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Why You NEED to Eat More AND Workout to Build Muscle And Gain Weight

Filed Under: Hardgainer Tips Leave a Comment

Hey guys,

In this week's newsletter I decided to answer another "KILLER" question that I got from one of your fellow subscribers.

Today's newsletter will reveal why you NEED to workout if you're trying to gain weight and build muscle.

So here's the "Killer" question that sparked today's newsletter post:

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hello I watch your video and it really helped but I still have one question. Can I still gain weight eating eggs if I don't exercise?

thank you,

Navid...(Nick name I'll use for our friend)

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I know it's a rather short question but there is a BIG problem assoicated with it.

After reading this question I realized that our friend Navid.. isn't familiar with the muslce building formula and the crucial role exercising plays when you're trying to build muscle (especially if you're a naturally skinny guy or hard gainer.

And I realized if one of my subscribers had this question then AT LEAST 20 others or more, possibly even you had this question in some way shape or form.

So before I get into the meat and potatoes of WHY exercising is so darn important even though it's something alot of guys don't want to do either because they're not used to working out, they find the idea of being "the skinny guy" in the gym intimidating (trust me I've been there), or they're just too lazy, I want to go over my muscle building formula first and foremost.

Everything I do to build muscle and everything i teach comes from this formula so it's VERY, VERY, VERY IMPORTANT.

Here's my muscle building formula:

Proper Nutrition + Proper Workouts + Proper Recovery = MASSIVE MUSCLE GAINS

Yes, you need ALL 3 components to get to the end of the equation (Massive Muscle Gains). If one is missing, it won't work. Trust me on this one, you need them ALL to get the results you want.

So now that you know the formula, let's dive in to why you NEED to workout in order to build muscle.

First, I want you to notice what's at the beginning of the equation, "Proper Nutrition". Proper Nutrition is important and you should look to start with your nutrition plan which includes what  foods to eat, when to eat it and how often to eat it before you move onto the other components.

Proper Nutrition is a whole other section in itself and would take way too long to explain why it's SOOO important to building muscle as well. But for the sake of this newsletter I'm going to put Proper Nutrition in the simplest terms as possible.

In order to build muscle you need to consume more calories than your body burns. So let's say your body burns 2,000 calories just to get through the day, you're going to want to consume MORE than 2,000 calories EACH day if you want to build muscle (somewhere between 2,500 - 3,000 calories would be a good range to shoot for).

So in short, if you want to build muscle you'll have to consume EXTRA calories daily. (there's much more to take into consideration but this is the simplest way to explain it)

So now that you know the role nutrition plays, here's why you NEED to workout if you want to build muscle.

It's real simple actually.

Your workouts tell your body what to do with all those extra calories you're consuming.

See when you workout (the right way) you're literally wearing, tearing and damaging your muscles to the point where your body says "Holy crap I better make these muscles stronger" so that the next time your muscles are exposed to such stress it can handle it better and get through it without getting damaged so much.

Read my previous post for my Tornado and House example to understand how your workouts effect your body.

http://buildmusclechallenge.com/50/need-help-gaining-weight/

What if you don't work out and you consume extra calories each day?

The simple answer is:

A) It'll get rid of it / speed up your metabolism and burn it off

B) Convert it into fat

C) Convert some of it into muscle

It really depends on your genetics and where most of those calories come from (i.e. junk food like "chips and soda" or whole foods like "whole grains and lean meats") that'll dictate what your body does with those extra calories IF you don't workout.

If you're a naturrally skinny guy odds are your body WILL NOT convert those extra calories to muscle UNLESS you tell it to through properly designed workouts.

If you're a naturally skinny guy then odds are your body will get rid of those extra calories or in most cases convert it to fat. That's why some skinny guys get that "skinny - fat " look. It's basically a skinny guy with a pot belly or beer belly type stomach.

And I know ALOT of guys who suffer from this.

