About Brian Expertise I can help set up a weightlifting program, give suggestions on specific exercises and how to deal with injuries. We can discuss your goals and effective ways to work towards them. I compete at powerlifting, and have been weightlifting for over 15 years.
Experience 15 years weightlifting experience, including competitive powerlifting.
Question I have a bit of a problem that isn't unique, but it doesn't seem to come up very often.
I'm 20 years old, male, and at this point I don't lift, reason being that I don't have any weights or gyms to work with where I am.
I'm what is described as an ectomorph. Currently I am 73 inches tall, and weigh around 155 lbs depending on the week. My metabolism is extremely fast. I can eat until I'm full and stay that way and still see no gain in weight and/or body fat.
I also understand, or maybe misunderstand, that it is difficult if not impossible to make any kind of significant gain without the proper tools, namely the correct diet and means by which to exercise.
I can follow a diet without any problem, however, I won't be able to use any free weights or machines because I don't have the means by which to acquire them (namely, money.)
I do old fashioned workouts, such as splitting wood, lifting logs, doing push-ups, crunches, and the like, but all I've seen is more tone in my muscles. There isn't an increase in size anywhere.
I'm wondering what you would suggest as far as diet and exercise are concerned, given the resources I have available.
My goal is to gain about 20 to 30 lbs. I'm not sure I can add a time constraint to that because I have no idea how long something like that would take doing what I do now.
I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks!
Answer Dan - If your goal is to gain 20-30 lbs., then there is really no way to do that without weightlifting. Diet alone won't do it. What you describe as "old fashioned" workouts, I would describe as major calorie burning workouts--which will actually keep your weight down. I don't suggest you NOT do those, because without that, you'd end up being overweight at some point.
I don't know where you are, but there simply MUST be a gym, YMCA, local college where you could workout. If not, acquiring exercise equipment isn't that hard--and if you get it used you can often get it quite inexpensively.
