Motivation is an important aspect of anyone trying to maintain a weight gain workouts routine. It is the desire to be competent and self-determining. With proper motivation, the exerciser is a self-starter because of his or her love of the activity. A trainer’s work of teaching skill and effective strategies to promote fitness can be much more effective when their clients are self-motivated.

A trainer can concentrate on task-relevant concerns rather than encouraging effort by cajoling, punishing, or exhorting. Intrinsically motivated exercisers are more likely to maintain effort consistently, which will result in acheiving the end goal. How can such a desirable state be maintained or encouraged? The answer lies in the emphasis on success (competence) and “pulling one’s own strings” (self-determination). Appropriate goals, especially one of a process or performance nature, can increase perceived competence.

Additionally, becoming an active decision maker in your routine will increase perceived self-determination. Learning how to set proper and realistic goals as well as monitoring the progress made towards these goals can play a large role in getting consistent results. Take the time to learn what fitness professionals consider realistic and measurable fitness goals for you. Make sure that you play an active role in setting up the plan of action which will tie you even closer to the attainment of these goals. If you set a good plan to gain weight, it’s just a matter of taking the small steps, and you will no doubt see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The way you carry yourself can make you look a few pounds lighter and even sleeker and sexier. I am sure you remember your mother telling you to ‘stand tall, pull your shoulders back, don’t slouch’ well, she was right. If you are following a proven step-by-step weight gain system, you are on the way to creating your very own beach body; striking shoulders, v-taper torso, sleek waist, tight glutes and lean legs. To accentuate these features we need to practice the following and make our bikini body posture second nature.

How to Improve Posture

• Imagine there is a piece of string attached to the top of your head and its pulling up to lengthen your spin.
• Shoulders are rolled back and down.
• Abs are in as you try to draw your bellybutton to your spine.
• Gentle squeeze through your glutes.
• Look up and smile.

A great side effect of standing tall is the improvement in your self-esteem and attitude. If you walk looking up with a smile you appear and feel more confident. Apart from creating a strong self-confident presence, your bikini body posture can help prevent the complications and symptoms of poor posture.

Poor posture can cause the following:

• Headache
• Back pain
• Muscle fatigue
• Muscle tension and pain
• Joint aches and pains

In time you will find that proper posture will become second nature. Whilst you are standing in the bank queue, waiting for Internet or brushing your teeth, work on your posture. As you tone your muscles and improve your self-esteem, you will find it even easier!

Any weight trainer will tell you that muscle soreness hurts! If you have spent any time in the gym you don’t need me to tell you that. However, having sore muscles isn’t always a bad thing. Unless you experience some degree of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS for short) then you haven’t challenged your muscles beyond what they are already accustomed to, and if you don’t place enough stress on the muscles you can’t shock them into growth.

Muscle soreness refers to the aching pain you experience in your muscles that comes about one or two days after your workout and may last up to a week. This type of soreness is usually not associated with much swelling or inflammation and it is usually relieved when the sore muscle is exercised. This is different to the sharp pain associated with soft tissue injury which usually results in swelling and gets worse when the affected muscle is exercised.

In the first several weeks of starting a new weight gain training program, the muscle soreness alone may lead you to consider quitting, but in time I believe that you will come to look at moderate soreness as a sign that you had an effective weight training session. With adequate diet and nutrition in place, you will ensure that the recovery time will be reduced.

What causes muscles to get sore after an intense workout?

After much debate on the effects of lactic acid build-up, most experts agree that DOMS is caused by small tears in muscle fibers that occur during training sessions when you place a stress on your muscles that it is not already equipped to handle.

Your body responds to these tears by repairing the small injury in a way that leads to increased muscle size (hypertrophy) and strength, thus making your muscles better prepared to handle the increased load. When you lift more weight than your muscles are used to, like you do in a mass training program, this causes small tears and while your body is repairing itself you feel really sore, but in the end you end up with bigger stronger muscles!

