You are lean, lanky, and burn calories quickly. Everything you eat is processed by a crazy metabolism, which makes gaining weight an incredible challenge. Don't worry, ectomorph! You're not alone, you're just someone who has a hard time gaining weight. It's difficult, but not impossible. You just have to follow your own “how to get huge” to-do list. Every ounce of energy you have should be directed towards muscle growth. It is necessary to harmonize your training and nutrition. Nutrition is your rifle, training is your bayonet, mass gain is your goal. Follow these 10 tips and you'll get ahead!
We hope you're hungry, because you're in for a huge dose of advice for struggling guys.
So…
1) Nutrition for weight gain
Until you get used to the feeling of being stuffed, you will not be able to consume the required amount of healthy food in large quantities. And this is necessary. Don't eat low-calorie carrots, choose high-calorie foods. Most bodybuilders advise eating 40 kcal per 1 kg of weight to gain muscle mass. If you fill up on all those calories with vegetables, fruits, oatmeal and egg whites, you'll go crazy. We don't want to say that this food isn't healthy - it's just not what you need to gain weight. Choose more calorie-dense foods such as pureed vegetables, dried fruit, whole eggs, oatmeal and steak.
The main rule is that you should consume more calories than you expend.
The basis of the diet should be complete meals of solid food, do not rely on protein shakes .
A lot of. A lot of food. Now that you understand the importance of meal timing, let's talk about calories. 18 calories per 1 kg is a diet for a loser. To gain weight, start with 30 calories per kilogram. Start eating 30 calories per 1 kg of your weight for 2-4 weeks, and then increase. For example: a man weighing 100 kg should eat 3000 calories to start and increase this figure after 2-4 weeks. As soon as possible you should reach the norm of 40 calories per 1 kg of weight . If you weigh 80 kg, you should consume about 3200 kcal. Overcome this threshold - and then everything will become easier.
From experience, few people have common sense. People are beginning to unbridledly strive for “the more the merrier.” People want short periods, quick results. This is impossible in this sport. To be successful you need time, time to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Most guys are like that, when you tell them the truth, they stop wanting big hands.
So, if you weigh 100 kg, you don't need to rush the timing and start with 4000 calories right away. Whether you're picking up or dropping, don't use the shock technique. Never subject your body to a sharp reduction or increase in caloric intake. After all, it’s hard to gain even a kilogram of good muscle mass, so why risk it by using shock therapy, as a result of which you will immediately lose half a kilo of this mass?
Let's say you start eating 400g of protein instead of 200g. How should your body incorporate this supplement into its metabolism? It will simply throw away half of it. Plus you will find it so difficult to eat so much that you will quit after 2 weeks. Remember - everything has its time. Gradual increases are important. Start slow, build up gradually.
Building muscle mass for endomorphs
Unfortunately, this body type is the largest; in addition to large bones and muscles, owners of this constitution are prone to gaining large amounts of fat in the body. Eating a high-calorie diet is more likely to lead to fat gain than muscle gain. Typically, an endomorph may not need special sports supplements for muscle growth if the person has a high protein content in their diet. The tendency to gain weight in an endomorph is inherent in genes.
Since endomorphs have a slow metabolism, you need to consume the right foods that will activate your metabolism. Products must contain a low glycemic index, which means that the following is prohibited:
- bakery products;
- high-starch cereals and vegetables;
- sweet fruits.
This type needs to consume more protein and fiber , cereals should be minimally processed and refined, unpolished rice is good. Training should be both strength training and endurance training, that is, running, swimming, cycling. Such loads will help burn excess fat tissue.
2) The importance of sleep
Guys like you usually have weaker recovery abilities in the body. If you don't get enough sleep, this can seriously affect your results. Focus on getting at least 8 hours of sleep, preferably nine. Going to the gym again without enough sleep will only make matters worse. Rest, recover, sleep and grow!
If you approach the issue scientifically, here are the facts: 80% of growth hormone is produced during sleep. For example, a thirty-minute nap during the day will benefit you.
3) To gain weight, not only eat, but also drink calories
Liquid calories don't fill you up as much as solid calories, so this help will make it easier for you to reach your goal.
