neglected this component of the weight gain program you will not see the desired results you were expecting. When you push yourself hard in the gym your muscle demand the nutrients for recovery and muscle growth, moreso then a sedantary person. So if you are not eating enough protein and consuming high calorie foods, all the hours in the gym will go to waste.
At the start of the article I mentioned the fact that you should expect to gain a bit of fat when gaining weight. This is not a problem at all. In addition to gaining some fat, you will also be gaining muscle, so the ratio of muscle to fat will make the fat you have gained barely noticeable. But if you wish to minimize how much fat you put on then you need to realize that there are good calories and bad calories. Avoid the bad calories in your diet – it’s better for your health and will enable to maximize muscle gains whilst minimize fat gains. When on a weight gain diet you don’t want to be stuffing yourself with junk food just so you can put on a few weight. If you wish to minimize the fat you put on in your quest for gaining weight and building a better physique, then you need to be sensible in the kitchen and when dining out and make sure you eat the right foods. Most of the microwave dinners and other junk you see in the supermarket isles will not cut it. Get creative in the kitchen and cook your own tasty healthful meals which are packed with protein, complex carbs and some healthy fats.
Gaining Muscular Mass for the Skinny Guy
It is often wrought with frustration for most skinny guys when trying to gain weight and more muscle mass onto their skinny body frame. To even add just a little bit of muscle mass onto their skinny frame may seem like an impossible task no matter how hard they try. It is possible to gain more muscle mass and to gain natural weight.
Don’t worry if this all sounds too familiar to you as you probably been following the wrong advice from unreliable sources, such as someone who doesn’t workout and is skinny themselves. Trust me as I have overcome the skinny syndrome. I’ll show you what you need to do in order to gain a more muscular body and show you reasons why you are struggling to gain weight.
Why most skinny guys fail at gaining muscle is because they don’t get in enough macronutrients on a daily basis to feed their body. If you are only getting minimal calories, then you aren’t going to gain weight and then gaining muscle is something that you will only dream of. Work on your diet to consume as many calories as you can to get the most out of weight gain. The basic principle is to consume more than what your body can burn off. If you do that, then you will gradually gain weight. It’s all in the numbers really.
I’m really tired of hearing “oh I eat tons of food, and I still can’t gain weight.” How much exactly in “tons” is your definition a lot in numbers wise? Like I said earlier, it’s all in the numbers. If you are only consuming 1500 calories a day, and you aren’t seeing any weight gain, then bump your calories another 500-600 or so. Keep increasing your daily caloric intake until you start seeing numbers on the weight scale increase.
When it comes down to it, your daily diet should consist 50% carbs, 25% proteins, and 25% fats. Your source of food should come from healthy sources such as beans, fruits, vegetables, fish, oats, and even lean meats for the protein. To get the most out of weight gain, you’ll need to approach a proper nutrition and diet plan if you’re seeking how to get a muscular body.
Another reason why skinny guys fail at gaining weight is because they are following an exercise routine that have little or no results. You have to choose the right exercise routine that is preferably designed for the skinny hard gainer type of guy. You will find out many workout programs follow one body part per day, splitting workout routines, and even using a high rep scheme on the primary exercises that are supposed to produce results. This isn’t recommended for the skinny guy. You will make some small gains, but not the gains you really want.
You need a workout routine that will blast muscle mass onto your frame and work your body as a whole, or at least in multiple muscle groups at a time. The big exercises that I contribute most of my success to are deadlifts, bench press, power cleans, and last but not least barbell squats. These exercises are known to be the big four, the powerhouse exercises. You’re able to gain muscular strength, muscular size and muscular power for the best of results with these exercises. If you can find a program that focuses more on compound lifts, then you are well on your way to gaining weight and a more muscular physique.
Cheat Days in Moderation
The majority of us bodybuilders have had those days in which we just feel like packing in extra snacks and fulfilling our sweet tooth. This so called sweet tooth doesn’t necessarily mean donuts either, it also applies to greasy burgers, ice cream, sodas with high sugar content, and french fries which we all love dearly.
What happens is that those greasy junk foods give you a feeling of being bigger and actually being pumped, within a couple hours of consumption. Which as we know it as a bodybuilder stand point, isn’t entirely a bad thing. But when it comes down to it, too much of a bad thing can lead to bad things. On the other hand, it’s ok to give in the towel for a day or so. That said, it’s healthy for your own sanity to have a cheat day about once every 2 weeks.
