Are you stuck in a rut and need a program that really works when it comes to gaining weight and building muscle? Here are a few steps for you to take to help you to start gaining weight today!

Minimize Energy Levels

This means no cardio exercises, and limiting your workout so that it doesnn’t go for too long - conserve your energy because the more calories that you burn the less you have to help you to start gaining weight and building muscle.

What you want to do is give yourself a high density workout that finishes before you blood sugar levels drop. This will give your body the exercise required to gain the maximum amount of muscle possible.

Progressive Overload

What this means is to continually raise the bar when it comes to the weights you are lifting. Don’t keep lifting the same weights day after day, your weight lifting should always be a struggle. So when it starts to get comfortable, raise the bar and add a couple of exra pounds to your workout.

What this does is it continually pushes your muscles to new levels and actually tears them, and the muscles grow by rebuilding the tears and making them stronger.

Consistency

You have to have a routine. If you are not constantly working out,then how do you expect to gain any weight. I would suggest one day of weights, one day of rest - then continue this cycle. What this does is it gives your body the required rest that it needs to rebuild our muscles.

You have to understand the process of building muscle if you looking to gain weight fast. A lot of people really struggle to put on weight, but once you understand how the body works you will start to understand how easy it is to gain weight quickly.

I have created a simple 3 step process that will be the cornerstone of your success. Once you understand how these three components work together you will be on your way to gaining weight and bulking up quickly.

Here’s the process:

1) Train hard and heavy.

You need to continually be pushing your body. Your muscles will only build if you give them a reason too. Your body adapts to your training and starts to get comfortable if you stay at the one intensity. So keep adding extra weights and pushing your body to the max.

2) Get the right quantity of nutrients into your system.

You need to feed your body with the right amount of nutrients to allow your body to rebuild after a hard and heavy training session. The work out will tear your body down, you the nutrients act as a fuel to keep your body going, and rebuild. So plenty of good quality nutrients.

3) Make sure you get plenty of rest.

After you have trained your body it is in a state of chaos, and pretty much broken down. You need to give your body the chance to use the nutrients and rebuild the muscle before you go and do it all over again.

The relationship of the nutrients only works when your body is resting, and it is essential if you are wanting to gain weight.

Are you one of the many people out there struggling with your weight? Lack of weight that is! You are constantly complaining that you are too skinny, and that no matter how much food you eat, or how hard you train, you cannot seem to gain any weight.

Wouldn’t you just love to add another 10 pounds of muscle mass? But usually it just ends in disapointment when you check the scales and see the same weight as always. It makes you want to feel like quitting, or spend more time in the gym because you think that more gym time will result in extra muscle mass.

But don’t give up. There is hope for you! You can gain weight quickly but you have to train intelligently.

Here are 4 simple weight gain tips:

1. Workout Less;

Yes it does say ‘less’. Working out less is the key in helping hard gainers to break through the thresh hold. Straight away lower you body building sets to one per exercise, and only 2-3 exercises per muscle group. Once you have decreased you sets, it is essential to increase your intensity. This means performing the set until you feel your muscle is about to fail you.

2. More Days Off;

Since you are increasing your intensity it is vital that you take even more days off between training sessions to allow your muscles the time to grow, and recuperate. By working out less you are also burning less calories, allowing those calories to be used for muscle growth.

3. Limit Cardiovascular Exercise;

Any cardiovascular exercise will burn calories that you need for muscle growth. So limit any cardiovascular training to an absolute minimum.

4. Determine Calories Needed;

You have to start eating more calories! If you are limiting your cardiovascular exercises and eating more calories you will have an excess supply of calories that can be used to gain weight and repair your muscles.

It is recommended that you eat at least 500 calories more than you are currently eating to start gaining weight. If you are having difficulties eating more, use supplement shakes to help.

If you are not already doing weights, you need to start now! No training program is ever complete without weight training.

