I don’t have good genetics to grow…
My metabolism is too fast…
I can’t eat enough food…
I burn calories faster than I can get them in…
Sound familiar?
Well it’s a load of crap!
Well, not entirely, but for the most part they’re just excuses to explain why you don’t get the results you’re after.
Yes, some people do have more potential than others, but it’s rare that “potential” limits muscular growth until years of training and significant muscle has already been added.
So what limits muscle growth and what can we do about it?
It all comes down to desire, and that I’m sorry, is not something I can help you with.
As a 15 year old kid trying to become the next Mr. Olympia, I knew all about desire. I ate tons and trained tons. But I was eating lots of fruits and veggies, and not enough meat and potatoes. I was interested in nutrition as it pertained to building muscle, and low fat was all the rage, so I ate as little fat as possible… Big Mistake!
I also had severe exercise A.D.D.
I blindly went from one training program to the next, never sticking to any one program long enough to see any results.
Each huge guy that came into the gym must have had some secret, so I’d stop whatever program I was on and try to follow the next guy.
I pretty much stayed the same weight for the first three years, until I finally found a training partner who I trained with consistently for the next three years (thanks Jason!) and I gained quickly moved from 18 years old and 145 lbs to 21 years old and 165 lbs.
Next, a new training partner (thanks Dan!) and I went from 21 years old and 165 lbs to 24 years old and 185lbs.
My success in gaining muscle always lay in finding the right program and sticking to it, as well as eating more than ever before.
With that, here’s the best diet and training program for skinny bastards to pack on serious muscle size and strength!
Diet Solution For Skinny Bastards
If your goal is to build tons of muscle and you’re a hardgainer, the solution is not very technical, but I’ll give you a quick breakdown of what you should be eating.
Breakfast (pick any 6)
Oats, Eggs, Waffles, Protein Shakes, Omelettes, Fruit, etc… and that’s just for breakfast.
Mid-Morning Snack
Your mid-morning snack should be something that will really get you hungry for a huge lunch, so we’re looking for something that’s going to spike the hell out of your insulin. So… let’s go for a large Dairy Queen Blizzard.
If you’re a kid in school, your snacks can be chocolate bars, chocolate milk, and PB&Anything sandwiches!
Lunch
Lunch should include hamburgers, leftover pizza, PB&A sandwiches, leftover steak, leftover chicken, salad is good for nutrition, but you’ll need to completely soak it in dressing to get enough calories from it!
If you’re a kid in school, the school cafeteria will have Lasagna and Pizza… go back for seconds, thirds, and when nobody’s looking, sneak around behind the counter and steal whatever’s left on the tray!
In fact, eat as much as you can get your hands on without getting expelled from school!
Wait a minute… screw that.. if you get expelled, you can eat straight through from the time you wake until you go to bed! Hit it!
Mid-Afternoon Snack
Your mid-afternoon snack should be your highest calorie meal of the day.. since you can sneak off without anyone noticing you and gorge yourself without grossing out anyone you know seeing you. A 12″ meatballs Subway sub should do it! Oh, and I always asked for 2-4 extra meatballs and they would just charge me an extra buck or two.
(Your mid-afternoon snack might also be your pre-workout meal or your post-workout meal.)
Dinner
Dinner should involve a full plate of meat (steak, fish, chicken, etc…), a full plate of starch (rice, potatoes, pasta, etc…) and of course you do need veggies… although if building massive amounts of muscle is most important to you, if you fill up on too much veggies, you won’t grow.
Just make sure you find a full fat salad dressing you can drench your salad and veggies in so that you’ll like the taste enough to force them down, and make sure you eat them last so if you do fill up too soon on the other stuff.. then oh well!
Dessert
All skinny bastards should eat dessert every night after dinner. But don’t eat it immediately following dinner as you should not have enough room for dessert if you ate enough at dinner.
