Thread: Tips about my routine

Originally Posted by SpikyHedgehog

Hi everyone. I made this thread in "beginner's area" but aparently that wasn't the right place. So here is my routine again... any advice is welcome

I'm a 25 year old hard gaining ectomorph who weighs 74kilos (that's 162.8lbs) and I'm tall (74.4 inches)
I wouldn't say I look scrawny, but I defenitely am skinnier than the average. However, thanks to martial arts I did for 5 years, I do have some muscle mass, just not nearly enough to call me above average.
Here is the problem: I want to look bigger than average, not smaller. The problem is that there is no decent gym in the area. THere is one, but it's expensive as hell because of all the fancy stuff there I don't need (jacuzzi, sauna, etc) and there is no cheap membership. I asked some advice to my kinesitherapist and she said compound movements are the way to go. And that, I can do at home. Here is my "routine"
Saturday:
3 sets of chin ups. 15, failure, failure (mostly involving negatives) and I wear diving belt with weights, as my own body weight has become too easy. I always make sure my extra added weight allow me to do somewhere between 5-15 reps. If I can do more, I add weight.
3 sets of dips. 15, failure, failure. Here too, I've come to a point where I wear the belt. However, these are significantly easier than pull ups and I really need to add even more weight to keep it in the 5-15 range.

Monday:
3 sets of squats: 30, 30, 30. Again, I wear the belt to make it harder. I do these squats on one leg at a time because using both is too easy.
3 sets of calf raises: 20, 15, failure. Also, with the eternal belt.
I noticed my arms need a tougher hammering to grow. People at the martial arts club always said that it was surprising I had a lot of power in my arms but they don't look particularly big. On the contrary... they really don't look big at all. So:
3 Sets of hammer curls using my good old belt. It isn't as comfortable as a dumbel, but it does the job (I think): 8, failure, falure and for failure here, again, I ensure I stay in the 6-10 rep range. I add weight if I can do more
Wrist rolls: Here is the thing: I hate my forearms. They don't look like a dweeb's, but they're certainly not big. They're slightly under average I'd say. But they have more power than you'd expect. And that frustrates me: I can wrist roll a decent weight, wrist curl decent weight, but they still grow so slooooowlyyyyy. Even though my forearms are fried after the wrist rolls, they don't feel sore.

Wednesday:
Wrist rolls again: my forearms need an even bigger hammering than my upper arms.


Now about my diet: I don't really have a fixed diet. I mean, I'm an ectomorph: I can eat whatever I want, I don't store fat. My bad cholesterol was really low. THe doc said she had only seen such low cholesterol a few times in the 15 years she did this job.
Anyways, here is how I eat, more or less:
Morning: Big glass of skim milk, 4 loafs of brown bread with butter and chocolate (sorry, I really can't swallow anything but sweet in the morning)
10am Snack: Banana
Noon: 4 loafs of brown bread with butter and tuna
4pm snack: Apple
Evening: Meat/Fish with rice and veggies. When I eat fish, it's always 200gr, meat is mostly white meat and it's about 200gr too (=0.4pounds... sorry, I'm European, we use the metric system and I don't know the equivalent of the gramme)
Later in the evening: big glass of skim milk and a bowl of cereals if I'm hungry again.

The rice I eat is not the white one, but the light brown "complete" one. Also, some days when I fele lazy, I don't make rice, but just take a 2 different kind of veggies. I barely ever eat junk food and except for my usual snacks, I eat a dry waffle or some candy sometimes. But it's not like I eat heaps of that. Also, my meat/fish ratio is one day meat, the next fish, the next meat, the next fish, etc. You get the picture.

Is this routine and any good according to you? Or is it a complete waste of time?
Also, I got a couple of more specific problems: my left forearm looks skinnier than my right one. Especially the "belly" side of the arm (the side of the palm of the hand). It's strange, because I'm left handed and I do more with my left hand obviously. But the difference is really noticable. Can that be evened out? And if so, what would you recommend besides the obvious "work it out more"? What excercices are best? When to do them, etc (please spare me the "jack off with your other hand lol!" joke )
Secondly, I'm trying to toss in some wrist and reverse wrist curls in there too. What day would you advice? Also, what's the best rep and set range for that?
Thirdly, DOMS... I do feel soreness in my biceps after the hammer curls, sometimes in the triceps after the dips, sometimes in the chest too but on the overall you can say I really don't get a lot of DOMS. Is that a bad thing? I do feel the pump in my chest, biceps, triceps and forearms when working those though.
And last but not least, I'm not sure what set and rep range I should use for the wrist curl. What do you consider 1 rep? Rolling down, up, reverse grip, down, up? Is that one rep? How many of these would you suggest doing?

I'm sorry to overwhelm you with my volley of stupid questions, but any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cya all

I'm delighted that you are asking, and that you are concerned that your questions are stupid. Your questions are not stupid - your routine and diet however, need work. You're in the right place.

First up - FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal I need to see what your average intake looks like. Nobody here cares what you eat or will analyze your diet. You need to post up the numbers.

Next, as you likely suspected, your routine is silly. Training to failure should not be your object for each set, and your rep range is far too high. Your squats are not heavy enough to warrant using a belt.

Something you need to know is that you are not a hardgainer - you are an undereater and an overtrainer. You simply aren't eating enough and you're going to have to push past satiety each and every day in order to gain. We need to see what your calories are, and your grams of protein, carb and fat.

Nobody gets big in the gym, remember that. Nobody.

It all happens in the kitchen.

Welcome to IMF.