Specific Advice for Skinny People to Gain Muscle
To gain muscle as a skinny person, you need to stay focused on what actually matters for your body to change. Let’s dive into the key concepts that you need to focus on to increase your muscle mass and get on your way to making gains!
Don’t forget the trinity of gaining mass
It’s critical to get the big three right, if you actually want to see results from your efforts. Training, Fuel, and Recovery. When you put those three together, the pounds start to pack on. I tried for years, and even if I saw small progress, it was never fully right until I put those three fundamental building blocks together. Then, I packed on 34 pounds in 4.5 months. That is a dream for any skinny person looking to bulk up. Take them very seriously, and commit to them every day.
Let’s go!
You’re definitely not eating enough to gain muscle
Of the trinity above, Fuel is the one that almost all skinny people don’t get right. They swear up and down that it’s just that they need to figure out the right training program. Here’s the deal, you’re not eating enough if you are not gaining weight. It’s science. Even if you are not gaining muscle, you would be at least gaining fat if you were eating enough. If your weight is not going up, you are not eating enough. Period.
Don’t fool yourself and pretend that you eat a lot or that you’ll be able to get it right by intuition. Follow the link above and take a very structured and data driven approach to ensure that you get enough calories every single day to get you to your goal to gain muscle.
In a later post, I’ll discuss supplements. For some people, getting the required protein and calories every day by eating food is very difficult. It can be beneficial to use protein supplements like whey. However, there are pros and cons to using supplements to gain muscle, and it’s always preferable to eat regular food to get the calories you need.
Focus on advice that’s geared toward your goals
It’s tough when you’re just trying to gain muscle mass, and nothing seems to work. Every blog, post on reddit, Youtube video or article seems to be next great tip you need to pack muscle quickly. Of course, none of it seems to change your outcomes. The problem is that you’re listening to people who have never been skinny. They don’t know what it really takes to go from bony to absolutely beastly. Or, they give you advice that looks like it’s to gain muscle, but really it’s for strength training, power lifting, or something else.
Focus on guidance that curated for skinny people trying to gain mass.
Be selective with who you listen to, and what advice you’re willing to take.
Hypertrophy is your goal
The term hypertrophy is a common way of referring to training to gain muscle. Hypertrophy is the increase in muscle size that you’re looking for when you say that you want to gain muscle or mass.
It’s not strength training. It’s not power lifting, or increasing your 1 rep max. Your goal is to get bigger. Training for mass and strength training are different. Following advice and programs for strength training will likely frustrate you when you don’t see a notable change in size. Although, you’ll likely gain some size and tone to your muscles as they get stronger.
Be selective with who you take muscle gaining tips from
Make sure to get advice from sources that focus on hypertrophy, and also, those that understand how to accomplish that for skinny people. As a skinny person, it’s going to be a different, and probably more difficult road, than people who put on weight more easily. Learn from the sources that actually focus on what you need. For example, I have this list of Youtube channels that give advice that’s useful for skinny people looking to gain muscle.
On the other side, here’s an example of advice that I don’t agree with. However, skinny people land on this page when searching for tips for building muscle. I’ve personally spent a lot of time following this type of advice, before I knew that it wasn’t for me. My goal is to help you shortcut all the years that I wasted, so you can know what’s important and what’s not. The advice in this article is generally OK, but in two key areas, it falls flat for skinny people, which will kill your gains.
- The article advises you to work in really low rep sets with heavy weights. That’s called strength training.
- Also, it tells you to not work too hard for all of your workouts. Again, as a skinny person trying to pack on mass, I’m sorry, but there’s no easy road. You have to commit to intensity every single time you train. “Saving” your energy for another day is not advice that’s made for you. Leave it.
Thoughts, questions or comments? Let me know in the comments!
