Since coming to the East Coast in 2005, I’ve been fascinated with how many people go to the beaches in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. One of our clients recently traveled to the Jersey shore, and it got me thinking: what would be a good meal plan to follow the week before going to one of these so-called summer hot spots? We all know the importance of looking good in a reduced amount of clothing during the summer. And although I am not a “fad diet” advocate, maybe we can create a smarter IAP version of beach body nutrition tips. Lets try this on for size.

We know that carbohydrates are necessary for brain function, performance, and many other important things. They also help the body hold a lot of water and give some people a “puffy feeling”. This is a major reason that some people avoid potatoes and pasta. The first move we are going to make is to eliminate those starchy, water feeding carbs after 2 pm. Lets get some in for breakfast and lunch (to help with brain function), then shut it down. The rest of your day should focus on fruits, vegetables, and a lot of animal protein (…I love America).

Some fruits and veggies have an advantage over others for combating water retention. I want to highlight a few of these key fruit and veggie options to help you get the hot bod you want in your next Facebook pic.

Asparagus – The good news is that it’s a diuretic. Eating asparagus once a day for five days will help flush out excess water. Another good thing: it can reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce inflammation, fight cancer and many other things that people don’t think about.

Melon – Eat cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, squash, and cucumbers—yes, the last two are in the melon family—and a lot of it. Consuming these fruits every day will continue to flush out water. Did I mention that they’re high in vitamin C and potassium, low in calories, reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease and help keep your eyes right?

A note for the ladies: consuming these diuretic foods also can reduce and prevent bloating during that time of the month. A win/win situation, right?

Finally, the week before your trip to the land of sand and sun, stay away from salt. If you didn’t already know, high salt intake causes water retention.

So let’s create a mini goal for ourselves the next time we plan a trip to the shore. Follow the three tips above for the five days prior to your beach trip. This way we can take some great fun-in-the-sun pictures and gain all of our water weight back on Monday. Pictures are forever, after all.

One of the biggest issues from training is muscle soreness, the dreaded DOMS.  Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness is a condition that occurs after exercise as a result of micro tears within the muscle during the muscle rebuilding phase.  Pain or discomfort is often felt 24 to 72 hours after exercising and will subside generally within two to three days (extreme cases, a little longer).   Assuming you are training hard enough, and at IAP you do, DOMS is going to affect you and your recovery process.  This is a concern for a lot of people; the pain in the legs while sitting down and standing up, the soreness through the chest and arms when reaching back, and the general stiffness through your back muscles.  We have all felt it and know how it effects our daily activities outside of exercising.  Now what can be done to minimize this pain and soreness as much as possible?…. A number of things!

Self Myofascial Release (Foam Rolling)

Foam rolling is a self massage technique used to improve flexibility, function, performance, reduce injuries, and recover from muscle soreness.  By simply using your own body weight to roll on a round foam roll, you can massage away pain and any restrictions to allowing your muscle to extend properly.  There are a variety of positions used with the foam roll to target the major muscle groups affected by DOMS.  A few simple guidelines include:

1. Spend about one to two minutes rolling on each of the most affected areas.
2. When a lot of pain is found, stop rolling and rest on the painful area for up to 45 seconds.  Resting will help reduce muscular tension and pain.
3. Try to foam roll each day if possible or if soreness is still present.

Hot Cold Contrast Therapy

Hot cold contrast therapy is a very simple concept based on the fact that cold is used to relieve pain and heat is used to induce relaxation.  Heat will cause expansion and cold will cause contraction.  What this technically means is that heat is used as a vasodilator (brings nutrient rich blood to surface areas) and cold as a vasoconstrictor (drives blood to the body’s core).  When used for therapy and recovery, pain reduction occurs because the body’s pain receptors are particularly sensitive to temperature changes.  Variations in heat and cold momentarily distract the brain from sending or receiving pain messages.

Methods of hot cold contrast therapy can vary depending on where you are and what equipment you have access too.  To keep it simple, all you will need is a shower!  The steps are:

1. Run hot water and spin around allowing the water to heat all of your muscles and simply target the most affected areas for one to two minutes.  Remember, the water does not need to be scolding hot.  Between 100 and 115 degrees is the recommended range.
2. After one to two minutes of hot water, simply switch to cold water and repeat the same process.  Temperature range should be 40 to 65 degrees.
3. Continue one to two minutes of hot then cold five times to complete your hot cold contrast.

