I am writing this post to hold myself accountable to this goal I have. As it stands currently I am 6'1" and I weigh in at about 165 lbs. I am, what I consider to be, skinny and I have poor muscle growth genetics with a ectomorph body shape. In the past I have tried various things to gain weight and add muscle such as workout programs, calorie/protein increase, and adequate sleep. However, as I am thinking, I have never really tried all of these at the same time while targeting only the big muscle groups.
As an ectomorph, I easily lose weight and no matter how much I eat, I can never put any of it on me. Now I am going to try a workout plan where I only target the major specific muscular areas of my body because if I spend to long in the gym, I will be burning calories, doing more cardio, and less muscle building. I will begin by doing these compound lifts to target the major muscle groups:
- Bench Press
- Deadlift
- Squat
- Rows
- Military Press
In doing research I found that working these major lifts first and foremost will strengthen the basic foundation of the muscle groups in their areas. In only doing 5 or 6 lifts I spend less time in the gym and less calories burned that can used for bulking up the big muscles. After lots of bulking has been done then I can progress to isolate certain muscles of my choosing but I won't even think about that yet. Obviously for mass I'm going to lift heavier weight with less reps, most likely 3 sets of 6 reps for optimal muscle gain.
Also... I'm upping my protein and calorie intake even further than what I previously have done, and I plan on getting 9 hours of sleep each night. I will post results here and there to see if it actually works! I hope it does!
Thanks for reading and I hope you might try this workout plan with me.
-Isaac