Weight Training
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I'm 18 years old, 5'10", 215lbs. I've been training for going on 4 years now. Drug free because it's the only way to be.
I inherited my father's fine boned, thin muscled, basically ectomorphic physique. When I first started out lifting weights, I tried a lot of things, but none of them worked due to lack of knowledge and false information. After a lot of trial and error and acquiring some basic, but most importantly, useful information, I've built the strong physique I've dreamed about. Of course, not without a lot of hard work.
As far as training goes, basic compound movements work best. If you're a hard gainer like I was, staying in the gym over an hour and cranking out endless reps is not going do anything for you. You will quickly become over trained and can actually be in worse condition than you started out with.
I recommend doing the 3 basic power movements (squats, bench presses, and deadlifts) with some assistance exercises to...well...assist in performing these exercises with more control and more weight. These 3 exercises are the main power movements that build power and mass. You could do a routine comprised only of these 3 exercises and build a great physique. Though, using assistance exercises will make for even greater gains.
Here is a routine that I use:
Monday
Legs:
- squats (sets of 12, 8, 5)
- lunges (sets of 12, 8, 5)
- leg extensions (sets of 10, 8)
- leg curls (sets of 12, 8, 5)
- calf raises (sets of 15, 12, 10)
Wednesday
Chest:
- bench press (sets of 10, 8, 6)
- incline bench press (sets of 10, 8, 6)
Triceps:
- close grip bench presses (sets of 10, 8)
- lying triceps extensions/"skull crushers" (sets of 10, 8)
Shoulders:
- military press (sets of 10, 8) - upright rows (sets of 10, 8)
Friday
Back:
- wide grip pull-downs (sets of 10, 8, 6) - bent over rows (sets of 10, 8, 6)
- deadlifts (sets of 10, 8, 6)
Biceps:
- barbell curls (sets of 10, 8, 6)
Forearms:
- wrist curls (sets of 12, 10, 8)
Cardio: Wind sprints (100m) for 10 minutes, resting once for 30 seconds. Sometimes I'll skip for 15 minutes and, for the final 3 minutes, skip as fast as I can. Then I fall right on my ass afterwards. I'll do my cardio twice a week at most.
Note: Of course, to continue to grow you must shock your muscles by not allowing them to adapt to what you're doing in the gym. Therefore, I change things in my routine every month. Things like substituting a barbell with dumbbells for biceps and shoulder exercises...also for chest exercises. Use techniques like super setting, drop sets, reverse pyramiding, and others.
No doubt, without proper nutrition, there is no point in training because you won't make any gains. Nutrition is the hard part for me. Whereas for a lot of people, it's the training aspect. For a long time, neglecting a proper diet was the primary reasons why I didn't make any gains in the beginning.
The first thing I worry about in my diet, considering that I lift weights intensely, is protein. You've probably heard or read all the protein theories, but I'll tell you the method that I've adopted. To ensure a sufficient amount of protein is present in your body for tissue repair, I would stick with a protein intake of 1g to 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. I consume about 1.2g per pound of body weight (215lbs x 1.2g protein = approx. 300g protein daily). Generally, 1g per pound of body weight is sufficient. On peak soreness days, it is a good idea to increase your intake of protein to ensure there is enough to repair the damaged tissue after a hard weight training session. My favorite sources of protein are chicken, turkey, beef (occasionally), milk, and whey powdered protein supplement. Fish is also a great source of protein.
Secondly, I worry about carbohydrates. I consume around 425g to 475g of carbs daily. You can calculate your approximate carb needs by multiplying your body weight by 2.2. For example, if you weigh 150lbs, you would need about 330g of carbs daily. Now, depending on whether or not you gain fat easily, you may want to decrease that by 50g or more. (Though weight loss is not my area of most knowledge, so I'll just shut my mouth instead of messing you up with B.S. I have a high metabolism so it's not something I've needed to focus on.) Try to stay away from simple carbs like refined sugar and fruit. They will give you a short energy boost, but nothing long lasting. Don't avoid eating fruit, just not a lot of it. My favorite carbs are pasta, potatoes, and vegetables such as broccoli, lettuce, peas, and carrots.
Getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals is just as important, for they make the necessary chemical changes in your body for growth and just general maintenance of your body. These are found mostly in fruits and vegetables. Green vegetables especially, like lettuce and broccoli. It is best to get all your nutritional requirements from natural sources rather than supplements because they are more easily absorbed. However, supplements are very beneficial when one cannot afford enough time to sit down, prepare and cook a meal. Just remember, they are supplements. They supplement things in your diet. They are not designed to replace food all together. Supplements are very valuable, as I have found over the years I have been training - especially with a busy school and work schedule like mine.
As far as supplements go, I have not done much experimentation. I've found that I could meet all my nutritional requirements with the aid of a whey protein supplement and a multi-vitamin daily. I suppose I'm also a bit scared of side effects of other supplements, so I just stick to protein powder and my multi-vitamins. Hey, it works.
Try out my routine if you want. I'll give you a sample meal plan of what I eat each day if you want to know. Just ask.
Okay, now I'm ready for your feedback. Take your best shot. Give me all your negative and positive comments. I like them both.
- MEAT HEAD
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It's me, MEAT HEAD, again. I just noticed my routine was posted. After reviewing what I had typed, there were a couple of things I forgot to add.