Active Recovery – Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardio exercise can help improve recovery time.  By simply doing some circulation type movements to increase the heart rate and get the blood pumping and an active dynamic warm up is going to aid in the recovery process.  Rather than sitting around and not moving because you are sore, do something about it!  Be active.  Plan something out for a cardiovascular workout.  Maybe you can go for a run on the treadmill, or use the step-mill, elliptical, bicycle.  As far as using machines, your options are endless.  Other ways outside of the gym could be hiking, jogging, cycling, something that is active, which you enjoy and that will get your heart rate up.  That is the key, getting the blood moving through the body to clear any waste products built up from training.

Static Stretching and YOGA

One more option to aid in the recovery process and decrease soreness is stretching.  Along with increasing flexibility, stretching can decrease DOMS.  Outside of the five to fifteen minutes spent post workout stretching, try doing some on your non training days.  If exercise isn’t an option for the day, try to at the least get in some stretching.  A few simple guidelines can be holding a specific stretch for ten seconds, relaxing for a few and then repeating this process five time son that specific stretch.  Within each set of ten seconds, try to increase your range of motion for a deeper stretch.

Have you tried out a yoga class yet?!  Do so…  The benefits of yoga are phenomenal.  Outside of increased flexibility, your stress levels can be lowered helping you become more relaxed.  This will all also help prevent the overtraining stimulus.  Now you may be a little nervous about trying a yoga class out with seeing all the random positions and all, but give it a try.  Be open minded, and understand that this recommendation is to help you and the soreness factor, not make things worse.

So Thanksgiving is tomorrow and while I know that EVERYONE read our blog on what to do in the week prior to the big day (riiigght?), one thing that we need to take into consideration is what we do in the days after the day of feasting. The big mistake that people make this time of year is letting a few days ruin 6 weeks worth of good nutrition and training.

Along the same lines of the pre Thanksgiving dietary advice, it would be wise to plan your diet around the days that you know are going to be reefed days – the actual holidays and any parties that you might be attending. For example, if you know that you have a total of 6 refeed days (including Thanksgiving), then plan accordingly and adjust caloric and carbohydrate intake to maximize your results.

As I explained in the previous blog post, you can actually accelerate fat loss through properly timed refeeds and by making smart adjustments the rest of the week. Does this require a little more thinking? Perhaps, but if it means that you can actually make some progress over the next 6 weeks instead of completely flopping like most people, then it’s well worth it. Make it your goal to finish the year with a bang, ready to tackle a new set of goals for the New Year.

I know that it’s a busy and hectic time of year for most people, but if you plan accordingly you can actually make some decent progress in this time frame instead of spending the first month or two of the year just trying to get back to where you were.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

As a few of you have already experienced, we have introduced a new phase into our Adult Training Periodization.  This week will be a very intense strength and cardio based session called Infinity Week.  Similar to our normal circuit training week, there will be bouts of weight lifting exercises mixed in with different conditioning movements, nonstop!  These movements are designed to keep the heart rate elevated during your rest periods from a weighted exercise.  So you may ask yourself, how is that a rest period?! Well, it really isn’t… The whole goal of these workouts and this entire week is to increase our intensity (how hard we are exercising) in preparation for this little holiday coming up where people stuff their faces to no end.  Our Thanksgiving rant is better explained in the previous BLOG post.

To give you an idea of what is to come of this new and exciting workout, I can try to explain a few examples in a little bit of detail:  There will be four different stations and a different exercise or movement to be performed at each.  Stations one and three are weight lifting exercises and stations two and four are conditioning movements.  You will spend a total of 40 seconds at each station, one right after another.  The time in between each spot is minimal, you need to move fast! Now the question that you should be asking yourself is how long does this rotation continue?!  The answer is twelve minutes… After twelve minutes there will be a quick recovery/water break for about three to four minutes while the coach in charge explains the next twelve minute round!