Many women who struggle to gain weight don’t see results because they fail to give their body sufficient recovery time and nutrients that it needs during the repair process in order to achieve sexy muscle gains. It is extremely important, especially after a heavy training session to give your muscles the adequate nutrition, including plenty of high calorie foods, drink plenty of water and sleep at least 8 hours each day. This are important guidelines to follow when building muscle and you must pay close attention to every step.

Proper sleep cannot be overstated because most muscle growth takes place when you’re sleeping. In fact, several hormones including growth hormone are at their highest levels when you are sleeping. Listen to your body, you know your body better then anyone, and if you feel exhausted or that you have been over training, then get more sleep.

It is critical that you listen to your body. If you are extremely sore or feel exhausted then don’t train! I would recommend postponing your next training sessions until you experience some relief. If you don’t take care of your muscles and give your body what it needs to build you desired physique, then your training will be counterproductive.

Wanting a toned butt? Well, I know you do because I get so many emails from woman who wish they did! Read this article to learn about the best butt exercises for women. Before you go and pump out a thousand squats in a vain attempt to get a great feminine curvy butt, you need to know a few important points regarding fat loss and weight training. These points are nothing ground breaking, but they are very important. So read them!

To get a toned muscle you need to lose fat. We all should know this by now. A toned muscle is one that has little fat covering it so it looks hard and tight and defined. You cannot get toned muscles by making them big alone. If you struggle to put on weight but still want a more feminine butt, then fat loss should not even be in your vocabulary and you should focus on exercises that target the butt.

Don’t fall for that ‘less reps for toning’ rubbish

It is a load of lies. If anyone tells you that you should do more reps with less weight if you want to tone their muscles storm out of there and never go back!

To tone your muscles you need to do two things: increase the size and lose the fat that is covering them. It is not magic and it is not rocket science.

Perform the best butt exercises at least two times per week

When I refer to butt exercises, what I mean is an exercise that targets the butt really well. It is a little bit misleading to say an exercise tones the butt because it doesn’t. It is part of the puzzle but not the only thing you need to do.

However, we all know some exercises are better than others. For example, we now know that a full sit up is not as good as a crunch for developing the abs. Why? Because it doesn’t target the abs as much. That is really the key for a good exercise – how well it targets the muscles.

Here are a few of the best butt exercises for women that will create a sexy feminine butt.

Weighted Lunges

The lunge is old news as far as glutes training goes but it is a goodie. Make sure your step forward isn’t too large and that you warm up well first. Make sure you feel the lunge as you go down and make sure it is hitting all the right places.

Weighted Step Ups

Stepping up onto a bench with a weight has surprised me at how effective it really can be. Make sure that bench is stable though and your weight is not too heavy. Be careful to keep your posture correct with this one and do not struggle too much to step up. Take it slowly.

Jumping Squats

I know I always am on about these but they rock for developing your lower body. They are so hard and so tiring that most people overlook them. Big mistake! If you want a toned lower body you must get into these.

Let’s talk about one very important area when it comes to gaining weight, and that is goal setting. If you’ve ever met anyone who was trying to lose weight, you know that the ones who are most successful are the ones who have a set goal in mind. The others typically give up as soon as their motivation runs out, which could be a day or a week or even a couple of months.

The same thing is true when you’re trying to gain weight. What you want to be doing is to start thinking about your long-term goal. Be specific about what you want to achieve for yourself at the end of this journey. Don’t be saying “I want to gain weight until I’m happy with what I see in the mirror” or “I need to put on enough weight to look more toned up”. None of those statements are going to help you because they are subjective, meaning they are open to interpretation and are changed by perception. You need something concrete; you need a number. And you need to write down that number so you won’t be able to lie to yourself about your goal and so you can remind yourself of what you’re working towards.

Besides setting a long-term goal, you should also set several smaller goals for yourself as well. Motivation experts have found that long-term goals alone just aren’t effective, because the pay off for the the work you are doing now seems so distant. Smaller goals give you quicker senses of accomplishment and keep pushing you forward towards your long-term ambition. Your short-term goals should be just as specific, but you may want to start with a goal such as “I want to gain X amount of pounds this week”, then “I want to gain X amount of pounds this month”, and so on and so forth. Make sure you’re being realistic when you set these goals. Too high or too low expectations won’t help you make progress.

