Body Building for the Skinny Guy?

[Jibjabb]

So Im a pretty skinny dude and Ive been working out for a few weeks, doing the p90x workout to try and better bulk up/get in shape. My problem is my only goal right now is to gain muscle and gain some size and it feels like a lot of this program is focused on losing weight rather than purely building muscle.

So my question is what is the best way to go about purely gaining muscle and size without caring about endurance or weight loss? Are things like Yoga, Plyometrics, etc really necessary to hit this goal? I dont mind doing leg workout stuff but my goal is purely upper body how often do I need to do leg workouts if at all? How important is diet for this? And what should I be eating that isnt too expensive? (like Ive heard eggs are a good option)

Thnx

And for those who dont know the p90x workout is basically
Day 1) Chest/Back/Abs
Day 2) Plyometrics
Day 3) Shoulder/Bicep/Tricep/Abs
Day 4) Yoga
Day 5) Leg/Back/Abs
Day 6) Kenpo (its kinda like punching/jump rope type exercises)
Day 7) Rest

If you can find things I can cut or add to better reach my personal goal I am all ears

[Deleted]

#1 Join a nearby gym
#2 Do Stronglifts 5x5 for 6 months.
#3 Make sure you eat a lot! And that the food you eat contains at least some protein. Chickenbrest, veggies (broccoli tc.) and brown rice is classic bodybuilding food. If you don't like meat for whatever reason, supplement with whey protein shakes.

The main thing is to stick with it! You don't have to do yoga, plyometrics (wtf is that?), or other random shit.

If you can stick with it, i'll garauntee you'll have more strength, more energy and look a lot more like <insert random fitness model>.

[crunk]

good lord your approach is completely wrong

a full body routine is important. if all you truly care about is glamor muscles thats fine i guess, but, just so you know most people are going to think you look ridiculous and it wont mean you are "in shape".

like yilar said, Stronglifts is a good beginner program for people who actually want to be fit, but that doesn't seem to be your goal.


for your purposes you can ditch all that p90x shit and narrow it down to a 3 step program -

1. overhead press twice a week
2. bench press once a week
2. eat a shit ton of food


but, seriously, look into Stronglifts or Starting Strength

[Deleted]

So Im a pretty skinny dude and Ive been working out for a few weeks, doing the p90x workout to try and better bulk up/get in shape. My problem is my only goal right now is to gain muscle and gain some size and it feels like a lot of this program is focused on losing weight rather than purely building muscle.

So my question is what is the best way to go about purely gaining muscle and size without caring about endurance or weight loss? Are things like Yoga, Plyometrics, etc really necessary to hit this goal? I dont mind doing leg workout stuff but my goal is purely upper body how often do I need to do leg workouts if at all? How important is diet for this? And what should I be eating that isnt too expensive? (like Ive heard eggs are a good option)

Thnx

And for those who dont know the p90x workout is basically
Day 1) Chest/Back/Abs
Day 2) Plyometrics
Day 3) Shoulder/Bicep/Tricep/Abs
Day 4) Yoga
Day 5) Leg/Back/Abs
Day 6) Kenpo (its kinda like punching/jump rope type exercises)
Day 7) Rest

If you can find things I can cut or add to better reach my personal goal I am all ears

Before reading below I strongly suggest you lookup your diet, calorie and protein intake. I use USN hyperbolic mass to meet my desired targets and works wonders. Remember you can ONLY gain if you eat, <A LOT>.

About muscle gain for THE SKINNY GUY: AVOID STUPID EXERCISES (IE : Jogging, yoga, running, anything cardio), us high metabolism boys struggle enough as it is to put on weight, these are just adding to the problem. Swimming also is pretty bad if you overdo it, wimming is great though if you do it constructively in I bursts to wear your arms and back down.)

This is my routine as when I first started :
It is important to do at least these exercises as they work all parts of your core muscles. Feel free to add exercises, always good to add more .


Firstly for most of the exercises I aim for set of 8-10 reps, with a total of 3 set per exercise. It doesn't matter how many you do, but if you can't do more than 5 reps on 1st set, drop the weights a bit. If you can go to 12 or above, increase it. The most important of all is that you do these till you fail, not until you've had enough but until your body physically just can't do no more, if you can do half a rep DO IT.

