What You Must Do to Build Muscle?

Here's what you need to know...

1. Real over-training is rare, but under-recovery is real. Hardgainers often don't eat enough, rest enough, or manage stress enough.
2. Hardgainers overestimate their daily caloric intake and would do well tracking their food.
3. If a hardgainer has never been afraid going into a leg session, he's not working hard enough.
4. Hardgainers need to select periods throughout the year for making size the sole focus, rather than trying to bulk year round.

Rule #1:  Don't Blame Genetics

Few topics stir up heated debates more than the topic of genetics.

Some lifters wallow in despair over their hopeless genetic misfortune in gaining muscle. Others don't even believe in genetics. They think that with some hard work and some top-secret Soviet program, anyone can be a champ.

In reality, things like your height, skeletal structure (length and width), muscle fiber type ratios, muscle vs. tendon length, and nervous system efficiency impact how your body looks and how it responds to training.

If you come up short in some or all of these areas, all is not lost because there are many things within your control, and any one of them can have a big impact on your physique.

Lifestyle and training habits, nutrition and supplementation, work ethic, time management, and attitude - make positive changes in these areas and you'll add muscle to your body.

Rule #2:  Don't Worry About Overtraining

Hardgainers often fear overtraining. Some are scared of doing more than a set for three exercises per workout, twice a month, because that might constitute overtraining.

The truth is that overtraining does exist... in elite athletes. But the average gym goer doesn't have the time to create a textbook overtraining situation.

Instead, what happens is a vicious cycle of under-recovery. They don't sleep enough, eat enough, train smart enough, or rest enough to recover from a decent amount of work. They start to experience over-training-like symptoms, and assume it's because they're doing too much in the gym.

The result? They use a training solution to fix a recovery problem.

While some lifters make the mistake of doing a stupid amount of work in the gym or trying to copy the program of an elite, drug-using bodybuilder, many more make the mistake of doing too little outside the gym to recover from a decent program.

As a young, skinny, new lifter, I made a very smart decision. I hired a bigger, stronger, more experienced trainer to write me a program. I was so disappointed when I got the program. It included way too much volume and frequency for a hardgainer like me.

I decided to do his stupid program anyway and prove that it didn't work. I upped my food intake, got more sleep, trained really hard, and progressively added weight to all my lifts.

Two months later, his "stupid program" led to a weight gain of 13 pounds of muscle.

Try to out-recover the gifted elite. If they sleep 7 hours a night, you might need 8. If they need 4,000 calories a day, you might need 5,000.

Related:  More on recovery methods

While they may be able to get away with throwing food together, you might need a structured meal plan. If they can get away without naps, massages, and various stress management techniques, you might need to double down on them.

Train hard. Recover harder.

Rule #3:  Find Your Volume Sweet Spot

Training advice for hardgainers seems to always include the recommendation to use low volume. The argument is this:

If you try using the high-volume routines that all the drug-assisted bodybuilders use, you'll over-train. Short, infrequent, heavy, low-volume training is what you need to stimulate muscle growth, and then give your muscles the chance to recover and grow!

I loved this philosophy. It's so simple and logical - except that it doesn't work well for a lot of us.

While heavy weights are very important, a certain amount of volume is vital to create the metabolic stress needed to stimulate hypertrophy. More volume tells the muscle, "You can't just get stronger, you need to get bigger to survive this stress."

As a university strength coach, I get to work with some freaky athletes. Some are extreme mesomorphs who can get too big for optimal sport performance if we're not careful.

To get them stronger without getting bigger, guess what I give them. Short, infrequent, heavy, low-volume training.

If this style of training doesn't put muscle on someone genetically prone to adding it, how do you expect it to work for someone who struggles to gain muscle?

The problem with the volume issue is that it's often pushed to the extreme. Yes, there are outliers who seem to thrive on really low or high volumes. But most fall somewhere in the middle.

There's a happy middle ground where you have enough volume to stimulate muscle growth without exceeding your recovery capabilities. The trick is to find your middle ground.