Also, remember that each time you meet a goal, you should have a set reward for yourself in mind. Don’t make that reward food related. When you view food as a reward or as a punishment, you are developing an unhealthy attitude towards consumption that will end with an eating disorder. Better rewards would be going to the movie you’ve been wanting to see, taking off from work to lounge around the house, going to the spa for pampering, buying a new outfit, etc.

Planning is an important part of the gaining weight process because forcing your body to gain weight is a major undertaking. Think of it this way. If you were having a wedding, you wouldn’t just start making choices about what to wear, who to invite, or how much to spend randomly. Of course not! You would sit down, have a discussion, and draw up some plans as to how all of these different pieces would come together to form a unified whole.

Gaining weight may not be quite as complicated as wedding planning, but it still requires the same effort. Below is a list of a few things you need to plan for when you are getting ready to gain weight:

• When you are going to start
• When and for how long you are going to exercise
• What types of exercise you are going to do
• How many calories to ingest per day
• What you are going to eat for each meal
• What you are going to have for snacks each day
• What high calorie diet plan to gain weight will you have in place

These are just a few of the plans you need to be making now and throughout the weight gain process. Of course, you may also want to plan how you will deal with temptations, how you will reward yourself for meeting goals, and other things that may come up throughout your weight gain journey. You know what they say. When it comes to wanting to accomplish something, if you fail to plan from the beginning, you are planning to fail. It may sound cliche, but it’s very true.

The best way to accomplish your goals is to set achievable goals from the beginning so you don’t kill your motivation, and avoid program hopping. Stick with the one program which has worked for others and see it through. Most importantly, don’t look for quick fixes. There are no magic bullets to gain weight and muscle. Weight gain products such as weight gain pills and other expensive supplements will not only NOT help you to gain weight so don’t look for shortcuts and be prepared to work for it. All the best with your weight gain!

By now you should know about the importance of consuming protein after working out. But do you know how much daily protein you really need? The amount of protein a person needs is determined by two things: body weight and physical activity.

The US RDA recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight per day for a normal person. However, if you are currently doing strength or mass training, then your daily weight gain protein requirements should increase to 1.2 grams per kilogram of ideal body weight per day.

For example, a 150-pound weight trainee would require approx 82 grams, whereas a 120 pound trainee could sneak by with 65 grams of protein daily. It’s estimated that an athlete’s protein requirement is 25 to 50 percent higher than the rest of ours.

Meeting your protein needs with your diet is a cinch as long as you are not restricting your calories and are eating plenty of carbohydrates (bread, pasta, veggies, and fruits) that can be used for energy.

Just don’t overdo it. Eating too much protein IS bad for your kidneys, because your body has to break the excess protein down. The waste products are literally flushed down the toilet. (Sorry for the graphics.) If you have eaten your quota of calories for the day, the overload of calories from the protein will be stored as fat.

You can get all the protein you need at the grocery store. Meat, fish, and chicken are big ticket items in the protein department, slicing up about seven grams of protein per ounce. But there are plenty of other protein sources. In fact, lean dairy products can be just as potent. A cup of skim milk or yogurt will serve you about eight to nine grams of protein. An ounce of part-skim mozzarella cheese will put seven grams of protein on your bread.

And – are you ready for this? A cup of low-fat cottage cheese delivers 28 grams of protein. Eggs are another good hit, providing about six grams each. I know, I know, you’ve been told to crack open no more three to four yolks per week. No problem. Go ahead and have a field day with the egg whites because about half of the protein is in the white part of the egg, yet all the cholesterol is thrown out with the yolk. A cup of beans will shell out 13 grams of protein, whereas tofu (OK, I realize tofu is not exactly on everybody’s “A” list) is a winner at about 20 grams a cup.

