There is a term that many people like to use when they don't gain muscle, and that's "hard gainers." These people claim that they can't gain muscle no matter what they do. There is no question that some people don't gain muscle easily because of poor genetics. This points to each person having a unique capacity to recuperate from exercise.
BODYBUILDING “HARDGAINER” IS A MYTH! STUDY FINDS ALL PEOPLE CAN GAIN MUSCLE SUMMARY
- Before calling yourself a hardgainer or non-responder, ensure your nutrition, sleep, and training are on track.
- You may need to perform more or less volume; everyone has a unique capacity to recuperate from exercise.
- There is no such thing as a non-responder, only a person who has not found the right volume that works best for their genetic capacity.
Many lifers will start lifting weights and wonder, “Why is it so hard for me to gain weight?” You are your workout partner who started working out at the same time, and he has doubled his muscle growth, and you feel like you are not making any progress. You must be a hard gainer!
HARDGAINER MEANING
There is a term that many people like to use when they don’t gain muscle or struggling to gain weight, and that’s “hard gainers.” These people claim that they can’t gain muscle no matter what they do. There is no question that some people don’t gain muscle easily because of poor genetics. It’s because of several genetic factors that a hard gainer has no control over:
GENETIC FACTORS DETERMINING MUSCLE GROWTH
- Myostatin levels (i.e., a gene that reduces muscle growth).
- Lack of satellite cell activation (i.e., satellite cells fuse with muscle fibers to regenerate muscle and are essential for muscle growth).
- Differences in fiber size and type (i.e., people with low type II fibers have difficulty gaining muscle).
- Androgen receptor concentrations in muscle (i.e., low androgen receptor concentrations are associated with low muscle growth).
HARDGAINER STUDY
In a study by Dr. Haun, he found that a subject’s pre-training muscle fiber size and type determined how much muscle growth they had in response to a six-week resistance exercise protocol.
Subjects with the greatest muscle growth increase had high type II muscle fibers at baseline. [1] Unfortunately, you may not be one of the blessed individuals with an abundance of type II fibers, but there are things you have control over.
Many hard gainers who say they cannot gain muscle often have poor lifestyle choices and training quality, resulting in subpar muscle growth.
HARDGAINER TIPS
Many hard gainers will spend hundreds of dollars on supplements but fail to meet the necessities for gaining muscle. Hard gainers may have certain genetic components they have no control over, but there are several things that hard gainers have control over that can impact muscle growth.
Here is a list of factors all Hardgainers should make sure they have a checkmark next to:
- Are you eating enough calories to gain muscle? A hard gainer meal plan should include a calorie surplus for muscle gain. Many lifters struggling to gain weight will drink a high-calorie shake to gain muscle. Popular weight gainers can increase muscle but also fat.
- Are you consuming sufficient protein to build muscle? Hard gainers should consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Studies have found that lower protein diets result in less muscle growth than higher protein diets.
- Are you sleeping enough and resting enough between workouts to gain muscle? Not getting enough sleep reduces protein synthesis and muscle growth.
- Are you training with too little or too much exercise volume? A hard gainer may simply be not training with enough sets to gain muscle.
- Are you training at the right exercise intensity level (i.e., close to muscular failure)?
- Are you training each body part 2 times per week?
- Are you consistently following a workout plan? (i.e., changing exercises too frequently can reduce program adaptations)
HARDGAINER DIET: HOW TO GAIN WEIGHT FAST METABOLISM WORKOUT
Everyone has a different number of sets to grow. The best example was a study in which people who decreased their sets had better muscle growth, whereas others increased their sets. In this study, subjects were randomly assigned to perform 12, 18, or 24 sets per week for the quads.
These were previously trained athletes, so some people increased their sets. In contrast, others decreased their training volume based on their previous sets before entering the study (i.e., some people may have been performing 20 sets per body part before the study and may have been assigned to the 12-set group).
Interestingly, the individuals who grew the most increased their number of sets per week, while others gained muscle by reducing their training volume. [2] It’s worth repeating; some subjects gained muscle by reducing their total training volume.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HARDGAINER!
This points to each person having a unique capacity to recuperate from exercise. If you are not gaining muscle, you simply may need to either increase or, in some cases, decrease the number of sets. Some researchers have suggested that there is no such thing as non-responders. For example, a study in which individuals who were classified as aerobic non-responders after 6 weeks of aerobic training had improvements in aerobic capacity responded with higher aerobic training volume.[4] They needed more aerobic training than the rest to make cardiovascular improvements. However, their cardiovascular levels only improved when they performed more exercise volume than the rest of the study subjects.
If you find it hard to gain weight/muscle, ensure you meet the necessities for muscle growth. You can have a high metabolism & gain weight if you structure your diet and workouts accordingly. Most advice to hard gainers is to train with fewer sets, but the research suggests a positive impact of using more sets for muscle growth.
HARDGAINER KEY POINTS
- Before calling yourself a non-responder, ensure your nutrition, sleep, and training are on track.
- You may need to perform more or less volume; everyone has a unique capacity to recuperate from exercise.
- There is no such thing as a non-responder, only a person who has not found the right volume that works best for their genetic capacity.
REFERENCES
About The Author
