Worst Body Type for a Bodybuilder

How are you guys.

I was wondering if any of you guys ever delt with a person with a body type that is both endomorph and ectomorph, such as myself (skinny arms and legs, but a fat face and stomach).

In my case I’m 5’7 19 y/o male 140lbs at the moment with a very slow matabolism. But with the ability of gaining muscle like an ectomorph. One pass bulk for instance I would put on 4-5lbs of fat per pound of muscle on a clean bulk. Which is very bad.

My diet is good, I helped two guys get huge (muscle weight) with my diets. Sadly I stayed the same.

So I was wondering if any of you guys have any advice on how to get around such opposing forces. Right now Im on the velocity diet to get down to single digits since I refuse to bulk again unless I start out at 7%

140 and cutting? you are about to get flamed.

anyway, you can speed up your metabolism by putting on muscle through lifting heavy. this way, you can bulk and lean out at the same time. Most situations, that is not possible but you can probably pull it off.

Good luck.

I know I know, but I cant bulk unless im on single digits bro I gain to much fat and to little muscle. Im endo/ecto it wont work. I’ve been bodybuilding and power lifting serious for 5 years and have almost nothing to show for it.

[quote]UB07 wrote:
140 and cutting? you are about to get flamed.
[/quote]

What’s the point? There are too many of them. These guys’ gyms must look absolutely silly looking in from the outside. A whole hoard of dudes weighing a buck 40 jumping on treadmills and doing crunches trying to burn off those last few pounds of…bone.

Five years? I’m not sure if that’s persistent or pathetic. If I didn’t gain weight in the first month I would think I’m doing something wrong.

I’m sorry to waste your time guys, and am sad you cannot help withh my situation.

Train hard and eat clean. I’m certain your eating habits need work. Maybe drinking. Your not an ecto endo reject type. Thats in your head.

Find a coach or read some books on training. Read stuff here but try one thing at a time. Your only 19 so relax. You have years to work this out.

[quote]Arcane wrote:
I’m sorry to waste your time guys, and am sad you cannot help withh my situation. [/quote]

I’m sorry YOU can’t help with your situation. You have lifted for 5 years and weigh 140lbs. You claim that one “bulk” (why someone who claims to have a slow metabolism would use that word, no one knows) left you with 5lbs of fat and 5lbs of muscle.

Instead of cutting back your food intake slightly, you apparently got scared and decided to lose weight. This has no doubt been your cycle over and over where you end up with nothing because you are that afraid of gaining any body fat…which at 140lbs, you are simply OBESE.

What could anyone possibly tell you that you would actually listen to? You are 140lbs and are on the freaking “V-Diet”. This site needs to erase that article.

[quote]Arcane wrote:
I’m sorry to waste your time guys, and am sad you cannot help withh my situation. [/quote]

Hey, don’t get sore. You did get SOME help.

Your main problem seems to be the slow metabolism. The best way to address this (as already indicated) is to lift heavy and often. Don’t do a lot of volume at each session, but lift frequently (twice a day if you can). You should just do a few warmups, then lift at 80-90% 1RM.

Stick to big compound exercises for the moment. Squat, deadlift, row, bench press, overhead press would do well. No more than 2 sets of each, no more than 5 reps (Not that you would be likely to do more than 5 at that weight). No failure. 3 minutes rest between sets.

You don’t need to do every exercise at every session, particularly if you are lifting twice a day. Squat, row and bench in the morning, deadlift and OH press in the afternoon.

On diet: I bet you eat far too much carbs for your body type. Keep the carbs low (< 10% of total kcals). You may need to go lower (5%). Fat approx. 55-60%. Protein the rest. Carbs should come from veges. Once a week have a cheat day and eat all that sugar and starch you’ve been craving. This approach will force your body to produce fat burning enzymes.

I’ll try to be of help.

Based on everything you have said, you don’t really have much muscle. To rectify this issue, we’ll have to start with this.

eat 1.5x140lbs = finish calculation for amount of protein you should be eating ( 1.25 minimum if you want to see any gains in mass.

You can’t get worse by eating health.

Simple method :

Bake/Grill : Chicken breast (costco)
or Cans of Tuna - 1 per meal

Steam : vegetables - let’s stay with broccoli and carrots * you add more as you get used to steaming enough for 2-3 days at a time. Some yummy extra’s boil a dozen eggs at a time use that as protein snacks.

Breakfast : 2 cups of oatmeal, some milk, and 1 scoop protein powder, with some time of fruit, or simplified let’s just use a banana.

Other foods to eat scrambled eggs, salmon, sashimi.

Let’s save complex carbs for breakfast and lunch and by mid afternoon cut them out and rely on fats instead later on.


helpful links

New to T-Nation?
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=817951

Are You A Beginner?
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350

Advice From Vets for Young Bucks
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1368968

Read articles from John Berardi the “doc” about nutrition.

