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Welcome to Hardgainer HQ!
Consider this your last stop on the path to swoledom.
What follows is a comprehensive guide written specifically for skinny guys and girls looking to build strength and muscle.
This guide is unique because it doesn't just include training and diet recommendations, it also addresses the psychological pitfalls that keep most hardgainers from ever reaching their goals.
This guide is quite long, so if you'd prefer, I also have a PDF version available for free download. As a bonus, you'll also receive the exact training routine template I use to get my hardgainer clients as jacked as possible.
Click below for instant access!
Hey there, String Bean! I used to be a hardgainer just like you until I discovered the training methods I'm going to share with you today. Using these secret methods, I was able to gain 50 pounds of pure muscle in a couple short years…
Don't stop reading! Does what I wrote above sound familiar?
It should.
So many articles are written by guys who claim that they used to be a hardgainer. As if their genetics magically changed after they started eating and following a half-decent training program.
I'm going to be straight with you right from the start…
It doesn't work that way!
I will elaborate more on this in the genetics section, but here's the quick good news/bad news:
Good News: You can start off very small and weak and still respond extremely well to good training and a proper diet—that's where most of those dramatic "before/after" transformations come from. You see, many people are hardgainers in behavior only.
These "behavioral hardgainers" are people who have a lot of potential for growth, but are held back by a poor diet and/or suboptimal training. You may think you're a hardgainer, but you could very well be a tweak or two away from an incredible physique (given you devote enough time and effort).
To find out whether this is the case for you, simply follow this guide closely and be prepared to devote years (not months) to living this lifestyle. Real progress takes real work. If you put in that work, however, you may find that you are nowhere near the hardgainer you once thought you were!
Bad News: For a true hardgainer (in other words, you're not making dumb mistakes with your diet and training and you've been at this a couple years without the progress one would expect), there is no cure. Some people simply do not get the results you'd typically expect one to get from a solid training routine and diet. If you are truly a hardgainer, you will stay that way no matter what type of training you employ. That said…while there may be no cure, there is a treatment!
Being a hardgainer does not mean you can't make progress and build a respectable physique. It just means that you can't just work harder and smarter and suddenly start making gains like you're Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And you need to accept the fact that for many, many years, the average gym bro (who may or may not know much of anything about training or nutrition) will probably look more impressive than you.
Hard to stomach, I know!
Why you need this guide:
Most articles about hardgainers seem to spend more time claiming that hardgainers don't really exist than they do actually offering up advice.
These articles tend to be composed mostly of "tough talk" that, I can only imagine, is meant as a wakeup call for us clueless hardgainers. More of the article is spent ridiculing hardgainers than it is actually helping them.
The authors will claim they "used to be a hardgainer" until they tried (enter whatever product they happen to be selling).
At the end of the day, you are just left with the following piece of advice:
Eat big and lift heavy.
It's that simple, right?
Just like an overweight person needs to "eat less and move more."
It may be true, but it's not necessarily helpful because it focuses on what to do rather than how to do it.
This guide is different.
In this guide I will outline not only exactly what you need to do, but how and why you should do it. I will tell you my story, but for many of you, it will be your story as well. A story fraught with mistakes, uncertainty, and setbacks, but also one of persistence and redemption.
Just a heads up…
This will not be a short little article that you can skim through while your favorite show is on a commercial break.
If you take the time to read through this guide, however, you will be well rewarded.
This guide is 90+ pages long, so you might want to download the PDF by clicking the button below...
Hey there, String Bean! I used to be a hardgainer just like you until I discovered the training methods I'm going to share with you today. Using these secret methods, I was able to gain 50 pounds of pure muscle in a couple short years…
Don't stop reading! Does what I wrote above sound familiar?
It should.
So many articles are written by guys who claim that they used to be a hardgainer. As if their genetics magically changed after they started eating and following a half-decent training program.
I'm going to be straight with you right from the start…
It doesn't work that way!
I will elaborate more on this in the genetics section, but here's the quick good news/bad news:
Good News: You can start off very small and weak and still respond extremely well to good training and a proper diet—that's where most of those dramatic "before/after" transformations come from. You see, many people are hardgainers in behavior only.
These "behavioral hardgainers" are people who have a lot of potential for growth, but are held back by a poor diet and/or suboptimal training. You may think you're a hardgainer, but you could very well be a tweak or two away from an incredible physique (given you devote enough time and effort).
To find out whether this is the case for you, simply follow this guide closely and be prepared to devote years (not months) to living this lifestyle. Real progress takes real work. If you put in that work, however, you may find that you are nowhere near the hardgainer you once thought you were!
Bad News: For a true hardgainer (in other words, you're not making dumb mistakes with your diet and training and you've been at this a couple years without the progress one would expect), there is no cure. Some people simply do not get the results you'd typically expect one to get from a solid training routine and diet. If you are truly a hardgainer, you will stay that way no matter what type of training you employ. That said…while there may be no cure, there is a treatment!
Being a hardgainer does not mean you can't make progress and build a respectable physique. It just means that you can't just work harder and smarter and suddenly start making gains like you're Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And you need to accept the fact that for many, many years, the average gym bro (who may or may not know much of anything about training or nutrition) will probably look more impressive than you.
Hard to stomach, I know!
Why you need this guide:
Most articles about hardgainers seem to spend more time claiming that hardgainers don't really exist than they do actually offering up advice.
These articles tend to be composed mostly of "tough talk" that, I can only imagine, is meant as a wakeup call for us clueless hardgainers. More of the article is spent ridiculing hardgainers than it is actually helping them.
The authors will claim they "used to be a hardgainer" until they tried (enter whatever product they happen to be selling).
At the end of the day, you are just left with the following piece of advice:
Eat big and lift heavy.
It's that simple, right?
Just like an overweight person needs to "eat less and move more."
It may be true, but it's not necessarily helpful because it focuses on what to do rather than how to do it.
This guide is different.
In this guide I will outline not only exactly what you need to do, but how and why you should do it. I will tell you my story, but for many of you, it will be your story as well. A story fraught with mistakes, uncertainty, and setbacks, but also one of persistence and redemption.
Just a heads up…
This will not be a short little article that you can skim through while your favorite show is on a commercial break.
If you take the time to read through this guide, however, you will be well rewarded.
This guide is 90+ pages long, so you might want to download the PDF by clicking the button below...
Table of Contents:
- Defining a Hardgainer
- My Story
- Genetics: Do They Matter?
- Setting Up A Yearly Nutrition Plan To Maximize Muscle Growth
- The Gaining Phase: The Truth About Your "Fast Metabolism"
- Peri-Workout Nutrition
- Practical Tips For Weight Gain
- The Aggressive "Mini-Cut"
- Supplementation For Hardgainers
- Nutrition Recap And Key Take-Aways
- Hardgainer Program Design: How To Get Your Best Results
- The Three Mechanisms of Muscle Growth
- Recommended Volume
- Progressive Overload: The Key To Making Progress
- Recommended Frequency
- Intensity and Failure
- Exercise Selection
- Optimal Rest Periods And Lifting Tempo
- How To Warm Up
- Deloads
- Periodization
- Workout Duration: How Long Is Too Long?
- Stress And SLEEP
- Cardio
- Specialized/Novel Training Techniques
- Training Recap and Key Take-Aways
- Hardgainer Training Toolkit
- Putting It All Together: The HHQ Hypertrophy Program
- Hardgainer Checklist For Success
- Conclusion
- References
- Ask a Question or Leave a Comment
Defining a Hardgainer
I'm actually not a big fan of the term hardgainer, but it has been around so long it is difficult to have a discussion about skinny guys/girls who struggle to build muscle without using it.
The classic definition of a hardgainer is someone who appears to have a below-average ability to build muscle and put on weight.
And that is exactly the type of person I wrote this guide for.
This is primarily because it also happens to be the exact type of person who is going to click on a guide titled, Hardgainer HQ in the first place…
But while I may be using the word hardgainer to get you in the door, I think you'll stick around once you hear what I have to say…
Because I know you're tired of just hearing "lift heavy and eat more."
I know I was.
The problem with typical hardgainer advice is that it tends to be more about preventing you from making dumb mistakes that may hinder your progress, rather than being advice that is optimized for your specific situation.
And unfortunately, rather than taking the advice as a general guideline, many hardgainers will take it as law: "Lift heavy" becomes only lift heavy, and "eat more" becomes "any time you stop making gains, eat more!"
In reality, a person is not simply a "hardgainer." Instead, he or she falls somewhere along a spectrum of potential in regards to putting on size and strength. And each person has a unique training history, contraindications, leverages, preferences, and specific strengths and weaknesses.
Should each of these people follow the exact same advice?
A hardgainer is more than capable of making progress when he is given the proper tools.
But, if you just throw him into a gym and tell him to just "eat a bunch and get strong," it's not going to go too well.
If, on the other hand, through experimentation and careful planning this person is given a plan that is optimized for his individual needs and preferences, you'll find that he will start making progress.
Crazy, right?
It's almost like maybe that's what everyone should be doing, regardless of their perceived genetic potential…
And that, perhaps, is the real danger of the term, hardgainer.
It causes you to stop thinking of yourself as an individual person, and instead attributes you with an arbitrary title that tends to come with low expectations and over-simplified and dismissive training recommendations.
I've written this guide to give you the tools and guiding principles you need so that you can modify and adapt your training to suit your needs. I don't want you to have low expectations—you can make progress and build a great physique—rather, I want you to be realistic about the difficulties inherent in the process.
I will be making some specific recommendations (things that I've noticed that seem to work best for people like us), but I want you to treat these recommendations as a starting point, not rigid rules to be followed blindly!
The classic definition of a hardgainer is someone who appears to have a below-average ability to build muscle and put on weight.
And that is exactly the type of person I wrote this guide for.
This is primarily because it also happens to be the exact type of person who is going to click on a guide titled, Hardgainer HQ in the first place…
But while I may be using the word hardgainer to get you in the door, I think you'll stick around once you hear what I have to say…
Because I know you're tired of just hearing "lift heavy and eat more."
I know I was.
The problem with typical hardgainer advice is that it tends to be more about preventing you from making dumb mistakes that may hinder your progress, rather than being advice that is optimized for your specific situation.
And unfortunately, rather than taking the advice as a general guideline, many hardgainers will take it as law: "Lift heavy" becomes only lift heavy, and "eat more" becomes "any time you stop making gains, eat more!"
In reality, a person is not simply a "hardgainer." Instead, he or she falls somewhere along a spectrum of potential in regards to putting on size and strength. And each person has a unique training history, contraindications, leverages, preferences, and specific strengths and weaknesses.
Should each of these people follow the exact same advice?
A hardgainer is more than capable of making progress when he is given the proper tools.
But, if you just throw him into a gym and tell him to just "eat a bunch and get strong," it's not going to go too well.
If, on the other hand, through experimentation and careful planning this person is given a plan that is optimized for his individual needs and preferences, you'll find that he will start making progress.
Crazy, right?
It's almost like maybe that's what everyone should be doing, regardless of their perceived genetic potential…
And that, perhaps, is the real danger of the term, hardgainer.
It causes you to stop thinking of yourself as an individual person, and instead attributes you with an arbitrary title that tends to come with low expectations and over-simplified and dismissive training recommendations.
I've written this guide to give you the tools and guiding principles you need so that you can modify and adapt your training to suit your needs. I don't want you to have low expectations—you can make progress and build a great physique—rather, I want you to be realistic about the difficulties inherent in the process.
I will be making some specific recommendations (things that I've noticed that seem to work best for people like us), but I want you to treat these recommendations as a starting point, not rigid rules to be followed blindly!
My Story
I've always been a pretty skinny guy. When I started resistance training the summer before my senior year of high school, I weighed 120 pounds at 5'11" (my current height). And I wasn't a lean skinny either—no abs or crazy vascularity; no muscle definition. Just soft and small with a prominent rib cage that stuck out.
I spent the first couple of months in the gym making absolutely no progress at all: I didn't change my diet, and every session at the gym was a random hodgepodge of curls, chest flyes and some sloppy sets of pullups.
After I wised up a bit and did some research, I came across some pretty sound advice:
- Focus on compound movements
- Lift heavy
- Give your muscles time to recover
- Don't do excessive amounts of cardio
- Eat enough to gain weight
So, I started following a low volume strength routine and I began tracking my calories and protein (turns out I wasn't eating very much after all).
I finally started making progress, but eventually things ground to a halt. Once I had passed the beginner stage and moved onto more intermediate levels of strength, my progress slowed dramatically.
But that's supposed to happen, right?
Everyone talks about the magical "newbie gainz" that one experiences in the first year or two of lifting, so it's only natural that once I had passed that beginning stage that my progress should slow down…
Looking back, however, I can see that my progress hadn't just slowed, it had almost stopped completely. I was spinning my wheels trying the same thing over and over again.
In spite of this lack of progress, I stubbornly stuck to the plan because I was a "hardgainer," so I had to follow "hardgainer advice," and gains were supposed to be, well...hard!
I'm not proud to say that I spent the next 10 years in this limbo state between beginner and intermediate. I had managed to put on about 20 pounds, but I still didn't look like I lifted weights.
I couldn't figure out why I wasn't making progress; it seemed like I had tried everything…
I spun my wheels through various bodybuilding splits cut from magazines.
I wasted money on overpriced supplements and weight gainers.
I blamed my genetics.
I blamed my gym's lack of equipment (if we just had a Nautilus Pullover machine, I just know my lats will start growing!).
It wasn't until I decided to stop and take a critical look at my lifestyle, training, and nutrition, that things started to change.
For the first time I did some real research and finally stumbled upon some good, evidence-based sources of information: Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, Layne Norton, Bret Contreras, and Martin Berkhan, to name a few.
Here's what I discovered:
While I was definitely doing some things right, I wasn't doing enough of the right things at the same time.
While more genetically gifted individuals may be able to get away with less-than-optimal approaches to training and nutrition, a hardgainer cannot!
So I used my newfound knowledge to take my training and nutrition to a new level, and guess what happened?
I made more progress in one year than I did in the nine preceding years combined.
Since then, I've become a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and have made it my mission to help as many skinny guys and girls out of that same situation as possible!
I'm still not the biggest or strongest guy at the gym, but I'm the biggest and strongest version of myself that I've ever been.
And this isn't even my final form.
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Genetics: Do They Matter?
Before getting into the practical portion of this guide, I want to include a brief discussion on setting expectations and your "genetics." The purpose of this section is to ensure you have the right mindset when approaching your training and gauging your progress.
Acknowledgments: I was inspired to write this section after seeing several of the studies discussed by Greg Nuckols—primarily from these two sources: How Much Do Genetics Affect Muscle Growth? and Unleash Your Inner Superhero. Greg is an excellent source of evidence-based information and I highly suggest familiarizing yourself with his work!
