Bulk Programs for Ectomorph

Hi, i’m sure your all fed up of these kind of post’s but basically i’ve been looking at a bunch of programs and i’m finding it hard to pick which one would be best for me personally i was looking at Bill Starr’s 5x5 but am still unsure.

Any of you have a good program you know of to help guide me as i am a seriously bad ectomorph with a ridiculously fast metabolism.

I have been training for about a year and a half or so put on good mass compared to what i was but as most people usually feel, i feel that i should be bulking alot more and harder.

Advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Yes, Bill Starr’s 5x5 is great. As is Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. You may also want to read through this Physique Clinic:
http://T-Nation.com/readPhysClin.do?id=1859240

The training doesn’t matter as much as the eating. Pick something, train hard and heavy. More importantly, eat EVERYTHING you see. Pets, small children, skinny people, everything.

Yeah i realise the importance of eating, the only thing i’m worried about is eating right but not having a workout intense enough to grow, or a workout that neglects certain areas, which i feel the Bill Starr’s 5x5 has which is why im reluctant to start it. any help on solving this?

Look at West Side for Skinny Bastards. You might like it more. But, you must eat a lot with any program to gain muscle.

[quote]Titch wrote:
Yeah i realise the importance of eating, the only thing i’m worried about is eating right but not having a workout intense enough to grow, or a workout that neglects certain areas, which i feel the Bill Starr’s 5x5 has which is why im reluctant to start it. any help on solving this?[/quote]

5x5 is fine, try it out.

So Titch - what areas do you think Bill’s 5x5 is missing out on? Even more to the point what are you doing now that you think is better?

Not yanking your chain too much here mate but this is a proven program and you will make gains on it if you eat right and follow the program with the intensity required.

Just get in the gym and do it for 8-12 weeks.

you gotta train hard man. 5x5 wont help you out if youre an ectomorph. you need something with high rep ranges and you need to squeeze out every possible rep you can. static holds, “extreme” stretching, slow concentrics, etc. is all what you need to be doing. in addition you really need to hit the big 3: deadlifts, squats, and benching (which is gonna suck as an ecto).

take a look at the training for USCTrojan in the Physique Clinic and you dont have to nesecerialy do his exact workouts but it can give you an idea of how you should style your workouts, low rest/high reps and even sets to failure.

uppin this for all the little ectos

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
you gotta train hard man. 5x5 wont help you out if youre an ectomorph. you need something with high rep ranges and you need to squeeze out every possible rep you can. static holds, “extreme” stretching, slow concentrics, etc. is all what you need to be doing. in addition you really need to hit the big 3: deadlifts, squats, and benching (which is gonna suck as an ecto).

take a look at the training for USCTrojan in the Physique Clinic and you dont have to nesecerialy do his exact workouts but it can give you an idea of how you should style your workouts, low rest/high reps and even sets to failure.[/quote]

That’s a fine piece of advice… to end up injured after a week or so. You can’t be possibly serious about this.

[quote]Fenix83 wrote:

That’s a fine piece of advice… to end up injured after a week or so. You can’t be possibly serious about this.[/quote]

I’ll second that. Ecto’s also need to be very wary of overtraining. I know from experience.

Anything with short, heavy sets will work better.

Avoid caffeine like the plague, it boosts your metabolism even more. If you smoke, quit now. Nicotine jacks up your metabolism as well.

Diet: a LOT of food, but avoid simple carbs. Try to get healthy fat and lots of protein. And do some research on ‘complete’ proteins. Rice has protein, but its not complete (the amino ratios aren’t right) until you add beans. You get the picture.

You CAN overcome. You just gotta get your mind made up.

Eat your bodyweight x 20 in calories every day, don’t be afraid to “cheat” and eat something “unhealthy” once in a while, and here is a condensed list of some good beginner routines:

http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12663

If the weight you are using for your exercises is steadily moving up, and you are eating enough calories daily, you will be gaining muscle. So don’t worry so much about whether you’re doing “enough” if those things are already in check.

I will just add that I started out very skinny and lanky and the only thing that got me over that hurdle was keeping a daily calorie journal.

good luck buddy

Titch hasn’t logged on in a couple of weeks.

It might be a while before he gets your advice.

Just so you know.

i agree with everyone else eat eat eat but…

5x5 should be good for you as far as your lifting program. But you grow when your not in the gym, meaning you should be eating enough carbs protein n fat and sleeping enough

also if you wana try another program i think is great heres the website

its called max-ot

and signing up is free and it gives u exact workout plans and everything for 12 weeks try it out after or before 5x5

[quote]mr popular wrote:
Eat your bodyweight x 20 in calories every day, don’t be afraid to “cheat” and eat something “unhealthy” once in a while, and here is a condensed list of some good beginner routines:
www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12663

If the weight you are using for your exercises is steadily moving up, and you are eating enough calories daily, you will be gaining muscle. So don’t worry so much about whether you’re doing “enough” if those things are already in check.

I will just add that I started out very skinny and lanky and the only thing that got me over that hurdle was keeping a daily calorie journal.

good luck buddy[/quote]

sweet link I liked the routine after starting strength.

Hi, cheers for all the posts, this was posted a while ago. Now im doing Mike Mentzer’s HIT training which has seemed to push me to another level. I forgot i even posted this way back, still finding it hard to eat so much but doing well i feel.

[quote]mr popular wrote:

I will just add that I started out very skinny and lanky and the only thing that got me over that hurdle was keeping a daily calorie journal.

good luck buddy[/quote]

Forgot to say that this is helpful and i may try doing this, it’s nice to hear from people who understand what it’s like to be an ectomorph.

[quote] Titch wrote:
Haha Otep! I’ll make a liar out of you yet![/quote]

Grrr…

[quote]Otep wrote:
Titch wrote:
Haha Otep! I’ll make a liar out of you yet!

Grrr…[/quote]

Sorry, you would’ve been right but it sent me an email