Monday (Chest and triceps)
These two areas work great together, working chest works the triceps alone so its great to throw in exercises for them alone as well.

-Dumbbell chest press
-Chest fly with dumbbells
-Inclined dumbbell chest press
-Dips
-Triceps extensions
-Triceps pushdown
-Triceps pulldown with rope

Tuesday (Back and biceps)
I prefer doing back first as it tires your biceps before doing biceps alone, you will struggle a bit on biceps but more pain means more gain .
-Pullups
-Lat pull-downs
-Dumbell rows
-Hammer curls
-Bar curls
-Cable curls

Thursday (Legs)
Legs usually wear me down quickly. Squats work your entire body so you'll be doing 5 set instead of your typical 3.
-Squats
-MORE SQUATS
-Calf raise
-Leg curls
-Leg extensions

Friday (Shoulders and forearms)
-Military press
-Upright row
-Standing dumbbell side laterals (make sure you do these, ladies love the results)
-Shoulder crunches
-Wrist curls
-Finger curls
-Dumbbell reverse wrist curls


Every couple days I'll do some ab workouts and swim. I'll often do supersets as well (eg. do pushups immediately after a chest set)

Went from 59 kg to 75kg (1m85) in a year, (I'll let you do the conversion, from the UK). Went 75 to 89 in another.

pm me if you need any tips

PS : I don't do deadlift due to injury to lower back but those are awesome too.

[Kezotar]

Went from 59 kg to 75kg (1m85) in a year, (I'll let you do the conversion, from the UK). Went 75 to 89 in another.

pm me if you need any tips

PS : I don't do deadlift due to injury to lower back but those are awesome too.

That's .. sick. Sounds impossible tbh, if you gained 16 KG of pure muscles and no fat / low fat. Usually you gain around 1LBs/Muscle (most people say that's like as much as you get) a month, meaning you'll be looking at 12 LBs a year which is .. roughly 5,4 KG. People are achieving more, around 3-4 LBs monthly however those people use steroids.

Either your body builtd quickly or you've gone alot in water, and fat. But if you really did with mostly and minimal fat, that's great.

[Deleted]

That's .. sick. Sounds impossible tbh, if you gained 16 KG of pure muscles and no fat / low fat. Usually you gain around 1LBs/Muscle (most people say that's like as much as you get) a month, meaning you'll be looking at 12 LBs a year which is .. roughly 5,4 KG. People are achieving more, around 3-4 LBs monthly however those people use steroids.

Either your body builtd quickly or you've gone alot in water, and fat. But if you really did with mostly and minimal fat, that's great.

I actually gained 5.5kgs within my 1st 2 months. It comes a very big shock to the body when starting and results are quickly noticed when applying yourself to a strict and ambitious diet (I'm specifically talking for skinny guys). I don't bother measuring my body fat because as an embarrassed skinny guy any weight was welcome (lots of milk based shakes were used during my 1st year so I def wouldn't say no fats weren't taken into account). I also think my height takes some kind of factor into it I think?

My meals haven't changed much, only tuna-beef-chicken with rice-pasta-sweet potatoes
Snacks: peanut butter, nuts , wholewheat bread, lots of skimmed milk with shakes and oats.

Eat a lot, when you are stuffed, wait 10-20 mins and eat those few more spoonfuls you would've given up on. Make sure you've always got some nuts or something of the kind to nibble throughout the day. At first you won't have much of an appetite , but good exercise and force feeding yourself will not only expand your stomach and appetite, but also set yourself an internal routine.

Edit : OP, I know this is your choice to make, but skiiny legs and strong torsos in my opinion really look silly and so do quite a lot of girls, they like our bums too :>, not just the tank with twigs bellow. Besides, squats work your legs faily well on top of doing a large chunk of your upper body wonders.

[Jibjabb]

Thnx all for the feedback, I very much appreciate it Ill try and respond to some of what you guys said and add in some more bits of info

Firstly I shouldve said that I def can get a gym membership if its needed but I rather like working out from at home since its a lot more convenient. At home I have access to a wide assortment of dumbells and a pull up bar, but no bench bar. So this would eliminate the option of bench press/squats. Is there a way to supplement for these activities with what I have available? I know some of the workouts I did in the p90x did work out muscles associated with squats without the bar (jump squats, run stance squats, squat switch pickups etc) would these be acceptable alternative?