So if you plan on building muscle as a naturally skinny PLEASE do proper workouts along with consuming extra calories each day to get the results you want. Because if you don't tell your body what to do with those extra calories you're consuming, it's just going to pick one on it's own. And just to let you know, building muscle is at the end of your body's "To Do" list.

I hope this post helps our friend Navid and anyone else who had this question at one point in time as well.

If you'd like to ask me a question leave a comment below or shoot me an email at Richard [at] buildmusclechallenge.com and I'll try my best to answer your question ASAP.

Please keep in mind I get TONS of emails and messages, so it may take a while for me to get to your specific question.

Only if you're interested, if you get your DVD Casestudy and Step By Step Action Plan when I release it I'm going to provide you with a 30 min. 1-on-1 coaching session FREE of charge so that I can answer ALL of your *BURNING* questions, see what you're doing wrong and create a game plan for you so you can start seeing results IMMEDIATELY.

If you're interested and would rather hop on the phone with me for a 1-on-1 coaching session rather than wait for me to get to your question via email which takes rather long due to my BUSY schedule then click the link below and sign up for my DVD Casestudy waiting list so you'll be first to know once it's available so you can grab one of the limited spots available.

Click here to sign up for my DVD Waiting List

Don't forget to leave your comment below letting me know what you thought of today's newsletter and if you have any additional questions.

Take care and til next time,

Rich

 

 

The Shocking Truth About Cardio For Skinny Guys

Filed Under: Hardgainer Tips 2 Comments

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The Build Muscle Challenge DVD Casestudy Will Available Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 12pm EST

If you want a head start before the other (over 5,400) guys who all ITCHING to get this information and the chance for me to personally coach them then be sure to sign up for my DVD Waiting List. Trust me, if you hesitate someone else WILL take your spot AND your DVD.

Click here to sign up for my DVD Waiting List

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What’s up guys,

Today I’m going to talk about that dreaded word that most skinny guys are told to stay away from like the plague, and it’s “Cardio”

I just got a great question from a guy named Pedro telling me that he’s been reading a lot of articles on the topic of cardio and now he’s confused.

Well today I’m going to break the myth of Cardio once and for all, because I know it’s an issue that most skinny guys go through at some point in time.

What I reveal in today’s blog post may *SHOCK* you, so read with caution. Here’s his question:

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Hi Rich. First I really want to thank you for all your work
and videos to help skinny guys to build muscle (I'm 70.6kg 1.79 height) the
videos have great tips! I'm actually on video #6 "workout fundamentals" and
looks great, but I just have a question at this point, since I don't know if you
may talk about this in a future video, and is about cardio. I'm on a "dance"
class from Monday to Thursday (practically 1hr cardio) just after my gym routine
(GYM is MON to SAT 1:30 to 2 hrs, I'm on my 2nd week).

I have read several articles that says cardio is BAD for
skinny guys who are trying to build muscle, however I also have some fat that
would like to take away and I'm getting very confused with this info and at the
end I don't know what to do, I just know I want to get muscle. So my question
goes to "can I continue with my 1hr cardio after the GYM? or do I have to stay
away from it?" I'm eating at least five times in the day. Thank you again for
your videos, I'm having a close watch to your info since you have been in the
same place I'm.

Take care.

Pedro

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First let me say thanks for the question Pedro. There’s so much (conflicting) information when it comes to cardio that it’s no surprised that you got confused. Trust me, this topic got my head going off in circles when I first started out as well so I know how you feel.

I actually go over this topic in A LOT more detail in my DVD Casestudy and Step by Step Guide but I’ll give you some pointers to help you out with your dilemma.

First and foremost here’s the TRUTH when it comes to cardio and building muscle for us skinny guys.

If you want to gain the MOST amount of muscle in the LEAST amount of time then YES you will have to LIMIT your cardio. Why? Well it’s simple. The reason why you’re skinny is primarily because your metabolism is
faster than most people’s. Which means you burn more calories throughout the day than other people

Since at the end of the day you have to be in a SURPLUS of calories (you have to consume more calories than your body burns) the more cardio you do or any other activity for that matter (i.e. – basketball, wrestling, tennis) or in your case even dance class will BURN those extra calories rather than use them to build muscle.