In addition to your pre- and post-workout protein shakes, make it a goal to drink at least one more protein shake throughout the day. Include as many high-calorie ingredients as possible in this smoothie: natural nut butters, seeds, coconut oil, oats, powdered milk, frozen fruit, Greek yogurt and/or cottage cheese. If this is difficult to achieve with your daily regimen, just drink a gainer.
Meal planning and developing the right regime
You should eat food at least four times a day. And even better - 5 or even 6. Despite the fact that many say that such a regime is harmful, if your body requires a snack in between main meals, provide it with this. This is influenced by the fact that we constantly spend energy throughout the day. Therefore, we must also replenish its reserves regularly.
The most important meal of the day has always been breakfast. The calorie content of breakfast should be 30% of the entire daily diet . This is explained by the fact that our stomach is most active in the morning hours, and, therefore, it is possible to load it with more nutrients in order to receive more than usual. A hearty breakfast is especially important if you have a busy day ahead.
Therefore, if you have a workout planned in the morning, eating breakfast can be divided into two stages: light and heavy.
Pre-workout food should be consumed no later than an hour before the start. The food must have time to be digested. Immediately before starting a workout, you are allowed to drink coffee or tea.
After finishing your workout, you should also wait an hour or an hour and a half before you can eat.
Lunch also accounts for about 30% of calories from the total daily diet. If you had a hearty and plentiful meal at breakfast, lunch should be made more modest. If you have a very busy schedule during the day and you cannot afford a full lunch, it is recommended to snack on dairy products.
Heavy meals at dinner should be avoided forever. In the evening before going to bed, the activity of the stomach is reduced, which is why it will be extremely difficult to digest food. Therefore, we allocate 10-15% of the calorie content of the daily diet for dinner .
It is advisable to adjust the entire diet of meals to the training regime in order to avoid overstraining the body.
How to gain muscle mass and avoid gaining fat
The most important rule that a person trying to gain weight should remember is that overeating is not an option. This method should be avoided as it will lead to the development of fat mass.
In order to create your diet as harmoniously as possible, you should think it through carefully. In addition, you can add certain mineral mixtures. It is best to consult your pharmacist for advice on their use and selection.
4) Skip isolation exercises for muscle mass
As you know, all exercises are divided into:
- multi-joint (this includes exercises with a barbell, dumbbells, and body weight)
- isolating (work on simulators and various blocks).
The first differ from the second in that the first are basic, essential for gaining muscle mass, and the second are already grinding, turning beautiful details from the total mass. Many people don’t understand this, they come to the gym and start working on their triceps from the first day. Do not do that! Before making roses on the cake, you need to bake it. Shape your body first, then get to the details!
Basic exercises increase muscle mass. Our body adapts perfectly to any conditions; to start growth processes it must be loaded to the maximum. You need to strain several muscles (from two), the load should be super-heavy (we achieve supercompensation). Basic multi-joint exercises aim to engage as many muscles and more than one joint as possible. An indicator of an athlete's progress is the total weight that he is able to lift.
Benefits of basic exercises:
- comprehensive training of a very large muscle mass;
- basic training burns more calories;
- the concentration of hormones increases - anabolic (testosterone) and corticosteroid (growth hormones);
- nutrient consumption increases;
- after training, the concentration of pleasure hormones increases;
- metabolism accelerates;
- Potency increases.
Don't do those isolation exercises you love so much. I hate to crush my dreams, but 10 sets of triceps curls won't give you huge arms. Instead of triceps and biceps exercises, choose presses. Set yourself a goal of serious weights and give up the rest of the crap.
And remember: building the body does not happen in the gym, it happens with us at home, at the table and in bed. Your main task is to create stress and then put the right foods into your body. Then the result will not be long in coming!
Hurry up to the gym and practice!
Sports supplements
Taking sports supplements can significantly speed up muscle gain.
But their use also depends on your body type.
- Gainer is the undisputed favorite in quick weight gain, but is suitable exclusively for ectomorphs. Other body types will also rapidly gain fat along with their muscles.
- Protein is a universal supplement that helps increase muscle size. Complex proteins are more suitable for ectomorphs, and low-calorie proteins (which do not contain carbohydrates and fats) are more suitable for endomorphs.
- Creatine is another very effective supplement that is suitable for all body types. Helps increase strength and indirectly affects muscle growth.
Supplements with a general, complex effect on the body - vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, immunomodulators and the like can also speed up the process of muscle growth.
