Best Way to Build Muscle Naturally for Skinny Guys

The best way to build muscle naturally is different for everyone. Regardless of what many people think, it is not all about lifting weights over and over. In fact there are workouts out can do at home to increase muscle mass without any weights at all.

First what you must do to build muscle naturally is to define your goals.

This means deciding exactly what you want your body to be like. Is your goal 5, 10, 15 pounds of muscle? Where do you want to bulk - just your arms or your whole body? What kind of physique do you picture for yourself: a bulky bodybuilder type or just a lean and sculpted body

Once these goals have been defined, you can begin to put together a tailored muscle building regimen.

Now, sometimes you might need whey powder or other types of supplements, but you can still be natural with these. Sometimes things like fortified or soy milk can give you enough protein for your goals with muscle building, provided you drink it in the "golden hour" after your workouts. Again, it depends on your goals; you will probably need creatine or whey powder supplements to get to your goals if you are aiming for 10 or more pounds of muscle.

Ultimately the best way to build muscle naturally is through a solid, protein-rich diet, a good training program for building muscle, and realistic bulking goals. It is better to take it slow and not expect too much too soon; everyone's body is different when it comes to building mass. By increasing your protein and getting more foods and good supplements, you might see some major gains you hadn't expected, and avoid the body fat that comes with eating more calories.

Want to learn self defense?

Deadly Street Fighting Techniques is a page from a friend of mine who has just started up his blog on krav maga.  This is not a regular martial art; this is a system designed by Israeli soldiers who had to learn to defend themselves against brutal, dirty fighting tactics.

If you want to defend yourself and your loved ones on the streets, read his page on street fighting techniques for self defense.

Avoid the Top 20 Ways to Screw Up in the Gym

So you've found a great training regime and are ready to start putting it into action.  You're psyched and ready to go to the gym.  Weeks later, you realize you're not seeing results, or they're happening much more slowly than you'd hoped.

If this scenario sounds at all familiar, you may be making some of the most common mistakes made by bodybuilders new and old alike.  What seems like common sense isn't necessarily best, especially for hardgainers.  Training differently is crucial when you're trying to go from a paper thin body to a muscular one.  Without using one of your most important tools - the gym - properly, you could be setting yourself back immensely.

Here's a free, downloadable ebook that explains some of the most commonly made mistakes in the gym - and how you can rectify them.

Click the image below to download.

Muscle hypertrophy: The fancy name for building muscle

Ever wondered anything about the science behind muscle growth?  How exactly do our muscles grow, anyway? Why does weight-lifting actually work - or why doesn't it?

Here are a few answers to the basic questions of muscular hypertrophy, aka growth.

Muscle hypertrophy, quite simply, is the increase of muscle cells - and consequently, their size.  There are two types of muscular hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar (aka real increases in strength, not just muscle size).  Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is where the fluid in the muscle cell increases, though strength does not.

Strength training usually results in a combination of the two types of hypertrophy.  Muscle contractions caused by strength training reps causes myofibrillated hypertrophy. Myofibrillated is the type of muscle growth that olympic power lifters and strength athletes focus on.  Bodybuilders and endurance athletes need sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which is the kind that results in size.

Knowing something about the science behind muscle growth is actually very important.  If you know exactly what type of growth you want (size vs. pure strength), you can train more effectively.  Even someone who has no weight-lifting experience can achieve strength gains just by learning to use the muscle properly.

Because testosterone is one of the key hormones involved in growth, it's typically much easier for men to grow muscle. Sometimes, taking additional testosterone in the form of anabolic steroids will increase results, but the side-effects from supplements like these can often cause more issues than they solve.  On top of that, steroids and other supplements are frequently banned in competitions because of their 'cheating' factor.

Effective strength training involves knowing your current strength and lifting ability, your genetic makeup (i.e. what body type you have), and how to properly train your muscles.  Combining effective workouts with a good diet regime (and of course, proper rest) will help you see results fairly quickly, even if you aren't an experienced lifter.

The Best Ab Exercises for Skinny People

Ab workouts are tough.  Let's face it.  You don't usually use your stomach to lift things, after all, so proper ab workouts are vital in order to get the six pack you want.  Most people picture hours of situps as the only way to get good abs, but actually that's not the case.  The best type of workouts for your ab muscles are those that reduce your overall stability.

This means working out in a way that you have to work to keep your balance: one leg squats, one arm shoulder presses, using an exercise ball for crunches, for example.  Hanging leg raises while rotating your pelvis (using your lower abs) are great for building a six pack.

The one thing to remember is that even though you're working your abs a lot, you won't necessarily see them.  That's part of getting 'cut' or reducing body fat levels to where you can see your ab muscles.  Fortunately, this is something that will come naturally, the more muscle you build.  Muscle = faster metabolism, which means indirectly, you'll burn away excess fat.

Weighted movements also increase your overall strength, which reduces your risk of injuries from other exercises.  For optimal performance, do your ab exercises separately from your other muscle group training.  Or, if you just want to build strength and aren't concerned with a popping six pack, you can do your ab work at the end of your regular training sessions. 

The Ab Wheel: Great Ab Exercises for Skinny Guys

Another inexpensive piece of equipment that's great when you're starting a home gym on a budget: an ab wheel.

The ab wheel isn't hard to use. Basically, you start with your hands on the grips, kneel down with both knees together on the floor, lock your arms, and hold the wheel on the floor, at your knees. Then you roll it out, away from your knees, and keep going forward with it until your hands are beyond your head. You shouldn't touch the floor; keeping your body 3-6 inches above the floor is ideal. Then, you return to the starting position by pulling in with your abs and arching your back.

Then do it again, 7-10 more times.

Your abs will be hurting the next day, I guarantee it.

The nice thing about ab wheels is that they're dirt cheap, small and easy to store, and give you a fantastic and surprisingly difficult ab workout.

The one I used: Valeo Dual Ab Wheel

Starting a home gym

A little background info on the reasons for this post: I was once a poor college student.  I had very little money and time, and going to the gym got very, very hard.  As someone who lives in an area where it gets pretty cold in the winter, that made it that much harder to get my butt in gear when it was time to work out.  The easiest and most affordable solution was to start up my own home gym by investing in a few pieces of equipment. I had no idea where to start, but after going online and doing some research on how to start your own home gym, I found the pieces I needed, threw down a little money, and suddenly had convenience, ease, and privacy.  I have to say, nothing beats being able to go into your basement to work out instead of having to drive or walk there.

You might think it's going to be really costly to start up your own home gym. Truth is, I spent more on my own gym memberships over the course of two years than I did when I bought my first few pieces of home equipment.

However, there are a few important things to know when you get started.  First of all, you need to figure out your fitness goals; for most of the people reading this blog, bulking up is probably one of the big ones.  Weights are going to be your priority.

In the next few posts, I'll detail the equipment I used to start up my home gym.  The first thing I recommend is dumbells.  My favorites are the Bowflex SelectTech series; these are inexpensive, easy to use, last a LONG time, and have a nifty selection dial adjustment system so you can easily increase or decrease their weight.  I bought these a couple years ago (2006, I think) and they've lasted me til today.


I wrote a more in depth review of this set which you can see here.