I come from a long line of slim-built men.
Which for a long time in my youth was something I didn’t think too much about.
I was really into skateboarding and played in bands a lot, so it fits in with everyone else.
I’ve honestly never been too concerned with my build, even when I met my wife, who was working in a gym at the time and convinced me to get into weight training.
So I started lifting weights and enjoyed seeing my numbers get bigger, I was never really into the typical bodybuilding style of training.
I trained with a barbell a lot more than dumbbells as I like that it was always a bigger number I was lifting.
After about a year of training and getting stronger, I finally clicked. Why am I not getting any bigger?
I could squat more than my body weight, I could deadlift twice my body weight.
But my physique hadn’t really changed.
I was taking a protein shake, what else was I missing?
Am I just a skinny guy and that’s my lot?
It wasn’t until I started speaking with the trainers that I understood how important food is with training.
You can lift all the weights in the world but if you’re not eating more calories than you burn you won’t gain weight.
How you train and what the calories are going to decide whether the weight you gain is fat or muscle.
Before we go too much further though, check out my free E-Book ‘Train Wherever The F*ck You Want!‘
I got everything there is to know about resistance bands.
And how you can use this simple tool to build the body you want, wherever the f*ck you want!
What Exercises Build Muscle Mass?
As long as you are giving your muscles resistance and get enough food in your muscles will recover and grow back stronger.
There’s more than one way you can do this.
The best place to start if you are a beginner to training is by sticking with the barbell and doing compound lifts.
Compound lifts are movements that use more than one joint.
The more joints you are using the more muscles you are using.
Compound lifts are the way to go for building mass.
When you use more muscles together you can lift more weight.
So instead of doing tricep extensions with 10kg, doing bench press with 40kg your triceps are now, with the help of other muscles, are now lifting a lot more weight.
The movements I would recommend starting with are.
Deadlift
Squats
Bench press
Overhead press
Pull-ups
Can I Build Muscle In 3 Months?
Yes, you can, How much depends on your exercise routine, food, and rest. But you can certainly build muscle in 3 months.
Newbie gains are going to be your best friend when starting out as well.
When you first start weight training your muscles are going to respond to this stress a lot faster than after your 1st year of training.
So make the most of this period.
Once you’ve established your training routine you want to start making your meals a big focus.
Learning about calories and macros is going to be the most important thing you can do in the early stages.
Finding out how many calories your body needs, and eating a surplus is going to cause weight gains.
But unless you’re getting enough protein in you run the risk of this mainly being fat.
I use the app myfitnesspal.
It calculates my calories and tells me how many grams of carb, fats, and protein I need.
Getting enough protein in is going to be key.
Why Are My Muscles Not Growing?
So as I just touched on, you’re probably not eating enough. And this can be the hardest part.
In the past when I’ve tried to gain weight I’ve really struggled.
My naturally lean physique and fast metabolism can make it hard for me.
There have been times where I’ve been eating 4000+ calories a day and still staying the same weight.
Now a lot of factors came into this.
I was still working in construction.
Doing 10+ hour days on the tools, then training as well, I also had to ride my Push Bike 12 km to work and back.
I was burning a lot of calories!
It felt like I was always eating.
And where I’m at now, weight gain isn’t super important for me.
I know I could gain muscle if I was a lot more strict with it.
But It’s really not that important to me anymore, I know I’m strong and I’m cool with that.
But for those of you who are struggling and maybe you’re in a similar position that I was in.
You need to track your macros.
You need to make sure you are eating enough.
Here‘s an article I wrote about getting the balance right with food.
You also need to let your muscles recover.
Another big problem for hard gainers is they tend to get frustrated and overtrain.
How are they supposed to repair and grow if you don’t let your muscles recover?
How Much Protein Do Men Need For Muscle?
This really depends on the person.
The bigger you are the more calories you tend to need, meaning more protein as well.
So get onto myfitnesspal and get started.
It’s really not a hard process, the app will ask for your age, sex, weight, height, and activity level.
And it’ll do the maths for you.
Once you know how much to eat you should record the results. After 4-6 weeks you’ll start to see if it’s working or not.
Then you might need to make small adjustments until you get the numbers right.
Once you know how much protein you need a day, you need to start spreading it out.
Your body can only absorb so much protein in one go.
These numbers vary from person to person.
Shit, they vary from test to test.
And honestly, I’m not a dietitian, but a good rule of thumb to go for is 30g of protein per hour. Let your body digest it before you pump more in.