[TylerDurden389]

I've been working out for 11 years now. I'm more or less content with my physique, but I'd always like to be bigger of course. Though I'd like be a lot more cut too. I'd like to get down to 6% bodyfat once I get to my optimal size. I'm an ectomorph with small bones so I know I'll never have 23" arms lol. If I can get to 18" though I'd be happy.

Here's my measurements:

Height - 5-2 1/4"
Weight - Approx. 140 lbs.
Neck - 14 1/2"
Chest - 40 1/2"
Arms - 14 1/4"
Forearms - 11 3/4"
Waist - Approx. 29 1/2"
Thighs - 21"
Calves - 15"

My short-term goal is to get my arms/neck/calves to 16", chest to 44", and thighs to 24-25". I figure to get to that size I'll have to weigh 160. My arm size is always in direct correlation to my weight (125 pounds-12.5" arms, 140 pounds-14" arms, etc..). My long term goal is to get my arms/neck/calves to 18", chest to 48" and thighs to 28". Figure 180 for that goal.

My split. All muscles I do 4 sets for each exercise. 4 exercises for the big muscles (chest, back, shoulders, quads) and 3 for the small ones (biceps, triceps, forearms, hamstrings, calves). The / for different exercises is my alternate routine. I switch every 2 months. Also, I work out at home:

Day 1: Abs, back, chest

Abs
Vacuums
Crunches
Towel Jacknifes
Oblique twists/bends

Back
Pull-ups/Lat pulldowns
Barbell/dumbbell rows
t-bar rows
seated rows

Chest
Bench press/flat flys
flat flys/inc. bench
inc. bench/inc. fly
inc. fly/ dec. dumbbell press

Day 2: Legs

Quads
Squats
Front squats
Leg presses
Leg extensions

Hamstrings
Glute-ham raises
Stiffed leg deadlifts/standing leg curls
lying leg curls

Calves
Standing calf raises/seated calf raises
Seated calf raises/leg press calf raises
reverse calf raises/one leg calf raises

Day 3: Shoulder, triceps

Shoulders
Shrugs/Upright rows
Military presses
Side laterals/overhead laterals
rear laterals/reverse flys

Triceps
Dips/One arm extensions
French press/seated barbell extensions/machine extensions
skullcrushers/close-grip bench press

Day 4: lower back, biceps, forearms

Deadlifts

Biceps
Barbell curls/dumbell curls
dumbell preacher curls/barbell preacher curls
concentration curls/ incline curls/flat curls

Forearms
Reverse barbell wrist curls/reverse barbell curls
barbell wrist curls/ reverse dumbell wrist curls
dumbbell twists/ behind the back wrist curls

Day 5 rest, day 6 repeat.

If I work out in the morning, sometimes I'll do jump rope for 20-40 minutes in the evening. Though it's really only 1 or 2 times a week.

My diet is pretty good as far as avoiding all the bad stuff. No fast food, chinese food, pizza, frozen foods, candy, chips, cakes, soda etc...I might have ONE of those things like once or twice a month. Not much of a drinker, maybe I'll have a few beers every 2-3 months or so, but I never get drunk. I smoke a cig once a month though. No drugs either. My problem of course is I don't eat enough.

Breakfast - One cup of oatmeal (with skim milk, not water), glass of prune juice, glass of orange juice. Approx. 25-28 grams of protein (not sure how much milk I put in).

Lunch - usually leftovers. Either spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets, roast beef, meatloaf, pepper steak, or chili. I eat about twice as much than a normal dish would be. If there's no leftovers I'll either eat a can of tuna, or I'll get a turkey or a roast beef sandwich on a whole wheat bagel with only lettuce and tomatoes.

Dinner - See above.

Post w.o meal - Protein shake, approx. 40 grams of protein. I used to have more but it gave me trouble on the can. *I work out either after breakfast or after dinner depending on my schedule. I wait until a half hour passes so I can digest.

My strength numbers. Ok, Since I've always followed a high volume routine, I'll admit I am not strong at all. Never trained for strength, never played sports, etc...

Bench - 165 for 5 reps (just did it today actually)
Deadlift - 235 for 6 reps, after that I lose my grip.
Squat - Highest I've gone is 185 for 5 reps ATG, but I have a torn miniscus so I don't go heavy.

So that's everything. I don't have any strength goals, but since stronger muscles means bigger muscles, I'm willing to concentrate on strength for a while and get those numbers up if it means I'll get bigger.

[JakeVendetta]

Nice to see you've set realistic goals. You look good now and have a great base to work off of.
Off hand my advise on your training routine is that it has too much fluff and not enough rest. Condense your workouts and increase the frequency. Focus on the exercises that work best (stick to mostly compound movements) and ditch the rest. If your looking for guidance as far as a routine something like this works great:
day 1: upper body (vertical) (Military press, Weighted Pull ups)
day 2: lower body (quad dominent or squat focus)
day 3: upper body (horizontal) (Bench Press, Bent over rows)
day 4: Lower body (ham dominent or deadlift focus)
Just do those 4 days each week split them up how ever works best for your schedule, and the other 3 days REST. Focus on the main lifts and throw in 2-3 accessory movements that either 1) aid gaining strength in the given movements or 2)focus on a weak point in your physique or 3)hit part of a muscle not hit by the main lifts (which isnt very many), nothing more to it. Notice movements are trained each day as opposed to muscle groups. Only training select muscle groups each day in my opinion is too limiting, especially with the amount of overlap you have in most exercises.