Here’s an example of this to help illustrate what I’m talking about a little further:

Let’s say your body naturally burns 2,000 calories each day WITHOUT cardio.

Now let’s say you wanted to build muscle so you decided to consume 2,500 calories each day to get bigger.

So at the end of the day you’d be at a SURPLUS of 500 (2,500 – 2,000) extra calories. THIS SCENARIO = MUSCLE GAIN

FYI – It takes 3,500 extra calories to gain 1 lb of new body mass. So 500 extra calories a day equals 3,500 extra calories each week which 1 lb weight gain in 1 week.

Now lets add cardio to the mix (again I’m just making these numbers up to show you what I’m talking about)

Let’s say your body naturally burns 2,000 calories each day WITHOUT cardio.

Now let’s say you wanted to build muscle so you decided to consume 2,500 calories each day to get bigger.

Now let’s add the cost of 1 hr of cardio to your daily routine and let’s say 1 hr. of cardio burns 500 calories.

Now let’s do the math,

At the end of the day you’d break even with the calories which means 0 (2,500 – 2,500) extra calories which equals NO MUSCLE GAIN.

Now there are two options for you at this point.

  1. Limit or even eliminate your cardio. The least amount of cardio you do, the less amount of calories you burn a day. The least amount of “Calories You Burn” the easier it’ll be to build muscle.
  2. Increase your calorie intake – If cardio (ie – your dance class) is a necessity or something you can’t eliminate or even limit then your second option is to increase your calorie intake by consuming more calories each day.

It’s definitely do-able but of  the two options eliminating the cardio is the easiest which is why so many people say to stay away from all unnecessary cardio. Which is good in theory but it just isn’t practical for those who are obligated to do activities such as (dance, football, basketball, track, swimming, dance, etc) And if you fall into this category then you NEED to increase your calorie intake if you want to build muscle while still having cardio and similar activities a part of your daily life.

So to answer your question Pedro,“can I continue with my 1hr cardio after the GYM?” is, it’s entirely up to you.

If you can eliminate it or even limit the amount of cardio / dance you do then great. But if you’d rather do the
cardio regularly (by keep going to your dance class) then you’re going to have to increase your calorie intake. I think a good option would be to limit your cardio as much as possible (if you can’t eliminate it) and consume a little bit
more each day, that way you don’t have to increase your calorie intake by that much to still build muscle.

As for you wanting to burn the fat with your cardio, there are windows throughout the day where you can actually do cardio while you’re bulking up that burn the most amount of fat while leaving the extra calories you
consume virtually untouched so you can dedicate them to your muscle gains rather than burning them.

But in the interest of time (that’ll really take some time to explain) I’ll try to tackle that issue in the another blog post. But I do reveal these windows in detail and even more about cardio in my Build Muscle Challenge Step by Step Action Plan Guide which is only being offered to those who get their DVD Casestudy.

I guess now would be a good time to mention that I’ve decided to release my DVD Casestudy again.

Mark this day on your calendars because the last time I released it they were gone like (**fingers snapping**) THAT!!!

On Tuesday - August 18, 2009 at 12pm EST I’m opening up the doors again and releasing my Build Muscle Challenge DVD Casestudy.

And one of the bonuses I’m not even sure if I’m ever going to do again for getting my DVD Casestudy AND Step by Step Action Plan Guide is going to be a 30 min 1-on-1 coaching session with ME.

Just imagine what it would be like if you can tell the person who gained over 40lbs in 4 months what your biggest hang ups are and have me personally create a game plan for you to see results fast right then and there. This can honestly be the missing link you need to FINALLY start seeing the results you’ve always been looking for.

