Great-Workout Blog

Whilst, millions of people around the world strive to lose weight, some of us actually strive to gain weight. There are plenty of people who wish they weren’t as thin as they are. They wish they were carrying a bit more muscle. If you’re one of those people who are as skinny as a rake and can’t seem to gain weight, check out these 6 steps to gaining weight.

Set a Goal

Before you even start trying to gain weight, you need to decide how much weight you want to gain. By doing this, it will be much easier to track your progress. For example, say you currently weigh 60 kilograms. You might set your goal at say, 75 kilograms.

You should also set a deadline for your goal. For example, you could say “I will weigh 75 kilograms in 12 months time.”. Even better, set a date - instead of just saying “12 months”, set an actual date that is 12 months into the future.

You can also break your goal down into smaller milestones. This will help to keep yourself motivated. So, you could set milestones at say 65 kilograms, 70 kilograms, and then the ultimate goal - 75 kilograms. Each time you achieve a milestone you will feel great!

Eat More Calories than you Burn

Gaining weight is a little bit different to losing weight. To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. To gain weight, you need to burn less calories than you eat. But you don’t just want to put on fat - muscle is better than fat right? Make sure you’re eating lots of protein rich food, and plenty of carbohydrates too. These foods will complement your weight training schedule perfectly.

But don’t worry, it’s OK to eat some fat. Our bodies do actually need fat too! Having said that, it’s best to avoid saturated fats (so try trimming the fat off your steak!).

Lift Heavier Weights

If you’re going to gain weight, it’s better to get bigger muscles than more fat right? To get bigger muscles, you need to continuously lift heavier weights. Try to lift a little heavier than you did on the previous workout. This is what increases size of your muscles. The heavier the weight, the more muscle you’ll need to lift it. With proper nutrition, once your muscles have recovered from their heavy workout, they’ll be a little bit bigger than before.

But realize that sometimes you won’t be able to add more. That’s OK. Just lift the same that you did on the previous workout. Then, maybe your next workout will be better. The last thing you want to do is injure yourself because you’re trying to go heavier than you should.

A good indicator for whether you’re ready to increase your weight is the amount of reps you can perform. If you can do 8 or more reps on your last set, you’re ready to increase the weight so that you can only do 6 reps.

Use Compound Exercises

Compound exercises are those that require the movement of more than one joint to perform. Therefore, compound exercises require more muscles to be used during the exercise. And by using more muscles, you are able to lift heavier weights.

Also, the big compound exercises force you to use your largest muscle groups - like your huge back and leg muscles. When you increase the size of these big muscles, your body weight will skyrocket!

Whilst compound exercises require multiple joints to perform, an exercise that requires only one joint to perform is referred to as an isolation exercise. These exercises are used to isolate a particular muscle. Whilst these exercises are great for concentrating on a single muscle group, they’re not as effective as compound exercises for gaining overall muscle mass - and therefore, gaining weight.

By all means include some isolation exercises in your workout routine, but make compound exercises your focal point.

Some great compound exercises include dead lift, squat, and bench press.

Use Low Reps

To build big and strong muscles, you need to use weight that is so heavy, you can only perform between 6 to 8 reps. By lifting heavy weights with low reps, you will work your muscles hard.

But, make sure you warm up with a set of higher reps first - say 12 to 16 reps. Then gradually increase the weights through your sets until you’re barely able to do 6 reps.

Monitor your Progress

Weigh yourself every day. Make sure you do it at the same time each day - first thing in the morning is perfect. Keep a log of your gym schedule, the weights you’re lifting, and most importantly, your weight. Over time, you’ll see the entries showing heavier and heavier weight. This will help keep your motivation up!

Gaining weight can be easy, as long as you have a good plan. If you follow the above steps to gaining weight, your body will have no choice but to gain weight!