5 tips for skinny people who want to be bodybuilders

Ectomorphs are called hardgainers because, well, they find it hard to gain muscle. Having a taller, leaner frame with small joints in the wrists and ankles is a dead giveaway that your frame isn’t genetically optimized for building and building a lot of muscle, but that certainly shouldn’t hold you back when it comes to becoming a bodybuilder. , because ALL THE WORLD you can build and maintain lean muscle mass!

Here are 5 weight gain tips for skinny guys and girls who want to be bodybuilders:

Hardgainer Tip #1: Have realistic expectations

Ectomorphs will never win the Mr. Olympia title, but neither will 99.999% of other bodybuilders. All over the world there are bodybuilders who work hard in the gym for a thousand hours a year while eating right, sleeping right and taking all kinds of supplements and performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and at that level you need everything to be on point. – including your genetics. But building muscle, having a great body, and looking great in the gym or on the beach can be achieved by hardgainers, even without the genetics of a gorilla or trucks full of PEDs.

Chances are, you already have one big advantage over other bodybuilders: very little body fat. Typically, a hardgainer has a fast metabolism and is no more genetically predisposed to pack on a lot of body fat than he or she is to build muscle. So while envisioning the body you want to build, imagine yourself with a little less body fat than you currently have, and with more muscle mass. How much more? That’s going to be up to YOU: how relentless you are in your pursuit of a physique bodybuilder.

Hardgainer Tip #2: Train smart at the gym

As a skinny guy trying to build bigger muscles, you need to train smart and stick to proven principles. Make sure most of your workouts are focused on the big compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, bent-over rows, bench presses, and overhead presses. Yes, you’ll want some isolation exercises for your arms, abs, and calves, but focus most of your energy and time on the lifts that are the proven best muscle mass builders. And keep your ego in check: constantly attempting new PRs will put a damper on your gains. Endomorphs and some mesomorphs can gain noticeable muscle size from weight lifting workouts, but most ectomorphs will simply get much stronger without getting much bigger with that style of training.

Instead, try to do 5-10 sets of each exercise, with 8-12 reps per set. Don’t rush your sets, but do each of your reps counting 1-2 seconds on the concentric portion of the lift and 3-5 seconds on the eccentric portion. (You can always tell what the concentric part of any lift is; it’s the part where the muscle you’re working shortens and contracts. Consider the upward movement of squats, deadlifts, rows, etc., and the downward movement of the triceps push-ups, etc.)

Rest between sets is also important. You’ll see a lot about time under tension (TUT) suggesting you keep rests within sets to 30 or 40 seconds max, but that’s not always the best advice for true winners: resting 30 seconds between sets burns 50%. plus. calories than 3 minute breaks according to Dr. Jim Stoppani. While a high volume of sets and resting 3 minutes per set would take too long, try to rest for about a minute between sets.

Keep your form tight and use weights that allow you to get 10-12 reps on your first sets without breaking form, but only get you 6-8 reps on your last two sets. If, on those last two sets you can’t get 6 reps, then the weight is too heavy. Conversely, if you’re still hitting ten reps on your last set, keep missing that set, then increase the weight for your next workout until you’re back in that 6-8 rep range for your last set.

In many, if not most cases, hardgainers’ fast metabolism allows their bodies to repair itself fairly quickly. So be sure to work each part of the body at least twice a week; in fact, a full body workout on 3 non-consecutive days is usually ideal.

Hardgainer Tip #3: Eat Clean, Eat Healthy, and Eat MORE

Anyone trying to be a bodybuilder needs to consume a lot of calories every day, and those who gain weight need to consume a LOT more clean calories than others. Yes, you have tons of energy. That’s courtesy of your faster metabolism and your habit of burning glucose, glycogen, carbohydrates, and protein to keep you supercharged. But put aside the ‘you can eat anything’ concept – that’s a common myth among weight gainers because they don’t pack on a lot of body fat on a poor diet. He must understand that too many simple carbohydrates on a regular basis can dull his insulin receptors. Not only can that lead to type 2 diabetes in the future, but insulin is the main transport of glucose into the muscles, where that glucose is stored as glycogen and used to fuel muscle activity.

