Nutrition , Workout
You are thin, lanky and quickly burn calories. Everything that you eat is processed by a crazy metabolism, which makes gaining mass an incredible problem. Do not worry, ectomorph ! You are not alone, you are just one of those who find it difficult to gain weight. It is difficult, but not impossible. You just need to follow your own list of “how to become huge” to-do lists. You should direct the smallest ounce of energy in muscle growth. It is necessary to harmonize your workouts and nutrition. Nutrition is your rifle, training is a bayonet, mass gain is the goal. Follow these 10 tips and you will advance!
How to quickly gain mass if you are an ectomorph ?
What is the main goal of going to the gym? If you answer that for the sake of health or “for yourself” – sorry, we will not believe. Of course, everyone wants to become a mountain of muscles! Squippers weighing forty kilograms tend to be sixty, those who weigh 60 kg want to go to the 85 weight category, and so on. Even on Mr. Olympia, only the biggest guys are interested. But how to achieve this?
1) Nutrition for weight gain
Until you get used to the feeling that you were full of food, you won’t be able to consume the required amount of wholesome food in large quantities. And it is necessary. Do not eat low-calorie carrots, choose high-calorie foods. Most bodybuilders are advised to eat 40 kcal per 1 kg of weight to gain muscle mass. If you eat all these calories with vegetables, fruits, oatmeal and egg whites, you will lose your mind. We do not want to say that this food is not healthy – it’s just not what it takes to gain mass. Choose calorie-rich foods like mashed potatoes, dried fruits, whole eggs, oatmeal, and steaks.
The main rule is that you should consume more calories than you spend. The basis of the diet should be full meals of solid food, do not rely on protein shakes . A lot of. A lot of food.
Now that you have realized the importance of meal times, let’s talk about calories. 18 calories per 1 kg is a diet for the loser . For weight gain, start with 30 calories per kilogram. Start 2-4 weeks to eat 30 calories per 1 kg of your weight, and then increase. For example: a man weighing 100 kg should eat 3000 calories to start with and further increase this figure after 2-4 weeks. As soon as possible you should come to the norm of 40 calories per 1 kg of weight . With a weight of 80 kg you should consume about 3200 kcal. Overcome this threshold – and then everything will become easier.
From experience, few have common sense. People are beginning to unbridledly strive for “the more, the better.” People need short stretches, quick results. In this sport this is impossible. For success, you need time, time to find out what works for you and what does not. Most guys are such that when you tell them the truth, they stop wanting to have big hands.
So, if you weigh 100 kg, you do not need to adjust the time and start immediately with 4000 calories. Do you dial, fold – do not use the shock technique. Never subject your body to a sharp reduction or increase in calorie content . After all, even a kilogram of good muscle mass is hard to gain, why risk it using shock therapy, as a result of which you will immediately lose a pound of this mass?
Let’s say you eat 400 g of protein instead of 200 g. How should your body include this supplement in your metabolism? It just throws back half. Plus it will be so difficult for you to eat so much, so you quit in 2 weeks. Remember – everything has its time. Important gradual increase. Start slowly, build up gradually.
2) The importance of sleep
For guys like you, the restorative properties of the body are usually weaker. If you do not sleep enough, this can seriously affect the result. Concentrate on sleeping at least 8 hours, better if you get nine. Going into the gym again without enough sleep will only ruin the matter. Rest, recover , sleep and grow!
If you scientifically approach the issue, here are the facts: 80% of growth hormone is produced in a dream. You will benefit, for example, from a thirty-minute daytime nap.
3) To gain weight, not only eat, but also drink calories
Calories in liquid form do not saturate like calories from solid food, so with this help it will be easier for you to achieve your goal.
In addition to your pre- and post-workout protein necks, set yourself the goal of drinking at least one more shake during the day. Include as many high-calorie ingredients as possible in this cocktail: natural peanut butter, seeds, coconut oil, oats, milk powder, frozen fruits, Greek yogurt and / or cottage cheese. If this is difficult under your daily routine, just drink a gainer .
4) Give up isolating exercises for muscle mass
As you know, all exercises are divided into:
• multi-joint (this includes exercises with a barbell, dumbbells, own weight)
• insulating (work on simulators and various blocks).
The former differ from the latter in that the former are basic, basic for gaining muscle mass, and the latter are polishing, turning beautiful details from the total mass. Many do not understand this, they come to the gym and from the very first day begin to work out triceps. Do not do this! Before making roses on the cake, it must be baked. First shape your body, and then move on to the details!
Basic exercises increase muscle mass. Our body perfectly adapts to any conditions, to start the growth processes it must be loaded as much as possible. Tighten several muscles (from two), the load should be superheavy (we achieve supercompensation ). Basic multi-joint exercises are aimed at including the maximum number of muscles and more than one joint. An indicative characteristic of an athlete’s progress is the total weight that he is able to lift.
Benefits of basic exercises:
• comprehensive study of a very large muscle mass;
• basic training burns more calories;
• increases the concentration of hormones – anabolic (testosterone) and corticosteroid (growth hormones);
• increases the consumption of nutrients;
• after training, the concentration of hormones of pleasure increases;
• metabolism is accelerated;
• increased potency.
Do not do the isolation exercises that you love so much. I don’t want to break dreams, but 10 approaches to triceps will not make you huge hands. Instead of triceps and biceps exercises, choose bench presses. Set yourself a goal of serious weight and abandon the rest of the rubbish.
And remember: the construction of the body does not occur in the hall, it happens with us at home, at the table and in bed. Your main task is to cause stress, and then throw the right foods into the body. Then the result will not be long in coming!
Rather, into the hall, practice!