#3 Make sure you eat a lot! And that the food you eat contains at least some protein. Chickenbrest, veggies (broccoli tc.) and brown rice is classic bodybuilding food. If you don't like meat for whatever reason, supplement with whey protein shakes.

The main thing is to stick with it! You don't have to do yoga, plyometrics (wtf is that?), or other random shit.

If you can stick with it, i'll garauntee you'll have more strength, more energy and look a lot more like <insert random fitness model>.

This honestly is probably what I struggle with the most. My whole life I havent been a big eater, in fact I can go really long periods without eating anything at all. When I do eat I can eat a large meal but its usually just once maybe twice per day. As for what to eat I dont really cook but will try and get access to more chicken if its a good food for bodybuilding (I mean who doesnt love chicken?) but I am on somewhat of a budget so usually I dont get foods that are pricey. Usually when I do get chicken its like frozen wings or something

My normal foods I eat on a fairly regular basis are: Bagels with cream cheese (prob the thing I eat the most), Crackers with cheese, pizza, cereal, peanut butter + banana sammiches, frozen chicken wings, tuna sammiches, mac n cheese

I also drink a ton of pop, only water when im working out and milk on occassion

a full body routine is important. if all you truly care about is glamor muscles thats fine i guess, but, just so you know most people are going to think you look ridiculous and it wont mean you are "in shape".

like yilar said, Stronglifts is a good beginner program for people who actually want to be fit, but that doesn't seem to be your goal.

Well like I said I dont mind doing leg workouts if its important, I just dont care that much how strong my legs are vs upper body strength. And I do want to be fit, although Id say I already am to a degree since I do play basketball and my job requires a lot of manual labor anyways so I stay in relatively healthy shape. Im simply skinnier/weaker than Id like to be

This is my routine as when I first started :
It is important to do at least these exercises as they work all parts of your core muscles. Feel free to add exercises, always good to add more .

I can def try most of the things on there, I think I do a decent amount of them with p90x already. They usually only require 2 sets though instead of 3 and a lot of times my arms are so dead just from doing the 2 sets that trying to do 1 more rep is basically impossible

As for body size right now Im about 6'1 (185 cm) 155 lbs (70 kg). I hope I did those conversions right

Its also a relief to hear I can simply drop yoga and all the other cardio stuff. Thats honestly what I disliked the most, straight working out I enjoy far more

[Deleted]

My normal foods I eat on a fairly regular basis are: Bagels with cream cheese (prob the thing I eat the most), Crackers with cheese, pizza, cereal, peanut butter + banana sammiches, frozen chicken wings, tuna sammiches, mac n cheese

I also drink a ton of pop, only water when im working out and milk on occassion

Well that's good info. I probably didn't stress this enough in my 1st post but diet and exercise are key and it is paramount that you stick to it. Hiccups or applying to one and not the other will hinder any progress. It is a SLOW process! I'm talking 6 months before you get any big results.

That said I think it is important to point out your diet. It is important that you cut anything with sugars. The only energy you want to be capitalising on are carbs (ie : rice, pasta, potatoes, bread). It is important that you lookup online how many calories, carbs and more importantly protein you are eating. I highly suggest you cool down on the fizzy drinks and stay away from isotonic drinks with stupid sweeteners, research shows they are extremely unhealthy.

This was the most annoying part for me to get started on because I didn't like eating much, had an unhealthy diet similar to yours, and I only ate when I wanted. But this is the base of your formula. What goes in well.... goes out but also defines what your body absorbs. You NEED a structured diet. At first you will need to calculate your meals and how much you're eating each day. After a few weeks you will have a good idea of what you need to be eating each day and more importantly HOW MUCH.

You mentioned not being a big eater, but this is where exercise becomes crucial. If you work yourself correctly you'll be hungry or "not full" and able to eat that valuable food. I'll repeat this again : you need to stick to both. Dropping the ball on one will affect the other. Eventually you'll be nibbling on food all the time if you are not doing out of habit after a few months.