Protein can add up quickly. Here are some ideas:

• 1 1/2 cups of raisin bran drowned in 1 cup of low-fat milk and topped off with a banana for your morning starter.
• At lunch, take the easy route and slap 2 tablespoons of peanut butter between 2 slices of whole wheat bread and grab a tossed salad with 1/2 cup of chickpeas from the salad bar at work. Don’t forget to wash all this down with another cup of low-fat milk.
• In the afternoon, grab a container of low-fat yogurt mixed with dried fruits/nuts and a bran muffin for a snack.
• After working out, have a weight gain protein shake. Include 1 banana, 2/3 eggs, low-fat milk, and 1 scoop of whey protein powder.

If you are a strict vegetarian and eliminate all dairy products, you’ll have to make sure that you have a variety of fortified cereals and grains mixed with legumes and other meat substitutes such as kidney beans, soy burgers, tofu, and soy milk to meet your protein and nutritional needs.

We all feel the effects of muscle soreness after working out, but what the heck can you do about it? Glad you asked! Up front I need to let you know that as long as you are increasing the load and intensity of your workouts, some degree of soreness is unavoidable, and in some cases only time will heal these aches.

The good news is, that there are some things you can do to reduce the occurrence of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), so when you experience the aches and pains we’ve provided some tips to ease the pain. Let me know how some of these suggestions are working for you, and if there are some strategies that you use that aren’t listed below, please by all means leave a comment below for your fellow mass trainers.

Complete the full range of motion for each exercise. Most exercises have a concentric phase where your muscles are forcefully contracting as the fibers shorten; and an eccentric phase where the muscle contraction takes place while the muscle is lengthening. Both phases are important for proper muscle development and joint flexibility. Neglecting the eccentric or stretching phase of an exercise while training can result in reduced flexibility (as well as range of motion), and lead to excessive muscle soreness.

Proper hydration may not completely prevent soreness, but dehydration will sure make it worse. Serious lifters usually carry jugs of water around with them, because they understand the value of staying hydrated. Being dehydrated will not only ruin your workout, it will also interrupt your gains in muscle mass and make you really sore.

Poor nutrition exacerbates muscle soreness. Within two hours of leaving the gym be sure to have a meal or consume a protein or weight gain shake. After that be sure to keep yourself from becoming hungry by consuming some type of meal every 2-3hrs (except the 2 hours leading up to your training session) during the day, before you go to bed and when you first rise in the morning.

Insufficient sleep also makes soreness worse. If you don’t get enough rest to allow your muscles adequate time to repair not only will you experience increased soreness, if you continue to train sleep deprived you might even be breaking down muscle tissue. So make time some sleep in, it is especially important in the early stages of your training.

Warm up and then stretch before you get into your mass training regimen. Not everybody does this, but all experienced weight trainees do this; so I would suggest doing this. Take the time you need to get ready for the exercises you are about to do. Once your muscles are warm and supple you are one step closer to a great workout.

Finally, make sure to allow your body to fully recover before performing another DOMS producing workout. Failure to do so will only increase the risk of injury and make you feel more fatigued.

Weight gain shakes are a great way to add more protein and calories to your diet, and this is no exception for women. If you find it difficult getting the necessary calorie and protein intake necessary for weight gain and building muscle, an excellent choice is drinking weight gain protein shakes as a way to include protein in the post-workout meal – the time of the day when your body is most receptive to nutrient intake and needs the protein for recovery and growth.

In addition to drinking weight gain shakes in the post-workout meal, it would be a good idea to drink a protein shake early in the morning or late in the evening. By drinking one early in the morning it won’t make you feel full later in the day, so it won’t affect your appetite during the day – otherwise just before bed.

Generally, you can make your own basic protein/weight gain shakes using fresh fruit, low-fat milk, and protein powder. Whey protein is regarded as one of the best protein sources, it contains an excellent amino acid profile and also has one of the highest Biological Values (BV) among protein sources (the rate at which the body can utilize the nutrient.) You can also use vegan-friendly rice protein powder in your shakes. When protein is consumed as a liquid meal during the anabolic window right after working out, the fast digesting protein is utilized by the body at a rapid rate.

