As a hardgainer you know how hard it is to put on muscle. The hours in the gym, the eating, the constant ing yourself on the scale, it is all very difficult to take but you keep trying to gain muscle anyway.
There are a few things that you can do to try to gain more muscle and I believe that if you have a plan even the toughest of hardgainers can still gain a few pounds in a couple of months. As you know most bodybuilders not on roids can only gain about two pounds a month but if you make radical changes then you can gain rather quickly for a short amount of time.
So here are some tips to get better gains in the gym:
Weightlifting Tips for Hardgainers
1. The key to gaining muscle is to conserve your energy in an almost slothlike style. When as a hardgainer you are doing your workout try to get the most muscle fibers working in the least number of sets and reps.
2. Skip the cardio. Even though you know that you are trying to get yourself in better shape you still want to keep the cardio out of your workout. As you do cardio workouts your hard earned muscle is going to disappear as you lose your fat¦but you do not have any fat to speak of do you?
3. Hardgainers need to mix up the workouts still to confuse your muscles into jumping in strength and mass.
So now I am going to get into some detail. What kind of workouts should you try in order to gain some more muscle? The key I believe in making gains is to break up your workouts and do high low rep workouts that will really shock your muscles.
What you need to do is go to a two day split where you work chest, shoulders and triceps in one workout and legs, back and biceps on another day with two cycles of this a week. A total of four workouts a week is all that you really need.
One of the real problems that Muscle and Fitness as well as other magazines has is the idea that you need to do 20 sets per muscle group. This may be true for a steroid using pro but for normal mortals we can only get away with four to six sets per muscle group. Here is a sample of how you should do a chest workout.
- 1 set of 12 reps of light flat bench to warm up
- 2 sets of 6 reps of bench press at as close to max as possible
- 2 sets of 6 reps of cable crossovers at max
- 2 sets of 6 reps of incline flyes at max .
A few things to note about this is that after the workout you should feel sick from the amount of that you have lifted but at the same time you should not be exhausted as you did only a few reps. This kind of workout will tax your muscles with the minimum really of number of reps for muscle gain while at the same time you should stay away from overtraining with only a few reps and sets.
hey, i dont have a problem with the workouts, the only problem id when should i take a protein shake, i know right after my workout but is there any other time i should. plus i been taking creatine i take 20g a day. is there any other tips i need to know
For best results hardgainers should stick with compound exercises like the squat, bench press,overhead press and deadlift.
Those are great guidelines! There are 3 keys to getting it right, and getting any one of them wrong can really hamper your progress: Train right, eat right, recover right.
Hi
Great tips! I’ll be taking those on board! One thing I am struggling with though. I am a naturally skinny and have been since forever. I’m in my 40’s now and although still pretty boney I have a bit of a moob problem and also quite a spare tyre around my waist. Since being on my hardgaining diet (three weeks) I’ve put on about four kgs. I am starting to wonder though, shouldn’t I be lose the fat I have before I start my bulking? I am worried that I am only putting on fat at the moment despite the fact that I am training with a similar routine that you suggest.
Also, you mention doing a ligtht set of bench before the more intense sets. Should I do that with all the compound exercises I am doing? Eg squats, bench and deadlifts?