Your diet is hard to critique but make sure your eating some carbs after your workout and it would be best to have another meal after this one if thats your last meal of the day. Dont be scared to gain a little fat while aiming for muscle gains, some fat gain is inevitable and its best to just accept it. Each week if your not still gaining weight from how ever much your eating... eat more, it doesnt have to be too complicated.

Get stronger, eat more and the size will come.

[TylerDurden389]

Thanks for the advice. How's this look?

Day 1: Upper Body

Bench Press - 4 sets
Inc. fly/Flat fly - 3 sets
Inc. bench press - 3 sets

Military press - 4 sets
Side laterals/Overhead laterals - 3 sets
Rear laterals/Reverse flys - 3 sets

Dips - 4 sets
Skullcrushers - 3 sets

Pull-ups/lat pulldowns - 3 sets
Barbell rows - 3 sets
T-bar rows - 3 sets

Dumbell curls/Barbell curls - 3 sets
Preacher curls/Incline curls - 3 sets


Day 2: Lower Body

Deadlifts/Squats - 4 sets
Front Squats - 4 sets
Leg presses - 3 sets

Glute Ham raises - 3 sets
Lying leg curls - 3 sets

Standing calf raises/Seated calf raises - 3 sets
Seated calf raises/Leg press calf raises - 3 sets

Crunches - 3 sets
Leg raises - 3 sets
Twists/Bends - 3 sets

[JakeVendetta]

You still need to train back. Here is more what i had in mind.
day 1: upper body (vertical focus)
Military press
Pullups

Incline Press
Curls

Weakpoint

Day 2: Lower body (squat/quad dominent)
Squats

LegPress or SLDL
Split squats or Lunges

Core

Day 3: Upper body (horizontal focus)
Bench Press
Bent Over Row

Dips
Lying tricep Extentions

Weak Point

Day 4: Lower Body (deadlift/Ham Dominent)
Deadlift

Goodmornings
Shrugs

Core

As far as progression and number of sets/reps. for simplicity sake i'm going to say anything you can progress with. It would be in your best interest to cycle rep ranges to prevent over training and to stimulate your muscles in diffrent ways. Be sure to use good form (which includes a full ROM).

[Kaboom]

Jake has given some great advice.
Admittedly I didnt read your whole post like your diet and stuff i will when i have more time.
You look great now.NICE calves bro!!
Small bones or not dont say never have anything lol.

[TylerDurden389]

Back's there lol, look again. The thing about your routine is (dare I say it), it doesn't look like enough. Granted since I wanna improve my lifts I'll be taking longer breaks between sets (probably about 2 minutes as opposed to 45-60 seconds). I'll look over my routine again and try to come up with something even simpler. I was actually thinking, instead of doing the whole upper body in one session, I would do chest, shoulders, and triceps in the morning, and do back and biceps in the evening.

[miggitymags]

Jake has offered some great advice - and is basically a push-pull-lower split.

One thing I think you are misunderstanding is 'more isn't always better'.. Focus on the compound movements (which are the most effective for putting on size) and condense your workouts around those movements. If you don't think it is enough - add more sets to those movements.

Notice your Upper Body will be split in to two days: basically a Push and a Pull. Also, there is a reason you are doing Lower twice, as it makes up roughly half your muscle mass, so you need to make sure it gets the respective volume in comparison to your upper body (2:1).

Your 2 days split you came up with, in my opinion, is WAY too much. It is going to be very difficult to 1) put max efforts in to your compound movements and 2) finish in a timely manner and 3) not overtrain...

my2cents

[JakeVendetta]

miggitymags pretty much covered everything. More is not always better, especially when it comes to exercises. Like he said do more sets if you dont think the volume is there. Progression is key, so if you think you can continue to climb in strength gains (i'm not talking about putting out huge numbers as a sole measure of strength, it could be doing more reps or shortening the rest times... etc), with all the extra bull**** then i say go for it.
*just my opinion you dont have to agree*

[peskypaul]

Your most muscular looks great, see them traps coming up, your calfs are huge and you have an amazing 'V.' Keep working at it dude and you'll be even bigger.

[chrispghmuscle]

Great foundation... Keep at it bro

[Moro]

You look great bro, look really big for 140 thats for sure, definitly follow Jakes advice really good stuff there,

[TylerDurden389]

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

[mperk]

One more vote for Jake's workout split - he nailed it IMO. You def have a great base to work off of - your hard work really shows, bro! DEf get enuf nutrition and rest - you'll grow like mad!

[stateofmind25]

"Deadlift - 235 for 6 reps, after that I lose my grip."

wrap that s*** son! There is no way I could've gotten my deadlift up to where it is without wrapping it up. I know some people are against wrist wraps but I feel it allows me to push beyond my grip strength. Nice calves for sure....I do a 5 day split covering each muscle group separately, but that is what works best for me. I have tried other routines and found that this is what gives me the best results....try new things, but also find out what works best for you.

[TylerDurden389]

Lol, I've been meaning to buy straps for a while now but I never get around to it. I have gotten my deadlift up to 245 for 5 reps since starting this thread.