Hardgainers have it hard. They have physiological attributes that make it difficult to gain strength and muscle size. One of the biggest problems that hardgainers face is that the majority of the most widely publicized names in weight training are easy gainers. Their workload capacities and the type of training that they respond to has little in common with the type of training that will work for a typical hardgainer. Unfortunately, many hardgainers will try to imitate some of the types of training that easy gainers commonly utilize. This usually results in a lot of hard work with little in return.
Some easy-gainers claim to have been hardgainers at one time; especially if they started out extremely skinny. However, once they started to eat right and used a training method that was compatible with their individual physiology, they became easy gainers. They would like you to believe that anyone will become an easy gainer with proper training in nutrition, but a true hardgainer is going to find it hard to gain, even with optimum training and nutrition.
Not All Hardgainers Are The Same
Not all hardgainers find it hard to gain for the same reasons. Many are told to eat tons of protein and carbs every day, and to hit each muscle group two or less times per week. The workouts generally consist of 2 to 4 high intensity sets per muscle group with basic exercises and heavy weights in the 6 to 8 rep range. This is great advice for the type of hardgainer whose muscles stay activated for growth for 72 hours or longer after a workout, and for those who possess an extremely fast metabolism. However, this is not true of all hardgainers and the typical advice is inadequate. One of the most common pieces of advice for hardgainers is to eat more, train less; eat more, train less; eat more, train less, to the point where it starts to sound like a broken record. I don’t discredit this advice for those who find it helpful, but it’s not for every hardgainer.
Some hardgainers have very little metabolic power to process the food they eat. Eating huge amounts of food in combination with low frequency training is only going to nauseate them and cause them to puke while suffering from a diversity of digestive disorders. In addition to the digestive disorders, those who are not cut out for gorging themselves on a consistent basis may experience insomnia, headaches, heart palpitations, and dizzy spells. If you are a hardgainer and these negative symptoms do not happen to you when you eat a high calorie diet, then eat all you want; why wouldn’t you if it’s not a problem? However, if the high calorie, low frequency strategy is more of a problem than a solution, then then it doesn’t take super human brain power to figure out that you might be better off trying something else.
Some Hardgainers Need To Speed Up Their Metabolisms
It could be that you need to speed up your metabolism so that you have the ability to tolerate the intake of more calories than you burn off. You do this by working out more often; a lot more often. Of course, the common mindset is that the reason hardgainers can’t gain is because they have terrible recovery ability. The common way to deal with this is to work out less often to provide more rest time which will enable full recovery. This is good advice if it works, but I’m a hardgainer, and it never worked for me. Why? Because too much rest time between workouts leads to detraining, Depending on the terminology you are most familiar with, detraining is also known as adaptive decay, atrophy, loss of strength, and loss of muscle. It all comes from not training often enough. Some of you out there must train more often and use high frequency training.
There are a lot of hardgainers who can recover from brief workouts, but the problem is that their muscles don’t stay activated for growth very long after a workout. These lifters have poor activation retention. In contrast, some easy gainers may only need to hit a muscle group once per week in order to gain strength. These lifters have great activation retention between workouts. Those who only need to hit each muscle group twice per week also have good activation retention between workouts. However, many hardgainers are not so fortunate and need to activate their muscles more often with high frequency training. This will accomplish two very important things:
- High frequency workouts will help you to maintain a consistent state in which your muscles remain activated for growth and strength gains without constantly alternating between activation and detraining.
- High frequency workouts will stimulate your metabolism so that you can finally tolerate more calories than you burn off without experiencing negative side effects to your digestive system.
High Frequency Training plus Moderate Intensity
I realize that much of what I have discussed so far is very opposite from what most people will tell you in regard to how hardgainers should train. What I am going to say next is also very different than the common advice to hardgainers, as hardgainers are often advised to minimize training volume and maximize intensity. This seems to be the holy grail of successful training in the minds of many hardgainers, but my advice is to throw out high intensity training if you are doing it and it’s not working. Let me repeat myself by saying that if high intensity training is not producing results, get rid of it because it is a stupid idea if it’s not working. On the other hand, if high intensity is currently working for you, it’s a smart idea and you should keep doing it. It could also be that high intensity training did work for a while, but it’s not working now. If this happens to be true of you, then acknowledge that it worked for a while, but realize that it is no longer working, in which case quit doing it and try something else. Like what you may ask? Like moderate intensity, high frequency training. How frequently should high frequency training be done? Here are two options:
- Train your whole body 5 days per week
- Train your whole body 2 to 3 times per day, 3 days per week. If you do 2 workouts on the same day, do one in the morning, and one in the evening. If you do 3 workouts per day, just make sure that you get at least 4 hours of rest between workouts.
