It is probably your wishful thinking to look gorgeous and be successful with good-looking women or it might be the ’shower’ of different ‘professional’ advice and products on the market that makes you believe that you as a hardgainer need to train more that an average human being. If you reached satisfactory results by working in the gym like an ox following a 5-day routine, then do NOT read on. But if that’s not the case, this article is just made for you – a desperately tired hardgainer at the edge of your physical and mental exhaustion. Rule no. 1. Ignore those ‘big rats’ and commercial magazines telling you to extend your training because you’re a hardgainer. Listen to your body instead nad look ua a training program which takes the needs of an ectomorph body seriously and understands them. Rule no. 2. Contrary to what most beginner bodybuilders believe, your muscles do NOT grow while you’re ripping them apart in the local gym! And hardgainers are specially challenged when it comes to recovery time after each workout. My simple advice on hot give your muscle tissues enough space to recover and start to grow is by giving them an extra day off training. Rule no. 3. Since an ectomorph body functions on different principles than any ‘normal’ guy’s body (the ones we hate for having rock-hard muscles for less hard work). You have to adjust the time spent in the gym. While some people would advise you to keep your workouts shorter than 60 minutes, I would say keep it 45 minutes or under! And here’s why: Training longer than 45 to 60 (max!) minutes causes the drop of your anabolic hormones. Your hardgainer muscle fibers are not designed for endurance related exercises. You then feel drop in energy and also drop in the ability to recover. So you want to keep your workouts rather fast and furious in order to get the maximum results; it’ll also give you some extra time your can spend with your friends and family. Rule no. 4. If you feel the above mentioned symptoms (tiredness, drop in energy and drop in recovery time) stop training right away! As a hardgainer you have to make sure you don’t do long-endurance training sessions simply because your body doesn’t have a lot of creatin phosphate in storage. A solution: If you have already crossed the line and haven’t given yourself that necessary day of rest between your workouts and feel like run over by a train it’s still not too late to do something about it. You’ve got two possibilities. You can take a week of training and watch a little miracle happen. It’s like giving your body a Christmas present after all the hard work. And what more you can expect a reward for it in form of bigger and harder muscles. It really works. Your muscles grow while they rest! Remember?! The second option is to start doing ’sub-failure’ training, which basically means that you’re never going to reach muscular failure during the workout; you’re stopping two to three repetitions short of it.

Over-training is one of the most detrimental things to weight loss and muscle gain, yet not many people know how to avoid it.  The ‘no pain, no gain’ mentality usually pushes us to train as much and as often as we can.  Our thoughts are that we can put in that one last set to help push our muscles that little bit extra.  Unfortunately, that little extra may be too much.  Simplistically, over-training is pushing your muscles further than they can repair within a given time.  It gets much deeper than that, but let’s save all of that for a different article. Effects of Over-training Some of the common effects that over-training has on our nervous system are: Irritability High Blood Pressure Early Onset Fatigue Increased Metabolic Rate (not in a good way) Weight Loss Elevated Resting Heart Rate Insomnia or Trouble Sleeping If you are experiencing more than one of these symptoms, it is time you re-evaluated your training routine.  More is not always the answer.  In fact, it almost always tends to be too much. On top of the lovely effects on our nervous system, over-training effects our hormone levels as well.  Decreased testosterone and increased cortisol are two of them.  These two combined lead to loss of muscle mass through protein tissue break down.  Don’t forget the weakened immune system as well.   If you are feeling weak, irritable, having trouble sleeping, not interested in working out, etc. you are in a state of over-training.  It is important that you put the weights down for a week and revamp your routine.  To continue down the path of over-training is particularly destructive and should be avoided at all costs. How to Avoid Over-Training Since we know a small amount about the negatives of over-training, we now need to figure out how to avoid it.  Luckily, we can avoid over-training with three simple changes in our daily lives/work out routines. Correct Volume Training  Proper Nutrition  Rest and Recovery Correct volume training involves paying close attention to your body.  If you go super hard one work out, then you have to be ready to skip the next if you are not recovered all the way.  It will be hard to do at first, but you have to decide what weight you can lift x-amount of times per set.  It will take some experience, but as you learn it will get much easier to do.  The best philosophy is to under shoot your weight estimations and just jump them up the next set or next workout.  If you estimate too heavy, back the weight down.  Injuries occur when pride gets in the way of judgement.  Leave your pride at home and you shouldn’t hurt yourself. Proper nutrition is 70% of your muscle building.  Eating too much, skipping meals, or not eating enough can derail any gains your work outs may have offered.  There are rules everywhere on how to eat, when to eat, etc.  I will lay out the simple stupid steps to muscle building nutrition for you though: Do not allow your body to grow hungry.  As your body starts to starve, it cannibalizes your muscles for protein.  So you should be ensuring you are eating enough quality foods to feed your muscles.   Do not skip meals.  We tend to skip our breakfast when we are running late, but that starts you off on the wrong foot.  Your metabolic furnace needs to be stoked within an hour of you waking. Put something in your stomach prior to your work out.  If you are looking to burn fat as well, make it a smaller meal, but you need the glycogen in your system to sustain a workout.   Your largest portion of calories should be taken in post work out.  Your largest meal should be consumed within one hour of finishing your workout in order to feed your worked muscles. Eat every two to three hours to ensure your body stays in an anabolic (muscle building) state. Proper rest and recovery is almost as important as nutrition is.  Aim for seven hours of sleep a night.  There are proponents for more sleep than that, but with our modern society that type of rest may not be possible.  More importantly, get yourself on a schedule and adhere to it.  You shouldn’t work out 7 days a week.  It is best to aim for a day off between your weight workouts.  If you can’t take the day off in between, at least avoid training the same muscles on consecutive days to allow them enough rest.   So there you have how to avoid over-training.  Don’t be afraid to honestly judge your routine and make changes where you need to.  Chances are you are working harder than you need to for muscle gains.  Good luck and happy lifting!    

