If you're a skinny hardgainer or ectomorph who is looking at how to get buff, then there are a few things that you'll need to do in order to achieve your goal.

Unfortunately most folks tend to make the same mistakes when trying to get buff and so make it more difficult than it should be. However, it really all comes down to finding the right plan for you and sticking to it.

Here are 3 things that you'll need to do to succeed in your quest of how to get buff.

Consume More Calories...MUCH More!

Usually the biggest reasons skinny guys fail to pack on slabs of muscle quickly is inadequate nutrition and calorie intake. Even with the best training program in the world, if you fail to eat sufficient amounts and eat at the wrong time of day, you will struggle to get buff fast.

How many calories should you consume daily?

In general, to build muscle mass, you should look to consume around 24 times your bodyweight in pounds. So, if you weigh 150 pounds you should consume 150 x 24 = 3,600 calories per day. Make sure these calories come from good high quality sources and not just a lot of junk fast food...after all we want to build muscle and get buff, not get fat.

Focus Your Workout around The Big Lifts

Another common mistake skinny guys make when thinking about how to get buff is their lack of use of the Big Lifts. By big lifts I'm talking about compound exercises like Squats, Bench Press, and Deadlifts.

These enable you to lift heavier weights than isolation exercises and work more muscle fibers per exercises meaning you get bigger and stronger faster. The extra testosterone boost you'll get from these big lifts will also serve to help you to get buff quicker.

Keep Your Workouts Short...

...but high intensity! You might often hear guys saying things like "I spend around 2 hours in the gym 6 days a week".

Working out for so long is not good, and unnecessary in your quest of how to get buff. These guys that are spending 2 hours in the gym are probably wasting a lot of time chatting, or posing in front of the mirrors. Don't have that same attitude.

When you go to the gym, know what you're going to do and go do it. If you're working at high intensity (as you should be) it should take you no longer than an hour. This makes it easy to fit into your weekly schedule.

Stick to 3 all-body workouts per week, with rest days in between. The guys that go 6 days in a row are not really allowing their bodies to rest sufficiently, which will hamper your muscle growth and halt your quest to get buff.