How to Gain Good Weight

Upon initial thought, you wouldn't think someone would need to write an article titled "How to Gain Good Weight". After all, aren't those who feel underweight so desirous of displaying more body mass as to be content with just a higher reading on the bathroom scale? I would think not. And for those who are, I'm seriously inclined to mercifully derail this ultimately counterproductive train of thought. If you're slender and want to be bigger, it is muscle weight that you won't regret gaining. Deposits of cellulite would only make your formerly fat-free physique seem contest worthy by comparison. So 'how to gain good weight' translates to 'how to gain muscle weight'; they are one and the same.

But you wouldn't think so when scrutinizing much of the prevailing wisdom. Peruse many of the online 'how to gain weight' articles and you'll see one after another pontificating the anxiously underweight on how they simply need to eat much and often, body-build with heavy weights, and get a lot of sleep. Of course, what's emphasized most is the part about eating... a lot.

If you've followed this simplistic formula and gotten nowhere - this article is for you. It's for you who have piled down excess calories to the point of food coma - worked out doing squats and dead-lifts to the point of nausea - and forced yourself to sleep nine hours a night to the point of... drooling on your pillow - and still not gained good weight. Let me give you the three key areas on which to focus if you want to gain muscle steadily; in other words - if you want the secret of 'how to gain good weight'.

1. Use the "progression principle" of bodybuilding.

2. Optimize your muscle breakdown/recuperation ratio.

3. Eat a gram of protein for every pound of your current bodyweight (daily).

Use the "progression principle" of bodybuilding

I've received emails from people who've never read my book and ask me why they're not gaining muscle. Within these emails, they'll put down a laundry list of exercises, sets, and reps that they've been doing in the gym. Yet nowhere within these lists or descriptions is there a hint that the person is attempting to apply the biggest key to building muscle: progression.

Of course, the answer to their question is simple and (unbeknownst to them) they never needed to write such a drawn out list. If you just keep putting the same stress levels on muscles, they won't change. You must continually and systematically challenge your muscles to move greater weight volumes than they have previously. You must not only challenge them - you must succeed in that challenge if the muscles are to be augmented. What I've shared with readers of my book is the easiest and most reliably effective method of succeeding in that challenge. It's something I've discovered from twenty-three years of weight training experience. It teaches one 'how to gain good weight' without hitting progress plateaus.

But the big key to making the "progression principle" work is to implement key number two:

Optimize your muscle breakdown/recuperation ratio

This one has to be synergistically implemented with the progression principle or your bodybuilding workouts will be futile. Effective weight training workouts cause muscle tissue breakdown. Sufficient recuperation (rest between workouts) can provide repair for the damage plus additional tissue to compensate for the extra demands placed on the muscles. It's vitally important to get the correct amount of recuperation for the corresponding level of tissue damage. Without this, the progression principle is impossible to sustain.

One thing I emphasize to people is that our muscles don't necessarily recuperate on a rigid time-table. This under-realized fact - coupled with the orthodox practice of strictly training each muscle group on specific days of the week - is what creates much frustration and wasted time in bodybuilding. If you work your triceps today and you've scheduled them to be worked again in exactly one week, who or what's to say they'll be recuperated and stronger on the same day next week? If they're not, you will run into the most prevalent antagonist in a trainee's quest for 'how to gain good weight'.

Over-training/under recuperating is probably the most common and bewildering obstacle slowing down aspiring muscle builders. It only takes one session of under-recuperating a muscle that was only slightly over-worked to cause a long-term setback. Think about it: If you work your triceps after a week's recovery and they really needed a week and one day - do you think they're still in the same place they were when they needed a week and a day? No, now they've been torn down even further by working them prematurely. And we have a tendency to work a muscle even harder when our judgment is clouded by the frustration of a setback. This only exacerbates the problem.

Getting the right muscle breakdown/recuperation schedule is a matter of testing. Despite what some will tell you, there's not a "one size fits all" schedule, such as a week's rest between workouts. Recuperation needs change with age and even change with progress. After your muscles get a little bigger, there will be more tissue that needs repair, and hence, more rest requirement between workouts in order to make further progress.

Eat a Gram of Protein for Every Pound of Your Current Body Weight (daily)

This is a minimum number in the 'how to gain good weight' formula. I recommend 1.5 grams of protein per pound of weight. In addition to being the building blocks of body tissue, protein increases the thermic effect of eating. This allows you to increase your calorie intake with less likelihood of depositing body fat. Increased dietary protein can also be satiating to the point that excessive carbohydrate intake will be less of a tendency.

You should break your 1.5 grams-per-pound of bodyweight protein intake into five or six meals per day. I recommend at least starting the protein portion of your meals before consuming carbohydrates as this will slow down carbohydrate digestion and rises in blood sugar.

Keep in mind: No mathematical calorie formula or protein intake calculation will be effective if keys one and two are not adhered to. Although protein intake is important, it's the synergistic effects of optimizing all three ingredients that are the secret of 'how to gain solid weight'.