I’m curious to know how many other T-Men out there are hard gainers.
Just looking for some good advice if you’ve found something that really worked for you and is beyond what’s posted in the two T-Nation articles. Thanks.
I would consider myself a hardgainer in that whenever I worked out with someone, they would always gain faster than me depsite a horrible diet and inconsistent workouts.
I like 3 days a week total body routines. I am a big fan of Waterbury’s workouts. I also would focus more on nutrition than anything else.
soco
[quote]DiogenestheCynic wrote:
I’m curious to know how many other T-Men out there are hard gainers.
Just looking for some good advice if you’ve found something that really worked for you and is beyond what’s posted in the two T-Nation articles. Thanks.[/quote]
Many are.
Nearly everything on the site that isn’t geared toward cutting will help.
Powerlifting style workouts and eating.
ABBH, Surge, Classic Grow! and eating.
The Waterbury Method, Surge, Classic Grow! and eating.
Vroom’s beginner posts are a good place to bookmark too, even for those that don’t consider themselves beginners.
Occasionally I sleep. Much more often and better (deeper) since I started taking ZMA. That helps…a lot!
That’s been working for me…although I have decided I won’t call myself a hardgainer 'cause I don’t need to weigh myself down with a label.
Matthew
What’s a hardgainer? Someone that makes excuses for themselves is my best guess.
I have all kinds of trouble putting on muscle, but I know it’s because me diet is off. I am working on this, and things are getting better. Blaming genetics would be a cop-out.
If you are having trouble, play with your diet, try different programs, and keep a log of everything (including measurements). That way, you can easily see what you’ve tried, and how you’ve responded to it.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
What’s a hardgainer? Someone that makes excuses for themselves is my best guess.
I have all kinds of trouble putting on muscle, but I know it’s because me diet is off. I am working on this, and things are getting better. Blaming genetics would be a cop-out.
If you are having trouble, play with your diet, try different programs, and keep a log of everything (including measurements). That way, you can easily see what you’ve tried, and how you’ve responded to it.[/quote]
I tend to agree with this. Judging by some of the comments on this site, nearly everyone is a hardgainer. If that’s the case, then no one is a “hardgainer” if that is average. How you look before you have lifted seriously for about five years does not equal a hardgainer. Not eating enough because you are afraid of gaining any body fat does not make you a hardgainer.
Lifting weights for 2 weeks and then giving up because you haven’t become huge yet does not make you a hardgainer. Lifting weights while putting little to no focus on your food intake also does not qualify you as a hardgainer.
Some people are clearly more gifted than others in terms of gaining muscle and strength. The whole term Hard Gainer is most likely overused, but I have noticed a difference when I tailored my workout differently than some of my more genetically gifted friends.
[quote]Soco wrote:
Some people are clearly more gifted than others in terms of gaining muscle and strength. The whole term Hard Gainer is most likely overused, but I have noticed a difference when I tailored my workout differently than some of my more genetically gifted friends.[/quote]
Which is only natural. I don’t train like anyone else. My workouts are hard, heavy and short as hell. I usually get, “You’re done already?” when I am walking out of the door. However, by training like that, I grow just fine even though I may go a few weeks without a rest day. That doesn’t make me a “hardgainer” simply because what seems to work for me may not be best for everyone else. I am sure I would have been considered a “hard gainer” when I started judging by the way it seems to be used on this web site. I am glad I didn’t believe that (it wasn’t even used as often as it is now when I started). The mental block alone would have held back progress.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
What’s a hardgainer? Someone that makes excuses for themselves is my best guess.
[/quote]
True, but does your mom weigh a buck-o-five @ 5’4". Does your father weigh 160 @ 5’10"? Can everybody in your family eat ice cream and pasta like there’s no tomorrow and still resemble Billy Corgan?
Everything is relative, genetic and otherwise. There are definately true hard gainers out there.
Cynic,
Waterbury wrote this a week ago:
Tips for Hardgainers
Hardgainers excel on total body training programs (training the primary muscle groups three times per week.) I’ve found that hardgaining individuals really increase strength/size when they train more often. Along with this, hardgainers must eat everything under the sun and really take advantage of post-workout carb/protein ingestion. Finally, hardgainers may be able to train a little closer to failure compared to other body types.
Regardless of what some people in this forum think there are such things as hardgainers. The term might be overused, but I think everyone would benefit if people would give useful advice rather than jumping on the person.
[quote]Soco wrote:
Regardless of what some people in this forum think there are such things as hardgainers. The term might be overused, but I think everyone would benefit if people would give useful advice rather than jumping on the person.
[/quote]
Yes, there are, just like there is a such a thing as people who are EXTREMELY genetically gifted. They would be grouped at two different ends of a spectrum leaving most people falling in the middle of the two extremes. Considering the mental limits it places on someone to even consider themselves as such if they truly aren’t, it is also best to stop assuming that everyone who claims they are a hardgainer actually is.
