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You wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. Pleased with your appearance? If you more resemble the appearance of a long distance marathon runner than a world class sprinter, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. You just need to start following these weight lifting rules.
There are quite a few guys who simply have trouble packing on the lean muscle mass. Whether their hormonal environment isn’t quite as favourable or genetics was just out to get them at birth, one thing is for sure and that’s that they need to follow a slightly different set of weight lifting methods than those who seem to grow muscle overnight.
Luckily for you, you’re taking the time to do your research about weight lifting so you won’t be destined to a life where it seems like a strong wind might knock you over.
First, one of the key factors that skinny guys need to remember is that they must avoid volume work at all costs.
Rule #1:
Get in the gym and get out! That should be your motto from this day forward. Repeat it. Breathe it. Live it. Weight lifting is a calorie expensive activity and you need all the calories you can get at this point. If you are burning it up in the gym every single day, how do you expect to grow? You won’t.
You grow when you are resting and generally, the skinnier you are, the more rest you are going to need.
Now, that doesn’t mean you should park it on the couch for a few days in between your workouts. It simply means that each weight lifting should not consist of set after set after set. Followed by a rest break to talk to that hot receptionist and then back to another twenty sets.
No, you’re workouts need to consist of ten-twelve or fewer sets where you are pushing yourself to the MAX. There is no room for sissy, light-weight work in your weight lifting program.
When trying to achieve the illusive six pack, it’ easy to get confused by all the “best ab workouts” available. You’ll likely notice that there a multitude of ab workouts to choose one, so deciphering which ones will work the best can be tricky.
The thing to remember is that whenever you are trying to work your core, everything works, for a certain period of time. Everything from high reps, low reps, weighted work, bodyweight work, stability ball exercises, and BOSU ball exercises – it all works until your body adapts and says, “This is easy, I’m not going to change unless you give me a new reason to adapt.”
Your ab training should be progressed from stable floor work with your body weight to a unstable surface with weighted work. Progressing to movements that will reduce your base of support as much as possible are the best ab workouts because they will call into play all the muscles within the core, especially those really deep that stable floor work can not target.
Such examples of floor ab exercises that would do this would be crunches, sit ups and leg raises. Eventually you want to do these same exercises against gravity, then a load and then on unstable surface like a stability ball. Body weight exercises like “front planks” and “side planks” should be the foundation of a core program and progressed to one arm planks in the frontal and side planes and then eventually on a stability ball or BOSU ball for further recruitment.
The best ab workouts to make your abs “pop” would be a variety of weighted movements. I’m sure you’ve skinny guys with a flat stomach but no “eye popping” abs, which is because they have not developed the actual abdominal muscle, just like every other body part. Part of getting nicely chiseled abs is going to be developing the muscles underneath the fat, and weighted ab crunches with cables or on a stability ball with a heavy dumbbell will do this best.
The past two years I’ve really worked hard at building big shoulders and maintain an X frame by really working my deltoid muscles (anatomical name for shoulders) to make them round, dense and thick.
My favorite delt exercise for building big shoulders is Seated Dumbbell Presses and got up to 4 sets of 6 last summer with 90 lbs.
Anybody who has done Vince’s No-Nonsense Muscle Building program knows he likes stacking exercises as an advanced technique to build big shoulders. One of the circuits is demonstrated below by Joey Vaillancourt who is one of the Biggest Gainer Competitors.
Check out Joey’s shoulder routine in this video… it’s a pretty brutal shoulder routine.
One of my favorite ways to train shoulder is with an old school shoulder blaster that you can watch in the next video below. It’s pretty fun and very effective especially if you don’t have a lot of time to train.
Recovery is your secret weapon to making consistent muscular gains.
Yes, you know that but nobody shows you specifically HOW to recovery.
Typically, after almost all of my upper body workouts, I am so tight and gorged with blood I can barely take my shirt off and bring my hands to my hair while showering!
Not good, because when you have a 12 hour shift up next!