Make sure you keep a record of your weight lifting, this is something I barely ever see people doing. Buy a notebook and and keep it with you and record exactly how much you are lifting and how many reps you are doing. This will make it easy for you to check on your progress and motivate you by seeing how far you have actually come. If you do not keep a record you will find it extremely hard to lift more next time because you will have a hard time remembering exactly how much you previously lifted. It is always helpful to see you improvement over time.

The second secret is not to overdo your workout. You should only be working out each muscle group once a week. If you do it more than this, you are not giving your muscles enough time to recover, and you will find that you are not gaining any muscle. If you are doing weight training to often you will find that you are actually damaging your muscles and not building them. You should make a schedule of your workout times for each muscle group and stick to them.

The final thing that you need to do to gain weight is to eat correctly. You need to be eating healthy foods that are high in proteins if you are serious about building muscle. Drinking a protein shake an hour before or after a workout gives your body some extra nutrients to help rebuild your muscles. If your follow these secrets you will be well on your way to bulking up and gaining some serious muscle. Just remember things don’t happen overnight, so do not give up when you do not see amazing results in the first couple of weeks.

Let’s start with the basics of muscle building, because with a little knowledge on the science of building muscle, you will be stimulate your own muscles into growth better.

Firstly you need to realize that you body really doesn’t want to gain muscle. The bigger you are the more nutrients that your body needs to consume to maintain these muscles, which means you will have to eat more. Everything inside of you is going against you with your muscle building goals. Obviously even though I have just said that your body doesn’t want you to build muscle it is still very possible to do so. What you need to do is something called progressive overload. What this is, is where you continue work your muscles to overload, stress them to a new level, and do this progressively. So add more weight on each workout.

When you body is under stress your muscle fibers will break down, and with rest and the correct nutrients will build back stronger than ever before. With each workout your muscles will break and tear, which explains the soreness, and then rebuilds themselves stronger and more efficient than before. Of course this means that you have to always be increasing the weight applied to your muscles.

Rest is so important in muscle building, as it is in the time of rest that you allow your body the chance to rebuild and repair all the tears that you inflicted upon it in your last workout. So make sure that you are giving your muscles adequate time to recover.

If you are serious about wanting to bulk up, then you are going to need to be consistent, and persistent. It is not something that you can just do for a week, and then give up - it has to become a lifestyle change.

You have to learn to feed your body more. How can you ever expect to see any results unless you change what you are currently doing. So eat more, but more of the right foods. What you want to be focusing on is increasing your caloric intake - you want to eat more calories that you can burn.

If you are not eating properly while trying to gain weight you will lose muscle tissue. You have to make sure that you are eating plenty of proteins, fats (the right kind), and carbohydrates - and in large quantities, so that your body can gain weight. Another important factor in gaining weight is supplements. Meal replacement bars, powders, and protein shakes are all great ways to increase you daily intake of calories. If you are serious about gaining weight then you must be consuming at least 500 calories more than your body is using.

The two most important factors in weight gain is exercise and diet. If you are doing weight training and eating the right amount of food, then your body will have no choice but to gain weight and turn it into muscle. Make sure you are getting enough rest between workouts as this allows your body time to recuperate and build new muscle tissue.

There are entire books written on how to gain weight and build muscle, but I have come across a quick and easy to follow way that will see you bulking up quicker than you could imagine.

If you apply these 3 easy steps to your regular workout routine you will be amazed at the results you will see.

Step 1. Progression

You have to always be pushing yourself to lift more. If you find yourself becoming comfortable at a weight level on one of your workout exercises than add another 5 or 10 kilos onto it. You have to always be trying to do more than you think you can. If it is hard, it means that your muscles are working - and building!

Step 2. Focus

To get the most out of your workout, you have to focus on what you are doing. Turn the tv off, stop chatting with your friends and focus on what you are there to do - workout. You will find that when you concentration is totally on your workout, that it will be easier for you to do more than you thought that you could. Get the most out of each muscle by engaging the most important muscle - your brain!

