It’s better to be self-hosted. I can put a lot more plugins in there to improve usability.

See you there.

Jay.

But it is more complicated than that:

How many times have you set a big goal and actually achieved it? People set goals after goals because they think one goal is too easy, but they never really reach any of these goals. A great general thousands of years ago ordered to burn all of the ships that took him and his troops to a distant land. They had no other option but to fight and win the battle. And they did win! Having too many goals makes it impossible to focus your mind. It also gives you the excuse to fail in some goals for the sake of some other goals (usually you’d end up reaching no goal).

Set a big goal, and you can focus all your life on it. Set two goals, and each goal is only 1 tenth the magnitude of having only 1 goal. Setting three goals? It is even worse.

Once you have sat down and done some serious thinking, you’ll realize that there are only 2 to 3 things in life that you really want. Everything else is trivial. Then you can set your goals.

Training to get big for a skinny guy like you is serious work. It deserves a lot of attention and energy. But I know, it is not your (nor is it my) only goal in life. So what now?

My solution: set a goal of gaining 15 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks. Make it your only goal for these 12 weeks. You will spend all your free time working on this goal. You will think about it constantly. It will be your last thought before falling asleep and your motivation for waking up in the morning. In other words, you are obsessed with it. It is all you talk about. That will be your life for the next 12 weeks.

Everything, no matter how trivial, matters in your training (here). You will need these 12 weeks to make sure you understand everything, to make training your habit, to get into the life style of a serious trainer. Once you have gained these 15 pounds of muscle:

• You look a lot better
• You know everything about how to train to gain muscle and look awesome
• You understand your action
• You live right, eat right, train right and eat right

After that, you set another training goal: maybe gaining another 15 pounds. However, now you can add one or two more goals (one is best). Why? Because now you don’t have to think so much about training anymore (you still can if you want though). Your life style is now the life style of a serious trainer: you can still get amazing results without having to think about it as much as before. In other words, you are like a satellite that has escaped Earth’s gravity-the hardest part is now over. Just keep your mind in the right direction and you will get there.

RECAP: Set a training goal for 12 weeks and make it your only goal for these 12 weeks.

I used to be sick all the time as a kid. I was so pathetically skinny and weak that I even thought I would die before turning 40. That was dumb, I know. But I was just a kid, and after so many bouts of high-temperature fevers, it seemed to be a reasonable estimate for me.

Now, I despise the fact that people aged 50 or even just 40 act and talk so old. My expectation for myself is to be able to squat and deadlift at least 300 pounds (1 rep max) when I am 50. That is not even a big goal, but I don’t plan to spend all my life for training; 300 pounds for a normal 50 year-old guy is really impressive already.

I rarely get sick now. I am too strong to be sick. There is only one way I can get sick now: skip meals, sleep only a tiny bit for a few days, go to the gym beating myself down with Squats and Deadlifts, then go back and let someone with a flu sneeze in my face 10 times. Even then, all I have to do is have a good night sleep (horrible night it would be though), and wake up the next morning almost done with the cold. Two more days of good rest and nutrition and I am good again. Note: I am never that stupid to do that many dumb things at the same time to myself.

You see, the first 3 months of properly training helps boost your immunity and recovery system like crazy. You will be going to the gym squatting 150 pounds (3 sets of 5 reps each) one Monday and easily squat 155 pounds (3×5) on Wednesday and 160 pounds (3×5) on Friday. At the end of these 3 months, you will squat at least 100 pounds heavier than before, and your immunity and recovery is 10 times better too. Note: don’t think that you are no longer a beginner. You can work out for years and still stay at the beginner level. Read this.

How long have you been training? How much stronger do you get? How often do you get sick now? How long does it take for you to get back to normal completely? Train properly and you see the difference immediately.

RECAP: Training properly helps boost your immunity and recovery system so much that you will never get sick again.

Breakfast: 8:30am-8:50am

• 1 bowl of cereal (70 grams Carb from Cereal, 10 grams Carb from Milk, 90 grams Carb in total; 10 grams Protein)
• I use Cheerios from General Mills (NO SUGAR) mixed with a little bit of Cocoa Krispies from Kellogg’s. I find this mixture to be the best one so far because it is not too sweet (you can control how sweet it is by varying the amount of Cocoa). Trust me, eating cereal will be WORK once you have to eat two bowls everyday for a year.
• You can also eat oatmeal instead of cereal. I find it convenient for me personally to eat cereal.
• You should eat cereal because it has a lot of carbohydrates and does not have anything unhealthy (unless when it has too much sugar).

