I’ve always been naturally thin. In many ways that makes me lucky, but after more than a decade of intensive weight training in an attempt to pack on muscle, I’ve got nowhere.
My weight has fl atlined since I turned 17. No matter how many overhead press variations I use or all-you-can-eat buff ets I visit, I can’t seem to make my shoulders any less bony, or my weight climb any higher than 79kg. This isn’t such a problem in the workplace, but when I play rugby, it’s made me too lightweight to be much of a physical force. Fed up with constantly being told, “You don’t look like a rugby player” and being run over by people twice my size, I decided to investigate where it was I was going wrong.
My weight has fl atlined since I turned 17. No matter how many overhead press variations I use or all-you-can-eat buff ets I visit, I can’t seem to make my shoulders any less bony, or my weight climb any higher than 79kg. This isn’t such a problem in the workplace, but when I play rugby, it’s made me too lightweight to be much of a physical force. Fed up with constantly being told, “You don’t look like a rugby player” and being run over by people twice my size, I decided to investigate where it was I was going wrong.
HARD GAIN
As it turns out, I’m not the only one. The population is split into three diff erent body types. My characteristics were typical of an ectomorph, also known as a hard gainer. The rest are either lucky mesomorphs, who have pecs that baloon the second they so much as look at a bench press, or the less fortunate endomorphs who get fatter simply by walking past a burrito stand.
But your genetic predisposition doesn’t doom you to the same physique for your whole life — with the right kind of training, you can overcome it. No matter what your body type, it’s possible to pack on considerable lean muscle, healthily and quickly. At least that’s what transformation specialist Adam Gethin, founder of Creating Physiques (creatingphysiques. com), assured me when I told him of my predicament.
Gethin was confi dent with the right approach to training and nutrition I could develop the physique I originally thought
was out of reach. Buoyed by his optimism,we created a ten week plan to put this theory to the test, and set a top-end target of adding 10kg to my slight frame. But at that point, I felt like any improvement would be a bonus.
Before we began Gethin laid down two ground rules. “First, nutrition is king,” he told me. “You can’t afford to miss meals, no matter how busy or full you are. Second, when it comes to training, there’s no room for being half hearted. You’ve got to be totally committed.” The exercise plan he created consisted of four hour-long sessions a week, at first rotating between low-rep strength work and high-rep hypertrophy workouts, with a period of low-volume intensification every third week. “Increasing your strength will force adaptations, and using higher-rep exercise makes muscles grow quickly,” Gethin said. “And backing off every three weeks with reduced volume will allow for continued progression without plateau.” Just four hours a week? On paper the plan didn’t look too daunting, despite the number of scarily named giant sets and triple drop sets towards the end. But when Gethin sent me the breakdown of the diet I had to follow my confidence — and stomach, possibly out of fear of what was coming — started to shrink.
GET STUFFED
To account for my ectomorphic tendencies, Gethin tasked me with eating six meals a day, insisting I ate every three to four hours to ensure my body was constantly in an anabolic state to maximise muscle growth. I was prescribed 4.3g of protein, 8g of carbs and 1g of healthy fats per kilo of bodyweight every
day. That meant 50g of protein, 55g of carbs and 14g of fats with every meal, with extra protein and carbs coming from shakes, amounting to a frightening total of 4,485 calories per day.
“Your diet has to be high in calories to combat your fast metabolism,” is Gethin’s justification for this super-sized diet. “An ectomorph’s biggest hurdle is burning energy too quickly to grow. You need to be in a constant state of calorie surplus to gain weight.” But this didn’t mean I could gorge on
takeaways. “That kind of ‘dirty bulking’ will just make you fat. As you get fatter the testosterone you need to support muscle growth plummets because it’s converted to oestrogen” — the female sex hormone which encourages fat storage and, Gethin made clear, is also increased by drinking alcohol — and you reduce your insulin sensitivity, making your body store fat rather than build muscle.
