Are you built more like a marathon runner than a swimmer? Do you consider yourself long and skinny, thin and wiry? Is it very difficult for you to build up any muscles? If you answered “Yes” to at least one of these questions, then most likely your body type is an ectomorph. Or a hardgainer (from the English hardgainer - a person who finds it extremely difficult to gain weight, no matter how often and how much he eats). Due to too intense metabolism, gaining muscle mass for an ectomorph may seem like a hopeless endeavor to some. But don't rush to conclusions!
Body types
According to Professor William Sheldon, depending on the formation of the proportions of the torso and limbs, three types of human physique are distinguished.
Endomorph
This is the classic "fat guy". Round, soft proportions of the body with excess subcutaneous fat in all parts. Even the head takes on a spherical shape. Despite the body type changing throughout life, even an endomorph who has gained muscle mass or is hungry will still have rounded shapes.
Mesomorph
He is a large man with broad bones and pronounced muscle mass. There is enough fat, but it is distributed evenly throughout the subcutaneous tissue. Powerful shoulders, muscular legs and easy tolerance to physical activity complete the picture.
Ectomorph
This is a classic "lanky" one. Tall and thin, with thin bones and almost complete absence of subcutaneous fat. Muscle mass is evenly distributed, but it is clearly not enough for intense physical training. A fast metabolism is typical, so even with an abundant diet, he is not in danger of gaining fat deposits.
Most people have a mixed constitution, but the characteristic body type is quite easy to distinguish.
What are the advantages of an ectomorph
Each body type has its own advantages. For an ectomorph they are as follows:
- Incredible endurance - you can endlessly increase the intensity and duration of the load.
- Intensive metabolism - high-calorie nutrition is available without the fear of gaining excess weight.
- Easy achievement of muscle definition.
- According to William Sheldon, ectomorphs tend to be highly intelligent.
- A healthy body has a predisposition only to hyperthyroidism (increased function of the thyroid gland), but this is a kind of “payment” for intense metabolism.
Ectomorphs have some problems with the rate of muscle fiber hypertrophy, but they disappear with long-term training. Difficulties may arise due to the congenital thinness of the muscles and the relative weakness of the tendons, but with a gradual increase in physical activity, they are leveled out.
How do mass gainers help an ectomorph?
People of this body type do not gain weight well, and both their fat and muscle layers increase problematically. Based on this, the only correct option would be to consume sports nutrition, increase daily caloric intake and functional strength training.
A gainer for an ectomorph is the optimal type of sports nutrition, even if it contains fast carbohydrates and the amount of protein is kept to a minimum. The ectomorph's digestive mechanism will simply burn all the calories before they have a chance to be stored as fat.
However, before choosing the most suitable gainer for an ectomorph, you need to determine whether you belong to this body type. If not, then body weight will increase not due to muscle mass, but due to fat mass. Ectomorphs are distinguished by the following external characteristics:
- weak muscles and low percentage of body fat;
- narrow hips, shoulders, wrists and ankles;
- long arms and legs;
- flat chest;
- tall (not always).
It is difficult for athletes with an asthenic build to achieve impressive relief and high strength indicators. They have few reserves of glycogen and amino acids in their muscles, and during training these reserves are quickly depleted. Accordingly, rapid metabolism begins to burn muscles, of which there are already few. Gainer helps turn the situation around. It not only increases the caloric content of the diet, but gives the body more energy for training, and also provides amino acids to the muscles and stimulates protein synthesis.
Basic rules of training
Less is better
Perhaps the most important principle of gaining mass for an ectomorph: it is very easy to overtrain and negate all your efforts. There is also a high probability of injury due to insufficient development of joints, ligaments and tendons.
Basic exercises
Usually the classic ones are bench press, deadlift and squats with a barbell. Heavy multi-joint exercises provide the greatest load on the most muscle groups. In this case, the ectomorph lifts greater weights than in single-joint (isolation) exercises, to which your body responds by releasing anabolic hormones. Plus time savings - effective muscle development in a shorter workout.
Load progression
The key to gaining muscle mass regardless of body type. Our goal No. 1 is to increase results (weights) over time in each exercise . We must not forget this!
More rest between sets
The recovery abilities of the muscle tissue and central nervous system of the ectomorph are genetically slightly slowed down, so it is absolutely normal to rest for up to 3 minutes between approaches. In fact, you can experiment here, but most often the “standard” 60-90 seconds of rest is not enough for effective mass gain.
Ectomorph training (dedicated to skinny guys).
Who is an ectomorph?