Is this week going to be hard?  Yes.  Is it going to be that much harder than other weeks?  Maybe.  Some of you may feel this is the hardest workout ever, others may not feel the same way.  Whatever the case may be, put in your best effort!  Challenge yourself, see what your capable of… And remember, the harder you work now, the better you will feel later when you are enjoying time with your family on Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving only a week away, I feel its necessary to do the obligatory blog post about how to deal with holiday eating. Every fitness blog known to man is going to be providing strategies on how to deal with the nutritional dilemma that we all face this time of year, ie “how do I not completely blow my diet and balloon up only to set unrealistic New Years resolutions that turn into a year long yo yo cycle that even Oprah would say is crazy?”. The problem is that most of these articles and blog posts are going to be talking about things like moderation, low fat this, and low carb that. And while certain valient efforts of sticking 100% to one’s diet even on a holiday such as Thanksgiving deserves a round of applause, for most people this is unrealistic and downright sadistic.

Enter Lockdown Mode.

We’re currently one week out, and how you eat for the next 7 days can have a fairly dramatic impact on how your body responds to your Thanksgiving feast. If you’ve been 80 or 90 percenting it, now is the time to step your game up. This doesn’t mean that you need to go nuts and start doing 2 hours of cardio a day and eat nothing but celery for the next week, but it does mean being as consistent as possible in following solid nutritional guidelines. A slight caloric defecit doesn’t hurt either. If you’ve been eating at a maintenance level of 10x per bodyweight in total calories per day, try taking that number down to 8x bodyweight. Fat loss, while depending on a number of factors, still comes down to calories in v.s. calories out. A small caloric defecit for the next week should not cause any losses in lean body mass (assuming adequate protein intake), but creating another 300-500 calorie defecit could prove to be significant and can help set you up for your holiday refeed. And don’t forget to continue with your regularly scheduled strength training and cardio sessions. The fact is that the holidays are stressful and in stressful times people tend to put off their health (“I’ll get serious in the new year”). Sure, you might have to miss a session or two, but make it your “pre” New Years resolution to get in the gym and train at least a few days a week. By doing so, you’ll stay closer to your goals, be more likely to follow through with your nutrition strategies, and allow for optimal hormonal levels to maximize the response that you get from your holiday meal.

So we should know what to do during these next 7 days – eat plenty of complete protein sources, limit carbohydrate intake to your level of activity (more for a lot of activity, less for a little), and get in some essetial fatty acids. Strength train 2-4 times, get in a few cardio sessions and take care of your pre and post workout nutrition. Really, just do the things that you should be doing all along. The next week should prepare you for the big dance, where if you do things right, you can actually speed up the fat loss process.

“What?! We can actually speed up fat loss after a day of pigging out?”

In my best Samuel L. Jackson, “correctamundo!”. You see, when we “diet” in the traditional sense and decrease caloric intake and start to lose bodyweight, our brains sense this and begin to regulate our bodyweight again by slowing down our metabolisms and altering our hormone levels. This is obviously the very short course, but I think you get the picture. This explains why people can undereat for months on end and not necessarily see favorable body composition or weight changes. It’s calories in vs. calories out, but we need to keep our checks and balances for optimal hormone regulation. Thanksgiving is going to be your check and balance point. After going into a caloric defecit for (at least) the last week, your steadily declining hormone levels are in need of a kick in the pants. By strategically overeating on Thanksgiving, you are actually upregulating the hormones that are critical for continued fat loss. And let us not forget the psychological benefit from a day of free eating. Remember, good nutrition is a lifelong practice, and allowing yourself a day now and then to kick back and relax without guilt or negative consequences can lead to greater overall adherence.

Game Day Strategty Number 1:
Let’s fast forward a week to the big day. You’ve been locking it down for the past week and now you can finally enjoy yourself. My reccomendation for this day is to treat it as a total diet break. Don’t stress over getting in a meal every 2 hours or count grams of this or that. Ensure adequate protein (eat a lot of turkey, duh), and let the pieces of pie fall where they may. This strategy will work fine for most people as long as you don’t go too overboard and eat enough for a small village. Enjoy yourself, don’t gorge yourself!

Game Day Strategy Number 2:
While many people can benefit from a big refeed, the bottom line is that once some people fall off the rails, they never seem to get back on. If this is the case for you, then I would reccomend treating Thanksgiving as a normal day. This may not sound like fun, but if you know yourself and you know that one day can revert you back to old habits then maybe its not worth it. If there was any holiday designed to meet the nutritional needs of even the most orthorexic of dieters, it’s Thanksgiving. Sure, you might have to give up pumpkin pie, but there are usually plenty of healthy options available at any family’s Thanksgiving Day feast. Plan your day accordingly, and you can be sure that you won’t miss a beat. But I’m mainly talking about people making serious lifestyle/body recomposition changes, and most people with reasonable levels of bodyfat would still benefit from a day of refeeding.

