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How to Gain Weight with Just One Exercise

September 2, 2008

b846bcc0 How to Gain Weight with Just One ExerciseWhen people ask me how to gain weight the first thing I ask them is if they do deadlifts. If you are trying to get big but aren’t including deadlifts in your program you are wasting your time. There is simply no more effective mass building exercise than the deadlift.

From your neck to your calves, nearly every muscle in your body gets activated and receives a powerful growth stimulus from deadlifts.

Not only is the deadlift the most effective mass building exercise there is but it is also the most basic ,and has the greatest carryover to the real world. There aren’t many times in life where you would lie down on your back and press a weight up over your chest like you would during a bench press. But hardly a day goes by when you don’t bend down and pick something up off the floor. And that is what you do when you deadlift. So it trains you for real life situations and helps to prevent the oh-so-common lower back problems that plague hundreds of thousands of adults due to incredible weakness.

But the bottom line for all skinny guys and aspiring mass monsters is that if you want to know how to gain weight, you gotta learn how to deadlift.

Although the deadlift works the entire body from head to toe, it is especially effective at building huge traps, upper back muscles, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings and forearms. Plenty of puffed up bodybuilders have the big pecs and biceps but a deadlifter stands out from the crowd,  looking powerful and intimidating with the mountainous traps and thick, ruggedly muscled upper and lower back.

To perform a proper deadlift, stand directly over the bar with your shins nearly touching it and feet approximately 8-14 inches apart. Squat down by breaking at the hips and pushing your glutes back. Keep your back tightly arched, chest up and head in line with your spine. Your upper body should be at a 45 degree angle in relation to the ground. Grab the bar with a vice grip and begin to pull up and back. As the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward powerfully, push your chest out and pull your shoulders back to lockout the weight.

When you lower the weight, be sure to begin by pushing your glutes back before you squat down. After the bar clears you knees, squat down while maintaining a tight arch in your lower back, allow the weights to touch the floor and repeat.

One mistake many beginners make when deadlifting is they try and control the eccentric or lowering portion of the exercise. This leads to injuries. Stay tight and lower the weights quickly but under control.  You will often see even advanced lifters drop a deadlift quite quickly and loudly between reps. This is because they know the danger associated with a slow deadlift. Treat a set as a bunch of singles until your form is tight enough to do touch and go reps.

Also, be sure to always deadlift with bare feet. If this doesn’t fly with the gym owner, go with deadlift slippers or Chuck Taylors; but never running sneakers.

Remember- a lot of deadlifts lead to huge, muscular physiques. If there was only one thing I could teach you about how to gain weight that would be it. Now get to the gym and start pulling some big weights.

For more information on how to gain weight and build muscle rapidly click HERE.

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Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building 

Comments

7 Responses to “How to Gain Weight with Just One Exercise”

  1. How to Gain Weight with Just One Exercise | realfitnesstx.com on September 2nd, 2008 5:11 pm

    [...] here: How to Gain Weight with Just One Exercise Categories : [...]

  2. GWJNo Gravatar on September 3rd, 2008 7:27 am

    One shoe often overlooked for deadlifting and squatting is the wrestling shoe. Wrestling shoes have a very low sole, which is close to going barefooted, but the high top supports the ankles.

  3. Brian RNo Gravatar on September 3rd, 2008 7:48 am

    Jason- great article, epecially the part of not wearing shoes. I had no idea.

    quick question in regards to blast straps…….I have a weighted vest and a pull up bar in my bedroom door. Will I be able to due proper pushups using the straps on the bar or will the door way block me from doing this? I don’t want to purchase the straps if I can’t use them

    also, for beginner to moderates, how many times a week should you do the deadlift?

    hoping you can stear me in the right direction.

  4. Shane BNo Gravatar on September 4th, 2008 12:57 pm

    I had never thought to try deadlifts without shoes on before. I had never even heard of the concept, but I tried it today and added 25 pounds to my lift. I’m fairly new to the deadlifting club and I appreciate all the info I can get.

  5. joelNo Gravatar on September 8th, 2008 11:05 am

    i would like get more info on how to do dead lift the position and stance

  6. Lame-RNo Gravatar on September 9th, 2008 4:43 pm

    I love squats, but I gotta admit I’ve had much better results adding mass to my legs with the deadlift.

    I deadlift in my garage wearing flip-flops. I don’t reccommend it.

    Brian R: get the straps. Make the doorway work. Regarding how many times you should deadlift: get a journal. Do some deadlifts. Log those lifts. Repeat. Quite simply, you gotta find your own recovery ability and tolerance to the training stimulus. So do as much as you can and back off if you have to. If you’re overdoing it your log will show it. Learn when to push and when to back off.

    Keep listening to Jason; I’ve been reading his stuff for about a year and he knows his shit.

  7. BuckfutterNo Gravatar on March 10th, 2009 3:48 pm

    Actually, there is one exercise that is more effective and demanding than even deadlifts- the trap-bar deadlift. The trap-bar lift moves the center of the weight back slightly so that you involve the quads to a much higher degree. It basically combines the squat and deadlift into one movement. And there is NOTHING more physically demanding. Try it- you haven’t lived until you’ve done a set of 400 pound trap-bar deadlifts.

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