mredle wrote:18 pounds is a lot of weight for a young man (particularly one with ectomorphic characteristics) to gain in a matter of 3 months (start of season). Particularly with the aerobic training focus. I would be interested in seeing what his gains are strength-wise in terms of squats and bench press.
I'd guess it depends. It sometimes make sense to do a 10 week or so intensive lifting program with minimal work on aerobic exercise to put some mass on prior to then working on a more mixed program. A lot of it depends on if he'd done serious lifting before. If he didn't so Squats, bench, dead lifts, cleans and overhead presses before he could gain a lot of strength and muscle mass in a short amount of time. If he'd been doing those and still not gaining weight, he's a tougher gainer and needs nutritional help and probably more sleep and rest.