How To Go From Skinny To Muscular Without Weights?

Build Muscle Without Weights

I believe it’s easier for skinny guys to become muscular than for overweight folks. But some skinny guys may disagree because they can’t seem to build muscles no matter how hard they try. Well, as a former skinny guy, I’ll show you exactly how I went from skinny to muscular and share strategies that have worked for others. In fact, you can build muscle without weights, mass gainers or any supplement – just your body and real food.

In a nutshell – eat more food than your body needs and do challenging workouts. Even though that’s good advice – it’s vague. So I’ll share numerous tips and tricks you can apply in your diet and workout to get the best results.

Skinny To Muscular Training Tips

Did you know that your body doesn’t want you to build muscles? Muscles boost the resting metabolic rate and hinder fat storage – this goes against the body’s natural function. So the body will do whatever it can, to prevent muscle growth. You have to take advantage of every tip below to win this battle.

• Train intensely – If you don’t train your muscles well, they won’t become stronger. Don’t expect a few push ups and squats to make a difference.
• Do simple exercises if you’re a beginner and then advance to more challenging exercises. Note: Doing advanced exercises right off the bat can cause injuries.
• Do a full range of motion and train to failure (do each exercise until you can’t perform another rep).
• Advance to a harder exercise once you can do more than 15 reps. High reps are good for muscular endurance, but not for muscle growth.

Track Your Workouts

• Tracking helps keep the workouts challenging.
• Record the number of reps and sets you do in each workout. Then do more reps after every workout.
• Use a notebook to record your workouts.

Do Different Variations

Some guys can’t build muscles with one exercise variation. Do different variations targeting the same muscle to activate growth. For instance, while doing push ups, do decline push ups, incline push ups and dive bomber push ups to build a bigger sculpted chest than doing one push up variation.

Rest And Recover

Looking at the tips above, one may think he should be on beast mode 7 days a week. But that’s far from the truth. Muscles need to rest and recover to grow. Muscles get microscopic tears when they are strained. These tears repair during rest and sleep. Train at most for 5 times a week and get enough sleep every night. It’s recommended you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night.

Learn Proper Form

To get the most out of an exercise, you have to do it properly. If your form is flawed, the muscles won’t get the workout they deserve.

Train Your Legs

Most guys ignore their legs and focus only on the upper body. This is a huge mistake because legs are the biggest muscle group and training them will quickly increase overall muscle mass. Also, exercises like squats and lunges impact the central nervous system and create a great hormone response. A study shows that leg exercises boost testosterone and growth hormone levels. This reaction enhances growth of muscles in other parts of the body.

Do Less Cardio

Cardio is good for fat loss, but skinny guys don’t need it. Doing cardio will burn the calories that the body needs to build muscle. Additionally, research shows that excess cardio causes loss of muscle. If you have to do cardio, limit it to only a few minutes. Your main focus should be strength training.

Best Exercises For Building Muscles

This article has all the exercises you need to build muscle and strength – I’ll list a few exercises here.

1. Pull Ups

Pull ups are the number one upper body exercise you should focus on. They train all upper body muscles – arms, back, chest and shoulders. If you can’t do vertical pull ups, start with horizontal pull ups then advance when you get stronger. Chin ups (underhand grip) are the best for building biceps.

2. Dive Bomber Push Ups

These are more effective than classic push ups and they don’t require much strength to perform. They mainly work the chest, triceps and shoulders. How to do dive bomber push ups?

3. Dips

Dips mainly activate the triceps, shoulders and chest muscles. If dips are challenging for you start with bench dips.

4. Split Squats

I’ve found split squats to be one of the most effective leg body-weight exercises. They activate the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps. Wear a backpack loaded with books if you want to make them more challenging.

Skinny To Muscular Diet Tips

1. You can’t build muscles if your diet is not on point.
2. You should eat healthy foods and consume more calories than your body needs.
3. First, calculate your caloric needs. Once you find out the number of calories your body needs to maintain current weight, add more calories to that.
4. Eat 1000 calories (or more) more than your body needs. Don’t worry if you’re a picky eater, below, I’ll share tips to help you consume more calories.
5. Eat more proteins: When you eat proteins, they’re broken down to amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks for muscles – they repair the microscopic tears and regenerate cells in the body. Eat proteins in every meal and keep in mind that going for more than 16 hours without eating proteins could lead to loss of muscle.

Increase Carb Intake

Carbs give you back the energy lost during training by raising glycogen to normal levels. This will increase your performance during workout. Most carbs are also high in calories so it’ll help increase your calorie intake.

Eat Several Small Meals

Most skinny guys can’t eat a lot. If you can’t handle big meals, divide them into small meals.For instance, if your daily caloric goal is 3000 calories, eat 6 small meals of 500 calories. That’s easier than 3 meals of 1000 calories.

Eat Enough Fats

Fats are high in calories and will increase your calorie intake. Furthermore, there’s a direct link between fat and testosterone levels. A good source of fat is salmon which contains omega 3 fatty acids, essential fatty acids, flax seed oil, and conjugated linoleic acid.

Cook With More Oil

Your goal should be to eat enough calories without being uncomfortably full. Cooking with excess healthy fat can add an extra 200 calories to you daily intake. Avoid using vegetable oil. Use olive oil and coconut oil.

Eat Faster

People trying to lose weight are advised to eat slowly. That’s because people overeat when they eat fast. So do the opposite of what overweight folks do. It takes time for the brain to register that you’re full. The faster you eat, the more you’ll be able to eat.

Drink Your Calories

Most of your nutrients should definitely come from real food. But healthy beverages can greatly increase your calorie intake. You don’t have to take shakes or anything like that. Drink beverages like milk, fruit juice, Greek yoghurt and so on. Avoid weight gainers and unhealthy beverages like sodas and diet soda.

High Calorie Healthy Foods To Add To Your Diet

Here are a few healthy foods that are high in calories:

1. Carbs: Include carbs like rice, bread, potatoes, pasta in your diet.
2. Avocado: Avocado is one of the healthiest fruits (It’s not a vegetable). An average-sized avocado contains around 400 calories. Eat a piece of avocado in every meal.
3. Salads: Salads with oily or creamy dressings are high in calories.
4. Nuts: Nuts are a great source of vitamin E, protein, iron and magnesium. And they’re very high in fat. In fact, 100 grams of macadamia carry more than 700 calories.
5. Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is a healthy monounsaturated fat and 10 grams/a teaspoon has around 60 calories. Spreading it in meals can increase your calories.
6. Fruits: Fruits are rich in nutrients and minerals and high in calories. For instance, a medium-size banana has around 100 calories.

Final Word

Truly, that’s all the information you need to transform yourself from skinny to muscular. Now the ball is on your court. Start working out and apply these diet tips. Good luck on your fitness journey!