What has been working for me is a set workout routine 3X/week. It begins with an active dynamic warmup (jog around a track while performing some calisthenics and active stretches), then lifting weights in a progressive pattern. I’m nowhere near being comfortable with doing “5×5″ now, but I do a light 8 rep warmup set (say, for front squats), followed by 4 sets of 6, increasing weights with each set. I do several different exercises (front squats, back squats, bench press, incline press, deadlift, dumbbell lunges, rows, etc.), switching up which ones I do each day. We can’t do “Olympic-style” lifting at our gym, as it’s prohibited (presumably to protect the floors and people’s health who don’t know how to do them correctly). So, for explosive, whole-body work, we use squats, deadlifts, and step-ups with weight. Walking dumbbell lunges are surprisingly effective and really get your heart rate up.

Then I move on to do some abs and back exercises (including pushups, pullups, knee-ups) before a brief cardio cooldown (generally a 5 minute jog-down-to-walk), and some careful, extensive stretching for about 10 minutes. I have increased my strength from having difficulty with squatting or bench-pressing the bar, to lifting 95 pounds for multiple sets, in a matter of one month. Obviously, I’m not saying I’m super-strong now, by any means, but then, I’m a small dude, and I have seen a noticeable improvement in my core strength and in my energy level, as well as my waistline, which is returning to a more “classical” V-shape — 38″ chest, 30″ waist). My goals aren’t necessarily to become huge, like many others on this site, from what I gather, but rather to focus on building a certain level of usable strength, and to keep a healthy and sustainable level of physical activity.

I’d like to hear Thomas’ thoughts on this, too, but I thought I’d share my experience as being in somewhat of a similar boat.

-K

I’m having a hard time figuring out what body type I am, and what approach to take to bulking up. I figure I’m an ectomorph, since my limbs and chest are quite skinny and don’t gain much muscle despite training quite hard. But what I don’t understand is why I have so much fat on my stomach and it always looks bloated – almost like a beer belly. Does that make me an endomorph???

I’m 29 yrs old and have been weight training 6 months, and have completely changed to a healthy high protien diet for that duration.

Ben

Thank you!