Decide on how many calories you want the weight gain shake to be. If you are looking for a protein-rich meal, all you really need is the ingredients discussed above: fruit, milk, protein powder. However, it can be convenient to include carbs and fats to the protein shake so you consume all the nutrients you need in one meal. Including carbs and fats in the weight gain shake will also add extra calories for weight gain purposes, which always helps. Also, it’s beneficial to combine carbs with protein for a few reasons. The carbs in the weight gain shake will help replenish the glycogen storage which has been depleted while working out, and the protein will help to repair and build muscle tissue.

What are good sources of carbs and fats? Oats is an excellent choice for complex carbs, and you can add a few tablespoons of olive oil or flax seed oil for healthy fat content. Uncooked oats tend to have a hard texture so its a good idea to cook them in boiling water before adding them to the blender with the other ingredients. Otherwise you may have a difficult time getting all the shake down.

Although its possible to purchase weight gainers for women directly off the supermarket shelves, and some even having a huge number of calories, I would advise against this and instead make up your own weight gain shakes. The problem with most commercial weight gainer products is they are packed with simple sugars and carbs. You will gain weight with these high calorie weight gainers, but the weight you will gain will mostly be fat. Instead, take the healthier option and make them yourself. It’s really not that difficult if you have the ingredients.

Our legs are a powerhouse of strength so you should put them to work when lifting weights to gain mass. Women tend to be stronger in their legs than their upper body and therefore leg exercises are a good starting point for any training program.

The legs are made up of very big muscles so you need to hit them with some nice heavy weights. Forget the “less reps for toning” rubbish you may have read. To start with, learn the perfect technique (more about this below) first for each exercise and then increase the weight slowly to the point where you are doing heavy sets of about 5 or 6 reps. The thing about training the legs with heavy weights is that it will release huge amounts of hormones into your body which will lead to an increase in size of your whole body.

Which are the best leg exercises? When it comes to training the legs for mass, women definitely cannot rely on machines, you must use free weights. There are a few important leg exercises that must be included in any training program for mass. Compound exercises like squats and lunges that work lots of muscles at once are a must. Here are a few variations of these exercises, including how to do each exercise with proper form:

Barbell Squats

Barbell squats is one of the best leg exercises for women! It is the bread and butter for any leg workout and is a must for any women that wants to put on mass. It’s best to do it in the beginning of a workout because it will drain off all your energy. Some beginners may have trouble with putting the barbell on their back, the dumbbell squat is a good alternative.

To do the barbell squat – Place the bar firmly on your traps, not your neck bone cause it will hurt. Support the bar with your palms pushing upwards. Squat slowly, pushing your butt to the back and lean slightly forward. Do not let the knees pass the toes and when your thighs are parallel to the ground, squat back up. Keep your stomach tight the whole time!

Jumping Squats

The jumping squat is one of the best leg exercises on the planet because it is such an intense exercise. It will challenge your whole lower body as well as your back and abs.

To do the jumping squat – Crouch down in a squatted position with your feet separated and hands where they feel comfortable. Keep most of your body weight on the heels of your feet. Begin to sit down as though you were sitting on a chair and allow gravity to take you all the way down to the fully squatted position. You can pause for a bit when lowering down in the squat to make it more intense. And then, spring into the air as high as you can and land on your feet. Repeat this process. This is not a good exercise for beginners, it’s really taxing on the body – you have been warned!

Dumbbell Lunges

Dumbbell lunges are great for the thighs and the glutes. It’s another core exercise to add to any leg workout for mass.

To do the dumbbell lunge – Standing up, begin by holding a dumbbell in each hand with your hands by your side and your legs below your hips. With your left leg, take one step forward. Lower body by bending the back knee so it almost comes in contact with the ground. Pause for a brief period and then return to the starting position. Repeat this with the right leg.

When training the legs, remember you must use heavy weights and do volume training. This means at least 3 to 4 sets . The number of reps will vary for each leg exercise, some exercises are more demanding then others. You also need rest between sets, at least 2 minutes between sets.

Leg exercises can be physically demanding, so if you need to develop strength in your legs, you may want to start with light squats and lunges. There are other leg exercises you can experiment with, but the exercises discussed in this article should be the staple for your once a week leg training routine because they are so effective.