As a former skinny guy that now helps skinny guys (and gals) not be skinny anymore… I can say that gaining muscle is actually pretty simple and easy you do it right. The problem most skinny people have is they’re doing everything wrong… and when it doesn’t work, they do the wrong stuff even harder.
The reality is that what you need to do is probably so simple that you won’t’ think it will work, so you don’t do it, and instead continue to do the really hard, complicated thing that you think will work eventually.
So… stop that. And do these things instead:
- Strength Train. This means lifting progressively heavier weights in the main lifts 3x/week, and do this for as long as possible. If you take your 50lb squat (or 100, or 200 or 300) and get it to 400 or 500, you will be put on a ton of muscle. All you have to do is start at 50lbs and add 5lbs per workout for as long as possible. Simple, easy… and most people won’t do it because it doesn’t make you sore enough, the workout is too short, or it’s not complicated enough.
- Eat Until You Feel Uncomfortable. Everyone knows that you’re going to be a little uncomfortable if you are trying to lose weight – you’re going to have some hunger. What no one talks about or recognizes though is that if you want to gain muscle, you’re going to have to give your body something to make muscle out of… it doesn’t appear out of thin air. There is a recipe for muscle… and it is more food than you want to eat. In weight loss you eat less than you want… and in muscle gain you eat more than you want. There’s no other way and most people just won’t eat a little bit more than they want to… if you do that at every meal, so long as you’re truly strength training (adding weight each time you train) you will build muscle 100% of the time.
- Sleep More. This is another thing people won’t do, and it’s usually not because they’re busy. It’s usually because they won’t get off their phone or set a bed time and stick to it. The actual muscle gaining process happens when you’re sleeping. You need to get consistently high quality sleep to recover and build muscle. Sleep more than you are now – shoot for 8.5 to 9.5 hours.
If you are a skinny person – male or female – and you struggle to gain weight, it’s 100% that you are not doing at least 2 of these things for long enough to see results. I was skinny for a long ass time – when I started doing these things I gained 100lbs of muscular body weight. I went from training 6-7x/week for 4-6 hours for YEARS and always being skinny… to training 3x/week for 1 hour and being buff.
If it seems too simple to work… you are actually the person that needs to do it… and that is exactly why you are still skinny.
If you need help implementing this with a personal trainer, send us your info and we will