The hard gainer is your typical lifter who has plenty of exercise experience but just can’t seem to figure out how to add on those pounds of muscle. They have lean muscles with very little fat on their bodies. Their metabolism is naturally very high compared to the rest of us and they complain a lot about it. First off, chill out. There are many people out there who wish they could keep the fat off like you. Everyone out there, hard gainer or not, can put on 15-20 pounds of lean muscle mass.
The average hard gainer I’ve talked to has been working out for around a year and a half. If you haven’t even exercised a year than you can’t say you’re a hard gainer. There is no way to measure what you can or can’t do in only a years time. Learning to adapt your body is a much longer process than 1 year.
The first thing a hard gainer needs to do is look at what they’ve done in the past. The majority of my hard gainer clients have used a crazy exercise program with way to many exercises, no rest weeks, and eat too little so they don’t add on extra fat pounds.
Many times with exercising, less is more. You want to gain muscle? Then you need to exercise in a way that tells your body to adapt with more muscle. You only need to do 1-2 exercises per muscle group. Rep ranges are always in question. You can learn more about this in Go Healthy Fitness’ recent post about sets and reps.
You may have chosen the wrong exercises for muscle gain. An excessive amount of bicep exercises isn’t going to make your biceps grow efficiently. Compound exercises are your best choice. These exercises cause a release of human growth hormone right after your workout. HGH is very beneficial when it comes to muscle growth. Check out this article for my favorite 5 muscle building exercises to gain muscle and weight
A change of pace is another very important step in muscle growth. Many hard gainers I work with haven’t taken a break in over a year or even changed their routine in any way. I always recommend taking a 1-2 week break after each routine cycle. My typical routines will last anywhere from 10-16 weeks. The longer the routine cycle the longer the break I take. This recovery period is essential for your muscles to get back on top. They’ve been beaten down for months. They need the time to recover.
Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition! This is 80% if not more of gaining muscle or losing fat. You have to eat food to refuel the muscles. You have to eat a lot of food as a hard gainer. Don’t be scared about gaining a couple body fat percent. I know you’re wanting to keep your rock hard six pack but look at your current metabolism. It will come off fast. The most efficient way to gain muscle is to not worry about the fat you’re going to put on. You have to eat excess calories to gain muscle. Some of these calories will be stored as fat, its just part of the game. The key is to eat the right foods to minimize the fat gain. Take in lots of protein and keep your fats clean. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated are great for your body.
You can really pack on those muscle pounds by taking a look at No Non-Sense Muscle Building. It will help you learn how to gain the quality muscle you’ve been trying to put on.
Travis
