The 5 Biggest Mistakes Skinny Guys Make When Bulking Up
When it comes to bulking up, many skinny guys get frustrated because they're doing all they can to build muscle but not seeing the results they feel they deserve. Can you relate?
If you think you might be doing something wrong, but aren’t quite sure what it is, you're not alone. Many guys get sidetracked by one or more of the mistakes highlighted below. In this post, we'll cover the basics of muscle building and look at five common mistakes skinny guys make when trying to bulk up.
How Can Skinny Guys Build Muscle?
First, let's make sure we're clear on what it takes to bulk up. There are two primary factors when it comes to building muscle:
You need to consume enough calories.
You need to perform an adequate volume of strength training.
Sounds simple, but it's not easy! To bulk up, you need to keep your body in an anabolic (building) state versus a catabolic (breaking down) state. The general rule among trainers and fitness experts is to consume at least 3500 extra calories a week to gain lean muscle mass.
When it comes to resistance training, progressive overload and total volume are critical factors. The Progressive overload training principle is when you increase weight, frequency, and/or sets and repetitions (hence, boosting your overall training volume) over time to continue to challenge your muscles.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends higher volume, multiple-set programs to maximize hypertrophy (muscle building). As your strength and efficiency increase, you'll need to increase total training volume for continued results.
ACSM commended frequency of strength training:
2-3 days per week for novice training
3-4 days per week for intermediate training
4-5 days per week for advanced training
Now let's move on to the five big mistakes skinny guys (aka Ectomorphs and hardgainers) make when trying to build muscle.
#1 Overestimating how much they eat
You know that you need to consume more calories than you're burning, but are you actually eating as much as you think? The first common mistake skinny guys make is overestimating how much they eat.
This means you can't just wing it or "guesstimate" your caloric intake.
Solution: keep a food record and enter or write down everything you're eating.
While initially, this can feel quite time-consuming, just remember it’s only temporary. After you keep a food log for a week or so, you'll realize you commonly eat the same things and will have a more accurate picture of your daily and weekly intake.
Your best bet is to use an online calorie calculator or app like MyFitnessPal that automatically calculates calories and macros. Furthermore, these tools should allow you to set goals, like how much weight you want to gain and advise how many additional calories you need to eat.
If you're not currently eating enough calories to gain weight, increase your intake gradually, say 300-500 calories a day for a week. Give your body time to adjust and see if you get results before incrementally adding more.
Still not sure how to eat enough to help you successfully gain weight? Fear not! We’ve designed you a fully comprehensive meal plan to help you hit your nutritional requirements for muscle growth.
The Ultimate Bulk-up Diet Plan
Welcome to the ultimate Bulk-Up diet plan for skinny guys.
What’s included in the diet plan:
✔ A fully comprehensive and easy-to-follow 7-day food plan (To be repeated until you reach your ideal weight and/or results).
✔ A carefully calculated calorie surplus, macronutrient split and precise measurements to maximize weight gain and encourage muscle growth for Skinny guys.
✔ 2 Delicious post-workout smoothie recipes to help fuel your gains.
✔ A weekly grocery list and instructions.
✔ A sample workout from our 5-day split bulk-up workout plan for skinny guys.
✔ Combines perfectly with all of our Skinny Guy bulk-up workout plans.
This diet plan is perfect for Ectomorphs and ‘hardgainers’ looking to build muscle and gain weight.
The file is in PDF format and is compatible with all phones, computers, and tablets.
#2 Lacking consistency in their diet and training
It's important to remember that building muscle isn't a sprint but a marathon. You might have a day where you totally nail it: you hit your calorie target, your macros are perfectly balanced, and you complete a killer workout.
Give yourself a pat on the back because these successes are worth celebrating. However, remember that a lack of consistency is a surefire way to destroy your progress.
Research suggests that consistent weekly training volume is a key factor for muscle gain. One long-term study showed that minimal dose resistance training of one set a week for 352 weeks resulted in “substantial strength gains”. Although a plateau effect was observed, consistency clearly had positive results over time. And by changing up your routine and continuing to challenge yourself along the way, you can break through those plateaus and see even greater results.
In addition, other studies have shown a dose-dependent relationship when it comes to building muscle. This means an increase in strength training volume will produce greater gains in muscle hypertrophy over time.
When it comes to diet and exercise, you can't rely on having one or two "perfect" days a week, and spending the rest of the time lying on the couch eating junk. It's tempting to think, "I did so well today; I can take tomorrow off."