Go sit your butt down on the couch, conserve as much energy as possible, watch a few TV shows, then head back to the fridge and eat absolutely everything that you can possibly eat, be it ice cream, yogurt, left-over anything, PB&Anything sandwiches… just anything and everything!
Got a brother or sister who steals food off your plate? Or who eats more than their share of food during the day, leaving you with little choice for dessert… EAT THEM TOO!! That way you get back the food they stole from your plate and then some!
The takeaway point about your diet if you’re a skinny bastard hardgainer who thinks they can’t gain weight is this…
And I’m not exactly sure about the best way to convey this… but think of every opportunity to eat as your last for a very long time. As you eat, keep thinking that your next meal might not be for weeks or months… and you’ll probably get enough food down to finally start building muscle.
The Skinny Bastard Training Solution
If you’re a classic hardgainer who has a difficult time gaining mass, your workout needs to be simple.
Week 1
Day 1
Squats 5 sets of 5, increase weight every set.
Dips 5 sets of AMRAP
Wide Grip Pull-ups 5 sets of AMRAP
Farmer’s Walk 4 sets of 100 steps, increase weight every set.
Rest 1-2 days
Day 2
Deadlifts 8 x 3 reps , increase weight every set.
Split Squats 5 x 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, increase weight every set.
Bench Press 4 x 10, 8, 6, 6, increase weight every set.
Bent-Over Barbell Rows 5 x 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, increase weight every set.
Barbell Curls 3 x 8, increase weight every set.
Rest 1-2 days
Day 3
Squats: 5 x 10, 10, 10, 8, 8, increase weight on every set.
Military Press 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8, increase on every set.
Pushups 3 x AMRAP
Chin-ups 5 x AMRAP
Weighted Plank 3 x ALAP
Rest 1-2 days
Week 2
Day 1
Deadlifts 5 x 5, increase weight every set.
Weighted Pushups 5 x 10, increase weight every set.
Weighted Chin-ups AMSAP x 3 reps, increase weight every set.
Barbell Curls 3 x 10, increase weight on each set.
Hands-to-Forearms 3 x 20 each direction.
Rest 1-2 days
Day 2
Squats 6 x 3, increase weight every set.
Step-ups 4 x 12, increase weight every set.
Incline Bench Press 6 x 10, 8, 8, 6, 6, 6 increase weight every set.
Bent-Over Barbell Rows 5 x 12, increase weight every set.
1-DB Farmer’s walk 4 x 100′, increase weight every set.
Rest 1-2 days
Day 3
Barbell Clean and Press 4 x 8, increase weight every set.
Deadlifts 4 x 10, increase weight every set.
Dips AMSAP x 5 reps, increase weight every set.
Inverted Rows 4 x AMRAP
Mountain Climbers 4 x 30
Notes:
1. AMRAP = As Many Reps As Possible
2. AMSAP = As Many Sets As Possible, which means continue doing more sets until you can’t complete another set with increased weight with good form.
3. Always increase weight on each set if possible with good form.
4. Do not train to failure on any exercises except those with AMRAP.
Conclusion
Use the “SeeFood” diet, meaning eat absolutely everything you see, and put this program to work for the next 6-12 months, and you should expect maximum muscle mass and a huge increase in strength.
If you have any comments, please leave them below.
Read more on The Skinny Bastard Solution…
This week’s WOW is a lower body strength workout with a lot of core emphasis.
As you progress through the workout, make sure to keep your focus on bracing your abdominals throughout each movement.
Top to bottom time 75 minutes including all warm-ups.
Foam Roller: Quads, Hams, ITB, T-Spine, Lats
Tennis Ball: Piriformis
Dynamic Stretching: Quads, Hams, Hip Flexors, Pecs, Lats
Activation: Glute bridges, band x-walking, band pull-aparts behind neck
Skipping 5 minutes
Mobility: Cossack squats, Kneeling kip-ups
Strength Training:
1 ) Safety Squat Bar High Box (1-2″ above parallel) Squats 4×5
2) Trap Bar Deadlifts 3×7
3) Reverse Lunges from 6″ box 3×9
4)Glute & Ham Raises 5×8
5A) Grappler Barbell Twists 3×15
5B) Band X-Walking 3×12
Foam Roller: Quads, Hams
Tennis Ball: Piriformis, Glute Medius
Give this workout a try and let me know how it goes in the comments section below!
