As a skinny guy you’re probably pretty proud of your naturally low body fat percentage, and your great set of six pack abs.
However, gaining some extra pounds of muscle mass would be awesome right? Think of how all those girls’ heads will turn when you walk by them on the beach, muscular and super ripped with washboard abs.
Only problem is that bulking up is not that simple. The biggest danger you’ll face is packing on pounds of excess fat along with the extra muscle, causing you to lose those precious abs.
Traditionally, you’d be pretty much stuck with your lot…i.e. bulking up and then having to trim down later, with no guarantee you’ll get your six pack back.
However, thanks to better understanding in recent years about how our bodies store fat, there are some techniques that you can use to bulk up fast without losing your abs.
Shorten Your Bulking Cycles
A big mistake that many skinny guys make and one of the main reasons they lose their abs is simply that their bulking phase is TOO long.
If you’ve ever noticed significant muscle gains at the start of a bulking phase only to see those gains tail off and plateau, then you’ve witnessed the effect of a long bulking phase.
Typically, once those muscle gains begin to tail off the fat gain increases. Why stay on a long bulking phase if you end up getting fat?
Shortening your cycle will allow you to bulk up faster without getting a fat stomach.
Time Your Meals For Maximum Effect
Eating the right nutrients is vital to avoid losing your abs while bulking up.
However, equally important is the need to time your meals properly. Eating at the wrong time will ruin your hard work and make fat gain much more likely.
The pre and post-workout windows are THE most important meals for building muscle and minimising fat gain. High amounts of carbs are best before a workout, while quickly-absorbed protein is best after a workout as it will be easier to utilise at this point.
The rest of your meals should be equally spread out to keep your metabolic rate consistent and avoid spikes and crashes in your blood sugar levels which will contribute to fatty, sugary cravings.
Harness Your Body’s Own Anabolic Power
Research shows your muscle building hormone production peaks out after 14 days, which means that after this time your body is gradually less efficient at gaining muscle, resulting in more and more fat gain, since the excess calories are partitioned to the fat stores more than the muscles.
This brings us back to the first point about shortening your bulking phases to 2 weeks. You can follow it up with a week of cutting, and then repeat the process.
Doing this ensures that you maximise your body’s natural ability to produce those essential muscle building hormones, and are able to capitalise on it in a way that most guys can only dream off (they often resort to junk hormone supplements and other nonsense).
