My Body Type? Routine Suggestions?

Training Bodybuilding
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I have been lifting for over 3 years. The first pic is when I started, I was around 170lbs. Now I’m 220lbs, as you guys can see I gained mostly fat and not muscle. It was very hard for me to gain weight so I have been eating like crazy (only healthy foods though) this year. I went from 185 in beginning of 2007 to 220lbs now, but still have not gained much muscle, although I have gotten a lot stronger than when I started. I think I’m more of an ecto. After taking these pictures I realized I was fat and will lose the fat, I’m worried about losing the muscle also.

Also here is what I am doing currently for my routine. Any suggestions about, if I am an ecto it is probably overkill.

It looks like this(I usually vary between dumbells and barbells every couple weeks, and chage some exercises):

Monday: Shoulders
Seated Shoulder Press - 4sets- 10,8,6,6 reps
Lateral raise - 4 sets
Front Raise - 4 sets
Upright Rows - 4 sets

Tuesday: Arms
3 biceps exercises - 4 sets each
3 triceps exercises - 4 sets each

Wednesday: Recovery Day

Thursday: Back
Pullups - 4 sets, as much as I can do
Machine Pulldowns - 4 sets
Seated Row - 4 sets
Bent Over DB rows - 4 sets
Barbell Shrugs - 4 sets
DB shrugs - 4sets
Back extension - 4 sets

Friday: Chest
Dips - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 (used to do flat bench but trying to fill chest in on bottom and top)
Incline - 4 sets
Decline - 4 sets
Fly - 4 sets
Abs - 9 sets

Also, I don’t work my legs because they are way larger and strong than my upper body and especially arms. I will start doing squats and deadlifts on my back day, just to build up more strength.

For all of the exercises I increase weight and decrease reps for each consecutive set. Also, it seems my triceps are always sore, should this be a concern?
I try to keep my workouts short under 1 hr because I go during lunch at work. Any suggestions about this?

Also, any advice on what I will need to do to my routine when I will start losing fat. I will include cardio and cut my calories when I will start.

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Here are the other pics that didn’t get posted originally. This is me at 220lbs.

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you dont have to classify yourself as one or the other e.g. ecto or endo or even meso. They come in an triangle and i reckon your closer to the endo-ecto side of the triangle, then meso.

your workouts should be about 30-45 mins, and any talk about not doing legs because they are larger and stronger then your upper body is just stupid talk. they’re your legs they’re supposed to be larger and stronger, they have to carry your upper body. also, training your legs helps put muscle onto your upper body! dont ask me for the science behind it, i dont know it. ive also read along here somewhere that training legs helps testosterone. so get working your LEGS on a separate day!!!

4

Begin a proper program. Train every bodypart more than once per week.

5

I used to work out my legs and will start doing them again

As for working each bodypart more than once per week…each mucsle stays sore for several days after lifting. The chest for 5 days, the tris are always sore, the back for 3 days. That tells me that they are not recovering, so I have been keeping them down to once a week. If you guys think I should up the frequency I will try that. Being more on the ecto side I though I shouldn’t train each group that often.

6

I think is a mistake that you are not doing legs. Perhaps that is the reason you aren’t seeing more muscle mass increase.

No offense but your legs aren’t disproportionately stronger. They are supposed to be the biggest muscles in your body (second to the back).

7

Either your muscles stay sore because you are deconditioned and are using too many isolation movements at this time or your nutrition is not up to par and need to consume more vitamin c and fruits.

Try working your whole body 3 times per week and add cardio 5 times per week also and you will see that the soreness just goes away.

8

Dude. Your posture!

I’m really surprised that noone else has said anything.

You are SO lordotic you’re like an example of how not to stand.

You need to fix that and you need to fix it quicky or it’s gonna cause you problems in the future.

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thanks for the responses. I will start working my legs, and perhaps change to a whole body workout 3 times per week for a month or two.

Also, I know my posture is pretty bad. I have been trying to improve it by. My shoulders used to be internally rotated now they have gotten better somewhat. I have been strengthening my back, streching my chest. Any ideas on how to improve the curvature of the lower back?

I have also been considering going to a physical therapist to get some suggestions. You guys think this is a good idea?

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Don’t worry about body type. I find that it really adds little insight into the picture. What you should worry about is body composition; fat and muscle mass. It’s about knowing your own body, not about knowing someones dubious taxonomy.

If you’re new, play around with the diets and programs and refine them over time based on what works. Half of the struggle is finding out what works for you by yourself

11

Maybe you are doing more volume that you can recover enough for the next session of the same bodypart.

Correct if im wrong but in the last weeks or months did you see any strenght jumps in reps of more than 5 LBS or 1 rep added in a exercise per session?
I mean have you recently made large jumps in the weight you handle in your exercises for reps?

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[quote]irongutted wrote:
Maybe you are doing more volume that you can recover enough for the next session of the same bodypart.

Correct if im wrong but in the last weeks or months did you see any strenght jumps in reps of more than 5 LBS or 1 rep added in a exercise per session?
I mean have you recently made large jumps in the weight you handle in your exercises for reps?

[/quote]

Not really, I have not seen much improvement recently. The last time I had some improvements was about 2 months ago, when I started gaining more weight. Now I have been doing this routine the past month and not much improvement. Should I do heavier weights with less sets/excercises per body part?

