Q: Hi Mike, I am a 5' 8" male, 28, and have always always had a fairly slight build. However, over the last 6 months I was starting to make good progress in the gym, gaining more muscle through a high-protein diet and increasing my body weight from 60 to almost 65kg, closer to where I wanted to be. Unfortunately (and typically!), last month I became quite ill, and while I have now almost recovered from the illness, it has effectively reversed all of my hard work and I have lost a lot of weight and muscle as a result. It has also left me with quite a bad back which is currently limiting the exercise I can do. Hopefully this is only temporary and will subside over the coming weeks. So my question is, how would you advise that I proceed in terms of diet and exercise regime? I have become very skinny and I am very keen to put some weight back on asap, but given the current back problem, I cannot really do a full workout in the gym as I used to. Should I still be eating a high-protein diet (including protein shakes) even if I am unable to weight train at the level I was previously, or will this result in me just putting on fat? Any suggestions for good exercises for upper body which will minimize the risk of damaging my back further? Thanks for a great and informative site!

A: Sorry to hear about your back problems. The right thing to do is definitely to see a doctor about it and get professional opinion on what's safe and what's not safe to do as far exercise. Your best bet would probably be upper body bodyweight exercises that do not involve lower back in any form other than maybe stabilization. These would include various chinups and pullups, parallel bar body dips, and pushups. Just those three exercises can actually give you a great upper body workout -- but again I urge you to get medical OK before you proceed with them.

As far as your diet, if you can do any exercises at all (like the three above) on a regular basis you can definitely go back to your normal bulking diet. And remember that although protein is very important by itself it's not enough to gain much mass and muscle -- you'll need to include generous amounts of healthy carbs such as whole grains, veggies, and fruits as well. Read my Nutrition article if you are not sure how to structure your diet. Of course, if you are unable to exercise at all then there's probably no point in trying to bulk up since most of it will just end up being new fat. Best of luck!