Keep track of your volume (weight x reps x sets). Start with a lower volume that allows you to get stronger. If you're eating a caloric surplus but not seeing gains, bring the volume up a little.

Monitor performance in your training log and take body weight and girth measurements. Adjust until you find your sweet spot. (Be aware that this can change over time and you'll be able to tolerate less volume when you're busier and not able to recover as well.)

Volume is trainable. Many hardgainers find that they don't naturally have a great work capacity compared to others. But you can gradually increase work capacity over time by gradually increasing your training volume.

Rule #4:  Prioritize Basics

When you're consistently doing the basics and making great gains, then you can make tweaks and see if they help a bit.

As a teen, I'd devour muscle magazines trying to find all the secrets of a perfect training program: training split, best angle for incline pressing, best number of sets, perfect amount of reps, the position my pinky should be in to get a biceps peak, etc.

All I ended up doing was adding extra stress, confusion, paralysis by over-analysis, and cortisol when I should've been eating and sleeping. Until you're consistently doing the basics, the little stuff doesn't matter.

Rule #5:  Know Your Food Intake

In gyms all over the world, you hear the following conversation:

Skinny guy: "I can't gain weight."
Coach: "You need to eat more."
Skinny guy: "But I eat a ton!"

At this point, the skinny guy usually blows off the coach and walks off in search of someone else who will tell him what he wants to hear: "You just need to find a special, really complicated, super-scientific program."

Too bad the coach didn't just demand to see the hardgainer's food log.

In the same way that the obese typically underestimate how much they eat, many hardgainers overestimate it. They may feel like they're eating a ton, but if they actually crunched the numbers, they'd see that their intake is pitiful.

Related:  Diet Planning for the Hardgainer

Use a website, app, or an old-school notebook and track your food intake. Keep increasing this intake until your weight starts to climb. Unless you have a tape worm, you'll gain weight.

Eating more calories isn't the whole picture. While a calorie is a calorie in a food incinerator that measures calories, it's not that simple when it comes to food and the human body.

What you eat is just as important. Many hardgainers resort to cheap weight gainer supplements or go all Michael Phelps and start pounding back junk food to get their calories in.

Most will be able to gain weight with a lot fewer calories than that per day. If you only need 4,000 calories per day to be in a caloric surplus, then you can get the majority of these with high-quality foods.

Make whole foods your dietary base. This base can also include natural calorie-dense foods (nuts, nut butter, dried fruit). Then, live a little and enjoy some treats.

As a result of having the majority of your diet consist of high-quality foods, you'll gain less unwanted fat, have more energy for training, recover faster, reduce inflammation, and enjoy better health.

Rule #6:  Shun Fad Diets

As a hardgainer, it's a challenge getting enough calories and nutrients to gain muscle. Add to this any of today's diet fads and muscle gain goes from hard to impossible.

Besides limiting foods that are complete junk, there's only one rule you need to follow: Eat what works for you.

The diet industry has seen a lot of interesting trends - none of which are helpful for building muscle.

If you tried to follow all of today's mainstream food-fearing advice, you'd end up as a gluten-free, raw-food eating, paleo vegan who's afraid of fruits and nuts because they make you fat.

Hardgainers often have less-than-stellar digestive systems. If a certain food leaves you feeling gross, then by all means exclude it. Other than that, just eat what makes you feel the best and delivers the results you want.

Rule #7:  Find Your Best Exercises

If you want to get big, then squat, bench, and deadlift, right?

That's what many successful and often short coaches and lifters recommend. And while these lifts have helped pack mass on to thousands of lifters, they're not always a perfect fit for hardgainers, especially not tall ones.

Even the shorter hardgainers may have relatively long limbs and a short torso. Think about the body type that typifies a great lifter and you'll quickly realize it doesn't match up with the structure of most hardgainers.

While they may have volleyball and rowing coaches recruiting them, they generally won't be getting an invitation from Louie Simmons to come lift at Westside.

