hello from south-east london

hello im 25 years old. my body type is Ectomorph find it really hard to put on weight. i weigh about 10 stone and am about 5 10''. ive been in the gym working out on and off for a few years not really dedicating myself enough though. so for the past month ive been going to the gym for 4 -5 days aweek eating as much protein and carbs as poss. still slaking on the odd days. in the past ive used creatine and body fortress protein shakes but that was a few years ago when i didnt really know wot would work for me. im now struggling to know wot the best supplements is good for me and my body and how offten and when i should be taking them.

Hi Mario,

I'm really sorry I'm not to sure how but this post seams to have been missed and not replied to.

To try and give you some information you will find helps point you in the direction of growth I would need to know just what your eating, when your eating, and what your doing in the gym for the 4-5 days a week your going.

I would say without seeing your training program and diet that your training to much. Don't worry it is 'the' most common cause of failure when novices get more involved and more enthusiastic in the training.

Get back to us with a reply containing some info on what your work outs look like and we can tell you where your going wrong and right.

As for which supplements you could take to aid your growth, that would depend on what your lacking. For instance if your diet is falling short of carbs at certain times of the day when it just is not practical for you to eat a full meal then there are mass builders that would suit you better than pure whey protein.

I look forward to hearing a reply.

hi ive been in the gym now for 2 months and ive gained half a stone, which for me is great. ok for my diet i try to eat a good diet plan which is 6 meals aday, consisting of:

breakfast: oats raisins shake
snack: tuna sandwich mixed nuts
lunch: pasta banana
snack: mixed nuts sandwich
post workout:shake banana
dinner:pasta tuna mixed veg.

this is my daily plan of wot to eat but im struggling to eat this much with work and money for food etc. so im probably eating the breakfast, lunch, post workout and snack.

working out. in the gym im working 4-5 days a week, to be honest im working on my arms most days jusy casue i want to see a difference. i try to work on my stomach aswell, but cause i want my arms to be bigger i feel i give up easier when it gets hard.

on most of the machines now im lifting around 60-90kg and on the bench press im lifting about 15-20 either side.

hope to get some great info back thanks guys.

Hi Buddie, Well done on the 4-5 days a week in the gym BUT I'm sorry to tell ya your not gonna progress much like that.

One of if not 'the' most important part of muscle growth is REST. I'll briefly explain how muscle grows:-

We all have the same amount of muscle fibers over our body's each of these muscles have there own purpose. We go to the gym to over stress these muscles. This causes the fibers to tear ever so slightly. Now if you as a footballer tears a muscle badly like a groin or a hamstring the doctor would advise you to rest to let the muscles repair themselves.

When the muscle fibers repair they do so by building a tiny scab like skin over the fibers. This increases the fibers thickness creating a larger appearance.

One thing I didn't mention there was Protein. For the muscle fibers build the thin scab like layer over themselves they don't only need rest but also Amino acids which are the building blocks of protein. So if you were to have a flow chart describing the fundamentals of how muscle grow it would look like this:-

Train ---> Eat ---> Rest = Muscle Growth.

And there importance is regarded to be roughly- training 20%, Diet 50%, Rest 30%.

So from that you can see your 4-5 days a week training mostly arms is a complete waste of time as they are not having enough time to rest. I would only ever advise an ectomorph to train arms once a week. I have huge arms from my size and I only train them once a week.

Also to be only training your arms and chest and abs in not unusual. Most guys my self included started out this way. After all there the muscles girls like and what other reason do men want to get big for other than to look good to the ladys? lol

The difference between a guy with a strong well balanced buff body that wouldn't look out of place on the cover of mens health magazine and some wolly who goes to the gym for years and never really gets bigger that he did in the first 6 months of going is the buff doode listened to good advise and trained his brain as well as his arms. lol

There is a thread started recently by a member named Joe I posted a program for him to follow that would suit you well for a while I would of thought. Look it up and if you want any more help just ask away man were always here.

ive just seen the trainig guide you gave joe sounds good still weird that you should only work out 3 days aweek as apose to 4-5. would that work out beeter for me even though ive been in the gym for 3 months now and weight 10 half stone. when would you go to the gym more than 3 days or would you recommend everyone to do that.

Even though you have been training for 3 months you are still regarded as a newbie. Some would say until you have a years regular training under your belt. Please don't think I'm patronising you but your body is still very fresh and will respond well from little effort in the early months. Another reason you need to follow a good program from the start. take advantage of those early months.

If your body type is regarded to be endomorph or messamorph then more than 3 days a week could be more acceptable but as an ectomorph you need rest to much. Another reason to train more than 3 days a week would be if your using performance enhancing substances which make your recovery rate much higher.

If you don't need to train more than 3 days a week why do so? If you want to go more than 3 there are different programs to follow that won't over train you. What days are you currently going and would you like to go? I'll write you a personal program but it will be along similar lines. Lots of rest and big compound exercises.

well im currently going mon-friday. to be honest i havent really got a program that i work on, i mainly go in there and just work out on different machines not really 100% knowing wot they do. im goner follow the program you gave joe and see how it goes ive looked up all the names of the workouts so know i just need to get in the rythem of doing that workout program.

you will find a great video here. https://truly-hench.forumotion.com/beginners-forum-f4/how-to-dead-lift-video-t104.htm#455

Vid was a great help thanks. Was just wondering how I should know wot weight to be lifting for the exersises is there a limit I should be lifting above or just get more every week?

I would start light. A weight you can do 2 or 3 sets of 10-12 reps quite easily. One of the most important things to remember and do each work out is increase the weight.

Even if its only 0.5kg your muscle shouldn't lift the same weight time after time they just wont grow because its nothing new to them.