Schedule for teen ectomorph??

[Ectomorph02]

Hello. I'm 15 years old, 5'8" tall and weigh 108-110 lbs. I wanna gain weight. Can someone help me with my routine??

MONDAY: Legs and abs

BARBELL SQUATS 3x4-6 reps
HACK SQUATS 1x4-6 reps
LEG CURLS 3x10-12 reps
CALF RAISES 2x15 reps
SITUPS 2x50 reps

TUESDAY: Cardio-3 mile jog

WEDNESDAY: Pull

SUMO DEADLIFTS 3x4-6 reps
RG PULLDOWNS 3x4-6 reps
CHINS 1x max reps
PREACHER CURLS 3x4-6 reps

THURSDAY: Cardio-3 mile jog

FRIDAY: Push

BARBELL BENCH PRESS 3x4-6 reps
BARBELL INCLINE PRESS 3x4-6 reps
STANDING OH PRESS 3x4-6 reps
DIPS 1xmax
WEIGHTED BENCH DIPS 2x4-6 reps

WEEKENDS: ZZZZ and EAT

Does this schedule and routine look okay??? I'm really weak (Bench: 95, Squat: 150, Deadlift: 170) and wanna get big and strong, and I'm hoping this is an okay workout. Also, I'm eating 2,300 calories a day. How many more should I add to gain 2-3 pounds a week?? Thanks.

[Mark Rejhon]

Hi,

Is your goal to bulk up?

If so, then skip out all/most of the cardio because cardio conflicts with bulking in many underweight ectomorphs. You should hold off cardio until you bulk up somewhat so that may mean giving up your jogs for now. Cardio can even burn off your muscle ("catabolism") if you don't have any fat to burn off. Maybe a little 15-30 minutes of lighter cardio, just to keep your heart in shape. But if you already play sports or something in gym classes, skip cardio altogether and your school sports would be your cardio.

Also, try to eat 7 meals a day. Eat, eat, eat, EAT! You may need to go up a little more. Don't cut fat intake too much -- but avoid bad fats anyway -- some ectomorphs seem to thrive better on 20%-25% fat intake (make sure you concentrate on good fats though). And did I say, eat, eat, eat? Don't be afraid to eat more. If underweight, higher fat content is often needed to help your body have the energy to work out, leading to more muscles. Yes, you may end up slightly increasing bodyfat, but you will gain muscles MUCH faster.

It depends on the person, but usually it is best to use higher reps initially, as a beginner (lighter weight, higher reps) until you get better workout form, then yes, fewer reps may be good.

Again, eat, eat, eat. Don't go more than 2-3 hours without food. Don't go hungry. Eat when you aren't hungry. Even eating medium-quality food (not 100% optimal) is better than letting yourself starve. That means eating things like pasta and potatoes is pretty fair game. Drink TONS of milk and water too!

Also, meals surrounding a workout are often the most important meals. Also, don't work out before breakfast - you need a meal before workout. Drink something high in protien ASAP after a workout (not half an hour, not an hour). If you can't afford whey protien milkshakes, drinking a pint/liter of milk after a workout is proven to build muscles faster than waiting on the drink until you get home. And finally, eat a big healthy meal within 60 minutes.

I am ectomorph like you. I was about your weight when I was your age, same height too. (I'm 29 now.) In any case, I was not gaining weight until I started eating double what I used to eat, and allowing myself to rest between workouts. I was only 150lbs three weeks ago. (In my lifetime before then, I never weighed more than 154 lbs. Now I am at 160.)

Also, never push a muscle that hasn't fully recovered (i.e. sore). Move it around and stretch to get blood flowing to it is OK. But putting lots of effort on a muscle that's still sore from the last workout, you could up "catabolism" (muscle burning away). That is, if you have extremely sore triceps, it may be better to let them recover before you do exercises that involves them. That is, leg day would be fair game, but doing shoulders/biceps is a little iffy because many of the exercises uses triceps muscles.

I am using the BRIT_BEEF beginner workout. I have not even started to deadlift yet (I am leaving that until I am an Intermediate), but I am doing squats now. (added as the first step in the beginner workout). If you are already doing deadlifts properly, you can keep doing them, but you may need to tweak your workout program.

Note - I do take some supplements - Creatine, Glutamine, dextrose (postworkout only), Vitamin C powder, Vitamin B50 complex, multivitamin, digestive enzyme, UDO flaxseed oil. However, these aren't absolutely necessary as long as your diet is very good, and you can still gain pretty quickly if your diet is very, very good with lots of food, more than you feel like eating. Still, you should make sure you or your parents buy you some vitamins, preferably good ones, since they can partially compensate for the inconsistent eating habits of the typical teenager in school.