Acknowledgments: I was inspired to write this section after seeing several of the studies discussed by Greg Nuckols—primarily from these two sources: How Much Do Genetics Affect Muscle Growth? and Unleash Your Inner Superhero. Greg is an excellent source of evidence-based information and I highly suggest familiarizing yourself with his work!
On Expectations: Skewed and Otherwise
I want to state up front, before digging into the topic of genetics, that most people are going to think they have bad genetics if they compare themselves to the guys they see in the muscle magazines and the perfectly posed, lighted, and filtered pictures on Instagram. The truth is, most people have perfectly normal genetics for gaining strength and muscle—it's our perception that is skewed.
It's completely normal for muscle to take a lot of hard work and time to build.
To be clear, I'm talking years—a solid decade of proper training and nutrition if you're really serious about getting close to your potential.
When thinking about your genetics and making decisions about whether or not you are making acceptable progress, you simply cannot compare yourself to others.
This is critical.
If you are just zeroing in on specific individuals in your gym or whom you happen to see online, then you're setting yourself up for failure from the start.
These individuals may have been training far longer, smarter, and harder than you; they may be unusually gifted; they may have great genetics; they may be using PEDs…they may be some combination of all of those things.
You have no way of really knowing.
The only person you should be comparing yourself to is you.
Are you getting better and improving? That's all that matters.
It's cliché, but that doesn't make it any less true.
I've battled back and forth over whether to include a discussion on genetics, but it's kind of hard to write about hardgainers without addressing this topic...
The reason I'm hesitant is because, in a perfect world, I would have you believe that genetics don't matter and that you're going to make amazing progress right from the start.
This is because your expectations can have a tremendous impact on your results.
This has been shown quite elegantly in multiple studies.
In one, the participants (all of whom were trained athletes) were told they would be getting steroids, but instead were given a placebo [1].
Guess what happened?
They made incredible progress. Simply believing they were on steroids enabled them to make strength gains that far exceeded (by about 4x) what they were able to accomplish previously.
But there's a catch…
There is an unfortunate limitation to the placebo effect: once the illusion is shattered, we are no longer able to make the same rate of progress. This is despite the fact that nothing has changed from a physiological standpoint.
Let's look at another study, this time in trained powerlifters [2]. In this study, they gave the powerlifters "steroids" (a placebo) and told them to max out.
They all hit PRs.
They continued to give the powerlifters the fake steroids and allowed them to train for two more weeks before having them max out again. This time, however, they told half the participants they had been taking a placebo all along, while the other half remained blissfully unaware.
Once more, guess what happened?
The group that found out the steroids were a placebo lost all their strength gains and were unable to hit any of the PRs from two weeks earlier—even though they knew they had hit those PRs on their own, without any pharmaceutical assistance.
The remaining half of the participants—the ones who still believed they were on steroids—were able to maintain their strength gains.
So, as powerful as the placebo effect may be, its ability to drive progress long-term is a fragile thing.
Like I said before, in a perfect world, I would have you maintain the highly optimistic (albeit naive) belief that if you simply train hard and eat right, you too can one day look like a top bodybuilder or fitness model.
The problem is, this belief would need to unwaveringly persist even as it becomes increasingly apparent that things just don't work that way…
In the real world, the potential benefits of "shooting for the stars" are outweighed by the inevitable damage incurred when you come crashing down to reality.
I'm not telling you to take down the picture of Arnold from your bedroom wall--I sure haven't (much to my wife's dismay). Just understand that your journey will be different!
I've seen too many lifters start off with high hopes and unrealistic expectations and end up quitting when their progress doesn't match up.
But this guide isn't for those kinds of people. If you're the type of person who will quit when the going gets tough, you're never going to make much progress as a hardgainer anyway…
I don't want you to have low expectations, I want you to have realistic expectations—particularly in regards to the difficulties and setbacks that we all face in our journey to swoledom.
Why Hardgainers, or "Low Responders," Are More Common Than Most People Think
It's funny…
Many people will acknowledge the genetically gifted, and many will acknowledge the genetically average, but if you claim to have below average genetics, people treat you like you're making excuses and you just need to "eat more and lift heavy."
Problem solved!
Many people will acknowledge the genetically gifted, and many will acknowledge the genetically average, but if you claim to have below average genetics, people treat you like you're making excuses and you just need to "eat more and lift heavy."
Problem solved!
They act like there is only the "gifted" and the "average." Unfortunately, that's not how averages work…there are two sides to a bell curve, with outliers on both sides.
Greg Nuckols has a nice little video where he outlines two studies which do a good job illustrating this very point.
The first study had participants perform a leg training program designed for quad growth for 16 weeks. They did 3x12 sets of squats, leg press and leg extensions, three times per week. Each set was taken to failure, and they made sure the subjects "did not differ by training intensity, training volume, or adherence to the program" [3].
At the end of the 16 weeks, they grouped the participants into three categories:
As you can see, there is an even balance between the nonresponders and the extreme responders.
The first study had participants perform a leg training program designed for quad growth for 16 weeks. They did 3x12 sets of squats, leg press and leg extensions, three times per week. Each set was taken to failure, and they made sure the subjects "did not differ by training intensity, training volume, or adherence to the program" [3].
At the end of the 16 weeks, they grouped the participants into three categories:
- nonresponders (n = 17)
- modest responders (n = 32)
- and extreme responders (n = 17).
As you can see, there is an even balance between the nonresponders and the extreme responders.
Here's the rub...
After 16 weeks of a solid training program with good adherence and training intensity, the nonresponders saw little to no change in muscle growth. Some even lost a bit of muscle!
In comparison, the extreme responders saw an average growth of 58% on their quads. One individual in the extreme responders group had his quads get nearly 70% bigger!
As Greg mentions in the video, it's important to note that just because the nonresponders didn't gain muscle from this training protocol, doesn't mean that they can't gain muscle at all. It just means that this particular training protocol was not effective for them.
In another similar study, we again can see how different we are in terms of genetic muscular potential.
In this study, 56 participants engaged in 12 weeks of resistance training. Once again, at the end of the study there were both high responders and low responders.
It's important to note that "there were no apparent differences between high and low responders in terms of weight, fat, and bone-free mass (i.e., LBM), or fiber areas" at the beginning of the study [4]. The researchers also "analyzed diet records from these same subjects and observed no significant differences in total energy intake, protein intake, fat intake, or changes in these variables with training (data not shown)."
Here are the results:
The high responders gained almost four times as much lean body mass as the low responders!
These two studies clearly suggest that low responders (aka hardgainers) do exist and they are not quite as rare as we're often led to believe.
This isn't to say that most hardgainers can't gain any muscle or strength and we're all screwed—a true nonresponder (little to no adaptations regardless of training protocol, time, and effort) is likely as rare as the elite of the elite (extreme outliers who would make the high responders from these studies look like low responders).
The point is this…
Genetics are a wildcard that is very hard to account for.
By and large, in your average, commercial gym, genetics + hard work + time play a larger role in what people look like than the specific training methodology that they employ.
Don't let the "fear of missing out" dominate your decision making when it comes to making choices in regards to your training—no one has special, secret knowledge that has enabled them to get huge.
I know this is hard…
It's so easy to focus too much on tiny, insignificant details while missing the big picture…
This guy is huge and he does "X" type of training and here I am like an idiot doing "Y." I better start training like him!
Never mind the fact that he might have gotten most of his size from a lifetime of being involved in athletics, or that he may just be working harder than you. Or that he might indeed have great genetics that would respond well to any type of training…
In gross terms, muscle growth requires the same inputs for everybody. What you get out depends on the time you put in, your consistency and intensity of effort, and…your genetics.
We're like those Play-Doh spaghetti makers...
All we can do is shove in however much Play-Doh we've been given and keep pushing that lever down to see what comes out!
When people say genetics don't matter—that everyone can make excellent progress at all times, no matter what—they leave the people who do have below-average genetics thinking they must be doing something wrong.
This invariably leads to program hopping, indecision, lower self-esteem, and paralysis by analysis.
It leads to an endless search for that "one weird trick" so you can finally make the progress that everyone else thinks you should make.
Now don't get me wrong…
Having crappy genetics not an excuse.
It's merely another data point for you to consider when making decisions about how to train. It means you need to find what works for you and stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and whether they have good genetics or not.
Beware of Impressive Before/After Transformations
Some people with exceptional genetics will try to downplay them as much as possible. They'll claim they look the way they do because of their training methods, supplementation, work ethic, or some special knowledge that only they have.
This can be particularly deceptive because some of these very individuals may have started off looking very much like a hardgainer—skinny, not much muscle mass, very weak, etc.
The problem is, just because someone starts off small doesn't mean they have "bad genetics."
Here's what Greg Nuckols (really starting to sound like a fan boy now…) had to say on the subject in his excellent article, Genetics and Strength Training: Just How Different Are We?:
"In general, it seems that trainability and initial size and strength are completely independent factors. The best of the best are likely people who have high baseline amounts of strength and muscle while also being highly trainable, but it doesn't seem that your size and strength when you first hit the gym influences how well you'll respond to training.
That means those inspiring stories of, "I was so skinny, and then I got JACKED in spite of the fact that I obviously have bad genetics" are, unfortunately, bullshit. Those people had the same odds of responding well to training as anyone else did.
Similarly, it seems that, on average, high responders and low responders gain similar amounts of strength for at least the first 8-12 weeks of lifting, then have divergent responses thereafter."
(The underlined portion was my emphasis)
Whether or not you have bad genetics for putting on size depends on how your body actually responds to proper training, not on your initial size and strength (remember the "good news/bad news" bit from the intro?).
It's also interesting how low and high responders both seem to gain roughly the same amount of strength as beginners before the differences in trainability become apparent.
This explains the "beginning-intermediate" trap that so many of us hardgainers get stuck in. We start off gaining strength and adapting to a beginner program, but then, inexplicably, the gains seem to "dry up." A more genetically gifted individual will continue to make progress while you're left wondering what went wrong!
Genetics do matter, but so does hard work, consistency, and training in a way that is right for you.
The sad truth is, many people make progress in spite of their training rather than because of it.
These "inspirational" transformation posts are particularly misleading.
As a long-time reader of bodybuilding and fitness forums, I've easily seen hundreds of transformation posts. Invariably, these threads are flooded with questions about this person's diet and training. If they have an impressive chest, they'll get all sorts of questions about chest training.
People are looking for some secret piece of information—a code to unlock their own potential.
What they don't realize is that in most cases, this person's chest would have stood out no matter what kind of training they did. Their training, hard work, and consistency built the chest, but their genetics are what made that type of growth possible in the first place.
It takes a lot of maturity to not compare yourself to other, more genetically gifted individuals. It takes even more maturity to not harbor resentment to those who seem to make better progress than you, despite inferior technique, training, nutrition, etc.
But that's life, isn't it?
Final Thoughts On Genetics
I know what it's like to be in your shoes. I know the uncertainty and frustration of feeling like you're doing everything you can to make progress but still being surpassed by the average gym bro.
I've had to bite my tongue countless times as bro-sciency platitudes about meal timing, supplements, and muscle confusion are spouted off by the some of the biggest guys in the gym.
And yet, if I were to chime in and state otherwise, I'd immediately be dismissed due to my lack of size.
I tell you these things to arm you with the knowledge necessary to remain resolute, steadfast.
You need to remain humble and open-minded while at the same time knowing when to stick to your guns in terms of your training and nutrition.
If I listened to every piece of advice given to me by a big guy at the gym, I'd be nowhere near as advanced as I am today.
In fact, some of the worst advice I've ever gotten was from some of the biggest guys at the gym!
This advice has ranged from only do supersets, to never lift below 10 reps, to make sure you only hit a muscle group once per week.
Unfortunately, there are a fair number of big guys with good genetics who have no clue what they're talking about!
When I was still a soft, 150 pounder, I would get TONS of advice from people at the gym on how to bulk up and get bigger. Just drink this shake or try this workout split. They assumed I was a beginner because I didn't look jacked.
What they didn't realize was I had started at 120lbs! It took me years of hard work, weight gainer shakes, gallons of milk (oh, the regret!), and tons of squats to make it up to 150lbs.
Looking back, I could have made far better progress knowing what I know now, but it's not like what I was doing was that far off—I roughly tracked calories and protein, lifted heavy weights, and performed all the "must do" exercises for growth.
Like I said before:
I just wasn't doing enough of the right things, at the same time, for a long enough period of time.
That's the key. And it's the one area where most hardgainers fail.
I'm not trying to say I have the worst genetics. Trust me, I've seen far worse, but it's important to point out that in terms of genetics, there is no level playing field.
One person's "beginner level" may end up being your "advanced-intermediate" level.
Good genetics will "smooth over" less-than-optimal training methods. With simple hard work and enough time under the bar, someone with good to average genetics will build a respectable physique.
Hardgainers will need more focus and effort to get those same results.
But don't give up!
In your quest for gains you must be methodical and calculating.
Setting Up A Yearly Nutrition Plan To Maximize Muscle Growth
So now we get into the nitty gritty about how to really start making those gains! In order to set yourself up for success and ensure you're doing everything possible to make progress, it is critical to get your diet in order. Your diet will absolutely make or break your progress—especially as a hardgainer.
I will first provide a brief overview of what your yearly nutrition plan should look like and then will go into greater detail explaining each phase.
Here is the method I've found—through much trial and error—to be the most effective for maximizing gains in lean body mass over the course of the year:
1. The majority of the year should be spent in a gaining phase. In order to extend these gaining phases as long as possible (and to account for the relatively slow rate that muscle can be built), weight gain should be slow and steady.
2. Continue bulking until your body fat percentage falls somewhere in the 15-18% range and then begin a cut.
3. In contrast to the gaining phases, cuts will be short and aggressive. Here's why:
- A more aggressive "mini cut" is shorter in duration and thus allows you to return to a gaining phase more quickly.
- After you've been pushing your body to gain weight for months on end, it will be primed for fat loss and will respond quickly to a more aggressive deficit.
- Even if you do end up losing some muscle or strength during the cut, it will quickly return (muscle memory) once you begin a gaining phase again.
- The aim is not to become "contest lean" or shredded. It's simply to return to a relatively lean state so your body will be resensitized for muscle growth.
Following these steps will allow you to spend the vast majority of each year gaining muscle and strength and will minimize the time spent cutting. Once you've built a foundation of size that you are happy with, you can take a more extended cut and really bring out the shreds.
Acknowledgements: The organization of this section and some of the specific recommendations regarding macro and micronutrient intakes are based on Eric Helms' excellent Nutritional Pyramid Series. I have also drawn fairly heavily from Alan Aragon and Lyle McDonald in many of my recommendations.
Navigation: Contents > Genetics > Gaining Phase > Mini-Cut > Supplements > Training > Toolkit > Hypertrophy Program > Leave a Comment
The Gaining Phase: The Truth About Your "Fast Metabolism"
People don't have a lot of patience for hardgainers who complain they can't gain weight. Most people would love to be able to eat whatever they want without gaining weight. It's a first world problem for sure…
Social Skills Pro Tip: Don't go around complaining about how much you have to eat in order to gain weight. Most people won't understand and they don't want to hear about it. It's like a skinny girl complaining how "fat" she is and showing her (completely flat) stomach while in the company of people who are truly overweight. Bad form.
