EASY GAINER method from a former “HIT Jedy”
What do you think about:
(this is only a demonstrative beginner’s workout program, designed for: learning the major lifts in the beginning of training- ask for professional guidance doing this-, solving the body-split, full body training conflict. After sometime when starting to push hard on these lifts the volume will be reduced or probably you will quickly be overtrained )
Monday
Squat
Dips
Chin-up
Overhead Press
Stiff-leg Dead Lift
Pec Fly
Lateral Raise
Abcrunch
Wednesday
Squat
Dips
Chin-up
Overhead Press
Stiff-leg Dead Lift
Row
Bicep Curl
Lower Back
Friday
Squat
Dips
Chin-up
Overhead Press
Stiff-leg Dead Lift
Leg Extension
Leg Curl
Calf Raise
I train for 8 years now, I’ve been training in several methods, last being HIT for some years which didn’t gave me the gains I expected. Like Chad Waterbury I believe in high-frequency training, the training that you can do more often with progressive overload without leading to exhaustion is the best for the quicker and bigger gains.
Since I have a strong HIT background, I decided to call a high frequency HIT: Easy Gainer in oposition to Hard Gainer philosophy which tries to make people believe they are all hardgainers and should stick with the training philosophy that gives poor and slow results.
First I recommended a 3 day/week program with one set each exercise, full body workouts, with max 6 sets/workout for beginners, finishing one rep or two short from failure. And recommended reducing the number of the sets once your progression is stalled.
This is a good method and will provide good gains but I wanted to be even more gentle with the Central Nervous System.
This is the “Original Easy Gainer” designed by me, it can be still considered HIT.
Recently I have developed the “New Easy Gainer” with moderate intensity and higher volume and still high frequency. Actually you can alternate these both EASY GAINER methods, I’m still not sure what is the best method by experience, only time and testing will tell.
You noticed I’m still conservative with volume. Easy Gainer HIT makes people use heavier weights and intensity is higher.
Now with some studies regarding the CNS and exercise-induced testosterone levels, the 5%-25% increased hypertrophic stimulation with multiple sets compared to single sets, I transformed my method to have multiple sets: 3.
Three sets, full body routines was the way my father and oldtimers trained and with great results. My father improved in 6 months what I couldn’t get in years with other methods, actually my mother genetics gave me an edge over him…
Now my Easy Gainer method has incorporated some of the best time-tested principles as some of the principles that we can take from recent studies.
Full-body, with specialization and split-body mixed up, 48 hours rest for restauration of energy reserves, sparing of the CNS… I can get back on this later.
You do the 3 sets with a weight that you can terminate your third set with, doing the pre-defined number of reps, 8 for upper body and 12 for lowerbody and more for smaller muscles( this is only demonstrative for the general population), when you feel like it’s easy to do the 3 sets you increase the weight. Rest a minute beetween sets and little more beetween exercises.
The concentric and eccentric part of the movement should be controlled and not using balance and momentum, always with proper form, making smooth transition between positive and negative and vice-versa, deaccelerating in the end of both positive and negative part, not bouncing the weight and not getting a too harsh transition from negative to positive or going too far with the movement either positive and negative that can be unsafe for the articulations involved.
There is a recent study that concludes the negative part of the movement hasn’t the muscular friction that was previously thought, thus not creating so much damage to the muscle fibers (that some link to better hypertrophic stimulation, not me) then it’s not needed to be emphasized with very long negatives which only make the trainee rest excessively beetween reps.
I hope beginners try the workout program I designed above, try it for 2 months, take before and after-pictures and show here the results. No need to take creatine, or other volumization supplements that can pollute the analysis.
Have a good diet with caloric superavit. You can read excelent articles about nutrition here to design a diet suitable for the best gains. Sleep well, 8-10 hours, rest in the off-days, limit the cardio to the warm-up, 5-10 min treadmill is enough.