I'm 18 year old male (ectomorph body type, 5'6" 130lbs) and have been weight training for strength/size for almost a year now, and am not getting any results in strength. I mean NONE. My body is more toned now, but strength is the exact same. In fact, I think I also may have actually lost weight. I've changed my workout split plenty of times, changed the routine, # of sets (increase+decrease), etc.. but usually keep the reps to 7-10. I have used several different kinds of protein supplements. Nothing seems to be working. I love working out, but am getting really frustrated by the lack of results. Does anyone know what I can do??

for strength you need to do 3-6 reps http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif if you really wanna learn a ton about lifting buy a book called successful longterm weight training by steven j fleck

More reps + less weight = toned

Less reps + more weight = big

Try more weight and fewer reps. Also if you want to get big you need quite a bit of protein, like close to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight if you're going to be doing heavy lifting.

I'm just going to tell you some facts that you may or may not know.

-Its obvious that you are not eating enough, because you are losing weight instead of gaining.
-In order to put on muscle you should expect to put on a bit of fat.
-You should be getting at least your bodyweight in protien per day...in order for your body to build more muscle.
-Always go to failure or close to.
-Change your routine up every couple months...try to hit all angles.
-Cardio should be kept to a minimum so as not to burn too much muscle.

When im bulking i eat as much as i can. (clean foods) Im going to guess about 4500 to 5500 calories per day. I do cardio 1 time per week...and always lift to failure or close to. I use a high volume routine for bulking, to try and hit as many angles as possible. IMO, you not eating enough. Eat more...and gain more.



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~If your not going to give 110% at the gym then why bother going at all~

Originally posted by netviper13:

More reps + less weight = toned

Less reps + more weight = big


I dont know where this formula came from, but its wrong. I dont think the answer lies in your rep scheme, but you might see some benifit if you mix up your reps. It's just like your routine, you have to change things up.


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~If your not going to give 110% at the gym then why bother going at all~

Probably because less weight but more reps puts a more aerobic strain on your body, whereas more weight puts the strain almsot completely on the muscle.

I'd diagree with that formula also. I go more for:

Less reps + more weight + caloric overload = big
Less reps + more weight + caloric deficit = cut

assuming all other factors are equal ie good sleep, recovery periods etc.

Originally posted by CanadianConvict:
-You should be getting at least your bodyweight in protien per day...in order for your body to build more muscle.



Are you sure about this? http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wink.gif

He means that you should get one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day.

Someone put a formula on here once that really made sense to me.
1-7= strength
8-12= size
13-20= endurance

It was something along those lines. I was the one who posted the message about it. Just do a little research through the posts on here and i'm sure that you'll find it.

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OBSESSED is just a work the lazy use to describe the DEDICATED.

Canadian Convict is right in that the biggest problem here is diet. He needs to eat a lot more. As for the rep stuff the higher reps with less weight for more of a tone .vs. the higher weight at low reps for strength/mass gains is true as a general rule of thumb but everybody reacts differently to things. Changing things up is very important. I try to switch off between doing 4 to 6 reps for a few weeks and then switching back to the 6 to 10 range.

I look at increasing strength like this. If you are lifting the same amount of weight (lets say 50 pounds for sake of argument) and you're lifting that weight 8 times to failure every time you'll gain mass but after a time you'll hit the wall. You have to push your body to do more by doing more. Increase your weight even if you can't get the number of reps which is your target. Your target isn't what you want to reach and stay at, it's what you want to reach and then once you reach it get the gains you can and then move on to a heavier weight even though you are doing less reps with it.

You have to tell your body to grow and you do that by pushing yourself to new limits in lifting. Besides that you need to really increase the amount of good foods you are eating. You can do everything perfect in the weight room but if you aren't eating to bulk you won't bulk.

For example right now I'm not really getting any bigger and haven't been for a while but if I increase the amount of foods I'm eating over a period of time I'll begin to bulk and I know this because I've been there and done that several times. Eating a normal diet and gaining muscle is extremely difficult especially for an ectomorph. Sure, you'll see nice initial gains after starting a weight training routine but you'll hit the wall and not go anywhere after that unless you change your diet. You need to focus your attention to your diet and you'll start seeing the results you're looking for when you do.

Originally posted by Omskakas:
He means that you should get one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day.

Thanks for the correction. For me, 230pounds of protien per day is a little too much. lmao



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~If your not going to give 110% at the gym then why bother going at all~

One more thing... What excercises you do and how often do you weight lift?

I've read somewhere that ectomorphs should do big compund movements (bench press, squat, dead lift etc.)that hit several muscle groups and limit isolation excercises to minimun. Also you shouldn't weight train any body part more than once per week.

If you're doing lots of isolation excercises and training many times per week, you probably are overtraining.

I'm a mesomorph myself. I started weight lifting 2 months ago and I've built 8 pounds more weight and my overall anaerobic strenght increase is something like 50%. So, must be really doing something wrong if you haven't seen any results.

There must be ectomorph weight lifters in this forum that can correct me, if I gave bad newbie advices? http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

i'm an ectomorph as well, and i work my upper body on m-w-f and my legs on t-thr, with a max of 8 reps to failure. i've been doing this for 5 months now, and gain an average of 4 pounds every month. and i'm satisfied with that =) i heard that working each muscle group once a week makes the most growth, but you get less strength. i cant work each once a week because i hate the feeling of starting out fresh each time i go to the gym! =/

but yeah, less reps and more weight is what always works