Posts Tagged ‘muscle building’
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Great to see you back!!! Enjoy and leave comments. One thing the average person doesn’t understand about hardgainers is that they have to really work at putting on weight and muscle. Most people who are bodybuilding are trying to shed pounds and fat, not put on more weight.
But the hardgainer needs to make significant changes in his or her diet and workout program to actually put on any bulk. These simple hardgainer weight gain tips will assist you in your journey to a better and healthier body.
Now if you want to gain weight and add muscle you can’t just start eating fast food and chocolate bars. I know, I was hoping for that too. There is a right way to go about it and I will explain it as easily as possible to you.
Since you are interested in building a better body I assume that you are also into building a healthier body, and to do that you must eat healthy things. To build muscle you must be consuming high quality nutrients from your food and also your supplements. Since you are a hardgainer you can cheat on this diet and eat junk, but whats the point? Just eat the best and higher quality foods and you will grow.
By higher quality foods I mean low glycemic carbohydrates and only low fat proteins and foods with high quality fats. By doing this you are optimizing your bodies ability to add weight via muscle, which is the sole reason for doing this.
As in all things in life it is best to have a plan and then to follow the plan. Being a hardgainer you have never bulked up in your life so this will probably come as a shock to you at first but stay with the plan, it is your best chance to add muscle.
If you follow this diet program correctly most of the weight you gain will be in the form of muscle. But some of it will be in the form of fat because the body naturally turns excess calories into fat for later usage. But be eating a low fat diet you will be minimizing your fat and maximizing your muscle gain. Seriously, do you really think that with your genetics you can become fat? I don’t think so.
Hardgainer Weight Gain Rule No. 1
You will really have to start increasing your protein intake. This may sound hard at first but it is essential for success. You will need to be consuming at least 1.5 grams of protein for each pound that you weigh. I’m talking your full body weight not your lean muscle mass.
So if you way 140 pounds you will need to be digesting 210 grams of protein per day. That sounds like a lot and it is, but you have a special metabolism that needs this much. You will have to divide this over 6 to 8 meals per day. And you will need to drink a lot of water to process this through your body.
The time between meals must be at least 90 minutes and a maximum of 3 hours. Anything over 3 hours and your metabolism will start eating into your muscle for energy. You are like a hot running furnace constantly burning calories and you have to feed the furnace to keep up with and outpace its needs.
Your best sources for protein are chicken, turkey, egg whites, tuna, shrimp and 93% lean red meats. There are others but I’m not going to go into extreme detail here. Stick with the chicken and tuna since they are cheap and easy to make.
Hardgainer Weight Gain Rule No. 2
We can’t gain weight eating only protein so we have to eat other things that our bodies require to survive. Carbohydrates are a staple of every diet and its no different here. We are going to increase our carbohydrate intake to anywhere from 1.5 to 2 grams per pound of our body weight.
We did the math above so its practically the same so I won’t cover it again. Needless to say its a lot and it is extremely essential. Carbohydrates are the energy stores for your muscles and will help you do your workouts easier and faster.
Carbohydrates are the transport mechanism of amino acids from the protein into the muscle tissue. They increase insulin levels which is the train that the amino acids rides. It is important that we are eating low glycemic complex carbohydrates so that we aren’t creating a fat train which is unhealthy and doesn’t function as well.
Some good examples that you should be eating are brown rice, oatmeal, pasta and sweet potatoes. There are more of course but these should be your staples. We will want to limit the high glycemic complex carbs for after the workout to get the energy into the muscle as fast as possible. Higher glycemic complex carbs and simple carbs will jump start the recovery process and bring energy to your muscles.
Here is an important tip. Half of your carbohydrates should be eaten between the time that the body is most receptive and post workout. You body is most receptive in the morning or first meal. Here is an example using our 140 pound person which needs between 210 and 280 grams per day.
Lets use 280 to make the math easier. If we split 280 in half we get 140 grams of carbs. We now need to split that in half for the morning and the post workout. So we will need to eat around 70 grams of carbohydrates in the morning (first meal) and 70 grams more after our workout.
Also, the morning meal carbohydrates will be complex low glycemic carbs and the post workout will be higher glycemic and simple carbs. This is all about getting energy to the muscle and rebuilding the stores of energy in our liver and blood. Without energy our muscles can not grow.
