Life After the Hardgainer Phase
"Hello James, I have a question for you: I am a large guy (about 320), and I started working out. When I do situps, my lower back really hurts. It doesn’t matter if I do crunches or full situps. Is this normal?"
Thanks!!!
-Matthew V.
My Answer: If you’re using every other muscle BUT your abs, then yes, it would be normal for you to have lower back pain. But at 320, ditch the ab work. You won’t get a six-pack or reduce the size of your waist by doing sit-ups or crunches. Work on losing fat throughout your body overall by working out your whole body, not just your abs. This means predominantly whole body movements. A good primer on using whole body movements to generate whole body fat loss is my article Strength Training for Fat Loss.
Once you generate total body fat loss, THEN you can work on your abs.
SPV2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding available on Amazon.com
“I read your article on Training for the Ectomorph and decided to try it out as a new program, being an ectomorph and a hard gainer. I am about 185cm tall weighing 68kgs, my body fat is about 9.8%. I am trying to put on a more size. Ideally I would like to be 72-75kgs and drop a percent or two on the body fat.
“I am not a beginner bodybuilder. I have been training for 4 years, but I have been battling to increase in size after having ripped down from about 14% body fat. I have been following the program for 6 weeks and have gained almost 2kgs which is great. I also incorporated 20 mins of HIIT and a combination of pikes, bridges and one other ab exercise on the off days.
“I have a question. I am worried, being a more intermediate than a beginner, that I am neglecting or should be paying more attention to other exercises, aside from the core 6 exercises. I previously did do most of the exercises listed but also added more isolation exercises.
“I like the idea of full body workout 3 times a week, but I am not sure if that’s right for someone like myself who has a decent build and needs more size. I also would like to know what I should be doing after 6 weeks. I don’t seem to be progressing much further with this routine and am tempted to go back to my old routine which was:
Monday (chest and biceps)
2 chest exercises using 10-8-6-15 (barbell/dumbell flat/incline press and flyes)
2 bicep exercises using 10-8-6-15 (standing or seated dumbell/barbell curls)
Abs for 15-20mins
Tuesday (back, tris and calves)
2 Back exercises using 10-8-6-15 (lat, wide or close grip, pulldowns/seated row)
2 Tricep exercises using 10-8-6-15 (skull crushers/close grip barbell press/tricep pushdown)
2 Calf exercises using 10-8-6-15 (seated/standing calf raises)
15 mins HIIT
Wednesday (shoulders and legs)
2 Shoulder exercises using 10-8-6-15 (shoulder press/upright rows/lateral raises)
Squats 10-8-6-15
Leg presses 10-8-6-15
Lying/standing Hamstring 10-8-6-15
Abs for 15-20mins
Thursday
(chest and biceps)
15 mins HIIT
Friday
(back, tris and calves)
Abs for 15-20mins
“The following Monday I start with shoulders and legs, then chest and biceps etc. Can you offer any tips or advice if this is OK or an alternative. I train in the mornings and a long workout tends to really punish me. The ectomorph type workout, with a break in between I find better, but I need to find a balance.
“Thanks again for your great articles and taking the time to read this (if you get a chance).”
-Michael
from sunny Cape Town, South Africa
My Answer: It’s great that you made progress on the 10-8-6-15 program, but as you’ve realized: all good things must come to an end. Your new program looks fine, but I would suggest 2 things:
1) Forget about the 10-8-6-15 rep scheme for now. Your body is tired of it. Try 5×5 instead, and you will jumpstart some new gains.
2) 15-20 minutes of ab work is way too much. There is a huge net of nerves over your abs, so excessive ab work will put you in the overtraining zone very quickly. If you overtrain longer than 3 weeks, then your gains will come to a screeching halt and you will even lose muscle. So cut the ab work in half.
