One of the biggest questions guys ask me in the gym is how did you get so big so fast.  They are usually wanting to find out what program I used or what muscle building supplements I took.  Did I do low reps with high weights or did I do compound exercises?  I answer them by saying that those things don’t matter.

What Do You Mean Exercises Don’t Matter?

Usually, they laugh a little bit and wait for me to answer, but I tell them that it doesn’t really matter which route they go with if they aren’t following the core bodybuilding principles that are proven build strength and size.  They could spend all day in the gym lifting weights and not see any strength gains unless they follow some simple advice that I’m going to share with you here in this article.

This is the information that took a 149 lb weakling who had been skinny all of his life and turned him into a 220 lb beast, all within 24 short weeks.  These are the core foundational principles that must be followed if you want to see any real progress.  Once you understand these, your whole world will change.  I don’t mean understand them intellectually, but understand them and apply them in your daily routines.

For starters, your muscles need stimulation to grow, particularly, more stimulation then they are accustomed to.  It doesn’t matter what your body type is, whether you’re an ectomorph or a mesomorph, anyone can build muscle.  It’s just about forcing your muscles to work harder with each and every workout.  It doesn’t matter what workout you do, as long as you do something.

Next, you need to be consistent.  I’m not just talking about showing up every day either.  You need to be consistently demanding more from your muscles with each and every workout that you do.  At first, your results will be greater as there is more room for improvement.  However, the results will slowly diminish as time goes on because you are getting closer to what is called your genetic potential.  That’s when the third principle becomes so important.

This Is What Sets The Men Apart From The Boys

This principle is usually the difference between the wanna bes and the guys who are making the most and best use of their time.  I’m referring to tracking your progress.  Think about the difference between a high school football coach and a professional football coach for a minute.  A high school coach may have a few plays drawn out and have some ideas about how to execute them and so forth, but a professional coach has every play in his playbook recorded with what worked, how it worked, when it didn’t work, why it did or didn’t work and so forth.

Let’s translate that to building your muscle.  Ideally, you should be recording your workouts in real time while your at the gym.  Keeping track of exercises, reps, how long your breaks were, how quickly you performed the exercises, your total overall output for the workout that day, what you ate and when you ate it.  I realize this may sound like a lot of work, but after you do it a few times it becomes second nature.  Plus, the benefits that you receive by doing this open up a world of possibilities that weren’t there before.  You start to see patterns emerge which will help you perform at the highest possible level.

Also, it is vitally important that you give your body enough rest in between workouts.  You wouldn’t go to the barber every week just to go get a haircut, would you?  Well, you should look at working out the same way.  You shouldn’t be working out just to work out.  You should be going to the gym with a purpose and that purpose should be to improve upon your last workout. (For more info on this check out this post on motivation). And you can’t do that if your body isn’t fully recovered from the previous workout.  You also want to record how long of a rest you took in between workouts just so you can monitor how your body reacts over time.  You may find that you don’t need as much rest as you once did.

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There is so much noise out there regarding how to gain weight, but I’ve learned to only listen to people who have been where I am and that have made it to where I want to be. With that being said, the best resource I have found for gaining weight specifically for skinny people can be found here.

What You Need To Gain Weight

If you are interested in gaining weight, this article is going to provide you with the answers.  Essentially, gaining weight and doing it fast involve only 2 things:  Eating right and doing the right exercises.  If you only do those 2 things properly, you can virtually put on 20 -30 pounds of mass in a very short amount of time.  It is very common for guys to put on 20 lbs of muscle within the first month.

The only way a guy will be able to gain weight is if they start exercising and feeding themselves with the proper nutrition. One of the most common misconceptions that skinny guys believe is that the only way for them to gain weight is to eat a lot and never workout, and shockingly for them, this approach won’t have the desired effect at all.