The rest of the 140 grams should be split into our meals during the day. It is best to refrain from eating complex carbohydrates after 6:30 pm, unless you are working out that late, because your insulin sensitivity goes down at night. Which means you run the risk of storing carb calories at night, which is saying you are going to be adding fat to your body.
Part of your carbohydrate diet should be made up of fibrous carbs like green beans or broccoli of about 15 to 20 grams. You should get another 15 to 20 grams of at dinnertime. This will help keep your digestive tract moving and healthy, if you know what I mean.
Hardgainer Weight Gain Rule No. 3
Most people have a belief that removing all fats from their diet will make them thin. That is NOT TRUE. There are good fats and bad fats, but your body does need fats to function. Our brain is 40% fat, so see what happens if you get no fat in your diet.
Fats are required for optimum hormone production and it therefore follows in muscle growth. Testosterone is a hormone and without enough fat in your diet your testosterone levels will fall off the charts.
But we will concentrate on the good fats like the Omega Essential fatty acids. Essential means that the body can’t produce it on its own. These fats which are in oil form are important for your recovery due to inflammation, enhanced nutrient partitioning due to their ability to neutralize enzymes necessary for fat storage and mood enhancement.
One good thing is that we won’t need to take an outrageous amount in our diet like we did with protein and carbs. Three tablespoons per day for men and 1-1/2 tablespoons for women in the form of flax seed oil will suffice. You can also get it in fish oils or extra virgin canned olive oil.
I have found the best time to take them is my last 2 meals of the day. I split them between the two meals. It helps to squelch my cravings for sweets that I get because of the reduced carbohydrates I eat at night. Remember, no carbs after 6:30 unless its a post-workout meal.
Although this article is primarily written about nutrition I will remind you that you should be cutting down on your cardio workouts. No more than 20 minutes a time and 2 times a week at most. Being a hardgainer you don’t want to burn excess calories anywhere because you will have to try to eat up the difference.
You will need to be taking hardgainer supplements which I cover in another post that you can find here. Hardgainer Supplements
Hardgainer Weight Gain Rule No. 4
This may seem like it shouldn’t be covered here also but this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. You need plenty of time for rest and recovery. Every day you should be getting a minimum of 7 hours sleep, 9 if you can swing it. Your muscles grow while you are sleeping and also they are recovering from the workouts.
This is where it all happens and you can’t cheat this one thing and do the others and expect to gain weight or muscle. Your hardgainer body is genetically designed to metabolize at a higher rate than most people and one way to slow that down is to sleep.
Lack of sleep messes up hormone production and energy levels and even your mood. You need to be running at peak efficiency to get your body in growing mode so get some sleep.
Using these simple hardgainer weight gain tips will help you defeat your genetics and finally get that body that you have been working so hard for. Discipline and following a plan have changed people and civilizations for centuries, you can do the same.
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Welcome to Part 2. Picking up where I left off on Part 1 variability and variance is important to keep your muscles in a state of change in order to get them to grow. The body has been designed to adjust to changes and then fall into a rhythm. This rhythm stops you from growing.
Another tool that we will use to change things up is to alternate between 3 week periods of high volume workouts with 3 week periods of higher intensity workouts. Higher intensity only means that we will be workout out with heavier weights.
This constant change stresses the body and muscle into having to grow to make up for the difference in work being done, maximizing your growth potential. Doing the same program over and over only makes you and your muscles bored, thus no growth.
One thing that I don’t think enough is made of when it comes to weight lifting is form. Form is crucial to getting stronger and not hurting yourself. Proper form will make the difference in real gains and fake gains. What I mean by that is that you say you can lift a weight but you actually are swinging the weight.
This can cause serious injury and also cheats you of your gains. What I mean by cheating you of your gains is that you are not actually letting your muscles do the actual work that it requires to lift this amount of weight, so they don’t grow into the job. Set your ego aside and lift with proper form what you can lift.
Now we need to switch channels a little bit here. We have been concentrating on build the muscle and adding mass so lets not forget about doing things that will take away our gains. One of those things is aerobic exercise.