But I can only coach so many people at a time which means I have to limit this bonus to the 1st 10 people and see how it goes. Which means I may NEVER EVER do this again if it gets to hectic with my schedule. So as you can imagine the demand for this is going to be EXTREMELY high.

So if you want a head start before the other (over 5,400) guys who all want this information and the chance for me to personally coach them then be sure to sign up for my DVD Waiting List.

Because if you hesitate, trust me either one of my over 650 Youtube subscribers or one of my more than 2,000 email subscribers or even one of the 2,855 visitors that came to my site this month will take your spot without thinking twice.


Click here to sign up for my DVD Waiting List

Til next time,

Rich

 

 

Re: Need Help Gaining Weight

Filed Under: Hardgainer Tips 2 Comments

Hey guys,

Check out this YouTube message I got a little while ago:

Subject: Gaining Weight

Hey I have watched a couple of your videos and have a few questions. I have an incredibly hard time gaining weight..I'm almost 6'4 and 122 pounds (18 years old) so I'm very skinny for my height. I've been eating 3000-3500 calories daily, including 2 protein/gainer shakes in between meals, lifting weights every other day, and taking supplements.

After gaining about 7 pounds in a little over a month (yeah I was at 115), I haven't been able to gain any more weight at all. What can I do now?

Should I be eating all that protein you suggested each meal even though i'm taking in 100g/protein from the shakes?

All that I have become recently is all muscly but still kind of just skinny so I have been eating a decent portion of good fats along with a lot of protein. Any advise would be great, I don't know what I'm doing wrong?

Thx

Pakmule….

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Do you have a burning question or even a few BURNING questions like this that you feel is holding you back from see results you want?

If you do, then you NEED to read today’s blog post to see how you can get ALL of your BURNING questions answered by me 1 on 1.

But first things first back to the message I got from one of my YouTube subscribers (PakMule…) we’ll call him Pakmule because he didn’t leave his name in the message.

The first thing I should say is that based on what Pakmule told me I won’t be able to pin-point the problem unless I was able to ask him some specific questions like what his meals consist of, how often did he eat each day, how is he working out, etc.

But based on what he told me I can give him some tips that should help him build more muscle and gain more weight.

So PakMule here are some tips to get you out of your rut and seeing results fairly quickly.

Gain Weight Tip #1 - You Need to Consume MORE Calories Each Day

Yes, you’re right, being 6’ 4 and 122 lbs is incredibly light for your height which leads me to think that you have an incredibly fast metabolism. And the best way to defeat your fast metabolism is through your diet.

It sounds like you already know this and you’re on the right track by consuming those 3000 – 3500 calories each day. The fact that you gained 7 pounds and then stopped indicates that your body has hit a plateau. Remember, in order to gain weight and build muscle you have to consume MORE calories than your body burns each day.

When you plateau it simply means that you’ve built up the MAXIMUM amount of muscle that your diet will allow. Think of it this way: when your body was at 115lbs it burned 2000 calories in order to get through each day. So in order to gain muscle you need to consume above and beyond those 2000 calories if you want to build muscle.

So let’s say after a few weeks you consumed an extra 1,000 calories per day by consuming a total of 3,000 calories each day you built 7 lbs of muscle. Well guess what, here’s something that most guys don’t realize. Your muscles burn energy. Your muscles AREN’T like fat that just sits there. Your muscles are actually living tissue that needs energy (calories) to sustain itself.

Just to show you how this all works, lets say 1 lb of muscle burns 50 calories to sustain itself. So for every pound of muscle you gain your body burns an extra 50 calories each day to sustain itself and also to sustain your new muscle gains.

As you could imagine after you’ve gained a certain amount of muscle, those extra 1,000 calories you were consuming before aren’t EXTRA anymore. Your body now NEEDS those EXTRA 1,000 calories to SUSTAIN itself and your new muscle gains.

And once this happens (your body catches up to your diet) if you want to build muscle after this point you’re going to have to consume above and beyond those 3,000 calories that your body is currently burning each day.