That's great but…how the $%@# do I gain weight?!
Go on any fitness or bodybuilding forum and tell people you can't gain weight. I guarantee you 99% of the responses will be a simple, "eat more."
And they're right.
If you aren't gaining weight it is absolutely because you don't eat enough.
If you want a more thorough discussion on energy balance and why it matters, go here.
I know it may seem like you eat a ton of food, but most skinny, hardgainers have a skewed perspective about what "eating a lot" really entails.
Many will follow the "anaconda protocol" of occasionally eating a huge meal and then going for much of the rest of the day without eating—usually because we're engaged in some type of activity such as work, sports, video games, etc.
Others will pick and graze without ever really eating a meaningful amount of calories.
The main reason most skinny guys can't gain weight is because their appetite, eating habits, food choices, and/or activity levels are not conducive to weight gain.
In other words, many of us are simply behavioral hardgainers.
I've had clients swear up and down that they "eat everything in sight" day in and day out, but when I have them actually track their caloric intake, they barely hit 2,000 calories a day.
But wait, I track my calories and I'm getting 3,000 per day. That's 500 calories above my calculated maintenance but I still haven't gained any weight 3 weeks later!
So here's the second wrinkle. Many hardgainers have an "adaptive metabolism."
Essentially this means that the more food you eat, the more calories your body will burn.
So, while you may have heard that there is no such thing as a "fast" or a "slow" metabolism, the truth is a little more complex than that.
While it is true that on average resting metabolic rates only differ by about 200-300 calories between people [5], there is a difference between resting metabolic rates and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
There is a simple (or, dare I say, neat) explanation for why many hardgainers struggle to gain weight even when calories are brought up; it's called non-exercise activity thermogenesis (aka NEAT).
NEAT accounts for all of the calories burned through activities other than formal exercise. Stuff like fidgeting, maintaining posture, spontaneous muscle contractions, and normal daily activities all contribute to NEAT.
As it turns out, while people's resting metabolic rates may not differ significantly, their changes in NEAT (particularly in the context of overfeeding) do vary quite a bit.
So, although the people telling you there is no such thing as a "fast metabolism" may be right from a technical standpoint, they are wrong in claiming that some people don't need to eat a lot more than others in order to attain the same rate of weight gain.
How much more?
In one notable study [6], subjects were overfed by 1,000 calories. At the end of the study, some subjects had gained less than a pound of fat, while others gained nearly 10lbs of fat. The researchers determined that the differences in weight gain were due to differences in NEAT between the subjects.
For some people (many hardgainers will fall into this club), the more you eat, the more calories your body will burn off without you even realizing it. The highest NEAT responder in the study burned almost 700 calories extra due to increases in NEAT. If you couple that 700 calories burned with the additional calories burned from the thermic effect of food (TEF) and the slight increase in basal metabolic rate (BMR), you can see how quickly a 1,000 calorie surplus can almost completely disappear.
In contrast, the lowest NEAT responder in this study actually saw a decrease in NEAT (of about 100 calories) when given the 1,000 extra calories.
This is why, for many of you, trying to figure out how many calories you should eat through the use of online calculators will be inaccurate. Use it as a starting point to get a ballpark idea, but don't just add 500 calories to your predicted maintenance intake and then give up after not gaining weight for a few weeks.
So, if you're the type of guy who really struggles to put on weight, you should now have a pretty clear understanding of why that's the case. At the end of the day, however, the solution is always the same.
Eat more food!
So Eat Big To Get Big?
Not quite. While you may have to eat a ton a food in order to put weight on, we want to ensure that our rate of weight gain remains fairly slow.
The old-school mentality of "dirty bulking" is not something you'll see very much anymore. There was a time, however, when it was fairly common for people to go through bulking phases where an excessive amount of fat was put on in hopes of maximizing muscle gain.
For hardgainers this is a slippery slope. For some reason, society has deemed it socially acceptable to tell someone they are "too skinny," but heaven forbid you point out that someone is overweight!
Because of this, most hardgainers have spent their lives hearing how small and skinny they are.
So, once they learn how to eat enough to support growth, it becomes addicting. I've been down this path and it's very easy to fool yourself into thinking you're making a lot of progress when in reality you're just becoming fat (aka, the infamous dreamer bulk).
There are a couple of reasons for this: One is because while getting fat may not help you gain more muscle, it will make you stronger (to a certain extent). There are a lot of factors at play here—increased leverage, slightly decreased range of motion, etc.—but if you've ever done a proper dirty bulk you know what I'm talking about.
Unfortunately, once you are forced to diet down, you can kiss most of that E. Honda strength goodbye.
Not quite. While you may have to eat a ton a food in order to put weight on, we want to ensure that our rate of weight gain remains fairly slow.
The old-school mentality of "dirty bulking" is not something you'll see very much anymore. There was a time, however, when it was fairly common for people to go through bulking phases where an excessive amount of fat was put on in hopes of maximizing muscle gain.
For hardgainers this is a slippery slope. For some reason, society has deemed it socially acceptable to tell someone they are "too skinny," but heaven forbid you point out that someone is overweight!
Because of this, most hardgainers have spent their lives hearing how small and skinny they are.
So, once they learn how to eat enough to support growth, it becomes addicting. I've been down this path and it's very easy to fool yourself into thinking you're making a lot of progress when in reality you're just becoming fat (aka, the infamous dreamer bulk).
There are a couple of reasons for this: One is because while getting fat may not help you gain more muscle, it will make you stronger (to a certain extent). There are a lot of factors at play here—increased leverage, slightly decreased range of motion, etc.—but if you've ever done a proper dirty bulk you know what I'm talking about.
Unfortunately, once you are forced to diet down, you can kiss most of that E. Honda strength goodbye.
Having to lose 30-40lbs to get lean makes it very hard to hold on to your strength and muscle gains if you don't know what you're doing. And, more importantly, it takes a long time to lose all that weight. Time you could have spent gaining more muscle!
I know the #bulklife can become addicting—you feel huge; you'll start to get a lot of compliments; people will notice you...
In fact, it may be the first time you receive a comment about your physique that doesn't involve pointing out how small/skinny you are. As you start to fill out your clothes you might hear, "Have you been lifting?" or, "You're really bulking up, man!"
While many of these comments will be sincere at first, at some point it'll turn into a way for them to comment on your appearance without stating the obvious and previously mentioned faux pas, "Dude, you're really getting fat..."
Even so, I remember a time when I would have preferred being called "big" even if it was obviously with negative connotations!
That's how tired I was of always been the skinny kid! The truth is, a natural trainee can only put on a limited amount of muscle per month and that eating beyond what's needed for growth is counterproductive.
The question then becomes, how much is enough and how much is too much?
Setting Calories: Realistic Weight Gain Targets For Hardgainers
Any hardgainer who has done his research and spent some time playing this game of iron knows how frustrating it is when some huge guy tells us to just eat more food in order to get big.
Because once you understand calories and energy balance, you understand it's not really gaining weight that's hard, it's gaining muscle.
Once your calories are high enough to support the maximal amount of muscle gain, eating beyond that number of calories will only result in additional fat gain.
You cannot force feed your way to faster results!
If you create too big of a surplus and start putting on fat too quickly, you'll have to end your gaining phases prematurely in order to shed the excess fat.
This wastes time and is a one-way ticket to "Hardgainer Purgatory" (an intermediate hardgainer who keeps gaining and cutting the same 10lbs, over and over again, year after year).
A good, evidence-based target for muscle growth for a beginner is about 2 pounds of muscle per month.
Here's a commonly cited chart developed by Lyle Mcdonald from his article, "What's My Genetic Muscular Potential?"
As you can see, the potential rate of muscle gain drops off by about half after each year of training.
Keep in mind, the targets put forth in this chart are meant to be viewed as average. It also assumes training and diet variables are all on point—ideal circumstances, in other words.
Let me tell you up front…
If you are truly a hardgainer and a low responder when it comes to lifting, then don't be surprised if after 4 years of training you haven't built the 40+ pounds of muscle predicted by this chart.
Unfortunately, progress is not quite as predictable and linear as we would like, particularly for hardgainers.
Most of us don't have things really dialed in yet in our first few years of training; thus, our "newbie gains" may be spread out over a couple of years—or about 10 if you're like me. Even if you feel like you are doing "everything right," there are likely a few key variables you are leaving on the table, which could be hampering your growth.
It's a learning process that takes time.
As a hardgainer you want to extend your gaining phases as much as you can. Because of this, I prefer keeping a modest surplus so that fat gains are minimized.
Note: This does not mean we try to avoid fat gain completely! It is vital that you learn to accept getting a little soft during these gaining phases. This is not a recomp where you attempt to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously.
Adjusted weight gain targets for hardgainers:
- Beginner: 2-3lbs total weight gain per month
- Intermediate: 1-2lbs total weight gain per month
**Female trainees should halve the above values**
How do you ensure that rate of gain?
First, you need to start tracking your calories.
There's simply no other method of ensuring a proper rate of weight gain as effective and precise.
For most hardgainers, simply "eyeballing things" will not be good enough!
I have a free guide which you can download if you need help getting started with this. It's a fat loss guide, but it goes over exactly how you should track your calories in a way that is fast and accurate.
You may have heard that in order to gain a pound per week, you should eat 500 calories above maintenance, so if you are looking to gain ½ a pound per week you just need to eat 250 above maintenance, right?
Not so fast…
Given the variable nature of our metabolisms (as well as some inherent flaws with the whole +/- 500 calories to gain/lose precisely one pound per week), we need a different approach.
If you know your maintenance level intake (a caloric intake which will allow you to maintain your weight for at least 3 weeks), then simply add 10% to that number to create a modest surplus.
If you do not know your maintenance, use an online calculator and use the number it gives you.
This number may or may not be your actual maintenance (it probably won't be), so you need to test it for a few weeks to see which direction your weight trends.
Here's what the process might look like assuming you didn't know your maintenance:
- Use online calculator and get an estimated maintenance
- Test that number for 3-4 weeks
- Make a slight adjustment up or down depending on which way weight is trending
- Wait another 2-3 weeks to see if weight stabilizes
- If weight is maintained, add 10% to intake
- Wait at least 3 weeks before increasing calories (ignore weight changes in the first week)
The key to gaining weight at the proper rate is to be patient and make gradual adjustments over time.
Keep in mind, your weight gain will not be linear. Your body weight will fluctuate quite a bit based on the time of day, muscle glycogen stores, whether or not you've used the bathroom, changes in sodium intake, etc.
To flatten out these fluctuations and get a true picture of your weight gain, you need to weigh yourself every day and take the average of those numbers in order to get a weekly average.
This will allow you to get a much clearer picture of what is really happening with your weight.
You will use this average to compare progress week to week and determine if you need to adjust your caloric intake.
Make sure you always weigh yourself at the same time: first thing in the morning after using the bathroom.
Do not try to make adjustments week to week, you need at least three data points before you can really be confident of a trend.
So, if you are aiming to gain 2lbs per month. Then every third week you should be about 1.5lbs heavier.
If your current intake allows you to achieve that rate of weight gain, change nothing.
If you gain less, or have not gained weight at all, add 50-150 calories to your intake.
If your rate of weight gain exceeds that amount, subtract 50-150 calories.
**If you've learned over time that you're a high NEAT responder, you should adjust your calorie intake by the upper range (100-150 cals) in the beginning; otherwise, you may inadvertently spend months at maintenance as your small calorie increases get eaten up by increases in NEAT.
Don't Neglect Progress Photos and Measurements!
This is super important. Before you start a gaining phase, you need to take pictures of yourself from all angles, in honest lighting that will be easy to reproduce. You should also take measurements of the following areas:
- Chest
- Two inches above waist
- Waist (around belly button)
- Two inches below waist
- Upper arm (flexed)
- Forearm (flexed)
- Shoulders
- Thigh
- Calves
This data will be extremely valuable to you as you try to assess your progress and determine whether you should make adjustments. I recommend retaking these measurements every 1-2 weeks and taking new progress photos every 2-4 weeks. Just like with your weigh-ins, I recommend taking multiple measurements and averaging your results to help ensure that random fluctuations and measurement errors don't skew results.
I've always used measurements to help guide my own decision-making, but I would like to thank Andy Morgan, for showing me the more precise method of tracking outlined above.
Macronutrient Targets
Hitting your calories consistently is the most important factor for gaining weight. Of course, it's not just weight gain we're after, it's muscle gain. In order to ensure that your body is building as much muscle as possible, your number one target after getting enough calories should be to get enough protein.
In a gaining phase, protein needs are not as high as when you are in a caloric deficit. This is because as long as you are gaining weight, your body has no need to catabolize muscle tissue for energy—you're already providing plenty of energy through your diet.
Here are the targets for your protein intake:
- Gaining Phase: 0.8-1.0 grams per pound of body weight
- Cutting Phase: 1.0-1.2 grams per pound of body weight
For some, simply counting calories and tracking protein will be enough to ensure progress.
But you may want to track your carbohydrate and fat intake as well.
In order to truly "leave no stone unturned," you should ensure that your fat and carb intakes are balanced with your overall caloric intake.
Here's how I would suggest setting up your macros:
- Protein: 0.8-1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight
- Fat: 20-30% of total calories
- Carbs: All extra calories go towards carb intake
So, if you weighed 150lbs and your caloric intake is 3,000 calories, your macros would look something like this:
- Protein: 150 grams
- Fat: 83 grams (3,000 x 0.25 / 9)
- Carbs: 413 grams (3,000 – [150 x 4] – [83 x 9] / 4)
Something else to consider...
There is a theoretical benefit to spreading your protein out somewhat over the course of the day [7][8]. Although meal timing should not be a significant concern, eating at least 3-4 protein rich (20+ grams from quality sources) meals spread throughout the day may be optimal for maximizing muscle protein synthesis rates. Something to consider if you typically consume the majority of your protein in one sitting each day…
Micronutrient Targets and Other Considerations
In order to get enough vitamins and minerals, you need to eat your fruits and veggies. And no, you can't just pop a multivitamin to make up for skipping out in this area!
Remember, training hard and trying to grow increases your body's need for micronutrients. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) of vitamins and minerals you see on the nutrition labels of food are primarily dosed to prevent deficiency. They do not always reflect the optimal dose for health and performance.
Here are some more specific recommendations:
- Get at least 3-5 servings of veggies per day
- Get at least 2-4 servings of fruit per day
- Get at least 35-40 grams of fiber per day
Assuming sufficient variety in your diet, this should be adequate to safeguard you against deficiency and provide sufficient levels of most vitamins and minerals.