1st snack: 10:30am-10:50am

• One weight gain shake (65 grams Carb, 50 grams Protein)
• I use 2.75 scoops (83 grams) of Serious mass and 1.5 scoops (45 grams) of Whey Protein Optimum
• I use the scoop that comes with Whey Protein Optimum
• Here is my review for all these supplements.

Lunch: 12:30pm-12:55pm

• One sandwich with Roast beef, Swiss cheese, and Lettuce (45 grams Carb, 25 grams protein)
• Hand down most popular and convenient food for lunch
• I notice that the prepared frozen food is very affordable and not that unhealthy either. I think it is not a bad choice at all if you want some variations.

2nd snack: 2:45pm-3pm

• 2 chewy granola bars and some other snacks (50 grams Carb, 10 grams Protein)
• OR: 1 serving of these prepared food (e.g. Chicken parmersan pasta) (50 grams Carb, 30 grams Protein)
• OR: another sandwich (45 grams Carb, 25 grams Protein)

Post workout: 5:45pm-6pm

• One weight gain shake (65 grams Carb, 50 grams Protein)
• Skip this meal on non-training day

Dinner: 6:45pm-7:20pm

• One plate of pasta with chicken wings and broccoli with tomato or basil pesto sauce (100 grams Carb, 40 grams Protein)
• Believe it or not, I eat this same dinner everyday for the whole summer without ever getting sick of it. I think that if you can find one meal that you really like and eat it in the right amount every time, you will never get bored with it.
• Pasta, just like cereal and oatmeal, is the best source for good carbohydrates.
• To me, this dish is a godsend. You cannot gain weights without eating pasta.

3rd snack: 9pm-9:15pm

• One protein shake (2 scoops-60 grams) (50 grams Protein) Whey Protein Optimum

4th snack: 10:15pm-10:30pm

• One bowl of cereal (60 grams Carb from cereal, 10 grams Carb from milk; 10 grams Protein)

5th snack: 11-11:15pm

• One protein shake (2 scoops-60grams) (50 grams Protein) Casein Protein

Total: 475 grams Carb, 305 grams Protein.

NOTE:

1. I did not calculate the fat level because it is not easy and also not important to do. Most of what I eat everyday is low on fat, so I don’t have to worry about eating too much of it. I mix my pasta with a table spoon of Olive Oil too, so I know for sure that I get some good fat in there. In total, including the fat, my daily calories intake is about 3400 grams, which was what I needed to gain muscle.
2. I had to eat so often because it is impossible for me to eat a big meal in one sitting. That sucks! I know. But I worked around it, and everything has been fine so far. But if you can eat twice as much as me in one sitting, then everything will be much easier for you.
3. This plan is by no means the best meal plan out there. It caters to my personal preferences and busy schedule of the summer. I still have to tweak it here and there sometimes, and so should you.
4. This plan helps prove to you that even if you work or go to school full-time, there is no excuse for not eating enough nutrition to get big.

I would be a big fat liar if I say that I don’t have to sacrifice anything for training. No, on the other hand, to a normal person, the cost of my training is OUTRAGEOUS. Did I consider all these costs when I decided to train? Yes I did, but not for all of them. But did I know back then how much I would enjoy training? Not completely either. The thing is, these expenses don’t appear as costly to me as to my friends. To me, they are outweighed by all the benefits of training.

I believe that once you have been able to achieve something worth wide in your life, there is NO REASON why you cannot achieve something else. Did you ever say to yourself: It is impossible for me to gain muscle and get huge? Yet you CAN get huge, massively huge if you want. Imagine how confident you will be of yourself once you have achieved this goal, not only of your awesome awesome physique, but also of your ability to attain any dream in life.

But this is what I like most about training: every little thing you do matters! Skip just one meal? At the end of the week, that one meal makes all the difference between gaining 1.5 pounds or just 1 pound. Get only 6-hour sleep last night? The 2 hours that you lost is the reason you can only squat 18 reps instead of 20 reps 240 pounds of Squat today. That in turn means you did not give your body enough stress to overcompensate (gain muscle). Miss one work out? That’s even worse than missing 2 reps of Squat. And just think about all the little things that can cause you to miss anything. That’s why I say: EVERYTHING MATTERS!

This is not only applicable to training. Everything matters for any goal that you may have in life. But in no other areas in life can you see the consequences of your action as clearly and as quickly as in training. Put it another way, train properly for one week and you can see the difference immediately. What better source of motivation can you find than your own hard-earned results?