An ectomorph is a person taller than average (most often, but there are exceptions), with thin bones (wrist circumference usually does not exceed 17 cm), narrow shoulders, the muscles on the body are long and do not have outstanding volume, fat reserves on the body are minimal, so as a very fast metabolism (the most important plus of an ectomorph). In connection with all this, the ectomorph is poorly adapted to power loads, but shows excellent results in those sports where speed and endurance are required (for example, running, swimming, football, etc.).
When, after communicating with a person and observing him, how he trains, eats and what results he gets, I inform him that he is an ectomorph, the person bitterly perceives this as a sentence. Very in vain.
Anyone can gain muscle mass, regardless of their body type, genetics and other factors.
The main thing, as they say, is the desire, but there will be a way!
Nick Scott is the founder of the Society of Disabled Bodybuilders. The guy didn’t give up, he wanted it and did it. I hope that after this photo you will not look for excuses.
Ectomorph is not a sentence, but only a slightly different principle of training and nutrition.
Now I will tell you about it.
I'll probably start with training. Since the muscles of an ectomorph are poorly adapted to a large volume of load, he should work out each muscle no more than once a week, and sometimes even less often (you need to look at the response of the muscles to the load).
— You should do 1-2 exercises for large groups (Legs, Back, Chest), if you are not a beginner, then a maximum of 3.
— For small groups (Biceps, Triceps, Deltas) you do 1 exercise, or if you are a complete beginner, then at first you can not do exercises on them at all, since, for example, in pull-ups you involve the biceps in the work and the load received during training the back will be more than enough to work the biceps.
Bigger is not always better, especially for an ectomorph.
The number of approaches is 2-3, sometimes 4 (depending on the level of preparedness). The number of repetitions is standard 8-12.
Exercises are only basic (presses, rows, squats), no isolation (concentrated biceps curls, crossovers, etc.).
Now, as for the nutrition of the ectomorph.
There are no secrets here either. The most important thing is an excess of calories (you get more calories than you expend), but an ectomorph needs a slightly larger excess than a mesomorph or endomorph. You need to eat often, every 2-2.5 hours, and you need to eat a fairly large amount of food.
Calories need to be gained from:
- complex carbohydrates (oatmeal, rice, buckwheat, pasta)
– high-quality protein (eggs, meat, fish, milk, cottage cheese)
— polyunsaturated fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6 (fish oil, flaxseed oil).
Regarding dietary restrictions, I can say that ectomorphs can eat whatever they need or what they want, there are no restrictions during the period of weight gain, the more you eat, the better. But the main thing is to correctly calculate the calorie content and do not forget about the specific set of foods that you simply must eat in a day. First, what you need, and then what you want. Discipline is an integral part of success.
I think that's all I wanted to tell you, friends. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them to me in contact, I will be happy to answer. Achieve all your goals, friends!
Ectomorph nutrition
Due to the intense metabolism, you can eat high-calorie foods without the risk of gaining subcutaneous fat. The emphasis should be placed not only on proteins, but also on fats. The composition of the diet is not even as important as the total number of calories consumed.
Therefore, the division into meals is arbitrary; you should try to eat up to 6-8 times a day. Often you have to resort to gainers 2-3 times a day. These are protein-carbohydrate cocktails that stimulate muscle growth.
Menu for ectomorph
A sample menu might look like this.
Breakfast. At least 600 calories. Up to 5 eggs (soft-boiled), cheese, cereals - buckwheat, oatmeal or rice and bread - are excellent. One medium-sized egg contains 6-7 grams of protein, and the energy value is about 70 kcal.
2 breakfast. Two or three bananas or oranges and a gainer drink.
Dinner. High-calorie soup - solyanka, borscht with meat. Then at least 300 grams of beef or pork with any side dish, preferably vegetable. You can increase the calorie content with a salad with the addition of 50 ml of olive oil. Lunch - at least 2 hours before the start of training.
Afternoon snack . 15 minutes before class. Multi-ingredient drink - gainer, apple or banana.
Second afternoon tea. 30 minutes after class. Gainer plus fruits.
Dinner. Fish, beef or lamb with side dish. Bread and high-calorie juice are allowed.
Before bedtime. Cottage cheese 3% fat approximately an hour before bedtime. 200 grams of cottage cheese contain approximately 32-38 grams of “slow” casein protein, which can supply muscles with sufficient protein for 5-6 hours while you sleep.
Monitor your weight every week and if weight gain does not occur, it is important to increase your caloric intake by 500 kcal per day.