But they are more suitable as a supplement to the above, as a means of improving well-being and accelerating recovery.
5) Pump up your cardio
You've probably heard that "hard gainers" (i.e. people who have a hard time gaining muscle mass) are advised to give up cardio altogether. There is a grain of truth in this, but it is not completely true. When done correctly, there is room for cardio in a hardgainer program. Plus, you should never miss the opportunity to exercise your most important muscle—your heart. Big muscles won't stay big for life, and you'll still need a heart.
For these purposes, do low- to moderate-intensity cardio for 20-30 minutes. 2 or 3 cardio sessions per week will improve heart health, increase the rate of delivery of nutrients to the heart and reduce recovery time.
Recover properly
You might think that the more you exercise, the more muscle you will gain. However, this is a big misconception. In fact, overtraining, or failing to recover properly after a workout, can hinder your bulking process.
When you strength train, your muscle fibers become damaged—they stretch, tear, and break down. Your muscles begin to grow, becoming bigger and stronger, during the recovery process, so post-workout recovery is key to successful muscle gain.7
Many of us associate bulking with lifting heavier weights or doing more reps. In general, doing more challenging workouts that will make your muscles grow. Well, keep in mind that insufficient recovery may prevent you from doing this.
In a study conducted on weight-training men, after only twenty-four hours of recovery, none of them were able to complete their 10 RM (maximum weight lifted for 10 repetitions) in 8 exercises. Even after four days of rest, only 80% of the participants were able to reach their RM10.8
Before training the same muscle group, give yourself a few days of rest to reap the full muscle-building benefits of the workout. You also put yourself at greater risk of injury without fully recovering, so don't rush into too much work too quickly.
And of course, don't forget about nutrition. Carbohydrates should return to your muscles within 30 minutes of your workout. When it comes to protein, you have a little more time. To help your muscles start growing again, the best time to take protein is two hours after your workout.9
7) Heavy weights, long rest
Since you're lifting serious weight, give your body enough rest to allow your strength to return. If you used to rest for about 30 seconds, then we have news for you: long rests mean more strength, which in turn means heavier weights, which leads to more reps on those weights, which means more mass. Try resting 2-3 minutes between sets.
If you start forcing yourself to do an exercise without resting, you won't see much progress. Allow your body to rest as much as it wants.
Workout
Living organisms, and the human body in particular, are the result of millions of years of evolution. Do you know what distinguishes us from all our ancestors? In their life there was little food and excess physical activity, but now the opposite is true.
But the body still works in the old mode. It is very economical and does not build muscle if there is enough existing muscle, but it happily accumulates fat, because frequent and prolonged fasting is the most common thing for it. More precisely, it was ordinary, but several decades of a well-fed life had no effect on the biochemistry of the human body.
It turns out that even a person who has overcome a calorie deficit in the absence of physical activity will gain weight, but not in the form of muscles, but in the form of fat on the stomach, sides, and so on.
Any physical activity in the absence of a calorie deficit will give some kind of muscle gain, but we do not need “some”, but the maximum. To do this, it is important to choose the right training strategy.
Basic principles of training for mass gain
- Perform only basic exercises that involve large muscles and several muscle groups at the same time.
- Perform exercises with heavy weights and low reps per set.
- Rest 2-3 minutes between sets.
- Warm up thoroughly.
- Carefully study the technique of performing the exercises correctly.
Pay attention to the last two tips. They are extremely important and will help you avoid health problems. It’s better to spend a few minutes on them than to spend six months recovering from an injury.
The best exercises for gaining mass
1. Total weight: deadlift and classic squats
There is a popular opinion among gym regulars and professionals that a beginner needs to do just three exercises to increase mass and strength: squats, deadlifts and bench presses. It's worth listening to them.
2. Chest: Dumbbell Bench Press
The classic barbell chest press uses the anterior deltoids to a greater extent, thereby taking the load away from the pectoral muscles. Therefore, for more effective chest development, it is recommended to press dumbbells.
3. Back: pull the upper block to the chest with a wide grip
There is a misconception that the best exercise for widening the back is a wide row behind the head, but in practice, it is the row to the chest and wide grip pull-ups that have proven to be the most effective. Next come rows and pull-ups with a reverse grip.
