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In this post you are going to learn how to get BIG the natural way. We will talk about proper training, proper eating, and proper supplementation. We will learn how to go from skinny to jacked, from zero to hero, from little to BIG! We will assume the reader is skinny.

But first…

Let me tell you a little story about a guy I know. This guy is jacked. He spent 10 years in the gym daily. He looks exactly like the picture of Chuck Sipes (to the left). We were doing pullups in the gym one day when a guy and a girl came over to talk to us. The guy was running his mouth but the girl wasn’t saying anything, she was just staring at my buddy. I’ve never seen it before or since but I saw her get her little panties wet just by looking at my jacked friend. I saw the lust in her eyes, I saw it in the way she opened her mouth a little, in the way she slightly licked her lips, the way she spread her legs just a little bit more than they should be, in the way she almost imperceptibly thrusted her hips forward. She wet her panties just by looking at my friend. That’s the power of  being jacked. That happened 5 years ago but I remember it like it was yesteryday.

A natural trainer has two very solid years to put on maximum muscle size. Gains will be harder to come by after the first two years of training so in those two years it should be a fight to put on the most muscular weight. A skinny natural should be eating, eating and eating as if his life depended on it.

There are two types of skinny guys:

1) Lean Skinny – these types are rail thin but they have no body-fat. Their abs and musculature show all the time, even though they are toothpicks. These types have the best muscle building bodies because it’s very, very hard for them to gain any fat.

2) Skinny-Fat – these types are skinny but have no musculature to speak of. Even though they may be rail thin they usually have something of a fat gut. These guys will have a harder time building a ripped physique.

Why people are skinny:

Being skinny is a matter of not eating enough. Nearly 100% of skinny guys are not big eaters and they eat mostly carbohydrates. They do not eat much protein or fat. It’s impossible to be skinny when eating enough necessary food.

To get big there are two critical components:

Lifting BIG and Eating BIG.

If either are neglected you can expect to either A) Not get big or B) Get fat instead.

Eating BIG!

To get big one must eat big. The human body cannot grow  without an excess of calories. Skinny trainers must be eating, eating, eating and eating some more. No ifs, ands or buts. No eating big = no getting big.

What to eat:

There are 3 macronutrients that make up all the food we eat.

1) Protein – Protein is what builds muscle. Without protein you cannot gain muscle. Not just any protein either. Animal protein is how one gets big. Vegetable proteins do not have the necessary amino acid profile to be utilized fully by the human body. This is one reason vegetarians look so pathetic and skinny. One cannot be healthy, fit or strong without animal protein.

Protein sources:

Beef, Eggs, Tuna, Fish, Chicken, Duck, Lamb, Cottage Cheese

2) Fats – Fats are essential to getting big and muscular. Eating fat does not make you fat. Fat is ESSENTIAL for a natural trainer because fat builds our testosterone levels. Don’t eat fat + don’t take steroids = don’t get jacked. Steroid trainers don’t eat fat because they don’t need to build natural testosterone. When you see copies of their diet in muscle magazines what they never tell you is the insane amount of muscle building drugs they use. A natural trainer must eat fats. Vegetable fats like vegetable oil are junk. To build testosterone you need saturated animal fat.

Fats:

Whole Eggs, Meats with the fat, Milk, Cottage Cheese, Butter

3) Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are a must for getting big. Carbohydrates provide energy, they send water to the muscles, and they’re an easy way to consume extra calories. You cannot get big without eating carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates:

Rice, Beans, Oatmeal, Bread, Fruits, Vegetables, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes

When to eat and how much to eat:

When trying to get big one must eat at least two meals a day, a breakfast, lunch and a healthy snack. A skinny trainer must be eating all the time. You must eat protein with each meal. If there is no protein it isn’t a meal. A meal can be protein + fat, protein + carbohydrates, or protein + fats + carbohydrates but protein MUST be there.

Pick your favorite foods to eat. It really doesn’t matter what food it is as long as you get enough protein, fats and carbohydrates. Just eat and eat and eat.

A liquid meal can consist of:

Protein Shakes: Protein shakes are advertised in the bodybuilding world as the end-all/be-all of bodybuilding. Well, they aren’t. Protein shakes are ONLY a way to get additional calories and protein into your system to get big. Protein shakes will not make you look like the guys in the magazines but they will give you additional calories to get bigger.

Meal Replacement Shakes / Protein bars: See above. An easy way to get in some extra calories if you’re on the run or don’t have the appetite to eat.

Liver Tabs: Liver tabs are liver in pill form. They’re a kick-ass way to get quality protein without having to eat liver. You can just swallow these pills and watch your strength and endurance go up.

Homemade protein shakes / Homemade weight gaining shakes: Homemade shakes are a fantastic way to get in a bunch of extra calories in an easy to drink formula. Just about anything can be put into a blender, blended and enjoyed in between meals. Homemade shakes can include: protein powder, peanut butter, bananas, berries, raw eggs, ice, milk and any other food you wish to add.

 Sample Meal Plan:

Meal #1) 6 eggs, bowl of oatmeal, banana

Meal #2) Protein shake or homemade shake or protein bar

Meal #3) Chicken, rice and beans

Meal #4) Protein shake or homemade shake or protein bar

Meal #5) Steak, Eggs, baked potatoes with butter

Meal #6) Cottage Cheese

Easy, low cost muscle gaining recipes:

Tuna: You can add BBQ sauce to tuna, heat it in the microwave and it tastes like brisket.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are an easy and tasty way to get in extra calories.