Feed your body with good calories from whole foods rather than processed ones.” In short, pizzas, ready meals and booze were out. In came steak, sweet potatoes, cashews and plenty of vegetables for added nutrients. Before starting the program I took biometric tests to measure my weight, body fat, muscle mass, cholesterol and other key health indicators. I wanted to increase my overall weight without elevating my 12% of body fat.
I also wanted to see what the results of a high-protein diet would have on my cholesterol and blood pressure. I didn’t want to change my physique on the outside at the expense of my health on the inside.
Once a week I’d train with Gethin, and the other three sessions I’d do solo at my local Fitness First, leaving my weekends free for rugby matches.
MASS SULKING
The first strength session, which involved five sets of five reps of compound lifts including rack pulls, weighted chinups and dips with up to two minute-rest periods, wasn’t as painful as expected. I was used to this type of exercise, the main difference being the slowing-down of the eccentric (lowering) phase of each lift. The second workout followed a similar protocol but for my lower body, with squats, Romanian deadlifts, glute-ham raises and calf raises. So far, so good. But the third and fourth workouts threw me well and truly out of my comfort zone. This was my first real taste of
hypertrophy exercise: a high-volume, slow-tempo, unrelenting bombardment of my muscles.
The Friday legs day was the worst. The Bulgarian split squat sets still haunt me. Gethin would start me off clutching a 10kg weight plate to my chest as I lowered for a count of three for as many reps as I could manage.Then he’d take the weight away and get me to go again, give me a ten-second breather, then go again until I crumpled to the floor with my quads burning. Then he’d pick me up and administer the same gruelling punishment to my other leg.
On the Saturday of the first week, I didn’t even last till half-time on the rugby field. Because I hadn’t trained like this before, the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) was inevitable. To help me adjust Gethin got me popping branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) pills after every set. “These support rapid recovery,” Gethin told me, to convince me taking up to 25 during a workout was worth it. “They combat muscle catabolism, or breakdown — a side effect of which is brutal DOMS — while promoting protein synthesis.” The net result is bigger, stronger muscles and quicker recovery.
COOKING HELL
Of course, any progress in the gym would need to be matched by progress in the kitchen. And two weeks in, I wasn’t coping as well with my new diet as I was with my new training regimen. Buying lunch daily was proving expensive, and cooking meals after work meant some days I’d be slaving over the hob until 1am.
I needed a routine — just like one you’d apply to your exercise sessions. Bulk-buying food turned out to be a good way to keep costs down. Every week I’d order meat, nuts and egg whites from a premium food and sports nutrition supplier.Then I set aside part of my Sundays to cook vats of chilli con carne and turkey stew as well as super-lean, high-protein ostrich burgers [kangaroo burgers will suffi ce if you can’t fi nd ostrich] to last me the week.
On top of the BCAAs, I used supplements to support my diet and give me every chance of success, taking a whey protein
shake fi rst thing and before bed as well one with creatine after workouts to further aid recovery.
I also drank carb shakes before, during and after exercise to counter the energy depletion of a workout and because they were fast-digesting so didn’t leave me feeling bloated. There’s more — fi sh oil pills containing omega 3 fats, for a muscle-building testosterone boost and to support insulin sensitivity, which was crucial considering the amount of carbs I was consuming. And to help my body use all these nutrients eff ectively and keep my gut happy and healthy, I took herbal appetite-enhancing and digestive-cleansing supplements.
Sometimes work commitments would put me at risk of missing meals — simply not an option. The solution: gourmet
two-minute noodles. I’d scoff these on the train home from work or as a substitute for a pint in the pub. (Yes, I still found
time for trips to my local — I wasn’t about to let my new regime ruin my social life.) After a while I started to take perverse satisfaction from the strange looks I’d get from people watching me shovelling food down my throat.
