In this article, the physiological characteristics that make it difficult for hardgainers to gain muscle and strength are summarized. The article is based on an excerpt that is taken from chapter two of Individualized Training Strategies For Hardgainers. The book can be found on Amazon and you can read the excerpt of chapter two below:
Chapter 2
Physiological Characteristics of Hardgainers
Each person has individual physiological characteristics that determine how easy or hard it will be to gain muscle. Easy-gainers are well endowed in regard to the factors that make up each characteristic, and hardgainers tend to be lacking in regard to the muscle building factors that make up each characteristic. The good news is that when the physiological factors are identified, training strategies can be developed to compensate for physical deficiencies while maximizing potential. The physiological characteristics that make up each person’s physiology determine the type of training that should be done. These characteristics are based on the following five factors:
- Personal workload capacity
- Tolerance for intensity
- Personal recovery rate
- How long muscles stay activated for growth and retain growth after a workout
- Personal Metabolic rate
In order to be clear about the meaning of each factor and how they relate to the characteristics of hardgainers, each will each be explained one at a time.
- Personal Workload Capacity
Personal workload capacity refers to the optimum amount of sets, reps, and weight that produce the greatest muscular gains in response to a workout. A person who gains muscle easily may be able to train a muscle group well past the point of being at full strength in order to stimulate maximum muscle growth. Those who gain under these circumstances have the ability to benefit from working a muscle group to the point where it is much weaker at the end of a workout compared to the beginning.
Hardgainers do not usually benefit from training a muscle group into a weakened state. The optimum workload capacity for hardgainers is based on repeating sets for a muscle group as long as the muscle group remains at full strength. The amount of sets that can be done at full strength is based on individual capacity, not a universal number that applies to everyone. Most people will be able to train a muscle group for two or three hard sets at full strength. A smaller percentage will be able to stay at full strength for four or more sets. Each person must learn from experience how many sets they can do at full strength for each muscle group.
- Tolerance for Intensity
Tolerance for intensity refers to how much training intensity can be tolerated when the goal is to trigger maximum muscle growth. High intensity basically refers to training to failure or beyond. Training to failure simply means to do as many reps as possible before fatigue makes it impossible to do any more reps within a set. Training beyond failure refers to forced reps where a training partner assists you just enough to lift the weight when you can no longer complete a rep without a little help. Easy gainers can often tolerate a lot of training intensity and may find it beneficial to train to failure or beyond.
Hardgainers must train with enough intensity to trigger muscle growth. However, hardgainers often find that they do not tolerate regular high intensity training in the context of growing bigger and stronger from it. Hardgainers may be able to tolerate high intensity training in terms of feeling good after they do it, but in terms of growing bigger and stronger, their bodies don’t benefit from it. Most hardgainers are better off repeating reps as long as a steady even rep pace can maintained during a set. However, when rep speed starts to slow down at the end of a set, the set should be stopped. Slow, strenuous, grinder reps at the end of a set should be avoided.
- Personal Recovery Rate
Personal recovery rate refers to the amount of time it takes for a muscle group to recover between workouts. Hardgainers may find it difficult to recover from workouts consisting of too many sets or too much intensity. However, they can often recover within forty eight hours or less when they train a muscle group only as long as it is at full strength, and they refrain from squeezing out slow grinder reps at the end of a set. If a hardgainer can perform the right type of workouts that allows them to recover within forty-eight hours, they can work out fairly often. This is important because hardgainers often have muscles that will only stay activated for growth for a short time after a workout. Those who fit into this category need to workout often in order to keep the growth process consistently activated.
- Muscle Growth Activation Period and Retention Period
The muscle growth activation period refers to the length of time that muscle growth is activated after a workout. This is sometimes referred to as an anabolic state. Easy gainers often have muscles that stay activated for seventy-two hours or more. Even if their muscles don’t stay activated that long, they often have a long retention period, which simply means they have the ability to retain new muscle growth for a week after workouts. Those who find it hard to gain muscle are not as fortunate.
Hardgainers often have a muscle growth activation period of only forty-eight hours or less after a workout. If they don’t work out soon after the muscle growth period is complete, their muscles begin to atrophy; there is very little time in which they retain new growth once the muscle activation period is completed. Since hardgainers tend to have a short muscle growth activation period, they must work each muscle group fairly often; generally three or more times per week. The only way to train this often without overtraining is to train just hard enough to stimulate muscle growth, but no harder than necessary. This shall be explained in greater detail in future articles on training thresholds.
- Metabolic Rate
Many hardgainers have a normal metabolic rate, but still find it hard to gain muscle because they are not well endowed in regard to the first four physiological factors that were just discussed. However, some hardgainers find it challenging to gain muscle primarily because of an extreme metabolism that is either extremely fast, or extremely slow.
The Fast Metabolism
Some people with a fast metabolism are hardgainers because they are not well endowed in regard to the first four muscle building factors that make up their physiology. Other hardgainers with an extremely fast metabolism may actually be able to gain muscle pretty easily once they eat enough and engage in workouts that don’t accelerate their metabolisms to become even faster. Those with a fast metabolism are often better off if they avoid doing any more sets, reps, or workouts than necessary. Why? Because it will speed up their hyper metabolism to be even more hyper and cause calories to be burned up before they ever have a chance to be utilized for muscle growth.
The Slow Metabolism
The hardgainer with a slow metabolism has a different set of problems. Not all skinny hardgainers have a fast metabolism. A slow metabolism is what causes some hardgainers to become nauseated when they eat enough calories to gain weight. The result is that they remain skinny because they don’t like to eat enough to gain weight. Others find that their sluggish metabolism does not utilize nutrients well enough to gain muscle and any weight gains consist of fat.
The hardgainer with a slow metabolism must accelerate his metabolism with the right type of training. This can be difficult because if he tries to workout more in order to stimulate his metabolism, he is at risk for overtraining. On the other hand, if he doesn’t work out enough, his metabolism will remain sluggish. The hardgainer with a slow metabolism will need to do some heavy training, but he will also need to do some sets with lighter weight and higher reps to stimulate his metabolism. In addition, he will need to work out as often as possible in order to stimulate his metabolism, but he must know how to do this without overtraining. Accelerating the metabolism is essential in order for those with a slow metabolism to tolerate and utilize the amount of calories necessary to gain muscle.
Individual Differences
Each person is different and must train according to his own characteristics of his own physiology. This will be addressed when describing each type of hardgainer in future articles. The next article will begin with conditional hardgainers who don’t gain well when using training methods that are not well suited to their personal physiology, but who discover they are easy gainers when they find the type of training that matches what their physiology requires for strength and muscle gains. Best of training to you.