If you just eat and don’t workout, you will end up gaining a couple of pounds, unlike when you workout properly and have the proper diet. Doing both, you won’t just gain weight, but you’ll also build muscle. Remember, your main goal should be to gain muscle and not just weight, because you don’t want to end up being a skinny guy with a fat belly. There are plenty of weight gaining foods out there that won’t just add extra pounds, but will also help you gain more muscle mass as well.

What Are Some Weight Gaining Foods?

• Eggs

Eggs are filled with protein, and while you are trying to gain weight and become more muscular, you will need to feed your body with lots of protein. To start, try to eat about 3 eggs a day, and if you want, you could also get rid of the yolk so that you will only eat the protein which is contained in the egg whites. Most guys that successfully add weight eat about 3 to 4 eggs a day without the yolk, as egg is filled with the protein that your body needs in order to gain weight and muscle. When you eat eggs, the weight you gain will actually be comprised more of muscle and not fat, which is why it’s one of the best things to eat when dieting to gain muscle.

• Meat

Meat is also a really great source of protein, but not all kinds are created equally, since there are some meats that have more fat than protein. Pork, liver meat, and organ meat are all types of meat that you will want to stay away from, because they not only cause fat, but they can also wreak havoc on your entire body as well. Chicken, lamb, and turkey are meats that you should eat, as they are filled with all of the healthy protein that your body needs.

• Fish

Fish is also a really powerful weight gaining food as fish is also filled with not only protein, but the healthy fats that our bodies crave. However, not all types of fish can help you to gain weight, as there are certain kinds of fish that will actually do the opposite. Salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, cod, whiting, trout, sea perch, and sardines are all the kinds of fish that you should eat, as they are filled with quality protein which will help you gain weight. Surimi and eel are the types of fish shouldn’t be eaten too often, as they don’t contain much protein, and neither will they help with the weight gaining process.

• Fruits

Fruits are filled with the carbohydrates that your body needs in order to gain weight and muscle. The fruits that are packed with the carbohydrates your body needs are avocado, apples, mango, orange, pears, cherries, strawberries, lemons, grapefruit, passion fruit, pineapple, kiwis, tangerines, papaya, watermelon, every kind of berry, peaches, plum apricot, and plenty more. Fruits are filled with the kind of carbohydrates that can be found anywhere else, which is why it’s vital to have a couple of fruits added to your daily diet.

The Best Exercises For Weight Gain?

• Squats

Squats are the best starter exercises out there, because it doesn’t really exhaust you, yet it does wonders to the body. Squats tone the body and builds muscle around the legs, core, and thighs, which is why if you aren’t used to actually working out often, then squats would be the perfect starter workout for you.

• Pull Ups

Pull ups are the best workout since you aren’t really lifting weights yet, but just using your body as a tool to build muscle. Never lift heavyweights right away, as it could damage your muscles, since you haven’t build them up yet. Start with body weight first, because you can still gain a lot of weight through body weight exercises. If you can’t do pull ups yet, then just carry your body with your chin above the pull up bar and slowly go down. Do this starter pull up about 30 times a day until you are capable of actually doing pull ups.

• Bench Press

This is one of the “big 3″ in the body building world, because it does so much for you when it comes to building mass and gaining weight.  This exercise not only works your chest, but it works your shoulders, your triceps, the biceps, and a whole host of other smaller muscles that are important for posture and balance.  This needs to be part of your routine while gaining weight.

What You Need To Limit.

• Running

Running is the worst type of activity for you at this stage, as it will only make you lose weight and become skinnier. Running is the best workout if you want to drop weight, but since you are trying to bulk up, when you do the exercise, you will only end up canceling out all of your hard work.

The best part of learning how to gain weight fast for men is that once you do it and start seeing the results, you will  gain a level of confidence like you’ve never had before. Any insecurities you may have had around women or at the beach will simply melt away and your life will absolutely change. When you know what you need to do and what you need to eat, you will start to gain weight at a rate of 1-2 lbs per day.

