Back in the 80’s and 90’s schools would test every elementary kid’s personal physical fitness. If you performed the test well, you would get a Presidential Physical Fitness Award. If you underperformed, teachers would not say much about it as to not embarrass anyone. But, kids being kids, everyone would know EXACTLY where they placed among their peers. I was not at the bottom of the list, but I was not exactly average either. The pull up test was the worst. All the kids would wait around for their turn and would watch other kids try to do their pull ups. I could not do even one.
Growing up I was self-conscious about the fact that I was skinnier than the other kids around me. I came from a physical family with a dad that was known for being strong and muscular. I didn’t inherit his muscle or strength genes; I was a classic ectomorph. A hardgainer. I would eat and eat to try to gain weight to no avail. It seemed as if I was destined to be skinny and physically weak. It sucked.
Then one day my dad bought a basic home gym set up for himself. It included a bench, a barbell, some adjustable dumbbells, a pull up bar and roughly 300lbs of free weights. I was 13 at the time, “too young” to start lifting, according to my parents. They said I had to be at least 14 years old, so I patiently waited. On my 14th birthday, I did my first workout and instantly became enthralled and obsessed.
The thought of being able to morph and transform my body through actions that I had control over, gave me a sense of confidence. I didn’t mind that it took time or that it was hard, in fact I loved those things. It was something I was willing to endure, and I was aware that hard work was a barrier that most people would not want to overcome. It made me feel proud to know that my discipline would lead to success.
Unfortunately, after 2 consistent years of lifting I had made very little progress. Although I was obsessed and dedicated to learning and applying every piece of muscle building information I could get my hands on to my workout routine, my body stubbornly hardly responded. I read every muscle building magazine available at the time including Flex, Muscle and Fitness, Muscle Media 2000, Ironman and Muscle Mag. I read every book written by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I learned a lot, but when I applied what I had learned to my own workout, nothing seemed to happen.
I hit every body part once a week like they advised. I did 20 plus sets per muscle group with varying angles and exercises. I used “advanced mass building techniques” like training to failure, forced reps, partial reps, super sets, giant sets, negatives and more. I would get SORE as hell, rest my muscle groups for a full week and come back again for another session of “bombing and blitzing,” as Arnold called it. Yet week after week I saw almost zero progress.
At 16, I got my first gym membership to the YMCA. I thought to myself, “this will do it, I just need access to fancier equipment.” On my first day I walked around the gym eyes wide open, excited to train on every machine they had. That’s when a group of older men in their 40’s walked in. They were MASSIVE. Huge legs, big shoulders, wide backs. They headed to the squat rack and set themselves up.
Meanwhile I started my workout. Machine chest press, cable flies, machine rows…. then I got to the leg extension and leg curl machine. My legs were the skinniest part of my body, so I decided to do 10 sets of each to failure. The huge monster lifters that had walked in earlier were still at the squat rack working their way up to ungodly weights. The leg extension machine was right next to them, so I hopped on. Motivated by the insane mass monsters next to me, I began pumping out reps. After a few sets of pushing myself to incredible exhaustion, one of the men looked over and said, “you are working hard buddy, good job.” I replied, “thanks, I’m just trying to not be so skinny anymore…I want to build mass like you guys.” They all started laughing. Realizing that my feelings were hurt, he explained, “look buddy, we aren’t laughing at your effort, we are laughing because you are doing the worst exercises for muscle mass to ever exist.” He then said, “if you want to get big legs you need to squat. Want to join us?” That was the first effective workout of my life. They helped me with form and told me some hard truths about muscle building. That summer I packed on 15lbs of lean body mass.
This marked the start of my questioning the information widely published by muscle building magazines. What they said didn’t work, and the very basic little information the mass monsters at the YMCA shared worked WELL. Thankfully, I have an obsessive personality, (I will consume insane amounts of information on whatever subject I am into). I looked for books and information on muscle building BEFORE the widespread use of anabolic steroids. Once I learned that 99% of the body builders that gave out muscle building information in the magazines were on super doses of steroids, I theorized (accurately), that perhaps what worked for them would most likely not work for natural lifters like myself. Before the 60’s, bodybuilders and strength athletes used some steroids, but the doses were very small. Before the 50’s steroid use was rare. I figured that the advice from those eras may apply better to a natural, genetically skinny guy, like myself.
It is also important to note that I was fighting my natural genetic leanings. My body wanted to be VERY skinny. Modern bodybuilders at the time were not only on steroids, but they had mutant muscle building genetics. When it comes to our muscle building genes, we all exist on a spectrum. On one end you have the “mutants,” who build and can keep muscle easily. On the other, there are people like me who got the short end of the muscle building gene stick. Advice from people who were genetically gifted and who took anabolic steroids, probably would not work well at all for people like myself.
Once I discarded the information I had previously learned from the mutant steroid users and started reading, then applying the muscle building advice I learned from lifters of previous generations, my body BLEW UP. I had the discipline all along, I was just training wrong. In fact, MUCH of what I did before was not just ineffective for a skinny hardgainer like myself, in some cases it was COUNTER productive. If you can relate to my experience and you possess hardgainer genetics that make building muscle or gaining weight feel impossible, keep reading. I am going to share with you tips that will make muscle building finally happen for you.