5) Bleed your cardio
You’ve probably heard that hard gains (that is, people who are gaining muscle mass) are advised to completely abandon cardio . There is a grain of truth in this, but it is not completely true. With proper execution, there is room for cardio in the hard gainer program . Plus, you should never miss the opportunity to train the most important muscle – the heart. Big muscles will not remain so large for life, and you still need a heart.
For these purposes, do cardio of low or medium intensity for 20-30 minutes. 2 or 3 cardiosessions per week will improve the condition of the heart, increase the speed of delivery of nutrients to the heart and reduce the time for recovery.
6) Few repetitions, heavy weights – and you will quickly gain weight!
Have you heard about powerlifting? This is the foundation of bodybuilding. The three most important exercises for gaining mass are the three exercises of powerlifters. Here they are:
• deadlift
• squats
• bench press.
In this article, we will not touch on each of these exercises (for deadlift , squats and bench press we have separate informative articles). But let’s touch on how exactly these exercises use our muscle mass.
Bench press
Technique of the exercise:
This is not the most effective of the basic exercises – it is quite local, the volume effect is not so large. The following muscles work in the exercise:
• widest backs
• large chest
• triceps
• biceps
• front delta
• flexors
• front gear
• direct abdominal.
Deadlift
Technique of the exercise:
Exercise is good not only for mass gain , but also for the development of coordination and endurance. The following muscles work in the exercise:
• large chest
• biceps
• extensors
• brachialis
• medial broad muscle of the thigh
• wide lateral
• trapezoid
• big round
• triceps
• widest backs
• large buttock
• calf
• hip biceps
• deltas
• straight abdominal
• tailor
• leading
• rectus femoris muscle
• lateral thigh muscle
• flexors
Squats
Exercise Technique:
This exercise is a leader in the surge of anabolic hormones (it increases the level of growth hormone in the blood by 8 units, deadlift, by comparison, only by 5). The following muscles work in the exercise :
• large chest
• deltas
• buttocks
• wide lateral
• rectus femoris muscle
• adductor muscle
• tailor muscle
What other exercises will be useful for weight gain?
• pull-ups
• army bench
• lifting the barbell to the chest.
They also include several muscles and muscle groups at once.
Pull-ups
This is a very important exercise on the shoulders and arms, if you are not indifferent to massive arms, be sure to pay attention to it. Just look, what a huge list of muscles involved in the exercise!
Army bench press
On foreign resources, you can easily “recognize” this exercise according to the military press . This is a multi-joint exercise involving a large amount of muscle in the shoulder girdle. You can do it while standing or sitting.
Muscles involved during the army bench press:
• deltas
• large chest
• biceps
• triceps
• gear
• rectus abdominis muscle.
Chest lift
One of the most difficult technical exercises, came into bodybuilding from powerlifting. Not recommended for beginners. Its meaning is to take the shell on the chest and at the same time push it up.
The muscles involved in this exercise are:
• deltas
• rectus abdominis muscle
• gear
• external oblique
• broad lateral thigh muscle
• rectus femoris muscle
• calf
• trapezoid
• triceps
• sub- muscle
• big round
• widest
• large buttock
• leading
• semi-tendon.
Push ups
Another underestimated exercise, which is considered conditionally basic. You can perform at home. The following muscles are involved:
• chest
• abdominal muscles
• shoulders
• triceps
• coraco-humeral
• front gear
Here we wrote for you how to do push-ups correctly and according to what scheme you can increase the number of push-ups from the floor.
7) Heavy weights, long rest
Since you are lifting serious weight, give your body enough rest to regain strength. If before you rested for about 30 seconds, then we have news for you : a long rest means more strength, which in turn means more weight, which leads to large repetitions of these weights, that is, to mass. Try to rest for 2-3 minutes between sets.
If you begin to force yourself to do the exercise without rest, you will not see much progress . Allow the body to rest as much as it wants.
8) Do not be afraid of fat
If you are a hard gainer , but at the same time fear fat, we have a problem. Healthy fats are a hardgainer’s best friend because they are saturated with calories and muscle-beneficial properties. Do not sacrifice your carbohydrates for the sake of fats, include a sufficient amount of both those in the nutrition plan.
As for fats, you do not need to add them specifically to the diet. Fats will come from the food you eat – eggs, chicken, beef. On the other hand, it is wrong to assume that fat is fattening. Proper fats are an indispensable nutrient. We are talking about omega-3 and omega-6. But remember that their number must be in a strict ratio. The more omega-6 you eat, the more omega-3s should be. Moreover, we usually consume omega-6 fats in abundance, and omega-3 is constantly in short supply.
Lack of omega-3 fats causes a lack of prostaglandins that control muscle growth. So include flaxseed oil, fish oil, and nuts in your diet .
9) Choose the right carbohydrates
Get Carbohydrate After Workout! After exercise, your body begins to rebuild, so give it substances to restore the supply of glycogen!
As for carbohydrates – choose one carbohydrate resource and stick to it.
The body may work worse on pasta, rice, bread, and other starchy foods. Over 90% carbohydrates from oatmeal are a good choice. Not instant oatmeal, but simple oatmeal. It is also a good source of fiber. Eat at least 500 grams of oatmeal per day. This is about 2000 calories. Fats such as olive oil can not be added to the diet specifically. 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 do bodybuilding, you can’t eat shit. The bodybuilder diet is expensive. This is another victim.
10) Be patient, be persistent!
Muscle building takes time, and it doesn’t matter if you are a hard gainer or not. It requires patience, concentration and hard work. You play an iron game with life. If you get stuck in place after several months of training, eat more, lift more and eat more. Do not drop. Increase calorie , increase weight and good luck!