Game Day Stratgey Number 3:
Aka, the everything in moderation strategy. Ok, so let’s say that maybe you didn’t do everything to a “t” this past week and you’re feeling kind of guilty (but you still wanna party). In this case, staying within your usual daily caloric allotment, while not much fun, can allow you to enjoy some “non diet” food and keep your sanity. You can eat the typical Thanksgiving affair, you just need to have smaller portions and exert some self control. Savor your food, chew slowly, allow time for digestion, blah blah blah. This is what all of those other blog posts and articles are going to say, and while worthy advice, is just not that practical for most people. But if you’re an everything in moderation type person, then this strategy will suffice.

Wrapping It Up
So don’t let the holidays get you in the same trap as everybody else – thinking that since they’re going to blow it on at least 2 days that they might as well blow it for the rest of the year. Realize that you can still live a little and be on track to hit your body composition goals before the new year. Just like the rest of the year, plan ahead of time and allow for a little bit of wiggle room.

Do these things.

1. Show up to your sessions 15 minutes early and get in some self myofascial release.

2. Stay after your session for 15 minutes and finish up with some static stretching and mobility work.

3. Keep a food journal and follow the guidelines given in one of our nutrition lectures.

4. Go to a nutrition lecture. Take notes.

5. Always be trying to break personal records. I.e., If the last time you were in a base strength phase you rdl’d 135×8, make it your business to bump it up to 140 or 145.

6. Ask questions! We are here to help, so don’t hesitate to pick our brains.

7. Aim for 2-4 additional cardio sessions a week and just generally stay active.

8. Make some friends. Seriously, you guys are enrolled in the program for similar underlying reasons. Take advantage of the support and push each other to reach your goals.

9. Use smart supplementation. Do you need supplements? No. But can supplements make your life a lot easier and speed up your progress? Absolutely. Be sure to ask our coaches about our 8Ball Nutrition products!

10. Spend your off days wisely. Get your grocery shopping done, prepare your meals, and plan ahead of time.

While here at IAP we promote structural balance and don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on the bench press per se, it is still a basic upper body pushing exercise that when done correctly can be beneficial for gaining upper body strength and power. The problem of course is that many people, especially younger strength trainees, tend to put way too much emphasis on the bench press. And besides doing too many pushes and not enough pulls, most people bench with atrocious technique – whether it be a learned habit (“I flare my elbows to hit my inner chest, bro”), or just complete ignorance to what good technique is. Either way, we know that this is a recipe for disaster and if it’s not fixed can lead to things like biceps tendonitis, rotator cuff impingement, elbow tendonitis, pec tears, and of course, a weak bench press! Yes, through proper technique you can increase the amount of weight that you can lift. I know, amazing.

So without further adieu, here is the IAP way of performing the international king of upper body lifts

1. It all starts with the feet. Make sure that you feet are firmly planted in the ground and that your toes are straight ahead. While you might see people flailing their legs around in an effort to get that last hard rep, it is the equivalent of building a house without a sturdy foundation. The better your base, the more stability you’re going to have.

2. Squeeze your butt and allow a slight arch in your lower back. Ah – and you thought that the bench press was just an upper body exercise. This goes back to having your feet on the floor, as getting your glutes to fire allows for a more stable base to press from.

3. Grip the bar about a thumbs lengths away from the smooth or center of the bar. A “close grip bench press” is done with thumbs on the smooth and a wide grip would be anything wider than pinkies outside of the rings. A wide grip would be unnecessary for anyone under 8 feet tall.

4. Once you grip the bar, get settled into position by pulling your shoulder blades down and back. By retracting your shoulders, not only do you reduce the range of motion, you reduce your risk of shoulder injury. Also be sure that your wrists are straight as we want force to be directed in a straight line. Any leakage in our chain will lead to sub optimal performance.

