If you’ve ever flicked through one of the many bodybuilding and fitness magazines out there, then you may have wished you could transform your skinny body like the guys on the covers.
So, what’s holding you back from achieving your very own skinny guy transformation? Is it lack of knowledge of where to start or do you just feel that you are cursed with skinny genetics and will probably never achieve significant muscle gain?
Whatever your reason, you shouldn’t believe the nonsense out there that says that you can’t beat your skinny genetics – they can be beaten, it just takes a little understanding about the process of building muscle and what works for your body type.
Notice I said your body type…every body is different, and since you’re a skinny guy you’ll need workout and nutrition plan designed for a “hardgainer”.
To gain muscle quickly you need to combine quality nutrition with good weight training…so let’s start in the kitchen.
Eat Your Way To A Better Body
To pack on muscle quickly you’ll need to significantly increase your daily calorie intake.
As a skinny guy you have a naturally fast metabolism which causes you to struggle to gain any kind of weight, even fat. To counter this you need to consume a large number of calories and spread them evenly throughout the day.
This is to ensure consistent energy levels and nutrients to feed your muscle tissue. Most skinny guys fail to transform their bodies because of a poor approach to nutrition. Great physiques are made in the kitchen so don’t overlook its importance.
As a rough guide, multiply your current bodyweight in pounds by 24 and you’ll come out with a ballpark figure of how many calories you’ll need daily to help you gain weight and build muscle.
Weight Training
While improving your nutrition is vitally important to achieve your skinny guy transformation, it is pretty useless without a great weight training workout. An increase in daily calories without the corresponding exercise and training will just result in fat gain…remember the aim is to feed the muscle not the fat!
However, many skinny guys make the mistake of following workout routines that are not designed for their body type, or even worse just going to the gym without a plan and blindly moving from machine to machine with a clear goal.
Below are the common mistakes skinny guys make in their workouts:
- Focusing on isolation exercises (i.e. bicep curls) instead of compound multiple-joint exercises like squats and bench press
- Performing high rep numbers on light weights instead of low reps on heavy weights
- Wasting time on cardio exercises – this will just burn off more calories making it harder for you to gain weight and build muscle.
Cardio is great when trying to get lean and ripped, but can sabotage your results when you’re aiming for muscle gains.
