What exercises make an Adonis belt more visible?

1. Dragonfly

Some trainers call this the dragon flag, or the ultimate ab workout. Bruce Lee is claimed to have popularized or even invented this punishing method. This exercise by far an advanced technique that should only be attempted by individuals that are already confident in their abdominal strength.

1. Starting Position: lay flat on a bench or floor. Grab a leg bar or bench that can handle your weight. Keep your arms at a 45-degree angle with your elbows facing up.
2. Raise your legs up and slightly beyond a 90-degree angle. Maintain a straight posture and flex your core and back. You should feel the fatigue and flex everywhere except your shoulders.
3. Slowly exhale while lowering your legs back to the starting position. It's crucial to keep your body straight as this is generally where people relax their form.

Repeat this exercise for 5-10 repetitions.

Tip: If you attempt this exercise on an elevated bench, you may fall sideways. Avoid embarrassment and keep your training on the floor. This is by far the best method for getting cut.

2. Side Lateral Raises

Side planks are stabilization and breathing focused exercise. Most importantly, they directly activate the transverse abdominis.

1. Starting Position: Starting in the yoga plank position, rotate your body to one side with your chest facing sideways and your elbow maintaining your position.
2. Extend your open arm to a straight upright angle and lift your pelvis from the floor.
3. Try to keep your weight focused on your elbow and breathe.

With your pelvic bone elevated, countdown from 1 minute and repeat for the other side.

3. Superman

1. Starting Position: Lying flat on your belly with your arms and legs straight, shoulder-width apart.
2. While flexing your abs, elevate your legs and arms and face your head forward. This goal is to lift both arms and legs simultaneously for 3-5 seconds.

Remember to breathe and repeat this exercise for 10-15 repetitions.

4. Woodchops

1. Starting Position: Standing, feet shoulder length apart, grabbing a cable machine or medicine ball
2. First Movement: Rotate your torso without moving your hips in the opposite direction of your current position.
3. Imagine you're cutting a tree with an ax.

Return to the start position and repeat for 10-15 reps per side.

5. Ab Roller

1. Starting Position: Place a soft mat or towel on the floor, place your knees on the cloth, lay the ab roller direction in front of you
2. First Movement: Gripping the rollout wheel, proceed to press down and push forward until your spine is completely straight.
3. Return to the starting position slowly, exhaling as you move backward.

Repeat this exercise for 10-15 reps

Seeing Abs & Obliques through body fat.

Despite what you do in the gym, you need a balanced diet to really see results. You don't need to starve yourself but combining cardio with a caloric deficit is essential. Most people see their obliques and V shape around 12% body fat.

Can a woman get an Adonis belt?

Sure, women have stronger cores than men so it may be even easier for them to attain a trimmed pelvic region.

Is this the only exercise I suggest?

Well yes for starters. Eventually, your body does get used to the workout; this is called muscle memory (https://www.popsci.com/what-is-muscle-memory). It should be a problem if you are still a skinny guy. Maybe around six months into training consistently. The Curl Pyramid will be your friend for a long time!

How to Get Bigger Arms in 2 Weeks
 At Home Without Weights

If you are stuck at home or you cannot afford a gym. A solid workout plan that can be done in a park or your room is hard to find. Except if you take the leap into Calisthenics. I started with bodyweight training when I joined the Army. It helped me see my first leap in muscle mass and definition. Here are the two workouts you should focus on if you want to attain mass quickly.

The Biceps Brachii muscle group is responsible for the big bulge we all chase. We suggest 2 arm isolation exercises that focus almost completely on the this muscle region:

Chin Ups: As long as you focus on your form, you can imitate a bicep curl while elevated. Since you're competely using your bodyweight, it's almost as if you're lifting a 50 lb weight on both sides.

Close Arm Push Ups: People have been getting toned arms for decades by simply doing push-ups. In the Army, soldiers obsess over push-ups because it's seen as one of the fastest ways to increase upper body strength. Most people who are stuck at home don't have a barbell sitting around to do a close grip bench press but push-ups can easily help you attain the same level of tone. If you toss the heavy weight from your arm routine, it allows you to focus much more on movement and breathing.

BUT Before any of that, I suggest you watch this video guide on Calisthenics:

My Solution for Bigger Arms for Skinny Guys

I've been there! I started my journey back into my teens! To be honest, albeit I spend a ton of time in the gym doing all the right workouts, I discovered I should have been focusing more on my diet if I wanted to attain larger arms. If you are a skinny guy, you need to put time into your diet and less on curls.