So what I recommend you do is to begin consuming 3500 – 4000 calories each day (essentially increase your daily caloric intake by 500 calories) until you start seeing extra muscle growth and you bust out of that plateau. If you don’t see any results after 10 – 14 days then increase your intake again by another 500 calories until you start to see new muscle growth.

Gain Weight Tip #2 - Your Calories Should Come From The Right Sources

I just wanted to expand on nutrition a little bit more because I know how important it is and how many guys (including myself when I started out) struggle with this.

I’m glad to see that you already know that in order to gain weight you have to increase your daily caloric intake (consume more calories each day). But it also depends on where those extra calories are coming from.

Let’s say for example all of your calories came from fast acting carbs and fats (like chips, soda and junk food) then instead of building muscle you’ll be gaining mostly if not all fat.

But if the majority of your calories are from lean meats and whole grains like (lean chicken breast and whole wheat bread) then the majority of your gains will be muscle gains.

I’m not sure what your diet consists of, I’d need to talk with you 1-on-1 and ask you a few specific questions, just know that it does depend on WHERE these calories come from as well. 3,000 calories from chips and soda is WAYYYY different from 3,000 calories from sources like chicken breast and whole wheat bread.

In addition to that I recommend you use the 30 / 40 / 30 nutrient ratio. I know it may sound a little complicated but it simply means that 30 % of your total daily calories should come from protein. 40% from carbs and 30% should come from “good” fats.

If you have a hard time figuring this out, check out my Weight Gain Calculator and it’ll do all this stuff for you.

Click here to check out my Weight Gain Calculator in action and why so many people are dying to get their hands on it.

(I’m also giving away Free access to my Weight Gain Calculator for anyone who gets my Free DVD Casestudy and Step By Step Guide)

Gain Weight Tip #3 - You Need to Increase The Intensity Of Your Workouts

Ok, next I want to hit on your workout routine. Just like how you need to increase your calories after a certain point. You also need to increase something with your workouts as well. And it’s your INTENSITY.

Think of it this way. When you first start working out, you’re wearing and tearing your muscle fibers apart. And the way your body responds and adapts to this is by getting bigger and stronger so that the next time you do that workout again it doesn’t damage it as much.

After a while your body will adapt to your workout to the point where it feels it doesn’t have to build anymore new muscle to deal with your workout.

Here’s an analogy if it helps: Just imagine every winter a tornado rolled into your neighborhood and damaged your roof. It was to the point where you could see the clouds just by looking up in your living room.

So what are you going to do? Of course, you’re going to rebuild your roof. But this time you’re going to build it, thicker, stronger and sturdier than before so the next time that tornado comes it doesn’t do so much damage because you don’t want to go through all the hassle of repairing next time. Not to mention you’re pretty vulnerable to the elements when you don’t have a roof over your head.

So fast forward to next winter. The tornado touches down again, but this time since you made your roof stronger from the last time, it doesn’t do as much damage as before. So you patch up your roof and make it just a little bit stronger this time so the next time that tornado comes around, your roof could withstand it and you don’t have to invest the time, money and energy it takes to repair it again.

So fast forward to the next winter season. And as expected the tornado touches down again but this time, your roof was strong enough to withstand it with barely a few scratches. Now at this point are you going to fork over more money, invest more time and energy making that roof stronger when it’s proven to be able to withstand the tornado, of course not. Because that’ll be too much unnecessary work.

Well the same goes for your muscles. Once it has adapted to the point where your workout doesn’t damage it that much, it WILL NOT build more muscle. From your body’s perspective, THERE’S NO REASON TO because at this point it’s just extra unnecessary work.

So here’s what I recommend. You have to INCREASE the intensity of your workouts.

If you’ve gotten to the point where your workouts are becoming less challenging then you NEED to increase the intensity of your workouts.