Also, did I say.... eat, eat, eat???? (It's a pain in the ass...but nutrition is 50% of bodybuilding work). If you go to school, don't wait until lunch - eat a morning snack and an afternoon snack as well. (cup of yoghurt, protien bar, whatever). It can be hard being a student, so figure out a snack you can scarf down in 20 seconds at the locker between classes. Even a handful of nuts is better than nothing. Especially, ESPECIALLY, right after gym class or any major exercise, if it happens in school! (Refuel the muscles quickly as possible....reduce chances of "catabolism" - muscles burning away)

Also, give up most of the cardio for now until you gain some weight -- VERY IMPORTANT FOR BEGINNER UNDERWEIGHT ECTOS WORKING OUT TO GAIN MUSCLES -- ectomorphs needs more rest than most people between workouts. That means cutting out too much exercise between your workouts - confine your exercises mainly to the muscle building workouts instead of cardio workouts (aerobic, running). Keep a little cardio to keep your heart healthy, but you are doing waaaay too much cardio if you want to gain muscles. It's a bitch being an ectomorph, ain't it! (I know, I am one!)

Now...a worse case scenario for bodybuilding (this happens, because many teenagers are competitive runners in school).... If you are a competitive runner in school, then ouch....you've got things really set out against you. It might be possible to sort of overcome if you eat massive, even like 3500+ calories per day on the running days to compensate....(this may end up meaning high-calorie foods, even several spoonfuls of olive or flaxseed oil at least on your running days, if your stomach is too small to fit more than 2000-2500 calories of regular healthy food per day, like my stomach is!). Sometimes ectomorphs needs to be creative to get more calories per cubic centimeter... Some healthy food such as lettuce may have to go because they waste stomach space in small ectomorph bodies that are very active like yours, in favour of dense greens (ie broccoli) or even liquid greens, for example. And so on... i.e. avoid eating too much food that have too few calories in a forkful, and even give up your fear of fat. Sometimes it's the only way to fit enough energy inside a small ectomorph stomach, to fuel the running AND bodybuilding, and frequently. I know my stomach cannot fit more than about 2500 calories per day, and I know I need WAY MORE than 2500 calories per day if I want to run *and* bodybuild at the same time......and that is damn difficult for me! Plus, I'm higher bodyfat now than I was at age 15, so you've got your work set out if you want to keep running *and* bulk up at the same time....they really work against each other when you are an underweight ectomoprh (i.e. almost impossible.). I know there's a few ecto's even had to go up to even 35%-40% calories in FAT per day (wow!) just to sustain both a running habit *and* slowly bulk up at the same time. Don't try this without the advice of a professional though (and even myself I am only a beginner - who started doing things properly 3 weeks ago).

And there's another new problem - there's a finite limit to your digestive system -- if you eat more food than your stomach can digest efficiently, you'll be unable to absorb the calories. (being half full every hour is also better than being full every two hours, because you're giving the stomach more time to digest the previous food before eating more food.). But there are some ways to get your body to absorb more food. While you shouldn't skip out slow digesting foods entirely, eating more higher-GI foods (higher Glycemic-Index foods absorb faster into your body) and popping lots of good digestive enzyme pills to aid digestion (even if your stomach is good at digesting), may help overcome some of the limitations. The finite limitations of your stomach is usually not a problem if you avoid cardio, but this becomes a MAJOR FACTOR for ectomorphs who try to run *and* bodybuild at the same time: Your body is not capable of digesting fast enough all day to fuel the energy needed *AND* to gain weight simultaneously. Just one of many reasons (other than simple rest and recovery) why underweight ectos must skip out most cardio if possible, especially until weight is gained. If not possible (ie you are doing some competitive cardio like competitive running then you must fight HARD to get your body to absorb all the food it can, even if it means increasing fat content (use healthy fats *AND* using digestive enzymes). And even so, it is still extremely difficult. i.e. you should be eating enough (INCLUDING fat) to power your running so your body burns off that energy rather than burning off your muscle. And for some ectomorphs, that can be a lot of calories for a 3 mile run! But then again, if your food is not being absorbed by your body fast enough (that's usually a problem for ectomorphs) to power the running, guess what happens - your body catabolizes your muscles (i.e. muscles are burned up as fuel to power your running, which means you can lose muscle when running.)

In any case, the main reason - if you are not gaining - it's usually because you're not eating enough. It's amazing but true: You're more likely to gain muscles eating lots while on an so-so workout program, than if you don't eat enough while on a good workout program. So basically IF weight not gaining this week THEN eat a few hundred more calories per day next week.

Once I started following all of the above advice, I suddenly started gaining 10 pounds in 3 weeks (see my signature below). I gained 2 inches on my chest, 1 inches on my arms, in the last three weeks. I did, of course, gain 0.75 inch on my stomach but that goes with the territory. The increase in chest more than compensates. The gains will peter off for me, but it looks like I am finally gaining something noticeable.

I learned many things the hard way!

[Mark Rejhon]

Addendum....

Also, just so you know... don't overtain. And Sometimes, extra rest days is needed. I have changed my 3-day-split sometimes, for example, I delayed Friday workout to Saturday if I didn't fully recover from my Wednesday workout. Boom, my muscles improve better that way.

