I was your typical ectomorph. But with the right training principles, and timing/calculations of my diet. I grew...
Look at any so called "hardgainers" diet, and you will see all the holes.
Usually missing out on some of the most important times of eating/supplementation.
Skipped meals, not enough sleep, and overtraining.
Oh, and Bees Honey is your friend...
Some of the most important supplements:
Starting with the BIG 3: Creatine, Glutamine, Protein,
Multi-Vitamin
NO (Nitric Oxide) stimilator such as L-Arginine AKG or other, if you don't feel the pump, well, it just don't feel right. Holla if ya hear me.
BCAA's(usually provided in good protein brands),
Some sort of preworkout energy ignitor(some form of caffeine, or other stimulant)
Most important times of your day.
Before bed..
Wake up...
Pre-workout...
Post-workout...
Before bed
When you are sleeping, you are fasting..
Casein Protein before bed.....slow digestion throughout the night. Lessen your chances of going into a catabolic state..spare your muscle...
First thing when you wake up
a source of fructose with a protein shake. Followed up a little later with breakfast. Throughout the night, your liver glycogen levels have went down. Instead of traveling straight to the muscles like glucose, fructose must first head to the liver. There it replenishes glycogen, which shuts up the liver and shuts down catabolism. Honey is your friend. 1 to 2 tablespoons. I do it religiously, so I go through alot of honey...
Pre-workout: Apple or Orange and a protein shake.
Slow digesting carbs(apple/orange). Fruit is full of fructose, which will provide a longer lasting energy and wont trigger a big insulin surge that would blunt fat-burning during your workout. And you wont crash and feel rundown, halfway through the workout.
Post-Workout: Fast burning carbs(around 60grams) and a protein shake...
You have two immediate nutritional goals after you finish training. To drive as much protein into muscles as possible and replenish muscle glycogen stores.
I start drinking my Gatorade(fast burning carbs) toward the last 10 minutes of my workout, or during my last exercise. When I get home( I live 2 minutes from the gym), I take 2 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of pancake syrup(Mrs Butterworth). Followed by 1 scoop of protein. 10 minutes later, I will eat 2 whole eggs(boiled).
Even better post workout-a Waxy Maize supplement, which I will be moving too. Along with Protein shake, and other complex carb-creatine-glutamine..
Its easy to keep from overtraining...Enter "Split Training"
Every body part gets ample rest.
My workout schedule changes every week.
Example of one of my workouts schemes..
My biceps were a lagging part. So instead of training them after my "Back" workout, I put them on my "Chest" day. So I could really hit them when they are fresh. As well as on Sunday, I would train them again.
Monday: Shoulders and Triceps
Tues: Back
Wedn: Off
Thurs: Chest and Biceps
Fri: Legs
Saturday: Traps/Forearms/Calves
Get a helper: My daughter(she is 10) comes with me to the gym. She is my little helper. She sprays and cleans the benches when I'm done..refills my water bottle...
Helps me do forced reps...
Uses my laminated 1RM conversion chart and a calculator to do calculations for me.
But we recently got a cooler chart that has everything calculated. So she just tells me the weight I need in order to get 12 reps, or 8, or 6...
Which brings me to intensity: You need to calculate these things...I have scanned the chart, and I have provided a link to the .zip file.
The chart is self explanatory.
I will do 2 warmup sets for a given bodypart, then put a weight that I know I can do less than 20 reps with. Do as many reps as I can, and then my daughter does the calculations using a list of coefficients, and finds my 1RM. Then uses the other chart from then on to tell me the weight I should use for my other 3 sets. 12reps/8reps/6reps.
You can guess weights all you want, but if you don't know how much you lifted the previous workout, and you don't progress forward with increased weight, you will stay where you are.
Here is the link to the 1RM chart, and coefficient chart I put together. It works damn well, and is pretty accurate.
http://rapidshare.com/files/405841298/1RM_Charts.zip.html
If this link is not allowed, let me know, and people can just PM me for the link....