In this post I’m gonna share some things no one has ever mentioned while giving tips on how to actually start gaining muscle. They come from my own experience. I gained 20 pounds with this stuff.

I am not promising that it will be easy to gain muscle. It won’t always go smoothly. It’s life. Shit happens! But these tips should help you for sure. ;)

1.  Take responsibility

No one can do it for you! Not your personal trainer, not the secret training program, not the secret diet, not any magic  pill (there aren’t any of these secret things, they DON’T exist). It COMPLETELY depends on you! You are responsible for being skinny. Fat people are responsible for being fat. You don’t have good genes to gain muscle? You don’t have the time? You don’t have money? Your metabolism is too fast and you can eat whatever you like and still not gain a pound? Guess what….. it all Bullshit!!!!! These are just excuses that keep you from getting Body of Your Dreams! Excuses, excuses, excuses… Stop them! It all depends on you. Believe yourself and that you can do it. Take a serious look at what you are eating and how much calories a day you are getting. You’ll see that you are probably under-eating. And because of that you are not getting those much needed calories! I’ve been there and done that. I ate three times a day and that would be all. Plus the amount of food would be ridiculously small. Then I started eating more, counting calories and the weight started to go up. BOOM! I realized that fast metabolism was just an excuse I’d use constantly. And the same goes for genes. They play a role if you want to be Mr. Olympia like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronnie Coleman. You do need great genes then. But if you just want to gain some muscle and get a healthy, strong body then you don’t need those super genes. All that matters is hard work and determination.

2. Visualize the Body of Your Dreams

Create an image of it in your mind. Maybe it’s your idol (like an actor or some athlete, Will Smith or Arnold, or Stallone). Maybe it’s a guy you saw on the street the other day, maybe it’s a picture from a magazine, whatever you like. Just visualize it in great detail and do it as much as possible. Imagine how you walk, how you carry yourself, how your muscles look. Imagine how happy you will be when you reach this dream.  Wake up with this image and go to sleep with it. Cut out a picture from a magazine that you love and stick it to your wall, fridge or mirror. I did it, it feels great to see how I will look in the future.

3. Set goals

Can you make a free throw with your eyes closed? Can you go to a shop without knowing where it actually is and not get lost or look for it for a long time?  NO!! Without knowing where you are going you wont get anywhere. You will end up like a leaf thrown back and forth in the wind. And it applies here too. You need goals. Set specific goals: specific weight, specific fat percentage, specific date on which you want to have Body of Your Dreams.  Write them down. Without writing it’s just mental masturbation.  Not only set goals but set aside exact times when you will go working out, how often you’ll eat. Decide it will be Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Saturday if you just HAD to miss a workout during the week (it’s just an example, figure out your own schedule).

Set realistic goals. You won’t gain 20 pounds in 10 days. You will be gaining fast when you initially start training. Your body will get a shock and it will change faster. But over the long period, you will be able to gain about 2 pounds a month. Everything more is fat (unless you’re on steroids) anything less and you should probably eat more. It will take time. My goal is to gain 36 pounds from May 2008 till the year 2010 for example.

4. Decide on what kind of program you will be following and how many times a week you will work out

I strongly suggest you don’t work out 7 times a week. Not 5 times too. It’s not for us skinny guys. I’ve trained 5 days a week and I stopped gaining muscle. It was too much. I was STUCK. I needed more rest and to eat more. 3 times is the best solution for me. I will be trying out to workout 4 times a day in the future and then update how it will work out.

As for training programs, there are many of them. I suggest 2 of them. Either split (where you train two , max three body parts per workout) or 5×5 (whole body trained per workout) training. I will be posting about it in much greater details for sure.

5. Don’t hurry and do correct movements while doing the exercises

It is very important to NOT hurry when doing an exercise. It’s not a race. You might injure yourself and then you will have a big setback. I actually had injured myself because of hurrying. I injured my upper back and I had to forget training my trapezius muscle for a month and wasn’t 100 percent when training my back.
So do you movements slowly, focus on feeling how the exact muscle is working. The slower the better. Especially at the start of working out. Plus, if movements done aren’t correct than you will be wasting your time. The muscles you want to develop won’t grow because it’s not stressed correctly. This is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things in training!

6. Workout intensively

You’re at the gym not to find friends, not to pick up girls, not to show off and not to compare yourself to others. No need to rest 3-5 minutes between sets. I do 1 minute or a little more just to catch my breath. Once I breathe normally I’m doing the next set.
I remember I once was into talking endlessly at the gym myself too. I talked a lot with a beautiful girl I had a crush on and the results plummeted. Plus I become the one person I laughed at (the one that talks more than trains). This was a humiliation for me. I learned the lesson.

And most importantly, on each set, when you are feeling that burn in the muscle, it looks like you can’t do it one more time, DO IT once again. Actually you could do two more. You have to learn how to defeat that voice in your mind that says you can’t do something.
P.S. Don’t workout for longer than 75 minutes!

7. Don’t compare yourself to others

Maybe that big guy benches 150 kilos and you do just 60 kilos. Yes, it pisses one off. But you have to learn to not compare yourself. Race with yourself if you want to race. Compare what you did this month to what you did last month. If there is progress, then you are doing great! Congrats!
Also I used to think that other people look at you and how much you bench/squat/deadlift/etc. but actually.. NO ONE gives a shit! They are here to work out. If there are people who laugh at others than they are just immature people who needs to be ignored. ;)

8. Balance, balance, balance

Don’t just workout your chest, biceps and abs. Workout your whole body. You need strong, muscular legs not those matches. You need strong back even though you can’t really see it in mirror. Choose a program that has exercises for all body parts. It is very funny to see a huge guy with big chest, arms, back and skinny legs! So don’t be like that guy!

9. Don’t change your workout programs too frequently

Don’t jump from one workout program to other each two weeks. Choose one and stick to it. You’ve done it for three months? Ok, you can do totally different program now and it will shock your body probably (which is good, that’s how muscle get stimulus).
Or you can choose one program and follow it for way longer. Just increase weights constantly. I know people who have built muscle this way too and they do have strong, muscular body. You see, it’s not the program, there aren’t any “magic” programs. It’s just plain hard work, determination and addition of weight to the bar.
You can cheat a bit and change leg day with chest day for example while keeping your program and exercises the same.

10. Read and gain knowledge

A lot of stuff a learned just reading around the net for long hours. I love it. I’m like a sponge, I just “eat” every bit of info I can and then try it out. See what sticks and keep it. The more you know the better. ;)

11. Add weights

You have to have progress. And progress in gaining muscle is measured by the weight on the bar. You should be adding kilograms to your 1RM ( maximum weight that you can do for 1 repetition). If you stay at the same weight, you aren’t gaining strength and not much muscle size.

12. Take advice

Take advice from other guys from your gym who know what they are doing. Not every guy knows what he is doing. Not every advice will work for you. We are very different people and different exercises work better for us. Don’t be stagnant, but also don’t jump from one thing to other. If you get a chance to workout with a pro bodybuilder or a guy who’s been working out for years and has a great body, LISTEN! It’s might be very useful.

If you enjoyed this article, you should subscribe the 36Pounds.com Newsletter, it is available only for 100 guys. The stuff on the newsletter will be unique and wont be posted on the blog, I might even do some video and send it with that newsletter. You can subscribe here:

Good luck with your goals,

Adrian

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