Tip #1 For Skinny Guys:
Clarify your goals
Here is what most skinny
guys say, “I want to gain a lot of mass!” Can you be any more vague? A better
goal is, “I want to gain 14 pounds of muscle by July 1st.” You need
specific and measurable goals if you ever want to see them become real.
Tip #2 For Skinny Guys:
Train on a stable surface
Trying to build your
chest up on a stability ball is a big waste of time. Unstable surfaces are more neurologically challenging but
you are not overloading your “core” muscles with sufficient stimulus to trigger
growth.
Let’s compare a supine
dumbbell chest press on a ball versus a dumbbell chest press on a bench.
During a dumbbell chest press on a ball, most skinny guys will barely be
able to press 50 pounds a side and the unstable surface will result in triggering
the lateral stabilizer motor units you don’t need to keep you from flipping off
the ball, so it reduces neural drive from the muscles you do need and are
trying to improve (pecs, shoulder flexors and triceps). Whenever the body
recognizes an unstable foundation for force production, its force generating
output is down-regulated accordingly. In short, overloading the muscle is
required to stimulate new muscle growth so why limit the load? There’s no
point!
Tip #3 For Skinny Guys:
Stop believing, “You got to shock the body.”
Even today, you’ll hear
this quote come up in gyms, forums, infomercials and other media with the
belief that “you have to tear down the muscle and then build it back up.”
But is this true? Absolutely, the catalyst for change is variation
from your norm level of fitness. But the idea that one has to annihilate one’s
tissues and physiological/neurological processes must be brought to question.
Is getting a sun burn
necessary to experience a tan? Does increased bone density require a fracture?
Do calluses require lacerations? When seeking adaptation, the goal should be to
seek out least amount of unaccustomed activity. In fact, you want
the stimulus to be virtually imperceptible as an increased challenge. This
would be considered the ideal stimulus for the most immediate adaptation
response, especially in the beginning. In weight training, we strive to
increase our loads approximately 2% each workout. Anything more and you’ll move
more towards microscopic tissue damage and associated signs to injury including
delayed onset muscle soreness, edema and lengthy recovery period.
Tip
#4 For Skinny Guys: More is less!
90% of people use volume as
the primary stressor and get the result they seek 10% of the time. 10% of people
use intensity as the primary stressor and get the results they
seek 90% of the time.
This training principle
extends from tip #3, and stresses that for many instances, you will get a
quicker training effect from doing a smaller amount of training. In
short, you will see more results when doing less training.
Tip #5 For Skinny Guys: Always ask, “Is
there anything I can do before this… to better prepare for this… to lesson the
leap?”
Can running have a
positive influence on your health? Of course, but the level of participation is
key. Why do people spend months recovering from a marathon? Was 26.2 miles the
perfect distance for each of those 20,000 people to run on that given day at
that time of the day? There are many variables that must be progressed
based on what you are currently accustomed to. Here are some areas
of progression that must be considered:
- From none to some
- From sloppy to controlled
- From small range of motion to large range of motion
- From stable surface to unstable surface
- From light to heavy
- From slow to fast
- From minimal volume to more volume
- From minimal effort to maximal effort