Gainer
This is not a magic elixir for gaining weight. It is necessary when, for various reasons, a person simply cannot satisfy the body’s need for proteins, carbohydrates, fats and calories from the food they eat. For a real hardgainer who cannot gain weight no matter how much he eats.
Ingredients
- Multi-component protein - 2 scoops (2 scoops)
- Whole milk - 2 cups
- Oatmeal - ½ cup
- Banana - 1 piece
- Mix in a blender.
Compound
The resulting drink contains:
- Proteins - 70 g
- Carbohydrates – 80 g
- Fats - 30 g
- Energy value - 850 kcal
You can drink it with breakfast, before, during and after training, as well as before bed. Three of these drinks a day will add 2500 kcal, 210 g of protein, 240 g of carbohydrates and 90 g of fat to your daily diet. This should definitely be enough for any ectomorph!
Sports nutrition for ectomorphs to gain muscle mass
Gaining muscle mass is a rather complex and lengthy process. And if you are an ectomorph , then this process will be even more difficult for you. Therefore, many people who work for weight, but it still doesn’t grow, resort to using sports supplements. There are supplements that work well, and there are those that work poorly. In this article, I will tell you about the best sports nutrition for ectomorphs to gain muscle mass .
But, before I recommend anything to you, I want to say that sports nutrition is just an addition to the main diet. If your main diet (nutrition + training) is not set up correctly, then supplements will not help (or they will work very poorly). First of all, if you have problems with muscle growth, then pay attention to your diet and training. Perhaps you are undernourished or poorly trained.
Also, if you think that you will buy creatine or gainer and be able to gain 10 kg of muscle mass in 6 weeks, then this will not happen. Sports supplements speed up muscle growth, but not to the same extent. They should not be confused with steroids (hormonal drugs). Now, if you take steroids, then it is quite possible to gain 10 kg in 6 weeks (only this will not be lean muscle mass, but total muscle mass). But steroids are not the answer. If you are an amateur athlete, I do not recommend taking them, as they negatively affect your health.
So, if we take into account exactly those supplements that actually accelerate weight growth (you can see this visually), then I would focus on 3 supplements. These are: gainer, creatine and protein. Moreover, exactly in the same sequence as I wrote. I will not consider vitamins and Omega 3 fats as supplements here, since it doesn’t matter what your goal is (weight loss, weight, health, endurance, etc.) - they should be 100% present in your diet. Vitamins and Omega 3 fats are necessary for our body just like drinking water.
Place #1 – Gainer for ectomorphs
A gainer is a nutritional supplement that largely consists of carbohydrates (up to 90%). There are also gainers that contain more protein (up to 40%) and, accordingly, less carbohydrates (up to 60%), but in this case it loses all meaning. A gainer is primarily carbohydrates, so you need to buy one with a lot of carbohydrates. If you need protein, then buy protein.
Typically, ectomorphs need to eat large amounts of food to grow. Most of this food is carbohydrates. That is why, if we consider sports nutrition for ectomorphs to gain muscle mass , then I put the gainer in first place. It can be very difficult to cram such a large amount of carbohydrates into yourself from regular solid foods, and this is where a gainer comes to the rescue. I poured milk (or water) into the shaker, added a portion of gainer, crushed it, drank it in 30 seconds and that’s it. Saved time and didn't have to cram in food.
Gainer can be used both from the store and prepared at home. To prepare a gainer at home, you need to take a source of some complex carbohydrates (oatmeal is great) + a source of simple carbohydrates (fruit, honey, etc.) + liquid (milk, yogurt, etc.). Throw all this into a blender, mix and get a homemade gainer. If you want your gainer to have more proteins, then you can add 100g of low-fat cottage cheese or 2 raw chicken eggs to the same cocktail.
Place #2 – Creatine for ectomorphs
Creatine is a supplement that specifically increases lean mass and strength by increasing ATP and phosphocreatine. Protein synthesis and secretion of insulin-like growth factor are also enhanced by 10–14%. You can get creatine both from food (meat, fish) and from additional supplements. If you are sure that you have an ideal menu (enough proteins, fats and carbohydrates), but still are not growing, then buy creatine.
It is usually recommended to take creatine with a loading phase. That is, the first 7 days, 20g of creatine (loading), and then another 3–4 weeks, 3–5g of creatine (support). But, as practice shows, there is little point in loading, since the end result will be the same. Therefore, I advise you to take creatine for 4–6 weeks at an even dose of 5–10 g per day. After this, you need to give a break for 3 - 4 weeks and then you can repeat it again. I also recommend taking creatine with a lot of simple carbohydrates to get a big insulin release (it helps deliver creatine to the right places). For example, you can take creatine in the morning with a meal that consists mostly of carbohydrates.