I would suggest buying a mass gainer; I wrote a guide on my favorite one here on Naked Whey.

Apart from a supplement, you should be focusing on increasing carb intake. I would suggest adding complex carbs into your diet, something like pasta.

The average serving of spinach pasta also contains 34 grams of carbs! It packs the punch you need to gain weight. It's also very inexpensive.

Apart from diet, you need Dumbbells! 

Once you've hit the gym, you should focus on a solid dumbbell workout. I suggest the Incline Dumbbell Bench Curl.
Here's a video displaying proper form.

The benched curl allows you to focus less on your body or back and more on the actual rotation of your arm. It's great for beginners because theirs fewer obstacles distracting you from the muscle-to-mind connection.

An alternative dumbbell exercise for those without a bench would be the:
Standing Dumbbell curl

How Long Does It Take To Get Bigger Arms

In short, you do have a limit on the amount of muscle you can gain in a day, week or month. The average man can gain .25 to .5 lbs of muscle in a week. That can increase or decrease based on a multitude of factors, specifically diet, what exercises you are performing and your genetics.

Personally, when I began working out in the Army around the age of 17, I was gaining between 1 to 1.5 pounds of muscle a week! But it was a very brief time frame. Now, I am lucky if I can see an increase in mass of around .5 lbs to 1 lb in a month.

Most workout programs are set up to end within 12 weeks. This is three months to push your body into a new direction. One of the reasons why most programs are around 12 weeks is because people are bad at maintaining habits for extended periods. So 12 weeks is just long enough before someone quits. In addition to that, three months is plenty of time to see a significant change in your biceps and triceps.

In the quoted study, men and women trained for three months to observe how much muscle mass could be obtained and if age would be a factor. They concluded that does indeed determine how much muscle mass can be obtained, but ALL members in the study gained significant muscle mass from exercise....

In short, theirs no definite time frame you should focus on to keep doing curls until you attain larger arms. You should instead focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle and habits like going to the gym consistently. Trust me, and you will see progress over time if you follow a good program and eat enough food — the only reason why you wouldn't if you aren't doing the training.

Cheat Code: How I Look Bigger In A Day

Short on time? Getting ready for a date and you want to look ripped? Look no further!

So one of the tips I always suggest to my friends if they are trying to appear more prominent in a day or before an event is first to dress the part.

Wearing baggy clothing will cover up what muscle mass you do have and make you look smaller overall despite how big you are. I would invest in some stretchy short sleeve shirts that are one size too small. Don't go too extreme, just enough to show off your entire arm.

Apart from clothing, eating carbs and drinking water can actually increase the size of your arms within an hour! You shouldn't go overboard, just a quick snack like a bowl of oatmeal or a candy bar.

In regards to exercise, I would suggest doing an activity that would quickly cause lactic acid buildup. For instance, if you do push-ups until your arms are sore and stiff, you will gain literal inches on your arms temporarily (generally around 1 to 3 hours after exercise).

An alternative to push-ups would be dumbbell curls or dips. Both will also hit your triceps extensions partially and give you a more rounded look.

How To Get Bigger Faster

I have a certification with ISSA, and I am a certified personal trainer. I have been helping others attain muscle for years. Despite that, I hadn't reached out and been coached ever until just this year. That was the most revealing decision I had ever made in my life. My coach built a workout that helped me gain a ton of mass that I did not think would be possible.

What I am trying to say is that it is hugely more beneficial to follow a program built to attain what your goal is. You could hire a coach or develop a proper plan online. I would suggest the online option. Theirs a ton of amazing programs out there, I personally recommend the Thomas Delauer's Adaptive Body Boost (Read More).

Even athletes and bodybuilders follow workout programs, why would you think you can do it yourself with the same efficiency?

What supplements I suggest:

If you are trying to put on the pounds and attain larger arms. It definitely wouldn't hurt to invest in creatine. It retains water and as you exercise will give you the perception that you have bigger muscles from just a few curls. Apart from that, I don't suggest any other supplement if your goal is to merely look bigger.

My favorite creatine is from Bulk Supplements (See Price)

Some consider them to be safer alternatives to steroids. Albeit they are still banned in many places. I don't believe you need any performance enhancing drugs to attain your goals. If you do not have intentions of becoming the next Olympia, stick with a good diet & a lot of curls.