You need to select big exercises that are right for you. T Nation is full of articles from innovative coaches with countless variations on the big 3. Keep experimenting until you find a handful of variations for each major movement pattern or body part that meet the following criteria:

• They don't beat up your joints
• They effectively hit the target muscles
• You can progressively add weight and reps to them for a long time (think deadlifts vs. lateral raises)

Related:  More on finding big lifts that are right for you

Exercise selection is one of the most important training variables. Even the best combination of all other training variables can fail to deliver results if you select inferior exercises.

By picking the best options, you'll maximize your growth stimulus with fewer total exercises. This allows you to spend wisely as you dip into your limited recovery reserves.

Rule #8:  Squat Hard, Curl Hard

If you've never been afraid going into a leg session, you're not working hard enough.

Regardless of whether you do a squat with a barbell on your back or racked in front of your chest, you need to have some big, scary leg sessions. Intense leg training will not only give you bigger wheels, it's also a great catalyst for whole body growth.

And while hardgainers are always told to "just squat and everything will grow" they should also be doing a modest amount of direct work for their limbs.

Hardgainers tend to feel more stimulation in the torso muscles than they do in the limbs when doing compound movements. As a result, doing nothing but compound movements will make the limbs (which are proportionately smaller to begin with) start to fall further behind.

Rule #9:  Shun Gurus

If you have no idea what to do, hire a successful coach, buy an informative book, or read articles. As you make progress and try different things, take note of what works well for you. The more advanced you get, the more you'll know about your body.

One huge mistake I made was to stop doing what was working because it didn't align with what some guru said I had to do.

There are many brilliant coaches out there with info to share. However, if that information contradicts what you know works for you, ignore it and move on.

Rule #10:  Focus

If you want to be successful, devote specific phases of your training and lifestyle to maximizing muscle growth.

Forget about your vertical jump, winning a triathlon, and all the cool "new" core stability exercises you saw on the internet. Forget about late-night movies and video game marathons. Spend that time training, eating, and sleeping.

Many hardgainers also make the mistake of trying to be in a mass-building phase year round. Instead, select periods throughout the year for making size your sole focus. Then choose other times to focus on complimentary goals (like maximal strength) while you maintain the new muscle you gained.

Then, when you're ready, tackle another muscle gaining phase.

NOT to wear when work out in gym

The gym equipment must be carefully and wisely chosen. Beginners have the false impression that they must look very well at the gym. They choose their most beautiful clothes and not the most comfortable.

The ladies are looking to purchase a dark equipment “to seem skinny”. Gentlemen put more value on the model of the T-shirt than the material. The colors, company or inscriptions on the gym equipment have no effect on our training. But material, stitching or quality can make the difference between a pleasant experience and a nightmare at the gym.

What type of  the gym equipment NOT to wear :

Although cotton is a lightweight, cool and comfortable material, don’t choose it for your gym equipment. Cotton absorbs sweat and it dries slowly. To start exercising in a wet shirt is not comfortable or healthy. Also avoid very large equipment because it will make you move difficult during training. Choose special equipment, synthetic material that dries easily.
Before going to the gym be careful not to abuse the perfume. It can be extremely unpleasant for both you and your colleagues who need to breathe heavily during exercises. Body lotions can make the skin slippery and can cause skin sticking to the gym equipment.

When you go to the gym, it is best to leave home watches, earrings or necklace. It can be very uncomfortable when you deposit a considerable physical effort and can irritate your skin. Worse,it can cling to the gym equipment and cause injury.

Wear a proper pair of shoes, which support your feet right. It is essential to prevent injury. It is also important to change your shoes after you run about 700 miles with them.

In the gym must feel comfortable in the clothes we wear. Very tight and uncomfortable underwear should be avoided. Don’t wear wired bras! You should choose to wear a bustier to the gym.

Plank Exercise for overall muscle and stamina

A plank is a perfect example of total body tension and co-contractive forces. It's a battle of near-maximal contractile strength from all areas (shoulders, abs, glutes, low back and quads) to produce a steel beam in human form, able to withstand any external forces. Planks are special. The more you do them, the more they seem to make everything else you do in the gym better. Whether you're trying to smash a PR in a big lift, recover from a back injury, get faster on the field, or simply get better abs, planks can help. Unfortunately, planks get a bad rap for being a wussy exercise. All you do is hang out there, motionless, until you get bored. No big weights, no mind-numbing intensity. If this sums up your feelings on the exercise, odds are your planking skills are in need of a serious overhaul. Let's break down how to do a plank for maximum benefits; how planks can be used to increase your total weight lifted with compound movements; and how planks can be used to increase flexibility through the hips and shoulders. Like I said, they do everything.