Read more on WOW – Lower Body Workout Of the Week – Jun 16 – 2010…
I’m not sure about you, but I feel like there’s something wrong here with this picture.
In the video you’re about to watch, a 4 year old kid is exercising under the wise (or maybe not so wise) guidance of his grandmother, and mother I presume.
Click here to watch the video:
Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that kids get lots of physical exercise, but having such a defined exercise “goal” as strength training at such a young age is undoubtedly going to rob this youngster of socializing and unstructured play that will further his athletic development down the road more than his current narrowly focused routine.
I’ll admit though, he’s doing the best stuff for a kid if you’re to do strength work… all bodyweight exercises, no actual weight lifting. But…
The problem I see is that those instructing him, seem not to be leading by example in any way, but rather to be simply enabling his young obsession.
If his exercise routine were only 15-20 minutes per day, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but by 4 years old, managing 1,500 pushups in just 40 minutes… I imagine he’s spending at least 40 minutes if not more each day training for such a feat… and of course it’s all under the (*ahem*) wise guidance of his expert “in-the-trenches” family members.
As a coach, and as a father, as much as I hope that my kids grow up to embrace strength training as a means to develop a strong and healthy body, I will only encourage it as a means to improve performance in another physical activity (sport)at first.
I will strive to encourage my kids to try many different sports, and become a team player, and at the right age, introduce appropriate strength and conditioning workouts to facilitate improved performance in their sport, and not just for the sake of setting records at young ages.
Coming from India, and judging by the apparent state of dis-repair of the gym they’re in, probably a poor part of India, I wonder if this is the parents way of trying to get publicity, in hopes of somehow garnering financial support from what their child is doing.
My thoughts are that if the parents hadn’t pushed the kid to keep at it so much, he might have gotten bored with it and just wanted to go play with the other kids. Although he does seem to be enjoying himself in the video.
I don’t agree with this kind of thing… but maybe I’m off base.
What do you think?
I’d love to hear your comments on this topic. Please leave them in the comments section below.
Read more on Four Year Old Boy Does 1500 Pushups Sets Record…
Develop Powerful Shoulders Without Pain
Want crazy shoulders like Arnold? Don’t get injured!
One of the best exercises for shoulder strength and size development is the Barbell Press Behind The Neck. But grabbing a loaded bar and trying to press it behind your neck without sufficiently warming your shoulders up is asking for trouble. So here’s an awesome shoulder saver exercise.
Band Pull-Aparts Behind The Neck
This exercise takes all the muscles involved in the barbell press behind the neck and provides them with tension that helps activate them so they’ll all contribute properly to the pressing movement.
As always, before any heavy lifting, make sure muscles that might oppose achieving the full range of motion are well stretched out first.
Stretch: Pecs, Lats, External Rotation
Warm-up:
Side-lying dumbbell external rotations
Serratus push-ups
Band pull-aparts behind the neck (as shown above) 1-3 sets
Rest sufficiently between sets to prevent accumulation of fatigue. Do only as many reps as you feel you need to fully activate the muscle. But make sure to stop your set before you feel fatigue or burning in the targeted muscles.
Pushing your warm-up and activation sets into fatigue will hinder performance of your heavy pressing movement to come.
Use this warm up and then do this balanced upper body workout to build awesome muscle size and strength.
1) Barbell Press Behind The Neck 3 x 8
2a) Mixed Grip Pull-ups 3 x 8-12
2b) TRX, Blast Strap, or chain suspended push-ups
3a) Barbell Shrugs 3×15
3b) Posterior Flyes 3×12
Let me know how it went in the comments section below.
Read more on Develop Powerful Shoulders Without Pain…