Back to the subject about getting pumped and feeling huge; Consuming junk food like burgers and such can actually cause a rise in anabolic hormones that include growth hormone, insulin, and also testosterone. All of which aid the process of muscle growth. During your next cheat day, continue to stay on track by eating your planned six meals, but don’t be afraid to add in a burger with fries and maybe ice cream for lunch. One thing I would suggest is keep majority of your meals throughout the day mostly clean to avoid getting unwanted fat on your belly.
Tips for Beginning a New Running Program
Beginning a new running program can prove to be a new endeavor for some, and for those of you that are new may need tips to help you get started onto the correct running path. Since you found this article, I am only assuming you are wanting to learn how to start a new running routine. And hopefully, you are an enthusiastic one at that because there are many health benefits when you get in shape by running. As with any new training program, I’ll be up front with you, this will not be an easy task. But trust me, after a while, you’ll be in top notch shape and eventually running will become habitual just as it is to sleeping. The first hurdles that you face will not be easy as mentioned, and that’s where this article comes in.
Like any other sport, running is something that requires a lot of core strength, flexibility, and balance. Just because there’s no training equipment involved does not mean it requires less skill before attempting more higher difficult running tasks. If you are a beginner and just starting out, I have to state that it’s the distance and duration you run, not how fast you run it. Because of this, it’s important to practice your form. And by running more, you get more practice. The more practice you get, the better your running form will be. You might not think it, but there’s a lot of technique and form involved in the sport of running. So if you are just starting out, you should jog at a “conversational pace” whereas if you were to run with a partner, you would be able to hold a conversation while jogging at the same time.
After you start out, you need to build up the distance and duration you at a gradual pace. This is especially important for running because believe it or not, running can bring about serious injuries if not taking seriously. I remember when I first started running, I would run a little over an hour. Now my fitness levels in generally were okay, but my connective tissues and muscles of my feet were no where near in condition to run that much. And not to mention, it took a toll on my joints as well especially my knees. So when you start out running, think baby steps not Godzilla steps. Even if you think you can run more, hold off until the next running session as building up gradually is of upmost importance when getting into running shape.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of when mixing running and walking with your workouts. I mix my cardio workouts all the time. If one day I run, then depending on how I feel I might do an incline power walk on the treadmill. Power walking is a great way to get high impact exercise while it being low impact on your joints and connective tissues. It can also help you improve your running form as you concentrate more with each step you take. Also, another benefit of power walking the day after you run is help circulate more blood into your leg muscles to help boost the recovery from running the day before. This can be considered periodizing your running workouts if you never heard of the term in weight lifting. It’s a great way to boost your endurance levels, while getting in enough recovery time for your workouts all at the same time.
Supplements and High-Intensity Training Myths
Whether if you have been working out for some time now or you’re just starting out with a bodybuilding training program, there are many things said from advertisements, friends and family, and even personal trainers from the gym that are usually incorrect and are just myths. They may sound believable, but in reality these so called myths probably won’t help you in the way they are proposed.
For adding muscle mass, here are two myths that are usually stated by sources the incorrect way:
1. You have to take supplements to gain muscle mass!
This is far from truth as you do not need any supplements to gain muscle mass. It’s the training you do in the weight room and the foods you eat in the kitchen that gives you true muscle mass. Although the advertisements of today promote supplements like they are supposed to be your main course of nutrition when in fact it’s the exact opposite. The purpose of nutritional supplements is to “supplement” your training and workouts. They are there to aid you as the last resort when getting specific key nutrients into your body. Not to totally bash supplements, some can be a waste of money while some are actually really beneficial for your training. Such as a protein supplement. Right after a workout, you need key specific nutrients to feed your body in a timely manner as catabolism occurs after you workout. Whey protein is usually my choice as it is the fastest type of protein that the body can absorb. The faster your body can absorb key nutrients right after a workout, the better.
2. Alternating between low-intensity workouts to high intensity workouts.
Your muscles will only gain in overall size when you are applying unaccustomed stress to a specific muscle group and putting high physical demands on them. Your muscles are not going to grow if you are using low intensity workouts for a long period of time. You should only use low intensity workouts for a short period of time for the muscle to recover properly, and THEN overload your muscles with high intensity training. In a sense, you have to alternate the intensity of your training in order to gain maximum muscle mass and power. Because if you’re only applying high-intensity variables to your training, you will over train your body. Over training your body happens when you train to the point where you don’t give your body enough time to recover.
