I’ve always been small.
That picture on the right? That was me in 9th grade, when I was fifteen. I weighed 92lbs.
I didn’t break 100 pounds until my sophomore year of high school. The occasion was so special that my rowing team made a cake and held a party for me.
I played football in 7th grade. Despite being the oldest on my team, at 65lbs, I was 10lbs under the minimum weight. I had to stuff my jock with water balloons and sand bags, chug water, and wear wet jeans on the scale just to make weight.
In fact, 7th grade was my first attempt at putting weight on – I ate everything and anything, stuffing my face with Oreo Cakesters between classes and making milkshakes when I got home. Frankly, it was disgusting, and I didn’t put on a single pound.
In the coming years, I made a half dozen more hopeless attempts at gaining mass. I seemed destined to never weigh more than 135 pounds.
Then, I put on 26lbs in one month, without anabolics.
Measurements (in inches):
Neck: 13.5 to 14.75
Shoulders: 42 to 46 (+4 inches!)
Chest: 34 1/8 to 39 (+5 inches!)
Waist: 28.75 to 32
Hip: 34 to 38
Right arm: 10.75 to 12.5
Left arm: 10.75 to 12.5
Right thigh: 18.25 to 22 3/8 (+4 inches!)
Left thigh: 18.1 to 22.25
Right calf: 12 3/8 to 12 7/8
Left calf: 12 1/8 to 12.75
Here’s how I did it. (Note: I suggest the following protocol only be used by skinny guys who have never been able to gain weight. Anyone else will gain too much fat.)
Lifting
Every three days, I did a heavy, full-body workout. I followed the same workout every time: Bench Press (Rep range of 2-5), Batwings (five 10 second holds), One-arm press (rep range of 2-5), complex (a series of lifts performed back to back without putting the bar down – bent over rows, cleans, front squat, military press, back squat, good mornings. Rep range of 2-5), and high-repetition back squats (several workouts had fifty reps in the final set).
The exact program is Dan John’s excellent Mass Made Simple.
This gave my body the needed muscular stress and nervous system shock to induce growth hormone production and muscular repair.
Resting
I slept 8-10 quality hours a night, and was physically lazy. I worked from home, frequently spending all day in bed. No activity was had outside of the workouts, which is key.
Eating
I ate 5,000-5,500 calories per day. This level of caloric surplus is required for the 5+ pound a week gains I experienced. It’s also very difficult for skinny guys like me to eat this much.
I used a variety of techniques to make this easier, like timing my meals far apart, racing a clock to eat faster, and eating foods that had high calories for low satiety. My days included two solid meals, usually consisting of fatty meat and rice, and two homemade shakes, which were 1200 calories each.
I supplemented with creatine (5g daily, no loading), whey protein (which contained some glutamine), and maltodextrin (simple carb – a starchy form of glucose), and later added zinc, fish oil, and vitamin D. My calories and meals were primarily real food, however.
Hormones, Blood, and Inflammation
I tracked my blood and corrected for deficiencies (like Vitamin D and Zinc), particularly those that impacted testosterone, which I was naturally maximizing with my sleep, lifting, and eating habits. Having high growth hormones during the bulk was necessary for the fast gains I saw.
I also minimized inflammation by getting one-hour Thai massages 3 hours after each workout (replaceable by vigorous foam rolling and self-massage) and supplementing Fish Oil. If you are masochistic, inflammation can further be lowered by post-workout ice baths.
This all led to a 26 pound gain in quality mass in four weeks. People say this isn’t possible. It is. It’s just very difficult, and only works if you are quite small. Was there some fat gain in there? Sure, but not a ton. It was not 26 pounds of pure muscle – that’s why I say quality mass. For people who should follow this protocol, the small fat gain will be hilariously easy to lose.
I go into the details of this protocol in my new book, Eating for Mass, which expands heavily on each component, especially food: how to eat, what to eat (including my exact, detailed food log), and when to eat it to gain more than 20 pounds of lean mass in a month. Get the book on Amazon here.
