Hello,
I've been talking about weight loss for a while and some people actually asked me about the opposite - they sought advice on how to gain weight. Usually, these are young men, who are rather skinny and they would like to gain some muscle mass to look more athletic, strong and to have more presence.
I think, it's time to apply all the knowledge on biochemistry and physiology I have to this particular task. In my opinion, it's actually quite easy gain muscle, especially for a beginner, if you follow some simple rules.
First of all, we are talking primarily about muscle mass, not just plain weight gain (that would be too easy). The very first and arguably one of the most important factors that would stimulate muscle growth would be physical activity, specifically, heavy lifting, or resistance training. It is well-known to boost testosterone production and to increase muscle mass via increased testosterone levels (and number of other mechanisms).
Tip #2: Use heavy lifts - big, compound movements that involve multiple muscles and joints and thus maximize the hormonal response. We are talking about squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, barbell rows, bench presses... When I was 19-20 years old I had a boost in muscle growth when I started doing heavy leg presses combined with having large bowls of yogurt after my workouts, I literally gained 12-15 pounds just in a month (I went from 67 kg or so to 76 kg very quickly).
Tip #3: Aim for safer exercises if you haven't developed a perfect form yet - I do recommend leg presses specifically for people who are not very familiar with proper technique for squats or deadlifts. Leg presses involve the largest muscle groups (quads and glutes) and are relatively safe to do with big weights from the get go. Good form is still needed and I would start working on your squats and deadlifts form in parallel to leg presses so that when the time comes you're ready to safely switch to these big moves.
Tip #4: You need volume, not the maximum weight. Aim for 70-80% of your one rep maximum and you should be able to do 4-5 sets of 10-12 reps in each. You need to maximize the extent of muscular damage (wear and tear, essentially, mostly tear) in order to provide maximum response in muscle mass growth.
Tip #5: Try to have an explosive concentric part of the exercise to engage more fast-twitch muscles - they are big and not too energy efficient, so they tend to store more glycogen and are generally bigger than slow-twitch muscle fibers (compare sprinters to endurance athletes).
Tip #6: Aim for slower eccentric part of the movement to make the already engaged fast-twitch muscle fibers work more. The fast-twitch muscle fibers are already engaged and during the eccentric part of the movement you keep engaging them more.
Tip #7: Give your muscles enough time to rest and to build new proteins - do not overtrain! You should not train more than 3 times a week (unless you're taking some very special "supplements", but then you wouldn't have any issues with gaining weight).
Tip #8: Use splits so that even if you train 3 times a week your main muscle groups work twice a week. Remember, sometimes less is more, if you train daily, likely your muscles will not grow faster (if not slower).
Tip #9: Don't spend too much time on isolation exercises - your primary goal right now is to engage big muscles and to get maximum hormonal response. The rest will grow too, first, due to increased testosterone and growth hormone levels and, second, they also work in most compound exercises (that's why they are so good). E.g. if you're doing bench presses your anterior deltoids and triceps are working hard too. Actually they work so hard, that you don't really need any isolation exercises for them.
Tip #10: Don't bother with endurance exercises - they do not give you the necessary hormonal response and some people would argue that they even make your muscle mass decrease as you are engaging mostly slow-twitch fibers, which are generally smaller and their primary response to exercise is increasing metabolic performance rather than size.
Tip #11: Eat a lot! You need lots of nutrients to build muscle - you need protein and you need energy, preferably both should come in abundance.
Tip #12: Eat carbs: One of the big hormones responsible for tissue growth if IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor. So if you want to maximize your muscle growth you need the insulin response. We try to avoid insulin at all costs when we're losing weight, but in this particular scenario we need the opposite effect and we need to make insulin our best friend, so my recommendation is to eat some carbs.
Tip #13: We want insulin to work longer, so my advice would be to have multiple meals throughout the day - each intake of carbohydrates (and proteins) will cause a spike of insulin that will last between the meals and constantly stimulate tissue growth.
Tip #14: Sleep a lot! During sleep you let your muscles rest and your body produces growth hormone, which, even judging from its name, is very important for muscle growth.
Tip #15: The last, but definitely not the least piece of advice is not to stress - you don't want spikes of cortisol, which is one of the main catabolic hormones, the one that causes breakdown of muscle and is also associated with central obesity.
These were my 15 tips on how to build muscle. I can almost promise that if you follow them you will gain a lot of mass rather quickly. Some of this mass will be fat, but you will change your hormonal status towards mass increase whether it is lean mass or mixed. Later on you can decide whether you want to keep gaining mixed fat and lean mass, or you want to shred to get the amazing lean muscular physique you likely dream of.
So, to those of you who asked me for advice on muscle growth - I hope that this blog clarified the subject a bit and now you know what to do! Feel free to ask further questions and make suggestions both on website and on my YouTube channel.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam