it sucks to be Ectomorph..

[swanso5]

there's no use adding fat just to increase total body mass..everybody's goal regardless of bodytype should be too add as much muscle as possible but with the least amount of fat gain...all the alcohol will do is raise cortisol production which will then waste your muscle so whatever you build you'll lose...why not just eat more food? it's got a better chance of building muscle...alcohol are just empty cal's that make you fat...and visceral / heart attack fat at that...hopefully no one takes that advice

[sameey70]

I too am an ectomorph, 6'2" 170 lb female. I do cardio (treadmill, 4.2 mph, 9.0 grade for 35min 3x/wk and eliptical for 1 hr 3x/wk.) and weight train 3 days/wk and have no problem with increasing muscle mass. For me, high intensity resistance training works as well as making sure I eat enough calories. I don't use or need protein supplements, diet supplies what I need. High carbohydrate, moderate protein, adequate fat.
I guess I just have "good" genes.

[ectomorph]

im ectomorph too


if you want those vein popping and muscle showing. try low weight but lot rep non-stop until you can feel your muscle burning, take 3 second rest, and return to the excercise. you might wan to start with 30 rep and increase it weekly.

i dont do much heavy training but the toning is helping alot in helping the muscle to show.

Different strokes...:

I too would consider myself an ectomorph (6'5", 180 not too long ago). For a long time I did 4-6 sets of a given exercise, increasing the weight for each set, finishing when I was only able to push out 5 reps or so, working each muscle group twice a week. While I felt better and stronger, I was gaining neither weight nor mass. Advice from a physical therapist (shoulder injury) and a great deal of research led me to try a high weight, low reps, low sets routine, compound excercises whenever possible, and only working a muscle group once per week. The results have been astounding. I'm now in the mid-190s (although a bit more body fat that I care for helps that number). In just a few months I've seen gains in mass and definition that I doubted I could ever achieve. I now do two sets of a particular exercise: a warm up set with a weight I can comfortable get 10 reps, and a work set of 5-8 reps. When I can push 8 reps at a given weight I raise it for the next time to a weight I can only push 5. I do compound, body-weight excercises whenever possible, adding some isolation excercises for biceps and such. I now have to use a weight belt for pull-ups and dips to keep myself under the 8 reps.

I'm not saying this is the only way. I'm saying that what works for one (low weight, high sets and reps) may not work for another (me), so you have to try different things to see what works for you. Based on own experience I think you're probably overtraining, because I did the same thing. I gained definition (mainly from loss of body fat) and some strenget, but nothing to write home about. Intensity is desirable, but 5-6 x per week is probably too much. Based on your work weight increases, how much stronger have you gotten? In 18 months I managed to push flat bench from 130 to 155 (really squeezing a couple out at that weight). Bicep curl went from 40 to 50 lbs. After 4 months of the new program I now warm up with 165 lbs on the bench, and do work set at 190. I'm curling 75 lbs. I actually have pecs and shoulders and biceps and triceps. I can't wait to see what I look like a year from now.

You have one thing right: intensity is the key. It's what prompts muscle to grow, regardless of body type. But intensity is simply the amount of work you do in a given time. I'm now doing as much or more work as I was before, but in 2 sets/week/muscle group vs 10-12, and never 2 days in a row. The main benefit is that body now has more time to recover and build muscle before I tear it up again. There's even a school of thought (static contraction training) that maximum intensity come from not even performing a rep, but simply holding a very large weight in the maximum contracted position (i.e. 1" below the top of a bench press) for a short period of time, less than 15 sec for most excercises. You should try to find a couple books at the library: Scrawny to Brawny by John Berardi and Static Contraction Training by Peter Sisco. These two book completely changed the way I work out, and the results show.

hello as i was analyzing with different forums, i found your workout routine catered for the real ectomorph guy..well of course aside from the nutrition adjustment to 6-8 meals, the routine is the hardest part for skinny people like us because we dont know how are muscles will respond to every set that we throw in the gym

sir, i have some questions on your routine:

1. how long did you stick with your ectomorph basic program before of 2 sets including the warm up about 30% + the heavy about 80%, of 5-8 reps like for 1 month???

2. how long should i take the optimal rests between the warm up set and the heavy set??and after the heavy set to another exercise??

3. how frequent is that program, im thinking about 1x a week only so as not to overtrain, eventhough i split the routines of different muscle groups, it might also be too draining for an ectomorph???