It’s unfortunate that some people feel, when it comes to weight training, that more is better for building muscle and strength. Well, this isn’t always the case. In fact, too much weight lifting can stop all of your progress. If you lift too much, you run the risk of overtraining. Overtraining simply means doing too much physical exercise and not allowing your body to recover. Most beginners and many intermediate trainees get the workout part right, and sometimes even the diet and supplementation. But sadly, they usually fail miserably on the recovery part of their programs. Muscles grow at rest, not while you’re in the gym. Many newbie lifters destroy themselves in the gym and then fail to allow their muscles to recover fully before training them again. This overtraining will cause you to stop gaining muscle and could even cause you to lose the muscle you already have! Simply put, overtraining is a state your body enters into when the workload you subject it to is greater than the body’s ability to recover. It can come from training too often and/or with too much intensity. Couple this with not enough rest to fully recuperate and rebuild and you have overtraining. Overtraining can result in lowered testosterone levels as well as a lower ratio of testosterone to cortisol, which can leave your body in a state of zero-growth. There are many signs of overtraining, so be aware of them and see if you have any of them. While a few of them might not necessarily mean you’re overtraining, they may mean that you’re on the verge. Persistent soreness and stiffness in the muscles and joints is one sign. Fatigue, sluggishness, and a lack of energy during your workouts is another big sign. A loss of muscle size and fullness can mean you’re overtraining. Low sex drive and constant irritability are other symptoms. If you have any of these and you’re currently working out more than 5 days a week, you need to cut back immediately, before you get worse. The sad thing about overtraining is that many people think that the cure for overtraining is they just have to work harder to make gains. Unfortunately, this aggravates their problems and end up losing even more size. So the most important thing you can do to rebound from overtraining is to take some time off from the gym. Take as long as your body needs. In extreme cases of overtraining, it could take months, if not years, to heal properly. But for most people, taking a week off from lifting will be enough. When you get back to the gym after this time off, you’ll notice your energy levels are back to normal, as well as your strength and endurance. You may want to consider cycling your intensity levels from now on. Phases might include cycles of high, medium, or low intensity or variations in weights, sets and reps, or workout durations. Typically, a few weeks of high-intensity training would be followed up with several weeks of low-intensity training to prevent overtraining. The body simply cannot produce a maximum output over a lengthy period of time. You can also reduce the poundages of your weights and your intensity if you don’t want to risk overtraining. Keep your workouts under 45 minutes by reducing some of the reps and sets you do. All you need to do is 2 exercises for each muscle group, 3 total heavy sets for 8 to 10 reps. You also want to schedule at least 2 rest days into your program each week. These are just some of the things you can do if you feel that you’re overtraining. It helps to take a step back and look at your situation from a different perspective. No, don’t try to fix things by working even harder in the gym. Instead, take a smarter approach and take the time off to rest. Then, set up your routine to prevent overtraining from happening again.

