Building muscle and gaining weight is what most guys are looking for, especially skinny ones. If you want to look like a stud you have to follow this advice. Jason Ferruggia of Renegade Strength & Condition is one of the top go to guy’s to help skinny guys out. This is a killer article that you can find over on his site.

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To build muscle and gain weight you have to use big, compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, military presses, dips, chin ups, pushups and rows.

You have to train with adequate resistance, meaning 5-10 reps on average and you need to strive to get stronger and do more work over time. Progressive overload is a key component in making size and strength gains.

No matter how good your workout is you will never gain any appreciable size without adequate nutrition. Shoot for about one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day and 1-3 grams of carbs depending on your bodyfat levels, training age, chronological age and the type of workouts you are doing. The leaner you are the better your insulin sensitivity and thus the more carbs you can eat. This is especially true if you are a teenager with a racing metabolism. A 17 year old kid with single digit bodyfat might need three grams of carbs per pound in order to gain weight, whereas a 35 year old might only need 1-1.25 grams. Anymore than that and he’ll end up fat. For the older guy, carb cycling is going to be a smarter approach.

The take home point is you gotta eat for size gains.

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Stan back here. Jason makes awesome points here. Nutrition is key!

And don’t forget, heavy compound movements.

K. Now back to his article.

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Question: What about rookie mistakes. Which are the biggest ones to avoid? In other words, DON’T do this stuff!

If you’re a newbie to training don’t 12-16 top end, work sets per training session. You definitely don’t need more than that. As you get more advanced you will be able to tolerate more work but newbies and stereotypical hardgainers should keep their total volume low until they develop a solid strength base.

• Don’t train more than 3-4 days per week.
• Don’t let your training sessions (minus warm up and cool down time) last more than 45 minutes.
• Don’t waste your time with machines and isolation movements.
• Don’t train for the pump.
• Don’t use body part splits.
• Don’t train to failure.

Question: Let’s say a guy wants to know how to build muscle and gain weight but has very limited time. Is it possible to do this? Can you get bigger with just 30 – 45 minutes a day in the gym three days a week?

Absolutely, I’d say that at least 60% of my clients over the last 17 years have all trained no more than three days per week for 45 minutes and have achieved outstanding results. Your testosterone levels peak at around thirty minutes into your workout and are back to baseline at around the 45 minute mark, so keeping your workouts short is actually a great way to make even faster progress. Provided you’re in shape and have decent work capacity you can get a lot done in three 45 minute workouts per week.

Question: What are your favorite three exercises that can help people put on size and why?

Squat- Because there is no better exercise to develop the lower body. They involve every muscle group from your sternum down and will build big quads, hamstrings and glutes along with strengthening your abs and spinal erectors.

Deadlift- There is no more basic movement then bending down and picking something up off the floor. Thus, there is no more functional exercise than the deadlift. For trap, upper, mid and lower back size there is nothing that beats the deadlift. It also develops the grip and abs as well.

Tie: Standing Press & Pushup- After you have the lower body and a big pulling exercise covered you need a pressing movement to round the whole thing out. This is a tougher decision because there are several good ones. I think, for me, it would be a tie between a standing press and a pushup.

Read the full article here….

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Wow. Read these tips again if you are looking to build muscle and gain weight. These tips are a must for any hardgainer. Two of the biggest mistakes I made when I couldn’t build muscle was I was following all the muscle building magazine workouts….I was doing split body routines with isolation moves. Like Jason says, it doesn’t work for beginners and hardgainers!

So take action now. Reread these tips and get to lifting.

– Stan

I hope you know by now that eating is key to building more muscle and gaining more weight.  If you have awesome workouts with a crappy diet, you will go no where.  Seriously, more than 50% comes from diet and rest.  Now if you do want to eat super strict but still want sure fire ways to gain muscle and weight by eating check out these 11 nutrition tips from Vince Delmonte.

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• Don’t overeat for longer than two-weeks at a time unless a) You want to turn into a fat lardo or b) You are 5-10% body fat and extremely on the thin side.

• During your bulking periods, hitting your goal calories for 3 or 4 days out of the week is not going to cut it.  You need to consistently overeat during your two-week mini bulk up cycles as taught in 21-Day Fast Mass Building.  Anybody can overeat for three or four days at a time – keeping this up for up to two weeks is your first goal before reassessing your physique.

• You need to pack more calories per bite.  Think about ways to add more calories to the foods you’re eating.  Consider pouring olive oil all over your eggs.  Eat a 1/2 cup of mixed nuts while you’re waiting for your food to cook. Make sure your nuts are salted so you’ll eat more. Stick two slices of bread in your mouth instead of just one.  Starting adding an avocado with each meal.  Be creative and look for solutions and they’ll appear to you.

• Stop eating “diet foods.”  Instead of chicken, eat beef.  Instead of tuna and white fish, eat salmon.  Instead of egg whites, eat whole eggs.  Instead of fruit in your weight gainer, add oatmeal.  ”Diet foods” will not bulk you up unless your full time job is eating.

• Start incorporating pre workout and workout and post workout drinks into your game plan.  Drink simple carbs like Gatorade (although this contains high-fructose corn syrup so don’t go crazy with it) during your workouts and after.  Start eating handfuls of raisins, rice cakes and white bagels post workout to spike your insulin and move your

• Have ONE freebie meal a day.  If you know you’re going to have it then you’ll be more compliant with following the rest of your clean bulking meals.  Go out for dinner with your wife.  Eat a meal with your buddies.  Eat whatever you want. You’re bulking so don’t freak out.  If you’re only bulking two-weeks at a time before reassessing your physique, minimal damage will occur and it’ll keep your daily meal plan exciting and rewarding.  Just be sure to not screw up the rest of your meals that day.  ONE freebie meal a day, not two or three.

• After every meal, slam back 1 scoop of Iso-Smooth protein powder.  Often times you always have room for a little bit more and saving that extra room for protein and water should be simple enough.  If you did this three times a day then you’ll get an extra 300-400 calories a day coming from good quality protein.

• Always have a box of protein bars in your cupboards or in your car.  Although, protein bars have many shortcoming in terms of health, they are “tier-2″ options to prevent missing your meals and calories.  VPX’s Zero Impact bars are an excellent high protein meal with lots of natural carbs and fats inside them.  These are the same ones I eat.

• Start cooking hard boiled eggs.  It takes about 12 minutes to cook a dozen of them each morning and easily portable.  You get about 72 grams of protein for only three to four dollars unless you’re buying organic eggs.  Not a bad deal for easy muscle.

• Always keep a bag of mixed nuts and sunflower seeds on hand. Adding some M&M’s to the mix can add some really easy calories.  Fill them up in 1/2 or 1 cup amounts and you’ll gain weight for sure.

• Eat this one hour after you workout:  2 large bananas.  1 cup of Vector cereal. 1 container of cottage cheese.  Deadly post workout mass building meal.  Easy to consume too.

• Do your best to consume greens with each meal to improve digestion and absorption to ensure your nutrients end up bulking up your muscles and not your waistline.  Do I have to tell you to drink 4 liters of water a day?  Come on, that’s bodybuilding 101 stuff.

Conclusion

Now, if you’re an advanced bodybuilder you know that you wouldn’t even consider some of these strategies above.  This info is a “lazy man’s” nutrition guide to building muscle.

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As you can see, you don’t have to only eat brown rice and chicken breast but then again you can eat drive thru junk food either if you want to make real gains.  Take this advice if you are ready to start bulking up and eating you way to bigger muscles.  Now, the only way is to take action.  If you aren’t eating well, what are you waiting for?

Stan