4. how long is your recovery from day1 workout, like should i take every 4 days or 1 week or 2 weeks off then workout again???

5. you said 2 exercises per muscle group only, so i believe you had your program on a full body routine?? unless its not 1 x a week

6. can i see your ectomorph bulking routine that you did before when you were still on it, coz im thinking about this:

full body workout 1 x a week

bpress warm up 1 x 15, heavy 1 x 8-12
deadlift same
pullups same

if time is not yet 40mins
bar dips same
bent rows same
squat same


thanks

[swanso5]

don't "double up" on exercises or muscles maybe something like this:

workout 1
squat
row
bench

Workout 2
Squats
pull up
dips

i would also do more warm up sets...the heavier your going to go the more warm up sets you'll need ecspecially if yuor only doing 1 set to failure...try 3 - 4 sets x 3 - 4 reps so as not to induce fatigue like you would with 15 rep warm up sets

as for schedule mon/thu, tue/fri or something like that or you could even do 2 workouts every 8 days depending on your recovery

[ectomorph]

don't "double up" on exercises or muscles maybe something like this:

workout 1
squat
row
bench

Workout 2
Squats
pull up
dips

i would also do more warm up sets...the heavier your going to go the more warm up sets you'll need ecspecially if yuor only doing 1 set to failure...try 3 - 4 sets x 3 - 4 reps so as not to induce fatigue like you would with 15 rep warm up sets

as for schedule mon/thu, tue/fri or something like that or you could even do 2 workouts every 8 days depending on your recovery

The reason i did that routine was because i was fitting it to the 40 mins workout...

a lot of forumers said for an ectomorph, "not too many exercises per muscle group but 2-3 would be ok". and yet i limited it to just 2 instead of 3 exercises so as not to overtrain body parts...

so youre saying that its better to only do 1 exercise per muscle group???or you're just playing safe???

and for your workout1 and workout2, isnt it that i might overtain due to after only 2-4 days off i get back to the same muscle group(remember im an ectomorph)...

how would i know if i had fully recovered? is it just like nothing is sore anymore???

[swanso5]

you'll only need 2 days to recover hopefully but you train every 3 or 4 days depending on YOUR recovery ability...use plenty of warm ups will add volume as well so should take 10 - 15mins each exercise anyway if your warming up properly...think movements not muscles...for example when you get injured it's not the muscle that's over used but the movement otherwise our shoulders would never recover so training the same muscle a different way is perfectly fine i think

[justified25]

THere is only one true correct perfect and i mean perfect diet. Hate to just give it away like this but here goes. Eggs, grapefruit,lemons, limes, green apples, olive oil, coconut oil, all meats, all vegetables excluding starchy ones, water.

[justified25]

Train like the common bowflew commercial would say 3 days a week, 20 minutes give or take. Hard and not necessarily heavy weights but lots of bodyweight exercises. Only two exercises i will ever do for the rest of life pullups and leg raises , this hits all body , flexibility, stamina , what else would you need. Opinions may vary but i would elaborate more if asked upon to do so.

[swanso5]

leg raises??? hmm hardly a world beater there

[ancosa]

For God's sake, I see so many people on here posting that they "can't gain weight" and that its literally impossible for them. I have an Ectomorph body type as well, but through hard work and eating right I have been able to slowly put on weight. Its not an easy hill to climb, I have been working out hard for almost a year now, stuffing face with carbs, and a tremendous amount of protein. After a year I have only gained 15 but thats what you need to remember. It is not going to happen overnight. There are very few people who actually "cant gain weight" and I'd be willing to bet you aren't one of those people. One of the most important things is that you eat a large breakfast at the same time everyday. Obviously make sure you eat both lunch and dinner as well. Another thing though, you need to fill in tthe gaps between meals with snacks. personal favorite snack are thick PB and J sandwhiches. Being an ectomorph, the carbs should not be a problem so long as you are doing enough exercise to help counteract fat build up. You may find it hard to eat as much food as is required for ectomorphs at first, but you will find that after 2 weeks or so of eating a tremendous amount of food, your body will start to crave that amount on a regular basis and it will actually become easy for you to eat that much.

[TheAmazingOti]

Seriously. It's like worrying that you're too old to get in great shape, or something.

A little less complaining and a lot more hard work and being "ectomorph" wouldn't be a problem.