Ryan Crowley shares his personal experience on successful training techniques as a person who genetically gains weight easily.
A core school of thought when it comes to fitness and bodybuilding is that everyone falls into three body types. An Ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph. Ectomorphs have a heard time gaining weight with little body fat, mesomorphs have a natural high muscle to fat ratio, and endomorphs have a naturally higher fat to muscle ratio and gain weight easily. Ryan Crowley was bullied as a child for being an overweight kid and to this day falls in the endomorph category. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Ryan Terry shares his experiences and tips on how to keep his fat ratio low while building a successful bodybuilding technique.
In competitive bodybuilding, there are some who struggle with building size and forcing themselves to eat enough food. But some bodybuilders gain weight easily during bulking. Typically, these bodybuilders would fall under the endomorph category of genetic body type. This might seem like a blessing. Building weight and size is the first step towards becoming a competitive bodybuilder. But when a competitor ultimately steps on stage, they also want to be as lean as possible. That can be more challenging to pull off for endomorphs.
Ryan Crowley is one such bodybuilder who falls into that category. He has been open about being an overweight child and being bullied. This was part of the reason why he eventually discovered bodybuilding and started sculpting his physique. This doesn’t mean that his genetic predisposition to gain fat disappears. In fact, Crowley’s fans have often been in disbelief how easily he can maintain his weight at around 300 pounds.
It’s so easy for him to stay heavy, in fact, that his bulks can sometimes go too far in the wrong direction. He describes bulking up to near 320 pounds and feeling unhealthy carrying that much weight on his body. Not only that, but he eventually needs to cut back on the fat, try to maintain as much size as possible, and keep it all as lean muscle. This is much harder for endomorphs who gain fat much more easily.
While cardio is often seen as an enemy for bodybuilders (due to cutting muscle alongside the fat), Ryan Crowley finds himself sometimes doing three hours of cardio to keep himself at a respectable weight – even during bulk. This seems to be Crowley’s biggest takeaway about being an endomorph. Bodybuilders who fall under this category need to embrace cardio in order to stay lean.
At the end of the day, Ryan Crowley keeps on weight at lower calorie levels that would cause others to lose weight. This has led fans to call him a liar about his weight and demand he shows video of stepping on the scale. The plus side is that he can keep weight with eating less food and avoiding more carbs. But the downside is if he doesn’t keep an eye on it and add extensive cardio into his routine – he can fall too far into bulking and make his cutting phase a nightmare in prep for a show.
You can watch Ryan Crowley talk in more detail about the pros and cons of being an endomorph bodybuilder in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!