Of those 3-5 servings of veggies, try to make sure at least a few servings per day are fibrous veggies (broccoli, greens, etc.).
How much water should I drink?
Your fluid intake includes water, coffee, tea, soda, juice…basically everything except alcohol can count towards this target.
One of the most practical ways to determine whether you're properly hydrating day-to-day is to ensure that at least 5 of your daily urinations are clear. This is a guideline given by Lyle McDonald and it is useful because the specific amount of fluid required to stay well-hydrated will vary depending on the weather, how active you are, and how much you sweat.
By using the color of your urine as a metric, you will know if you are hydrating well regardless of the circumstances of that particular day.
You will need to increase the amount of water you drink on days when you will be training heavily, especially if it is in a hot or humid environment. Even a small (2%) loss of bodyweight due to dehydration can cause significant performance reductions [9].
If you weigh yourself before and after your training sessions and notice a drop of 2% or more in body weight, this is a sign that you are not adequately replacing the fluids lost through sweat.
Remember, you need to be well hydrated before the training begins in addition to drinking enough water during the training session.
After weighing yourself in the morning, one of the first things you should do is drink 1-2 glasses of water.
Start hydrating early!
Peri-Workout Nutrition
Peri-workout nutrition refers to the timing of meals that you eat before and after training.
Although recent studies have shown this to be less important than previously thought, the research is not clear enough to totally discount the potential benefits of properly timed pre and post-workout nutrition.
So, while the benefit may be small, it's not insignificant.
Fortunately, Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld did an excellent job of reviewing the current literature and have proposed a very reasonable set of guidelines:
"Due to the transient anabolic impact of a protein-rich meal and its potential synergy with the trained state, pre- and post-exercise meals should not be separated by more than approximately 3–4 hours, given a typical resistance training bout lasting 45–90 minutes. If protein is delivered within particularly large mixed-meals (which are inherently more anticatabolic), a case can be made for lengthening the interval to 5–6 hours. This strategy covers the hypothetical timing benefits while allowing significant flexibility in the length of the feeding windows before and after training."[10]
The easiest most "common sense" recommendation is to eat a meal containing a decent amount of protein and carbohydrates 1-2 hours before training and within 60-90 minutes after training.
In your pre-workout meal, you want to make sure that you choose foods that are well-tolerated by your stomach and will have time to digest before training.
You should limit the amount of fat and fiber in your pre-workout meal if you'll be training within the next 1-2 hours. Fat and fiber will slow the digestion of your food and may cause some gastric distress during your training session, although individual tolerance may vary.
If you choose to eat a meal within an hour or less of training, you should consider taking in liquid calories and simple carbs to maximize the speed of digestion and minimize the amount of food in your stomach.
Keep in mind, these are just guidelines, not rigid rules.
Practical Tips for Weight Gain
I recognize the fact that merely knowing the number of calories you need to consume does not automatically make it easy to gain weight day in and day out. Many hardgainers will have to overcome a lifetime of dietary habits that make the prospect of eating enough to grow seem like an impossible task…
For those of you who do struggle to keep the scale moving upwards, this section is for you!
Eat Early and Eat Often
This advice has nothing to do with breakfast being the "most important meal of the day," or with "keeping the metabolism burning" with a higher meal frequency (good thing that's not true because that's the opposite of what you want to happen!).
It has everything to do with practicality.
Some of you may need to eat 3,000-4,000+ calories a day to gain weight.
By spreading those calories out over 4-6 meals, you'll find getting those calories in becomes much more manageable.
Planning and preparing to eat more frequent meals also forces you to keep FOOD at the center of your attention. This needs to happen—at least temporarily—until you learn how to eat enough food to grow.
You will not make the progress you need unless you provide your body with the calories required to BUILD muscle.
Don't get me wrong…At the end of the day, meal frequency should be determined largely from personal preference.
If you are not diligent in keeping up with your meals, however, you'll likely find yourself at the end of the day with 2,000+ calories to eat before bed.
And I can promise you, you're not going to feel like eating 2,000 calories worth of chicken, brown rice, and broccoli.
But this brings us to the next point…
Eat Clean AND Eat Dirty
Do not be afraid of including foods that might be viewed as "dirty" from a traditional, clean eating crowd. Pizza, wings, burgers…you know, the good stuff!
You still need to include plenty of healthy foods as well.
You must have balance.
Your diet should be inclusive not exclusive.
People want to create a false dichotomy between clean eating and IIFYM.
As if you can only ever eat the same bland meals every day when clean eating and you have to eat nothing but Pop Tarts if you follow the IIFYM approach.
Instead, why not take the best from both?
You need to provide your body with all of the vitamins and minerals it needs, but you also need to provide it with all of the ENERGY (aka calories) needed for growth.
What happens if you've gotten in all your servings of fruits and veggies, and your fiber and protein are on point but you still haven't eaten enough calories yet?
You've provided your body with the needed nutrients, but not enough ENERGY…
This is what the USDA refers to as discretionary calories.
Here's what they have to say about them:
"By carefully choosing foods with higher-nutrient densities and/or lower-energy densities, people can meet recommended nutrient intakes while still consuming fewer calories than their daily energy needs. In this situation, an individual has a certain amount of calories left in his or her daily caloric allowance—calories that can be used flexibly, since nutrient needs already have been fulfilled. The Committee named these remaining calories discretionary calories, and defined them as the difference between total energy requirements and the energy consumed to meet recommended nutrient intakes." [11]
I only take issue with including highly processed, "junk" foods in a diet when it's done so at the expense of unprocessed, nutrient-dense whole foods.
Your diet should be centered on whole foods that have a high nutrient density because you need a certain amount of micronutrients and fiber in order to optimize your health.
But once you have met those requirements, there is no problem with filling in the rest of your calories with foods that are more enjoyable and calorically dense.
More specifically, aim for at least 80-90% of your diet to be composed of whole, minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods. The final 10-20% can come more highly processed food to help get those last calories in while also improving adherence and enjoyment.
Do I need to worry about and track sugar intake?
Sugar is often claimed to be "bad" for you regardless of the context. It's been called "toxic" as "addictive as cocaine," and is widely cited as the cause of the obesity epidemic.
The truth is, well-controlled studies have shown that sugar consumption is not a health risk if you're following a well-balanced diet [12].
So, if you're following the guidelines above and are eating a well-balanced diet, then NO you do not need to worry about including sugar in your diet.
I mention this because many of you will require a high caloric intake to gain weight and a majority of those calories will come from carbs. This means you will exceed the typical "daily allotment" of sugar that is recommended for average adults. Remember that those numbers are assuming the adult is fairly inactive and not actively trying to gain weight!
A high carbohydrate diet is essential for optimal performance during high intensity exercise, so do not cut carbs out of your diet for fear of sugar!
Shake It Off!
If you struggle to eat enough calories, the easiest and most versatile way to get the job done is through shakes. First, most people find it much easier to drink calories than to eat them. This is why the first tip you get on most diets trying to help you lose weight is to STOP drinking your calories—they simply don't fill you up as much as they would have had you eaten them instead.
The other primary benefit from drinking shakes is that they make it VERY easy to hit your macros for the day because they are easily customizable and adaptable to whatever you happen to need at the time.
You should have 3 basic templates for your shakes:
1. Basic protein shake in a shaker cup: Milk or water plus protein powder. Maximum convenience. Usually used as a placeholder until you can get a bigger meal or to supplement a meal that's low in protein.
2. Green Smoothie: Fruit juice, yogurt, spinach/kale, cucumber, protein powder (if needed), fruit (I like frozen bananas and mangos). Used to help get micronutrients in if you haven't had many fruits/veggies that day. High in carbs and nutrients. Can be high protein if Greek yogurt and protein powder are included.
3. Gainer Shake: Milk, protein powder, oats, honey, peanut butter, ice cream, banana. These shakes are high in calories and can fill in for one of your meals.
Find a version of each shake template that you like and then save the main ingredients as a "meal" in MyFitnessPal or whatever calorie tracking app you happen to use. This will allow you to easily tweak the quantities and ingredients day-to-day and will make logging the shakes super easy!
Shakes are a great way to fill the holes in your diet and fix a poorly planned day:
- If you get to the end of the day and you're super short on calories, fix up a gainer shake.
- If you realize you haven't eaten any fruits/veggies and the thought of eating a steaming bowl of broccoli is turning your stomach, fix up a green smoothie.
- If you just finished working out and realized that you won't be able to get a decent meal in for another 3 hours, grab a protein shake.
These are all very common situations that will come up during a gaining phase and having the materials for shakes handy makes for an easy solution!
Navigation: Contents > Genetics > Gaining Phase > Mini-Cut > Supplements > Training > Toolkit > Hypertrophy Program > Leave a Comment
The Aggressive "Mini-Cut
As I mentioned before, I'm using the word hardgainer as a blanket term to refer to all those who struggle to gain muscle and strength—particularly those who are starting off excessively skinny.
I recognize the fact that some people have no problem gaining weight and yet still struggle to put on quality muscle. So, you could very well be a low responder in regards to building muscle while still be carrying enough body fat that you will need to cut before bulking.
Or you may simply be someone who is at the end of a lean gaining phase and needs to cut back down.
Regardless of your situation, a cutting phase will be necessary at some point or another.
If your body fat percentage is around 18% or more, you should cut first and get down to 10-12% body fat before attempting to gain weight again.
If you're worried about being "too small" when you cut down, keep the following in mind:
- If you are a beginner you will still be able to build muscle even while losing weight.
- If you are truly a hardgainer at a higher body fat percentage then, I hate to break it to you, but you most likely already look small. For most of us, carrying excess body fat just gives us the "skinny-fat" look.
- Whatever muscle you do have will be more noticeable at a lower body fat percentage—you will look bigger despite having lost weight!
I have written a step-by-step guide for setting up a fat loss diet here.
It's called Fat Loss Jumpstart and it's a free download that's chocked full of practical tips for losing weight while keeping your sanity in the process.
Use the information from Fat Loss Jumpstart to help with the practical implementation of your diet, but use these guidelines for the shorter, more aggressive, "mini-cut" used between bulking phases:
- Drop calories 25-30% below maintenance—should be somewhere between a 500-1000 calorie deficit.
- Set protein between 1-1.2 grams per pound of body weight.
- Set carbs and fats in the same way that's outlined in the gaining phase.
- If it will help adherence and will not affect consistency, use the concept of a weekly deficit to include higher calorie days (on training days) and lower calorie days (rest days). Average caloric intake over the course of the week should still fall in the 25-30% below maintenance range.
- Protein is kept constant day to day.
- Differences in caloric intake between high and low days should come primarily from carb intake.
- Continue weight training as you were. Do not "change things up" or start doing a bunch of cardio! Low intensity cardio such as walking is fine, however.
- Diet shouldn't exceed 4-8 weeks. A rough guideline I picked up from Alberto Nunez is for every month spent dieting, you should spend a week cutting.
- Aim to lose an average of 1-2lbs per week.
- Spend 2 weeks at maintenance calories at the conclusion of the diet to reverse the negative physiological adaptations from dieting and to allow for a smooth transition into the next lean gaining phase.
Remember, the goal of a mini-cut is not to get as shredded as possible. It is merely an interim phase that will allow you to efficiently shed enough body fat to start another gaining phase. It's a means to an end.
It can be tempting to want to push things further once you start to see the muscle you've built during the gaining phase—as mentioned, you'll find you look bigger despite having lost weight.
Resist that urge!
Bringing your body fat down to truly low levels (well below 10%) requires a little more finesse and far too much time.
Your main priority should be getting back to a gaining phase as quickly as possible.
The Lean Condition Waist: How To Know When To Stop A Cut
Because it's hard to know precisely how much muscle you have put on during a gaining phase, it can be difficult to predict where your weight will end up at the end of the cut.
You may be quite a few pounds heavier, or you may end up at the same bodyweight but with an improved composition. This is where those measurements you took at the beginning of your gaining phase will come in handy.
Although your weight may change quite a bit over years of gaining, and most of your measurements will increase as well, your waist measurement will not change much.
Thus, it may be useful to shoot for a certain waist measurement as an endpoint to your diet rather than a specific number on the scale.
An easy rule of thumb is to make sure you at least get back to the waist measurement you had at the beginning of your gaining phase.
This assumes you started your gaining phase sufficiently lean and have a fairly typical fat distribution pattern (most guys store fat around stomach and lower back).
I know, for example, that when my waist measures around 30 inches I'm at a point where I'm lean enough to sustain a gaining phase for at least 4-6 months.
Because your waist measurement can fluctuate quite a bit depending on how bloated you are or whether you're "sucking in," it's vital to be as consistent and honest as possible when taking your measurement. You should take several measurements over the course of the week and average your results to help flatten out the fluctuations.
You may also find it beneficial to use your waist measurement as a metric to know when to end a gaining phase. This can be useful from a practical standpoint because it saves you from having to buy a whole new wardrobe depending on whether you're bulking or cutting.
I know, for example, that when my waist measures around 30 inches I'm at a point where I'm lean enough to sustain a gaining phase for at least 4-6 months.
Because your waist measurement can fluctuate quite a bit depending on how bloated you are or whether you're "sucking in," it's vital to be as consistent and honest as possible when taking your measurement. You should take several measurements over the course of the week and average your results to help flatten out the fluctuations.
You may also find it beneficial to use your waist measurement as a metric to know when to end a gaining phase. This can be useful from a practical standpoint because it saves you from having to buy a whole new wardrobe depending on whether you're bulking or cutting.
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Supplementation for Hardgainers
So here's the harsh truth:
Supplements will only account for a small (tiny might be a better word, actually) increase in performance at best.
They are absolutely not necessary to make progress.
That said…
It seems more and more popular nowadays to scoff at people who use supplements. And yes, the bro sipping BCAAs from his 5% jug probably doesn't need to have them. And there are plenty of terrible supplements with ingredients that do nothing but lighten your pockets.
But, that doesn't mean all supplements are useless.
The truth is, there are a few research-backed supplements that will most likely give you a small, but noticeable performance boost.
Even a small improvement is still an improvement so, as a hardgainer, why not take all the help you can get?
Note: You can't mention supplementation these days without mentioning Examine.com. Examine is far and away the best source of unbiased information regarding supplements on the web today. The supplements I recommend here will contain links to Examine so you can thoroughly read up on each.
The Hardgainer Performance Preworkout Stack
People seem to take pride lately in not taking preworkout drinks.
It seems "black coffee and a banana" is the new Jack3d.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of terrible preworkouts out there, but I happen to really like to have a preworkout drink. It's part of my pre-gym routine and it helps get me in the right mindset to train.
Rather than buying something off the shelf, I recommend buying each ingredient in bulk and mixing your own. It's the most cost effective way and it allows you to tailor the doses of each ingredient to what works best for you.