I’m all for being cardiovascularly fit and all but if you are a hardgainer than you need to minimize the calories that you burn. Every excess calorie burned through aerobic exercise has to be made up for with food. You will already be eating more than you ever have so I suggest just cutting back on over-doing your aerobic exercise.
Walking and riding a bike are perfectly fine as long as you aren’t doing them for more than 15 to 25 minutes a couple times a week. But running hard by playing a sport like soccer or basketball can hurt your progress. If you truly want to maximize your abilities you just need to keep the aerobic exercise to a minimum.
This goes back to our nervous system’s ability to recover. The hardgainer’s nervous system needs more rest so that it can supply the muscle with energy and hormones to recover and grow. Needless caloric burns take away from the growth and health of the muscle.
If you really want to make significant gains building muscle you should be working out with primarily free weights. The reason, well there are several, but the main reason is that free weights require your muscle to work harder and the stabilizer muscles are brought into play to balance the weight.
Working out with machines cheats you of some of your work because you are working in a 2 dimensional space whereas we are a 3 dimensional being. Whenever you move or do anything in life your body is working all the muscles in a 3 dimensional space and that’s how they are designed to grow.
Now I’m not saying that you should never use a machine. Some exercises are actually better done with a machine since it does isolate the muscle being worked, but for now we will be using barbells and dumbbells. Other exercises like dips use mainly your own weight in the beginning but you are moving through 3 dimensions of space using all of your stabilizer muscles at the same time.
Now you get a bonus, a complete Hardgainer’s workout. Just Click on the highlighted words below or right click and save for future reference.
Click Here –>Hardgainer’s Sample Mass Building Training Routine
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
If you are a hardgainer than you probably have one trait in common with all hardgainers. Well, actually you have the hardgainer trait also but the one I’m talking about is that you are probably weight training too much. Hardgainer Training is usually about backing it down a bit.
Being a hardgainer is frustrating so we tend to over do our workouts thinking that that will break through the barrier of our genetics. The truth of the matter is that you need to back it down a little. Three to four workouts per week is the maximum, and none lasting more than 60 minutes.
I know that you have read that you need to work your muscles to get them to grow but you can over do it and you just happen to be one of those people that can’t over do it and grow. You also have to back down your cardiovascular exercise. Burning calories is going against you so no 60 minute jogs or aerobics class. Low volume aerobic exercise for no more than 20 minutes will help you overcome your metabolism.
Your main goal here is to reduce your caloric expenditure and to increase your caloric intake. Everything that you do that burns calories is going against you and you need to seriously take this into account.
You have probably read or tried many different bodybuilding workouts by now and you have found that nothing is working for you. You now must realize that you are a hardgainer and you must do a hardgainer training workout.
Hardgainer Training Workout Principles
The 60 Minute Rule: Never workout for more than 60 minutes. You will only be wasting your time and energy if you do and you will also be hurting your chances to grow. In general your muscle building hormones like growth hormone and testesterone levels start to drop at 60 minutes.
Also your stored energy fuel is now depleted so you will start to eat away at your very own muscle tissue. Your carbohydrates that are stored in your muscle cells and liver and your glycogen, which is the spark that makes your muscles contract, is now gone. So STOP!
If you are stubborn and decide that you will continue know that you are heading down the overtraining road. This is no place to be, you get nothing out of it except ego. When you overtrain, your body doesn’t have enough of anything to recover properly, which leads to loss of strength and muscle mass.
This one is a no-brainer since it is part of most bodybuilding programs. Keep the rest between sets at a minimum. Ninety seconds is the most you should rest and this is for a very good reason. It keeps you on your toes the whole 60 minutes and it also turns your workout into a cardiovascular event.
This will maximize your output of growth hormone too, the powerful muscle building/fat burning hormone.The beauty of moving it along also enhances muscle voluminizing, which is when water goes into the muscle cells and makes you look firm and toned, you know, pumped.
You should not weight train for more than 2 days in a row. I know that you have a burning desire to get the body you always dreamed of but overtraining isn’t the secret. This is EXTREMELY important for hardgainers.
While some people have been genetically created to be able to recover easily from 6-day workout routines you are not one of them. It is common for most hardgainers to have trouble recovering and growing from 4-day workout routines.
