Just because the legs are hidden under clothes most of the time and aren’t on show, doesn’t mean you should forget about them. A good heavy leg workout will increase the amount of testosterone your body is producing for a short period, and that can’t be a bad thing for any guy.

The 2 main exercises to develop your legs are the deadlift, which some regard as the king of all exercises, and of course the leg press. The deadlift is simple in that it’s just a matter of lifting up a barbell, standing up straight and then lowering it back down again in a controlled and safe manner. The leg press is usually performed on a leg press machine whereby you lay on your back and thrust your legs in to a weighted plate and push the weight up and away, and then lower back down bending your knees.

Comparing the deadlift versus leg press is relatively easy in so much as the deadlift works almost every muscle in your body while the leg press isolated mostly your legs and very little else. It is for this reason I would opt to perform the deadlift over the leg press when training your legs. Due to it involving numerous other muscles such as your biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs, glutes, forearms, traps and back, it is a far superior exercise and should be incorporated in to your workout program.

The leg press could be used once you’ve been training for some time simply to vary the exercises or further exhaust your legs after a deadlifting session to ensure maximum stimulus to the muscle fibres. Training with the leg press alone and not performing the deadlift is a route you do not want to consider, but many guys do for an easier but a far less effective and inferior workout.

There is no magic bullet or pill for building muscle. The pills you may see in the fitness magazines range from vitamins, to liver tablets, protein, caffeine and creatine pills plus over a hundred different combinations of various formula’s all in pill form which claim all manner of benefits to the average bodybuilder.

While I readily admit there are some benefits to taking in extra nutrients and vitamins, the price being charged for most of these pills are astronomical and the benefits (to which there are hardly none) are really not worth your money or time invested in consuming them daily or multiple times per day like most of the companies selling them advise.

It is simply about making money off the back of your dreams, and the more pills they can convince you to buy and keep on taking, the more money for their shareholders. The fitness industry is terrible for making large chunks of money off the blood and sweat of young men everywhere.

If your diet is good and consists mainly of whole foods which are rich in minerals, vitamins and nutrients then you have no real reason to invest in so-called pills for speeding up your gains. In my opinion these sorts of pills are perfect for OCD style personality types – those that enjoy routine and repetitive action. You may know guys at work or college who take various pills throughout the day, often these guys will be taking over 10 different pills under the mistaken belief that they’re doing them much good at all.

If your time is valuable then stay away from this stuff because it takes enough dedication to keep your diet and training in check every day. Busy people with busy lives don’t need the added hassle of taking over stuff on top of that. I simply do not agree with it.

A man with big shoulders is to be able to lift heavy objects above his head, and I believe this is why the shoulder, or deltoid muscle, is so important to demonstrating and showing off your strength. It shows that you’re a strong guy who can not only pick heavy stuff (or people up) but actually lift them above your head!

To build big shoulders is rather simple and you need only a few exercises in reality, the most important being the military press, or the overhead press as it’s also known. It’s performed with a barbell and it’s a simple case of resting it on the top of your chest near your neck with both hands palms faced upward in the starting position, and simply pushing it up above your head and then lowered back down to complete a full repetition.

The military press develops all sides of the deltoid muscle, the front, sides and rear, and as a beginner you shouldn’t need to add extra exercises like the lateral raise which targets only your side deltoid muscles. Once you have developed a good base using the overhead press then feel free to add other isolation exercises to hit each head to their maximum.

Isolation exercises to build your shoulders are as follows:

• The lateral raise (side deltoid)
• Front raise (front deltoid)
• Behind neck press (primarily the rear deltoid)

The important thing to remember is that having big shoulders contributes to the width of your physique which is crucial for the more slender or skinny guy out there. Creating the best illusion of width comes from having a small waist, big shoulders, developed lat muscles and a large chest. If you concentrate your training in to compound lifts which target all of your major muscle groups you will start to look wider in no time.

Full body workouts are good for beginners and ensure you build a solid base, but once you’ve built significant mass all over your body it’s time to step your training up a notch and incorporate isolation exercises to continue spurring on new growth.

If you’ve been training for say 6 months using only compound exercises such as the barbell curl and the bench press as your primary arm exercises then your muscles are missing out and there will still be muscle fibres that you haven’t yet developed to their potential.

