Help Needed please!

Roberts

Hi needed help and advice if possible, what it is I am a natural Ectomorph(Naturally Thin) and I am doing weight training for the purpose of bulking out more and hopefully becoming more muscular in the process.
But my problem is I have been doing weight training for about 9 months now but I am seeing no improvement.
Roughly my gym sessions consist of 1 hour, 3/4 days per week and I do about 3 sets of 10 on each machine followed by about half an hour of using dumbells at home, my instructor recommended that to me but the problem is I am hearing people telling me I am not giving my body enough rest which may result in my body getting worn out and not producing the results I could be getting.
I am 6'2 and 12 Stone so I am considered perfect weight for my height, I am hardly underweight.
Would anyone recommend a work out plan and is it possible for Ectomorphs to get visible muscular results as say a Mesomorph?
What I would appreciate is if someone could recommend a work out schedule and how many times a week I should do this, would also recommend feedback from people who have been in the same position as me.

Thanks
Paul

Gail

Paul

How do you split your training, or do you do a whole body workout each time?

You say you do 3 sets of 10 reps, do you struggle to do 10 or is it manageable?

Let me know and I'll give you some pointers.

Gailx

Roberts

I do a whole body workout each time, I manage 3 sets of 10 Okay, I usually do each set on a different weight starting with the heaviest first.
Your advice will be much appreciated

Thanks
Paul

mark

Paul I don't wanna shoot you down mate but it sounds to me like your instructor is telling you the wrong way of doing things.

If I was you I would be concentrating on splitting the body parts up over 3 or 4 sessions e.g

Monday - Chest/Triceps
Tuesday - Legs/Back
Wednesday - Day off
Thursday - Shoulders/Biceps
Friday - See how you feel - Train if you are not too tired

Each day you should look at doing about 3 or 4 different exercises on each body part and doing 4 sets of each exercise (make the first one extremely light to warm up those muscles, I just normally use the bar with no weights for this) Your second one should be heavier than the first but fairly easy for you to manage 10 reps, Third one should be heavier than the second for 10 reps, On my fourth one I add quite a lot more weight and do about 6-8 reps as heavy as I possibly can.

This should be a good starting point for your training, next we need to look at your diet. What are your eating habbits like?

How many calories (roughly) do you eat a day?
How much protein?

Good luck mate, hope this helps you!

Gail

Hi Paul

I agree with Mark. You find in some gyms the 'instructors' are not much cop. Sounds like he/she has put you on a general fitness regime, rather than building regime. To be honest, they do this because most of them haven't the first idea about anything else! I've got friends who are gym instructors who actually admit they have no idea about using free weights!

I'd split your training as mark suggests, I tend to start with 15 reps warm up, fairly light weights, then 10 reps moderate, then increase weight for next 2 sets until last set I can only do 6 - 8 assisted by spotter. If you train alone, watch your weight but make sure you are struggling for last 3 reps, or ask someone to spot you.

You will find that your muscles may be really tight for a couple of days after training, you probably haven't felt that for a while on the regime you've been doing, but to be honest i welcome that feeling as I know I've trained damn hard!!

Anything else you need, let me know.

gailx

Benj

Don't listen to gym instructors, for my induction I told the instructor I wanted to put on muscle so he made me a full body workout using machines only, and told me to do it 3 times a week! I think not!

Bump to mark, his advise is spot on IMO!

...not too sure about the split tho, Back and legs on the same day??

Roberts

No probs mate I had a feeling my instructor didnt know what he was up to he had me scheduled to do 15 minutes per day on a treadmill and the way I shred pounds there would be nothing left of me!
So wot exercises would u recommend, because It would be weird just working on one body part each day, would that wear my muscles out though if I am not used to it?
Please send me PM's with your schedules Mark, Gail and Ben if possible they would be much appreciated so they will give me a rough idea of what to do.

Thanks
Paul

mark

Ok mate I will start with Chest - This is similar to what I do.

4 sets (one very light warm up) on the flat benchpress (alternating one week with a bar or smith machine the other with dumbells)

4 sets of inclined bench press

4 sets of decline bench press

4 sets on the pec deck or Flys (dumbells on a flat bench)

Finally I like to finish of with 4 sets of cross overs on the cable if your gym has them, usually find that by this time my chest is really feeling it so don't manage to do a lot of weight on the cable machine.

Hope this helps. I will try and add some more later as and when I get time. Cheers

Roberts

Will try it out on Monday and see how it goes, thanks people

Anonymous

please let us no how you get on,

the more info on here the better for everyone

cheers steve