Category Archives: Exercise

Exercise

How can a skinny guy put on muscle?

I got asked this question recently and answered it with a video. Here it is:

There are two main things you can do:

  • Eat like a horse
  • Work out like a horse

There are more things involved, such as getting enough sleep and focusing on big, whole body exercises such as the deadlift, the squat, the clean and press and other similar exercises, but those two things, if put in practice with determination and with the clear goal in mind of getting big, will take you from a skinny ectomorph of 135 lbs. to a muscular, strong 195 lbs. See the diptych below. On the left is what I looked like when I started college and on the right is what I looked like when I graduated.

Diptych Bodybuilding College Years

There is one more thing I must mention: there is a price to pay for this and it’s also big. Huge. You will inevitably get gas from all the protein-rich foods you have to eat frequently during the day. It’s not a toot here and there. Exactly when you make most of your gains in mass, you have to prepare for flat-out flatulence, all day long and all night long. It gets nasty. The odor is unbearable. Intolerable. It’s not like I was gulping down cheap buckets of mass gainers. I was eating healthy foods from the cafeteria at one of the top liberal arts colleges in the US. Between meals, I was drinking quality whey shakes and supplementing with cans of tuna. But it was very, very unpleasant. I loved working out, I loved getting big, I loved the way I looked and felt but boy, did I hate the farts… I messed up my gut for a number of years and I’m still not sure if my gut is fully recovered these days. I wonder if I did something wrong with my diet back then and if I were to do it again, I’d focus on gaining weight more moderately and more slowly and definitely eating less, even if it meant the progress would be much more gradual. Food for thought…

Hope you find the video helpful!

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Exercise

A whole body workout II

This is a second whole body workout I wanted to share with you (here’s my first one). I reached new maxes in this workout on the clean and press, deadlift and t-bar rows. I did the following exercises:

  • Good Mornings
  • Clean and Press
  • Deadlifts
  • T-Bar Rows

New maxes:

  • New max on the clean and press: 60 kg or 135 lbs
  • New max on the deadlift: 130 kg or 290 lbs
  • New max on the t-bar rows: 60 kg or 135 lbs plus barbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFVryteWXZg

I need to mention that I used unorthodox form on the t-bar rows, which can lead to injuries if you’re not experienced. So don’t do it like I did it unless you know why I did it that way (hint: it has to do with the way the old school bodybuilders did it).

Enjoy the video and I hope it motivates you to push further in your exercises!

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Exercise

A leg workout

During this workout, I trained my legs with the following exercises:

  • Front Squats (5-6 sets)
  • Regular Squats (1-2 sets)
  • Leg Extensions (5-6 sets)
  • Hamstring Curls on the exercise ball (both legs and one leg at a time)
  • Leg Presses (4 sets)
  • Donkey Calf Raises (3 sets)
  • Sitting Calf Raises (2 sets)

I also (unexpectedly) reached new maxes on the front squat, the leg extensions, the leg presses and the donkey calf raises and in the video, I talked about how gains come when you don’t expect them to (as long as you put in the work to get your body ready for them). I also talked about how we perceive weight and how we tend to let pre-conceived notions dictate to us how much weight we can or cannot lift. It’s important to approach each set with only the expectation of getting the most benefit out of it. Don’t pre-program yourself for any specific weight, because who knows how much you can truly lift? Why limit yourself?

Hope you enjoyed the video!

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Exercise

An arms workout

Here’s a recent arms workout I did, filmed by Ligia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePfJCCcy74s

I performed the following exercises:

  • Warmed up with standing dumbbell curls, followed by regular sets of the same,
  • Triceps rope extensions,
  • Standing curls with preacher bar,
  • Dips,
  • Concentration curls,
  • Alternate sets of prone and supine triceps pulldowns and
  • My original variation on one-arm preacher curls: the one-arm cable biceps curls.

It was fun! And afterwards I naturally drank one of my Wonder Smoothies.

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Exercise

A chest workout

Here’s one of my chest workouts, captured on video by Ligia recently. I warmed up with standing cable flyes, followed by the workout, which consisted of incline dumbbell presses, dips, machine chest presses, lying cable flies and incline dumbbell flyes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb0hjqju-bk

I talked about each exercise in various detail, giving advice gleaned from my experience. At the end of the video, I extended an invitation for bodybuilding-related questions. I’ve got about nine years of intensive experience in the gym, on both animal and vegan diets, and I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t along the way. If you’ve got some questions, I may have the answers.

Till next time!

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