Help Appreciated For Ectomorph

Hey, help is MUCH appreciated. Let me give you some background info…

I’m 16, pretty ectomorpic, and am desperately looking for change. I am pretty athletic guy, have played football since I was young, but have always been skinny. The potential for strength is definitly there, but I just cant seem to grasp it. I dont grow up in a house where lots of meat-products are available, but I can get into my diet sometimes.

I weigh about 130 or so, maybe 140 and am 5’8, not sure. I can bench my weight, but thats about it, don’t seem to get any higher. Don’t have much access to a gym, but can lift after school on mondays-thursdays.

I would like some tips on what types of supplements to get, and if it really maters, because I have this tub of protein shakes with 22 grams per serving. I was also wondering if protein bars offer the same effect, and why fat free milk is better than the vitamin D milk(I was thinking the one with more fat would be better).

But anyways…I would really appreciate any input from some of you bigger guys out there. I’ve seen it done by a skinny guy like me, so i’m hoping for simliar results. And sorry if a similiar topic has been posted, Haven’t really had time to read through all of the boards.

I wouldn’t worry about any supplements right now except for Protein Powder. If you can lift Monday - Thursday then thats a good start. When I first started I did OLAD, One lift a day, 4 days a week.

Monday - Chest/Tris - Benchpress
Tuesday - Legs - Squats
Weds - Sprints GPP or something
Thursday Back and Bi’s - Deadlifts

I basically started with that and built up my own routine from there supplementing those mains lifts - squats, deadlift, and benchpress with a few secondary lifts. And eat… a lot … I really can’t say much besides there is a TON of information available on this site regarding all of this just use the search feature, but I hate to sound like most guys who will just post and say SEARCH lol. Good luck man

I used to be 6’0 135lbs.

Eat a lot.

Fast food, man, high in calories, helps you bulking.

I regularly eat fast food, several times a day sometimes.

I’m about >12% body fat.

Lift heavy, eat a lot, you’ll grow, just don’t let up, keep working even if you’re not seeing growth, I experienced spurts and grew a lot more during certain periods than others.

Get Strong, get big.

Being an ectomorph and being 16 makes it simple:

Eat a metric ton of food every day.

Work out consistently.

Follow good routines like the ones posted on this site.

Thanks guys…I get a different vibe from you guys, your so helpful. Anyway, an above post said wednesday-sprints, i was wondering what muscles that works ?

[quote]lazyaxus11 wrote:
I wouldn’t worry about any supplements right now except for Protein Powder. If you can lift Monday - Thursday then thats a good start. When I first started I did OLAD, One lift a day, 4 days a week.

Monday - Chest/Tris - Benchpress
Tuesday - Legs - Squats
Weds - Sprints GPP or something
Thursday Back and Bi’s - Deadlifts

I basically started with that and built up my own routine from there supplementing those mains lifts - squats, deadlift, and benchpress with a few secondary lifts. And eat… a lot … I really can’t say much besides there is a TON of information available on this site regarding all of this just use the search feature, but I hate to sound like most guys who will just post and say SEARCH lol. Good luck man[/quote]

Hey man much appreciated. WHat do you mean by sprint GPP?

[quote]rkn0720 wrote:
Hey man much appreciated. WHat do you mean by sprint GPP?

[/quote]

General Physical Preparedness

There is an asston of information in these forums. Use the search feature for “newbie” and you’ll find a lot of good articles.

This one thread can hold you over for months!
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350

Also,… here is a teen that got good bulking results:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1027723

Here’s what I think -

Don’t worry so much about supplements, worry about food. Eating hypercalorically is THE ONLY WAY to get bigger.

That said, protein powder and creatine are a given, for helping you to grow. But if you have the money, look into fish oil and greens powders - which will keep you healthy.

Training - Don’t undertrain, don’t overtrain. Stress is a life encompassing phenomena, like a bathtub with but one drain, yet multiple faucets are running. If one faucet begins to run too fast, turning down the other faucets will help to avoid overflowing the tub. Bottom line: Monitor your stressors and allow for adjustment.

Take a down week for every 3 or 4 weeks of training. In the down week, just take things easier, though you can do all the same things if you like.

But try to work out each muscle in your body at least two, preferrably three times a week. You can do this with:

  1. full-body workouts

or by dividing workouts into either:
2. Two day split - upper body/lower body
3. Three day split - chest/back/lowerbody

There are basically six movements to train the entire body.
1.Horizontal pressing (bench press, push-up)
2.Horizontal pulling (bent over row, incline row)
3.Vertical pressing (overhead press, handstand push-up)
4.Vertical pulling (pull-downs, pull-ups)
5.Hip-dominant Leg (deadlifts, hip extensions)
6.Quad-dominant Leg (squats, pistols)

These six movements will put on the most mass. If you want to look good, though, visually symmetrical and ideal, you’ll need a wide variety of these basic movements and a good sample of accessory movements. These would include arm, calf, neck and ab exercises. Also, some greater degree of isolation helps particularly with fixing strength imbalances throughout the body.

You can look at my current program by checking the blog on my T-Nation profile. I have workouts for full-body days, abs & gpp, and bringing up some of my lagging body parts on a treadmill day. Thos are 3, 2 and 2 days a week, respectively.

Good luck.

I havea nutrition questoin…is it better to drink vitamin D milk or the fat free kind?

bump…can anyone answer the question above?

Any milk would be fine

I tend to go for low-fat, protein enriched milk, 8 ounces provides 14.5 grams of protein. Well, milk and the metric ton of food per day :slight_smile:

Milk normally includes a lot of liquid carbohydrates. This can make you fat if you drink too much milk too late in the day. But there is now a low-carb milk you might want to look into.

[quote]rkn0720 wrote:
I havea nutrition questoin…is it better to drink vitamin D milk or the fat free kind?[/quote]

Chocolate milk.

Milk is milk, really. I think the whole “Vitamin D” label is a bit of a misnomer, since most milk, I think, has vitamin D. In any case, get in the habit of reading the nutrition information on all foods.

If you have to choose between the two, the only difference that I see between whole milk (“Vitamin D” milk) and skim milk (“Fat Free” milk) is one has fat, and the other doesn’t. So, whole milk has more calories (good for bulking, especially since you claim to be an ectomorph), while skim milk has no fat, and thus fewer calories (good for a post workout drink).

If you really want a good post workout drink, though, I would go with Surge. It’s a bit expensive, but tastes awesome (You may or may not buy the testimonials here, but T-Nation and Biotest have built up enough credibility with me, in any case). Your choice.

So, for you, I would go for whole milk.