The benefits of plank exercises are:

1. Convenient - Plank exercises can be done at home or at a gym. All you need is a mat.
2. Flexibility - Plank exercises increase flexibility in the posterior muscle groups throughout your body.
3. Aesthetic - Plank exercises can improve your appearance by activating core muscles which stabilizes your spine and hips improving posture.
4. Mental - Plank exercises can improve mental benefits that improve your mood. Plank exercises stretch muscles that commonly stiffen throughout the day and contribute to stress.
5. Strength - Plank exercises help strengthen the midsection, upper-body and lower-body  muscles along the front of your body.

You are probably wondering what the craze is all about regarding this great exercise. Well in this post, I'm going to outline all the benefits the exercise provides breaking this down by major muscle groups to show you just how powerful one exercise can provide you with multiple gains which no other exercise can do without using some type of equipment.

Right here goes, here are the plank exercise benefits you have been waiting for:

Strength
It is a strength training exercise so one of the key benefits is obviously to improve your strength in various areas. Lets take a closer look at the actual exercise. If you look closely at the front plank, you will notice the muscle groups being challenged.



If we start at the front, the first muscle being worked is your neck. In order to hold this plank position correctly you must keep your neck straight and not bending down. By keeping it straight you are working major muscle groups in your neck called the traps, this helps your posture especially if you spend a lot of time sitting at desk as it helps support your neck.

Moving along the neck, the next muscle group you will notice being used are your shoulders. Unless you go to the gym, shoulder muscles are generally not directly trained unless you do press ups for example. But who wants to do boring last century press ups? However, If you are a fan of press ups, which many are, performing the plank will also strengthen your shoulder muscles over time and thus improving the performance of your press ups as it uses similar muscle groups.

Holding the shoulders up are the biceps. If you are not into body building and building your biceps, merely performing the plank will help build and tonne your biceps as you are using your biceps to keep your upper body weight off the ground.

Right so that covers your upper body workout. Now if we travel along under the body, the next muscle group we hit is your chest, although I would say this is a secondary muscle group that is worked.If we continue along we then come to the major muscle group being worked, the abs. Strong abs are vital not only for sport but also for good posture. This exercise will also strengthen your abs and as a result tonne them giving them a much more streamline look. The muscle groups to the opposite side of the abs are your lower back muscles. These too play a vital role in keeping you in the plank position but also provide other key health benefits which i describe further down. Moving along, the next muscle group we come to are the ones located in your bottom, yes these too are strengthen! From there you have the thighs and finally the calf muscles. We got there in the end! So as you can see, the plank provides strength benefits to many muscle groups all at the same time. Tell me, which other exercise provides this many strength benefits without the use of gym equipment? Leave a comment below if you know of any others, it would be interesting to know. MentalIt could make you go mental! Na, only kidding, however, what I mean is that the exercise is also quite addictive so on the plus side it will help you wanting to try and improve on your previous performance. Theres never any harm in a little competition in yourself for the greater good. However, as it requires focus in order to keep holding the plank for as long as possible, I've found it mentally builds on my concentration skills while trying to achieve a goal. As you are probably aware by now, holding the plank position stretches many muscle groups all at the same time. These muscle groups can get stressed during the day when sitting at your desk, however to release the tension from them, holding a plank position can be the ideal solution to help relieve these tense muscles. Another great thing this exercise provides is good habit and training for your abs. This will help you daily if you are doing any physical activities or sports as you will automatically initially start tensing your abs before carrying out your activity. This is a great habit to develop as your tense abs provide additional strength and balance in your activity, not only that but also greatly protects you from injury, especially injury to your lower back. AestheticOk, so now we come to the real reason of why you want to learn about the plank position! Yes you want to streamline that waistline and tonne that belly so it looks like you have a six pack. I can see straight through you! Yes, performing the plank certainly helps in streamlining your waist line, however that doesn't mean its all you have to do to see results. Like with any form of exercise, you will still need to have consistency, a balanced diet and carryout other forms of cardio vascular exercise to complement your plank exercise for the best results. So there you have it. One simple exercise with multiple benefits.