I hope this article has helped you understand how you can attain your goals. If you want to learn more about dieting and nutrition stay tuned! We cover a multitude of topics. ASCVS wants you to check out our Adaptive Body guide as well if you're going to push yourself forward overall.

They cover all of the essentials:

Dieting: a comprehensive guide for men and women that focuses on building a consistent habit instead of forcing you to eat dry chicken every meal.

Workout plans: some based on people who want to gain muscle and others that focus on cutting fat. Albeit all programs will help you reduce fat.

Motivation within a community. This is by far the best way to help you stay motivated with your goals of attaining larger arms.

So you’re ready to get in shape. This is the year, and it’s great.

Goals are great, and we all want gains and positives that come along with them.

However, ensuring that the gym you frequent is up to par is just as important as choosing your plan. See, it doesn't take much to make a bad gym, or a good one to morph into a pathetic one. To achieve your results, you'll need to choose the right gym.

There’s only one problem-you have different gym chains within your radius. So how do you choose one?

If you've been looking for an ideal gym, you've probably come across Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness.

Battle of the Brands

Since time immemorial, these two brands have been ferociously battling for supremacy.

 Though both are a very similar fitness center, they differ in some pretty distinct ways. Beyond the disparity in their initial investment amounts, there are fundamental differences in how the two brands operate and market themselves.

So, which between these two seems like a more sound investment for a gym franchisee?

In the section below, we shall pit these two brands against each other, compare their features, pros, and cons. Hopefully, the article might help you pick the right gym for your fitness goals.

Anytime Fitness

Anytime Fitness was founded in 2002 by Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen and Jeff Klinger.

Currently headquartered in Hastings, Minneapolis, Anytime Fitness runs 24-hour facilities that members can access 365 days with a keycard.

Anytime Fitness business model is a streamlined version of the big-box gyms that offer the basics in an intimate environment for those interested in getting fit.

Anytime Fitness has experienced explosive growth in the last decade and is currently one of the largest franchise gyms in the country with over 3,000 locations.

Besides convenience, a key perk of Anytime Fitness lies on its no-contract membership. While some of the outlets may require contracts based on the operator’s discretion, a majority of them do not. In any case, an average monthly financial commitment is anywhere from $30-$50 per month depending on your location an operates on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Planet Fitness

Planet Fitness was co-founded by brothers Michael and Marc Grondahl in 1992.

However, it was not until 2003 that is began franchising.

After the acquisition of a struggling, conventional big-box gym, Michael developed a new business model that was tailored to provide casual and beginner fitness access at an affordable basic membership of $10 per month.

Beyond the low-cost business model approach, Planet Fitness has trademarked the "No judgment Zone" or an "Intimidation free" zone, which caters to those who are embarking on the fitness journey and the serious bodybuilders need not apply. They do still have standards on clothing (short shorts, muscle tanks etc)

Although popular, it does not match the popularity Anytime Planet. Evidence to this is the 830 locations of Planet Fitness, as opposed to the over 3,000 locations for Anytime Fitness.

Again, unlike Anytime Fitness, Planet Fitness requires a contract from its members, consequently, charging a start-up fee ranging from $15-30.

Planet Fitness has a policy on not allowing, grunting or slamming down weights to promote the "no judgment zone." However, this has seen the brand get criticized for not catering to athletes and creating fake-fitness environment thriving on the failure of its members.

In my opinion at the least, the negative media backlash and seemingly strange and strict regulations of Planet Fitness, it cannot in any way compete with the overall low-cost, hassle-free model of Anytime Fitness.

Differences | Side - By - Side

Now that we have a rudimentary idea of each franchisee let's have a look at the differences between them.

Cost

Cost is a crucial consideration to make when choosing any gym membership.

Now, both of these gyms will provide you with different membership options.

Anytime Fitness, for instance, offers a membership for both single and two-person monthly/annual membership.

For a single person, you can expect to pay a signup fee of $85 and a monthly fee of $40.

On the other hand, Planet Fitness offers different membership levels. You'll need to pay $10 per month for unlimited access in your local club or add $5 for a no-obligation membership. To access any Planet Fitness location, you’ll need to pay $20.

The startup fee at Planet Fitness varies depending on location, and you can get from $1 to $39/.

In terms of dollars and cent, Planet Fitness is the winner here. However, remember that you get what you pay for.

Hours

Aptly named anytime, Anytime does not close its doors.

On the other hand, though most of the Planet Fitness locations are open 24 hours, the service hours vary on weekends or by the franchise.

