Listen- we’ve all been small at some point in our lives. If you’re reading this article, I’m willing to bet you’ve struggled to put on muscle for most of your life. This is where the best bulking supplements for skinny guys comes in.
And let’s be honest, being an ectomorph (a skinny guy) sucks. It’s never fun to have bad genetics, but guess what?
You can outwork those bad genetics. BUT- who said you can’t have some help with bulking supplements?
In this article, I’ll show you the best bulking supplements for skinny guys, so you can go buy some and start packing on the pounds. Let’s go
Best Bulking Supplements For Skinny Guys: A Glance
Before we get into the details of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys, I’ll quickly list the best bulking supplements for skinny guys. These supplements are specifically recommended to increase your caloric intake (a crucial element to getting muscle).
- Creatine
- Mass Gainer
- Pre Workout
- Protein Powder
- Ashwaganda
- Turkesterone
- RAD-140
All these supplements will help you pack on muscle, but before you go and buy them- you need to understand the basics of getting big first.
If you don’t understand the fundamentals of getting big- you won’t get big.
Even the best bulking supplements for skinny guys won’t work if you aren’t following the proper training.
Building Muscle For Skinny Guys
Overall, it’s pretty easy to build muscle, you just have to know how. You’re probably thinking “what?? I’ve been trying to build muscle for the past year and it hasn’t been working!”
If you haven’t been putting on muscle and have been lifting for a few years, here’s why:
- You aren’t consistent enough
- You’re training without intensity
- You don’t eat right
It’s really that simple. When guys ask me “bro why am I not getting big” I always ask them: “how often do you train, what do you do when working out, and how much do you eat?”
Every. Single. Time. They say “I lift like a few times a week, I hit whatever I feel like hitting that day, and I don’t know how much I eat.”
There are so many problems with that. If you don’t train consistently, your body won’t be breaking down the muscles regularly to build them up. If you don’t lift with intensity, you also won’t be breaking down any muscles. You don’t even need the best bulking supplements for skinny guys if you don’t have the basics down.
There’s a reason people sell workout routines- it’s to make you consistent and make sure you train right.
The last reason why people don’t gain muscle is because when they eat, they eat less than their body needs.
Listen, your body needs a caloric intake to build muscle. It doesn’t have to be a huge caloric intake, you just have to eat 500-1000 over assuming you’re a skinny guy.
Now that we’ve established the basics of building muscle, it’s time to get into the supplements to build muscle for skinny guys.
Basic Supplements To Build Muscle:
Here are some of the basic best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Creatine:
If I had to pick the best natural supplement to build muscle, strength and gain weight, I would pick creatine.
Creatine is amazing because it does everything an athlete, bodybuilder, or powerlifter could want. It’s one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Creatine Benefits:
- Builds Muscle
- More Muscle Endurance
- Nootropic Qualities
- Makes You Gain (Good) Weight
Just look at what all these studies have to say about creatine:
“Creatine was greater for changes in lean body mass following short-term CS, repetitive-bout laboratory-based exercise tasks < or = 30 s (e.g., isometric, isokinetic, and isotonic resistance exercise), and upper-body exercise.”
Source
“We conclude that creatine supplementation during RT has a small beneficial effect on regional muscle thickness in young adults”
Source
“Supplementing with Cr after training of the arms resulted in greater increase in muscle thickness of the arms. Males have a greater increase in LTM with Cr supplementation than females.”
Source
As you can see, along with gym bro anecdotal evidence, creatine is also backed by science.
So how exactly does creatine work?
It helps your muscles produce more ATP, which is like energy for extra reps. It also improves your muscle protein synthesis and glycogen storage. In other words, when you eat right, you’ll gain more muscle.
Creatine Safety:
Creatine is shown to be generally safe. It has been researched and studied for decades, so there’s a lot of research out on it. Here are what the scientific studies say:
“No significant differences in the occurrence at any time of adverse effects due to creatine supplementation were found (23 % nausea in the creatine group, vs. 24 % in the placebo group, 19 % gastro-intestinal discomfort in the creatine group, vs. 18 % in the placebo group, 35 % diarrhea in the creatine group, vs. 24 % in the placebo group).”
Source
“Creatine supplementation does not appear to increase the incidence of injury or cramping in Division IA college football players.”
