While you'll hear most people today talking about how they want to lose weight, not everyone is working out with a goal of shedding pounds. If you're trying to add lean muscle mass to transform yourself from the skinny one in the room to someone muscular and well defined, the process can be difficult. The good news is, though, that even hard gainers can get the results they desire with the right training regimen and diet. These muscle gaining tips for hard gainers can help you sculpt a well defined physique and finally start to see muscle gains:
1. Keep Your Workouts Short.
When it comes to working out, quality is always more important than quantity. In fact, studies have shown that working out for too long can actually do more harm than good. After 1 hour of training, your hormonal balance can shift, discouraging weight gain and muscle development. No matter what type of program you're using, limit yourself to 1 hour per workout max and focus on doing every rep at full intensity with proper form.
2. Make Eating a Priority.
It doesn't matter how much you work out. If you're not eating enough, you won't be able to accumulate muscle mass. When you have a fast metabolism that keeps you skinny, three meals a day often isn't enough. Instead, eat 5 to 6 times per day, being sure to eat something roughly every 2 to 3 hours. This way, you can guarantee that your body always has fuel available to be producing new muscle cells.
3. Reduce Your Calorie Burn.
Men with fast metabolisms must be careful about what they're doing outside of the gym. If you're constantly on the move, allow yourself to take a break and rest. Whenever possible, make your workouts the most strenuous activities of your week, so that you're not burning away the meals you're eating and the new muscle you're accumulating.
4. Learn the Science Behind Weight Gain.
Weight gain can seem mysterious, especially when you fail to pack on pounds of muscle no matter what you try. The truth is, though, that there is a science behind the process. This is one of the key muscle gaining tips for hard gainers, to gain 1 pound, you need to eat 3500 calories more than you consume. There are equations available to help you calculate your daily calorie requirements to maintain your present weight. You can use this information to figure out how much you need to be eating in order to gain 1 to 2 pounds every week. Write down everything that you eat and count calories to ensure that you're meeting your caloric requirements each and every day.
5. Keep Progressing....
In order to gain muscle mass, you need to continuously challenge your body. Muscle develops in response to placing heavy demands on your body during workouts. As a result, you need to continue to increase the difficulty of your training in order to keep building muscle. Don't let yourself get lazy. When you start finding that you're breezing through your program, increase the weight or the number of reps to make it harder again. Remember, though, not to lengthen your sessions beyond 1 hour to make them more difficult.
6. ...and Keep Things Fresh.
When you find a training program that you like, you may hate the thought of staying with it, but often, when we become comfortable with a workout, we end up cheating and phoning it in. Periodically introducing a new move or switching to a new program can help to keep you engaged and seeing results.
7. Do All You Can Eat.
After you've worked out hard at the gym, you need to replenish the calories that you lost and consume more to give yourself the necessary surplus to gain. If you're like many guys, you may not have time to prepare a sizable meal, but you can make enough time to hit an all-you-can-eat buffet. Don't eat until you're sick but do allow yourself to eat what you want. Overeating every once in a while can actually help to increase your stomach size, so that you can eat larger meals every day.
8. Try a Mass Gainer.
Dietary supplements are a hard gainer's best friend, and many guys find that they're that magic missing element from their weight gain diets. Mass gainer supplements are particularly beneficial for men who are working out in order to bulk up and accumulate lean muscle mass.
Most mass gainers contain protein to supply the fuel needed to generate new muscle cells. They also include fats and carbohydrates to help keep your diet in balance and supply sources of energy that your body can make use of in place of metabolizing muscle. Many formulas also provide ingredients like creatine and branched chain amino acids that further increase your body's ability to build muscle. Plus, mass gainers tend to be calorie-rich.
Whipping up a mass gainer shake as an afternoon snack can help you to refuel and increase your calorie intake. They're especially beneficial for men who are struggling to eat enough food to get results because while filling, shakes tend to be lighter than most meals. You can find mass gainer shakes in a wide variety of flavors and formulations.
Supplements can play a vital role in muscle mass development and can make a huge difference for hard gainers. So there you have your muscle gaining tips for hard gainers, follow these and you will be well on your way to achieving your goals.
Sportsfuel carries a wide range of mass gainer supplements and other sports nutrition products that can help you get more from your workouts and support muscle development to improve results. For assistance selecting the right assortment of supplements for your workout success, contact us today. We'll be glad to provide you with customized advice regarding supplements for hard gainers.