Place #3 – Protein for ectomorphs
By protein we mean a supplement that is mostly made up of proteins. You could say that protein is the opposite of gainer. I put it in 3rd place for two reasons:
- You don’t need a lot of protein for muscle growth, just 2g per 1kg of body weight is enough, which can easily be gained from regular food (while you may need 2 or even 3 times more carbohydrates)
- a portion of truly high-quality protein will cost more than a portion of good meat, so I see no point in overpaying (the price is higher, the effect is absolutely the same)
At the moment, there are 7 main types of protein, each of which is valuable in its own way:
- whey protein (is the most popular type, which can be divided into 3 subtypes: concentrate, isolate and hydrolyzate)
- casein protein (the second most popular, which is a slow-digesting type, which is ideal at night, or when there is no opportunity to eat for a very long time)
- milk protein
- soy protein
- egg white
- wheat protein
- beef protein
In principle, like a gainer, protein can be made at home. In the same way, only the ingredients should be mainly protein. For example, you can take low-fat cottage cheese, chicken eggs, some berries, 1-2 tsp. honey and 200 ml milk. Mix all this and you get homemade protein.
If you are very serious about results and want to use all 3 supplements, then here is an approximate menu for how you can add sports nutrition for ectomorphs to gain muscle mass (how to combine correctly):
Meal 1: oatmeal + honey + banana + milk + piece of dark chocolate + 7g creatine
Step 2: gainer + whey protein – mix in milk
Meal 3: pasta + beef + vegetables
Step 4: gainer + whey protein – mix in milk
Meal 5: cottage cheese + nuts
Or you can do this:
1st dose: gainer + whey protein (mix in milk) + 7g creatine
Meal 2: rice + fish + vegetables
Meal 3: pasta + beef + vegetables
Meal 4 (60 minutes before training): milk gainer
Meal 5: rice + chicken + vegetables
Meal 6: casein protein + nuts
In principle, you can come up with a lot of options. Try to have a break of 2 to 4 hours between meals (the more meals, the shorter the break).
PS I also recommend that you allocate some of your precious time to watch this video.
Best regards, Sergey Garbar
Ectomorph rest
No matter how much you would like to gain muscle mass as quickly as possible, without proper rest there will be no benefit from training. Fatigue will appear, and exercise will only have a detrimental effect on the body. The main rules of rest can be presented as follows:
- sleep should be at least a third of the day;
- A day's rest, at least 30 minutes, is very useful.
Gaining muscle mass does not occur during exercise, but during sleep, so only by following the correct training regimen, nutrition and proper recovery can you quickly achieve impressive results.
The ideal composition of a gainer for an ectomorph
In general, any gainer is suitable for an ectomorph. But the best one will be the one that corresponds to individual characteristics and assigned tasks. For example, a lot depends on the amount of protein in the diet. If there is a noticeable lack of protein, then it is better to choose a high-protein gainer, and if there is enough protein, then you can choose a gainer containing a small amount of protein.
The best weight gainers for ectomorphs
Taking into account the general patterns and physique, we can say that the best gainer for an ectomorph to gain weight would be a gainer containing a significant amount of slow (complex) carbohydrates (at least 60% of the total amount of carbohydrates in the supplement). Protein should not be less than 20%. It’s good if, in addition to whey protein, the composition contains casein, as well as amino acids and vitamins, creatine. There should be no sugar in a good gainer at all. Serious manufacturers add maltodextrin as fast carbohydrates. There should be a minimum of other additives. That is, all these thickeners, sweeteners, and flavorings are not very beneficial for the body (although they make the supplement tastier) and the fewer of them, the better.
Why beginners should not take anabolic steroids
- Most of these drugs are contraindicated under the age of 21-25 years .
- A considerable number of side effects - masculinization in women, gynecomastia in men, increased blood pressure, toxic liver damage, testicular atrophy. Although most of these changes are reversible, the risk is still high.
- In order to achieve results from the use of steroids, you must already be an “advanced” athlete, that is, be able to train, rest and eat properly. In addition, “pharma” is mainly used by professionals who can assess the potential harm of drugs and make an informed choice.
- It is unethical for an athlete to gain an advantage over an opponent by taking anabolic steroids, and unethical in relation to the very essence of sport: after all, its goal is health. This is the opinion of the International Olympic Committee.
- According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, criminal liability has been established for the sale of anabolic steroids under Article 234 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation .
Good luck