Source
Even the giant website mayoclinic lists creatine as “generally safe.”
It should be noted that if you have kidney problems, you should avoid creatine. Another thing to keep in mind while taking it is to drink at least a gallon of water a day.
It’s best to take 5 grams of creatine daily pre workout. This is one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Mass Gainer:
Mass gainers can be confusing. Most people think that there are ingredients in them that makes you gain weight. That’s not entirely true.
The way mass gainer works is- it helps you get extra calories and macronutrients into your system. Because most skinny guys struggle to eat enough, having a 1,000 calorie shake is great when you need to hit your daily caloric intake. That’s why it’s one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Most mass gainers have tons of carbs, protein, and calories. That’s really all you need to build muscle.
Mass gainers don’t contain any possibly health degrading ingredients. They’re really just an extra source of calories. That’s why it’s one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys. Most of the time skinny guys are skinny, it’s because they can’t get enough food in.
Mass Gainer Benefits
- Get Calories Quickly
- Build More Muscle
- Gain Weight
If you want to make a homemade mass gainer, this is what I use:
Homemade Mass Gainer:
- 20 oz whole milk
- 1 cup of oats
- 2 scoops of whey protein powder
- 4 tablespoons of peanut butter
- 1 banana or handful of frozen berries
Total calories: 1780. 145 grams of carbs, 107 grams of protein, and 92 grams of fats.
Of course, you can always order mass gainer off of amazon.
Pre-Workout:
Listen brahs, if you’re skinny it probably means you don’t lift with everything you’ve got. When you lift you want to put your heart and soul into it.
This is where pre workout comes in. Not only does pre workout give you a great pump, it helps you get quality lifts in. That’s why it’s one of the best best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
When you lift with pre workout, it’s always 10x better quality than when you lift without it.
My favorite type of pre workout right now is Zeus Juice. Most pre workouts are trash, so that’s why it’s important you have a good one.
Zeus Juice is great because it locks you in both mentally and physically. This is one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Pre Workout Benefits:
- Great Pump
- More Energy
- Better Lifts
- Mentally Awake
- More Gains
I also like using a half teaspoon of salt for a cardiovascular pump pre workout as well. It gets the blood flowing which makes you more awake.
Especially if you’re a high school or college student, you’re going to want some sort of pre workout. Trust me, I hated and still hate sitting in class all day like a prisoner. Schools don’t exactly provide the best environment for a good workout because you’re sitting all day being told what to do. This is extremely energy draining.
Having a pre workout after being drained of energy all day is awesome. I highly recommend investing in a pre workout to ensure you get quality lifts. All in all, it’s one of the best best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Protein Powder:
Protein powder, like mass gainer, is used to help you get calories and macronutrients in. The only difference is, protein powder is to help you get a high intake of protein. It’s a best bulking supplements for skinny guys because of the high quality of protein.
Think of it like a boost of protein.
It’s important to get your protein from a quality source, you don’t want the cheap crap you find at walmart. Trust me, that stuff will make you have stomach issues for weeks.
I recommend gold standard whey from optimum nutrition.
Check Current PriceAshwagandha:
Ashwagandha is a newer supplement to the fitness industry, but it’s been around for a while. Recently, I’ve discovered it’s one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys. Why? It gained tons of popularity from this study.
“Compared to the placebo subjects, the group treated with ashwagandha had significantly greater increases in muscle strength on the bench-press exercise and the leg-extension exercise, and significantly greater muscle size increase at the arms. Compared to the placebo subjects, the subjects receiving ashwagandha also had significantly greater reduction of exercise-induced muscle damage as indicated by the stabilization of serum creatine kinase. vs. Ashwagandha: significantly greater increase in testosterone level and a significantly greater decrease in body fat percentage.”
Source
So imagine taking a supplement that makes your testosterone increase, your strength go up, and muscles get bigger, along with fat loss. Easily one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
It also reduces muscle damage from exercise.
Those are all steroid like effects without ANY negative side effects.
The best part about this is, ashwagandha is extremely cheap. You can get a bottle for around $15 that will last you a couple months.
It’s all natural too, because ashwagandha is a root.