If you have ever started a workout routine and failed to finish what you started, you are not alone.  In fact, over 90% of people who make a New Year’s resolution to get in shape end up quitting within the first month.  In this article, I am going to discuss why it can be so difficult to stick with a routine and what you can do to make sure you always follow through with your goals.

Why do so many people who start out with a no nonsense muscle building program, or any other program for that matter, quit after only a few short weeks?  The first reason is simply because the don’t get clear about what they really want.  They may say something like,”I want to build some muscle” or “I’m going to get in shape this year” and they leave it at that.  Think about it for a moment.  This approach is similar to somebody just getting into their car and driving without having a specific place to go in mind.  It can be confusing, frustrating, and you’re not going to reach your destination.

In order to successfully stick with a program, you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish.  Here are some examples of bad goals, good goals, better goals, and the best kind of goal.

• Bad goal-I am going to get into shape this year

• Good goal-I am going to gain 15 lbs of muscle and get my body-fat% down to 10%

• Better Goal-On Monday, Wednesday,and Friday, I am going to follow through and execute the exercises laid out for me in the No Nonsense Muscle Building program(or whatever plan you are doing), on Tuesday and Friday I am going to do some cardiovascular exercise, and on the weekends I am going to rest.  I am also going to keep track of what I eat and start buying healthy foods at the grocery store.

• Best goal-I am going to do my part and execute the plan laid out before me in the No Nonsense Muscle Building program and I am going to follow through on following the meal plan because I looked in the mirror and I was disgusted with my body.  If I am disgusted with my body, my spouse is probably disgusted as well and it feels horrible.  Living like this is not how I want to live because it is not congruent with who I am and I know I can be better.  Also, I want to know what it feels like to be in amazing shape, to have men staring at me in envy and have women giving me double takes.  It would be a shame to never experience this and If I keep going down the same road I will never have the chance to.  In addition to never experiencing these amazing feelings, I will also experience all kinds of health problems and will probably die an early death.

These are just a few examples of goals, but there are two things I want to talk about in the last one:

You need to also be clear about WHY you are setting this goal.  Most people will get the idea in their head one day about building muscle or getting in shape.  They may have seen someone who they thought looked good or saw themselves in the mirror and got a quick spark of inspiration, but that is as far as it goes.  Their motivation levels dwindle after a few days and they go back to living the way they did before.  You need to be absolutely certain about the reasons why you want to workout in the gym, but you also need to be crystal clear about all the things you will miss out on if you don’t follow through.
Write a list all the benefits you will experience if you reach your goals.

Write down all the pain you will experience if you don’t follow through.

Where will you be in 5 years if you keep doing what you did today? 10 years? Will you be happy?

Look over this list 3 times a day and soon you will start to notice that you’re motivation levels are through the roof and you are experiencing an urge to follow through that you never had before.  Once all those reasons that you wrote down start to sink into your subconscious mind, it becomes automatic and you just become a machine(in a good way).  Don’t take my word for it, though.  Follow through on this for just 10 days and see if you notice a change in your motivation levels.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that it better to focus on what you can control.  For example, you’ll notice that rather than focusing on gaining 15 pounds of muscle, I focused on following through with my exercise plan.  You can’t control how you body reacts to certain stimuli, like weight lifting or eating properly.  You may do everything you were supposed to do, but if your body only gained 14 lbs of muscle, did you fail?  Probably not.  However, this is another sticking point where people can get frustrated and give up.  They set goals that they can’t control.  They might spend 6 months following a plan, but they may not have reached the point they think they should be at or they may not have achieved the same results that somebody else has.  Just avoid this potential frustration by focusing on what you can control and executing it.

If you do these simple steps there will be nothing that can stop you from achieving your goals.  While these tips may be easy to do, they are also easy to not do.  Like Nike says, “Just Do It”.  Remember, it’s the little things in life that make the big difference.  Follow Through Right Now.