Gain Weight Workout for Ectomorphs

Henrik's Big Gainer

I can relate to wanting to gain weight because it was the same thing I wanted when I started out. I was 6’5" and 174 lbs, I’m now 6’5" and 258 lbs.

I want to start by making two things clear. First of all muscle mass doesn’t come fast no matter who you are. But if you train without skipping workouts and have patience you will have some amazing results. Second, I want to make it clear that the advice I’m giving you is based on my own experience and somebody else may give you different advice so be sure to get advice from other people too.

NUTRITION

We have to start with nutrition because it’s the most important factor in gaining muscle mass. Remember this: IF YOU DON’T EAT MORE CALORIES THAN YOU BURN YOU WILL NOT GAIN MASS NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRAIN.

This is the most important thing you have to remember. You have to prepare yourself to spend a lot of time cooking and eating food. I learned this the hard way. The first one and a half years I trained, I had very poor results even though I trained hard. I didn’t know anything about nutrition, but when I started reading about it and applying it to myself, things started happening. Over the next two years I gained 30 pounds of muscle.

OK... let's get started. Here is my advice on nutrition:

1. As I said before, you have to eat more calories than you burn. Growth processes demand a lot of calories and you have to do this EVERY DAY. This is not as easy as it sounds. In fact this is where almost everyone fails when it comes to building muscle mass. Don't worry about getting fat. If you’re skinny and training hard you will burn the calories easy.

2. How many calories you ask? As a rule you have to eat 18-20 calories per pound of bodyweight. Of course as you gain weight you have to eat more calories. So you have to figure out how many calories you eat now and adjust. Carbs/ protein/ fats should be 55/25/20%. If you don’t gain weight, try to add 500 calories per day. If that isn’t enough, add 500 more and so forth.

3. Eat 3 big meals plus 2-3 smaller meals each day, 2½-3½ hours apart. This is VERY important. First of all you have to eat 5-6 times a day to get enough calories. But even more important is the fact that if you eat more than 3½ ours apart the body goes into a catabolic state, which means that it is burning muscle for energy!! This is especially true for skinny people. Not something you want to happen, right?!! This means that you have to bring 2-3 food-containers with you to work and you have to spend a lot of time preparing your meals. But it doesn’t have to be fancy. Two sandwiches with meat or cheese will do for one small meal. Use your imagination. Anything goes just as long as there is some protein in there somewhere.

4. Your breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You have been fasting for 8-10 hours and your body is in a catabolic state (eating muscle) so you need to feed it with a lot of food.

Here is what I eat for breakfast - you don’t have to copy it but can use it as a guideline:

120 grams of oatmeal with whole milk
3 soft boiled eggs
Whey protein shake
55 grams of protein with 10 ounces of milk

That’s it. More than 1,000 calories to start the day. If you have trouble eating much for breakfast you have to teach yourself to do it. As I said before, your body is in a catabolic state and needs food.

5. Supplements... don’t waste your money on all the fancy supplements you see in the magazines. Most of them don’t work, and isn’t it strange that each year there is something new on the market and last year's wonder-supplement is gone. That is enough proof to me that they don’t work. I have talked this over with a nutrition scientist and we agree that there are some things that DO work, and have been on the market for years. It’s your normal multi-vitamin/mineral tablets, your average whey protein powder and creatine. Every day take a normal multi-vitamin/mineral that covers 100% off your daily needs. Then don’t give it another thought. A protein drink can substitute one of your smaller meals.

Eat some fruit, preferably 2 bananas, and drink a protein drink right after your workout. I do this myself because our muscles are like a sponge at this time and fueling right after a workout works wonders. I blend 60 grams of whey protein in skim milk and bring it with me to the gym. I shake it up before drinking it right after my workout.

I could go on and on talking about nutrition, but now you have the basics and you can work from there. I can recommend you a book: “Power Eating” by Susan M. Kleiner. You can buy it at amazon.com or maybe order it in your local bookstore.

TRAINING

OK, let's talk about training. I have made the best gains in muscle mass when I used the following program. But first let me give you some general things to keep in mind:

1. Be sure to write down your own program so that you can return to that program if my program doesn’t work for you.

2. Remember that from time to time you have to change exercises and set/rep schemes to shock the body into new growth. I personally have some favorite exercises that I always use and the other exercises I change very often.

3. I want to make it clear that the advice I’m giving you is based on my own experience and somebody else may give you different advice. The program I use works for ME. That doesn’t mean that it works for everybody else. I can see from the IOL forum group that training each bodypart 2 times per week isn’t very popular but I have found that working each bodypart every 4 days is the optimum way for me to train.

OK let's get into it. I train on monthly cycles. The first month I train every other day half the body on the first day, rest day two, second half of the body the third day, rest on day four and so on. The next month I train 3 on, 1 off, training the whole body over 3 days then taking a day off. You can see I always train in 4 day cycles. The third month I go back to training like the first month and so on.

The reason for this is that it keeps up the training intensity and keeps me from burning out. If you train 5-6 days a week all year long, you at some point risk burning out or loosing interest in training. You’ll notice that I like mid- to high volume sets. Again this can be very individual. But make your own judgement and see if it works for you.