5. Once you’re ready to begin your set, take a deep breath and with straight arms pull the bar off the J-Hooks and directly over your sternum. From here, make any adjustments (arch your back, squeeze your butt, retract your shoulders) before beginning the set. In addition to that, make sure that you are actively trying to pull the bar apart while forcing your elbows in. By pulling the bar apart and keeping your elbows in, you will be externally rotating your shoulders and allowing for an optimal bar path (and shoulder health).

6. Once you are ready to begin the set, take a deep breath and lower the bar to just below your nipple line. Since we are not competitive powerlifters, a touch and go off the chest is fine, just be sure not to bounce excessively.

7. Off the chest, we want to drive the bar towards the feet and exhale at the top of the movement. This conscious action allows for a straight bar path and will prevent the bar from traveling backwards as what normally happens when fatigue sets in. This “J” pattern bar pattern is not only putting you at risk for injury, but we know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

8. Be sure to take a deep breath and get settled before every rep! Way too often I see our athletes and adult clients attempting to rush through their set, but we’re in no hurry.

Yes, this was a boring technique blog, but I think a very necessary one at that. Since everybody wants to know “how much ya bench”, you might as well have impeccable technique so that you can build and demonstrate strength with maximum efficiency.

When you think about why many people seem to fail in their quest for fat loss (or any goal, for that matter), many people chalk it up due to lack of will power. “If I only I had more will power” people will say, in their best Marlon Brando voice, as if this perceived notion of “will power” is the difference between success and failure.

Let me clue you in on something: we are not hardwired for will power. In fact, even the most die hards of die hards will break down under certain circumstances. Yes – I don’t have any will power, and neither do you. What we do have, however, is the ability to plan ahead and be pro active. By being pro active, you are simply taking away opportunities to make bad decisions – and sometimes the best defense is not being there! I don’t care who you are, but if you’re pantry is full of junk, at some point or another you are going to eat junk. If you’re meals aren’t made ahead of time, or you haven’t even put any thought into what you’re eating for dinner, then you’re going to always go with the easy (and tastiest) option. The reason why people fail to see results is not because they’re missing some magical will power gene and it’s just “impossible” for them to stay motivated, they set themselves up for failure from the get go by not taking the initial time to bullet proof their plan. By bullet proofing, I mean making sure that there is not any other possible way for plans to go awry – or at least minimizing any roadblocks that stop you dead in your tracks.

The first thing to do is STOP BUYING CRAP. If you don’t buy it, then it’s not in your house, and you won’t eat it. That means that if you really want to eat crap, then you have to get in your car and drive to go get it – which will stop most shenanigans right away. The best defense is to not be there (it needs to be repeated)!

The next thing to do is make sure that there is PLENTY of good nutritious food in your house. I know that we all have budgets, but you will surprised how much LESS you will be spending when you no longer buy all of the excess junk. So spend the rest on good stuff. The worst thing you can do is start a nutrition plan and then fail because you ran of food three days in.

Thirdly, try to cook as many of your meals ahead of time as you can. A few hours on a Sunday can save you not only time but mental energy during your hectic work week. Eliminate any thinking during the week and don’t allow yourself any poor options. Think about it – if you’ve worked all day, went to the gym for an hour, and then you finally get home at 6:30 only to have nothing prepared , which option are you going to go with – the chicken breast that’s still frozen and requires prep time or picking up the phone and ordering take out? Cook your meats, chop your veggies, and bag your snacks ahead of time. Buy a cooler, some Tupperware, and plenty of plastic sandwich bags. Make it work.

And finally, realize that there ARE going to be bumps on the road. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they think everything needs to be 100% all of time, and once they fall off, they seem to fall off for good. One off the rails meal is not going to kill your progress, but a weeks worth will. Birthday parties, holidays, get togethers with family and friends – these things are going to happen. What you need to realize is that number one, you don’t need to be a social leper and that you can still have fun at these events and not have to worry about it affecting your progress. Number two, you might need to pick and choose a little. If you work in an office where there’s a birthday party every week, maybe you can start to pass on the cake once in a while. Not every single event warrants you stuffing your face.

So the next time you find yourself whining about lack of will power or motivation, start thinking about how you can be more pro active in your life and what habits you need to acquire to achieve your goals.

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to training, whether it be for body composition or performance related goals is the adage that “more is better”. But what we’re trying to instill into our clients is that more is NOT better, BETTER is BETTER.