It's not that you can never take a break or have a “cheat day”, but it should be the exception and pre-planned. Consistency matters and you have to look at your overall caloric balance and workout output over months and years, not days and weeks to ensure you're coming out on top.
Solution: focus on consistency over perfection.
As we said before, this is a marathon. So choose a workout and diet program that will allow you to consistently take small steps forward. This is better than one that puts you in a cycle of overcommitting, crashing due to burnout or injury, and going back to square one to start over from scratch.
Related article: Muscle Growth: 12 Essential tips to build more muscle
#3 Setting unrealistic goals
We've all seen ads that promise enticing yet unrealistic results. Marketing messages tell us we can get washboard abs in 30 days or easily add 10 pounds of muscle in two weeks.
We know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Still, this constant marketing barrage can skew our expectations. As explained in detail in one of our previous articles, newbie lifters can expect significant gains of up to 10 lbs in the first 6 months of training. Experienced lifters can expect to gain around 0.5 pounds of lean muscle mass a month.
See: How much muscle can you gain in a month?
That may sound discouragingly slow for the latter, but just think about the results over time: 6 pounds of muscle a year! And if you do nothing, your weight and body composition are likely to slide in the other direction. So how do you develop smart, achievable goals?
Solution: consult trusted authorities and evidence-based research over internet ads and click-bate.
Look to the right resources to know which specific habits you need to form to attain the desired results. This is where hiring a personal trainer can be especially helpful.
When it comes to timing, shift to a long-term mindset. This means staying focused on the results you can expect to see in months and years rather than days and weeks. This will help you have patience, trust and more joy in the process.
#4. Doing too much cardio
Some people do lots of cardio because they love competing in triathlons or playing team sports on the weekend. Others may think they need to do vast amounts of cardio to burn fat and get shredded.
Just remember, too much cardio is counterproductive when trying to bulk up. If your goal is building muscle, your primary focus should be weight training and keeping cardio to a minimum.
You want to keep your body in an anabolic or building state, which requires additional energy. If you're burning lots of calories through cardio, it will be difficult to make up that caloric deficit and effectively build muscle.
Solution: If you simply can’t live without your cardio workouts, do it after strength training or utilize shorter, high-intensity workouts.
Stay away from excessively long and intense cardio sessions while you're trying to gain muscle. Cardiorespiratory exercise does have loads of health benefits, but you don't have to do marathon cardio sessions to achieve those results. Try quick high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or slightly longer moderate-intensity cardio sessions.
Check out these resources:
#5 Not training legs
We know leg training days can be pretty painful (both during and after your workout), but training your legs is essential. Not only will you look more proportional if you give your legs as much attention as your upper body, but there are also physiological reasons why this is smart.
Your lower body contains the largest muscle groups in your body, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Training these muscle groups easily gives you the most significant return on investment in bulk and muscle gain due to the sheer size of the muscle groups.
Solution: train your legs 1-2 days a week using a variety of compound moves.
Compound moves like squats, lunges, and deadlifts are more effective than isolation exercises like leg curls and extensions. Be sure to follow leg training sessions with proper post-workout nutrition and rest.
Still not sure how to train specific for your body type and goals? Fear not! We’ve designed you a fully comprehensive 5-day workout plan.
The Ultimate Bulk-up Workout Plan
Welcome to the ultimate 3-day Full-body bulk-up workout plan for skinny guys.
What’s included in the plan:
✔ A fully comprehensive 3-day workout plan (To be repeated for 8-12 weeks or until you reach your ideal weight and/or results).
✔ 3 Full-body workouts designed for maximum muscle growth (hypertrophy). You will be hitting all of the major muscle groups every workout with a selection of compound and isolation exercises.
✔ A daily sample from our Bulk-up meal plan for skinny guys.
✔ A delicious post-workout smoothie recipe to support your gains.
✔ This workout plan combines perfectly with all of our Bulk-up diet plans (Omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan) for skinny guys.
While this plan is suited for all fitness levels, it’s ideal for men with 12 months or less of strength training experience.
The file is in PDF format and is compatible with all phones, computers, and tablets.
In Conclusion
It's easy to make the five common mistakes we've highlighted in this article. The principles for gaining muscle are simple, but it requires dedication, hard work, and consistency. If you're looking for help on this journey, check out the Skinny Guy's BULK UP workout plan and the Skinny Guy’s BULK UP diet plan to help you achieve your goals.
References:
https://www.issaonline.com/blog/index.cfm/2018/building-muscle-simplified-not-as-complicated-as-you-think
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19204579/
https://osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/eq485/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197