Firstly, you may have noticed that no ab exercises are listed. I know, you probably want to stone me to death because of that. Anyway, I do crunches and leg raises. Three sets of 50 for each exercise. Now and then, I throw in some twisting sit-ups or twisting crunches for intercostals and obliques.
I don't like doing over 50 reps for any ab exercise even though I can go over 50. My time in the gym must be productive and as short as possible because of all the time consuming activities in my day. Often, I weight my ab exercises to increase the intensity. When I say "weight" the exercise, I mean using a weight plate or dumbbell to increase the resistance of the motion. For example, if I weight crunches or sit-ups, I'll hold a weight plate while I do the exercise. When doing leg raises, I would hold a dumbbell between my legs.
One other thing I neglected to mention was that you may want to train calves twice a week or three times a week, depending on your recuperative abilities. My recuperative abilities are about average, so I train mine twice a week. Of all the muscles I've worked since I began training, none have recuperated faster than my calves. Given the placement of calf training on the routine I submitted, your second calf training session should be Friday. Unless, of course you are still sore. In which case you will have to wait longer.
Hopefully, I covered everything. Tell me if you like my routine or not. It's not for everyone, but it is for some.
- MEAT HEAD
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Good to hear you've succeeded in achieving a good physique, especially as a hard gainer. I am the hardest of hard gainers! I weigh in at just over 140lbs and I am 6'2" so, as you can guess, I'm pretty darned scrawny. I've tried many routines, for example, training different body parts on different days, supersets, pyramids. I did about 3 exercises per body part, which I now feel is too much. I am a lot less experienced than I thought after reading some of the literature and responses on this site. I am intending to start a new, simple routine which goes as follows:
- 3 sets of 10 Bench Presses
- 3 sets of 10 Squats
- 3 sets of 10 Bent over rows
I'm planning on doing this routine three times a week, with at least 1 day's rest between workouts. As for nutrition, I've always been a poor eater, but I'm going to start eating at the very least 3 meals a day. Do you think this routine will be effective? Any advice would be very helpful indeed, and I'd be very grateful.
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This is in regards to the inquiry in response # 2. As a hard gainer, it's extremely hard to pack on size using the highly publicized methods in the magazines. Actually, it's impossible. Now I'm not claiming to know the way. All I can give you is advice that I feel is sensible and useful.
Before I give you my two cents worth, I seriously recommend you invest in a great book. It's called "Beyond Brawn" by author Stuart McRobert. Everything you ever wanted to know about being a hard gainer and training as a hard gainer is all answered in this book.
To save you some time, I'll give you a quick and basic run down of what would be in your best interests to do. To start, up your calories. Given your height, I'd suggest 3,000 calories a day. Get approximately 45% of your calories from complex carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice), 35% of your calories from protein (chicken, lean cuts of beef, eggs, tuna, milk), and 20% from fat (stay away from animal fats, but don't be shy with olive oil when cooking). When training, If you notice you gain while consuming this number of calories, than stick with that number until you cease to make gains. When you cease to make gains, up the calories by 100-200 calories. Again, if you gain, continue until you cease to gain. Also, to make sure you're not deficient in any vitamins and minerals, take a multi-vitamin daily.
If you can afford it, I would invest in some whey protein powder. Especially if you find it hard to get in meals consistently throughout the day. You should consume 5-8 meals daily. From the time I started training to this day, my time is seriously constrained with work and school. I can manage three solid meals a day (breakfast-7:00am, lunch-12:00pm, dinner-5:00pm) but the remaining meals I consume are liquefied (protein shakes with other ingredients mixed in). While I'm at school, I drink my protein shake mixed with water, chocolate ice cream, and almonds 3 hours after breakfast/2 hours before lunch, immediately when the final school bell rings, 3 hours after dinner, and 2 hours after that. That's a total of seven meals per day. Note, that I make my protein shakes the day before at night and put it in a thermos and store it in the fridge and at school I keep it in a lunch cooler with those blue gel ice packs.
Of course, there is training. The exercises you had mentioned (bench presses, squats, and bent over rows) are excellent multi-joint/compound movements specifically for mass building. Instead of doing bent over rows, I'd do dead lifts. Do a Monday, Wednesday, Friday type routine so that you do each one of these exercises on different non-consecutive days. Lift heavy, but don't sacrifice your form. Do sets of 2-3 for each exercise and reps between 4-8. Allow yourself 2-4 minutes between sets. Stick with this program for as long as you can gain with it. After a while, you may want to add some other exercises like incline bench presses and dips for your chest, bent over rows and pull-ups for your back, calf raises and stiff legged deadlifts for your legs.
Unfortunately, no one has a blue print of what will work. The whole thing is about trial and error or being an explorer, I guess. Find what works for you.
The third thing is rest. Get at least 8 hours sleep a night. Don't stay up late watching Letterman or partying 'til dawn. When you aren't in the gym, stay as inactive as possible. Try to keep a positive frame of mind and eliminate unnecessary stresses in your life. Stress is unavoidable, but it is still possible to keep a handle on it.
Other than that, be patient and persistent and you will reap the benefit. The time is now. Show 'em what you're made of animal!
- MEAT HEAD
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