We are all made differently and the hardgainer’s nervous system can become overloaded from two days of high intensity weight training. Nothing to be ashamed of, we are who we are. You can eat whatever you want and not gain weight, most people can’t, so it evens out.
If you do decide to go over the 4 day per week workout you must know that you are wasting your time and that your depressed nervous system will not be functioning at peak levels for you to grow muscle. Eventually your depressed nervous system will not only stop you from growing but will take away the gains that you have already made.
Another change to make in your workouts could possibly be the number of repetitions you do per set. This should be in the range between 6 to 15. The reason for these numbers is that it has been scientifically proven to maximize your growth hormone output.
This number of repetitions will give you a great pump, thus filling your muscle cells with water and nutrients that give them the ability to recover and grow bigger. The final reason is that you are not over-taxing your muscle and therefore losing control of the weight and injuring yourself.
(Note: This rule does not apply to the calves and abdominals as these muscles usually respond better to higher repetition ranges, in the order of 13-15 reps).
It is important that you make progress while you are working out. To progress means to add weight or reps every week or two. This increases the work load on your muscles which requires your body to grow to make up for it.
Realize that your progression can come in many forms, whether you are adding reps or adding weight. Just make your goal to continue to make improvements in muscle size and tone.
One thing our bodies have evolved to do is to become accustomed to routines. If you want to continue to make your muscles grow you must vary your hardgainer training workouts. Change is good and change can be as little as doing an exercise differently.
Like doing curls with dumb bells instead of with curl bar.Changing reps or order of exercises all make a difference to your muscle development. Even just changing the rest between sets works.
I’m going to stop the article here for now since it has become very long. I will post Part 2 very soon and will go into greater detail into hardgainer training.
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Monday, June 29th, 2009
If you are one of the unlucky ones that can’t seem to put on weight no matter what you do you are most likely a hardgainer. If you are trying to bulk up and build muscle you will need to start eating a hardgainer diet. Here is a sample of one that will definitely help you.
Meal 1 (7 AM)
1-1/2 cups of dry oats mixed with water
1 banana
1 cup of egg beaters
Supplements:
* Multiple Vitamin/Mineral formula (I use Prolab Training Pak)
* Chromium Picolinate 200 mcg
* 1 tsp of Glutamine
Meal 2 (10 AM)
Low Sugar Weight Gainer such as Prolab’s N-Large 2 (2 scoops) mixed with 16 ounces of skim milk and 1 Tablespoon of Flax Oil or Natural Peanut Butter
–or-
Meal Replacement Powder with complex carbohydrates such as Lean Mass Complex mixed with 2-3 scoops of Prolab’s Carb Component and 1 Tablespoon of Flax Oil or Natural Peanut Butter.
1 Piece of Fruit (Optional)
Meal 3 (12 Noon)
1-1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or sweet potato
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6-8 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
Meal 4 (3 PM)
Same as Meal 2
Meal 5 (5:30 PM)
1-1/2 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or sweet potato
2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
6-8 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
Pre-Workout Supplements (6:30 PM):
* 1 tsp of Creatine
* 1 tablet of 200 mg Caffeine (optional)
Weight Train (7 PM-8 PM)
Post Workout Supplements (8 PM) – Have as soon as done w/ workout
* 12 capsules of BCAAs
* 1 tsp Creatine
* 1 tsp Glutamine
* 2 grams of Vitamin C
Meal 6 (8:30 PM)
1/2 cup of cream of rice
1 banana
2 scoops of whey isolate
Meal 7 (10:30 PM)
2 scoops of Prolab’s Protein Component or preferred slow released protein mixed with 3 scoops of complex carbohydrate powder such as carb component
(Note: If you wish to consume as a pudding, mix w/ 4 ounces of water; and stir with a spoon)
Supplements:
* 1 Tablespoon of Flaxseed Oil (can mix w/ shake or pudding)
* 1 tsp of Glutamine
* ZMA
NOTE: On non-workout days, trade the post workout meal for a solid meal consisting of chicken, 1 cup of brown rice and green beans or any other lean protein source, complex carb source and green vegetables. Also, for Meal 7 of the hardgainer diet, eliminate the use of the carb component.
