This is a question that almost every skinny man asks himself when he first comes to the gym. Thoughts of muscular relief and predatory female glances drive the novice athlete forward to the “iron”. The desire to work out is overwhelming, and fragmentary knowledge plucked from various sources instills confidence in success…
This makes most newcomers even more disappointed when they look at themselves in the mirror after several months of grueling training. Often, they do not notice any differences from their initial appearance at all, and therefore, crushed by accumulated fatigue, they leave the gym forever. This happens because they all stubbornly repeat the same mistakes, which we will save the readers of this article from.
The tortoise will overtake the hare
“Heavy weights will quickly build up my muscles,” some beginners think and start doing exercises with a weight on the barbell that allows you to press it no more than a few times. This is a common mistake. Muscles really respond better to growth with a heavy load than with a light one. However, if your lifestyle up to this point was far from athletic (and in most cases this is true), then you will quickly injure yourself. And first of all, unprepared ligaments will howl in pain.
The best advice that can be given to any beginner athlete is to do exercises with weights that will allow you to perform at least 13-15 repetitions in three approaches. And only after a couple of months of such training, move on to heavier weights with fewer repetitions.
Barbells and dumbbells are better than any exercise machines
Many beginners are frankly afraid to lie down on a bench under a barbell, and the thought of squatting with a barbell seems completely terrible to them. After all, any modern gym is full of various exercise machines that, as many people think, can easily replace a barbell and dumbbells. This is not so!
From a physiological point of view, barbell exercises are much more effective for gaining mass than the best exercise machines. Our muscles are designed to overcome the force of gravity. Whether you walk, jump or carry bags from the store – each time with the help of muscles you overcome gravity. And when you exercise with a barbell, you increase it naturally, because the weight vector is always directed vertically downwards. To put it simply: if you let go of the barbell, it will inevitably fall to the floor.
With exercise machines, things are not quite the same. Depending on their design, the handles may tend to rise up, move to the sides, or move forward. This does not mean that you should not exercise on exercise machines, but about two-thirds of your program should be built specifically on exercises with a barbell and dumbbells.
However, exercise machines are ideal during rehabilitation, when you need to minimize the risk of injury recurrence, as well as for working out existing muscles, but not for building muscle mass!
Three pillars of mass gain
What exercises should I do? I'm afraid I won't be original, but I'll tell you the seditious truth – you can't do without basic exercises. A person has three large muscle groups, the training of which is the determining factor for gaining mass. Legs, back, chest. These muscle groups follow this order from the largest volume of muscle mass in the body to the smallest. Therefore, if you devote all your time to training your biceps, abs and shoulders, then you don't need to be surprised why you are not growing in size.
Squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are the foundation of any mass-gaining program. Of course, you will do many other exercises in addition to the basic ones, but the exercises described above should be the core of your training program.
Intelligence is the key to success
Finally, I would like to warn you against a few more common mistakes of beginners. After training for one and a half to two months according to one program and seeing that the growth of your results has stopped, boldly change the training system and continue to develop. The body tends to adapt to the established rhythm, so over time your body stops responding to the training that was insanely effective at the beginning.
And if you hear from someone that he knows the only unique and 100% working in all cases training scheme, then feel free to ignore his advice. It is impossible from the point of view of physiology. Therefore, do not hesitate to improvise, reacting in time to the signals of your body, setting new and new tasks for it. Only in this way will you force yourself to grow, forever saying goodbye to your unaesthetic thinness.
