By Jason Maxwell
You feel like an invisible man. You’re skinny, you’ve tried everything, and for some reason, you just can’t gain weight…
…Until now.
I’ve helped my fair share of skinny guys build muscle, so you’ve come to the right place. Today is the last day that you’ll blame your crappy genetics. Yes, they’ve been holding you back, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t make some insane muscle gains.
All it comes down to is two distinct things: an intelligent workout program and force-feeding yourself high-quality foods.
1. Force-Feed Yourself With High-Quality Foods
I only recommend this method for true ectomorphs. Basically, if you’re tried everything and you’re still skinny, then you need to eat more. I recommend 3 solid food meals and 2-3 super shakes.
Solid Food Meals
These meals are pretty simple. Take a large plate and fill it up like so:
-1/4 of the plate should be a protein such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or wild game.
-1/4 of the plate should be starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, grains, etc.
-1/2 of the plate should be non-starchy vegetables such as tomatoes, spinach, cucumber, peppers, etc.
-In addition to this, you should have some kind of healthy fat like a handful of nuts or some olive oil.
These are big meals on their own, but on top of this, you’ll need to drink 2-3 supershakes per day.
Supershake Recipe
Blend the following ingredients in a blender:
-Water
-1 scoop of whey protein powder
-Spinach
-Some kind of fruit (I recommend a banana or berries)
-A healthy fat such as nuts or nut butter
-Ice cubes
These will make you full, but they will also help you build muscle. Back in 2013, UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre would drink 2–3 supershakes per day in order to be able to get in enough calories to sustain his training program.
You need to drink them to sustain your muscle gain.
Here’s how a day of eating would look for you:
7am: Solid Food Meal 1.
10am: Supershake 1.
1pm: Solid Food Meal 2.
4pm: Supershake 2.
7pm: Solid Food Meal 3.
10pm: Supershake 3 (optional)
2. Intelligent Muscle Building Workouts
A sustainable muscle building program needs to focus on the following:
-Train each muscle 2–3x per week.
-Train to failure occasionally (not always) using intensity techniques such as drop sets and rest pauses.
-Use big compound lifts 80% of the time, and isolate lagging or weak body parts 20% of the time
-Do the most important exercises first.
-Take longer rest periods (3 min for compound exercises and 2 min for isolation exercises).
-Use a full range of motion on every main lift and only use partials as an intensifier.
Use a Simple Full Body Workout
If you’re a newbie, you don’t need to be following Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 6-Day Split routine. Instead, you need to train 3 times per week, using a full body workout consisting of compound movements.
Each major compound movement needs to be present in the workout. I recommend choosing one of each exercise:
Horizontal Press
Pushup
Dumbbell Bench Press
Barbell Bench Press
Horizontal Pull
Seated Row
Single Arm Dumbbell Row
Chest Supported Row
Knee Dominant
Lunge
Front Squat
Back Squat
Bulgarian Split Squat
Hip Dominant
Deadlift/Rack Pull
Romanian Deadlift
Single Leg Deadlift
Hip Thrust
Horizontal Push
Dumbbell Military Press
Barbell Military Press
Horizontal Pull
Pullup/Chinup
Lat Pulldown
Choose one exercise from each category and you’ve built a full body workout. As for sets and reps, use the following for every exercise:
Day 1: 3 sets of 12 reps
Day 2: 3 sets of 10 reps
Day 3: 4 sets of 8 reps
Conclusion
If you’re super skinny, stop blaming your bad genetics. Put in the hard work and you will be rewarded. Train hard using three full-body workouts per week. Eat three meals per day and 2-3 supershakes in order to fuel your workouts.
Do this and you’ll be laughing at other skinny guys in a few months.
Written By Jason – JMaxFitness