If you are tired after 2 sets that's ok, it takes a couple weeks for all your micromuscles to understand wtf is going on. But you want to maybe drop the weights a bit so you fail on rep 10 and work your way onto that 3rd set. And one important thing : don't be afraid to increase the weights. What I usually do is if someone has taken the weights I want, I jump one weight higher. It's OK if you can't pull off your 3 sets. But sometimes you just may surprise yourself and realise you are ready for a heavier weight.

So my advice as proper start :
1) Set your required intake
2) Plan your meals ahead
3) Plan your workout ahead, 3 sets ~10 reps on mostly everything
4) STICK TO IT.
5) If you are not full after meals, fill up. Another method is having MANY small meals but I find this method much too time consuming.
6) Consider using a hyperbolic supplement. These work WONDERS for hard gainers but I see you mentioned money being an issue, which would lead me back to point 2. I'd suggest eggs/oats/bananas shakes within 30min after workout. Meals within 2 hours after workout. Chug down what you can before going to sleep (drink a lot of water with each meal, you are 60% water after all).

[Deleted]

Yoga is really good stick to that. Flexibility is always great. Plyo isn´t really needed unless you are training for a specific goal (jumping higher, sprinting etc)

And for gods sake don´t listen to the "3x10 with a million iso´s" crowd. Thats boneheaded and totally unnecessary.

Stronglifts 5x5 for 6 months and then something like Back To Basics for 6 months will give amazing results. Squat and deadlift are the 2 most important excersises you can do. Legs are very important to train to help you grow, but it isn´t needed to go all in. Squat, deadlift and calf raises and you are pretty well covered as a beginner.

Your combination of excersises is also pretty strange. Generally you want to fit things together that complement each other.. Like bicep/back and tricep/chest/shoulder.. Personally i prefer push/pull oriented programs, but some also prefer upper/lower... I certainly wouldn´t recommend anything above a 2 day split for a beginner...

Something like:

Day 1:
Chest
Shoulder
triceps
abs

Day 2
Legs
Back
Biceps

Use a lot of compounds like deadlift, squat, BB row, Pull ups etc.. Do day 1 monday + Thursday and day 2 Tuesday and Friday. Wednessday is rest day.. Do your plyo on the weekends if you really want it. The back to basics program is basically a 2 day split push/pull program for beginners.

Day 1
Benchpress
Decline dumbbell press
Sitting dumbbell shoulder press
Side lat raises
Close grip benchpress
Weighted crunches

Day 2
Squat
deadlift
Calf raises
Bent over barbell rows
Chin ups
Cable rows
Dumbbell curl

4x6 reps on all, when you can do 4x8 increase the weight so you are back at 4x6. Rinse and repeat

Firstly for most of the exercises I aim for set of 8-10 reps, with a total of 3 set per exercise. It doesn't matter how many you do, but if you can't do more than 5 reps on 1st set, drop the weights a bit. If you can go to 12 or above, increase it. The most important of all is that you do these till you fail, not until you've had enough but until your body physically just can't do no more, if you can do half a rep DO IT.

Monday (Chest and triceps)
These two areas work great together, working chest works the triceps alone so its great to throw in exercises for them alone as well.

-Dumbbell chest press
-Chest fly with dumbbells
-Inclined dumbbell chest press
-Dips
-Triceps extensions
-Triceps pushdown
-Triceps pulldown with rope

Tuesday (Back and biceps)
I prefer doing back first as it tires your biceps before doing biceps alone, you will struggle a bit on biceps but more pain means more gain .
-Pullups
-Lat pull-downs
-Dumbell rows
-Hammer curls
-Bar curls
-Cable curls

Thursday (Legs)
Legs usually wear me down quickly. Squats work your entire body so you'll be doing 5 set instead of your typical 3.
-Squats
-MORE SQUATS
-Calf raise
-Leg curls
-Leg extensions

Friday (Shoulders and forearms)
-Military press
-Upright row
-Standing dumbbell side laterals (make sure you do these, ladies love the results)
-Shoulder crunches
-Wrist curls
-Finger curls
-Dumbbell reverse wrist curls


Every couple days I'll do some ab workouts and swim. I'll often do supersets as well (eg. do pushups immediately after a chest set)

Went from 59 kg to 75kg (1m85) in a year, (I'll let you do the conversion, from the UK). Went 75 to 89 in another.

pm me if you need any tips

PS : I don't do deadlift due to injury to lower back but those are awesome too.