Meal 1 (7 AM)
1 cups of dry oats mixed with water
1 banana
1 cup of egg beaters
Supplements:
* Multiple Vitamin/Mineral formula (I use Prolab Training Pak)
* Chromium Picolinate 200 mcg
* 1 tsp of Glutamine
Meal 2 (10 AM)
Low Sugar Weight Gainer such as Prolab’s N-Large 2 (1 scoop) mixed with 8 ounces of skim milk and 1 Tablespoon of Flax Oil or Natural Peanut Butter
–or-
Meal Replacement Powder with complex carbohydrates such as Naturally Lean Mass Complex mixed with 1-2 scoops of Prolab’s Carb Component and 1/2 Tablespoon of Flax Oil or Natural Peanut Butter.
1 Piece of Fruit (Optional)
Meal 3 (12 Noon)
1 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or sweet potato
1-2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
3-4 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
Meal 4 (3 PM)
Same as Meal 2
Meal 5 (5:30 PM)
1 cup of brown rice, or medium sized baked potato, or sweet potato
1-2 cups of green beans, broccoli or any other desired vegetable
3-4 ounces of chicken, turkey, or lean fish
Pre-Workout Supplements (6:30 PM):
* 1/2 tsp of Creatine
* 1/2 tablet of 200 mg Caffeine (optional)
Weight Train (7 PM-8 PM)
Post Workout Supplements (8 PM) – Have as soon as done w/ workout
* 6 capsules of BCAAs
* 1 tsp Creatine
* 1/2 tsp Glutamine
* 2 grams of Vitamin C
Meal 6 (8:30 PM)
1/4 cup of cream of rice
1 banana
1 scoop of whey isolate
Meal 7 (10:30 PM)
1 scoop Prolab’s Protein Component or preferred slow released protein mixed with 2 scoops of complex carbohydrate powder such as carb component
(Note: If you wish to consume as a pudding, mix w/ 4 ounces of water; and stir with a spoon)
Supplements:
* 1 Tablespoon of Flaxseed Oil (can mix w/ shake or pudding)
* 1/2 tsp of Glutamine
* ZMA
NOTE: On non-workout days, trade the post workout meal for a solid meal consisting of chicken, 1/2 cup of brown rice and green beans or any other lean protein source, complex carb source and green vegetables. Also, for Meal 7, eliminate the use of the carb component.
Courtesy of Hugo Rivera & About.com
As you can see this is probably way different than how you have been eating so far, but you have to keep feeding the fire that is your metabolism. If you don’t it will just keep eating your muscle, which is why you are staying the same size.
The hardgainer diet is sometimes hard to get used to but once you do it for a few weeks you will be doing this in your sleep. You will be amazed at how much energy you will have compared to before. A strong will and determination will overcome your genetics.
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Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Don’t you hate it when you have a workout partner and they are increasing in size and weight and you don’t seem to be keeping up? Or they are adding weight every 2 to 3 weeks to their workouts and you are still struggling with the same weight you already have?
Well my friend, you most probably are a hardgainer, that’s all. A hardgainer is a person genetically predisposed to have trouble putting on weight no matter what they eat and also putting on muscle when they follow the basic workout advice from the crowd. You need some hardgainer workout tips.
Don’t worry, its not the end of the world. You just have to make some adjustments to your workouts and your lifestyle to overcome your genetics. Easily done with the right plan and attitude. First thing to do is to stop doing what you are doing now and make some changes.
One of the first things to do is to change up your workouts in a dramatic way. We want to wake up your body and get your hormones and testosterone pumping. A simple technique is instead of doing a few sets of heavy weights switch it to a few sets with a 20 to 30 repetition count.
This will shock your muscles into growing. Add them to the end of your workout and then next week add them to the beginning. Change is good, especially when weight lifting. Your body had been designed to adapt to change and plateau, mixing things around overcomes that.
Another thing that is extremely important is to not do the same exercise all of the time. We need to add new exercises to the mix. This uses different muscles and also it uses the same muscles at a different angle, which is different to the body so it wants to grow.
Hardgainer workout training requires you to be diligent about not resting too long between sets. You need to keep the blood flowing and the pressure on if you want to get past your hardgainer tendencies. Too little rest is bad also so strive for about 45 to 60 seconds between sets.