First off, let’s talk about training frequency. The magazines of my time and the social media steroid heads of today, tend to recommend body part split routines where you hammer each body part hard once a week. The routines typically look like the following:
Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Shoulders
Thursday: Arms
Friday: Legs and Abs
Saturday and Sunday off
Body part splits can look different from the example I provided, but you get the picture. The idea is to go “beast mode,” on a muscle and then leave it alone to “rest and recover” for a full seven days before repeating the cycle. This routine can work well for the genetically gifted steroid user, but it almost ALWAYS is counterproductive for a skinny hardgainer. If you are following a similar routine and are frustrated with your lack of progress, it is because splits SUCK for people like me and for people like you.
Allowing a body part to rest for a full week will kill your gains. Here is why: muscle adaptation and recovery are NOT the same thing. Although they can happen simultaneously, one is a healing process (recovery), while the other is the process of getting stronger and building (adaptation). When you train a muscle with sufficient intensity, you damage it. After the workout, your body aims to heal the damage. At roughly the same time, your body aims to ADAPT with more strength and muscle, so that any future stress that is similar will not create any more damage. Here lies the problem, the adaptation process does not last long. Recovery can take some time, depending on the damage created. Modern science allows us to measure the adaptation process through testing, termed “muscle protein synthesis.” When it is elevated, we know muscles are adapting and building. When it is flat, we know muscles are not adapting. When it goes negative with muscle protein breakdown, we know muscles are adapting in unfavorable ways (weakening and shrinking).
Tests on muscle protein synthesis show that the adaptation, or “building process,” starts right after a workout, but stops quickly after 24 to 72 hours. I believe this window to be even shorter in skinny hardgainers. People with mutant muscle building genes who are on steroid likely maintain muscle protein synthesis levels elevated for 2 or 3 times longer than the average person. Therefore, their muscles respond positively to their body part split routines.
If you are following a body part split, your muscles build for a few days while you are recovering or healing for the rest of the week. Or worse, they could be going backwards. Muscles are constantly adapting. They either build or shrink. It is likely that your current routine has you breaking even when it comes to muscle gains.
The pre-steroid muscle building advice confirms this. Old time muscle builders who trained before steroids, or even protein powders, ALL trained their whole body three to four days a week. None of them followed a split. When I switched from a body part split to a full body routine, I felt like I had accidentally taken steroids. My body responded fast and consistently.
Take your split and throw it out the window. Instead, train your whole body three days a week. One caveat, don’t triple your workout volume, this will lead to massive overtraining. Instead do the same weekly volume as before but break it up over three days. For example, if you did 15 sets for chest once a week, do 5 sets for chest three days a week. Same total weekly volume, but now you are sending a muscle building signal three times as often.
Another problem with current routines is their reliance on maximal intensity. Social media muscle building influencers tell you to go “beast mode” or to “destroy your muscles” to force them to grow. Although intensity is an important factor and you need to train with sufficient intensity to get the muscle adaptation ball rolling, applying too much will halt your progress fast.
The old-time pre-steroid lifters actually recommend AGAINST too much intensity. They would say thing like, “save some energy for the next workout,” or “going too hard will prevent muscle growth.” They never advocated for going to failure (when you cannot complete another rep). Once I stopped training every set to absolute failure, I saw my body respond quickly. Modern studies support this. When studies compare the results of training to failure vs stopping a bit short of failure on natural resistance trained men, they always see a clear advantage for the non-failure group.
Training to failure is simply too much intensity for most natural lifters and especially true for hardgainers. When it comes to intensity there is an ideal dose. Too little or too much will result in less gains. In my experience, which is confirmed by old time bodybuilder advice and current studies, it is best to take each set to about 2 reps BEFORE failure. This alone will get your progress moving.
After years of experience, I also concluded that not all exercises built muscle with the same effectiveness. The best exercises were the basic barbell and dumbbell movements that required more than one joint to be used. These movements are known as “compound movements.” A bench press is an example of a compound movement as it uses the elbow and shoulder joints, while a cable fly is not a compound movement since it uses only the shoulder joint. Compound movements build muscle and strength faster and to a much greater degree than non-compound movements. Adding 30lbs to squat will add far more muscle mass and strength to your legs than adding 30lbs to your leg extension. Your routine should be centered around compound movements.
If you apply the simple tips above, it will become VERY clear to you that your workout program makes a HUGE difference when it comes to your muscle building progress and gains. It is likely that a major reason you are not building muscle and strength is because your routine is not designed with the skinny natural hardgainer in mind. It is the wrong program for you.
Through years of training myself and others as a professional trainer, I became well versed with program workout designs for the skinny hardgainer. Eventually in 2014, I created a program called MAPS Anabolic. MAPS stands for “Muscular Adaptation Programming System.” It was constructed specifically to train muscles to ADAPT, grow and build. The program lays out the best and most effective muscle building exercises in the perfect sequence. Reps were phased to prevent the body from getting used to certain ranges. I designed all of this and put it in a full body type routine. I even developed a proprietary technique called “trigger sessions,” which further amplified and maintained elevated levels of muscle protein synthesis. Years later, and tens of thousands of programs sold later, it is regarded as one of the most powerful muscle building programs online. My favorite feedback comes from skinny hardgainers who tell me they almost gave up before trying MAPS Anabolic. Now they are stronger and more muscular than they ever thought possible.
If you take ONLY the advice given in this article, you WILL see significant positive changes in your ability to build muscle and strength. If you are looking for all the guess work to be taken out and a comprehensive online muscle building program specifically created to get even the most stubborn skinny hardgainers bodies to respond, then try MAPS Anabolic. It is a full 12-week program that is phased, and even comes with exercise demonstration videos. Try it for 30 days and if you are not blown away with your results, return it for a full refund. I am more than confident it will change how you think about your body.