Mon Wed Fri Bench Press, Bicep Curls, 40 min moderate cardio

Tues-Thurs-Sat (I’m not sure what you call these lifting exercises, so I’ll describe them)

Lawn Mower pulls with dumbell

Dumbells in hand – lift shoulders

Weight tied to dow rod with rope, roll up and down with arms extended

50 lbs on bench bar behind neck with hands in center

40 minutes moderate cardio

I do all resistance training to failure, 5 sets at about 80% max. (I know I need to start working my legs!) To me this seems like a pretty good regiman. I’m looking for insight for ways to improve my training, your experiences in training. Also interested in supplements such as creatine & glutamine, I’ve been taking these for 2 weeks I’ve been training for about 7 months and want to make my workouts really contribute twords gaining mass and defintition. I’m a vegetarian, 6 to 8 meals a day, whey protein, superb diet. But building muscle on a vegetarian diet is difficult. Thks for your input

How to Avoid Over-training to Maximize Muscle Growth

By Vince DelMonte

Almost anyone that’s picked up a set of weights has or will experience symptoms of over-training at one point in there muscle building program. Over-training can lead to serious injury, chronic fatigue, and even muscle loss.

Over-training is very common amongst athletes and particularly bodybuilders, since they figure that training as much as possible is the fastest way to massive muscle gains.

This couldn’t be any further from the truth however. . .

Training too much, or at too high of an intensity will lead to over-training.

Now this doesn’t mean you don’t have to put plenty of effort in to see some decent results. . . Whether you are a bodybuilder, athlete, or just someone that wants to add some additional mass to your frame, you need to train hard and be consistent-that’s a given. In order to get the most out of your genetics, you have to progressively overload the muscles by increasing the weight and / or intensity of each weight training workout.

The problem is however, that many of us increase the intensity of our workouts or get insufficient amounts of rest, or even worse, a combination of both. The trick is finding the right balance between workout volume and intensity, and rest and recovery. And that is exactly what I’ll cover in this article.

The Effects of Over-Training on Bodybuilders

First, let’s take a look at some of the effects of over-training and how one can prevent over-training from happening in the first place.

The Effects of Over-training on the Nervous System

Over-training effects both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in the following negative ways:

If you are experiencing more than one of the symptoms outlined above, you may be in a state of over-training, and should evaluate your routine as soon as possible.

The Effects of Over-training on Hormone Levels

Many studies have indicated that over-training negatively effects the levels of hormones, as well as the hormone response in the body. Since hormones play such an important role in the muscle building process, this can have a detrimental effect on your training progress.

Over-training has been show to:

The increase in cortisol levels along with the decrease in testosterone levels is a deadly combination, since this leads to protein tissue break down. This will ultimately lead to a loss of muscle tissue.

The Effects of Over-training on the Immune System

perhaps one of the most alarming repercussions of over-training is it’s negative impact on the immune system-you’re bodies first defense against harmful viruses and bacteria.

Over-training can drastically decrease the levels of antibodies and lymphocytes in your body, making you much more susceptible to illness. Simply put, this means that if you are in a state of over-training, you are much more likely to get sick. Since you will have to skip workouts while you are sick, your muscle building progress will slow considerably.

The Effects of Over-training on the Metabolic System

Here is a list of how over-training can effect the metabolic system. These symptoms are the ones that are most commonly discussed, and are ones we can’t ignore:

So you must get the point by now. . . Over-training effects the entire body, and can seriously impact the results of your muscle building program.

Now let’s take a look at the different types of over-training, and what we can do to prevent it.

Is it Worse to Over-Train With Cardio or Weight Training?