Just because you are working to get a bigger body doesn’t mean all of your exercises have to be with weights. Every once in a while throw some push-ups and some pull-ups in the routine, or do hand stand push ups. You will be amazed how hard these are even though you are stronger.
But the most crucial part of the hardgainer workout tip that I can give you is actually about your diet. You have to make major adjustments here since your resting metabolism is faster than most people. You must be getting more carbohydrates and protein than the average person that is trying to gain weight and strength.
Supplements are very important for the hardgainer. You are processing your food faster so you need to replenish it with supplements to make up for the difference. You couldn’t eat enough to get your protein needs without supplements. So if you want to grow you must take supplements.
I don’t know what you have heard about building muscle but the most important thing, well, after you’ve actually worked out, is to get plenty of rest, and I mean sleep. You grow your muscles when you are sleeping. My hardgainer workout means getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night and so should yours.
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Friday, June 26th, 2009
If you are one of the people that can’t put on weight or muscle no matter how hard you try, than you are a hardgainer. Even though people will be jealous of you because you can eat whatever you want and not gain a pound, I know that you really do want to add weight and build muscle.
One question that I am constantly asked is, “Is there anything that I can take to help me get bigger and gain weight”? This is especially true for teenagers who are growing so fast that can’t seem to eat enough to keep up. Specifically they are talking about hardgainer supplements.
As long as the conversation is about lifting weights and eating healthy I also suggest supplement implementation. Supplements are a great way to add to our nutritional needs and to keep us healthy and recover faster from our workouts.
I’ve made a quick list in no particular order of what I usually suggest. Over the years these have been the most beneficial to the hardgainer athlete.
1. Creatine
Creatine is a metabolite produced in the body composed of three amino acids: l-methionine, l-arginine and l-glycine. Once it reaches the muscles, it is converted into phosphocreatine (creatine phosphate), which is then used to regenerate the muscles’ ultimate energy source, ATP (adenosine triphosphate) thus allowing for more repetitions at any given weight. Also, creatine increases lean body mass by pushing water inside the muscle cell and enlarging it. Best of all, these effects can be seen in as little as two weeks!
Weight gainers are protein shakes whose protein source consists mainly of whey proteins (mostly concentrate with some isolate as well). Some also include other proteins such as milk proteins and/or egg. These products have a high carbohydrate content; typically in the form of maltodextrin (a high glycemic complex carb) and fructose (simple sugar originating from fruits). For gaining weight they are very useful since they help you get in the amount of quality calories required to gain quality muscle.
Flaxseed oil is a polyunsaturated oil that is high in the Omega 3 essential fatty acids (EFAs); one of the two essential fats that the body needs. “Essential” means that the body cannot produce it on its own and therefore must be obtained from diet. The other kind of EFAs the body needs are the Omega-6 oils. Flax oil is high on the Omega 3, which help improve immune system, energy production, insulin sensitivity, and hormonal production. In addition, 1 TBSP of Flax Oil adds 120 calories, which are useful for weight gain.
4. Glutamine
L-Glutamine the most abundant amino acid in muscle cells. It is released from the muscle during times of stress (such as hard weight training workouts) and dieting. This amino acid not only has been shown to be a great anti-catabolic agent (protects the muscle from the catabolic activities of the hormone cortisol), and to have immune system enhancing properties, but it also speeds up recuperation and helps to increase muscle volume. It is the most overlooked hardgainer supplements.
5. Multi-Vitamin and Mineral Pack
Essential to insure that our body will operate at maximum efficiency. Why? Because on a very simplistic level, without vitamins and minerals it would be impossible to covert the food that we eat into hormones, tissues and energy. Vitamins enhance the actions of proteins that cause chemical reactions such as muscle building, fat burning and energy production. Minerals assure your brain receives the correct signals from the body, balance of fluids, muscular contractions and energy production as well as for the building of muscle and bones.
6. Liver Tablets
These tablets are a great source of beef liver and bodybuilders have been using them for decades in order to obtain the values offered by beef proteins. The key thing for liver tablets to be useful is that they need to be manufactured with the highest grade of beef liver and they also need to be purified from the fat, cholesterol and other impurities that are contained in the liver.
