Being a former skinny hardgainer, I know how hard it is to gain muscle, I know how frustrating it can be to spend sometimes years giving it all, reading all that you can get, following all the training methods you come across, and at the end you look almost like you haven´t trained. The worst part is, it's not all you fault, it's not all about genetics, first of all you have been mislead, nobody ever told you how you should train as a hardgainer, nobody told how to eat, most of the sources you searched, were only concerned about selling you lots of supplements and taking your money away. I'm going to give you some Hardgainer Fundamental Tips, and if you follow them, you'll see results, they're simple to follow, it's probably different than what you've been reading, but open your mind and change, it's stupid to keep doing what you've been doing with no results.
1- This is one of the most fundamental tips, burn all the bodybuilding magazines you have and never read any of them again, I mean NEVER. Why? Because you should keep lies away from you, those articles and workouts are not meant for any natural trainee, it's all hype and lies, those workouts you see in the magazines are good for steroid users, for those stupid bodybuilders who ruin their health to became bloated and freak looking, if you keep doing those workouts all you'll ever get is Overtrained.
2- Don't ever take steroids, you wanna die? shoot yourself in the head it's quicker. You should train to be healthy, sports are about being healthy, you have to think about having a healthy balanced lifestyle, don't live in the gym, don't think about training all the time, live your Life, be Healthy, besides why would you want to have a steroid body look, bloated, with no aesthetics whatsover, bones deformed, yes deformed, look at their big heads and chins, is that natural? NO
3- Your workouts should be short, by short I mean never more than 45 minutes, but I believe 30 minutes are more than enough, after those 45 minutes your testosterone levels fall down, and your cortisol levels rise and you don't want that. Testosterone helps to build muscle and burns fat, cortisol destroys muscle and gets you fat. You also shouldn't train more than 2/3 times a week. Why? Because you need time to recover, you grow when you recover and eat, not when at the gym.
4- You should train full body in one session, or upper/lower split, it's more effective for the hardgainer.
5- You should use mainly compound exercises, the ones that let you use lots of different muscles at the same time, and that allow you to use more weight. Those should be the presses, chins, dips, rows, squats (i prefer the front squats and Hack) romanian deadlifts. Some isolation exercises that I like are leg curls and lateral raises, they´re important too. For your abs you should do planks, if you want that good looking six pack, planks are all you need, don't grow your abs or you'll look bloated, and pregnant too , kidding.
6- Train with balance, don't be like those who only train their chest and nothing but their chest. A balanced body is more pleasing and you'll avoid injuries.
7- Train heavy, by heavy I mean heavy, low reps, I believe a hardgainer shouldn't do more than 5/6 reps per set, and keep your volume low on sets too, you won't need more than 4/5 sets per exercise, and you only need one exercise for each part you train. The so called hypertrophy rep range 8/12 reps, for me it doesn't work, and for most hardgainers it doesn't work either.
High reps just forget about it.
8- Most of you just want to look good naked. What I'm saying is train for aesthetics, to look good and balanced, don't get too big for your height and bone structure, build your body, sculp it, make your training an art. Get your shoulders wide, do lateral raises, you already have the chest presses, you don't need to over do it with overhead presses, work your chest with incline presses, the flat bench press will only build you boobies, that's not a man chest. Do your chins and rows to keep your anterior and posterior chain balanced. I said that I prefer front squats and hack squats, because the back squats ruin your look, it will make your belly big, your waist thick, your hips wide and your glutes will make you look like a duck . With front and hack squats you work your quads without involving your hips and glutes that much. Keep your waist thin, do planks and keep your fat levels low.
9- Here's an example of a workout for an hardgainer, full body twice a week. Incline bench press 5×3-5 ; Chin ups 5×5 ; Lateral Raises 3×5-6 ; Front Squats 5×3-6 ; Leg Curls 6×3
On the next workout you can change the chins for rows and the leg curls for romanian deadlift with dumbells doing one leg at a time, this will keep the tension more on the hamstrings and less on the glutes and lower back. Rest well between sets, one or two minutes, don't fall for the intensity hype.
10- Progression is the most important, keep trying to improve every workout, when you stop progressing in an exercise, change it, you don't have to change too much, it could be from doing incline press with dumbells to a barbell, it's simple as that.
11- Do CARDIO, yes do Cardio, don't let anybody tell you it will burn your muscles, you're not going to run 10 miles, that yes will keep you from gaining muscle. Doing cardio will help you to gain mass, if you have a better physical condition you can do better workouts at the gym. Improving your blood circulation will help you recover faster, and above all cardio is good for your HEART, it's good for your HEALTH, and that's always the most important, besides it will burn fat and make you look good, aesthetic is always important. You can do steady state , HIIT or mix things ups, as a hardgainer you should do your cardio 2/3 times a week, no more than 30 minutes if doing steady state cardio, and much less if doing HIIT.
12- Eat CLEAN, DON'T bulk up, that is stupid, stupid and stupid. You want to gain some muscle and burn fat, you don't want to get fat. You're not and never will be a professional bodybuilder (who wants that anyway, are you sane? I hope so) so why having a bulk up period, and cutting period? Why? for nothing, why not look good all year? it's much better right? of course it is. Besides bulking will ruin your health, your cholesterol will rise and that's not good as you know.
13- Live your LIFE, don't be obsessive about training and eating, don't spend your days resting because you want to recover to get big, that's stupid, Life is to be lived. You don't need to be eating all the time. Don't stress about it, sleep well at night, eat clean, train well, and that's it, the rest of the time have fun, Life has so many good things, just LIVE.
14- Be HEALTHY
15- Be HEALTHY, have I mentioned BE HEALTHY
Just follow this Hardgainer Fundamental Tips and you'll see the results, be patient and persistent
For all Hargainers I recommend this Book