Any form of over-training is a bad thing, however, I’ve personally experienced both types of over-training and can honestly say that over-training in the weight room is much worse, and much more prevalent than over-training through cardiovascular training.

Here are some of the reasons why:

I personally believe that only competitive athletes such as swimmers, runners and bikers run a serious risk of reaching a state of cardiovascular over-training, since there are often training for two or more hours daily.

The bottom line is that it is much easier for the average person to over-train while weight training than while cardiovascular training, and I think the effects can be more serious.

How do I Determine if I’m Over-training?

Determining if you’re currently over-training is fairly simple. If you’re in tune with your body, you can often see the signs of over-training before they get serious. If you are losing interest in workouts, are having trouble sleeping, and feel weak and irritable, you may be in a state of over-training and should take a week or more off.

If you are experiencing two or more of the symptoms outlined earlier in the article, this should raise a red flag.

Another variable you can use to determine if you are over-training is by tracking the performance of your workouts.

Has your physical performance improved compared to your last workout?

For example, let’s say last workout you were able to perform 8 pull-ups using your body-weight, but were only able to perform 6 pull-ups the following week. This means that you have not “out done” your previous workout, have not fully recovered, and therefore are likely over-training. You nave to re-asses your program and make modifications so that you see progress every workout.

How Can I Prevent Over-training?

n order to avoid over-training, you need to take a multi-facited approach. Determining the correct training volume and intensity, eating the right foods, and getting the right amount of rest and recovery must all be taken in to consideration. Now let’s take a look at each of those factors in more detail.

Correct Training Volume

Determining the correct training volume can be difficult, especially when you are first starting out. You have to determine how much weight to lift, how many repetitions and set to perform for every single workout.

You need to use your own judgment in this case, based on your recovery ability and your recovery methods. Remember that the goal is that you improve every single workout, and if this isn’t happening, you have to decrease the intensity of your workouts.

This is where many people go wrong though. You begin your workout and realize that you have not fully recovered. You can either continue to train at a lower intensity than the previous workout, or skip the workout entirely.

As hard as it may be, skipping the workout is the right way to go. Just turn around and go home! Your body is telling you that it needs more rest, and you must listen to it!

There is no point in training at a lower intensity, further breaking down the muscle tissue. By doing this you will increase your risk of injury, and make it harder for your body to fully recovery for your next training session.

Proper Nutrition

Your diet plays a huge role in your muscle building program. It helps regulate hormone levels, provides energy, and provides the raw building blocks that are used to create new tissue.

Here are some dietary recommendations that will limit the chance of over-training:

Rest & Recovery

Rest and recovery is essential when it comes to avoiding over-training. Make sure that you get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, and that you are on a consistent schedule. As for recovery time, it’s important that you have days off between weight training workouts. Try to have one rest day between weight training workouts, and never train the same muscle groups on consecutive days.

The legs generate the most productive power in weightlifting, and in all athletics, really, over a small range of motion at the knee, hip and ankle joints. There is a lot of power, in other words, packed into a relatively small range of motion, so making the best of each repetition is crucial to leg development, power, strength and speed.

We remember watching Vasily Alexiev win the gold medal back in 1972. The guy was a phenomenal lifter. So impressive was this guy and his strength and technique and overall aura as he hoisted ungodly weights, you half expected him to start bleeding out all over the mats, or die of an exploding heart, for the kind of gut-busting, vessel bursting effort he put forth in each clean and jerk and deadlift. Those Russians know what time it is when it comes to physical pain, suffering and brute strength.

Now you may not want to become a hairy, ugly Russian anytime soon, but you DO want something Russian lifters have in spades: Amazing legs and the brute strength to accomplish it!

Make no mistake, we won’t candy coat it… Building amazing legs takes dedication, intelligence, pain, nosebleeds, headaches, a decent amount of anabolics, and the ability to burst through a wall of overload and overwhelm to get the job done, workout after grueling workout. Puking is just the half of it! Mental focus and due diligence is even more a part. But it’s more than that… It’s about employing all you know into a meaningful routine that neither under trains nor over trains, and always keeps the body straining toward change.