If you combine a good exercise program with these hardgainer supplements and get plenty of rest you will succeed. Overcoming the hardgainer genetics is hard, but with a strong will and smart decisions you will grow bigger.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Defining a Hardgainer
A hardgainer it typically a person that consistently works out with weights but can’t seem to add bulk and muscle. No matter how much they work out or how long, they have trouble achieving any gains, as far as size goes.
If this is the true definition than the majority of the population would fit under this category, because it is difficult to put on muscle and weight. As with a lot of things the easiest time to be able to add muscle is during puberty when we are growing and we are filled with hormones and testosterone.
As we get older it becomes much more difficult especially after the age of 25 to 30. That’s when our hormonal production starts declining on a yearly basis.
Did You Just Call Me an Ectomorph Somatype?
If you ask me a hardgainer is a person who is born skinny and no matter how much he/she eats they can’t gain weight. I’ve known a few in my day and its gets to be frustrating as I get older and they stay skinny. But back to the hardgainer names.
A Dr. William H. Sheldon referred to as an “ectomorph” somatotype when he came up with the theory sometime in the 1940’s. Sheldon’s theory states that human bodies are divided into three main somatotypes;
the ectomorph, the endomorph and the mesomorph. In a nutshell, the ectomorph is the naturally skinny person who has trouble gaining weight, whether in the form of muscle or fat. The endomorph on the other hand has the opposite problem, it is too easy for a person with this body type to gain weight. While endomorphs are easy muscle gainers, provided they diet and train correctly, they are cursed with a slow metabolism, which makes it imperative that they be strict with their diet year round if they wish to have any abdominal definition. The mesomorph, however, is the naturally muscular person, who also has a higher metabolism than the endomorph. Mesomorphs make excellent bodybuilders and for them, gains in muscle and reduction in body fat come rather easily provided they maintain a great training and nutrition program; life is not fair.
If You Think That You Are in Hardgainer Hell, Keep Reading
I know that if you have been trying to get out of Hardgainer Hell and so far it hasn’t worked you are probably pretty frustrated. Are you stuck there forever? No. But you are going to have to make some serious changes to beat your genetics.
You are made differently than others so your diet must be different too. Forget everything you’ve read before about nutrition because it doesn’t pertain to you. This is what you must do to overcome your metabolism.
You have to take in at least 50% of your nutrition in carbohydrates, 25% in proteins and the other 25% in good fats. That is different from what most people need for their diet, but you have to fight your genetics.
This is the tough part. A typical person can get results on a caloric intake of 12 times their lean body mass, but you must shoot for 24 calories per pound of your body weight, not your lean body mass. At first this will be difficult.
As an example lets say you weigh 150 pounds. You will need to eat 3600 calories (150 x 24) per day. Now break this down by the percentages I gave earlier and you will have to get 450 grams of carbs, your protein and good fats will be 225 grams each. You must break this down over 6 to 8 meals so that you are eating every 2 to 3 hours while awake.
As you may have guessed by now your best strategy is to maximize your caloric intake while minimizing your caloric expenditures. This is essential if you want to overcome your hardgainer genetics. Your metabolism is like a furnace that doesn’t shut off, even while you sleep you are burning calories and when the fuel source is gone your muscles must pay the price.
Finding the Road Out of Hardgainer Hell
As you can see being a hardgainer isn’t the end of the world nor the end of your chance to get big muscles. There are several hardgainers who have overcome their genetics and even participated in bodybuilding competitions. Vince DelMonte is a great example of this.
 Vince DelMonte Before  Vince DelMonte After He went from 147 pounds to 189 pounds and won a competition. It will take a lot of work and a willful determination but you can achieve whatever it is that you believe. That is the truth. Look on the bright side, whatever weight you put on will be muscle so you won’t have to diet to get ripped like the rest of us.
It is essential, the most important aspect of your plan that you eat regularly and that you eat the proper foods. You must plan out your meals and always have a back-up plan in case you have to work late or stay at school longer than you thought. Carry with you protein bars and shakes and always have fresh fruit at the ready. Eating is the key to overcoming the hardgainer life.
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