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Preface
Before going into how to bulk up for skinny guys, I want to thank my personal trainer Matt Petersen. Matt is the mastermind behind helping me to recomp my body from being skinny with some muscle to bulking up and developing quality lean muscle, with a modest (13%) level of body fat.
Without Matt’s guidance on training and nutrition, I never would have been able to transition to a look from a skinny guy to a guy that has bulk size on him.
How to bulk up fast for skinny guys.
I’ve always been seen as a skinny guy. And it’s not until recently that I’ve been described as someone that looks broad or that has more size compared to most other people.
It is possible for skinny guys to bulk up. But you need to know and implement the approach that will work for you.
I can describe my experience and what has allowed me to gain 8kg in size on just over 2 months.
How was a skinny guy like me able to bulk up?
I had to eat more.
I had to consume the right amount of food that would allow my muscles to be completely fuelled so that they would grow properly.
My calorie intake had to be assessed, along with the amount protein, carbs, and fats to provide enough energy for my muscles to grow.
I was pre-warned that I would need to keep on eating, even if I thought I felt full in some cases.
Many skinny people (like myself) struggle to eat alot unless we start to feel really hungry. If my muscles have been worked to the max, it will trigger my hunger cravings and I will find it easier to eat.
I had to change the way that I was training.
My training program focused on targeting the major muscle groups to stimulate growth. Most of these groups were in legs, such:
- Hamstrings
- Glutes
- Quads
- Calves
For the upper body, the emphasis areas were:
- Back
- Chest
- Triceps
The training focused on progressive overload based on having a good foundation. As my progressive strength increased, so did my size and weights gains.
When did things start to change?
My height is 6 feet, 2 inches, which is 186 cm. Once I started to get over 85kg, my body weight looked proportionate to my height. At 90 kg, some people started to see my body fill out and even described my upper body as broad.
My goal is get to 100kg at 12-13% body fat, which will make me look big for my height.
After reaching that weight, the aim is to remove the body fat and scale back to 88-90kg, and hold my look at 4-8% body fat.
You can bulk up if you are a skinny guy.
I was a skinny fat man.
This frustrated me alot at the beginning because I was following an online program, but I wasn’t getting the results that I was expecting.
When my body fat got measured by my personal trainer Matt Petersen, I was approximately 14% body fat.
Below is a picture of me as a skinny guy with belly fat.
Although this isn’t a huge number, it is still alot when you’re aiming to have a lean look at 10% body fat or less.
The first thing I had to do was accept that I was skinny fat and that I had to make a significant change.
I’m was a skinny guy with skinny legs.
So I was skinny fat and due to my genetics, my legs come across as being quite skinny. This is because my calf muscle is very small and I never really trained my legs properly in the past as well.
So the to be skinny fat with skinny legs wasn’t a good fit at all.