Truth is, the way to make legs grow is to increase the overall 1RM. In this routine, you’re going to be shooting to increase it by 5% by training three times a week for a cycle of 6 weeks, alternating light and heavy training days.

Remember, the legs are resilient and can take a brutal beating. Don’t worry about overtraining. In fact, you’re probably among the legions of guys who think that you do. Truth is, you probably haven’t even scratched the surface of overtraining with legs, since most back off long before it ever happens.

A word of advice and caution…
Natural lifters need to be careful, but can adjust weights to reflect a more conservative approach to training and recovery. You anabolic lifters, however, need so much more punishment than you ever give your muscles.

For the following, choose a lift for each of these values – totaling 3 lifts per workout. Squats should be the mainstay of what you choose, but also use plate-loaded leg extensions, hack squat and leg extensions.

Note: When you see a number without a x something, it means a 1 rep lift.
So 70% 2 = 2 sets of 70% in one rep.

Week One
Monday Wednesday Friday
70% 2 70% 2 70% 2
75% 2 75% 2 75% 2
80% 2×6 80% 3×6 80% 2×6

Week Two
Monday Wednesday Friday
70% 2 70% 2 70% 2
75% 2 75% 2 75% 2
80% 4×6 80% 2×6 80% 5×6

Week Three
Monday Wednesday Friday
70% 2 70% 2 70% 2
75% 2 75% 2 75% 2
80% 2×6 80% 6×6 80% 2×6

Week Four
Monday Wednesday Friday
70% 2 70% 2 70% 2
75% 2 75% 2 75% 2
85% 5×5 80% 2×6 90% 4×4

Week Five
Monday Wednesday Friday
70% 2 70% 2 70% 2
65% 2 65% 2 75% 2
80% 2×6 95% 3×3 80% 2×6

Week Six
Monday Wednesday Friday
80% 2 80% 2 70% 2
85% 2 85% 2 75% 2
100% 2×2 80% 2×6 105% 1

The idea of the routine is to build volume while increasing intensity. Intensity that is slowly built up is the most beneficial because it leaves you someplace to go and minimizes injuries. So for those of you not looking for strength gains and purely aesthetics, you’ll need a different routine. Just remember, where there is a gain of strength, via intensity and workload, there is also an appreciable gain in overall mass in that area. Want the mass? Gut out this workout!

And keep in mind, it isn’t going to be easy. Performing 5 or 6 sets of 6 reps with 80% of your 1RM is hard. It may be impossible for those of you who have not lifted over a period of years. Adjust accordingly and remember that this is something to work toward.

If you reach the mid-point of the total workout, or the third workout day in the week and you cannot maintain those percentage max’s, then you can adjust them accordingly to reflect where you are in relation to what is recommended. If you can’t lift something, all the intensity in the world means nothing. It needs to be lifted in order for your to benefit. Our point? Use your head and common sense to alter the workout if need be.

You can also alter these percentages, based on your level of experience and the exercises you have chosen. We wouldn’t advice the same intensity for leg extensions as for squats. But if you can handle the heavy load and all the intensity that goes along with this routine, go for it! Just know that nothing is etched in stone in terms of relativity of weight, people, lifts and experience.

Note: Don’t do this routine longer than 6 weeks. And do it only once or twice yearly, as it is highly intense and you don’t want to blow out knees or other joints because of too much repetition. Rest is also crucial here, and you must take as much rest as it takes for you to function in the next movement.

Aside from big arms, there’s no desire among aspiring underweight muscle building enthusiasts that quite outdoes the longing for a big, well-developed chest. And why not; big pectorals command respect. They’re somehow primitively associated with courage and assertiveness. When you have pectoral muscles that only slightly protrude beyond your abdominal section, you’re considered to be “in shape”. What’s more, in a world of male competitiveness where one’s height seems to unfairly monopolize the aura of dominating physical stature, powerful pectorals can be a great equalizer. They tell the world that regardless of the level your genetics had you lengthened, you’re packaged physical prowess by choice. You exude strength and athleticism with well developed pectorals.

