Are you tired of being "just average" or skinny, and want to pack on some serious muscle, fast? Have you tried everything and can't seem to gain weight? Here are some general tips on how to gain weight - fast:

1. Do Compound Weightlifting Exercises

Believe it or not, focusing on a specific bodypart - e.g., the biceps - is not nearly as effective as a compound exercises. Here's the secret: the more muscle you stimulate at once, the more growth hormone response you're going to get from your body. If you focus on the biceps - which comprise only a tiny part of your total muscle mass - you'll get a tiny response. Go for heavy exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses (in that order). These exercises hit the largest muscles in the body and will generate a huge growth hormone response from your body, so that all your muscles will grow - even smaller muscles such as biceps and triceps.

2. Eat, Eat, Eat!

With a high intensity workout routine, your body is going to need a huge amount of fuel and nutrition to build those muscles. For skinny/average guys with high metabolisms, gaining muscle can be particularly hard. The best advice is to eat plenty of healthy food, at least 5-6 times a day. Be sure to have a balanced diet - 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Focus on the good sources too - whole grain carbs if possible, lean meats such as fish and poultry, and healthy fats such as olive oil and cottage cheese. Eat every three hours - the body tends naturally looks for food in three hour intervals. If it doesn't find any, it enters starvation mode and pours nutrients into fat and energy burning, instead of muscle growth.

3. Drink plenty of water

Water is crucial for muscle tissue synthesis. Most people are actually dehydrated, which is a killer for muscle growth. With the extra food you are consuming (especially protein), you'll also need water to keep your kidneys flushed.

4. Sleep

One common myth is that we build muscle when we work out. This couldn't be further from the truth, since we actually only build muscle during our most inactive state - sleep. If you're hitting your body hard with nutrients and exercise, you're going to need even more sleep that the average joe - aim for 8-10 hours of sleep a night.

5. Consistency

This is actually the number one reason why people don't gain weight. Sure, you've tried exercising, or eating, or drinking water, or sleeping - but have you done it consistently, day in and day out? Here's why: muscle-building is very low on your body's priority list. Therefore in order to convince it to push it up the priority list, you have to get your basics taken care of first: proper nutrition, plenty of sleep, and a schedule that minimizes shocks and changes to the system. The more regular your routine is, the more likely your body will divert resources towards muscle growth.