The Base Stack:
- Caffeine (100-300mg): Extremely effective energy booster which really needs no introduction. Caffeine can improve your strength, endurance and your ability to focus, so it's well worth considering. People's tolerance to caffeine varies, but 100-300 mg is a common dosage range. For acute performance improvements you will likely need to up this dose, but be careful and do your research first. Additionally, because your body builds up a tolerance to caffeine over time, if you are interested in its acute effects then you will need to cycle it.
- Creatine Monohydrate (5g): Creatine can help improve power output, increase lean body mass, and may have neuroprotective properties. In order for creatine supplementation to be effective, you must take it daily and allow time for full saturation of muscles. Simply taking 5 grams every day is the easiest, most fail-proof protocol. The timing of your creatine supplementation does not matter, thus you do not need to take it preworkout. I just find it convenient to do so.
- Flavoring agent: Useful if you like to drink your preworkout as I do. Just find something tasty that fits into your calorie goals (or use a diet/low calorie flavoring agent like crystal light).
Caffeine and creatine are the only two performance enhancing supplements that I universally recommend. I realize that's a bit boring, but in terms of effectiveness (in both results and cost), these two can't be beat.
If you have the money to spare, or would like to experiment a little further, I've included some possible "add-ons" below.
Possible Add-ons:
- Citruline Malate (6-8g): Citruline Malate has been been shown to improve fatigue resistance in aerobic and anaerobic exercise and may increase maximal strength as well. It does not have nearly the amount of support that creatine does, but there are enough double-blind, placebo controlled trials showing benefit that I think it warrants a mention. You will also note an improved "pump" when supplementing with CM as it increases blood circulation. This does not have a direct benefit to performance but is a side effect that most enjoy. CM should be taken 30-60 minutes pre-training. The minimum effective dose (6g) is quite a bit more than the amount you'll find in most preworkouts. This is why I recommend buying in bulk and mixing it yourself to ensure you're getting an effective dose. Note: CM has a sour taste, so take that into consideration when mixing into a drink—it will increase the "tartness" of the flavor.
- Beta Alanine (3.2-6g): Beta-alanine supplementation can result in a small increase in muscular endurance. It's important to note that performance is only improved during extended sets in the 60-240 second range. This means, unless you are doing a lot very high rep sets (50+ reps per set), it's not going to benefit you. If you decide to supplement with it, take between 3.2-6 grams per day (split into smaller doses if the tingling bothers you). As with creatine, the timing doesn't matter so it does not need to be taken preworkout. Allow up to a month for full saturation.
- L-Tyrosine (1-3 grams): L-Tyrosine is an amino acid which seems to interact synergistically when taken with caffeine—for most, both energy and focus seem to be increased. Personally, I notice a difference in energy and mood when adding L-Tyrosine alongside caffeine at a ratio of 1 gram tyrosine per 100mg of caffeine. There are not a lot of studies to back this up, but it is fairly well-supported anecdotally and is easy enough to experiment with to determine whether you notice a benefit.
- L-Theanine: Taking L-Theanine alongside of caffeine will notably reduce most of the negative side effects of caffeine (jitters, excitability, nervousness, etc.) while enhancing the positive effects. The two work synergistically together to provide a noticeable increase in energy and focus [13][14]. If you want the energy and enhanced focus that caffeine brings but are prone to feeling jittery, then this is definitely worth trying. Taking L-theanine with caffeine in a 1:1 ratio is ideal if you are somewhat tolerant to caffeine. If you are more caffeine sensitive, a 1:2 ratio in favor of L-theanine may work better.
As mentioned, the timing of your creatine and beta-alanine supplementation is irrelevant. You do not have to take it pre-workout in order for it to be effective—just make sure you take it every day (even on non-training days). I just find that pre-workout happens to be a convenient time to take it.
Here's how to maximize the performance-enhancing effects of your preworkout:
The only ingredients that provide acute increases in performance are caffeine (and the add-ons that synergize with it) and CM. The effects of the other ingredients (creatine and beta alanine) are not timing dependent.
Thus, if you want to feel the effects of your preworkout (other than the beta alanine tingle that is), you need to limit your overall caffeine intake and cycle on and off it.
Here's one way to approach it:
- For maximum effect, cut out all caffeine intake other than your preworkout.
- Take preworkout only "as needed" on hard training days or when you feel especially tired.
- Use deload weeks as a complete break from caffeine to reset tolerance.
- After deloading, reintroduce caffeine at lower end of dosage range (100-200mg).
- Increase dosage to upper end on an especially tough day (going for an AMRAP or testing a max).
Now the obvious problem with this approach is that it doesn't match well with your lifestyle if you happen to love coffee (as I do).
However, most of the above steps can still apply if you drink coffee in the morning, just understand that the more caffeine you ingest, the more tolerant you become.
Supplements for General Health
Eating a well-balanced diet and getting your fruits and veggies everyday should be your first and primary method of getting the vitamins and minerals you need. There are a few vitamins and minerals that are very hard to get the optimal amounts of however, even with a good diet.
The following is what I consider to be the hardgainer's "short list" of key vitamins and minerals.
Optimal doses of these can be difficult to achieve through diet alone, and deficiency is commonplace. Additionally, as mentioned before, the RDA suggested intake does not always reflect the optimal dosage.
For the sake of brevity, I will not spend a lot of time going over all the specific health benefits of each of these vitamins/minerals; instead, I encourage you to read the full articles linked below for more information.
- Vitamin D: It's very difficult to achieve optimal levels of vitamin D3 through diet/sun exposure alone. Aim for 2,000UI of vitamin D3 per day.
- Vitamin K: Also very difficult to obtain effective levels from diet alone (due partially from the fact that there is reduced bioavailablity from plant-sourced vitamin K). Consider supplementing with 500 mcg of both phylloquinone (vitamin K1) and MK-7 daily.
- Zinc: Common deficiency for athletes and people who sweat a ton. Aim for 10-30mg per day.
- Magnesium: Yet another common deficiency (second most common after vitamin D). The most common recommended daily dose is 200-400mg.
- Calcium: May not be necessary depending on your diet. If you hate dairy, then adding 500-750mg daily may be prudent.
- Fish Oil: Ignore this one if you eat a lot of fatty fish. If not, then 250-1,000mg per day is a commonly recommended dose for general health.
Supplements for Convenience
If you have trouble getting enough protein each day, I highly recommend getting some protein powder. It's not any better than dietary protein, but it's super convenient and can be a nice change if you're tired of eating meat.
Additionally, because shakes are such a good way to get extra calories and fill in missing macro/micronutrients, it helps to have some protein powder on hand.
I like to go with a flavor that will mix well in a variety of shakes, so I usually get vanilla or chocolate. If you get something super specific like strawberry banana, then you limit your options and risk getting sick of the flavor…
Nutrition Recap and Key Take-Aways
So I know that was a LOT of information. This section will provide a bullet-pointed summary of all the recommendations listed above so that you can easily reference them.
Nutrition Essentials:
- Maximize muscle growth by spending the majority of the year in lean gaining phases.
- Bulk until body fat is in the 15-18% ranges
- Use a "mini-cut" to get back down to 10-12%
- To begin lean gaining phase, add 10% to your maintenance and consume that number of calories daily.
- Weigh yourself every day, first thing in the morning, and take a weekly average to track weight.
- Take body measurements and track weekly or biweekly.
- Take progress photos every 2-4 weeks
- Ensure proper rate of weight gain:
- Beginner: 2-3lbs total weight gain per month
- Intermediate: 1-2lbs total weight gain per month
- Female trainees should halve those values
- Only make adjustments when sufficient time has passed and a trend can be established.
- Wait 2-3 weeks before increasing calories when stalled
- Increase by 50-150 calories if weight is stalled
- Decrease by 50-150 calories if gaining too quickly
- Set protein intake accordingly:
- Gaining phase: 0.8-1.0 grams per pound of body weight
- Cutting phase: 1.0-1.2 grams per pound of body weight
- Fat should comprise 20-30% of total calories.
- All remaining calories (after setting protein and fat intake) should go towards carbohydrate intake.
- Eat at least three protein rich meals (20+ grams from quality sources) spread throughout the day.
- Aim for 3-5 servings of veggies, 2-4 servings of fruit, and 35-40 grams of fiber per day.
- At least 5 of your daily urinations should be clear
- To facilitate a higher caloric intake, consider eating more frequently throughout the day—4-6 meals on average.
- Use shakes as an easy way to get in extra calories and bring up nutrients that may be lacking.
- Eat a meal containing a decent amount of protein and carbohydrates 1-2 hours before training and within 60-90 minutes after training.
- 80-90% of diet should be composed of minimally processed, whole food sources. The final 10-20% of calories can come from more highly processed "junk food" to help get calories in and improve adherence/enjoyment of diet.
- For the agressive "mini-cut," drop calories 25-30% below maintenance.
- Consider using a weekly deficit to include high and low calorie days.
- Differences in caloric intake between high/low days should come primarily from carbs.
- Mini-cut shouldn't exceed 4-8 weeks.
- Every month spend gaining = one week dieting
- Aim to lose an average of 1-2lbs per week
- Spend at least 2 weeks at maintenance before beginning another lean gaining phase.
- Performance-based supplements definitely worth considering:
- Creatine (5 grams every day)
- Caffeine (as needed, pre workout 100-300mg)
- Examine diet and consider supplementing with individual vitamins as needed (vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, calcium, fish oil, etc.)
- Buy protein powder if it will help with adherence and convenience
Navigation: Contents > Genetics > Gaining Phase > Mini-Cut > Supplements > Training > Toolkit > Hypertrophy Program > Leave a Comment
Hardgainer Program Design: How To Get Your Best Results
If there's one take-away from the section you're about to read, it's this:
Just like your diet, your training should be more inclusive than it is exclusive.
IIFYM and flexible dieting are now clearly recognized as effective methods of dieting. We've learned that we don't need to rigidly adhere to a select list of "clean" foods and we've found that most rules regarding diet are not black and white.
The same holds true for training.
It's time we bring the same flexibility and adaptability to our understanding of training as IIFYM has brought to our diets.
Arbitrarily limiting your training options because you're a "hardgainer" is doing yourself a disservice.
You're going to need to make sure your diet and training are absolutely on point and you should utilize every tool at your disposal to ensure that happens!
Just to be clear, I'm not advocating an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach where you try to combine every possible training method into one ultimate (and likely stupid) training program.
What I mean is that you use the training principles based on the available research as a starting point and then—over time—experiment and manipulate the variables until you find a concoction that works for you.
The purpose of this section is to provide you with a baseline knowledge and understanding of the most essential training variables required for muscle growth. This will allow you to critically evaluate programs and identify whether or not said programs are in line with both your goals and evidence-based recommendations.
While it is true that most of these training recommendations will apply to all lifters (not just hardgainers), I have written this section through the "lens" of a hardgainer. In other words, I know first-hand the type of advice typically given to us as hardgainers and I will be addressing those (often misguided) recommendations as I go through each section.
I also want to point out that my recommendations here are for intermediate lifters, not rank beginners.
If you are new to lifting, go here first.
Acknowledgments: Many of the recommendations made in this section have been inspired by the work of Brad Schoenfeld, Layne Norton, Mike Israetel, Greg Nuckols, Borge Fagerli, and (once again) Eric Helms. Make sure you follow these guys to stay on top of the latest in evidence-based fitness.
The Three Mechanisms of Muscle Growth
There are three basic mechanisms that are responsible for muscle hypertrophy [14a]. Ensure your training includes exercises and rep ranges that take each mechanism into consideration:
- Mechanical Tension: Mechanical tension refers to the forces your muscles are exposed to when placed under a heavy load. Performing compound movements that allow for heavy loading and getting progressively stronger in them will ensure you are utilizing this mechanism of muscle growth. It is especially important that you choose exercises that you can perform pain free, with good form, and full range of motion. Examples include squats, deadlifts, leg presses, bench presses, overhead presses, rows, chin-ups/pullups, etc.
- Metabolic Stress: Feel the burn and chase that pump, bro! Make sure you include some exercises that allow for a targeted, strong contractions of the muscle you're trying to work. Isolation exercises that allow for constant tension in moderate to high rep ranges with shorter rest periods tend to work the best for this. Examples include leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, pec dec, lateral raises, dumbbell curls, and triceps pushdowns, etc.
- Muscle Damage: Exercises that allow for a deep stretch of the targeted muscle while maintaining high levels of tension are good for creating muscle damage. Excessive levels of muscle damage can actually be detrimental because it will hamper recovery and limit the total amount of volume you can perform, so don't overdo it. Examples include Romanian deadlifts, lunges, chest flyes, pullovers, overhead triceps extensions, incline dumbbell curls, etc.
Out of these 3 mechanisms, mechanical tension (via heavy loading with progressive overload through strength gains) is the most difficult and thus it should be given priority over the other two mechanisms. I believe it to be the most important of the 3 mechanisms, but that doesn't mean you ignore the other two!
The trick is training in a way that allows for strength gains through mechanical tension, enough higher rep work to introduce sufficient levels of metabolic stress, and appropriate levels of muscle damage to help promote growth without interfering with recovery rates due to excessive soreness.
Recommended Volume
Volume simply refers to the total amount of exercise you perform. In this section I will be referring to volume in terms of repetitions per week and/or number of hard sets per week for a given body part rather than volume-load (sets x reps x weight).
Studies have shown that there is a clear dose-response relationship between total volume and hypertrophy [14b], but while it is the training variable most consistently associated with increases in muscle hypertrophy, the trick is to follow the "Goldilocks Principle."
In other words, not too much and not too little.
You need to find the amount that's "just right" for you.
Many people are under the impression that if you are a hardgainer and have "bad" genetics, you automatically need to do less volume because you'll overtrain easily.
And there definitely are individuals who seem to respond better to lower volume routines with plenty of time to recover,
BUT my experience has actually been the opposite…
I remember when I first started lifting I never trained a muscle more than once a week. This was because I was told over and over again that anything more would result in overtraining. I also always kept my total volume fairly low because, once again, I didn't want to overtrain.
But when you overly limit volume and frequency, the main variable left with which you can work is intensity, i.e., the amount of weight on the bar.
This type of training—low volume, low frequency, high intensity—is called HIT (high intensity training), and while it may work for some, for the vast majority of hardgainers it's one of the least effective ways to train!
It may work okay at first, but eventually you're going to hit a wall and get injured.
In my experience, most hardgainers aren't overtraining; they're undertraining.
Intuitively, you know this to be true.
For those that appear to be "overtraining," it's much more likely that one or more of the following things are occurring:
- Not eating enough calories to support the nutritional demands of higher volume training (protip: don't skimp on the carbs).
- Trying to pack too much volume into a single workout instead of spreading out volume over the week with a higher frequency.
- Consistently training to failure and not managing intensity.
- Not following a well thought-out, periodized routine that progressively increases volume over the course of a training block.
- Not taking deloads and allowing accumulated fatigue to dissipate.
- Not sleeping enough at night.
Start with a recommendation based on research and build from there.