DAT program loool.

A bazzillion iso excersises isn´t needed. Unless you want to be a BB a more powerlifting oriented approach will give much better results and take one hell of a lot less time.

A forearm day? lol. And you are telling him to avoid stupid excersises while your own program is filled with them. And repping to failure always? WTF?

Those gains are at least ½ water and fat, there is no way you gained that much muscle in 2 years without roids, it just isn´t possible. 30kg or 50% increase in bodyweight in muscles in 2 years is physically impossible to do natty. Super sets? This reeks of Michael Chang that buffoon.

- - - Updated - - -

#1 Join a nearby gym
#2 Do Stronglifts 5x5 for 6 months.
#3 Make sure you eat a lot! And that the food you eat contains at least some protein. Chickenbrest, veggies (broccoli tc.) and brown rice is classic bodybuilding food. If you don't like meat for whatever reason, supplement with whey protein shakes.

The main thing is to stick with it! You don't have to do yoga, plyometrics (wtf is that?), or other random shit.

If you can stick with it, i'll garauntee you'll have more strength, more energy and look a lot more like <insert random fitness model>.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyometrics

Used by NFL, NBA, Handball players, sprinters etc. Great training if you want to improve on your verticals... A long with box jumps it makes for great assistance training for Squats. Powerlifters like Jonnie Candito use it and he can dunk a basketball at 5 foot 7. He squats something like 550+ and DL´s 600+ at 183 lbs.

[Deleted]

Yoga is really good stick to that. Flexibility is always great. Plyo isn´t really needed unless you are training for a specific goal (jumping higher, sprinting etc)

And for gods sake don´t listen to the "3x10 with a million iso´s" crowd. Thats boneheaded and totally unnecessary.

Stronglifts 5x5 for 6 months and then something like Back To Basics for 6 months will give amazing results. Squat and deadlift are the 2 most important excersises you can do. Legs are very important to train to help you grow, but it isn´t needed to go all in. Squat, deadlift and calf raises and you are pretty well covered as a beginner.

Your combination of excersises is also pretty strange. Generally you want to fit things together that complement each other.. Like bicep/back and tricep/chest/shoulder.. Personally i prefer push/pull oriented programs, but some also prefer upper/lower... I certainly wouldn´t recommend anything above a 2 day split for a beginner...

Something like:

Day 1:
Chest
Shoulder
triceps
abs

Day 2
Legs
Back
Biceps

Use a lot of compounds like deadlift, squat, BB row, Pull ups etc.. Do day 1 monday + Thursday and day 2 Tuesday and Friday. Wednessday is rest day.. Do your plyo on the weekends if you really want it. The back to basics program is basically a 2 day split push/pull program for beginners.

Day 1
Benchpress
Decline dumbbell press
Sitting dumbbell shoulder press
Side lat raises
Close grip benchpress
Weighted crunches

Day 2
Squat
deadlift
Calf raises
Bent over barbell rows
Chin ups
Cable rows
Dumbbell curl

4x6 reps on all, when you can do 4x8 increase the weight so you are back at 4x6. Rinse and repeat




DAT program loool.

A bazzillion iso excersises isn´t needed. Unless you want to be a BB a more powerlifting oriented approach will give much better results and take one hell of a lot less time.

A forearm day? lol. And you are telling him to avoid stupid excersises while your own program is filled with them. And repping to failure always? WTF?

Those gains are at least ½ water and fat, there is no way you gained that much muscle in 2 years without roids, it just isn´t possible. 30kg or 50% increase in bodyweight in muscles in 2 years is physically impossible to do natty. Super sets? This reeks of Michael Chang that buffoon.

- - - Updated - - -



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyometrics

Used by NFL, NBA, Handball players, sprinters etc. Great training if you want to improve on your verticals... A long with box jumps it makes for great assistance training for Squats. Powerlifters like Jonnie Candito use it and he can dunk a basketball at 5 foot 7. He squats something like 550+ and DL´s 600+ at 183 lbs.