Moderate Intensity
If you have been listening to an intensity addict who thinks that the only intensity should be high intensity, and that high intensity is the one and only training variable that stimulates strength and muscle size, then I know you are probably scoffing at the idea of moderate training intensity. High intensity sounds more manly. High intensity looks more manly when you do it. Of course, you should use high intensity training if it is currently working, but if it’s not, it would be senseless not to try something else. What else? Moderate intensity.
The High End of Moderate Intensity
Moderate intensity has a range. At the higher end of moderate intensity, each rep should be performed forcefully while pushing each work set one rep beyond your ability to maintain a steady even rep pace. This means that when you maintain a steady even rep pace as long as possible, you will eventually reach a rep that is obviously slower than the previous reps of the same set. Stop when you hit the first slower rep. I call this the marker rep because it marks the first rep that starts to slow down at the end of a set. You can also stop at your limit rep, which is one rep before the marker rep. It is the limit of reps that you can perform using a steady even rep pace.
Leave 2 to 3 Reps in the Tank
Stopping at your limit rep or marker rep usually amounts to leaving two to three reps in the tank before reaching a point of failure. I recommend this type of training when working each muscle group once per day, 5 days per week. You may also use this amount of training intensity when training twice per day, 3 days per week.
The Workout
Each workout should start with 2 to 3 warm up sets for an exercise.
Follow the warm up sets with 1 to 2 work-sets of 6 reps of the same exercise, and finish each exercise with 1 set of 15 reps.
Don’t finish with more than 1 set of 15 reps for each exercise or it will backfire by causing an endurance adaptation rather than a strength adaptation. The set of 15 reps is designed to stimulate your metabolism.
Make sure to do just one exercise per muscle group.
The Low End of Moderate Intensity
At the lower end of moderate intensity training you won’t be pushing as hard. Choose a weight that you can do for 15 to 20 consecutive reps before reaching failure, however, don’t do 20 consecutive reps to failure, instead, break the 15 to 20 reps up into 4 to 5 sets of 5 reps for each basic exercise. Do your reps forcefully. Just do one basic exercise for each major muscle group, which includes back, legs, and chest. You can also finish with 1 set of 5 reps for smaller muscle groups including triceps, biceps, and deltoids. Since you are only doing 1 set for these smaller muscle groups, use a weight that will push you close to your limit rep or marker rep. This type of training is best for those who choose to workout 2 to 3 times per day, 3 days per week.
2 to 3 Times per Day? I don’t Have Time
Many people will quickly dismiss the idea of working out 2 to 3 times per day because it sounds as though it will be too time consuming. However, the workouts that are to be done 2 to 3 times per day are fast workouts that are to be done using a quick pace.
Circuit Training and Fast Workouts
These workouts should be done in conjunction with circuit training by moving quickly from one exercise to the next until you complete one set of each basic exercise. You should only rest as long as it takes to switch from one exercise to the next. After completing one set of each exercise, repeat the process until you have done 4 to 5 sets of each exercise for chest, back, and legs. You can finish off the workout with 1 set of 5 reps for biceps, triceps, and deltoids. The workouts shouldn’t take any more than 7 to 10 minutes if you move quickly which moderate intensity workouts allow you to do. Your total workout time should add up to 20 to 30 minutes by the end of the day.
Rule: Avoid Fatigue
Even though you will be doing a fast-paced workout, you must avoid fatigue at all costs. You should not feel a lot of fatigue at the end of a set, nor should you feel a lot of fatigue at the end of a workout. Fatigue will keep you from recovering within four hours before doing another workout. Fatigue is what causes a lot of hardgainers to experience an endurance adaptation rather than a strength and size adaptation. When utilizing high frequency training, do not lift to the point of fatigue.