One place to start would be Eric Helms' recommendation which is taken from a meta-analysis conducted by Wernbom and colleagues [15] and is outlined in his series, The Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid:
40-70 reps per muscle group per session, 2-3 times per week.
This is a pretty broad range. If you are just out of the beginner stage, I would start on the lower end of this range and see how you respond.
Another way of tracking volume, popularized by this article on Strengtheory is simply counting the number of "hard sets" you do per body part.
With this approach, I like to see intermediates hit an average of 10-20 sets per body part per week.
This is based on a recent meta-analysis conducted by Brad Schoenfeld that determined 10+ weekly sets to be a possible "minimum threshold" for maximizing hypertrophy [15a].
In order to facilitate this volume, the sets should be spread out over 2-4 weekly sessions.
How can I tell if I'm doing too much or too little?
The first step is to realize that if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
If you are making progress and gaining strength and building muscle, don't start adding volume in an attempt to get even better results. As long as you are making progress and generally feel pretty good (not overly beat up by your training and dreading each session), then leave things alone.
If you aren't making progress (strength has plateaued), you feel well recovered and have already taken a deload, and all other training variables are on point, you may need to bump volume up.
Only increase the volume for the lift that has stalled, however.
If you've been stalled on one or more lifts and you notice that you're fatiguing quickly despite having deloaded, you may need to reduce your overall volume and see if that improves performance.
Remember, other training variables can significantly impact the total amount of volume that you can recover from; thus, you may need to reexamine your training and lifestyle as a whole to see if there are other factors besides volume that may be impacting your ability to progress.
Progressive Overload: The Key To Making Progress
In order for your muscles to grow and get stronger, you must challenge them in increasingly difficult ways—not by randomly changing exercises to "confuse the muscles," but by manipulating training variables so that over time you are increasing the demands placed on the muscle, forcing it to adapt.
Progressive overload is absolutely essential to ensuring you're able to continue to make progress.
There are many ways to achieve progressive overload, but the primary method you should focus on is getting stronger in your primary compound movements. This will automatically result in an increase in volume-load as the total amount of work you're able to perform each session increases.
Simply adding more and more volume through additional sets and reps is a way to achieve progressive overload, but if that is your only trick, you'll end up in the gym every day for hours on end!
Here are some other ways in which progressive overload can be achieved:
- Lifting the same weight with greater ROM and/or improved form.
- Increasing the difficulty of a lift by change the mechanics (going from bent arms to nearly straight arms when performing lateral raises).
- Doing the same amount of work in a shorter time period (increasing workout density).
- Doing additional reps/sets (easy to do but, as mentioned, can get unwieldy very quickly if you abuse this method of adding volume).
While volume sets the stage for hypertrophy, progressive overload is what ensures progress. This should be one of the primary metrics you use for gauging the effectiveness of your training over the course of a training block.
Double Progression: A Simple Method For Continued Strength Gains
As mentioned, getting stronger in each movement should be your primary means of achieving progressive overload. In order to gauge strength workout to workout and to push for those strength gains, I prefer using straight sets with a rep range.
An example of this would be 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
Here is how to know when to add weight:
- Start with a weight that you can easily lift with perfect form for all of the prescribed sets. This serves several purposes: First, it allows you to practice your technique and helps reinforce proper form. And secondly, it allows you to build up some momentum before the weights start becoming difficult.
- When you can hit the top end of the prescribed rep range (8 reps in a 6-8 rep range for example) in all three sets, increase the weight by the smallest increment possible.
- If you hit all your reps again the next workout, increase the weight. If you miss a few reps on the later sets (you get 8 reps, then 7, then 6), keep the weight the same for the next workout and concentrate on completing additional repetitions in the next workout.
But I don't care about strength, I just want to be big!
Remember, all things being equal, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. If you are not getting stronger in moderate to high rep ranges, than you are not building muscle!
Recommended Frequency
Frequency refers to how many times per week you hit each muscle group.
Higher frequency training is becoming more and more popular among the evidence-based fitness crowd. It used to be that, outside of beginner routines, it was fairly uncommon to see major muscle groups getting multiple times per week.
For many years, the standard advice given to hardgainers was to hit each muscle one time per week and to allow a full week (or more) in order for that muscle to recover.
As I've already discussed, I've found that to be one of the least effective ways for hardgainers to train. In fact, I would argue that hardgainers are uniquely suited to higher frequency training!
There are a number of reasons for this…
For one, if you are going to push volume up, higher frequency training tends to be easier on the joints than your typical high-volume bodybuilding routine. Most high-volume routines have a day dedicated to each body part (chest day, arm day, and the often nonexistent "leg day"). In these routines the point is to absolutely obliterate the muscle to stimulate growth.
Unfortunately, by design, these programs are also low frequency—each body part is only getting hit about once a week.
As you get more advanced and attempt to cram essentially a week's worth of volume into a single session, your joints inevitably start to complain.
Ask yourself this question: What's going to feel better on your elbows and shoulders, trying to do 100 tough chin-ups in a single session or doing 100 chin ups spread out over 5 sessions?
I can guarantee you that you'll feel much better spreading those chin-ups out over the week. So much better, in fact, that you would likely be able to do even more total chin-ups without affecting your recovery.
And that is one of the primary benefits to higher training frequencies!
By spreading your volume out over the week, you're ultimately able to handle more volume with less of an impact on your joints and recovery.
But we're just getting started…
You will also stimulate muscle protein synthesis more frequently with high frequency training and perhaps just as importantly, you'll give yourself more opportunities to practice each lift.
People tend to forget that performing an exercise correctly is a skill which must be learned. Your body needs to learn the gross movement pattern, but you also need to learn the mental cues that will allow you to maximally contract the targeted muscle (like learning to bench with your pecs rather than your shoulders).
As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to increasing your training frequency when done correctly!
You might be wondering why I said that higher frequency seems to be "uniquely suited" for hardgainers. So far the advantages mentioned seem like they would be beneficial to anyone training—which they would.
So, I'm going to give my n = 1, personal observation, but let me know if this has been your experience as well:
My strength for a given muscle group drops dramatically after the first 4-6 sets.
Even if I don't reach failure and use generous rest periods, once I move on to that second or third exercise for a muscle, I have to reduce the weight far below what one would expect. So, for me, getting to that 10-20 sets per week range in only one or two sessions would make for a lot of sets where I would be unusually weak because I'm totally tapped out from the first exercise.
If I instead split those 10-20 sets over 3-4 sessions, I have more opportunities to come in fresh and really give those first 4-6 sets my best effort.
This causes the average quality of my sets to go up and—because I'm stronger as well—my total volume-load also increases!
I've noticed this tendency to be quite common amongst hardgainers: Perhaps you may be able to get 8 quality sets in; or maybe you can only get 3-4. Each person will have their own sweet spot of ideal volume per session—and this will likely vary depending on the muscle. Once you've found your sweet spot, you can use an increase in training frequency to maximize volume while ensuring that you aren't exceeding your abilities to recover.
So, all that being said, here's my recommendation for average training frequency per muscle group, per week while also taking volume into consideration:
Hit each muscle 2-4 times per week with about 40-70 reps over 4-8 sets per session.
Remember, this is a recommendation for average frequency and volume weekly. Individual sessions may vary and fall outside of these ranges over the course of a training block.
Finally, to round out the discussion on high frequency training, I'll leave you with this quote from John Boz, an Olympic weightlifting coach:
"If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day. Other countries have this mindset. America does not."
Intensity and Failure
In this section I will discuss the concept of intensity and whether or not you should be training to failure. Your training intensity either refers to the intensity of the load in relation to your one rep max (generally as a percentage), or it refers to intensity of effort—how close to failure you come in a given set.
It is important to manage both the intensity of load and the intensity of effort in your workouts in a way that is optimal for your goals.
For the sake of simplicity, rather than discussing intensity in terms of percentages of your one rep max, I will use rep ranges.
While it seems that muscle can be built equally well using both high reps [15b] and low reps [15c], there is a reason that the 8-12 rep range is often cited as the ideal range for hypertrophy:
It just happens to be an excellent sweet spot between being low enough in reps to allow for strength-based progressions to be made at a reasonable rate and maximal fiber recruitment, while being high enough in reps to allow you to accumulate sufficient volume.
Here are another couple points to consider:
- Of the 10 participants in the low rep "strength" group from the study linked above, 2 had to drop out due to injuries. The volume-equated lower rep workouts also took substantially longer to perform (1 hour versus 17 minutes!).
- In the study showing higher reps (25-35 reps) to be equally effective for hypertrophy, many of the participants in the high rep group ended up vomiting due to the intensity of the accumulated acidosis during the extended sets. In order for high rep training to be effective you need to take sets to failure and, contrary to popular belief, it's actually harder for most than lower rep training. There's a reason they call 20 rep squat programs "widow-makers."
So, exclusively using low reps is problematic because there's an increased risk of injury and it's not very time efficient…
And exclusively using high rep training will make strength based progressions more difficult and sounds like absolute torture…
So why create a false dichotomy?
Here's what I recommend:
For hardgainers looking to put on the most muscle possible, a majority of your training should be in the 6-12 rep range.
The rest of your training should be split fairly evenly between lower rep sets (2-6 reps) and higher rep sets (12-20 reps).
A good training program for hypertrophy should include a wide variety of rep ranges, but it's important that the lion share of the work is done in the 6-12 rep range.
The Strength Trap
Don't get pulled into the trap of thinking that maximal strength gains are the be-all-end-all for muscle growth. Most of us want to get bigger (gain body weight and muscle) and get stronger, but a lot of sources will tell you that strength gains are the sole key to getting bigger.
You might have heard something along the lines of "muscle is a by-product of strength," so if you just focus on maximal strength you'll get bigger by default.
I think this is misguided.
With this line of thinking, why not simply train exactly like a powerlifter?
Are powerlifters more muscular than bodybuilders (regardless of drug use which is common in both sports)?
Think about it logically…
I see plenty of skinny guys who are pretty freaking strong, even when taking relative strength out of the equation. One's leverages, technique, skill, and neural efficiency can all contribute greatly to strength, but none of those factors require large amounts of muscle.
For hardgainers, it is muscle that is the hardest to build and will take the longest amount of time to accrue.
Strength gains can actually occur fairly quickly; this is because when gaining strength, there are numerous neural adaptations that must occur before you start building new muscle tissue.
Most hardgainers will be better off focusing on gaining as much muscle as possible by utilizing all of the techniques outlined in this guide.
You will still focus on getting stronger, but it won't be your only focus.
There's another issue with pushing too hard for low-rep strength gains…
In my experience, most hardgainers tend to be a little more injury prone than the more genetically gifted lifters. One of the major reasons athletes train with weights is because it has been shown to reduce the likelihood of injury—among other things, the additional muscle helps to protect the body.
So, it stands to reason that a hardgainer with less skeletal muscle, less natural strength to rely upon, and smaller joints, tends to be a little more injury prone than the beefier, mesomorphic types.
Additionally, typical gym strength benchmarks like two plates (225lbs) on the bench press are a little harder to obtain for the 140lb hardgainer than it is for someone who naturally weighs in at 200lbs.
This can put a lot of pressure on a hardgainer who may be strong relative to his body weight, but can't help himself from wanting to keep up with the other guys at the gym.
Couple this with your classic low volume/frequency routine which focuses on strength gains as the sole method of progression, and you have a high likelihood of injury.
When training for maximal strength in low rep ranges, your margin for error is much lower than when you are in higher rep ranges. A little slip in technique can bring you a lot closer to failure than you intended.
Which leads nicely into the next section…
Should You Train To Failure?
Many people think that in order to get stronger you must keep lifting a weight to the point of failure (you can't complete another rep) and sometimes even beyond with the help of a spotter.
They imagine having to push themselves to complete exhaustion, getting trapped under a heavy bar, and having some gym grunt have to come and rescue them…
The truth is, this type of training makes for good footage for training videos and magazines, but is not ideal for the average trainee. Especially if you are a hardgainer!
This type of intensity—how hard you push yourself in a given set—is called intensity of effort.
When referring to intensity in this context, it is useful to think about it in terms of how close to failure you are coming in a given set. This is often called "repetitions in reserve" (RIR), and is quantified by how many reps are left "in the tank" at the end of a set.
I generally recommend stopping 1-2 reps shy of failure in each set.
Research has shown there doesn't appear to be a significant difference in terms of strength and hypertrophy gains in failure vs. non-failure training [15d].
However, continually training to failure, particularly as a beginner, is not worth the risk as it may increase your chances of injury [16]. Furthermore, training to failure is very taxing on your recovery and can hamstring your ability to complete the total amount of volume called for in the rest of the workout.
For example:
Set One: 100 lbs x 8 reps (attempting but failing a ninth rep)
Set Two: 100 lbs x 6 reps (attempting but failing a seventh rep)
Set Three: 100 lbs x 4 reps
As you can see, when you train to failure each set, your performance in subsequent sets suffers.
Here's an example where failure is avoided:
Set One: 100 lbs x 7 reps (leaving one rep in the tank)
Set Two: 100 lbs x 7 reps
Set Three: 100 lbs x 6 reps
In this scenario, the lifter was able to get more total reps (20 versus 18) and likely performed those reps with better form and less risk of injury!
Put simply, the additional benefit you may receive from pushing that last rep is generally outweighed by the benefits of the additional volume you would be able to perform had you instead ended each set one rep shy of failure.
When you lift weights in this manner, you control the weights rather than the weights controlling you.
There are certain situations where training to failure is appropriate: higher rep isolation work for example, can be taken closer to failure without significantly affecting recovery or risking injury. You may also have an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) set scheduled within a training block as a measure of strength.
You may want to do some functional over-reaching in the last week or two before a deload by intentionally reaching failure in one or more of your sets.
In these instances, training to failure is appropriate. The main thing you want to avoid is unintentionally hitting failure too often during your primary compound movements.
So, should you train to failure?
Usually no, sometimes yes!
Exercise Selection
To maximize strength gains and promote complete muscular development (more proportionate growth of the varying attachments of a given muscle), you should target each muscle with a variety of exercises rather than just one [16a].
There is a lot of mystique built up around the "big three" lifts—the squat, bench, and deadlift.
You will feel a lot of pressure from the lifting community to perform these lifts and you'll often here them proclaimed as the best exercises.
To be clear, they are excellent exercises, but no one exercise is best—there is simply too much variability between lifters.
Just as we should avoid thinking of foods as "good" or "bad," we must also recognize that most exercises have a place, given the proper context.
If one lifter is performing squats, deadlifts, and bench press; and another is performing leg presses, Romanian deadlifts, and dumbbell presses, who will make better gains?
Can you really say for sure?
There's this tendency to automatically assume that the big three have this special ability to pack on slabs of muscle and that if you can't do them, you'll never reach your full potential.
The truth is, some people are simply not well suited to squat, deadlift, or bench press, and there should be no shame in substituting with other exercises when needed.
