After gaining 55 pounds of muscle naturally, these are the most important things I learned!
1. TRACK YOUR CALORIES
- do it for a couple of days to a week
- if you are one of the people that thinks tracking calories takes a lot of time, just try the app MyFitnessPal – it will change your mind
2. ADD A CALORIE SURPLUS
- weight yourself at least 1x a week
- if after 1 week you've gained less than 0,5 kg / 1 pound, add 200 calories to your daily meal plan
- if you've gained more than 0,5kg, maintain the calories you are eating
- 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, only 25% of the total calories should be fats
- drink your calories
- a blender is essential for a hardgainer
- blend everything you can – fruit, oats, milk…
- also, mash up everything you can – sweet potatoes, even beans…
- mix different foods – more fun to eat
- this also makes it easier to have similar meals everyday – you always know what to have for breakfast, lunch and so on – here's an example of a full day of eating for me
- usually skinny people have very small appetites
- i used to not being hungry for breakfast for example
- but this is a matter of training your organism and starting slow, eating a small breakfast at first
- try to eat something every 3 hours, so you don't end up trying to stuff yourself in the last minute
- your body has 5 windows of absorption for protein throughout the day
- so, have 5 meals
- divide your waking ours of the day by five
- me for example, i wake up at 7.45am and go to bed at 11.45pm
- so i eat at 8, 11, workout at 1pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm
- no matter what, even if i'm not hungry
3. DO PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
- lift a bit more heavy weights than you did the last time at the gym
- so that the weight gain is muscle and not fat
- track how much you lift on major compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press)
4. TRAIN EACH MUSCLE TWICE A WEEK
- muscles take 48h to recover
- no need to wait 1 week
- push / pull / legs is usually the best training split for skinny people
5. SLOW DOWN YOUR MOVEMENTS
- do the exercises with proper form
- focus on the muscle being worked (mind muscle connection)
- slow down on the eccentric
- more gains happen here than on the concentric
I explain all of these points in more detail in this 5 minute video. If you have any questions let me know in the comments!
submitted by /u/adolfotex
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