struggles of a hard-gainer

So - you want to build mass? What are you willing to pay to achieve that goal? You’ll go to the gym religiously, lift hard and heavy, stick to your diet - well HELLO! Welcome to the club - EVERYONE here is doing that to get their goals.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard ectomorphs who are trying to bulk complaining about putting on extra body fat. 3 weeks into bulking and you’re already worrying about planning the next cut because you no longer have perfect definition on your abs?!? YOU’RE AN ECTOMORPH! You lose fat and weight EASILY. What you have to work on is putting on muscle. So you’re proud of your definition, you worked hard to get it, you dieted and exercised like a freak and LOVE the way you look in the mirror - if only you had more muscle to show!

Now it’s time for you to decide. How much do you want that extra muscle? How big is your ego? Is it bigger than your chest? Bigger than your biceps? Are you willing to pay the price of losing some of that definition to reach your goal?

These are serious questions. Take time, think about them and decide. You can always cut again later, and with more muscle built it’ll be even faster and "easier" (haha) than before, plus when you’re done you’ll look like you really want to.

Maybe you are putting on too much fat, if that’s the case then ask yourself why? Are you willing to pay by taking the time your body needs to build that muscle - it’s not a fast process!

Now all you Endomorphs out there with exactly the opposite worries - losing mass while cutting - go think about this too!

It’s your body - it’s your choice. Ask yourself - What am I willing to pay?

Have fun! Stay strong!

So here’s my final workout session. Legs for a Saturday - sorry it’s a week late, PC problems again!

Take EVERYTHING TO FAILURE, and rest well between sets

Warmup

5 mins X-Trainer
Standing Jumps - 3 sets

Squat - ankles together

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Lunges

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Squats - Wide stance (wider than shoulders)

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15s
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Sissys

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Calve raise

Set 1: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Romanian Deadlifts

Set 1: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Abs

Hanging leg raises
Hanging double Cross-Crunches
Crunch pushing dumbbell
Crunches

The first legs session I’ve ever enjoyed
Have fun! Stay strong!

I’m feeling great about myself since yesterday. Today was a pecs and biceps session which went excellently!

Take everything to total failure!

Warmup

X-Trainer: 5 mins

Pressups

Set 1: Feet on pezzi ball
Set 2: Normal
Set 3: Hands on step

Bench Press

Set 1: 4 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Angled Bench Press

Set 1: 4 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Some form of biceps curl

Set 1: 4 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

1-2 mins rest between sets, and I’ve usually totally destroyed my pecs by half way through The whole thing is done in about 45 mins (incl warm up and cool down) on a work day. As today’s a bank holiday I threw in a 3 exercise abs set at the end

Have fun! Stay strong!

Here’s my back workout from Monday. For whatever reason I really wasn’t able to focus and ended up with the feeling of "going through the motions" rather than having a killer session.

As always the aim is to pick a weight to hit failure in the selected range

Warmup

X-Trainer - 5 mins
Lat pull - 50 reps

Lat pull / Pull ups

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec (free)
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec (assist)
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec (lat pull)

Chin ups

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec (free)
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec (assist)
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec (lat tower)

Some form of row

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Deadlifts

Set 1: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

That’s it! 1-2 mins rest between sets and I’m through in 45 minutes ready to go get to work. Somehow Mondays are still always stressful with time and I can’t really get into the workout like I do on a Thursday or at the weekend.

Have fun! Stay Strong!

Just got back from a great shoulders session - PBs across the board! So here are the details of my weekly shoulder session as promised.

There seems to be a problem with tables (sorry for that in my last post) so I’ll try laying it out differently.

Warmup

5 mins X-Trainer
Shoulder press - 50 reps

Shoulder press

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Standing Rows

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Arnolds

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Some form of reverse fly

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Any Tricep isolation

Set 1: 4-5 reps in 15sec
Set 2: 8-12 reps in 20-40sec
Set 3: 15-20 reps in 40-60sec

Abs

Hanging leg raises
Cross-Crunches
Lying reverse crunch / leg raise
Crunches holding a pezzi ball between feet (off the floor)

Mmmmm….

I always look forward to this one on a Sunday!

Have fun! Stay strong!

Here is the new training and nutrition regime I’ve been following since Easter. It seems to be working well. I certainly feel a fair bit larger and I’ve put on weight (about 2kg?) without increasing my belly-fat / lovehandles (according to the calipers). My old size measurements are not so good (not taken correctly) so I don’t have much of a before and after comparison, but I’ve promised myself to take good measurements this weekend and I will try and get a comparative value for my previous measurement style too this week.

