Are you a hardgainer who is struggling to gain weight? Does it seem like you have tried everything, and feel like it is impossible? I once felt that way when I was about 135 pounds at 5'7". I am now a little over 160 pounds with muscles after 4 months of training. If you are following the "conventional" bodybuilding guides that you find in muscle magazines, you are not going to see any results. Bodybuilding for hardgainers is much more different than someone who is naturally blessed.

I am assuming you want to go the natural route to building muscles without the use of expensive supplements or steroids. I am going to explain to you why I was struggling to gain weight in the beginning:

1.)I used to think I was eating enough. All my friends tell me that I eat like a monster, yet I was still so skinny at the same time. The truth is that I was NOT eating enough because my metabolism is extremely fast. My metabolism is not human-like so I have to be a little bit different than most people. The solution was to eat EVEN more.

I am not talking about more junk food or fast-food. I am talking about eating LOTS of healthy food. I now start my morning off with 6 servings of plain oatmeal blended with water. Instead of buying expensive weight gainer shakes, you can simply go with very healthy food such as oatmeal. Most weight gainer products are loaded with sugar. You want to stay away from those! Just remember that if you are not gaining weight, the biggest reason is that you are not eating enough even when you think you are!

2.)I used to follow what everyone was doing at the gym. I used to do several sets of bicep curls and tricep kickbacks. I always wanted big arms just like everyone else. Turns out the biggest secret to build muscle mass is to stop working out the same way like everyone is doing at the gym.

I started focusing on the biggest mass building exercises only. They are the deadlift, squat, and bench press. Those are the core exercises in my own program to gain mass. These 3 exercises are very dangerous if you do them improperly. Always seek professional help to show you how to do it with proper form.

Make sure you warm up to your 5 rep max. For example, if you can deadlift 300 pounds for 5 reps, do not start off doing that weight or you will most likely injure yourself. Start off light, and work your way up. Once you are done with your 5 rep max, you are done with that exercise.

Bodybuilding magazines would tell you to do something like 5 sets of incline bench press, five more on decline, and couple of sets on chest flies. Those only work if you are naturally gifted or you are on steroids. If you are a real skinny hardgainer like me, then you need to follow what works for skinny hardgainers.

You see a lot more results for doing LESS. What I mean is that you spend a lot less time at the gym, but you focus on 100% quality. I spend no more than 2 1/2 hours at the gym per week. The more hours you spend at the gym, then the less recovery time you can give your muscles to grow.

3.)I started seeing results quicker when I decided to sleep more per night. I used to sleep 4-5 hours per night. Now I try to go for 8 hours per night, but since I'm a very busy person, I usually end up getting 7 instead.

So how to build muscle mass fast? Eat a lot more healthy food, and when you don't see the weight go up, then eat some more! Stick to heavy compound exercises at the gym instead of puny exercises like bicep curls and kickbacks. Get some more sleep per night!

There is no magic to bodybuilding no matter how good or bad your genes are. Always keep things simple and follow people who were once in your shoes.

Author's Bio: 

I used to think it was impossible for me to gain weight because I was a skinny hardgainer who weighed about 135 pounds at 5'7". 4 months later I became muscular at a little over 160 pounds naturally without expensive supplements or drugs. I wrote a FREE guide to help other skinny people do the same at: Bodybuilding For Hardgainers