The Ectomorph Body Type: Why gain muscle can be hard for this body type.
We are all born with different body shapes, types, and sizes. Each is categorized using their physical build and appearance. There are several types of body types. Today we will be covering the ectomorph body type.
This article will cover how people with this body type can gain muscle using workouts, diet, and training.
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What is an Ectomorph?
Ectomorphs are a type of body that is skinny and slim. Their body builds consist of minor joints, tall, long limbs and thin bones. They have small muscles due to their tendency to have higher body metabolism due to many fats; they tend to burn out quickly.
Most of the people in this category struggle to gain weight.
Most of these ectomorphs are artists, basketball players, and models who hire trainers to help them gain muscles through workouts.
Ectomorph Body Type Diet
Since ectomorphs have a high metabolism, this fast metabolism makes one eat anything making him lean and not easier to gain weight. As people become older, the metabolism rate lowers, making muscles become less hence increasing in fats.
They should eat a lot of carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, rice, oats and calories. Calories should be like 400-500 to gain muscle for skinny guys. Most of their calories should come from curbs and around 23% from the proteins they eat.
They should eat a lot of proteins due to their macronutrients. Those nutrients are components for building muscles and the body. For ectomorph muscle gain, they should practice eating every 2-4 hrs, and the food should be warm for easier digestion.
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The best diet for ectomorphs
Gaining weight for skinny guys is all about consistency. Eating the required diet eventually leads to better results. Here are some of the other diets they should practice on:
- They should eat plenty of best vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, squash, Brussels, asparagus, carrots,
- Eat many fruits, e.g. mango, oranges, apples, pears, bananas, pineapple, avocado, peaches.
- Dairy products that are free from fat will help the ectomorph gain weight.
- Meat and fish from turkey, chicken, seafood
- Snacks full of nutrients
- Nuts and seeds like almonds, peanut, pumpkin seeds
- Grains like rice, faro, quinoa
- Supplements such as Natural Steriods
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Example of a five-day meal diet.
Day One
- Breakfast-oat, almonds oil
- Lunch-tomato, lettuce, onions
- Dinner-sweet potatoes, Brussels
- Snack-avocado
Day Two
- Breakfast-apples, walnuts
- Lunch-proteins
- Dinner-Shrimp, quinoa
- Snack-guacamole.
Day Three
- Breakfast-roasted sweet potatoes
- Lunch salad and avocado.
- Dinner-chicken, tomatoes
- Snack-almond butter.
Day Four
- Breakfast-sweet potatoes, nut butter
- Lunch-beans,broccoli.
- Dinner-chicken, kale
- Snack-apple juice.
Day Five
- Breakfast-oat, strawberry, walnuts
- Lunch beans, broccoli.
- Dinner-turkey, mangoes, beans.
- Snack-soy milk.
The Ectomorph Body type workout
Now we have known a proper diet for the Ectomorph body type to gain muscles and weight. Famous bodybuilders like Frank Zane, an Ectomorph, worked hard and built their physique. Let’s now look at the workout that can accompany the diet.

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Compound lifting
Compound lifting is a type of training that involves movements that strains several muscles. Lifting helps in training more muscles simultaneously; it saves time and increases loading stress.
Its ability to train muscles at once aids in strength improvement and improved workout hence easier gaining of muscles. These exercises include the following:
Squats
Squats involve movement for building the strength of the legs and the back. There are many types of squats not limited to overhead, front, back and box squats.
Deadlift
This exercise involves movement of the back and hamstring for Ectomorph. Deadlifting involves the use of sumo, deficit, bubbles, kettlebells, among others.
Bench Press
Bench press involves the gaining of muscles between the chest and the triceps. Examples are the use of dumbells, bench presses, kettlebells and barbells.
Push-Up
Push-ups are very excellent and convenient. They help Ectomorphs gain muscle at home without any equipment. It aids in developing chest and triceps muscles: includes wides, hand pushups, triangle pushups, handstand pushups and floor pushups.
Isolation Exercises
They are generally essentially used for developing one type of muscle. It is one way an ectomorph can work out without equipment. Isolation exercises include walking lunges, standing shoulder press, dipsy, preacher curls, walking lunges and so on.
Cardio Exercises For Ectomorphs
Cardio programs should be part of the exercises by the ectomorph body type. They don’t need to do a lot of them but little of them. They help in improving cardiovascular health and facilitate the oxygen and nutrients delivery to the blood. It also improves the functioning of the lungs and heart. A good pre-workout can always help if cardio is not the most loved part of your workout. BlackWolf is a good prework as it is loaded with scientifically backed ingredients, at clinically effective dosages. This means it’s got just the right amount of everything to guarantee you a pack-leading performance every time, you can find them here.
The number of cardio exercises is supposed to be few due to the lower percentage of twitch fibers. Practice is supposed to be 2-3 times per week.
Cardio exercises also increase appetite by helping to burn calories. This practice also improves the mental health of the ectomorphs by recovering the body to a normal state.
Weight Lifting
They have been recommending that ectomorphs lift weights 2-3 times per week. Each workout should consist of four to five joint movements. Each muscle group should get around 12 reps per workout.
Weight lifting helps in increasing the mass of the muscles and the strength of the body. It is one of the essential workout routines for ectomorphs.
Behaviours To avoid when carrying out Workouts.
Some behaviors are discouraged when you are performing workouts. Some of them may lead to poor muscle development or no change at all. Here are some of the things to avoid:
- Avoid doing too many cardio sessions as it will affect the development of your muscle.
- Minimize weight lifting sessions. Too many sessions for skinny guys prevents the muscles from regaining, which may lead to weight loss.
- Ectomorph is not having enough sleep.
Ectomorph Workout is all about planning.
If you have been wondering how ectomorphs workout, you are aware now. Throughout the article, we have seen how ectomorphs can gain muscle at home with or without equipment.
To achieve your body plan, you have to choose a better diet, roll out a workout plan and be disciplined and attentive. All the rest will fall in place. The goal of transformation begins, and when done right, everything else falls in place.
Let me know in the comments below how you go with your workouts?

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