The grass is always greener. As someone who puts on weight easily (mostly fat I must say), I was always jealous of hardgainers. They seemingly can eat all that they want and never seem to put on weight, whereas if I even look at food I seem to get fat. As wonderful as this may sound, I soon realized after having hardgainers of clients how much of a struggle this can be. Because of their fast metabolism, it seems like a never ending battle to put on even a single pound let alone muscle. Today, I’d like to provide some guidance to help hardgainers put on more muscle.
Nutrition is the Foundation
Before we even get into the lifting, and everything else I can’t emphasize this enough. What you are eating, and how much of it you are eating matters. You can have the best lifting program in the world, but if you are not eating enough protein and calories, you will NOT grow. Period.
You need to be in a surplus of calories (that is taking in more than you are burning) and this is often the precise issue with hardgainers. They have fast metabolisms (unlike me) which usually means they need to eat more calories than someone like me. To give you an example, I will start seeing the scale move if I eat 2500 calories. Most hardgainers I’ve worked with don’t usually start seeing the scale move till at least 3500 calories. That’s a 1000 calorie difference! Add on top of this trying to stick to mostly whole foods, and anecdotally, I’ve found most hardgainers don’t have the same big appetite that I do. It is work for them to even come CLOSE to 3500.
As mentioned before make sure you are getting your weight in protein. This will provide more than enough fuel to repair your muscle growth. Focus on mostly whole food sources such as fish, eggs, chicken, steaks, etc. Use whey protein as needed if you find you struggle to hit that goal. From there, the remainder of your calories can come from whatever mix of fats and carbohydrates you prefer.
I realize given what was said before, that sticking to mostly whole foods turns this into a second job for most hardgainers. What you can do to help get more of these calories down is turn them into a shake. Take some whey protein, and throw in oats, peanut butter, greek yogurt, and whatever else you can fit into one big shake and try drinking that down. The only reason I advocate for this with hardgainers, is the fact that they need an easier way to hit their calories day in and day out. While it’s not ideal, feel free to include more processed foods in your daily intake as needed to hit your goals if you are STILL behind.
Progression On Your Lifts
Once you have the nutrition down, the next big piece is making sure we are providing the right signal to even grow muscle. It’s one thing to lift weights, but it’s another to progressively challenge the body with harder and harder stimulus to elicit the same muscle growth signal. Your base should be compound exercises such as bench, deadlift, squats, overhead press, row and pull-ups. These will hit all the muscles and allow you to push the most weight.
Make sure each week you are doing 1 rep or 5lbs more than the week before. You want a weight you can do for a given rep range (let’s say 6-10 or 10-15 reps), so that when you hit the top of either rep range, you feel you could have only done 1-2 more reps. This will train your mind and your body to keep pushing the effort harder and harder. Without this, you will have no idea if you are challenging the muscle enough.
Consistency
The third piece is consistency. You need to be lifting at least 2-3 times a week, for months and months. Your ideal physique most likely isn’t achieved in only 1-2 months. Look at all the bigger guys in the gym. They have been lifting for YEARS to get that body. You have to be into the journey, not the destination. As with any great success in life, it takes time.
Recovery
Make sure you are getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. This is the time your body uses the signal from the gym, and the fuel from the food to repair. We aren’t building up muscle in the gym, we are breaking it down. It is when we sleep that our body really has a chance to focus on growth so sleep is crucial. Make sure to include some rest days as well to prevent overtraining. You do not need to be training 6-7 days a week. 2-3 times is more than enough to get the physique you want.
After you’ve lifted for 4-8 weeks, or whenever you feel you’ve pushed it enough to where your progress starts to significantly slow down, make sure to implement a deload week so your body has time to recover and catch up to all the volume you’ve placed on it.
Supplements
While supplements are definitely not REQUIRED, there are a few that can help with muscle growth. Creatine is one of the most researched and effective supplements you can take for muscle growth. Whey protein can help fill in the gaps if you are not able to hit your daily intake. Beyond that, there aren’t really many more supplements you need. Supplements are here as TOOLS not as replacements.