4. Quadriceps: Front Squats
Shifting the weight forward takes the load off the hamstrings and glutes, transferring it to the quadriceps.
5. Hamstrings and glutes: Romanian (dead) deadlifts
The Romanian deadlift differs from the classic deadlift in that it is performed on straight legs from the middle of the knees. Roughly speaking, this is the final phase of the deadlift with the exception of the exit from the squat, when all that remains is extension of the body due to the work of the hamstrings and buttocks.
6. Triceps: close grip press or dips
Triceps are relatively small muscles, and therefore isolation here, unlike the same chest and dumbbell press, is not needed. The more complex the exercise, the better.
7. Biceps: standing straight bar curl
You'll read about basic exercises, but you'll still be pumping your batsukha, right? If so, do it right. The EZ bar is more comfortable, but it works the biceps unevenly. Only a straight bar loads both bundles of the biceps biceps muscle equally well. Most likely, you will have to reduce your current working weight by 5-10%.
8. Shoulders: standing or seated dumbbell press
The width and roundness of the shoulders is given by the middle bunch of deltas. When you perform a standing or seated barbell press from the chest or even from behind your head, the emphasis inevitably shifts to the front bundles. Dumbbells allow you to perform a press along the axis of the body, including the middle beams as much as possible.
Sometimes workouts seem monotonous, and some exercises cause discomfort. In these cases, remember the words of Paul Dillet:
Among the dozens of exercises, there are those in which it’s great to overcome a lot of weight. You grow from them.
Simply put, try new things, find your exercise routine, and listen to your body.
Don't be afraid of fat
If you're a hard gainer but also wary of fat, we have a problem. Healthy fats are a hardgainer's best friend because they're loaded with calories and muscle-building properties. Don't sacrifice your carbohydrates for fat; include enough of both in your meal plan.
As for fats, you don’t need to add them specifically to your diet. Fats will come from the food you eat - eggs, chicken, beef. On the other hand, it is wrong to think that fats make you fat. Proper fats are an essential element of nutrition. We're talking about omega-3 and omega-6. But remember that their number must be in strict proportion. The more omega-6 you eat, the more omega-3 you should have. Moreover, we usually consume omega-6 fats in abundance, but omega-3 is always in short supply.
A lack of omega-3 fats causes a lack of prostaglandins, which control muscle growth. So include flaxseed oil, fish oil and nuts in your diet.
Workout program for gaining muscle mass at home
If you have a barbell at home, you can replace dumbbells with it and diversify the technique of presses, rows and squats, provided that there are plates of different weights to gradually increase the load.
Day 1 (legs, shoulders)
- Squats with dumbbells 3x10-12.
- Lunges with dumbbells 3x10-12.
- Deadlift 3x10-12.
- Dumbbell fly across the sides 3x10-12.
- Frontal swings alternately 3x10-12.
- Bent over swings 3x10-12.
- Body twists 3x20-30.
Day 2 (back, chest)
- Bent-over dumbbell rows 3x10-12.
- Row of one dumbbell 3x10-12.
- Dumbbell bench press 3x10-12.
- Push-ups for chest 3x10-12.
- Lying dumbbell fly 3x10-12.
- Lying leg raises 3x10-12.
Day 3 (hands)
- French press 3x10-12.
- One arm bent over extension with dumbbells 3x10-12.
- Lifting dumbbells from behind the head 3x10-12.
- Hammer dumbbell raise 3x10-12.
- Concentrated dumbbell lift 3x10-12.
- Side crunches 3x20-30.
9) Choose the right carbohydrates
Load up on carbs after your workout! After exercise, your body begins to rebuild itself, so give it substances to restore its glycogen supply!
When it comes to carbohydrates, choose one carbohydrate resource and stick to it.
The body may work less well on pasta, rice, bread and other starchy foods. With over 90% carbohydrates from oatmeal, this is a good choice. Not instant oatmeal, but plain oatmeal. It is also a good source of fiber. You need to eat at least 500 g of oatmeal per day. That's about 2000 calories. Fats such as olive oil need not be added to the diet. If we eat natural peanut butter or salmon, the fats will already be there. Well, yes, the food bill is over 500 bucks a week. When you're bodybuilding, you can't eat crap. A bodybuilder's diet is an expensive proposition. This is another victim.
