How to Build Muscle with Fitness Training

So you’re an ectomorph (or a hard gainer) and you want to go to the gym.  You’ve been on several sites and they tell you that reps in the 8-12 range are ideal for building muscle.  So you start working out like that and you see little or no returns.  That’s because this method doesn’t work for hard gainers, especially early on.  I’ll detail why.

Reps in the 8-12 range are mainly used for hypertrophy and some strength gain, although once you get past 10 then it’s almost purely hypertrophy.  If you’re a hard gainer it also means you’re probably weak.  If this is the case, then you’ll want to build up a strong base before you start worrying about trying to create muscle hypertrophy.

Building a strong base doesn’t have to take a long time and it usually doesn’t.  I recommend working in the 4-6 rep range and going to failure.  Be careful not to overexert yourself, however, because your frail frame might be more prone to injury.  When I was skinnier, I’d constantly injure my shoulder because the muscles weren’t strong enough to hold it in place.  I recommend 4 sets when working in this rep range.

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I want to make it very clear that while you need to be working in this rep range, you still need to maintain good form.  If you’re kicking your legs up while bench pressing or you’re bringing the bar down to your stomach, then you’re doing something wrong and you need to decrease the weight.  This will net you fewer gains and you’ll probably end up injuring yourself in the process.  Don’t do it – hard gainers are more prone to injuries!

If you don’t build a strong base originally, you’re going to plateau much sooner and you might not see any gains at all.  The thing about working in the lower reps is that they cause your body to rewire, basically, which means that your muscles will learn to work better in unison when under stress.  This allows you to lift more weight effectively.  If you do not do this your muscle action will be less effective and you’ll get nowhere.  Once your brain is wired correctly, then you can work toward hypertrophy.  

In the begining, I recommend a good 6 weeks of strength training and then another 12 weeks of hypertrophy training.  After that cycle, you should revert back and do more strength training.  This’ll help prevent you from plateauing.

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