Skinny people often find a difficult time to gain weight and pack on some muscles. No matter how much they eat, they never seem to put on any weight whatsoever. And when that happens, they usually build up insecurities and questions about themselves and their bodies. Am I ever going to gain weight? Will I always stay skinny? Why is my body like this? They think that any activity that they decide to do will have a negative impact on their bodies and cause them to get even skinnier, which leads me to the one question that I get asked a lot: Can I join the gym if I’m too skinny?
Joining the gym and lifting weights is a great way for skinny people to gain weight and build muscles as long as you’re eating enough, following the right workout plans, and giving your body enough recovery time.
In this article, we’ll talk about whether or not you should join the gym if you’re skinny, the main reasons why you should, and if it’s gonna make you skinnier.
Can You Join The Gym If You’re Skinny?
The best way to answer this question is to study the case of my own body transformation that I managed to achieve in a span of 3 years.
As you can see from the picture, I was extremely skinny when I first started out. I remember I was 18 and weighed about 110 pounds while being almost 6 feet tall. So it’s safe to say that I was below average when it comes to weight. Everyone used to make fun of me which lead me to build up a lot of insecurities in myself to the point that I couldn’t leave the house. I thought that any activity that I would do would make me even skinnier so always spent my days doing nothing except playing video games or studying.
But it got to a point when it was honestly unbearable, I got sick of everything and wanted to change myself for good. That’s when I decided to join the gym and it was honestly the best decision of my life. Three years later and I can’t be happier, I managed to achieve the body of my dreams and I still have a long way to go. It definitely wasn’t an easy task, but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve decided to do and I’ve learned so much along the way that I try to share every day on this blog.
So if you ever question yourself if you should join a gym even though you’re skinny, always remember that it’s going to be the best decision of your life. And I’m talking from pure experience.
If you want to follow in my same footsteps, here are the things that you should keep in mind:
The Right Diet
In order to achieve a body like mine, you need to pay close attention to what you’re eating. At first, it’s not really a big deal since whatever you eat will help you gain weight and build muscles. However, as you start gaining more and more (6 months into your journey), you’ll eventually have to follow a strict diet that needs to include food with high protein, carbs, and fat. In addition to that, you need to reach a calorie surplus every day, meaning that you’ll have to be eating more than what your body is burning so that the excess will go straight to the muscles.
The Right Workout Plan
In order to succeed in your fitness journey, you also need to follow the right workout plan. When you’re first starting out and during the first couple of weeks, it’s okay to experiment and try everything in the gym just to get the feel of what weight lifting is, but as soon as you learn the ropes, all your workouts need to be consisting of heavy compound exercises. If you ever hear someone tell you that you need to be lifting light, be sure that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about since lifting heavy is the best way to build muscles and I wish that someone told me this information when I was first starting out.
There are some other types of workouts that you’ll hear about along the way like HIIT, plyometrics, german volume training, and so on, but those are some advanced methods of training that you should leave until you got a full grasp of the basics.
The Right Recovery
When you’re first starting out, don’t do the same mistake that I did of training every single day. I understand that you’ll be eager to change your body but trust me, you don’t need to work out every day since recovery is the most important part of any fitness journey.
Training 2 to 3 times per week is more than enough to gain weight and build muscles, especially if you’re skinny. Training more than that will only cause you to slow down your results and even get skinnier in some cases.
Remember that muscle recovery is your ultimate weapon when it comes to weight lifting. If you use it wisely, you’ll start seeing results super quickly.
The Right Mindset
If you’re serious about starting this body transformation journey, you need to develop the right mindset first and the right expectations. It’s not gonna be easy and you’ll barely see results, especially at the beginning which can get pretty demotivating and I’m talking from experience. There are many times when I almost quit thinking that this would get me nowhere but I’m so glad I didn’t. It’s an extremely challenging path that’s going to take a toll on you in the beginning but as soon as you start seeing some good results, motivation will start to build up by itself and that’s where you’ll see the best rewards.
The Main Reasons Why Skinny People Should Join the Gym
Now that you know my own body transformation journey and the things that it took to reach that point, here are the main reasons why you should be starting yours:
It Will Change Your Body
I deliberately used the modal verb “will” to let you know that changing your body is the sure outcome of joining the gym as long as you’re following the right methods that I mentioned in the beginning. If you’re eating right, follow the right diet, have the right mindset, and give your body enough recovery time, there is no other outcome that you’ll get from joining the gym besides changing your body for good and no longer being skinny
It Builds Up Confidence
Before joining the gym, I honestly was an introverted guy that hated going out and preferred staying at home all day. I was always bullied at school and didn’t have the courage to stand up for myself. As soon as I joined the gym and started seeing some decent results, I built up a lot of confidence in myself and my body. I started enjoying going out more with my friends since I was no longer insecure about how I looked and I was no longer getting bullied simply due to the reason that I got bigger in size. If super heavy weights can’t stop me during the gym then what else will?
And trust me, that’s exactly how you’ll be feeling when you’ll join the gym.
It Makes You Meet New People
Unlike what many people think, the gym isn’t filled with angry guys on steroids looking for new prey to hunt, It’s actually filled with a lot of nice people that you can befriend. You already all share one thing in common and that’s the fact that you’re there to have a positive change in your body, so getting along won’t be a problem whatsoever. You’ll eventually find out that the gym community is one of the best communities out there that you’re missing out on and they’ll all be like-minded individuals. You can share fitness stories with them, plan out sessions together, and even do activities outside the gym.
Would Joining The Gym Make You Even Skinnier?
Unlike what a lot of skinny beginners think, joining the gym won’t magically make you even skinnier unless you’re following the wrong methods of training and dieting. The only possible way where you could lose even more weight if you join a gym and start weight lifting is if you don’t eat enough calories. How do you expect to grow if you’re not given your body enough energy to fuel itself? Having a calorie surplus as I mentioned in the beginning should be your top priority. Always eat more than your body is burning to avoid any weight loss while weight lifting.
In addition to that, if you’re constantly lifting light weights for a high amount of repetitions, then you’re burning way too much energy for something that won’t have that much of an effect on your body. Always make sure to lift heavy in order to make the most out of every calorie that you burn.
Another factor that could make you even skinnier if you join the gym is if you don’t give your body enough time to recover. For example, if you’re training three times per day, every single day, then of course that’ll only make you lose weight (It’s an exaggerated example but just to get an idea). As I mentioned in the beginning, training only 2 to 3 times per week is more than enough to gain weight and build muscles and it will give your body enough recovery time to regain its full strength.
Conclusion:
If you’re still hesitant about joining the gym due to the fact that you’re skinny, I hope my article made it clear to you that being skinny shouldn’t matter at all if you’re following the right methods of training and dieting. Just remember to always reach a calorie surplus by eating enough protein, carbs, and fat, follow the right training plan that will give you satisfying results, give your body enough recovery time, and adapt your mindset for weight lifting.