Eat the fat. Don’t cut the fat off of your meats and eat butter. Add butter to baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes.

You need those calories!

Things to remember:

Eat real foods – no franken-foods like margarine, vegetable oils, or foods in boxes that never expire.

You must eat 2 times per day minimum and those meals must be solid meals. The more solid meals the better.

You don’t need to overthink it. Just eat from all 3 food groups. Your goal is to get BIG. If you eat your protein with each meal you will be getting enough protein – these is no additional reason to count calories or grams of protein.

Watch the scale and the mirror for progress. If the scale is not moving up you need to eat more.

Eat Real food before resorting to supplements.

Lifting BIG!

Natural trainers new to the iron game will make progress along the same lines as steroid users. In the first 6 months a natural trainer can put on many, many muscular pounds.

A natural trainer can train 4-6 days a week and make excellent progress. There is a lot of baloney floating around about “overtraining”.

New, natural trainers can handle an extreme amount of volume. You do not want to waste your precious first two years cry-baby’ing about overtraining. You need to be in the gym lifting and killing it all the time. Take advantage of the natural growth hormone your body will produce when you start weight training.

How to Start Weight Training:

Anyone wanting to start getting in the gym and turning into a man will at minimum need to be able to perform simple bodyweight exercises like pushups, sit-ups, body squats and pullups.

If a trainer cannot perform 5-10 pushups, at least one or two pullups, 10 body squats and 10 sit-ups he has no business touching weights. Work on these bodyweight exercises first and then get into the gym and lift some iron.

The Basics:

The basics are how you build a muscular body. The basics are how you build your muscular foundation. The basics build strength. The basics must be done at first.

A natural trainer needs to focus on multi-joint compound barbell exercises.

The basic exercises are:

Barbell Squat, Barbell Bench Press, Standing Barbell Overhead Press, Deadlift, Bent Over Rows, Barbell Curls, Pull-ups and Dips.

The first month or two in the gym should be used to learn and prefect proper technique of the basic exercises.

Basics build strength of the muscle, the tendons, the ligaments and strength of the mind.

Cardio:

A skinny, natural should not do cardio. For a skinny person trying to get big cardio is a waste of time.

Routines:

There are a lot of beginner routines floating around in magazines and on the internet. Routines are a good way for a new trainer to get started, but soon enough you will want to develop your own routine and train on instinct.

A beginner can start with three days per week in the gym.

Beginners should follow a routine like this:

Monday: Squats / 5 sets adding weight each set, Bench Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Overhead Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Pull-Ups / 3 sets of as many as you can do

Wednesday: Squats / 5 sets adding weight each set, Bench Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Overhead Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Pull-Ups / 3 sets of as many as you can do

Friday: Squats / 5 sets adding weight each set, Deadlift / 5 sets adding weight each set, Bench Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Overhead Press / 5 sets adding weight each set, Pull-Ups / 3 sets of as many as you can do

Never be ashamed of the weight that you use. Most trainers start with baby weight and add weight as they get stronger. There is no shame in working to get stronger and better.

There was a time I was in the gym, I had only been training for a few weeks. I was doing seated dumbbell overhead press with 27.5 lb dumbbells. That’s baby-weight, that’s even below baby-weight, but I was struggling. For me, it may as well have been 100 lb dumbbells. I remember some girl staring at me the whole set. Other guys could have been extremely embarrassed at the baby weight being used, a lot of guys would have left the gym and never come back. I didn’t care. I saw her staring but I continued the set like it was life or death, my face contorting with all kinds of stupid faces as I lifted baby weight. I thought to myself “Baby, you can stare all you want. I’m in here to do business and there isn’t anything that’s going to stop me”.

Never be ashamed of the weight you use. With time and practice that weight will go up and up and up, but we all have to start somewhere.

When you feel comfortable with these exercises you can add gym time as you see fit and do extra work where you see fit.

When a trainer has spent enough time in the gym to learn the exercises, put on weight, and lift heavier weight he is ready to get in the gym more often and start lifting for real. The Old School 70’s Bodybuilding Routine can be followed for maximum size and gains.

 Remember:

There is no one size fits all routine – you will have to experiment and see what works for you. There is one rule though: You must do the basics, you must do them first, and you must do them hard.

Starting trainers can work each muscle group 3 times per week for maximum benefits.

The weights you use should be jumping up each week. Always try to go harder and heavier with each workout.

A new weight trainer will have an increase in human growth hormone and testosterone. Natural trainers can handle a lot more volume than the un-fit and whining complainers will have you believe.

It takes an obsession with eating and training to get big. Eat all the time, train all the time.

You’ve only got one life to live. You’ve only got a set amount of time to put on the most weight. The naysayers, the cry-babies, will give you baloney advice about “overtraining” and that’s why they look like poop – they believe a natural trainer will break in half if he works out too hard or too much.

The guy I told you about above, the panty wetter, lifts weights 7 days per week 364 days per year. He takes one rest day per year. He eats small meals every 3 or 4 hours. He lifts heavy and hard for 45 minutes a day and works abdominals every day. He’s dedicated, he’ll never miss a session, but he doesn’t overthink it. It’s just something he does every single day without question and without fail. When you listen to things you “can’t” do they become reality. When you don’t listen to the “can’ts” then a world of possibilities opens up.

In an earlier series we talked about the secret to being Big and completely Ripped at the same time. When it comes to natural training there truly is no secret. Put in the time and effort and you get the benefits.

EAT EAT EAT – LIFT LIFT LIFT