You still think it sucks to have to miss out on all the fun activities with your friends? Well, that depends. I am not missing out on anything. If I go on the trip with them, I will miss out on training for my goals. I will not be able to enjoy myself anyway. What’s more, it’s not like I will miss out on all of that for the rest of my life! No, just 1-2 years of hard training, and once you have got THERE, it will not be as demanding. To me, getting huge is more urgent. All those fun things can wait.

Recap: Train properly for a week, and you will see the PHYSICAL difference immediately. Just remember, EVERYTHING MATTERS.

100% Whey Protein Gold Standard. It tastes great. Not too sweet, which makes you wanna throw up after drinking for a while. When I say great taste, I don’t mean it tastes like milk shake. If you want something that tastes as good as milk shake (or even better), try Muscle Milk by CytoSport. I did love drinking muscle milk for a while, but before I finished the first bottle, I threw up (yes, throwing up) the whole thing because it was too sweet. That said, maybe you have a sweet tooth, and if so, get the muscle milk. You can check out the price per saving of different protein brands by clicking here. You will see that the 100% Whey Protein is very reasonable for such a big brand name. I have been drinking it for more than a year now. Works great for me. Note: You can buy it much at a much better price by subscribing to it on Amazon. You can cancel the shipment or change the shipping date anytime you want. No string attach. Basically you get a better price with no harm done.

100% Gold Standard Casein Protein. Same brand. This kind of protein is for drinking before going to bed. Sleeping 8 hours means that you will be fasting for 8 hours. No protein during that entire time?! That’s crazy. This protein is advertised to have slower digestion time, which will be great for these 8 hours fast. Honestly, I don’t know if this protein shake really takes longer to digest. But I have been using it for a year now, and I like to believe that it really works as expected. The taste is a bit weird at first. But after four or five times, it should be fine. What I love about the Optimum products is the fact that I can drink them for years without getting sick of them. I don’t care much if it tastes really good (remember my throw-up incident with muscle milk?). As long as I can keep drinking them without experiencing any negative feelings, it’s great for me.

Multi Pro 32X. Multi-vitamin for people like us. I have to say that I have only tried two multi-vitamin products so far. The first one I bought was Animal Pak. Everyday for Animal Pak you have to take one package of a dozen tablets the size of your eyes (a bit exaggeration, but they are huge to me). I could not swallow one tablet, not to mention the whole package. But if you can swallow all of that, then the consensus is that it is a great product. The multi pro is just one small tablet every night. Honestly, I don’t think anyone can tell the difference of taking the multi-vitamin or not. It is more a prevention act than anything else; you prevent yourself from getting sick by taking enough nutrition. You don’t have to buy this product, but you HAVE to buy some multi-vitamin. Click here to check out different brands and their stats.

Serious Mass. This is a weight-gainer product. I think it is the best one in the market right now. Click here to check out different brands and their stats. The cheapest product is Ultimate Nutrition Muscle Juice, but it has a lot more sugar and fat in it than Serious Mass. Also, Serious Mass is only 4 cents more expensive per serving anyway. I have done enough research on weight-gainer products, and in terms of nutrition value and price, Serious Mass is the best one. I have been using it for 5 months; nothing to complain about so far. Note: do not consume the amount suggested on the package. That is just gonna make you fat. I normally consume 5 spoons (provided with the 100% whey protein bottle), which is about 150 grams, taken twice daily.

Those are all the supplements I am using now. You may have heard about many other types of supplements. But nothing is as essential as these 4 products. For us ectomorphs, to eat enough calories (protein/carbohydrates/fat) daily to get huge by consuming just normal food, it will take forever. Virtually IMPOSSIBLE! Especially proteins. That said, I think you should already know that supplements must not count for more than 1/3 of your calories intake daily. Even 1/3 is a bit excessive already. I personally take (2.5 scoops Serious mass with 1.5 scoop Whey protein)x2, 2 scoops Casein protein and 1 tablet of the multi-vitamin before bed.

Under special circumstances, you can take a bit more of these supplements to fulfill the calories (protein/carbohydrates/fat) daily requirement. But that should be REALLY RARE.

RECAP: As an ectomorph, you almost must take some supplements. But DO NOT overuse them.

I started lifting weights 4 years ago. I started reading Starting Strength (2nd edition) by Mark Rippetoe 15 months ago, and I started training according to his guidance 12 months ago. If anyone ever asks me when I started seriously training, that will be my answer: 12 months ago.

