I’ve been training for just over 3 years now and like a lot of noobs a large part of the first year or so was dedicated to arms and chest with an occasional skim over of legs or back. After working up to some reasonable weights with this moronic style of training I had the well deserved pleasure of tendinitis in both left bicep and left tricep. After seeing a sports massage therapist for treatment, he turned me onto T-Nation and since then approx 18 months ago I have made some real progress and I think this is the appropriate forum for documenting that.
I have always been an ectomorph through and through but tried not to let that become an excuse. I think a lot of ‘hard-gainers’ are actually ectomorphs and although the muscle isn’t as hard to gain as they might say, it’s definitely harder to fill out a long, wiry frame.
I was around the 200lb mark, skinny-fat, when I started training and as of may this year I was around 240lbs. I went on a cut at the start of june with the prospect of giving myself a nice starting place for a long bulk. I am thinking 18-24 months is enough to put on a good amount of muscle for the time being, adjustments made where necessary. I finished the cut last week at about 210lbs and am definitely ready to get back to eating some bigger portions.
I expect criticism as I am nowhere the size and proportion I am aiming for, if any of this is constructive from the more experienced members it would be much appreciated.
My aim for this thread is to hopefully encourage any other ectomorphs out there and also to hold myself accountable for my training and future progress as my long term goal is to be a competitive bodybuilder.
I will be the first to admit that I have a long way to go.
Huge difference. Much respect. Not sure of your height or stats, but as you already realize, you can carry a good amount more size. I’d say that you’ve got a decent handle on what you need to do though. Since you plan to one day compete, I’ll assume you’ve addressed your legs to some degree since starting out.
Thanks Stu that means a lot coming from you, your contest prep threads have been a valuable source of information for me and many others I’m sure on this steep learning curve.
Sorry for the delay with more pics, here is one of my legs to answer your question stu. I wasn’t looking forward to posting it so here goes!
Although I have put in a ton of hard work in the past 18+ months they clearly need a lot more size to look in any way proportionate to my upper body/body in general. I am 6’3" so can surely use that as some sort of excuse? No excuses I know, they will be a huge priority for me over the following bulking period along with calves
*You may remember my previous question about my ruptured rectus femoris on my right leg, this doesn’t help matters with my legs, the more fat I lost, the more pronounced the lump was
I have always favoured higher volume training with reps in the 8-12 range but the last strength oriented training my 1rm’s were:
Flat B/B Bench - 155kg (341 lbs)
Deadlift - 210kg (462 lbs)
Squat - 175kg (385 lbs)
Military Press - 100kg (220 lbs)
Pull Ups - 5 w/40kg (88 lbs) on belt
Smaller body parts are always trained with a lot higher volume
Overall goal is to have a more evenly balanced overall package possibly to get back to 240 lbs at the same level of b/f I am now. (I can always try!)
Short term goal is more leg mass and to grow some damn calves!!
Thanks ID My calf training in the coming months will be largely based on a program that you mentioned in the calves thread so will let you know how it goes
