How to Get Big (Part 1)
By Chris Walker Fitness Professional
100% Hardcore Truth
A lot of people lately have been telling me they want to gain weight, a common concern for most people. Guys don’t want to look too skinny because society doesn’t consider that sexy and one may even be ridiculed for having a scrawny physique. Women also want to beef up they find being too skinny won’t give them those feminine curves. So, let’s get some things straight what you’re really saying when you say, “Chris I want to gain weight “, is I want to build muscle. Ok so I’ll break it down so you understand what goes into building muscle. Let’s call this how to get big part 1.
Identifying the errors
Ok, we need to lay some foundation and what I find most is that people are asking their bodies to do all this stuff for them when they haven’t given it a proper foundation. What am I talking about food. It’s really quite simple most people are starving their bodies. If you weigh 140 lbs and you want to get to 180 lbs, first you have to satisfy the calorie requirements of the 140 lb person and work your way to consuming the calorie requirements of a 180 lb person. So if you haven’t even got the eating right your body will not grow. But, what about my fast metabolism and how much should I work out. Hold on, we’ll get there. Remember I said we need 3 things to get a result, if I wanted to be simplistic I could just say eat plenty of food about 4000 calories workout hard and do some moderate cardio and we could all go home. I’m sure you’ve tried that already and it didn’t work. You were probably on the right track but you really need to understand your body to make this thing work. Another error people make when trying to get Big is they don’t exercise hard enough (intensity) and they have the wrong exercise selection. Guys do this a lot by copying the big dudes doing routines they probably shouldn’t be doing yet. Last but not least is cardio most people don’t know what to do with it or how it plays a role so they do some cardio or they leave it out completely.
Nutrition
Nutrition is probably the biggest part of the equation or the part people screw up the most so let’s talk some more about it. We want to support healthy weight gain so we want good nutrition that can support muscle growth. Just because you want to gain weight doesn’t mean you eat as much junk as you can NO, bad naughty. People often do this who have a fast metabolism, sure you burn it up but it does nothing to support muscle growth. We want to eat ….now here’s the tricky part 6 meals per day or depending on your metabolism if you’re a hard gainer maybe 3 meals, at times we may need to slow your metabolism down but this depends on the individual. The meals need to consist of: a lean protein, a starchy carbohydrate and a fibrous carbohydrate, in equal proportions on your plate. These meals should be eaten every 3– 31/2 hours. Once we get this down we’re on our way to building a good foundation for muscle building. I want to throw some more information at you so read this excerpt from a previous article I’ve written and wait for How to get Big part 2.
Ok, first things first, women and men build muscle to their genetic potential. Men also have a slight advantage over women when it comes to building muscle because of higher testosterone levels. It's true that some women have more testosterone than others but ladies I assure you that unless you're on steroids you cannot build muscles of gargantuan proportion, so, you could throw the Incredible Hulk concern out the window. Now, what I really want to discuss is mind set. Your mind plays an important role in fitness, particularly building muscle. Every time you exercise your trying to cause hypertrophy, in other words, your trying to overload your muscle so it has a reason to want to grow bigger and stronger. Your work outs should be increasingly difficult. If you did 20 push ups last work out, this time make it 25. If you leg pressed 180lbs previously this time make it 200lbs. EACH TIME YOU WORK OUT YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR BODY BEYOND WHAT IT'S USED TO. You need to have the mind set of a warrior, an animal. This is all about you and your results; the next 10 min or 20 min of your work out duration should be done seriously without distraction. Adaptation is the name of the game. It's ok to have a work out buddy but it's not a social event, especially if your doing work outs only ten minutes long. You need to make them count. Put your mind into each movement, focus on each muscle group as you perform exercises. Don't just go through the motions and don't give up so easily. Get it Done! Don't slack off just because no ones looking. You get out what you put in. I mean, a lot of the work outs I prescribe are only 10 min or 20 min long and if you can't focus, get serious and get the job done with a exercise regimen that only takes 10 min of your time. One would conclude you don't want to get fit. Most people don't put their mind into their work out, yet they want results. Keep a journal of your past work out achievements and try to surpass it each scheduled workout. Even a slight change will cause your body to want to continuously adapt. That means results for you.
Chris Walker is the founder of fitnesstrainingformenandwomen.com located in Kitchener, Ontario. Chris is a certified fitness trainer, (CFT) and actively works with medical doctors and health care professionals in helping their patients to reduce bodyfat restore musculoskeletal strength and gain control over their blood sugar readings, good and bad blood fats and blood pressure readings, among other critical fitness issues. Chris is a member of International Sports Sciences Association, (ISSA) and Canfitpro Organization. Chris has made TV appearances on Global Television and is a published author. Chris produces a book that he gives to all readers titled, "New Body", everything you need to transform your body.
Thanks for reading.
How to Get Big (Part 1)
