Hi, I'm a ectomoprh(hard gainer) and I would like ask whether is this bicep routine is too much for me ?

EZ bar curl 3 x 10
Concentration curl 3 x 10
Hammer curl 3 x 10

or should I switch to

(I was using this previously)
EZ bar curl 3 x 10
Concentration curl 3 x 10
Reverse EZ bar curl 3 x 12?


Thanks for the advices and suggestion.

This post has been edited by exxn0mercy: Nov 7 2012, 11:36 AM

Ummmm

As far as I understand for hard-gainers it isn't the training that is the issue - you train the same as any other body type (depends on your goal of course).

The issue is your food. You likely need to eat more, in some cases - ALOT more, to see the same results of a meso or endo body type.

So the question is simple: Are you eating enough? How many calories exactly?

Thanks for the reply.

Ohh. It is about eating.. Okay, because I read at some forum, they said ectomorph or hard gainer should make the workout short and intense and too much exercise on 1 muscle group will 'over break' the muscle?

? Everyone's workout should be intense. As for 'short', most should strive for 30-60 minutes so I guess it depends on a persons definition of 'short'. I try to keep it around 45 minutes and that's short enough for me (unless I wanted to attempt supersets).

You can wait and see if any of the very experienced guys here (several who are hard gainers) can give their opinion but, as far as I know, there has never been advice given by them that differentiated forms of workout for different body types to grow more (unless your form sucks). It has always fallen on calories and nutrition.

If you don't know your BMR, your TDEE, how many calories your eating and whats a good surplus for your body to show results then I suggest you figure that out before getting too stressed about finding the 'perfect program'. The best programs give crap results if you don't eat enough.

P/S: I have no clue what you mean by "over-break" a muscle You can hurt yourself if your form sucks and thats a major no-no. You can over train (no rest days for muscle groups) and that is counter productive because your muscles never grow in that scenario. If your talking about working a muscle to failure - then that's fine, in fact some people suggest it for best results. BUT this still depends on your eating.

Any sifus who can help and offer their opinions?

This post has been edited by shadowz: Nov 7 2012, 12:06 PM

Ok, thanks for the info, I understand, u r right, I will do more research on this.

So actually I do not have to worry about "over breaking down' my muscle as long as I'm eating enough?

This post has been edited by exxn0mercy: Nov 7 2012, 12:12 PM

Ohhhhhh you were talking about 'breaking down' muscle mass. Should've known. My bad.

You don't have to worry about that so long as you eat enough protein (simplest rule of thumb is 0.8-1g protein for every pound you weigh-so if you weigh 135 pounds try to hit 135g protein a day) and you are weight training at least 2-3 times a week. Do note that there are many opinions as to how much is enough, so just try to figure out which works best for your body.

Also, if you are worried about losing muscle mass - avoid doing too much cardio. In fact, if you are underweight, I suggest you only train 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week solely for health benefits. If you train too intensely for too long without enough food and weight training you do risk your body turning to your muscles to break them down.

Yes, please do your research, feel free to ask more questions (avoid stupid questions, else you risk receiving stupid answers ), and good luck.

Hi there! Great to see another ectomorph not complaining and doing something about their weight.

As you can see I'm an ectomorph as well. I don't have much to say because most has been covered by shadowz; train enough to stimulate growth, not too much to eat up your own body, and nutrition nutrition nutrition.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 7 2012, 12:35 PM

A lot of first timer are very motivated and hit the gym everyday for hours thinking they it will grow faster. After a month with too little or no gain at all, they give up. Keep learning and don't give up easily.

You're ectomorph because you believe so. Just tell urself you're not eating enough and do it, get more calories for your body. Diet is the hardest part for me, time & financially.
Most important meal of your day should be pre-workout meal so that you can get enough fuel to workout in top form.
Google for calorie calculator and count each food tat u eat frequently. After a week, you should have a rough idea of the amount of calories that you're eating.

I did all compound exercise first to build my strength for few weeks then only start focusing individual body part. Workout within 1 hour time with all my strength in top form for 3 sets 8 reps (more for abs and leg). Lift heavy, do it slowly and feel the tension. You must learn the proper way of doing it first by using light weight before lifting heavy to prevent injury. When I say lift heavy, do what you're capable of. I see a lot of people lift beyond what they can with friend supporting for full 3 sets 8 reps. For me, they looks like gay hugging each other. Sorry if I offend anyone but i think its okay to support the last few reps otherwise just reduce the god damn weight. Gym is not a place to show ur macho'ness unless you're looking for the same sex.

Get enough sleep and rest to repair ur muscle. Over-training won't help you grow faster. Try using calorie calculator and choose between "3-days/week training" & "7-days/week training", obviously you'll need a hell lot of eating if you're working out everyday. Same goes for long workout hours, you're burning all the calories away for nothing. I try to do it within an hour time cause i can't eat enough calories to gain.
I can't follow 100% but i try my best to take supper and breakfast. We the skinny people have very fast metabolism. When your body don't have calorie and fat to burn while you're fasting for hours (sleeping), what's next? muscle mass.

Different ppl have different ways, most of them will work and some just don't know what they doing but still wanna be mr.trainer. i hate this the most, they're misleading ppl n still act like pro.
I'm a newbie myself, joined gym a month ago and gained 5kgs .. You may not need to follow but above is what i believe will work and i keep doing it until someone can correct me..
i spent a lot of time re-read n re-write because of my poor english .. Hope it helps.. or u can hate me for misleading..

Okay, I get it. Thanks for all the replies. Thankss

Also watch out for symptoms of over training, one of which (and the most demotivating) is sleep problems. I experienced it sometimes when I upped my intensity by 'upgrading' to a harder progression.
After about 3 days, I get twitches and jerks all over my body when I try to get some sleep (so I cannot get good sleep), whenever I am about to fall asleep my body would just twitch me back to life. I'd take about 3 days off from training to set myself up again, and I slept better again. I dialed down my training frequency to maybe 1 day of workout, 1 day of rest and work my way up back to my usual frequency (3 days, 1 day rest).

When you get symptoms like that, back off for a few days...maybe even a week. There are other symptoms like unexpected tiredness (the time of day you usually don't get tired) despite good nutrition, muscle soreness that stays longer than usual, and mood swings (for me anyway ).

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 10 2012, 04:30 PM

TS, out of curiosity since I'm doing a bit of generalization here. Do you include any leg exercises in your routine?

u guys are so good in giving lengthy explanation. salute