REST FOR THE WICKED
After just three weeks I broke through the 80kg barrier. As a reward Gethin granted me treat foods once a week — I was
dreaming of a curry by this point. “Stick to the dry no-sauce mains and have a whole rice and naan bread to yourself,” he said. Music to my ears. I had got the hang of the diet and switched my leg sessions to earlier in the week so I had time to recover for rugby matches at the weekend. But one thing I couldn’t get the hang of was timing my toilet breaks. I’d be glugging down so much water with my shakes that I had to plot my routes to and from work via accessible toilets. On one 30-minute bus ride to a game I had to jump off a few stops early and dart down a side alley before I pissed myself. Dignity, always dignity.
I thought the deload phase, which came in every third week of the plan, meant things would ease up. I was sadly mistaken. “In the low-volume intensifi cation week you’re doing less work but the key is to do it balls-to-the-wall,” said Gethin. “You’ve got to give it everything you’ve got.” So instead of doing fi ve sets of rack pulls, I’d do one set of upright rows with a shoulder-width grip until my forearms were on fire.
Then Gethin would get me to do partial upright rows, lifting the bar as high as I could manage. Then he’d get me to bring it to the top and hold it as long as I could without passing out. The surprising thing with this type of training was how quickly I’d recover. In the midst of a set I’d start to see stars but a few seconds after putting down the weight I’d feel fi ne again. That’s because reducing the volume gave my central nervous system a chance to recover, without taking the heat off the actual muscles, and the carbs I was consuming provided the energy to keep going.
DESPERATE MEASURES
After the halfway mark Gethin started to change things up. I was up to an impressive 83kg, and starting to throw my additional weight around on the football fi eld, but my metabolism was starting to fi ght back and progress was slowing. He upped my required carb and fat intake by a further 500 calories to hit the 5,000 mark. One tasty solution for this was to snack on caramel-fl avoured rice cakes slathered with almond and peanut butter between meals. The other, less appealing solution on days when I couldn’t face any more solid food was to slurp down a tablespoon of olive oil. Fortunately I soon discovered you can add this to a pre-bedtime protein shake without aff ecting the taste.
HIIT FOR SIX
As we approached the fi nal fortnight of the challenge the increase in calories was really doing the trick. My workouts were getting longer and more creative. Gethin wanted to show you don’t have to stick rigidly to a training program. “If it says leg press but there isn’t one available at all, you have to be able to think on your feet,” he said. On one particularly intimidating day I was due to do 40-50 reps on the leg press for three sets.
Without one available Gethin made me do a “density set” on the squat rack instead. He put 60kg on
the bar and told me to do as many reps as possible in three minutes — and this was after a similar drill with split squats and glute-ham raises. Somehow I managed 50. Even the hard-toimpress head PT off ered a nod of approval. With the fi nish in sight, we introduced specifi c high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and abs work into my plan to help me add an impressive six-pack to my newly muscular frame.
Twice a week I’d fi nish my workout with two supersets of hanging leg raises and weighted cable crunches to thicken up my abs. The other two would end with a 15-minute blast on an exercise bike to make sure they weren’t concealed under a layer of loose body fat.
After ten weeks, 40 workouts and 420 meals my bulking experiment was complete. I shaved my chest and got the obligatory spray tan for the fi nal photoshoot — this
wasn’t just vanity; Gethin assured me it would help highlight my new muscles — and then had my fi nal body fat assessments to fi nd out the extent of my transformation. I’d put on 7kg of lean mass while my body fat had stayed the same at 12%. My blood pressure didn’t change, while my triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol had dropped below readable levels.
And every single visible muscle, from my chest and biceps to my thighs and calves, had increased in size. The diet had given me more energy and I was stronger and more powerful than I’d ever been, both in the weights room and on the football fi eld. The program took reserves of hard work and discipline I didn’t realise I had — as well as a coach who wouldn’t let me quit.
But this proves that, by sticking to a structured mass-gaining regime in the gym and a strict plan in the kitchen, you can out-train your muscle-resistant genetics and build a body your dedication and eff ort deserves.