You mock my program, yet I am praised by most of my surrounding for my results. 60 to 90kg for a skinny high meta hardgainer in 2 years. You won't find many around your gym with similar I can guarantee. And if you are not repping to failure for mass gain I don't know whether I should bother to argue.... Just lookup "body mass work to failure" and read the thousands of explainations of its importance (eg : http://www.build-some-muscle.com/muscle-failure.html )

[Deleted]

You mock my program, yet I am praised by most of my surrounding for my results. 60 to 90kg for a skinny high meta hardgainer in 2 years. You won't find many around your gym with similar I can guarantee. And if you are not repping to failure for mass gain I don't know whether I should bother to argue.... Just lookup "body mass work to failure" and read the thousands of explainations of its importance (eg : http://www.build-some-muscle.com/muscle-failure.html )

The people praising your program don´t really know anything then... Back/triceps, chest/biceps???? A forearm day? Redudndant excersises and also missing some of the best excersises for most muscle groups? 5 day split?

You are full of it. It is physically impossible to make those gains. Can´t be done, at all, by anyone. Period. So stop lying. The only way it would be remotely possible is glutton eating and now having a BF of 30%. OK, NOT POSSIBLE, so just stop it. You would have to be a world champion roider to get anywhere close to those gains. I mean 50% added BW in 2 years, come on man.



Why you shouldn´t train to failure:



Also look at

1. Baudry S, Duchateau J. Postactivation potentiation in human muscle is not related to the type of maximal conditioning contraction. Muscle & Nerve 2004, 30: 328-36.

2. Grange RW, Vandenboom R, Xeni J, Houston ME. Potentiation of in vitro concentric work in mouse fast muscle. J Appl Physiol 1998, 84: 236-43.

3. Sweeney H, Bowman BF, Stull JT. Myosin light chain phosphorylation in vertebrate striated muscle: regulation and function. Am J Physiol 1993, 264: 1085-95.

4. Sundstrup E, Jakobsen MD, Andersen CH, Jay K, Andersen LL. Swiss ball abdominal crunch with added elastic resistance is an effective alternative to training machines. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2012 Aug;7(4):372-80.

[meekus]

1. What program you choose doesn't really matter. Just make sure you really work through your whole body once or twice a week. I'd pick something that focuses on compound movements, especially in the beginning.
2. Eat a lot. Find a BMR calculator and calculate roughly how many calories you need, and then add at least another 500 kcal to that.
3. Sleep well, and give your muscles at least 48h rest before you hit them again, maybe even more if you push them to failure.
(How well you sleep and eat is highly likely more important than how exactly you train).

Cardiovascular exercise really doesn't help your muscle building, but neglecting it completely is something no one should ever do imo. At least try to get in some walks here and there.

[Ineluki]

Tons of different style, routines ect. out there, and most of them work. The trick if figuring out what works for YOU, everyone's body is a little different and each one responds in a different way. Im personally a big fan of Dave Draper, he has some great books out and tons of experiance. http://www.davedraper.com/index.html He also has a forum that does get responses from some great people.

[Deleted]

Tons of different style, routines ect. out there, and most of them work. The trick if figuring out what works for YOU, everyone's body is a little different and each one responds in a different way. Im personally a big fan of Dave Draper, he has some great books out and tons of experiance. http://www.davedraper.com/index.html He also has a forum that does get responses from some great people.

Hmm that guy was new to me. I´m not really a BB guy myself but his site certainly seems solid and with some quality advice. Coolio

1. What program you choose doesn't really matter. Just make sure you really work through your whole body once or twice a week. I'd pick something that focuses on compound movements, especially in the beginning.
2. Eat a lot. Find a BMR calculator and calculate roughly how many calories you need, and then add at least another 500 kcal to that.
3. Sleep well, and give your muscles at least 48h rest before you hit them again, maybe even more if you push them to failure.
(How well you sleep and eat is highly likely more important than how exactly you train).

Cardiovascular exercise really doesn't help your muscle building, but neglecting it completely is something no one should ever do imo. At least try to get in some walks here and there.

Solid stuff.