So what’s the best method for developing a big chest? Well, that shouldn’t be our only question. For if the pectorals aren’t built in a balanced manner, excessive size can contribute to a feminizing effect on the male torso. Does anyone really want to develop “man boobs”? I didn’t think so. Therefore, it’s imperative that we make our pecs just a little bit top-heavy (upper pecs that protrude slightly more than the middle pecs) in our bid to increase chest size. An emphasis on making sure we are successful with incline exercises will ensure good upper pectoral development.

Notice I didn’t recommend doing “a lot of incline exercises”. Instead, I mentioned making sure you’re ’successful’ with your incline movements (this goes for all bodybuilding exercises). Although this might sound like a subtle play on words, it’s really a vital issue for your muscle building progress. Overtraining is probably the biggest setback most natural bodybuilding enthusiasts unwittingly engage. Thus, you might need to add more incline bench movements to build bigger upper pecs, or you might need to lay off of those movements. It really depends on what you’re currently doing. Just keep in mind that many times our enthusiasm to make progress on a particular body part leads us to inadvertently overwork that area – resulting in the exact opposite of our desired effect.

As a lifetime natural bodybuilder, nothing has done more for my pectoral development than taking emphasis off ‘pressing movements’ and putting it on ‘flye movements’. The widespread notion that you “have to bench press” and “bench press heavy” has only been outdone in holding back pectoral growth by the practice of overtraining. Combine the two with the typical plights of the natural bodybuilder and you have a scenario in which pectoral growth is almost nonexistent for too many gym-goers. If heavy bench pressing were the key to a great chest, we’d see power-lifters epitomizing pectoral development. As it turns out, some of them have big pecs and some seem to have nearly none – despite the fact they can bench press heavy.

What if you could do heavy flyes? What if you could get on an incline bench and strictly move seventy-five pound dumbells from the top of the movement – slowly down to having your arms outstretched and the weights parallel with your head (elbows only slightly bent) – and back up to the top position without any arm movement? If you can’t do that for six to eight repetitions now, but you can do it a few months from now, I’d bet on your pectoral muscles being significantly larger after those few months. Making strict and heavy flye movements into the cornerstone of your chest routine can work wonders for the growth of those muscles.

Besides changing bench pressing movements to a secondary position and flyes to the primary one, I’ve also accelerated my pectoral gains by splitting my first flye movement into two partial rep exercises. So when I get to the gym to start my chest routine, I head straight to one of those pec/flye machines in which you hold the handles with your arms extended (only a slight bend in the elbows). These are the kind of pec dec machines that are also used for rear deltoid exercises. I adjust the seat on the machine so that a flye movement done on the apparatus will hit squarely in the middle of my pecs.

I then proceed to do two different exercises with this machine; one for my outer pecs and one for the inner. For outer pectorals, I move my arms from the fully outward position to about halfway through the range of a full flye. I do about five to eight sets like this. For inner pecs, I go from about the twenty degrees angle (where I ended my rep for the outer pec movement) to the point where the handles make contact with each other in front of me. I do those for another five to eight sets. When I’m done with these two partial rep exercises, my entire chest is worked and pumped to the max.

It’s important to know that working the middle chest muscles actually brings the upper and lower pectorals into play. However, isolating the upper chest with incline movements does not bring the middle or lower chest muscles into play. The same goes for isolating the lower chest with declines; it only works the lower pectorals. Therefore, the most efficient way to begin a chest routine is with an exercise that hits the middle chest. My suggestion is that when you begin your pec workout with the above-mentioned exercise, be sure to adjust the seat so that you’re hitting the very center of your chest.

Only when I’ve sufficiently pre-exhausted my pectorals with the strict performance of these partial-rep flyes do I go on to isolate the upper and lower pecs respectively with three more exercises. These include incline dumbell flyes, Hammer Strength presses, and a decline angled pec deck. I do two exercises for upper pecs in an attempt to slightly over-develop them for better balance; the dumbell flyes and the pressing movement with the Hammer Strength machine. Presses are incredibly more effective for pectoral growth when the pecs have been pre-exhausted with flyes.

If you’ve been having trouble with pectoral growth, I highly recommend you switch to making flye exercises the foundation of your routine. In addition, split that first exercise of pec deck flyes into two half-rep movements. This will create maximum stress on both the inner and outer pecs – working wonders on both the size and shape of the muscles.