I shouldn’t have to promote this book; just look at the reviews on Amazon. At the time of this writing, the book gets 166 reviews, 159 of which are 5 stars. 7 reviews are 4 stars. No 3-star review. No 2-star review. No 1-star review. Can you find any other book on training with this level of reputation?

Read any book on training for muscles, and you will see the same principle: do big compound exercises: Squat, Deadlift, Press, Bench Press or Dips. Those exercises are the core of any training program. If you wanna get big, if you wanna get strong, if you wanna be functional, you must do these exercises. You think that they are only for these crazy huge football players? You are wrong. These exercises turn you into football players! My legs used to be all sticks and bones. I started out Squatting 115 pounds, now I am doing  3 sets 3 reps 305 pounds. All in less than 8 months. My legs are even a bit too muscular now.

The contribution of this book is to show you what REAL training is all about. You are trying to become much stronger and bigger than what you naturally are. And you are an ectomorph! Training is no laughing matter. Of course it doesn’t have to be difficult either. This book will help you train professionally, save your energy while gaining massive strength every workout. No it is not a joke. It is possible. You just have to learn HOW to do it.

Do you keep a notebook just for logging in your reps, sets, weights and rest time? Do you know EXACTLY what you are going to lift, how heavy, how many reps, sets even BEFORE you walk into the gym? Do you know how often you should squat? Do you know how much strength gain you can expect of your body? Do you know what to do if you get stuck at the same weights for a month (not to mention years)? Do you know the techniques for Squat, Deadlift…? If you say no to any of these questions, you need to read this book. There are BIG gaps in your knowledge of training.

Progressive weights with good form. ‘Starting Strength’ will show you the science of training. Consistency, discipline, determination. You will never overtrain yourself again. You will never get stuck at the same weights again. You will never have to do some crazy hard exercises without seeing any gain ever again.

If you want to run faster, jump higher, read the book. If you want to stand in a concert with your girlfriend sitting ON your shoulder (no, that’s too easy, with TWO medium to heavy weights people sitting on your shoulder), read the book. If you want to lift crazy heavy objects easily without worrying about your poor back, read the book.

Do the right exercises. Lift massive weights. End every workout session quickly. Feel fresh after every workout. Read Starting Strength (2nd edition).

Note: this book is mostly about the techniques of the exercises. It is imperative that you follow the guidance closely to prevent injury. The sets and reps range and the frequency of training in this book is to help you gain strength quickly. You should get to a certain strength base on these exercises before working on gaining muscle (same exercises but different rep/set range and nutrition needs). Don’t worry, it is not long. Only 3 months and you will be twice or three times as strong as you were at the beginning.

RECAP: Progressive weights with good form is the key to training. This book teaches you the form and the science of gaining weights every session.

I am confident that most of you don’t fall for that crap. It is all just marketing. It’s not real.

In this post I want to help save you a lot of time by telling you straight off how to gain muscle:

Progressive weights with perfect form. Make sure you have plenty of rest (eat enormous amount of food and sleep at least 8 hours)

Simple? Yes, but only in theory. How many of you have been able to do just that?

Follow this faithfully for ONE WEEK, and I would be damned if you don’t gain a pound of muscle.

Of course you still need to know a bit about what exercises to do, calculate how much food you need to eat everyday. But all of that is easy and takes only 30 minutes to set up. What is most crucial is being able to keep up that level of consistency for an extended period of time. As I said just now, follow that statement and you will make progress immediately. But it is only 1 pound. You need to gain 40-60 pounds, that’s about 40-60 weeks of living a well-disciplined lifestyle. And I swear to you that this is the only hard part of getting big. Nothing else.

Getting big takes time. But it should be time lifting massively heavy weights in the gym (cool hah, I know!), eating good, healthy food, and enjoying a wonderful 8-hour sleep. You don’t have to care about all the glossy magazines or any of the “new, ground-shattering discoveries” that do nothing else but eat up all your precious time and money. I am sure there sometimes maybe some good, interesting articles in these magazines. But rest assure that you are missing out on nothing as long as you are following that PRINCIPLE of training.

So it depends on you. If you care deeply about what is going on in the training world, then read on. But if you just want to gain massive pure muscles and look awesome while living a busy life, then you can safely forget about all these craps now. Just remember:

RECAP: Progressive weights with perfect form. Make sure you have plenty of rest (eat enormous amount of food and sleep at least 8 hours)

“Think and Grow Rich” was the result of decades of work and hundreds of interviews with the most successful people at the time. Here are just a few of those people who changed the world forever not only through their work but also by making this book possible:

HENRY FORD                                 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

THOMAS A. EDISON                    EDWIN C. BARNES

THEODORE ROOSEVELT           WOODROW WILSON

CHARLES M. SCHWAB                 JOHN WANAMAKER

And the list goes on.

