5 Muscle-Building Mistakes For Skinny Guys To Avoid

by Nate Green on October 16, 2012 

Most guys make at least one of these 5 muscle-building mistakes. Don’t be one of them. 

Here’s the sad reality for most guys: You can train a few times per week, eat healthy food and still struggle to build muscle and lose fat. 

Trust me, I know. 

When I first started working out, I almost gave up. Despite investing hundreds of hours lifting weights, I had little to show for it. After months of frustration, I was ready to call it quits. 

Luckily, I got help. Learning from coaches and mentors, I gained over 40 pounds of muscle and completely changed my life. 

Now it’s your turn.

5 Muscle-Building Mistakes (And solutions)

MISTAKE #1. YOU DON’T EAT Enough Food. 

Every guy tells us that he “eats a lot” but still can’t gain weight. We even said the same thing for years. But guess what? If you’re not as muscular as you want to be, you aren’t eating nearly enough.

Most skinny guys have a metabolism akin to a hummingbird hooked on trailer park meth. To combat your crazy-fast metabolism, you simply have to eat more food than you’re eating now.  

So how much are you eating every day? Are you keeping track? You don’t have to count calories, but you do have to stuff your face with healthy food multiple times per day. And we recommend you start with the Super Shake. (See below.)

Solution: Drink 3 Super Shakes Every Day

High quality protein, fibre, and good fats all in a tasty formula. Drinking 3 Super Shakes every day will provide your body with lots of calories, and will jump-start the muscle building process. All you need is a blender and a few basic ingredients.

• Add 3-5 ice cubes
• Pick a frozen fruit
• Toss in some spinach
• Add 2 scoops of protein powder
• Add 1/3 cup of mixed nuts
• Add 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk

MISTAKE #2. YOU Don’t Stick To one workout program 

Skinny guys take the old bodybuilding colloquialism “keep your body guessing” to absurd lengths. But guys who get great results understand they only have to do two simple things:

• Pick a program that’s made for them (a guy who wants to add muscle)
• Follow the program for at least two months

Most skinny guys never build muscle because they’re too impatient to actually stick with a workout routine.

Solution: Stick To a Program For At Least 2 Months

Pick a program with compound movements and heavy lifting and stick to it for at least 2 months. During each week of the program, make sure you find a way to work harder or do better every workout. (Ideas for improvement: lift heavier weights, do more repetitions, shorten your rest periods, or try a more difficult exercise each week.)

MISTAKE #3: YOU COLLECT TOO MUCH INFORMATION. 

You read a couple articles on working out and nutrition every day, but you’re hit or miss when it comes to making it to the gym or eating enough healthy food. 

We call this “analysis paralysis”. It’s where you get so used to reading fitness articles you forget to actually do what the articles suggest. And there’s a very simple way to fix it. 

Solution: Do a 7-Day Fitness Media Fast

Go on a one-week fitness media fast. No reading fitness magazines, books, or online articles for a full 7 days. You probably already know enough of the basics to make your time in the gym worthwhile.

MISTAKE #4. YOU DON’T MEASURE PROGRESS. 

The easiest way to stay skinny is to never track your stats or measure your progress.

That’s why successful guys measure things like:

• how much weight they lifted in the gym
• how many meals they eat

The guys in our coaching program also step on the scale every week and take monthly progress photos. Why? The more things you measure, the more progress you’ll see. 

 

Didn’t increase your weight on the scale but added 1/2 an inch to your chest? You’d never know if you didn’t measure. 

Measuring your progress and keeping track of your workout and nutrition “stats” helps show you what you need to do to keep getting results. 

Solution: Keep a Workout Journal and Track Your Weight

Get a training journal and write down the basics: sets, reps, and how much weight you used. Also, make it a weekly habit to step on the scale and see if you’re gaining weight.

MISTAKE #5. YOU DON’T HAVE A MENTOR OR SOCIAL SUPPORT. 

You don’t get thrown into a calculus class and expect to pass, especially if you don’t know how to do calculus. Instead, you have a teacher. With their help, you figure out how to do the work, and ace the class. 

That’s why guys who don’t know how to build muscle will save themselves months of frustration by finding a teacher to help show them the way. 

Having a mentor or an awesome training partner will help you:

• go to the gym consistently
• push yourself on hard exercises

Plus you’ll have someone to share the experience with you.

Solution: Find a Mentor or Training Partner

Find someone who’s done what you want to do and ask for their advice. See what kind of habits they follow, then do the exact same thing.

WHAT TO DO Next 

After each mistake above, we gave you a proven solution. But if you tried to follow all of those at one time, you’d probably get frustrated and fail. Suddenly, you’d be back to where you started.

Instead of overloading yourself, pick any habit from the list below and follow that for the next two weeks. After that, move on to another and another until you’re following every habit consistently.

• Go on a one-week fitness media fast.
• Drink 3 Super Shakes every day.
• Pick a program that was written for your goal and stick to it.
• Keep a workout journal and track your weight on the scale.
• Train with a mentor or group of like-minded guys with similar goals.

Do those 5 things and you’ll be ahead of 99% of guys who try to build muscle.