Carefully do the right amount of rest between sets of like exercises. I had to experiment to find out which gives me better results. Depending on the exercises I do, I noticed that doing fewer sets, moderate reps 8-10, and carefully set rest breaks between certain like exercises, not too long and not too short. (ie 30-45s between sets of calf raises work well for me, but this rest period does not apply to hyperextensions, which requires a longer rest break by me at this time, for example). And if I am switching muscles, after a strenous exercise, I do insert a longer rest period between a final major back exercise and beginning major biceps/arms exercise though, since after hyperextensions, I need to rest my back a fair bit. (on my BACK+BICEPS day).

I do notice that I am improving more rapidly in some areas than others. For example, my standing calf raise has jumped from ~180lbs (barely walked after) to ~320lbs (could walk after) in just three weeks. Beginner gain? Muscle memory? I don't know. Not sustainable, I know. It just happened. On the other hand, my bench press is stubbornly improving very slowly (and is still pathetic, but I have no spotter so I don't want to bench more than I can put back on the bar!). Chest still grew by 2 inches though, despite my bench not improving much (yet). Arms are showing decent improvements though. Different people will notice different improvements.

Finally, keep a log. Track your progress. That's how I know my progress. Your gym would likely be happy to give you blank log grid sheets where you can fill out the rows with your favourite exercises, and columns (of different dates) with the weight, and reps. I currently use a single lot sheet for the 3 days - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday exercises, (Each with four columns of blank squares to fill out weight/reps, so each sheet lasts a month and contains results that I can easily compare week-after-week). The first row on my log sheets are my weight, so I add my weight so I know how much I weighed on that workout day. If you see no improvement, then you make changes like eating more or making modifications to your work out. The log is easy and quick to fill out.

I also keep a nutrition log too (A bigger pain, IMHO, that an explanation is left for another day)

In any case, doing 4-6 reps is okay if your weight improves on that amount, but 4-6 is probably too few for a beginner (if you are one).

[Ectomorph02]

HOLY CRAP!!! Thanks a lot!! That answered a lot of my questions. Yep I'm on the x-country team and we put in tons of miles. I have lots of free time, so I'm going to try to run and lift at the same time. Forcing down the food is gonna be tough though, as I currently eat only 2,300 calories a day...

[gringosmecos]

damn your skinny!!
It doesnt matter, even better cause if you do the things right you will be proud of all the improvements.
Eat a lot, every 3 hours, have at least 3 solid meals a day and in between high protein snacks or protein shakes, usually for snacks i go for tuna, or peanut butter.
Its really important to use the post workout shake. and after a while go with creatine. If you can afford a weight gainer go for it, usually expensive, but i think that nlarge in the states has a decent price.

[Anti-Hero]

Originally posted by Ectomorph02
HOLY CRAP!!! Thanks a lot!! That answered a lot of my questions. Yep I'm on the x-country team and we put in tons of miles. I have lots of free time, so I'm going to try to run and lift at the same time. Forcing down the food is gonna be tough though, as I currently eat only 2,300 calories a day...

Getting some meal replacement shakes like Myoplex. Bring couple of those to school, get a water bottle and mix it with water before class for your snack. 40 grams of protein, 250 calories. Get enough of those in you and you should start gaining quickly.

Mark, thanks for the long message, it's going to help me out, too (I be an ectomorph also, 5'11" 135 lbs.) I cannot stress ample rest enough, like Mark said. I made a 5 lb. gain in acouple of weeks due to me sleeping alot and doing 3 day splits. Lately I've been getting about 6 hours a night of sleep and went to a 5 day split. Needless to say I'm going on the same workout plan that Mark suggested.

-Anti

[ark14]

I run x-xountry as well, and know how hard it is to stay at a helthy weight. I'm 5'2", and 54 pounds. I tried gaining weight, but I couldn't cause of x-country. Try gaining weight after the season is over!

[holyshinto63]

Originally posted by Anti-Hero
Getting some meal replacement shakes like Myoplex

Though just remember, real food is better then meal replacement powders

[Babak]

Originally posted by Ectomorph02
Does this schedule and routine look okay??? I'm really weak (Bench: 95, Squat: 150, Deadlift: 170) and wanna get big and strong, and I'm hoping this is an okay workout. Also, I'm eating 2,300 calories a day. How many more should I add to gain 2-3 pounds a week?? Thanks.

You squat and deadlift more than me, and i weigh in at around 145-150...

[KinWilliam]

damn your skinny!!
It doesnt matter, even better cause if you do the things right you will be proud of all the improvements.
Eat a lot, every 3 hours, have at least 3 solid meals a day and in between high protein snacks or protein shakes, usually for snacks i go for tuna, or peanut butter.
Its really important to use the post workout shake. and after a while go with creatine. If you can afford a weight gainer go for it, usually expensive, but i think that nlarge in the states has a decent price.

I'm an ectomorph too when you mean every 3 hours do you mean tidbits and snacks or full meals? I'm currently eating whenever I'm bored...like mixed nuts, almonds etc.

[DCSpartan]

I'm an ectomorph too when you mean every 3 hours do you mean tidbits and snacks or full meals? I'm currently eating whenever I'm bored...like mixed nuts, almonds etc.

you replied to a 10 year old thread . . .