Exercise is needed in maintaining good health. It helps to reduce your risk of certain diseases, build body strength, and even lessen stress. When trying to gain weight, exercise is essential to further increase your overall body mass in addition to your diet. Strength-training makes a favorable choice, lifting and adding/compounding more weights and increasing your repetitions as you progress.

A rest day should be included in between your workout days to give time for your muscles to recover and build for growth. And remember, try not to put so much pressure on yourself and work at a pace that best suits your lifestyle.

Here are some examples of muscle-building exercises to gain weight you can do at home or at the gym:

 

Squats

Squats involve toning primarily the thigh and glutes muscles by bending the knees approximately shoulder-width apart, hands optionally extended, and squeezing as you pull up. This highly effective strength exercise builds muscle mass and is among one of the most popular as it targets multiple areas. You can do squats while at home or at the gym using weights for even more muscle engagement.

Lunges

When doing lunges, you are going to want to step and lean on one leg at an approximately 90-degree angle, and switch legs interchangeably with each repetition. Lunges help to increase muscle mass in the lower body area, contributing to gains in your overall body mass. Use resistance bands for a more challenging workout.

Crunches

Crunches target your abdomen area. They are a simple yet effective choice of exercises to gain weight and build muscle. You can also modify the way you do crunches by doing additional movements along with them (e.g. bicycle crunches, scissor kicks).

Bicep & tricep curls

These exercises tone your arm muscles, the biceps and triceps. Locate some dumbbells and with one placed in each hand, raise and curl your arms towards your body. Briefly hold this position and then lower your arms back down to your sides. There are a variety of other arm exercises that can benefit increasing your overall body mass.

Leg curls & lifts

Like with bicep and tricep curls, leg curls and lifts involve a similar movement, except with your legs. Begin by lying on your backside. Then, with your legs extended outwards, steadily raise your legs towards your body. Briefly hold this position and then lower your legs back down. Repeat your desired number of repetitions. These exercises help to tone and build muscle in your legs and abdomen.

Burpees

Burpees are a more complex series of movements, but can be very beneficial exercises to gain weight and increase muscle growth. The ways in which burpees can be completed vary, however these exercises will work out all areas of muscle in your body, making it a highly effective way to increase your overall body mass.

Push-ups & pull-ups

Both well known and popular exercises, push-ups and pull-ups target the upper portion of your body, focusing on the arms and abdomen. These exercises are a straightforward and efficient way to build muscle mass, and will aid in building body mass.

Deadlifts / lifting in general 

Deadlifts, and lifting weights in general, are exceptionally effective when it comes to trying to gain weight. This is because these exercises work out a large portion of muscles throughout your body. However, you should gradually increase your load to heavier weights as you become more intermediate.