Len's exercise(s) of the month:

That's me, of course--NIKKO is far prettier!

My buddy NIKKO has a perfect body for the camera--long lean muscles, and eye-popping definition.  His only complaint is that in person he's pretty thin, a mere 130 pounds spread out over his 5'7" frame. NIKKO would like to add a few pounds to his lean, lanky frame without losing the chiseled hard-muscled look he has.  The workout that would fit the bill for him is something that other hard-gainer guys could also use to help build muscle on a thin-boned frame.

Split routines are made to order for a guy like NIKKO.  He needs to prioritize and put his primary bodypart for the day FIRST in the routine.  If he really goes in and exhausts his muscles for 30 minutes or so, his energy supply is gonna start dropping off fast.  After four or five exercises, the law of diminishing returns starts taking over, and his performance weakens.

By split routine, I mean dividing up bodyparts so that each day you only train two or (at most, for a hard-gainer) three.  I believe in training muscles that work together at the same workout, so if you're training upper back, train biceps with them.  Chest works in concert with deltoids (outer shoulder) and triceps, so choose one of those muscles to workout the same time as chest.  You might even want to switch back and forth between pairing tris with chest one week, and shoulders with chest the next week.  That way the "odd man out" muscle, which is gonna be trained on leg day, is not going to continually get short shrift when you BOMB the leg muscles to stimulate your metabolism into a growth phase (more about that later...).

When performing each exercise, NIKKO, I want you to go in HARD.  Choose a weight that you can perform just ten reps on the first set, and as few as eight by set three.  If you get to your third set and are still cruising along after ten or twelve reps, you're just burning precious calories instead of stressing out the muscle to convince your body that it's time to grow or die...

Unlike most classic ectomorphs, NIKKO isn't overly tall.  That's a very good thing as far as muscle-building.  His muscle fiber isn't proportionally thin like a tall man's, so his major obstacle is the quick burn of his metabolism. Short workouts, split routines and heavy weights will all help him workout within the constraints of that fast-burning furnace.

If you've read my "leg day" rants, you know how important leg exercises are for your overall muscle-building.  If not, suffic it to say that the largest, strongest, most massive muscles in your body are in your legs.  If you work them really hard, it makes a rather convincing case to your whole body that it's time to make your muscles grow. By way of contrast, if you work a small muscle like your forearms till they ache, in the overall scheme of things your body's self-regulating mechanisms are like "big deal, so what!"  So if you have a hard-gaining metabolism, you get more bang for your buck working hard on your legs.

Specifically, big basic movements like leg press or squats will be good for NIKKO.  The 1950's bodybuilders swore by "breathing squats", and they work for some of my hard-gaining clients like my bud Shifty.

What you do is choose a heavy-ish weight for your squats, and do two normal sets.  By set number three, you can just barely squeeze out ten reps, but don't stop there.  After rep number ten, take a second and breathe deeply, in and out--really fill the tank up with oxygen.  Then slowly and deliberately put everything you have into one more perfect rep.  But don't stop after that one, either...  Breathe again deeply, then disregard your screaming thighs and glutes long enough to do one MORE rep.  Breathe AGAIN, then dig deep down into your spare battery and summon enough strength for one MORE perfect rep.  Keep on TORTURING yourself until that last set consists of your usual ten plus FIVE single "breathing" reps, each separated by a long deep breath.  Afterward you're free to go puke if you need to (it shouldn't happen very often, if that's a consolation).

As far as nutrition, eat often and well.  Don't pig out once or twice a day, then go hungry in between meals, but try to get a substantial meal three times a day, and a good snack like a turkey sandwich a couple times in between meals.  If you'd slow down on the cancer sticks, NIKKO, that might also keep your oral desires focused on eating (among other things...).

Try these few tips for six weeks or so, NIKKO my bud, then report back on your progress so we can take things to the next phase...

LEN

Check out some past exercise of the month pages HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE
 
 

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