[Duronos]

Look it's really simple, it didn't take long for me to realize that all I had to do was eat a lot, get some protein in there but calorie intake is the most important thing. I was skinny and all I had to do was go to gym, work on a different muscle set each day though I often did arms a few more times a week. Whenever I work on the machines I flex my abs every set I go for, this pretty much means you'll never have to do the ab workout because that is the ab workout.

Coming from a once skinny guy, eat a lot of food and try to go as often as possible every week. Just eat a lot.

[Deleted]

Look it's really simple, it didn't take long for me to realize that all I had to do was eat a lot, get some protein in there but calorie intake is the most important thing. I was skinny and all I had to do was go to gym, work on a different muscle set each day though I often did arms a few more times a week. Whenever I work on the machines I flex my abs every set I go for, this pretty much means you'll never have to do the ab workout because that is the ab workout.

Coming from a once skinny guy, eat a lot of food and try to go as often as possible every week. Just eat a lot.

Flexing your abs is NOT an ab workout. 4-5 day splits are dumb for beginners.

[Deleted]

1 - Eat like a horse.
2 - Exercise like an animal.
3 - Profit.

If you're skinny, you'll need something for the muscle tissue to grow from. You need fats (the right kind) for muscle to grow properly. So if you're one of those whose genes dictate they can't get fat, you'll have to work for it. Just eat lots. Then, you'll want to make sure you grow muscle instead of just becoming a ball of fat, so you'll want to exercise, a lot.

Now, me personally, I wouldn't do just a strict gym routine. Unless you're aiming to become someone who's got all these big muscles, but zero ability to run fast and far, and zero ability to jump, and have really zero athletic, agile and dexterous control of your body. Rather you should mix in some walking, jogging, running, although you can do that in some sport form. Do some form of sports that requires high mobility, fast acceleration, jumping and moving back and forth quickly, and that requires you to have high stamina. Then supplement that with the gym to tone your muscles.

That'll build you into an actual athlete, as opposed to some gym-bred muscle monster who can't properly run or jump.

[Deleted]

1 - Eat like a horse.
2 - Exercise like an animal.
3 - Profit.

If you're skinny, you'll need something for the muscle tissue to grow from. You need fats (the right kind) for muscle to grow properly. So if you're one of those whose genes dictate they can't get fat, you'll have to work for it. Just eat lots. Then, you'll want to make sure you grow muscle instead of just becoming a ball of fat, so you'll want to exercise, a lot.

Now, me personally, I wouldn't do just a strict gym routine. Unless you're aiming to become someone who's got all these big muscles, but zero ability to run fast and far, and zero ability to jump, and have really zero athletic, agile and dexterous control of your body. Rather you should mix in some walking, jogging, running, although you can do that in some sport form. Do some form of sports that requires high mobility, fast acceleration, jumping and moving back and forth quickly, and that requires you to have high stamina. Then supplement that with the gym to tone your muscles.

That'll build you into an actual athlete, as opposed to some gym-bred muscle monster who can't properly run or jump.

He needs protein not fats. What you just posted is complete and utter bullshit.

[crakerjack]

There's multiple types of training... there's training for strength, there's training for endurance, and there's training for size. I train purely for size and nothing else. If all you want is mass, a few key things to focus on during your lifts is muscle contraction and tension. Too many people go through the motion and give little to no thought about the muscle. I know this because it's exactly what I did and I got slow results. On top of that, you should figure out which exercises work best for you. You need to understand that there's two types of exercises: Compound, meaning you use multiple muscle groups (Bench, Squat etc...) and Isolation, meaning you isolate that designated muscle and nothing else (Preacher curls, tricep extensions). There's a lot more too it and all the information can be found on various bodybuilding websites.

[Deleted]

He needs protein

True.

not fats.

Untrue. Although I can't blame you for thinking this, seeing as though there's so much bullshit about the issue on the web, and being spewed by "professionals." Also, you might want to remember that we're talking about an already skinny guy, with no fat to begin with.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/planet3.htm
http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/mu...an_Protein.php
http://ezinearticles.com/?Build-Musc...cle&id=1230609

What you just posted is complete and utter bullshit.

Could we agree that next time you feel like you need to elevate yourself by being rude, you'll have at least a rudimentary understanding of the issue at hand? Great, thanks.