For example, your biceps are made up of 2 heads, with the rest of your arm being the triceps. If you’re not isolating both heads of your bicep then you’re missing out on potential new growth.

The same thing goes for other muscles groups in your body, especially your back. Your back muscles are: The posterior deltoid (rear shoulder), terres major, trap muscles, the latissimus dorsi (lats - upper, middle and lower) and lastly the erector spinae muscle.

You must ensure your training program works all of your muscle groups to their fullest which is why I recommend isolating muscle groups once you’ve built a good foundation using mainly compound exercises.

Take the time to dig around my site to find different exercises to isolate each muscle group but remember you must allow sufficient rest between exercises, especially when you’re isolating them, so that your body is able to repair and generate new muscle tissue.

The reason I recommend a full body routine is because as an ectomorph you must workout every muscle in your body, including various supporting muscles, as it is the quickest way to add mass to your frame and start adding some serious bulk.

Using isolation exercises which target individual muscles won’t achieve the kind of full body muscle stimulation that major compound exercises like the bench press, deadlift, squat and bent over barbell rows achieve with ease.

It boils down to this: The more muscles you work, the bigger you will become.

It may seem like common sense but many slender guys in the gym spent hours training just their biceps, chest, triceps, and use only the popular machines. This isn’t going to build the sort of mass you desire and I advise you stay away from isolation exercises and machines all together.

Here’s the full body routine that I advocate for the ectomorph:

The exercises involved in the routine are:

• Bench Press
• Squat
• Deadlift
• Bent-Over Rows
• Overhead Press

This routine follows a 2-day split and works your entire body:

Monday

• Squat
• Bench Press

Friday

• Deadlift
• Bent-Over Rows
• Overhead Press

I advocate 10 reps for 3 sets on all exercises. This is a great program to follow for the beginner and will add some great mass to your frame within 6 months.

It’s crucially important to eat right when you are an ectomorph – you will need to consume more calories each day than your body needs. A rough calculation that I find works is to multiply your entire bodyweight in lbs by 12, and then plus 200. That will provide you with the number of calories you should be eating to feed your body with enough surplus calories to grow, but not so much that you end up getting fat.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using the E-Z curl bar in your workouts, depending on which exercises you chose and how your body responds to the varied angles the E-Z curl bar provides to your muscles.

The most popular exercises that use the E-Z curl bar are:

E-Z Bar Standing Curl

Usually preferred over the standard barbell curl due to the reduced stress placed on the wrists, the E-Z bar curl is performed in exactly the same manner, except due to the inward angle of the wrists when performing the exercise, any pain you may of felt when curling a straight barbell will subside.

I curl using the E-Z bar as if I didn’t I fear I would be causing a lot of damage to my wrist joints. I experience a lot of pain when curling a straight bar and if this sounds like you then using an E-Z curl bar is recommended.

E-Z Bar Seated Preacher Curl

Possibly the simplest exercise that exists for targeting only your biceps. Sit yourself down on the preacher bench and allow your elbows to hang off, and while holding the E-Z curl bar, simply curl the bar as you would when standing. The seated preacher curl is advantageous as it’s impossible for you to swing the weight up using your bodyweight and back muscles, thus solely targeting your biceps only.

E-Z Bar Lying Tricep Extensions (Skull Crushers)

Skull crushers as they’re commonly known are a great isolation exercise for the triceps – the muscle that makes up the bulk of your arm mass and as such one you certainly don’t wish to neglect. Simply lay down on your back and hold the E-Z curl bar above your chest, and keeping your arms straight lower the bar until it’s below the back of your head, then raise the bar back up for a complete repetition.

Even if you’re training correctly using proper form, increasing the weight and resistance at each workout, without adequate time given for muscle recovery then your efforts in the gym will be fruitless.

You probably know people who hit the gym every day, and if they aren’t using illegal substances that damages (and enlarges) their internal organs, then you also know that they aren’t growing whatsoever, despite the hard effort and time spent lifting iron.

Bodybuilding often appears counter-intuitive until you learn the science behind the bulk. Generally most people assume that the more time spent lifting weights and the more often you do it, the more muscle growth they will see. This is a widely held belief amongst those outside of bodybuilding.