Say what you want, but you cannot deny the success and significance of these people. If you listen to tips on how to get bigger from some random big dude (who was born big and doesn’t know squat about how an ectomorph can gain muscle) at the gym, why would you be hesitant to listen to these people?

The book will show you just exactly how to get what you want in life (in the case of this book, money). It took me quite a while to completely digest just how important the ideas in this book are. Even now, I cannot say that I have fully appreciated the book. I seriously began to apply the ideas in this book when I made the conscious decision to gain muscle. Here are the 6 steps from the book that I follow rigidly and faithfully. These 6 simple steps alone account for much of my success in life thus far:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say, “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. AS YOU READ, SEE AND FEEL AND BELIEVE YOURSELF ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MONEY.

These 6 steps are exactly as they were presented in the book. Follow these 6 steps alone (replacing money with muscle) and you will get the muscle you want. Remember all the other muscle-gaining books you have read? They all started with one or two chapters that made you follow these 6 steps. And not just bodybuilding books. Any books that promise to help you attain anything will start out with something like that.

Again, I am not implying that the ideas in this book are original. After all, this book got its core ideas from all the successful people that Napoleon Hill interviewed anyway. However, this is the BEST book on teaching you how to achieve whatever you want in life, no matter what it maybe.

That’s it. Buy the book and read it. You will keep it for life. All of the education I have got from school thus far in life cannot be put next to what I have learnt from this book. And it will be the same for you too.

RECAP: Think and Grow Rich shows you EXACTLY how to get ANYTHING you want in life. Classic book. No question about it.

For whatever reasons, you may think that reading self-help books like these is lame. You may contend that you learn more from living life than from reading some silly books. Ok, I respect that. But hear me out, because I think that I can at least prove to you that these two books are worth a read, regardless of how you think about self-help books in general.

First of all, I don’t want you to associate these two books with self-help books. The business of writing self-help books has blossomed exponentially in the last few decades. More books are written to help your life in some ways this year than the last. But when you come to think about it, most books are new but not necessarily better presentations of some old ideas. There are only a certain numbers of principles for you to understand and master. All the new books are just some lame attempts to present these principles in some new lights but do not really help you in just how to master these principles. Thus, you may have read quite a few self-help books, but never get anywhere. So I understand if you think self-help books are a waste of time. I do too.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” was written by Stephen R. Covey. I am not saying that the ideas and principles in this book are original. That is not my concern, nor should it be yours. What I like about this book is its comprehensiveness. Forget about all the crazy self-help books you have read before. All you need to know and master are the 7 habits listed in this books:

1. Be Proactive: take responsibility for everything you do and never blame anyone or anything
2. Begin with the End in Mind: always think of what you want to achieve before doing anything
3. Put First thing First: finish the most important and most urgent task first
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

Anything that you will see in other self-help books is just some variations of these 7 habits. I am not implying that it is easy to completely digest and master these 7 habits after one or two reading. It takes years! You may have one or two habits already. Thats’ great. But if not, then hurry up and read this book. You may think, ’7 habits in a book, is that enough to change my life?Just 7 simple habits that I have already heard of?’ Well yeah. It is that simple because it should be simple. All the other  books are just messing everything up to get your money. You say it is simple, but how many of these 7 habits have you mastered? Remember, there is a HUGE different between knowing and doing. Read the book so that at least you are aware of these 7 habits. And if you know about them already, read it to clearly understand them and to be convinced that even mastering one or two of these 7 habits is enough to make you a very effective person already.

I am very lucky to have come across this book at the age of 16. As a teenager, I did not have any of these habits. I was blaming my teachers for my grades, my girlfriend for my miseries, my body for being so skinny. I was playing computer games and skipping meals and homework. I had no idea what I would be like in the close future. I was jealous of people; I’d rather see someone go down than having a win/win situation. You know, just a lot of petty thoughts. What this book helped me immediately was to stop complaining. It was tough, and I DO still complain sometimes, but it is definitely 1/100000 of how much other people complain. I don’t blame anyone or anything for my failure either. And now I know exactly what I will be like in the next 1 year, 5 years and 10 years. So:

• Do you still complain and blame others?
• Do you have a clear vision of your life and a sense of purpose?
• Is procrastination the only thing you are good at?
• Do you know how to listen to others?

Read the book, damn it!

RECAP: Every single successful person has at least some of these 7 habits. How many do you have?