For ectomorph people, gaining muscle/getting big is truly an up-hill battle. It seems like the whole world—everything and everyone—is conspiring against you and your dream of getting into the best shape of your life. Now and again, you are bound to doubt yourself: “Is it worth it?” “All these time, money, energy along with so many sacrifices just for a better physique?” “Why am I going against nature?”

I am here to tell you that this journey you’re traveling on/about to embark on is more than just about gaining muscle, getting big, and looking good. Those are only the end results. Along the journey, you will learn and acquire skills that are vital and transferable to any other area of your life.

So without further ado, here are the 5 benefits of training for a great physique you may not know about yet:

• Consistency/Persistency/Patience:

Nothing worth having comes easy. Especially for ectomorphs, we are destined to stay skinny. If you want to get big, prepare to put in a lot of hard work at a constant rate for quite some time before you can expect to reap the benefits. That is, you must be consistent in your effort, stay persistent even when the goings gets tough, and patiently wait for the results to come.

• Determination/Discipline:

Don’t expect every one to support you. Instead, expect some people to even discourage you from ever reaching your goal. When the whole world seems to go against you, do you have the determination to push on through? When there are plenty of distractions taking your mind away from training, friends trying to get you to party and stay up late, do you have the discipline to say NO?

• Desire/Concentration:

It’s one thing to want something; it’s a totally different matter to desire something enough to take action toward achieving it. It’s one thing to get pumped up about working out for a few days; it’s a totally different matter to keep your desire burning until the day you get the physique you want. You will need to concentrate your mind on fulfilling your desire for a great physique. Having three or four other desires will only guarantee you getting nowhere.

• Going beyond your limitations:

You were born small and weak. But if you train hard and train smart, you’ll get big. Even bigger than many mesomorphs who wasted their naturally gifted physique. Many people were born smarter than us. It does not mean that we cannot work hard and work smart to get anything we want in life. Training will teach you that the only limitation is the one you set up in your mind—physically and mentally.

• Goal/Plan:

So you have a strong, burning desire to get into the best shape of your life. But that alone gets you nowhere. You must transform that desire into a clear goal (how many pounds of muscle to gain, how long it should take, what you are willing to sacrifice in order to reach that goal, etc.) and you must follow it up with a good plan (what training program to follow, what meal plan, how much sleep/rest is needed, how to fit training into your schedule, etc.).

The journey toward a better physique for us ectomorphs is one of constant hard work and sacrifices. But it is also among the few most rewarding experiences of your life. You will learn and benefit from it far more than you can imagine now–far more than I can ever explain to you.

So start the journey and see it for yourself!