10 Simple Things I Did to Gain 30 Lbs of Muscle (COPY THESE!)

If you are skinny and find it hard to build muscle no matter what you do, then you may be a hardgainer and been told that you need a “hardgainer workout” to help you start to pack on muscle size. Not so fast. In this video, we show you former skinny guy Jesse from ATHLEAN X and the 10 biggest lessons he learned regarding his workouts and nutrition that allowed him to bust through a lifelong plateau and add muscle to his once skinny frame.

If you copy these workout lessons you will find that the process is less complicated than it may have once seemed - but you still will have to put in the hard work to get to where you want to be.

That said, it starts with developing a consistency for showing up. You may not have to love the process in the beginning but you will need to keep at it in order to see the changes that you are seeking. If you want to achieve an incredible body transformation then you have to show up each day and put in the effort.

Next, you have to start drinking more water. Almost every person that lacks muscle size is teetering on the brink of dehydration. They simply don’t drink enough water. Your goal should be to drink three quarters of your bodyweight (in pounds) in ounces of water each day. Therefore if you are a 160 pound person you would want to drink 120 ounces of water.

The third big requirement for losing your hardgainer status is to stop fearing the big lifts (i.e. the barbell exercises). These are the lifts that provide the best opportunity for progressive overload such as the squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press.

That said, lesson number four is not to speed through the process on these lifts in an attempt to catch up to the big guys in the gym who seem to be lifting much more weight than you are. Instead, focus on building up a solid foundation of form before doing that.

Next, you do want to learn how to train hard. It is on the single joint and accessory exercises that you will have a chance to do that. Train to failure, true failure, and you will determine what your limits are. It is only through actually training to failure that a newbie to the gym will know what maximum effort is supposed to feel like and be able to exert it to create the overload needed to drive muscle growth.

Next up, all hardgainers should be sure to include at least one bodyweight exercise per workout. Not only does it give you another chance to train to failure but it also lets you learn how to command your body in space. Exercises like pullups, pushup variations, inverted rows and even unweighted leg exercises like bulgarian split squats were the exact moves that Jesse used to build muscle and compliment his weight training.

Lesson #7 is a big one. Don’t speed through your sets. Instead, learn what it’s like to initiate tension from the muscle that you are actually trying to build and let momentum take a back seat once in a while. This will help to really increase the intensity of the work being done by the exact muscle you’re trying to grow. The best thing to do here is pick at least one exercise per workout and slow down the rep speed to about 2-3 seconds up and 2-3 seconds down.

When it comes to nutrition, the hardgainer is definitely going to want to increase their calories but “eat big to get big” is a philosophy that often just doesn’t work for true skinny guys. Why? Because they just don’t have the appetite to accommodate all the extra food. So what do you do? Increase the caloric density of the foods you choose. You can do this by choosing higher fat protein foods like peanut butter or by adding fattier food choices like avacados or olive oil to your salads.

That said, it’s easy to increase calories by drinking them rather than chewing them. Protein powders are amazingly helpful here at making it easier to pack on muscle. Make 1-2 shakes a day and you will see how easy it is to add extra calories and break through muscle size plateaus.

Finally, remember that setbacks are part of the overall journey. Don’t get discouraged by them but realize their important place in your overall growth. Also, don’t forget to celebrate the minor victories along the way. They will not only keep your excited about where you are heading but they will feed that all important consistency as well.

Copy Jesse’s Hardgainer Routine Here - https://athleanx.com/x/jesse-hardgain...
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For more ways to make sure that you are getting the most out of your workouts, be sure to stay tuned to this channel are remember to subscribe so that you never miss another video from a physical therapist with a pro sports background as a PT and strength coach.

For complete step-by-step workout programs that help you to build muscle using science backed principles, head on over to athleanx.com and make sure to use the program selector to find the training program that is best suited to your personal goals.