Can Skinny Guys Get Ripped? Find Out in 8 Simple Steps
It is very much possible for skinny guys to get ripped fast once discarding the common training approach of countless trainees that more is better, that is more volume and higher frequency. If you are reading this you are probably training but are dissatisfied with your slow progress or even stuck. The problem with this kind of approach is that it is unsuitable for any person but drug assisted bodybuilders or extremely endowed individuals or both. If you are in this situation it is no fault of your own but mostly of glossy muscle magazines and supplement industry that make a big business out of misleading natural trainees or hardgainers. It is in fact very simple to get ripped fast: you just have to do the complete opposite of what you have been reading and practicing. Here are the steps:
1) Use only basic compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, military presses, chin ups, parallel dips and their variations. Unsurprisingly these are the hardest exercises in which any individual can lift the most due to the amount of musculature involved, hence promoting a natural increase in testosterone and growth. Forget about biceps curls other specific exercises until further notice, do these compound movements and your body will grow.
2) Do a full body workout including all of the above compound exercises for very few working sets each, like Two or Three sets to failure at most after a warm up. Remember if you go to failure for 1 set, the second one is 100% extra workload, and a third one 50% extra. Use failure sets sparingly but effectively. Better two sets to complete failure or even with forced reps or two full out drop sets than marathon sessions like the ones preached in the muscle mags with 15 to 24 sets per body parts. The full body workout will have a whole impact on your physiological and anabolic system, much more so than hammering to oblivion a single body part.
3) As a consequence of point 2) you may start to think of your body as a whole, like a harmonious machine, not an assembly of body parts to train in isolation. The idea of split routines was borne out of necessity for drug assisted trainees who have their natural muscle endurance and recovery artificially enhanced so much that they cannot train the whole body in one session for time and energy drop reasons. Don’t miss the forest for the tree. Take a step back, see your body for what it is and treat it with respect.
4) Allow for 48 hours at least to recover both from the local fatigue and from the general impact the whole body workout has on your nervous system. Test it yourself, you may need more time as individuals vary in their recovery times. For no reasons train two days in a row.
5) Sleep no less than 6 hours, but sleep 8 hours for better recovery: your muscles grow while you rest, especially during your sleep. Miss on sleep and you’ll miss on growth.
6) Eat naturally and in a balanced way. As you are putting on muscles you must be in positive anabolic state, about 200/300 extra calories above your perfect metabolic balance. This way you can keep your fat in check. You don’t want to put 10 pounds of fat on top of 10 pounds of lean muscle. Don’t exaggerate with proteins supplements as they are what they say, supplements not substitutes. Also check for the most natural protein powders possibly without aspartame, colorants or flavorings as they tend to store in your fat tissue making it more difficult to get rid of later.
7) Ideally but not necessarily invest in a good quality guide for natural bodybuilders, hardgainers or ectomorphs to plan in detail your resolution. Stay large and clear of muscle mags/supplements cartels with their misinformation. They only make you waste your time and cash so they can keep on making money over your misery. You will save yourself a lot of grief and frustration and a lot of money in the long run. Listen only to skinny hardgainers who succeeded before and know what worked for them and for those like them.
Follow these simple steps, forget the muscle mags and you’ll get ripped fast.
Andy Finn