Ashwagandha Benefits:
- Increases muscle strength
- Testosterone levels increase
- Increases muscle mass
- Fat loss
- Reduced muscle damage
Ashwagandha is point blank one of the best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
Turkesterone:
Like ashwagandha, turkesterone is starting to come out as one of the top natural muscle building supplements, also listed in this list of best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
There’s not a whole lot of research out on the benifits of it yet, but we do know that it’s safe. It’s naturally occurring in a marla root.
Most of the evidence we have for turkesterone is anecdotal-
Gym bros across the planet have told others how they build more muscle and increased strength with turkesterone.
It’s said to have steroid like effects but without the side effects due to it’s non hormonal nature.
RAD-140:
Brahs, RAD-140 is quite possibly the best bulking supplement for skinny guys on the market.
Those pictures you see above were done with RAD-140, one of the most popular SARMs on the market. Now keep in mind, this is technically a steroid but it doesn’t have the negative side effects that regular steroids do. Let me explain more-
RAD-140 Safety
SARMs work by attaching androgen receptors to skeletal muscle, while ignoring organs.
I know none of you know what that means (and I didn’t at first either) so let me break it down in english.
SARMs attach testosterone boosting receptors to your muscle, and only your muscle. They ignore organs, and only build muscle.
Most steroids end up inflating and building everything they hit. They hit your muscles, but also hit things like your heart, liver, balls, etc. Trust me, you don’t want to take dangerous roids and end up with messed up organs.
This is why SARMs are so popular- they don’t mess with your organs. They only build muscle.
This study shows that taking the SARM RAD-140 is actually safer than testosterone replacement therapy, or (TRT).
The increased risk for prostate cancer makes T therapy a risky treatment option (71). Moreover, even in neurons, high doses of T can be harmful rather than beneficial (72, 73). In this regard, SARMs like RAD140 can be better alternatives to T because they are only partial agonists or antagonists to androgenic regulation of prostate while still having androgenic effects on other tissues such as muscle and brain. In addition, higher doses of SARMs as compared with T might still promote neuron viability and not induce apoptosis, making them a suitable therapeutic strategy against age-related disorders such as AD.
(Source)
RAD-140 is probably the best SARM on the market period. It’s got the best anabolic to androgenic ratio of any SARM, at a 90:1 ratio.
The reason I recommend RAD-140 for bulking is because it’s got the best ratio.
Basically, they have 90% of the muscle building effects of steroids, but have 1% of the side effects. That’s pretty much no side effects if you think about it.
Just some context- one of the most common supplements for getting jacked is testosterone. Testosterone has an 100:100 anabolic to androgenic ratio. 100% benefits but binds to all muscle androgen receptors- leading to negative side effects.
RAD-140 Benefits:
If you can’t tell from the image above, you’re going to experience tons of benefits if you take RAD-140.
- Gain a ton of muscle
- Safe
- Shred fat
- Fast muscle recovery
- Insane Strength Gains
- More dense bones
You gain more muscle than you lose in fat. There’s really only a couple reasons why I wouldn’t be taking RAD-140. Those reasons are if you’re under 18, you’re new to lifting, or your doctor tells you not to. Also if you have a health condition that would make the consumption of anabolic steroids dangerous, I would avoid them as well.
Best Bulking Stacks For Skinny Guys:
With all these options of supplements, what exactly should you take? Can you take more than one at one time? The best bulking supplements for skinny guys can be stacked together.
Yes you can, and it’s smart to stack them.
Here are the best stacks for all the supplements above:
Bulking Supplement Stack #1:
- Pre-workout+creatine before workout
- Ashwagandha at night
Bulking Supplement Stack #2:
- Turkesterone in the morning
- Pre-workout before you workout
- Creatine+mass gainer post workout
Bulking Supplement Stack #3:
- Pre-workout+RAD-140 before workout
- Creatine post workout
- Protein powder/shake before bed
Bulking Supplement Stack #4:
- Creatine in the morning
- Pre-workout+ ashwagandha before workout
- Mass gainer post workout
Best Bulking Supplements For Skinny Guys: Wrapping It Up
All in all, there’s tons of great supplements to take if you’re skinny and want to get bigger. Remember, you want to gain good weight and not fat. Get the basics down first before you start taking supplements. Supplements are made to assist you, not give you an easy way out of hard work. Best bulking supplements for skinny guys.