Instead, plan to eat a cleaner diet with plenty of protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Start by calculating your daily needs using this simple formula: You want to consume 15 calories for every pound you weigh, so at 150 pounds you would start with 2,250 calories per day. You want at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, and in our example, that 150-pound person would eat 150 grams of protein, which means 600 calories would come from your daily protein intake. Twenty to twenty-five percent of your calories (450 to 560 calories) should come from healthy fats, which means the remaining 1,090 to 1,200 calories should come from carbohydrate sources like yams, brown, red, or black rice, oats, and vegetables. .

Remember, though, that your goal is to become a bodybuilder with a lot of lean muscle mass, which means you don’t want to stay at 150 pounds. Once his nutrition is on point as detailed above, he can start adding more calories. Start by adding 500 calories to your day and wait a couple of weeks to see results. If you’re building muscle without adding belly fat, add another 500 calories the following month, etc. If you have trouble eating larger meals, get the extra calories by adding one or two meals to your day: eat 4 or 5 times a day instead of 3 times a day.

In most cases, those who have difficulty gaining weight do not eat well and do not eat enough. Don’t be that guy or girl – pay attention to proper nutrition and make sure you consume all the required calories every day!

Hardgainer Tip #4: Get enough sleep

A big truism for bodybuilders is that muscle is worked in the gym, fueled in the kitchen, and built in the bedroom while you sleep. Not getting enough sleep will prevent you from being a true bodybuilder. Remember, as an ectomorph, you need everything to go right in your routine. There’s no point putting a ton of effort into your workouts and tearing down your muscles if you’re not going to fuel them properly and then get enough sleep to allow your body to repair and rebuild those muscles, making them bigger to meet needs. anticipated progressive resistance that they will face in the future.

In today’s real world, very few people can sleep 8 or 9 hours a night, but you can certainly get close if your goal as a skinny guy or girl is to become a bodybuilder. You don’t NEED to be on social media for hours every night, you don’t NEED to text your friends late at night, and you DON’T NEED to hit the clubs every weekend. A busy social life won’t give you the muscles you want, but smart training, proper nutrition, and 7-9 hours of sleep each night will. It all comes down to how much you want it, right?

Hardgainer Tip #5: Strategic Supplementation

Walk into ANY professional bodybuilding supplement store and you’ll find more than enough options to completely empty your wallet, melt your debit and credit cards, and leave you deep in debt. Luckily for you, hardgainers can skip all but 3 or 4 of them…

For example, they most likely have a large selection of pre-workout potions and pills. But with your fast metabolism and all the carbs you’re eating, you already have more energy than you know what to do with, along with a determination that you’ll do WHATEVER it reasonably takes to pack on bigger muscles.

So what do you SHOULD consider?

First, find a good whey protein or whey isolate powder. I don’t advise getting one of the high calorie protein blends for weight gain as most are packed with simple sugars. Instead, find a good clean source of whey and choose a flavor you like. Mix it with water or 2% milk and take one each morning when you wake up, since your body has no protein left in the diet at that time. Then have a protein shake one hour before your workout and as soon as reasonably possible after your workout. Remember that most of your protein needs should come from whole foods: chicken, eggs, turkey, fish, lean beef, etc. – so you’re only increasing that protein at times when your body can make the best use of it.

Second is creatine. Creatine is probably the most studied bodybuilding supplement, and one scientific study after another has shown it to be a highly effective muscle building aid. Put a teaspoon of creatine in a glass of water and drink it sometime during the day on rest days, and both before and after your workout on training days.

Rounding out the big 3 are the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), namely leucine, isoleucine, and valine. The purpose of supplementing with them is to help build your muscles, and they are also believed to help prevent your existing muscle mass from being cannibalized during intense workouts. Get the pills or powder and take them before, during and immediately after your workouts.

Additional Tip for Hard Winners:

Perseverance and patience should be your guiding lights throughout your bodybuilding journey. As a skinny guy or girl, it will take you longer to build muscle mass, and you have to be consistent; while others may see gains from skipping workouts, deviating from diet, etc., you have to be reasonably strict with yourself. But fear not: follow the 5 Hardgainer tips above and you’ll get the results you’re looking for in due time.