2 to 3 Times per Day? I Can’t Go to the Gym That Much
Some of you are probably scratching your head wondering how you can go to a gym 2 to 3 times per day, 3 days per week? Most likely you can’t unless there is a gym at your work-place, or you have your own home gym. So what do you do? Do simple exercises that you can do at home or in a small space at work. This would include exercises like push-ups, lunges (or split squats), and using a suspension strap or exercise tubing for pulling motions for back muscles, biceps, triceps, and deltoids. If you need to add to your body weight, you can include a weighted belt or weighted vest when performing pushups and split squats. If you do this workout 2 to 3 times per day, 3 days per week, it will amount to 6 to 9 workouts per week. I recommend that 2 or 3 of those workouts be done with regular weights which would mean going to a gym two or three times per week. These workouts are called your “heavy workouts,” as they will be done with more weight.
Heavy Workouts
When doing a heavy workout with weights, just pick 2 exercises consisting of either the bench press and deadlifts, or the bench press and squats. Start each exercise with 3 easy warm up sets for 5 reps, and finish with 1 work-set for 5 reps. When doing your work-set, your 5th rep should be your limit rep, which means to reach the limit of reps you can perform while maintaining a steady even rep pace. If your reps start to slow down at the end of the set, you are lifting too heavy. On the other hand, if you can do more than 5 reps using a steady even rep pace, you are lifting too light. You should be able to complete this simple workout within 12 minutes.
Not Enough
Some of you may think that the heavy workouts are too short to accomplish anything. This would be true if they were the only 2 or 3 workouts you were doing, but they’re not, you will be adding the other workouts to the heavy workouts throughout the week.
Since each workout is performed with a moderate amount of intensity and a fairly low amount of volume, you will be able to recover from the high frequency workouts. You will also be able to keep your muscles activated throughout the week.
I believe it is important that you understand that you are not trying to hit a home-run every workout when performing high frequency workouts in conjunction with a moderate level of intensity. The real key is to work out just hard enough on a regular basis to prepare your body for an occasional addition of weight. Each addition of weight is going to cause an initial increase in the difficulty of the workout, but when you repeat workouts frequently, the added weight will become easier to lift. When the added weight starts to feel easier, don’t immediately add more weight. Let your body get comfortable with the weight you are using as this is what allows you to add weight from month to month without the additions of weight becoming more and more difficult to lift. If you can add five pounds per month for a year, you will be 60 pounds stronger by the end of the year, and you will be 180 pounds stronger in three years, and 300 pounds stronger in five years. You may want to gain this much in a matter of months, but this would be unrealistic for a true hardgainer.
Be Patient
Hardgainers are often extra skinny to start with. To put it another way, everyone else already has a head start on a hardgainer, and the hardgainer is behind before he ever gets started. Many hardgainers want to catch up as quickly as possible because they are so far behind. This often leads to over eating and over training. You will have to progress at a reasonable rate by eating as much as you can without suffering digestive problems. You will have to be patient and train hard enough to stimulate gains without training so hard that it causes overtraining and a training plateau. It is important to take your time and be consistent with your training and diet in order to make gradual, but consistent gains.
Many hardgainers are not going to like what they read in this article because high frequency training takes an honest commitment. At the same time, no promises were made that you could make quick gains as a hardgainer. The advice is also contrary to the type of training that is commonly utilized by most lifters. This can cause you, as well as others, to constantly question whether you are training right when you use high frequency, moderate intensity training. You will have to be willing to be different to stick with it.
Some of you are a stereotypical hardgainer who will find that the common hardgainer methods work better than the style of training discussed in this article. If so, keep doing what you have been doing. However, there is a certain type of hardgainer that will be better off with high frequency training, assuming the workouts are designed and performed correctly. As I have said before, if what you are currently doing isn’t working, what do you have to lose by trying something different? I personally respond best to high frequency workouts. The same may be true of you, but you will never know until you try it out. Best of training to you.
If the typical advice for hardgainers is driving you insane? Try something else.