The benefit of joining the challenge is that it’s a simple and fun way to target your abs without doing crunches.

Using the challenge my goal is one plank everyday in the month of September with a long-term goal of 5:00.

Plank-a-Day Progress
9/2/12 – 1:16
9/3/12 – 1:14
9/4/12 – 2:04
9/5/12 – 2:15
9/6/12 – 2:14
9/7/12 – 2:17
9/8/12 – 2:35
9/10/12 – 3:03 PR!

Abs Workout for beginner

This beginner abs workout hits your abs with 4 sets and 2 exercises. It can be done once or twice a week and added to your current routine.

Workout Summary

Main Goal: Build Muscle

Workout Type:Single Muscle Group

Training Level:Beginner

Days Per Week:1 or 2

Equipment Required:Bodyweight

Target Gender: Male & Female     

 

Workout Description

This ab workout is designed for beginners to weight training who want to build some muscle and strength in their core. It hits the abs with 4 sets and 2 exercises. The workout can be done once or twice per week, and can be added to the beginning or end of your regular routine.
Workout Notes:

1. Perform light warm-up before this workout.
2. Strict technique on all exercises.
3. Aim to improve at least one aspect of your workout each week.

Weekly Workout Routine:

Beginner Ab Workout
Abdominals
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Crunches	4	12-15
Lying leg raises	4	12-15

Abs lower exercise - Hanging Leg Raise

The Abs Workout

Excercise	Reps
Hanging Leg Raise	12-15

Initiate each rep slowly to de-emphasize the hip flexors and keep tension on the abs. At the top, crunch your pelvis upward and hold for a second.

Step 1; 

Step 2; Hanging Knee-Up

Step 3;

Quads Exercises

Top 10 Quads Exercises

• Decline Bench Barbell Lunge
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Walking Barbell Lunge
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Narrow Squat
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• One Leg Barbell Squat
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Narrow Hack Squat
  Equipment: Machine
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  

  
  
• Speed Squats
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Deep Squat
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Zerchers squat
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Barbell Step Ups
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  
• Barbell Lunge
  Equipment: Barbell
  Mechanics: Compound
  

  

  
  

  

Abdominal Exercises

Here are some upper abdominal exercises that you can engage yourself into.
                                                   
Abdominal Curl
Lying on a bench, place both hands holding your head from behind. Raise your body half through the contraction of your abdominal muscles. Then, lower the torso down to the starting position.

Variations: If you are a beginner, you better put your arms at your sides or on your abdomen, to facilitate the execution of the exercise.
Keys: The most important thing in this exercise is to raise not only the head but also the upper abs.
Exercised Region: Mainly the upper abdomen.
Training plan for abs: 3 sets of 12 repetitions.

Abdominal Curl (declined)
Lying on a bench, place both hands on your chest. Raise your body through the contraction of your abdominal muscles upward, approximately 30 degrees. Then, lower the torso down to the original position and repeat another and start immediately.
Variants: For individuals who want advanced level, you can place a disc of iron in your hands and  chest, to increase the difficulty of the exercise.
Keys: The back should remain straight throughout the exercise.
Exercised Region: Mainly the upper and middle abdomen.
Training plan for abs: 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Abdominal Exercises
Sit on a declined bench. Cross your arms over your chest. Lower the body to touch the bench with your back. Immediately after, raise the body up to the starting position.
Variants: For individuals who want advanced level, you can place a disc of iron in your hands and chest, to increase the difficulty of the exercise.
Keys: The back should remain straight throughout the exercise and you must be looking forward.
Exercised Region: Mainly the upper and middle abdomen.

 Training plan for abs: 3 sets of 15-30 repetitions. Do it everyday