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[quote]kgrig wrote:
thanks for the responses. I will start working my legs, and perhaps change to a whole body workout 3 times per week for a month or two.

Also, I know my posture is pretty bad. I have been trying to improve it by. My shoulders used to be internally rotated now they have gotten better somewhat. I have been strengthening my back, streching my chest. Any ideas on how to improve the curvature of the lower back?

I have also been considering going to a physical therapist to get some suggestions. You guys think this is a good idea?[/quote]

Yes I do. That will be the quickest way for you to find good posture.

You actually want to decrease the curve in your lower back.

I like to think of it as a ‘crotch forward’ stance. You want to crunch your abdominals to bring your crotch as forward as possible.

Ian King has a good article on this from around 5 years ago.

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I am definately not an expert here, there are others that know alot more than I do. With that said here is my suggestion.
I have had really good success with total body workouts. Before I found T-Nation I was on a Mens health workout, TNT. This was a low carb diet and total body workouts 3x a week. I lost quite a bit of fat on that but not alot of weight.

You said you were worried about losing muscle, well, you will lose some but if your diet is good and your workout is good then you can lose fat and keep some of your muscle.

You might want to read this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1499282
by Thibaudeau

or maybe this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=508031
by Waterbury

Good luck in anything you do and just keep working out.

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[quote]Sxio wrote:

Yes I do. That will be the quickest way for you to find good posture.

You actually want to decrease the curve in your lower back.

I like to think of it as a ‘crotch forward’ stance. You want to crunch your abdominals to bring your crotch as forward as possible.

Ian King has a good article on this from around 5 years ago. [/quote]

I’m going to stretch religiously for a couple months to see if I get any results. I will also work on ab exercises in order to shorten them up. If that doesn’t work, I will hit up a therapist. I found Ian King’s article and he mentioned putting more emphasis on abs and hamstring exercises. Lengthening the hams and tightening the abs.

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[quote]jarc wrote:
I am definately not an expert here, there are others that know alot more than I do. With that said here is my suggestion.
I have had really good success with total body workouts. Before I found T-Nation I was on a Mens health workout, TNT. This was a low carb diet and total body workouts 3x a week. I lost quite a bit of fat on that but not alot of weight.

You said you were worried about losing muscle, well, you will lose some but if your diet is good and your workout is good then you can lose fat and keep some of your muscle.

You might want to read this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1499282
by Thibaudeau

or maybe this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=508031
by Waterbury

Good luck in anything you do and just keep working out.
[/quote]

I read these articles and find them interesting. I am going to follow Thibaudeau’s approach in order to lose the fat while minimizing the muscle loss. The heavy lifting/cardio/lactate inducing/alactic workouts. I think this will also put me in better athletic shape overall.

Once I’m happy with my fat content I will switch either to the whole body 3 times a week, or into the low volume workouts that CT has been suggesting for ecto’s.

BTW, when you lost the weight and retained muscle did you cut calories, or did you just increase your activity level?

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If you gained that much fat in one year, it might be a good idea to rethink your diet strategy.

18

[quote]kgrig wrote:

BTW, when you lost the weight and retained muscle did you cut calories, or did you just increase your activity level?
[/quote]

I really don’t know if I cut calories, I don’t think I did but I didn’t keep track. I cut carbs. With that plan it was no carbs for 4 weeks, the only carbs came from vegetables, and no potatos or carrots or peas any high starch veggies…
I ate a lot of meat, fat and veggies.
After the initial 4 weeks I started eating carbs before and after the workout and on Saturdays.

I saw a big change in my body from this plan so if you want to drop a lot of fat and not a lot of muscle then maybe start going low carb and doing some total body workouts with little rest between sets.

Make sure you take your protein before and after working out, this helps your body to not use your muscle for energy so much since it will go after the protein you ingest. (sp?)

Good luck on your goals. Just keep on keepin’ on.

19

[quote]mithious wrote:
If you gained that much fat in one year, it might be a good idea to rethink your diet strategy.[/quote]

This is exactly what I might have been doing wrong. I have been following Trojan’s physique clinic and it seems Coach Thibs doesn’t have him eat much high starch foods.

Here was my diet before (lots of carbs)
Breakfast:

  • Protein shake w/ ff milk
  • Whole Oatmeal w/ ff milk
  • banana
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Pre lunch Snack

  • walnuts and apple

Lunch

  • whole grains(pasta, barley, etc)
  • lean meat(chicken/pork loin)
  • olive oil

Snack

  • protein shake w/ ff milk
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Post workout

  • protein shake w/ water and honey

1.5 hrs later was dinner my last meal

  • whole grains (wheat, barley, buckwheat)
  • lean meat(chicken/pork loin)
  • olive oil
  • veggies

before bed

  • some cottage cheese

Should I cut out the grains? If so should I substitute them with low calorie veggies? Will doing that provide enough carbs for recovery?
Anything else seem wrong with the diet?

20

If you are cutting recovery should be minimal. What I mean is that you aren’t damaging the muscle to the degree that you would be when trying to achieve hypertrophy, rather you want to be stimulating the muscle just enough so you don’t loose too much muscle (hence the low volume workout recommendations).

So you wont be carb-loading in the same way you probably were during bulking, and green veggies are almost always preferable to grains.

I’m not an expert so the most fool-proof plan would be to choose a diet based on your goals and stick to it VEHEMENTLY.