Find what works best for you. As long as you're concentrating on compound movements and progressive overload, you'll make progress!
It is also common to hear people say you don't need to do curls and other isolation work.
This is also wrong.
This recommendation is often made because it's so common to see super-skinny guys at the gym spending countless hours doing bicep curls and neglecting major, compound movements.
The "evils" of isolation work are overstated in an effort to get people to focus on what really counts, i.e., compound movements and progressive overload.
There's also the stereotyped association of isolation work with drug-using bodybuilders that causes people to say that things like curls, leg extensions, and chest flyes are a waste of time for hardgainers.
Let me say this once:
As long as you're centering your training around progressing in compound movements, there is no reason for you to avoid isolation work.
In other words, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I followed the "anti-isolation" advice for years and did little to no isolation work for things like my hamstrings, biceps, triceps, and shoulders. It wasn't until I started intelligently incorporating isolation exercises into my routine that I started seeing real growth in those areas.
Key Elements Of A Well-Rounded Program
In order to ensure you are targeting each muscle group in the most complete way possible, include the following components:
- Both compound and isolation exercises in a variety of rep ranges.
- Bilateral and unilateral movements to help prevent imbalances between limbs.
- Lower Body Training: Include both quad dominant and hip dominant movements and don't neglect calves.
- Quad dominant: squats (of all types), leg presses, lunges, leg extensions
- Hip dominant: deadlifts (all types), hip thrusts, pull-throughs, hyperextensions
- Hamstrings need a hip extension movement and knee flexion (leg curls), so include both.
- Calves: seated and standing variations of calf raises to target both the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles.
- Upper Body Training: Balance ratio of pushing and pulling exercises (although it's often advisable to have more pulling exercises than pushing, up to a 2:1 ratio or more in some cases).
- Chest: flat and incline (to target clavicular head of the pec) horizontal presses. Flyes for additional volume as needed without fatiguing triceps/shoulders.
- Back: horizontal pulls (rows) and vertical pulls (pullups, chin-ups, lat pulldowns) to promote even development of back musculature.
- Elbows tucked recruits lats to a greater degree.
- Elbows flared recruits upper back muscles to a greater degree.
- Lat Pullovers can be used to isolate lats without involving biceps.
- Shoulders: Smaller muscle group but should not be ignored. Has three heads…
- Anterior head: heavily recruited in all vertical presses but also in most horizontal presses as well, particularly if there is an incline. Usually does not need much isolation due to this overlap.
- Lateral head: targeted best with lateral raises and upright rows. Needs to be isolated for optimal growth.
- Posterior head: heavily recruited in pulling movements (particularly variations with flared elbows), but can benefit from additional volume through isolation exercises such as reverse flyes.
- Arms:
- Biceps: Include a variety of curls over course of training career to promote maximal development (incline curls, hammer curls, dumbbell curls, barbell curls, etc.)
- Triceps: Ensure that one or more of your isolation movements for triceps are performed overhead (skullcrushers, french press, overhead cable extensions, etc.) to preferentially recruit the long head of the triceps.
- Other muscle groups:
- Forearms: Will already be recruited in heavy pulls and bicep work. Add targeted work as needed (at the end of a workout).
- Core: Should be treated like other muscle groups and overloaded in moderate rep ranges as well as higher rep ranges. Works as a stabilizer in many compound movements, but should be targeted with isolation work as well to promote hypertrophy.
Remember, not all of these things can be included within a single training block simultaneously. Instead, focus on specific elements in turn, and introduce variety/shift focus over the course of several training blocks.
In other words, you don't always have to perform both seated calf raises and standing calf raises when training legs. And you don't have to always include both a flat and an incline press for chest.
But they should be included (and emphasized) at some point in your training career.
So if you look over this list and realize you've never done any incline pressing and you happen to have a lackluster upper chest; or you notice you haven't done any lateral raises because you've always just focused on overhead pressing and your shoulders are flat as pancakes, you may want to consider including some incline presses and lateral raises in your next training block!
Optimal Rest Periods and Lifting Tempo
I'm going to keep this short and sweet. For hardgainers looking to maximize strength and muscle gain, you should focus on resting as long as necessary to maximally recover between sets.
Contrary to popular belief, shorter rest intervals are not superior for hypertrophy [16b].
A general guideline for rest periods might be:
- 3-5+ minutes on heavy compounds taken close to failure
- 2-3+ minutes for moderately heavy compound movements
- 1-2+ minutes for higher rep sets and isolation work
Do not use shorter rest intervals in order to get your heartrate up or "feel the burn." Your s(w)ole focus should be resting as long as needed to perform optimally each set while still fitting the workout within your personal time constraints.
In regards to tempo (how quickly you perform the movement), simply focus on controlling the eccentric (the "lowering" portion of the lift) and lifting as quickly as possible (while maintaining proper form) during the concentric. Control down, explode up.
Do not worry about precisely timing the concentric/eccentric portions with specific second counts and do not overly concern yourself with figuring out your "time under tension."
As long as you have sufficient volume in your routine, you will automatically have obtained the necessary "time under tension."
How to Warm Up
In order to ensure that you are able to perform optimally during your workout and to reduce the risk of injury, it is vital that you perform a warmup before lifting.
As it turns out, most of what we learned in gym class as kids was wrong. Static stretching (holding a stationary stretch for time) does not help prevent injury [17][18]. This is because most injuries actually occur within a normal range of motion.
So what does help prevent injury?
The most important thing your warm up should do is…
Warm you up!
In order to raise your body temperature and get the proverbial juices flowing, you should perform a combination of light, aerobic activity (jumping jacks, lunges, light jogging, etc.) and dynamic stretching. The aim here is to both raise your core temperature and to safely take your joints through a range of motion similar to the activity you will be performing.
Your warm up should leave you feeling loose, springy, and ready for action.
So static stretching is bad?
Static stretching is not bad; rather, it's the tendency of people to erroneously think that because they stretched a few times they're ready for action and are safe from injury that causes problems.
Static stretching can still be an important part of your warmup, it just shouldn't be the ONLY part.
A good warmup will have most of the following basic components:
- Raise temperature of your body
- Soft-tissue work as needed—often accomplished by self-myofascial release via the use of a foam roller
- Dynamic stretches
- Static stretches
- Sport-specific warmup and practice
Here's an example of a quick and simple, full body warmup. (And yes, I wrote a training and nutrition manual for table tennis players. Deal with it!)
But wait…we're not done yet!
Just as you need to do a general warm-up before lifting, you need to do a specific warm-up for each exercise.
The sets listed in most programs are working sets. Working sets are sets that feel challenging.
The warm-up sets are not listed—they should not be challenging: their only purpose is to groove your technique and prime your nervous system for heavy lifting.
Take squats for example. Let's say over time you've worked your way up to doing 3 sets of 6-8 reps with 225lbs. You don't simply walk up to the bar, throw two 45lb plates on each side and have at it!
You need to work your way up. This may take some experimentation because some people can take longer to warm-up than others. Make sure to rest for a couple minutes after completing your warm-up sets.
Sample Warmup:
- Warmup Set 1: 50% of working weight for 5 reps. 1 minute rest.
- Warmup Set 2: 70% of working weight for 3 reps. 1 minute rest.
- Warmup Set 3: 90% of working weight for 1 reps. 2 minutes rest.
You only need to warm up for the first compound movement for each muscle group. After you have performed your compound movements, you do not need to warm up for your accessory work.
In order to ensure consistent progress and to provide your joints a bit of a break, it is imperative that you incorporate deloads into your training routine.
Depending on your training volume and intensity, you should reduce the volume of your sessions every 4-6 weeks.
One simple method of accomplishing this is to perform the first set only of each exercise during a deload week.
The main distinction between this type of a deload and what you may have seen in the past is that you do not reduce the load. The intensity is maintained, only the overall weekly volume is reduced.
One of the advantages of maintaining the intensity is that you maintain the high tension on your muscles while at the same time allowing them more time to recover due to the reduced volume.
This helps to promote active recovery, allowing you to come off your deload week feeling fresh without feeling "rusty" when returning to your previous weights.
Deload weeks are especially important for high volume/frequency routines. As time passes, there is a buildup of fatigue--this is often characterized by symptoms that are mistakenly attributed to overtraining: reduced performance, achiness, lack of motivation, etc.
This is the stage where most people panic, believing that they're overtraining and causing their muscles to "go catabolic" and eat themselves. Let me quote Layne Norton on this one:
"There is ZERO data showing that if you train a muscle so often or with so much volume it actually becomes catabolic. Zilch. None. Doesn't exist; in fact, a lot of meta-analyses on hypertrophy show that, not intensity, not load, but actual volume is what is most closely associated with hypertrophy—volume and frequency."
So, what is so often considered "overtraining" is more likely than not just a natural consequence of frequent, high-volume training.
By reducing your training volume every four weeks or so, you allow that fatigue to dissipate and your body will actualize the gains that were made during the weeks of higher volume/frequency training.
In fact, it's not uncommon to see some of your best progress in the weeks following a deload!
Periodization simply refers to the manipulation of training variables in order to promote continued progress and prevent plateaus. There are many different types of periodization and it is important to note that periodization is a concept not a single system—there are an infinite number of ways to periodize your training.
For the sake of time, I won't be getting into the specifics of the different types of periodization, but I will strongly suggest that you choose a program that is periodized in a way that:
- Progressively increases volume over the course of a training cycle
- Incorporates a variety of rep ranges and intensities
- Reduces risk of over-training and nonfunctional overreaching through the use of deloads and/or tapers
At this point, the research is somewhat mixed in terms of the benefits of periodization for muscular hypertrophy, but it has been shown to be superior for strength gains [19] [20].
All else being equal, it stands to reason that greater strength gains should eventually lead to better hypertrophy because it will allow for greater volume-load as well as more consistent progression through mechanical tension.
Periodization also facilitates a higher training volume by allowing your body to acclimate to increasingly higher training volumes/intensities and then recover through deloads and periods of reduced volume.
For these reasons, ensuring that your training follows some mode of periodization is important—even if hypertrophy is your primary goal.
Workout Duration: How Long is Too Long?
You may have heard that you shouldn't train for more than an hour or cortisol will spike and you'll start going "catabolic." Or perhaps you've heard that spending hours in the gym only works for roided up bodybuilders…
But let me ask you this, do you really think a few 45 minute sessions per week are going to be enough to build an appreciable amount of muscle past the beginner stage?
For most it won't be.
Here's a few reasons why:
- As you get stronger, it will take you much longer to warm up. There's a big difference between squatting 135 for reps and squatting 405for reps…
- You will also need to rest longer in between sets order to recover from the heavier loads.
- Over the course of your training career you will need to perform more reps and sets (in addition to getting stronger) in order to see continued growth.
All of these factors make it increasingly unlikely that you will always make it out of the gym in less than an hour once you are past the beginner stage.
Now it is possible to perform a higher volume training routine and be in and out of the gym in an hour, but don't think that training beyond the 60 minute mark is somehow harmful to your progress.
The idea that transient, acute increases in hormones during exercise will have a dramatic effect on your results has not been shown to be true.
In fact, one study shows that of all the hormones typically affected by exercise (testosterone, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor, cortisol, etc.), cortisol was most strongly associated with increases in hypertrophy [20a].
It makes sense if you think about it…
Working out hard enough to increase cortisol simply means you've exposed your body (and muscles) to stress—which is exactly what you should be doing if you want them to adapt and grow!
It's only when cortisol is chronically elevated that things become problematic.
So, how long should your workouts be?
Your workout should last as long as it takes to perform the prescribed exercises with proper warmups and rest periods.
That may be one hour, it may be two hours...
It just depends on where you are in your training career and how much volume you require for growth.
Stress and SLEEP
Stress and sleep are two other factors that will affect your recovery and ability to progress. As much as possible, you should try to minimize stress and maximize sleep. Of these two factors, sleep is probably the easiest area to improve upon as it is generally under our direct control to a greater extent.
Do not underestimate consequences of not getting enough sleep!
Besides making you feel like crap, not getting enough sleep can make it harder to lose fat [21], and it can also negatively affect your ability to recover from training by reducing muscle protein synthesis, and increasing cortisol levels [22].
How much sleep you need will vary on a myriad of individual factors, but if you're getting less than 7-9 hours per night, you should strongly consider making some changes.
Just like not eating enough, not getting enough sleep will severely limit your ability to progress, so make it a priority!
You can perform cardio if you want, but keep in mind…
For every mile that you run, one pound of muscle literally melts off your body, never to return!
I don't have any evidence to back that up, but I do hate running (it's the worst).
On a more serious note…
No, cardio does not automatically make your muscles fall off! Cardio, when managed properly, does not interfere with weight training as much as many would have you believe. In fact, if it happens to be an area of weakness for you, it may help recovery and could even slightly improve your results.
That said, I would still urge you to minimize (not eliminate) cardio during gaining phases.
Improving cardiovascular performance is not your primary concern. Building muscle is. Trying to accomplish too many things at once is a great way to get mediocre results and end up not accomplishing any of your goals.
So, a couple sessions of low intensity cardio per week is fine, but if you decide you want to start training for a marathon while also trying to build as much muscle as possible, you're going to have a bad time…
I realize those are two vastly different extremes, but if you're going to lean in one direction or the other, go with less.
While the research on whether concurrent training (aerobic exercise combined with weight training) negatively impacts muscle growth is mixed, I still prefer to err on the side of caution.
Here's what Brad Schoenfeld recommends based on his review of the literature:
"If hypertrophy is the desired outcome, the frequency of aerobic endurance training should remain low and a lengthy intervening recovery period should be inserted between aerobic and resistance bouts. Perhaps even better, the two should be performed on separate days." [22b]
If you want to perform a bit of cardio, I would do something like light cycling or brisk walking on a rest day, 1-2 times per week.
Specialized/Novel Training Techniques
For the most part, I recommend using straight sets in order to encourage lifters to appropriately manage intensity of effort by leaving a few reps in the tank during most sets.
There are, however, two other training techniques that are somewhat underutilized that I think are uniquely suited to hardgainers. These two training methods both focus on the metabolic stress component of muscle growth.
Note: These training techniques should not take the place of traditional straight sets and I wouldn't design an entire training routine around them. They work best as supplemental tools to be phased in and out as needed. Used in this way, I've found them to be an excellent way to add a new wrinkle to your training and boost intensity.
I first learned of rest-pause from Borge Fagerli, so if you're interested in reading more on the subject, be sure to check him out. He's the expert as far as I'm concerned.
Also known as "myo-reps," rest-pause is a style of training which seeks to increase the number of "effective reps" in each set by maintaining near maximal levels of muscle fiber activation. It also mimics some of the effects of occlusion training by attempting to maximize the levels of metabolic stress via constant tension and reduced rest periods.