Equipment

Anytime is the go-to location for all your fitness needs. This gym has everything under the roof including a full suite of cardio machines, free weights, dumbbells, and power racks

Planet Fitness, on the other hand, is somewhat infamous for not catering t the heavy weightlifters.

For the weightlifters, you'll only get disappointed as you'll only find a Smith machine, a few weight machines, and some light dumbbells.

Classes

Anytime Fitness is versatility at its best. At its core, Anytime fitness offers a plethora of classes to choose from including cardio, yoga, and more.

Though free to members, they do vary by locations.

Anytime Fitness is Ideal if:

• You are looking to lift heavy weight
• Looking for a variety of classes
• Need to hit the gym anytime

Planet Fitness is Ideal if:

• You don’t like being around weight lifters
• Love cardio
• Are on a budget

The Verdict

Both these gyms pride themselves on convenience. However, they're different at the end of the spectrum

Mansa Brice's Steps to GET BIG

But before I highlight the steps for bulking up, it would be prudent that we demolish certain myths that are always holding the hard gainers back.

• Hard Gainers Can’t Gain Muscle

Ectomorphs believe that they cannot gain weight because of genetics. They think they are naturally predisposed to skinniness and no matter how much food they consume or exercises they undertake they can never bulk up.

However, this is another myth that doesn’t hold water; there is no scientific evidence suggesting that you cannot bulk. It just that you’re not challenging your body and muscles into rounds of rebuilding.

• No Matter How Much You Eat, a Hard Gainer Can’t Put on Weight

This is yet another classic myth.

In any case, you’ll find that the skinny guys consume far lesser kilojoules per day, nowhere near what they need to maintain their existing muscle mass, let alone add to it.

In most cases, you'll find the skinny guys over-estimating their consumption, and then incorrectly attributing their low weight to high metabolism.

One thing that is up not for debate is the fact that kilojoules matter a lot, but so does the sources of these kilojoules, which we shall discuss later.

• You’ve to Eat Till You Burst

Gaining weight is not all about stuffing food in the body.

There is is no right way of going about this- your body should tell you how it best processes calories.

In some people, for instance, it’s having a one-time larger meal, and for others, it’s around-the-clock eating.

If time is right, you should rarely feel as if you are force-feeding yourself.

• You Must Live in the Gym

While working out is surely going to boost your bulking efforts, overdoing it will physically and mentally drain you.

So, if your body gets sore, it’s signaling you to take a rest and recover. In most cases, you soon realize that the time spend recovering will enhance your overall results, allowing you to bounce back stronger than before.

• Results Will Be Minor

I won't lie: bulking up is not an easy path, especially for the first few weeks. You'll get sore, and the results might even get unpredictable.

You might gain a few kilograms right away or lose a kilogram or two, due to the drastic change in your routine. However, this shouldn't deter your progress, and it shouldn't mean that it's not doable.

Once you're past the shock stage, you will experience steady growth.

Tips for Skinny Guys Trying to Gain Muscles

The three key ingredients to go from skinny to muscular are nutrition, training, and consistency.

Nutrition

Now, if you are to bulk up, nutrition should be a priority, and here, it’s more than just eating but rather having a comprehensive and balanced dietary plan.

Let’s look at more at nutrition.

Eat More Food

To gain muscles fast, you'll have to eat like it's your day job. Seriously, though, I mean to eat like crazy.

I bet you're probably saying- "But I eat all day and can't add a single pound." I was there too. You're not eating enough. While you might be eating a lot, it's not enough.

See, being an ectomorph puts you in somewhat an inconvenient position. The hard gainers usually have a super-fast cheetah-like metabolism, meaning that they process their foods way faster than they can get it into their mouths.

In most cases, the hard gainers usually respond to caloric adaptation quickly and have an increased heat production for their food intake (Thermogenesis of food).

As such, it means that you'll have to consume a lot more food than the regular people to continue improving both strength and size and achieve the same improvement.

Have a Healthy Diet

While eating food will help in bulking your muscles, eating the wrong food will cause even more harm.

Though you should increase your quantity, I always emphasize on working on your quality of food too.

A large portion of your meal should comprise of healthy foods such as proteins, good carbs, good fats, fruits & veggies, and water.

In any case, bulking up to junk food is similar to building a dog cabin with wood drenched in lighter fluid. While junk food will get you satiated, it will increase the level of glucose circulating in your body. Increase glucose in your system will induce metabolic stress, in effect causing inflammation. Consequently, inflammation can lead to a gamut of other health-related issues such as cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.

