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While being thin may not sound like a problem, for many guys it is. I’ve known many men who claim to be unable to gain weight, incapable of adding any real muscle to their thin frames. I’ve also seen these same men unwilling to do what it actually takes to bulk up.  Unless a medical condition prevents it, you can absolutely gain weight and add quality muscle to your physique. It’s going to require some data tracking and effort, but if you execute on the plan I’m going to lay out for you I guarantee you’ll see results.

Any respectable exercise regimen involves strength training, aerobic conditioning and some form of flexibility or mobility training along with proper diet and nutrition. In order to keep this blog post focused and of reasonable length, I’m going to concentrate on the strength training.  I’ll work on the diet post next, but take a look at this post as it will give you an idea what it’s going to take.

Your weight-training program must be built around the large, multi-joint exercises that involve and recruit the most muscle possible. The squat, deadlift, bench press, row, pull-up, dips and their variations will form the core of your program. Your overriding goal is simple: lift more weight. In order to grow, you’ve got to stress your body with more resistance than it’s accustomed to handling. You will track your workouts and refer back to the log each workout and attempt to increase the weight you use.

The primary lifts are the squat, bench press and deadlift. These are the lifts you should strive to improve. The other lifts provide muscular balance and build and develop the muscles that do the work on the primary lifts.

You will train 4 days a week. Choose whichever days work for you, but try to set them up similarly to what I have here.

Tuesday

Bench Press Assistance work.

• Pick one & do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30 – 2:00 minutes between sets.

Pull-Ups

Lat Pull-Downs

Chest Supported Rows

Dumbbell Rows

Barbell Rows

• Pick one & do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30 – 2:00 minutes between sets.

DB Bench Press

DB Floor Press

Pushups

Dips

• Pick one & do 3 sets of 10, resting 1:30 – 2:00 minutes between sets.

Face Pulls

Dumbbell Cleans

Hang Cleans

Band Pull-apart

Barbell Shrugs

Wednesday

Deadlift Day

Deadlift

3 working sets of 5 (after warm-up sets)

Rest as much as you need to between sets to be fully ready to go. This will probably be in the 2-3 minute range, but can be more. Don’t cool off, but don’t rush either. This isn’t cardio. Each set should be heavier than the last.

Assistance work

• Pick one & do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30-2:00 minutes between sets.

Lunges

Close stance box squat

Power cleans

Set ups

• Pick one & do lots

Ab wheel

Hanging Knee Raises

Pull down Abs

Incline Sit-ups

Friday

Bench Press Day

Bench Press

3 working sets of 5 (after warm-up sets)

Rest as much as you need to between sets to be fully ready to go. This will probably be in the 2-3 minute range, but can be more. Don’t cool off, but don’t rush either. This isn’t cardio. Each set should be heavier than the last.

Assistance work

• Pick one & do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30-2:00 minutes between sets.

Pull-ups

Lat Pull-downs

Chest Supported Rows

Dumbbell Rows

Barbell Rows

• Pick one & do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30-2:00 minutes between sets.

Dips

Pushups

Dumbbell Bench Press

DB Floor Press

• Pick one & do 3 sets of 10, resting 1:30-2:00 minutes between sets.

Face Pulls

Dumbbell Cleans

Band Pull-apart

Hang Cleans

Sunday

Squat Day

Squats

3 working sets of 5 (after warm-up sets)

Rest as much as you need to between sets to be fully ready to go. This will probably be in the 2-3 minute range, but can be more. Don’t cool off, but don’t rush either. This isn’t cardio. Each set should be heavier than the last.

Assistance work

• Pick one and do 3-4 sets of 10, resting 1:30-2:00 minutes between sets.

Back Raise

Glute Ham Raise

Stiff Leg Deadlifts

Good Mornings

Pull-through’s

• Pick one & do lots

Ab Wheel

Hanging Knee Raises

Incline Sit-ups

Pull-down Abs

I cannot teach you how to properly perform each exercise here. That is beyond the scope of this post. But I won’t leave you hanging. These are two of the best resources I’ve used to properly learn how to Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift, along with all the other exercises I’ve listed.

The Diesel Crew

Elite FTS

Diesel Crew has some How To’s along the right side of their Home Page and EliteFTS has one of the most comprehensive Exercise Index’s you will find anywhere. Cool shirts and stuff too.

Q & A

Q:            Why am I doing only 5 reps on the squat, bench press and deadlift, but 10 reps on the assistance exercises?

A:            The three primary lifts require the most concentration, focus and neuromuscular coordination. It’s difficult to maintain that degree of focus, especially if the weight starts getting heavy, for an extended period. 5 reps is a good number.

Q:            How much weight do I use?

A:            On the three primary lifts (squat, bench press and deadlift), the goal is to make regular incremental progress. Start out with a weight you can easily handle for the 5 reps. Increase the weight for the second and third set. That third set should be pretty tough, but you should still get your 5 reps.

Begin to increase the weight each week, even if only by 5 or 10 lbs. Here’s a great example from my 14 year old son’s workout log. He’s just starting out:

Squat              Set 1                        Set 2                        Set3

Week 1            95                        105                        120

Week 2            95                        105                        120

Week 3            100                        110                        125

Week 4            100                        110                        135

You’ll notice he didn’t increase the weight each week, but more like every two weeks. This is fine; in fact it’s pretty smart. The most important thing is to get your form and technique down, then slowly add weight over time. I recommend you add a note in your log about how tough that last set was. He hasn’t done that yet, but I always do. When you check your log to set your weights for this week’s workout and you see that 135 for 5 reps was “easy,” you can increase your weights for this week.

On the assistance work, pick a weight that will challenge you to get 10 reps, but not wipe you out. Keep track in your log and again, strive to make incremental progress over time.

You can get your log book here.

Now go do some homework on the exercises in the program and I’ll be back shortly with the diet & cardio phase. Of course comments are more than welcome or you can contact me directly if you prefer. Happy to help.

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