I was just reading an interesting article yesterday that might apply to you, the links are at the bottom of my post and you should read through it but I'll try to explain the basics here as simply as possible.
It's about what the author calls the "skinny-fat ectomorph". If you don't know about somatotype, here is the wiki article. The principles are outdated but the training principles developed for the various somatotypes are quite helpful. So you've got two kinds of ectomorphs, the skinny-ripped ecto and the skinny-fat ecto. The ripped ecto can eat as much as he wants and he won't gain a pound but he also tends to be muscular and quite strong for his size. This guy can put on muscle relatively easily given proper diet and a properly designed training plan. The other kind, the skinny-fat ecto, tends to be a bit softer, he doesn't have a lot of muscle and he's got a bit of fat around his body. He tends to be weaker than the norm and doesn't seem to be able to gain anything no matter what he eats and how much he trains.
The difference comes down to hormones. The ripped ecto is more sensitive to certain hormones like testosterone, leptin, and some others the guy mentioned. These people have a high metabolism, they tend to have more energy, everything is just running at a higher pace. The skinny-fat (I'm using that because the guy writing the article used it, I mean no offense) person on the other hand seems to be more sensitive to cortisol, the stress hormone. That hormone promotes catabolism (the breakdown of tissue, be it muscle or fat) and thus makes it difficult to gain any kind of weight. So not only are they at a disadvantage because they've got less muscle, meaning they can't train as hard and won't improve as quickly, but their bodies are also less willing to build any new tissue, meaning they don't recover as quickly and are more prone to overtraining and injury.
This may seem depressing but there are things the skinny ecto is good at. They have a tendency to build more type 1 muscle fibers, these are your aerobic muscle fibers, the ones you use for marathons and anything else long distance. They're smaller and less powerful than the anaerobic muscle fibers, which are bigger and more powerful but they can only perform for a short period of time. A random interesting fact is that type 2 muscle is white because they lack the oxygen-binding protein that type 1 muscle contains, so next time you're eating chicken you'll know why the breast is white and the legs are dark (they need to beat their wings hard and fast to take off).
In order to get bigger and stronger you're going to have to be very mindful of your diet and training regimen. The article gives more specifics on what to eat and how much but basically you're going to want to eat more protein and fewer carbs than the normal recommended diet. As for training, you're going to want to focus on compound movements, you want to use as many muscles in each exercise as possible. This means your workouts will mostly consist of free weights with very few, if any, machines. This is something I recommend to anyone who wants to do weights because they're simply better for you, they work supporting muscles which provides real-world strength and since they recruit more muscle they also release more testosterone which increases gains. The only thing machines are good for is targeting specific muscles, which is good for injured athletes who need to avoid training a specific muscle or for bodybuilders who want to make one specific muscle grow.
If you think this applies to you, give the article a read, it's much more specific than my explanation and even gives a workout plan at the end.
links:
Part 1
Part 2
03 Oct 2009, 1:17 pm
