How To Gain Weight And Build More Muscle!
by Anthony Ellis
For many thin guys around the world, gaining weight without
using illegal steroids has been a challenge. For thousands of
lean young men, the dream is to gain weight, but no matter how
much they eat they remain thin. Some people are naturally thin;
that means their genetic makeup is in such a way that the body
burns more calories than others. The very basic method of
weight gain is to eat more calories than your body burns off.
By providing the body with more calories, this balance can be
altered and body mass can be increased. Weight training is of
great importance in this context, which enables the body to
absorb more nutrients from the food by increasing the level of
certain hormones and increasing the muscle mass.
There are many incorrect beliefs and theories bout building
muscle. The type of food to be eaten is an important factor
which decides the type of weight gained, whether it is muscle
mass or mere accumulation of fat. Some types of calories are
not equal to others for gaining muscle; because most processed
junk food contains empty, totally  nutritionless calories. These
foods promote accelerated fat storage, and do not provide the
body with the correct nutrients essential for gaining muscle.
High quality protein, which the body breaks down into amino
acids, should be the centerpiece of all your meals. Intense
exercise increases demand for amino acids, which support muscle
repair and growth.
Another factor is the selection of the right type of weight
training. Resistance exercises will help with muscle growth.
Whereas aerobic exercises can result in the reduction of
weight. For maximum muscle gain, the focus of your workouts
should consist of free weight exercises, rather than machines
or bodyweight exercises. To get a very effective workout, you
must stimulate as many muscle fibers as possible, and machines
do not do this. The main reason for this is a lack of
stabilizer and synergist muscle development. Stabilizer and
synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main
muscle in performing a complex lift.
The results of weight training can vary from person to person,
and will usually depend on your consistency and commitment to
your program. You should have the patience and motivation for
building a powerful body with a consistent diet and exercise
schedule.
Exercise Guidelines for building muscle:
Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables
variable resistance. This resistance can come in the form of
free weights like barbells and dumbbells, machines that use
cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight, and bodyweight
exercises like pull- ups or dips. The more stabilizers and
synergists you work, the more muscle fibers stimulated. The
exercises that work the large muscle groups are called compound
(or multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous
stimulation of many muscle groups. These compound exercises
should be the foundation of any weight training program because
they stimulate the most amount of muscle in the least amount of
time. Multi-jointed free weight exercises like the bench press
require many stabilizer and synergistic muscle assistance to
complete the lift.
Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat put a
very large amount of stress on supporting muscle groups. You
will get fatigued faster and not be able to lift as much weight
as you did on the machine. But you will gain more muscle, become
stronger very quickly and have a true gauge of your strength.
If you use machines in your program, they should be used to
work isolated areas and only after all multi-jointed exercises
have been completed. Beginners should begin with a limited
combination of machine exercises, bodyweight exercises and
multi-jointed free  weight exercises. Before increasing the
weight levels, they should work on becoming familiar with the
proper form and execution of each.
The following are some proven basic exercises to encourage
muscle and strength gain unlike any other exercises.
Bench Presses - works the chest, shoulders, triceps
Overhead Presses - shoulders, triceps
Pull-ups/Barbell Rows - back, bicep
Squats - legs, lower back
Dead lifts - legs, back, shoulders
Bar Dips -shoulders, chest, arms
To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights. To
consider a weight heavy, you should only be able to do a
maximum of 4-8 reps before your muscles temporarily fail. A
weight is considered 'light' if you can do more than 15 reps
before muscle fatigue sets in. Heavy weights stimulate more
muscle fibers than lighter weights which result in more muscle
growth. Heavy weight training puts a huge strain on your body,
so adequate rest and recuperation after your workouts is
essential.
Eating guidelines for building muscle:
A high protein diet is an inevitable part of any weight
training programme, importantly, protein derived from animal
sources. Proteins you need to be concerned with are those found
in whey, casein (cottage cheese), eggs, beef, poultry, and fish.
Soy protein, tofu and bean curd are some alternatives. Eating
the right amount of foods consistently will force your body to
grow beyond what you may think possible. The diet also should
contain an adequate amount of carbohydrates (potatoes, sweet
potatoes, yams, oatmeal, cream of wheat, cream of rice, rice,
beans, bread, pasta, all cereals) and fat. Green leafy
vegetables and fruits also should be included.
When you train with weights, you should eat a minimum of 1 gram
of protein per pound of body weight. You also must have protein
at every meal. To enable your body to actually assimilate and
use the all the calories you will ingest, you have to reduce
your meal size and increase your meal frequency. Splitting your
calories into smaller, more frequent portions will enable food
absorption and utilization of nutrients.
During the past 20 years there have been great developments in
the scientific understanding of the role of nutrition in health
and physical performance. Studies shown that adequate dietary
carbohydrate should be ingested (55-60% of total energy intake)
so that training intensity can be maintained. Excess dietary
saturated fat can exacerbate coronary artery disease; however,
low-fat diets result in a reduction in circulating
testosterone. So the balance between protein, carbohydrate and
fat should be maintained.
So the focus on weight gain programmes must be on two
components, lifting heavy weights, which will stimulate the
largest amount of muscle fibers. Your body responds to this
stimulus by increasing your muscle mass and secondly eat more
calories than your body is used to. When you overload your
system with plenty of protein and fats, your body has no other
choice but to gain weight.
A Mass Gaining program is incomplete without the timely
measurements to monitor your progress. Without it, you won't
know how exactly your body is responding to your diet and
training routine. Just looking in the mirror and guessing is
not acceptable. If you want to start getting great results, you
must develop the habit of accurately tracking your progress.
This also provides the motivation to continue with the weight
gain schedule and for the further progression. So even though
you have a very thin body type, and haven’t been able to gain
weight no matter what you try, you will definitely succeed with
a well planned weight gain programme.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Former "skinny guy" Anthony Ellis is the
author of Gaining Mass. This unique program, designed to help
people gain weight and build muscle, is currently being used in
over 90 countries. For more information on how to gain weight
and build muscle, go to his website at
http://www.fastmusclegain.com
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