Let me start off by saying that I have been in your position, I know how you feel. I used to be that skinny guy who couldn’t build any mass and, if you’re reading this, I guess you are too.
The good news is that I’m not still that skinny guy who can’t build mass. I did in fact find the perfect way to add mass to my frame, and it's not no secret formula. You need to understand that when I’m talking about adding mass to your frame, it's not all going to be slabs of muscle. Most of it will be, but you can’t add those slabs without adding some fat, it's just the way it goes. With that said, you can certainly limit the amount of fat that is added through smart training and diet.
Before I get into why you probably aren’t adding any mass, you need to know one thing. This process isn’t a fast one. It's going to take time and consistency with key variables. Don’t expect to be a mass monster in a month or two, but you can expect to see a significant difference if you apply yourself.
Okay, here we go. There are two main reasons you won’t be adding mass, and don’t get offended when you read what they are.
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Your training sucks
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Your diet sucks
Either both suck, or you suck at doing one of them and the other is fine. Unfortunately for you, both need to be top notch to complete this puzzle. Let’s start with your training.
Training
I’m going to assume that you are either new to training, have been training for a little while with no visible changes or, training for quite a while but inconsistently and therefore have noticed no visible changes. Now I’m no psychic, so I don’t know what program you have been doing but I’m going to take a wild guess and say some kind of bro split. You know, chest and arms, back and shoulders, cardio and abs, legs. I’m only guessing this because you want to add mass, and who in the fitness industry has the most mass? Bodybuilders. What’s their most popular split? The bro split. Believe it or not though, they probably didn’t start off that way.
There’s nothing wrong with the bro split, it's just not the most effective way to build mass. The bro split usually involves a lot of isolation movements, which are great for targeting one specific muscle, but that’s about it. They usually lack compound movements, which do target specific muscles, but also involve a lot of other muscles during the lift. What do you think is going to build more overall muscle? A movement that targets only one muscle, or multiple? You want to make compounds your best friend and use them as often as possible, whilst recovering optimally.
Welcome to full body training my friend. This split will allow you to hit each muscle group 3 or 4 days a week depending on your recovery and availability in the gym, whilst keeping your protein synthesis high.
Look at the session below.
Chest – flat barbell bench
Chest – incline dumbbell fly
Shoulders – Standing military press
Shoulders – side lateral raise
Back – pull ups (assisted if needed)
Back – barbell row
Legs – Barbell back squat
Legs – walking lunges or Bulgarian split squats
Biceps – Barbell Curl
Triceps – Dips or skull crushers
Only do 2 sets on each exercise and make sure that each time you train, you are either doing more reps on the same weight or increasing the weight. Aim for between 6-12 reps on each exercise and increase the weight once you can do 12 reps on both sets.
Nutrition
Possibly even more important than the training itself, is what you put in your body. You simply aren’t going to add mass without calorie surplus. This means that you are eating more than your body needs to maintain its weight. The result? It uses that extra energy to build muscle. You just need to find that sweet spot so most of the weight you add is muscle, not unnecessary fat.
Its relatively easy to do, just use this formula to find out your calorie maintenance and then add between 300-500 calories per day to put yourself in a surplus.
Body Weight in lbs x 14-17 = maintenance.
Example – A 200lb man would times his body weight by 14, giving him a calorie maintenance of 2800. Add 300 to this and his surplus is 3100. The idea would be to monitor weight over the week and if it doesn’t increase, add a 100 calories per day. If it does increase, stay where you’re at.
Don’t forget that the food you want to be consuming has to be nutritious, not junk. Think whole foods. For carbohydrates I’m talking about oats, potatoes, rice, grains, and whole wheat. Proteins, fish, red meat, chicken, tuna, eggs, nuts and cheeses. Make sure you are eating your healthy fats as well. Oils, butters, oily fish and nuts are all good sources.
Well, no more messing around, you’ve got a goal to achieve. That goal is mass. Train big, eat big and get big.