It needs to be asked why they think this. If I had believed this to be true when I first started instead of realizing how much more food I needed than average, it would have held me back. I really don’t understand the apparent desire to place people in the “genetically wimpy” category without any investigation. Does it make you feel better?
[quote]DiogenestheCynic wrote:
Aleksandr wrote:
What’s a hardgainer? Someone that makes excuses for themselves is my best guess.
True, but does your mom weigh a buck-o-five @ 5’4". Does your father weigh 160 @ 5’10"? Can everybody in your family eat ice cream and pasta like there’s no tomorrow and still resemble Billy Corgan?
Everything is relative, genetic and otherwise. There are definately true hard gainers out there.[/quote]
Eat more and you’ll grow. It’s not THAT complicated.
And in my experience, the vast majority of the similarity between parents and their kids in body composition has to do with lifestyle. If you act like them, you’ll look like them. If you don’t like how they look, don’t act like them.
Why get into genetics? You can’t control that. You CAN control what you do. So experiment, keep a log, and find out what works for you. If you aren’t getting bigger no matter what you do in the gym, change what you do OUT of the gym (especially diet). Keep a log of everything, and check back often to see what works and what doesn’t.
My dad was 180 at 6’2" for a good part of his life, and I was 6’5" and 165 not to long ago. I had to bust my ass to get up to ~195, and I am still skinny as hell. Am I a hardgainer? Hell no, I just haven’t figured everything out yet.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself and eat something.
[quote]Soco wrote:
Regardless of what some people in this forum think there are such things as hardgainers. The term might be overused, but I think everyone would benefit if people would give useful advice rather than jumping on the person.
[/quote]
I suggested he eat more, experiment in the gym and keep a log. In addition, I suggested he not make excuses for himself, and do the best he can with what he has. I can’t imagine better advice than that.
Everyone is different, and everyone is going to have their own challenges in the gym. You can’t say “if you are a hardgainer, do this and you’ll get big” because hardgainer is an ambiguous term. There is no true definition for it, it’s just a fuzzy concept.
So will someone please define a “hardgainer,” for the sake of us all.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
Soco wrote:
Regardless of what some people in this forum think there are such things as hardgainers. The term might be overused, but I think everyone would benefit if people would give useful advice rather than jumping on the person.
I suggested he eat more, experiment in the gym and keep a log. In addition, I suggested he not make excuses for himself, and do the best he can with what he has. I can’t imagine better advice than that.
Everyone is different, and everyone is going to have their own challenges in the gym. You can’t say “if you are a hardgainer, do this and you’ll get big” because hardgainer is an ambiguous term. There is no true definition for it, it’s just a fuzzy concept.
So will someone please define a “hardgainer,” for the sake of us all.[/quote]
I would argue that “hardgainer” is a very simple concept. Some people are naturally predisposed to gaining muscle, others are not. There’s your hardgainers.
However it is difficult to determine if you are a TRUE hardgainer because there are so many other variables in reality that get in the way. Chances are that the people who can’t seem to put on ANY muscle are not hardgainers. They’re lazy, not eating, etc. Everyone can put on muscle.
So I’d say it’s a waste of time trying to determine if you’re a hardgainer or not. “Hardgainer” isn’t a type of person, it’s an excuse.
How easy or how hard you gain is probably a bell-curve thing, but, like with anything else of this nature, most people are working below their potential anyway so it doesn’t matter.
[quote]ntroych wrote:
I would argue that “hardgainer” is a very simple concept. Some people are naturally predisposed to gaining muscle, others are not. There’s your hardgainers.
[/quote]
I suspect very few people are predisposed to put on muscle easily. From an evolutionary point of view, that wouldn’t make much sense. If these people are a minority (which I think most of us will agree with), then that makes the rest of us “normal gainers”. It’s a continuum, and you can’t draw a line dividing “true hardgainers” from everyone else.
But why would you want to? It’s like using low IQ to excuse poor school performance. All it means is you have to work harder.
Considering that this is a beginner forum, I would cut people a little more slack and give more advice than criticism.
Personally I would consider a hardgainer as someone who is naturally thin, slow-twitch, and has a small frame. While I don’t think people like this should sit around crying all day rather than hitting the gym, they might need to lift differently than other people. I think Poliquin’s article pointed this out best. Minus the chlorine.
Anyway, from personal experience I agree with Warerbury’s advice that I posted earlier in this thread.
[quote]Soco wrote:
Personally I would consider a hardgainer as someone who is naturally thin, slow-twitch, and has a small frame. [/quote]
You just described me in high school. I’m not a “hardgainer”.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
You just described me in high school. I’m not a “hardgainer”.[/quote]
Then go ahead and give some more tips on what worked for you. How often do you lift? What is your set/rep scheme like?
[quote]Soco wrote:
Professor X wrote:
You just described me in high school. I’m not a “hardgainer”.
Then go ahead and give some more tips on what worked for you. How often do you lift? What is your set/rep scheme like?
[/quote]