You might be a hard gainer if you have a thin build and struggle to put on muscle and weight. It almost seems paradoxical that there are people who actively work to gain weight at a time when so many of us struggle to keep it off. Now more than ever, this condition is starting to receive more attention. It’s not a new condition, but it is being brought to light, which is good, as with so many other issues.
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How To Know If You’re A Hardgainer?
1. Isolating Too Much
I am aware that you desire large arms, but having Pop-Eye-sized arms when the rest of your body is petite looks odd and is unhealthy. Compound exercises, not isolation exercises, should be used as your first step when you’re a beginner, hard gainer, or beginning hard gainer.
The greatest number of muscle fibers are put under a lot of stress during compound exercises. Exercises like the squat work out your abs, glutes, hip flexors, and legs. That’s a lot of work for just one motion. Multiple-joint exercises, according to studies, result in muscles that are bigger and thicker.
Learn how to perform the top compound exercises in the business, including squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and clean and presses. For the upcoming few months, make them the center of your workouts.
2. You’re Not Eating Enough
The typical hardgainer has one vicious metabolism. These are the same guys who can consume an entire chocolate cake without gaining a pound of fat. You will need to step up your nutrition game significantly more than the average person if you want to gain weight quickly.
It takes the right nutrition plan and the appropriate training (see above) to get bigger. How many calories do you believe you’ll need to consume to gain weight? 1,500? 2,000? It’s a good guess, but in reality, it looks more like 3,500 to 3,800 calories per day. Studies show that pairing a comprehensive resis
3. Get Strong At Key Lifts
The strength of the key lifts is the second thing I check with hard gainers. Bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, and squats using barbells. They frequently claim to not perform those lifts or, if they do, to not do so with the intention of achieving their maximum strength. Both responses provide a wealth of information about their mistakes.
You are figuratively making it much harder to achieve your goal if you struggle to gain muscle mass and don’t perform the exercises I just mentioned. However, not all resistance training exercises have the SAME potential to increase muscle mass. By far, the BEST exercises for gaining muscle are the major barbell movements. Much more effective than exercise machines or other forms of exercise.
4. Progressive Overload and Compound Lifts
The second most important piece of advice I can give is to make sure you are going to the gym frequently. This means concentrating on compound lifts that activate multiple muscle groups simultaneously and enable you to use significantly more weight. Because they want to concentrate on appearance and believe that performing bicep curls and tricep pushdowns is their best option, lifters across the board eventually decide to avoid this, as I have observed. Even though those exercises are excellent, they only focus on one muscle, which is also a very small muscle in relation to other muscles.
Instead, concentrate on adding 5 additional pounds or 1-2 additional reps to your squat, deadlift, shoulder press, bench press, and rows each week. You WILL gain size if you follow this regimen for three to six months while maintaining a healthy calorie surplus. Both of those things will require perseverance and consistency. By eating insufficiently and working out ineffectively, no one has ever gained muscle. Those of us with average genetics can “get away” with it because it’s easier to eat in a surplus of calories and see the scale go up.
5. Need More Protein
In keeping with the previous point, protein is one macronutrient you should prioritize if you want to gain weight. Protein is the primary component of muscle tissue, which explains why. Muscle tissue recovery and repair are aided by it. It promotes the release of growth hormone and starts the protein synthesis process. Protein is, in general, the ideal diet for increasing size.
Protein is essential for size, according to studies. According to one study, consuming two to three grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day is ideal for gaining muscle mass. You should aim to consume between 136 and 204 grams of protein per day (with a focus on the latter) if you are a particularly obstinate hardgainer and weigh 68 kilograms.
Utilize a calorie counter once more to confirm that you’re getting the daily recommended amount of protein for muscle growth.
6. Not Using The Correct Supplements
Let’s face it: A demanding exercise regimen and a calorie-dense diet will be the main contributors to your bulking results. Having said that, supplements can greatly speed up the process of getting you to your desired size.
Since their invention in the 1950s and 1960s, supplements have advanced significantly. Protein and creatine were the initial ingredients in what has since grown into a multi-billion dollar industry where there is truly a supplement for everything, particularly growing bigger. With so many options available, choosing a supplement based solely on its fancy label rather than its actual efficacy is simple to do.
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7. You Skip On Sleep
The last point is that you will grow smaller if you skip sleep. Your body begins to repair the muscle tissue that has been damaged by your workouts while you are sleeping. Additionally, this is the period when your body releases the most growth hormones, which are crucial for size gains. According to studies, not getting enough sleep increases your risk of injury, weight gain, and overtraining.
How many hours of sleep per night are recommended? Seven to nine hours per night are recommended by experts as being essential. Attempt to get 10 hours if your day was particularly demanding due to your workout, job, and school.
What To Do If You’re A Hardgainer?
Now that this has been said, is a hard gainer destined to always look the same? Actually, the only thing a hard gainer needs to do is adjust their bodybuilding workout and diet plan to fit their particular metabolism. The hard gainer will benefit most from a diet consisting of 50% carbohydrates, 25% proteins, and 25% healthy fats, whereas most people will do best on a diet consisting of 40% carbohydrates, 40% proteins, and 20% fats.
Furthermore, a hard gainer is better off consuming as many as 24 calories per pound of total bodyweight, even though the average person achieves great results on an intake of calories equal to their lean body mass times 12 for most people. Your caloric intake will be 3600 calories (150 x 24) if you are a hard gainer and weigh 150 lbs. Your daily totals for carbohydrates, protein and good fats will be around 450 grams of carbohydrates, 225 grams, and 100 grams, respectively. All of this can be consumed in six, seven, or even eight meals.
The secret to success for a hard gainer is to maximize their caloric intake while minimizing their caloric expenditures. This is essential because the hardgainer metabolism burns calories constantly, and if not enough is provided at one point or another, the body will use muscle for energy. After all, being a hard gainer is caused by this metabolic condition.
Benefits Of Being A Hardgainer
If you struggle to gain weight, it’s not the end of the world. There are numerous hard gainers who have worked extremely hard to achieve their bodybuilding goals. Hardgainers are attractive because they have a very difficult time gaining body fat. As a result, any muscle gains they do make are highly noticeable because of how well-defined their muscles are.
Planning your meals in advance, putting them in a cooler, and making sure you never run out of food will help you gain weight more quickly. Go in and out of the gym as you please. Get lots of rest at night, and get ready to grow if you follow these instructions every day.