Damaged muscle fibres require time to recover after each workout, else they cannot repair and re-build in numbers, which equates to more strength and size. Providing sufficient recovery time is incorporated in to your program and your diet is feeding the nutrients your body requires, then muscle growth will happen.

I advocate a beginner trains 3 major muscle groups per week, allowing a full 6 days in-between working each group, splitting the program in to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for example. This means you could train your legs on Monday, and not touch them again until the following Monday, allowing 6 days of recovery time.

As time goes on and the resistance (more weight) you add at each workout becomes less, you can reduce your recovery time down to 3 days, or 72 hours. This is because your muscles require less time to build new muscle that can handle the slightly heavier load. As a beginner your muscles will be heavily taxed and require an entire week to recovery and rebuild.

The good news is that as a beginner, this is where you will see the best growth – you will grow far quicker resting your muscles for 6 days than someone a year in to their training whose recovery time is only 3 days.

The trapezius is a large muscle group which is often neglected as most trainee’s do not realise the sheer size and potential for growth in the traps. Excellent growth in the traps will provide a thicker, larger and more powerful back development which will help in other exercises and minimize injuries.

Barbell shrugs are one of the best ways to develop your traps as they are a simple and effective exercise, requiring only a barbell and weight plates. You simple rack the barbell with sufficient weight as to stimulate the muscle and perform the shrugs using a ’shrug’ motion, as if you were signalling to a friend that you don’t know what he’s saying, while holding a barbell in your hands.

You really can’t go wrong with this exercise…

Use a supinated (one hand overhand and the other underhand) or an overhand grip for both hands and lift your shoulders as high as possible in a rapid motion and lower for 1 rep, then repeat.

I advocate using 8-10 reps when performing barbell shrugs as it’s a delicate exercise and easy to use too much weight under the impression you’re actually lifting it, when in reality you’re barely lifting your shoulders and not stimulating any sort of muscle at all, and only briefly if you are.

An alternative to barbell shrugs is to use dumbbells in each hand and perform the motion exactly as you would in the barbell shrug. Some find dumbbells easier and more comfortable as they hand directly beside your body as opposed to slightly in front, as is the case with barbell shrugs.

Below I will list all of my bench press articles that I recommend you read in full:

The Incline Bench Press
This article describe the primary function of the incline bench press and how you can incorporate the press in to your workout routine for better chest development.

The Decline Bench Press
In this article I go in depth on the decline bench press and why it works your triceps and deltoids more than the regular press.

Pectoralis Major Development
This is a full overview of the pectoralis major muscle group (your chest) and describes the various exercises you can use to stimulate full chest growth.

Weighted Dips vs Bench Press
In this article I discuss the differences between weighted dips and the standard bench press and give my conclusions on how I think you should be training.

The Close Grip Bench Press
Here I comment on why varying your chest exercises is important and how the close grip bench press can help your chest growth and work your triceps better.

These articles are incredibly important if you wish to learn about the bench press and the various workouts you can perform to build your chest.

Stretch marks are the unsightly, whiplash shaped blemishes which usually occur around fatty areas of the body. As the name implies, stretch marks occur when the dermis under the skin is stretched rapidly, causing scar formation much in the same way as if skin were stretched or split – only underneath the skin. So, what stretch marks are, is simply below skin scarring.

Like anything else, stretch marks are largely genetic. Some people are able to put on astounding amounts of muscle in a very short space of time and not suffer from stretch marks, whereas some will put on a modest amount of find they have, unfortunately, gotten stretch marks from it.

Although for men – particularly real men – they may not be a problem psychologically, for women they may be rather upsetting, so let’s take a look at how we can deal with them, in order of priority…

How to avoid stretch marks:

No lotion or potion will do anything to help you avoid stretch marks. But you do have 2 options if you really do wish to avoid them as much as possible. You can take the route not well-liked and gain size slower, giving the dermis time to expand without scarring, and/or you can really seek to minimize your fat gains. The more fat you gain the more pressure there is on the dermis, and the more severe any stretch marks will be.

Stretch mark removal:

Like I’ve said, creams and lotions are pretty much a waste of time and money, and you are wishing on a star trying to remove stretch marks with them. I’m yet to hear of any which have worked significantly. Time is a great healer, and stretch marks can be minimized with time. If you don’t have time, you may wish to see a physician and raise the topic of stretch mark removal, which is usually done with laser.