Read carb cycling codex by Christian Thibaudeau


Now exercise, let’s see what your current weightlifting program looks like and the poundage you are moving, do you do lower body also? Do you deadlift? Squat?


I’d recommend 3 total body workouts a week and 3 cardio sessions seperately.

Also if you want to melt off more fat, 30-45 min moderate cardio in the morning.

20-30 minute of moderate/intense cardio after those weights.

Those 3 cardio sessions are 1-3hours of whatever you can do or want to do. Just do it.


Or.

Try bodypart splits such as the push-pull.

One example :

Bicep/Tricep

Legs/Shoulders

Chest/Back

and throw in cardio in the morning or after each workout.


Or take a look at all the entry level weightlifting regiments.


You’re going to have clean your whole mentality up, toss it into the disposal. Start from scratch, determine your current ability - strength, cardio, and also take a hard look at your eating habits and protein intake.


Clean up your diet, toss out the soda, the candy, the sugar, the sweets, pour in the water, fresh vegetables, fruits, toss out the fast food, if it’s hard to do right now have 1 cheat day a week where you gorge on whatever you want.


To evaluate your strength, bring those friends, do 1-2 sets of warmup and find your 1RM ( MAX REPx1 ) for all your workouts.

Evaluate your fitness level.
Have someone time you @ 1 mile, time you @ the 40 yard dash, 100 yard dash.

How long you can jump-rope before being completely unable to coordinate yourself to do anymore.


Figure out where you truly are fitness wise. Forget the ectomorph blahblah morph nonsense because it’s holding you back. Everyone that packs enough muscle is no longer held back by these “terms”

Then set some goals and get to work.


whatever happened to the days when it was about getting bigger and stronger regardless of your genetics and the saying as long as your chest goes past your stomach who cares because my goals are not to look pretty for the two times I’m at the beach!!!

OP I was what people considered and ectomorph and told I was never going to get big but I some how managed to give everyone the finger slapped on close to 70 pounds of lean body mass put on close to 6 inches of muscle on each arm!!! Come on people wake up and stop trying to look like a bunch of weak brainwashed timberlake clones!

Screw TBT all it does is make you tired and burn calories!!!

[quote]Rhal wrote:
Screw TBT all it does is make you tired and burn calories!!! [/quote]

Well try to take into consideration his Height + Weight + Mentality + Guesstimate where he is at fitness wise.

How can you be 5’ 7", 140 pounds and be fat or have a slow motabolism? Surely it is more to do with body shape? Because that dosen’t add up man.

I’m also 5’ 7" and i’m 180 and I neither look very fat or very muscular. I think I was around 140 before I started lifting.

So either something very odd is going on, or you are a bit deluded about your body. I don’t mean offense by that, it just seems that those numbers don’t add up.

Take it from me, being skinny fat blows.

That said, I would rather cut down and be skinny and then begin a bulk than I would bulking from the get-go with 15%+ bodyfat. I can’t stand being fat, and frankly the idea of waiting a few years before I lean down, regardless of how much bigger I may be, is not for me.

That said, I’m not looking to be the biggest and strongest guy around, or accumulate as much mass as possible in the shortest time-span. No disrespect to those who are; you obviously have loads of dedication.

Edit: to the OP, I would most certainly NOT CUT at your weight, however.

[quote]Rhal wrote:
Screw TBT all it does is make you tired and burn calories!!! [/quote]

I hope you’re being sarcastic here.

Arcane, I think you should tell us more about what you’ve been doing in and out of the gym.

[quote]Plim wrote:

So either something very odd is going on, or you are a bit deluded about your body. I don’t mean offense by that, it just seems that those numbers don’t add up.[/quote]

If he had a couple more inches I’d agree, but at his height and weight he could very easily be skinny-fat.

Wow this is easy.Squat,Bench,Deadlift,Power Clean,Military Press,5,000 calories a day.Repeat until massive.I was 5’8" 165 pounds at 14 and i did that until now.I’m now 16 and I added slabs of muscle.I’m about 230 right now.That’s 65 pounds of bodyweight,almost all lean.My bench shot from 150 to 295.My squat went from 225 to 370.I did get a little fatter,but now if I decide to cut I’ll actually cut out fat.

I know I’m younger and I might seem like a cocky asshole but your situation isn’t half as hard as you think.

1.) You aren’t lifting intensely enough.

or

2.) You aren’t eating enough of the right foods.

or

3.) Combination of both.

That’s your problem. No, it’s not because 35% of your calories come from carbs and it should 42%, or because you’re lifting at 73% of your max instead of 84%, or because you forgot your fasted, morning cardio.

No, your problem is simple, and it doesn’t take rocket science to fix it.

Anybody but a total, complete noobie knows what foods they’re supposed to be eating and what lifts they’re supposed to be doing.

You have a motivation problem. Get it fixed, or give it up.

Excellent advice guys.