How Muscle Soreness Occurs
If you have had a similar experience than I applaud your workout intensity. If you have NOT had this experience than I have to question your workout intensity!
There are three main theories that result in muscle soreness.
Most muscle soreness occurs immediately following an activity and than has a delayed onset effect. Immediate muscle soreness is due to a buildup of metabolic by-products such as lactic acid and a lack of sufficient oxygen (ischemia).
Delayed onset muscle soreness (D.O.M.S.), which begins 24-72 hours after an activity, is not yet determined.
There are three theories which will have an impact on the degree of muscle soreness:
The title of this article is a little ironic, isn’t it? Since when did skinny guys have a hard time getting a six-pack? Are not all skinny guys like 2.1% body fat and less than 150 pounds soaking wet? Why in the world would a skinny guy need an article on how to get a six-pack? Isn’t that why skinny guys are afraid to bulk up – because they are paranoid about losing their treasured abdominals? I asked the same thing until this question almost earned it’s own email account!
The volume of interest I receive from skinny guys who wish to build their mid-sections is more than enough evidence to disprove the false reality of, “I should be able to ’see’ my abs if I have low body fat.” I’m sure you know of a friend who is completely scrawny, yet, without a shirt, on he has zero abdominal definition! To me, that would be salt on an open wound.
Abdominals Are A Muscle, Too!
You want your arms to be bigger, your shoulders to be broader and your chest to be fuller, correct? And what is the solution to making these muscle groups increase in size? High intensity weight training, overload, consistency and a healthy surplus of calories. Starting to sound familiar?
The same goes for your abdominals. Your abdominals are a muscle group that requires the same formula and attention and are not any different. For some reason many consider abdominals to be a ’special’ body part that requires a different set of rules and a completely different formula for training. Abdominals were not given a ’secret code’ to crack. To get thick, dense abs – those ones that ‘pop’ out – you must train them with intensity and overload. Here are some practical tips you can apply to your program so that you can be the ‘man’ or ‘gal’ at your gym with a ripped and muscular six-pack!
I just got home from the gym today and wanted to address the issue about “those guys who look the exact same as last year.”
You know who I am talking about, don’t you?! ”That guy” or “that gal” who is at the gym 4-5 x a week but does not look any different than last month or even last year!
What the heck is happening here?
My first guest is that they are not giving their a body a REASON to change. What is that specific reason?
“That guy” or “that gal” is NOT getting stronger from week to week. Assuming you’re bulking up on clean calories then you should be getting more muscular and thicker if you are moving from the small weights to big weights.
Are you getting stronger from week to week? I firmly believe that muscle size follows strength.
When was the last time you saw a guy who could bench press 300 pounds with a small chest and small arms? When was the last time you saw someone dead lift 400 pounds without any density in their arms, traps, back and legs?
You may have heard of this “little known” trick for maximum muscular development but you may not have applied it properly or you may have not heard of it at all…
It’s called a “tempo.”
A tempo is the rate that you move the weights. You might move your weights “slow and controlled” or you might move them “fast and aggressively.” Both speeds of lifting have different results on your muscle fibers and rate of development.
To be honest, if you have been training longer than 4 years and really in tune with your body and how your muscles “need” to feel to make gains then you might NOT need this lesson for today. If not, keep reading… Read the rest of this entry
Who Is Carlos Larsen?
Hey this is Carlos Larsen,
I want to welcome you to my new blog, Ive set this up so that I can post all sorts of helpful tips and guides for all the skinny guys our there who want to bulk up, and for any chubby guys who are looking to cut down and get lean.
I had it pretty rough back in high school, I weighed a measly 140 pounds and I was 6 feet tall, thats how I landed the nickname "lanky". I got tired and fed up with looking skinny so I went in search for ways to bulk up. I came across a very informative guide called No Nonsense Muscle Building written by my fitness coach Vince Delmonte.
Long story short, now im promoting his product and updating this blog each and everyday with new exerscises and information. I love his guide so much that I want to spread the word and help as many people as I can reach their ultimate lifestyle.
Hey this is Carlos Larsen,