TRAINING PROGRAM

FIRST MONTH
Training split 1 on, 1 off

Day 1: Chest/shoulders/arms
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Back/legs/waist
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest/shoulders/arms
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Back/legs/waist
Day 8: Rest

And so on...

In the following 4x12, 10, 8, 6 means 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with increasing weight each set. 4x8 means 4 sets of 8 reps with the same weight.

Day 1

Chest:
Bench press: 5x12, 10, 8, 6,4
Incline dumbbell press : 4x12, 10, 8, 6
Dumbbell pullover: 3x15, 15, 15

Shoulders:
Upright rows: 4x12, 10, 8, 6
Bent over laterals: 4x12, 10, 10, 8 (I don’t do much shoulder work because they grow easy)

I will often superset biceps/triceps, but here it’s straight sets:

Biceps:
Alternate dumbbell curls: 4x10, 8, 6, 5
EZ-Barbell curls: 4x10
Incline dumbbell curls: 4x8, 8, 6, 6

Triceps:
Pulley pushdowns: 4x12, 10, 10, 8
Lying French press: 4x10, 10, 8, 6
Close grip bench press: 4x10, 10, 8, 6

Forearms:
Wrist curls: 3x15, 15, 15

Day 2

Rest

Day 3

Back:
Wide grip pulldowns to the front: 4x15, 12, 10, 8
T-bar rows or one arm dumbbell rows: 4x 10, 10, 8, 8
Pulley rows: 4x15, 12, 10, 8

Superset:
Hyperextensions: 3x 12, 12, 12
Barbell shrugs: 3x 10, 10, 8

Legs:
Squat: 5x 15, 12, 10, 8, 6
Legpress: 4x 12, 10, 10, 8
Legcurls: 4x 12, 10, 8, 8

Calves:
Standing calf raises: 4x15, 12, 10, 10
Seated calf raises: 4x15, 12, 10, 10

Waist:
Crunches

SECOND MONTH
Training split 3 on, 1 off

Day 1: Chest/arms
Day 2: Legs/waist
Day 3: Back/shoulders
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest/arms
Day 6: Legs/waist
Day 7: Back/shoulders
Day 8: Rest

And so on...

Day 1

Chest:
Bench press: 5x12, 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline dumbbell bench press : 4x12, 10, 8, 6
Decline bench press: 4x10, 8, 8, 6

Again I often superset biceps/triceps

Biceps:
Alternate dumbbell curls: 4x10, 8, 6, 5
EZ-Barbell curls: 4x10
Incline dumbbell curls: 4x8, 8, 6, 6

Triceps:
Pulley pushdowns: 4x12, 10, 10, 8
Lying French press: 4x10, 10, 8, 6
Close grip bench press: 4x10, 10, 8, 6

Forearms:
Wrist curls: 3x15, 15, 15

Day 2

Legs:
Squat: 5x 15, 12, 10, 8, 6
Leg press: 4x 12, 10, 10, 8
Leg extensions: 4x12, 12, 12, 10
Leg curls: 4x 12, 10, 8, 8

Calves:
Standing calf raises: 4x15, 12, 10, 10
Seated calf raises: 4x15, 12, 10, 10
Donkey calf raise: 4x12, 10, 10, 8

Waist:
Crunches

Day 3

Back:
Wide grip pulldowns to the front: 4x15, 12, 10, 8
T-bar rows or dumbbell rows: 4x 10, 10, 8, 8

Superset:
Pulley rows: 4x15, 12, 10, 8
Dumbbell pullover: 4x10, 10, 9, 8

Deadlift: 3x8, 6, 4

Shoulders:
Upright rows: 4x12, 10, 8, 6
Bent over laterals: 4x12, 10, 10, 8
Barbell shrugs: 3x 10, 10, 8

NOTES

1. Each workout should last no longer than 1½- 2 hours.
2. Take no more than 2 minutes rest between sets.
3. Always try for more weight or reps but NEVER sacrificing good form in your exercises.
4. Don’t do to many forced reps (if any); it will burn you out.
5. Keep a training journal, this way you can keep track of your gains in strength.
6. If you can find a training partner that would be great. It’s much more fun to train and you get more motivated.
7. When you train don’t just try to lift the weight, try to feel how the muscles work as well - this will increase the intensity. Remember bodybuilding is about making the muscle work as hard as possible, not lifting as much weight as possible ­ these are two different things.

I hope you can use my advice, and I wish you the best of luck in your bodybuilding adventure.

Henrik "The House"

Click here for Dave's simple weight gain tips

Click here for Hugo's Hard Gainer Workout and Nutrition Plan

Click here to go back to the 8 Weeks On Target Workouts

May we answer any bodybuilding questions for you in our forum?

If you haven't yet read Dave's bodybuilding book, Brother Iron, Sister Steel, here's more information.

You may also enjoy our ongoing weight training and fitness article blog, which we update with new material several times each week.

Are you in the mood for reading an weight training book excerpt?

Can I tell you about whey protein powders?

Could you use a new 8-week workout routine or a bodypart workout program? Need to learn how to squat or how to deadlift?

Or select a link to the right to discover our most popular pages that are sure to answer all your training questions.