Currently I’d say I’m managing to follow the training part a good 85% but only about 60% or so with nutrition, have to work on that.

Training

Over the next week I’ll report on the specifics of each training day as I do them:

and here’s how I do the weight trainings (in general). The aim is to pick the weight such that I reach failure with a specified number of reps in a given time:

Nutrition

When I was cutting I was on about 60g carbs a day. Now it’s hard to know as I’ve not been weighing everything and often get lunch out, have an alc-free beer or two in the evening, some cake in the afternoon etc. So here’s the plan as I’m able to implement it (which means lunch and snacks are non-specific amounts):

3 ZMA before bed and that’s the lot. Over the next few weeks I’ve got to work on cleaning up the nutrition a bit and going for higher quality and more control. I’ll keep you informed how I get on.

Have fun! Stay strong!

First off thanks to those who sent me PMs, left comments on my blog or in groups answering my last post. The last couple of weeks have been the aftermath of a new hardcore training regime mixed with lots of work and a hard disk failure on my PC. So no blogging and little commenting. I did keep up with reading your blogs though.

From now on I will write regularly and I have a few ideas as to where I’m going to go with this now. One of the main things for me no is focus – I’m on a 4-way split with 3 non-lifting days a week and a mass-gaining diet. It’s so easy to drop out of the mindset for a day or two a week and that leads to dirty bulking which I promised AloneIStand that I would stop doing.

That’s all from me for now – I missed some good opportunities to talk about my new regime already. Eg DOMS in legs and chest with tired lats all on the same day. That’s tiredness after 5 days and DOMS after 3 for chest, plus unable to walk because of the new legs workout! OUCH!

Tomorrow is chest day – so I’ll update on that in the evening.

Until then – have fun! and stay strong!

There are a couple of reasons - primarily it’s for the motivation provided by the belief that I have come far enough along the road to be able to help someone else. There’s a second aspect of self-reflection but I can also achieve that by mailing Guido (my PT).

So here’s a question to you all out there. What sort of posts are most useful to you - what do you want to read? Some ideas:
- Motivational "rants" along the lines of "get off your backside and work harder"
- My personal success and failures
- Tips, tricks and info on subjects I’ve learnt about and think are important
- Questions asking for your help and opinions or opening up a discussion
- something else ????
(and why ?)

I know what I get out of the blogs I read on a regular basis but that I’ll save for a later post so as not to bias the results.

Thanks for your input
Mike

Have fun! Stay strong! Talk to me!

As you know my motivation was dropping significantly at the end of last week and I also didn’t feel like I was training properly. What’s interesting is that while my mind was telling me that the trainings were below par, my body is telling me something else. Both the upper body and the legs workouts from Friday & Saturday left me with DOMS 2 days later (legs were tired this morning when I woke up). I was looking good in the mirror before training today and after a single circuit for upper body this morning I was feeling nicely pumped. Even the figures in my workout log suggest that the training was good. So something external was getting me down.

So much of bodybuilding is about your mind - you have to believe you can lift that weight and get those reps. Then you have to go further and push yourself past what you believe is possible and what your body says is possible. But remember at the end of the day the mind games are there to ensure that your body does what is needed - you can’t grow / shrink / tone / strengthen on mental power alone.

Set your goals - put your whole being and soul into what you are doing - but if your mind is saying you can’t, or you didn’t - don’t listen to it, it’s your body which has the final say here!
Remember stress doesn’t just come from your workout,  you have a private life and a job too. A good chat with my PT (thanks Guido) sorted me out nicely yesterday.

What’s your block today? Go fix that and be stronger for it tomorrow. Push yourself past your limits - and let whichever is stronger on the day - mind or body - do the talking.

Have fun! Stay strong!

I’m sorry - I let you all down, and I let me down this morning.
Today’s training just wasn’t right. You know how I said yesterday that I can’t seem to turn into the incredible hulk when getting started on a training - no scary, mad-eyed, dribbling psycho here. Well today it was just far worse in my head.
The thought that kept repeating itself was "that’s OK" or "that’ll do". "10 reps - that’ll do", "14 reps - that’s fine" etc.
Yuck - I’m not out there to lift until I think that’s enough - I’m out there to lift until I can’t lift any more - and then push 3 (YES THREE) more out.
Maybe it’s overtraining - but even if it is - I should be listening to my body and then ignoring it - and not accepting that I’ve done enough before I REALLY can’t do any more.
I feel a lot better for saying that. Tomorrow will be better (I want to add "I hope" to that but I’m trying not to …)
Have fun! Be Strong (even if I’m not)!