Reaching out to successful Ectomorphs

Just to add another one:

 

at the moment I'm 6' 176 lbs and started one year ago at 160 lbs, I'm 41 yrs old and didn't do any sports for 20 yrs due to back problems. Started with calisthenics/ bodyweight training one year ago. In this year I lost  fat (yes I had some) and gained muscle weight and strength. Doing no weights just bodyweight at home or outdoors on my own fining a lot of info on the internet (calisthenics, streetworkout, isometrics, and just found this site).

 

This first year was really more about get my muscles and entire body used again to movement and force. I feel now after 1 year I am ready for more dynamic or demanding excercises.

 

My goal is to get stronger, not to build muscle. I take it for granted that building strength through bodyweight training has a different kind of progression and type of result than lifting weights.

 

I don't do extensive cardio, but ropejump for 10/15 minutes to warm up.

 

One of the things I learned is to eat, eat a lot (not tooo much), eat the right food and eat often. I digest quickly, that's why I am skinny, so there is not really anything to rebuild  muscles at the end of the day if I don't eat right. I eat 7 times a day now. Spreading meals through the day instead of stuffing 3 times a day also helps me from feeling faint or getting headaches. Meals are like: breakfast oatmeal, snack banana, bit later some nuts, lunch pasta/rice/quinoa (from the day before or a few portions made in advance, snack apple, diner, evening snack quark/cottage cheese. After workout I useally take shake of plantbased protein, almont milk, banana and cacao (ideas about protein may vary, but I feel good about it).

 

Another thing is I vary my excercises, muscles quickly get used to an excercise If done everyday. And split up my workout so that the muslces worked get plenty time to recover.

 

I measure my progression not day by day (that will depress you for sure), but for example one day I can do 10 dips in the rings, I leave that excercise for a while, practice on pushup variations, and a few weeks later do dips again and notice that now I can do 20.

 

And also don't compare too much. There's guys outthere with amazing bodies and strength (take someone like frank medrano) but they spend a huge amount of their day on training, I don't have that time, I have a family and a full job. There will be a lot of things that I know I am not gonna achieve.

 

I will never be a big muscled guy,  but I see myself as succesfull cause I'm sticking to it, getting stronger and making progression day by day. 

 

I get my motivation to keep training from a drug addict that recovered and said:

"I don't have to stay clean the rest of my entire life, I just have to wake up every morning and stay clean for one day"

 

Don't quit.

I feel that alvaro has some salient points, the idea that f1 and h1 should for the most part leave you feeling stronger (as eventually they will just be warmup and movement prep), and the week before the deload week actually feeling like a "real" workout. I feel that f1 and h1 is mostly about neurological recruitment, I.e. learning to create intensity within whatever movement you are practicing, with breath, body awareness, balance, and the ability to handle variety. The connective tissues will eventually adapt, but many of the faster improvements will be in mobility, balance, body awareness, etc.

A good trick is to have some other activity that you can use as a baseline, say, dancing or crawling or frisbee, and notice how you perform that. It will show you what f1 and h1 are doing for you in aome regard.

As to your particular recovery and adaptation, that is highly individual and yes, you might be an outlier, or like me, you might have an auto immune or some other genetic issue that is limiting your recovery (low testosterone, etc)

Keep up the fight and keep using critical thinking!