More, more, more…every body wants to get the fastest results possible, and while the enthusiasm is appreciated, it’s important to realize that there is a delicate balance that we need to maintain in order to make optimal progress. The human body, while being an incredibly adaptable machine, has it’s limits. We can only adapt to so much stress before we start regressing. Yes, exercising – especially intense weight training and cardiovascular work – is a stressor. Just like your work and family obligations, bills, the holidays…you’re body does not differentiate stress. Stress is stress is stress. But not all stress is bad. In fact, we NEED it and from an evolutionary stand point, that’s exactly why we are here today. Our ability to adapt to stress is what allows us to reach a new level of performance (in all aspects of life). It’s when we no longer can adapt to certain stressors, we become sick, fat, and well, stressed out! And if your goals are to improve performance and/or body composition, this is not the place you want to be.

So how do we make progress even faster? Well, you don’t really. You need to make small, consistent jumps and give your body small doses of a little bit more each time that you train. Don’t workout just for the sake of working out – have a plan, stick to the plan, and watch it unfold. In the meantime, do everything you can to optimize your training – get your nutrition right, sleep patterns under control, and have a solid support group backing you along the way.

Now, in some instances, yes, “more” is certainly warranted. In the case of an athlete, the stages from beginner to elite involve periodic increases in volume and intensity over the course of YEARS, often with periods of unloading and regeneration. For our adult clients, if you went from doing NOTHING to now doing just a little something – that alone will make a huge difference. In order to continue making progress, volume needs to be added incrementally over a long period of time – giving your mind and body plenty of time to adjust to the new load. I know, nobody wants to take the slow and steady approach, but if you’ve been sedentary for 10 years, don’t expect miracles in 10 weeks!

While the last few posts have been focused on nutrition for improved body composition, today’s is going to look at the other side of the spectrum…gaining weight for skinny guys.

1.Eat a minimum of 5 meals per day. Minimum. Really, if you’re a skinny guy, you should be eating non stop all day, walking around in a constant state of bloat. I’m only half joking, of course…but not really. The problem with most skinny guys is that they claim that they are already eating a lot, but this is rarely the case when I actually get to look at their food logs.

2.Keep a food log. This works for weight gain the same reason it works for fat loss…it makes you accountable. Yeah, you think you eat a lot until you actually write everything down and paper and you realize that there are children in third world countries that consume more calories in a day than you do.

3.Quality is still important, but if you’re a skinny guy then quantity is what you really need to be concerned with. Yes, as a general rule of thumb you should eating plenty of lean protein sources, low GI carbohydrates, and essential fats, but once all the good stuff is in, everything after that is fair game. You like ice cream? Ice cream it up. A large pizza once or twice a week? Go for it. You need to realize that how much food you consume is the difference between achieving your goals and not. It’s that simple.

4.You need to create a demand. If you’re half assign it in the weight room, then I can only imagine what’s going on at the dinner table. When you enter that weight room, there is a switch that needs to be flipped. You’re in their to work – not to mess around with your buddies, impress a girl, or just go through the motions. From now on, your strength sessions have a clear and defined purpose and someone with a clear and defined purpose is dangerous. Make it happen.

5.Write down and record everything. This goes right along with number 4 – you need to start keeping records of your training. Write down sets, reps, tempo, mood, perceived effort, and anything else that you can think of. Keep track of all of your personal records and make it your business to break personal records on a daily basis. Live and die by your PR’s.

6.Get some sleep! Sleep is probably the best (and cheapest) anabolic there is. A cascade of hormones are released during sleep, allowing your body to recover and regenerate so that it can come back stronger. You absolutely need more sleep than you are already getting, and if going to bed earlier means fewer hours playing Halo Reach, tagging people on Facebook, or texting that girl that probably doesn’t like you all that much anyway, then so be it. Go to bed earlier and reap the rewards.

7.Take your recovery seriously. In addition getting more zzz’s, as a skinny guy you need to make sure that you’re off days are just that…OFF. No pick up basketball games, no flag football, no extra arm workouts or whatever. Just rest. Lounge around, watch some tv, take an extra nap, etc. Just be generally lazy and let your body recover before the next training session.

So there’s 7 ways to get started on the path to gaining muscular bodyweight. Pretty straightforward stuff, but it’s clear that if you’re a skinny guy then gaining weight is not as easy at it seems. It’s a full time gig that requires as much consistency and diligence as anything else.