Here’s a quick list of a few things you can do to increase the intensity of your workouts (I also reveal more effective ways to increase intensity in my Free DVD Casestudy that I’m about to release):

• Decreasing the amount of time it takes to finish your workout (instead of 50 minutes, do it in 40 minutes)
• Increasing the amount of reps for each exercise in the same time or less than you normally do
• Decrease your rest time in between sets (instead of taking a 2 minute rest take a 1 min. rest)
Hope these tips help (Pakmul),

Let me know if you have any further questions

Richard

And if you’re going through the same thing as Pakmul then you can also use these tips to get the results you’re looking for.

Now remember at the beginning of the blog post I mentioned how you can get me to answer ALL of your BURNING questions just like these 1 on 1.

Well, if you’re interested then read further…

Now, as you could imagine with 655 YouTube subscribers and 2139 email subscribers to date I get A LOT of YouTube messages and Emails asking me TONS of questions just like these. Which made me realize that there’s tons of guys just like yourself and just like Pakmul that have something holding them back.

So whether it’s:

• Not knowing what foods you should be eating
• How to see results after your body seems to hit a plateau.
• What workouts you should be doing
• What supplements you should be taking
• When should you do cardio
• Should you even be doing cardio to help reach your goals
• Or anything else for that matter

Here’s what I’m going to do for you….

In the next few days I’m going to be releasing my Free DVD Casestudy which explains step by step how I gained over 40lbs in 4 months.

And one of the bonuses I’ve decided to include is a 30 minute 1-on-1 coaching session with ME. This is where I’m going to literally pick apart EVERYTHING you’re doing to build muscle and see what’s holding you back and help create a game plan for you so you can start seeing results FAST.

This is also where you can ask me 1-on-1 whatever BURNING questions you have. Which means no more, searching for hours on the internet or buying tons of magazines or reading a thousand websites and articles or checking out hundreds of YouTube videos just to get your questions answered.

I’ll answer them for you 1-on-1 in our coaching session. Just imagine how powerful it is to be able to ask someone who gained over 40lbs in 4 months “I’m doing X, Y, Z, and I’m still not seeing the results I want. What the heck am I doing wrong?”

Trust me this could literally be the missing piece of the puzzle you need to start seeing the results you want. Yes it’s that POWERFUL!!!

As you could imagine I value my time and my schedule is pretty busy and with 655 YouTube subscribers, 2139 email subscribers each of which probably has tons of questions that’d like to ask me and I can only imagine A LOT of people are going to want to this 1-on-1 coaching session (more than I can probably handle).

Which is why I have to limit the number of these coaching sessions I do.

Since this is the first time I’m doing anything like this, I’m limiting it to only 10 coaching sessions to see how everything goes.

And the only way to be eligible for your 30 min 1-on-1 coaching session is to get my FREE DVD Casestudy and Step by Step Guide.

With 655 YouTube subscribers, 2139 email subscribers and not to mention over 2,762 visitors who visited my blog in the past 30 days which is a total of 5,556 people all ready to get one of these 10 spots just like you.

So I’m pretty confident that these 10 coaching sessions are going to be gone pretty fast.

In fact, the last time I gave away my Free DVD Casestudy I only had to send two emails to my newsletter subscribers alone and they were ALL GONE.

If you want to be first in line when I release my Free DVD Casestudy again then I highly recommend you get on my DVD Casestudy Waiting List which already has 50 guys salivating to get their hands on what I reveal in this my Casestudy (and this is before I decided to add my 30 minute coaching lesson bonus).

I’m going to be notifying the people on my Waiting List first and whatever’s left (if there’s anything left) is what’s going to be available to everyone else.

So if you want to be first in line to get your Free DVD Casestudy and my Step by Step Guide and get your Free Bonus: A 30 minute 1-on-1 coaching session with me then click the link below and enter your name and email to be put on the Waiting List.

Click here to be put on my Free DVD Casestudy Waiting List

Take care,

Richard Knight
Richard [at] buildmusclechallenge.com

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