Here's how to perform rest-pause using the "Myo-Reps" Method:
Pick a weight that you can lift for a maximum of 10-20 reps (depending on the rep range your programming calls for). Perform your first set of the exercise as normal, stopping 1-2 reps shy of failure. Range of motion should be slightly reduced so that the muscle is under constant tension.
After your first set, only rest long enough to take 3-5 deep breaths and then continue to the next set. In this set and all subsequent sets, aim for 3-5 repetitions, coming fairly close to failure. End the rest-pause sets after 6 total sets or when you lose a rep in one of the "mini-sets."
For example:
- Set 1 = 20 reps (1 rep left in the tank)
- Rest 3-5 deep breaths
- Set 2 = 5 reps
- Rest 3-5 deep breaths
- Set 3 = 5 reps
- Rest 3-5 deep breaths
- Set 4 = 5 reps
- Rest 3-5 deep breaths
- Set 5 = 4 reps
- *End because 1 repetition was lost in last mini-set
If you perform rest-pause in a more moderate rep range (10-12 reps), you should attempt to get an average of 3 reps in your subsequent mini-sets.
Because rest-pause training is so fatiguing, I recommend using it on the last exercise programmed for a given muscle group. Use straight sets for your heavy compound movements and then selectively use rest-pause for higher rep work in the 10-20+ rep range. It seems works particularly well for isolation exercises on muscle groups which recover fairly quickly (arms, calves, and shoulders for example).
The "Effective Reps" Concept:
One of the principles behind rest-pause training is the concept of "effective reps."
Consider this:
If you perform a set of 10 reps, which reps do you think are most effective for muscle growth, the first few of the set, or the last 2-3 reps before failure? Obviously, it's those last few reps where you're close to your limit that will elicit the greatest training effect, right?
So, if you perform traditional straight sets of 3x10, you're only really struggling with the last 3 or 4 reps of each set, so you only got about 9-12 effective reps out of the 30 that were performed.
With rest-pause, however, each rep after the first activation set is "effective" because they will all be within a few reps of failure. So, repeating the above example, if you rest-paused those 30 reps you would have approximately 23 effective reps instead of just 9-12.
This does not mean that rest-pause is superior to straight sets. Remember, total volume and your ability to progressively overload your muscles is the main determinant of hypertrophy. Like I said before, it's merely a useful tool to stress your muscles in a new way and add some variety to your training.
Bloodflow Restriction Training
Bloodflow restriction training (BFR) is a training technique that may raise a few eyebrows but is actually very well researched and quite safe [23]. The idea is to use a wrapping implement of some kind to temporarily restrict venous blood flow return (not arterial) from the arms or legs.
This allows muscle growth and strength gains to be made even with light weights due in part to the fact that the muscles are exposed to high levels of metabolic stress (through the accumulation of metabolic byproducts). There are other factors at play as well—cell swelling, preferential recruitment of fast twitch fibers, etc.—but they don't know for sure all of the exact mechanisms that make BFR training work, they just know that it works!
Because BFR training allows you to use light loads and still see similar benefits as you do with heavier weights, it's great for when you're working around an injury or as a means of getting in some extra volume without affecting your recovery much.
Sure, I'd love to be doing heavy skullcrushers and close-grip bench press for my triceps, but my elbows simply won't allow it. BFR cable extensions, on the other hand, I can do all day long pain free...
Here's how to perform BFR training:
For the arms, I prefer to use quick-release medical tourniquets. They cost about $4 on Amazon. Put them as high up on your arm (close to the shoulder) as you can and pull to a tightness of about a 9/10.
Use a weight with which you could get about 30-40 reps if you were fresh and perform as many reps as you can. Rest about 30 seconds (leaving the wraps on) and then perform as many reps as you can again (aim for 10-15). Repeat 2-3 more times, keeping the rest intervals at 30 seconds or less.
Progress by attempting to increase reps each workout. Once you can exceed the reps performed in your first set by 5-10 reps, increase the weight.
For legs, use knee wraps and wrap to a tightness of about 8/10. Follow the same rep and set protocol as you would with arms.
BFR training should be used primarily for isolation exercises such as curls, triceps pushdowns and extensions, leg extensions, leg curls, and calf raises.
A word of warning: You will get an insane pump but it will be pretty painful if you're doing it right. The metabolic byproducts that are naturally produced by contracting your muscles are trapped and will not dissipate like they do with normal training.
BFR should not take the place of heavy lifting but it can be a useful supplement if you are injured, want some additional volume without using heavy weights, or are traveling and only have access to light weights.
Training Recap and Key Take-Aways
Just like with the nutrition section, I thought it might be handy to provide you a quick reference for all of the training recommendations listed above.
Training Essentials:
- Consider all three mechanisms of muscle growth (mechanical tension, metabolic stress, muscle damage) when training, but ensure a strong focus on mechanical tension via strength gains in compound movements.
- Train with enough volume for growth; use gradual increases in volume to overcome plateaus.
- Average of 40-70 reps per session, 2-4 times per week.
- Intermediate lifters should average 10-20 sets per muscle group, per week (4-8 sets per session).
- Utilize progressive overload to ensure continued progress.
- Using straight sets with double progression model is a simple way to accomplish this.
- Use a higher training frequency to facilitate a higher overall training volume.
- Hit muscle groups 2-4 times per week on average.
- Hypertrophy should be primary focus for most hardgainers. Don't focus too heavily on maximal strength.
- Perform a majority of your work in the 6-12 rep range.
- Training to failure should usually be avoided. Leave 1-2 reps "in the tank" each set.
- Base majority of training around compound movements but also include isolation exercises to provide more targeted volume.
- The "big three" are not mandatory exercises.
- Use a variety of exercises from a variety of angles to promote even development of muscles.
- Rest as long as needed to perform optimally each set.
- Do not worry about specific lifting tempos. Simply control the eccentric and lift explosively during concentric.
- Always warm up. Perform both general and specific warm ups.
- Use frequent deloads (every 4-6 weeks) to allow for recovery from higher training volume.
- Use periodization to improve strength gains and to allow for continued progress and higher training volumes.
- Do not worry about workouts taking longer than an hour.
- Minimize stress when possible and maximize sleep. Aim for 7-9 hours or more per night.
- Cardio should minimized (not eliminated) if gaining is primary focus.
- Consider using rest-pause training and/or bloodflow restriction training to provide a novel training stimulus and boost intensity when appropriate.
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Hardgainer Training Toolkit
Let me preface this discussion on gear (and by gear I'm referring to training equipment, just to be clear) with the following:
Many of the things on this list are not necessary.
Do you need fancy squat shoes? Absolutely not. I got by just fine with a pair of chucks for years. When I switched to front squats and wanted a bit of heel elevation, I just slipped a couple of 5 pound plates under my heels.
On the other hand, don't avoid using tools that are beneficial simply because you think you're not "strong enough" yet.
One person's beginner-intermediate level could end up being someone else's advanced level.
You can't use arbitrary strength standards—2 plate bench for example—and then use that to determine how advanced someone is. There are complete beginners who will be able to rep 225 on day one. And there are advanced-intermediate lifters who will struggle for years before getting 225.
So don't let someone tell you that you don't need wrist wraps/weight belt/knee sleeves just because you're not putting up big numbers.
You should be using anything and everything that makes lifting more comfortable and safe.
So let's get into it…
Hardgainer Starter Kit
Here are a few basic items that you'll need right from the start. These things are all fairly cheap and easy to obtain and offer important benefits.
1. Notebook:
You MUST track your progress and make notes each time you lift. This is a very important habit to develop. Beginners and early-stage intermediates sometimes get away without tracking because strength gains still come in a fairly linear and predictable fashion. As you become more advanced, however, you may only progress on a monthly (or less) basis.
This means progress becomes much harder to gauge and tracking your workouts and making notes is critical to figuring out whether you're progressing or not.
For example: When performing straight sets, I like to use the RPE scale to record the difficulty of the last set:
I write the RPE number as if it were an exponent (or in parenthesis) right next to the number of reps achieved. So if the last rep of a 3x10 of pullups was a bit of a grinder and I barely made the last rep, I would write 10 (9.5). Then, the next workout, if I hit the 3x10 and felt like I could have done one more rep in the last set, I would write 10 (9). This allows you to show progress even though both sessions you performed 3 sets of 10 reps on pullups.
As you look back over your log at sessions that are months old, this becomes a valuable tool to show progression where memory would fail. Think beyond week-to-week and session-to-session.
We're in this for the long haul!
2. Elastic Resistance Band:
A simple elastic resistance band is very useful for warming up and performing light activation drills. This is something you should be doing right from the beginning. Do not wait until there is a problem to start taking care of yourself!
3. Foam Roller/Lacrosse Ball
Having an implement to perform some targeted self-myofacial release is another important tool for a complete warmup. Don't go crazy with the foam rolling, 5 minutes is usually plenty of time to get the benefits.
4. Comfortable, Flat-Soled Shoes:
Chucks are a classic option and have been a staple lifting shoe for a long time. I happen to really like the New Balance Minimus line as well. The main thing to avoid when deadlifting or squatting is a super cushy running shoe with a clunky heel. These types of shoes compress under heavy loads and do not provide the stability and "ground feel" that you'll need.
Other Useful Items
Weight Lifting Shoes:
If you love squatting (or you will be performing the Olympic lifts often) and will be hitting them with a fairly high frequency, you may want to invest in a pair of weightlifting shoes. Weightlifting shoes have an elevated heel which makes hitting depth easier and provide a very stable surface through which you can generate force. Good weightlifting shoes can be pricey but are worth considering if you are doing a lot of squats.
Wrist Wraps:
Wrist wraps simply provide some additional stability for your wrists during pressing movements. Good wraps (wrapped above and below the joint) will help you keep your wrist straight when the weights get heavy. They also help keep your wrists warm which is another valuable benefit. If you have wrist/hand pain while pressing heavy, you may find that using wraps helps alleviate the pain. Make sure you also analyze your technique and placement of the bar in your hand if you are experiencing pain. Using wrist wraps on top of improper lifting form is a Band-Aid solution at best and will not fix the root of the problem. For some people—especially those with smaller joints/hands—even proper technique results in some pain/discomfort at certain intensities. In these cases, wrist wraps are definitely worth a try.
Weightlifting Belt:
Weight belts give your core something solid to brace against. This helps you maintain rigidity during lifts such as squats, deadlifts, and rows. Contrary to popular belief, using a weight belt will not make your core weak [24]. Belts also do not automatically make lifts safer. Unless you know how to brace properly and keep a neutral spine when lifting under heavy load, you are still at risk of injury. That said, many people are able to lift more weight when using a belt and if you brace against it properly, it can help you lift heavier loads more safely. If you will be performing a lot of heavy, free weight movements—as most of us should be—then a belt is a worthy investment. Get one that is an equal width all the way around and is made of leather (either 10mm or 13mm thick).
Dipping/Pull-up Belt:
A dipping belt is a must-have if you are strong enough to need added resistance when performing dips or pullups. Yes, in a pinch you can hold a dumbbell between your legs/feet, but using a belt allows you to focus on the movement more and is generally a lot more comfortable.
Wrist Straps:
Wrist straps help take your grip out of the equation when pulling heavy. They are also useful for helping you feel your back working during vertical and horizontal pulling movements as they allow you to relax your grip. A lot of people are critical of using straps because your grip and forearms do not get worked as well when you use them.
This is true. If you always use straps on every pulling movement your grip will not be as strong as it could be. BUT…there's nothing wrong with strapping up if your grip is the limiting factor when you're trying to work your back. You can always perform some targeted grip work if you are concerned about your grip strength. Avoiding straps to seem more "hardcore" is just as bad as the bro ego lifting more weight than he can handle.
Knee Sleeves/Elbow Sleeves:
Sleeves help keep your joints warm while lifting and can provide some extra stability. Thicker sleeves (like SBDs) can also provide a slight rebound effect and may help you lift slightly more weight. Sleeves are definitely not a necessity but can help you feel more comfortable and confident during a lift so may be worth considering.
Chalk is a godsend if you are having trouble with grip due to sweaty hands. If you find the bar slips in your hands frequently, you may want to try using chalk. Just check and make sure it's allowed at your gym first!
Quick-Release Tourniquets and/or Knee Wraps:
If you decide to start performing bloodflow restriction training (BFR), then I suggest using the quick-release tourniquets for your arms and knee wraps for your legs. Only worth purchasing if you plan on regularly doing BFR work.
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Putting it All Together: The HHQ Hypertrophy Program
I have designed a training program that combines all of the principles I've discussed here at HQ in a way that I feel is optimal for the average hardgainer.
This routine is uniquely suited to hardgainers and intermediate lifters who feel "stuck" because it manipulates some important variables related to muscle building in ways which are likely novel for most.
Just a warning, this is a high volume and frequency routine that is not for the faint of heart!
This is definitely not a program for beginners!
But it is based on the exact template I use to get my hardgainer clients as jacked as possible.
I decided to make the program separate from this guide as it's an additional 20 pages of content and I didn't want this guide to be any more cumbersome than it already is!
I also thought you might find it more convenient to have the program as a stand-alone resource so you can browse through it more easily.
If you'd like a FREE copy of the HHQ Hypertrophy Program, click the button below for instant access!
Hardgainer Checklist For Success
Many hardgainers have claimed they've "tried everything" and couldn't make progress.
But W.W.Y.S.? (What would Yoda say?)
There is no try!
Have you really done everything possible to make progress? Are you doing enough of the right things, at the same time, for a long enough period of time?
These are the things you need to ask yourself before making a decision about your potential.
Here's a quick checklist you can use as a reference:
- Calories and macros tracked and weighed, ensuring surplus for weight gain, enough protein for muscle growth, carbs for training, and an appropriate amount of fats.
- Adequate sleep (the more the better).
- Stress levels in check.
- Following a time-tested program or individualized programming from a coach.
- Progressive overload: you're getting stronger and accumulating volume over time.
- Form is evaluated by trainer/coach and verified to be correct and safe.
- Consistency. Not missing workouts. Hitting macros day in and day out. Follow programs to completion. Note progress.
- Adjust: Use the training principles and variables to adjust programming to better suit your needs as your situation changes. Monitor changes in body weight and adjust calories and macros accordingly.
- Never stop.
Making progress as a hardgainer depends on consistency of effort, determination, the ability to problem solve, and above all else, PATIENCE.
If you're not in this for the long haul, you haven't got a chance.
If you are…well, welcome to the club.
I hope you've found this guide to be helpful in some way.
I've spent a lot of time putting it together and I've written this guide with an eye on the most up-to-date, evidence-based fitness and nutritional information I could find; however, it's important to keep in mind that evidence changes…
Over time, as more studies are conducted, we gain new insights into training and nutrition and recommendations can change.
In order to get future updates to this guide, I highly recommend you sign up for my newsletter and shoot me an email.
It's the best way to keep in touch with me.
Also, if you've found this guide to be useful, please SHARE it. Help spread the word!
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have and I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on training as a hardgainer, so feel free to leave a comment below!
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