Step 3. Recovery

You have done the hard yards - working out for 45-60 minutes at your full capacity, resting should be easy right? Not true, a lot of people are so focused on building muscle that they do not take the necessary time needed to fully recover before getting back into the gym again. Training a muscle group once or twice a week is more than enough.

Healthy weight gain will not only increase your energy levels but also your endurance. Gaining weight may also help you build muscle and strength. There are certain food groups that you can eat to gain weight without building up excess body fat.

Here are the top 5 foods groups to gaining weight:

Eggs - Eggs are an excellent source of protein. A recent study has also proven that eggs provide omega-3 essential fatty acids.

Beans & Legumes - Lentils, lima beans, chili beans, bean burritos. These are the best food for building muscle building because they contain the fiber that is necessary in keeping your blood sugar levels low and your energy level high during the day.

Nuts - Nuts contain fibre, vitamin E, vegetable proteins and a heap of anti-oxidents that are essential and beneficial in your well being.

Whole Grain Cereals - Another great source of fiber and nutrients. It is recommended that you regularly eat between five to ten servings of food from the bread and cereal group.

Meats - Meats such as chicken, beef and lamb are an excellent source of protein, and fish is great for your omega-3 and essential fatty acids. With red meats make sure you choose the leaner cuts.

The key when it comes to eating the right foods to gain weight and build muscle is variety. Mix your diet up. Don’t focus on just one of the above food groups, make sure you are eating some of each group everyday - and you are sure to build some bulk!

If Building muscles were easy everyone would be 230lbs of pure muscle. The key to gaining weight by building muscle is time and effort. If you are not willing to take the time, and work extremely hard - you are wasting your time.

If you are willing to make the most of the opportunity that you have and put in the time and effort needed, then stick with me and lets discuss how you can gain weight by building muscle.

There are 3 steps you need to take to build muscle.

Weightlifting

What this includes is your workout routine and the actual exercises themselves. Your workout routine must let your whole body get the best workout it possibly can. There are a heap of different exercises for each muscle group, and what you have to do is do the most effective exercises for each individual muscle for you to gain weight if the quickest possible way.

Your Diet

Your diet is actually just as important as the weightlifting itself. If you are not eating, how can you grow? What you need to do is eat huge and lift huge, to be huge. You should be eating at least 1 gram of protein for each pound of your body weight. That is each day, every day - even when you are not weightlifting.

Protein is what builds your muscles, that makes you gain weight and build muscle. Most people, including myself use protein bars and powders to supplement the protein we are eating in our real food - to make the 1 gram per pound of body weight. You want to gain weight, but pure muscle not fat, so stay away from saturated fats and all junk food, fast food, fried foods, cookies, candy etc.

One last thing, make sure you are eating enough calories!

Everything else

One of the main points here is not to over train. You have to give your body enough time to rest and recover. Consistency is also very important, you need to be following a set routine, it is no point doing this for a week and giving up - it is a lifestyle.

The most important supplement that you can take to gain weight by building muscle is protein shakes. They are basically the only supplement that I have ever used. They are completely safe, unless you are taking a crazy amount like 700grams in a single day. There are no side affects or anything. So why are protein shakes so important? Protein is definately the most important part of your diet when you are working on building muscle and gaining weight, and is the building block of muscle. Without protein you body cannot build muscle.

But cant I get enough protein from my regular diet? Why do I need these extra protein shakes? Of course you can get protein from your regular diet, however we all know that when we are trying to gain weight we need to be eating at least 1 gram of protein for each pound of your body weight. It is extremely hard for you to get this amount of protein from your regular diet.

Do you have time to be eating steak all day long? Of course not, this is why you need to be taking protein shakes. They are quick and easy, just scoop out the powder into your glass and add the liquid of your choice. The average scoop is about 18grams which makes obtaining your daily protein limits much easier to obtain.

I am not saying cut proteins out of your regular diet. Protein shakes are a muscle building supplement, they should be unused in addition to your regular diet - not instead of. The best times to be feeding your body with whey protein is early morning before breakfast, or just after you have completed your workout.