What Foods Should I Focus on?

Eat More Proteins

Protein is bodybuilding foods. Proteins will help you build your proteins, while they will allow you to recover from your workouts and grow bigger.

Here, focus on the whole source of proteins with each of your meal consisting of lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs, legumes, fish, etc.

Eat Caloric Dense Foods

Beyond proteins, pay special attention to the caloric dense foods.

Foods high in carbs and fats have more calories per serving, and they will supply your body with the energy (glycogen) to fuel your workouts.

With foods such as pasta, brown rice, nuts or dried fruits, it will take less eating to create a caloric surplus.

Don’t Forget Hydrating

Hydration is an essential block of proper nutrition.

Blended foods will digest more easily than solid foods.

You can, therefore, make weight gainer shakes by mixing oats, milk, peanut butter, banana and whey protein in your blender for fast weight gain.

How Many Calories Do I Need?

I would not recommend eating certain amounts of calories per day to achieve results.

Why?

While scaling your calorie intake is a great way of seeing the “big-picture” improvements, we always get emotionally attached to it and its psychologically disastrous. Plus, the effects of calories do not take account at loss and muscle gain.

For instance, you might experience an increase in your body fat, but still, find no increase in your muscles and vice versa. While you can check on your weight occasionally, do get too emotional about it.

What I recommend is you simply eat as much as you can.

But how will I know I’m eating enough?

You can track your gym sessions and body weight (though they can be misleading) and if you're not getting any stronger, .i.e. not progressing in workload and adding mass to your frame, then it means you’re not eating enough.

Training for Weight Gain in the Gym

Stop wasting your time with curls, flies, fancy machines and fancy abs exercises. They will not do any good and are not effective at the start of the training when you need to gain muscles all over your body, and not on the chest, abs and arms that are visible to the mirror.

Instead, focus your energies on compounds like the squats and deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead presses. These workouts will not only challenge all your body muscles, and trigger more strength and muscle gain for gaining weight, but they offer the most bang for your buck.

Always remember that you’re not trying to lose weight, and therefore, your exercises should focus on adding muscle mass, as opposed to burning calories.

However, you can still stimulate muscle growth with other exercises, provided they incorporate heavy weight and activate your muscle fibers.

But beyond the workouts, ensure that you push yourself to the sensible limit every time you visit the gym. Ensure you’re pushing your muscles and tell them they need to get bigger.

While at it, however, remember that excessive training will only force the skinny guy to eat more, and they already have trouble ingesting enough calories as it is. It's therefore vital that you find the middle ground that will stimulate your muscle growth, without necessarily burning colossal amounts of your calories.

Varying your workouts is also a crucial component of a great muscle gaining workout. Surprise your body by keeping the stinking “plateaus” away and keep your body making gains.

Hard Gainer Weight Training

To gain weight quickly, weight training should be a crucial building block of your workout.

Here is a simple schedule that you can incorporate for muscle gain. The key here is to perform all the body workouts three times a week while sticking to the "big basic" workouts:

• Squats: 1 to 3 set of 8 to 12 reps
• Bench press: 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
• Bent over rows: 1 to 3 set of 8 to 12 reps
• Bicep curls: 1 to 3 set of 8 to 12 reps
• Calf raise: 1 to 3 set of 8 to 12 reps

The above workouts are simple and not revolutionary or trendy in any way. But hey, are you looking for something trendy or a workout that will get you bulk up in no time?

Growth Happens While You Rest and Not When You Workout

Like me had mentioned earlier, gaining muscles is not all about spending time in the gym or working out.

Remember by working out, you’re tearing your muscles, and giving them a micro-trauma when you’re training which gives them the ability to grow.

However, if you don't give your body enough nutrients and enough rest, you will not register any growth, and you'll be working against yourself.

Therefore, you'll need to give your muscles adequate rest in between the workouts to give them time to heal and grow.

In any case, overtraining will just slow down your gains.

Set Goals and Be Consistent

It will be easier to motivate yourself if you have exact goals like gaining 30lbs of muscles in a year or improving your bench presses from 100lbs to 300lbs a year.

Unlike having a vague goal like gaining muscles, specific, time-bound goals will allow you to feel motivated.

Bottom Line

Again, I can’t overemphasize on this one; bulking up for the skinny guys is not an easy path. You will at times get discouraged and even think of giving up altogether.

But don’t do it. All the big guys you see in the gym have one thing in common; they wanted it and were willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. They never quit and you can’t either.