How should an intensity responsive hardgainer train? You can learn how from this article which is taken from chapter’s five and six of the book, Individualized Training Strategies For Hardgainers.
Chapter 5
When considering how to work out, I believe that it is essential to focus on basic compound exercises if your primary goal is to build overall muscle mass. These basic exercises emphasize the biggest, strongest muscles of your body, including the leg muscles, chest muscles, and back muscles. One of the benefits of doing basic compound exercises for the upper body is that the arm and shoulder muscles will be heavily recruited to assist with the lifting. In the process of assisting the bigger muscles with the lifts, the arms and shoulders (or deltoids) are also built up. The basic exercises that are shown in this section are great for building size and strength, and are ideal for all types of hardgainers.
Many of the exercises shown in this section are based upon the use of free weights. However, if you prefer machines, there are usually machines that resemble the exercises or lifting motions of the free weight exercises shown. In other words, you can easily replace most of the free weight exercises with machine exercises that work the same muscles in nearly the same way.
When discussing which exercises to do, it is important that they be performed with excellent form. Good exercise technique allows the lifting stress to be properly distributed to the muscles involved in the lift. In contrast, poor technique can place joints and muscles in awkward positions and cause some muscles to be over-stressed, while others are not stressed enough. The results of poor technique can range from muscle imbalances and injuries, to the inability to consistently gain strength over time. While the next section does not give instructions for how to perform the exercises shown, instructions are provided in the Exercise Guide at the end of the book. Please take time to learn the proper way to perform each exercise; especially if you are new to weight training or are unfamiliar with any of the recommended exercises.
Mass Building Upper Body Exercises
Optional Exercises
When doing your workouts, you may also choose to include what I refer to as optional exercises. The optional exercises are designed to isolate some of the smaller muscles such as the biceps and triceps in your arms, and the deltoid muscles that make up your shoulders. These smaller muscles will get most of their size from doing the basic exercises listed in the previous section. In other words, if you don’t do these optional exercises, your arms and shoulders will still grow, however, you may find that doing the optional exercises proves to be beneficial in terms of added muscle growth or improved muscle shape.
Be very careful not to over-train your arms and shoulders with the optional exercises shown in this section. Remember that your arms and shoulders will have already received a significant amount of work from doing the basic exercises addressed in the previous section. A couple sets of curls, triceps extensions, and direct shoulder work is enough for most hardgainers.
Abdominal and Calf Exercises
Exercises for the abdominals and calves are also presented as optional exercises because they are not big mass building exercises. However, it is likely that some of you will want to include these exercises in your workouts because they can enhance the appearance of your physique.
Workouts For The Intensity Responsive Hardgainer
Once you understand which exercises to do, it becomes a matter of applying the right amount of intensity and doing the exercises for the right amount of sets, reps, and workouts per week. This will vary according to your body type and physiological make up. The ideal workout for the intensity responsive hardgainer is to stick with heavy weights that permit five to eight reps when using basic exercises. The reason for focusing on the five to eight rep range is that people who possess a very fast metabolism don’t need the added metabolic stimulation that comes from performing higher reps. After doing a few easy warm up sets, only two to four high intensity work sets should be done for each muscle group. Each work set should be pushed to failure, or within one rep of reaching failure.
If you fit into the category of the intensity responsive hardgainer, you have three options for how to organize your workouts throughout the week:
Your first option is to do full body workouts by training your whole body in each workout. Ideally, two or less workouts per week should be done, but those who need to work out up to three times per week should do so.
Your second option is to do a split routine where you split your muscle groups into two different workouts and each muscle group is trained twice per week over the course of four separate workouts.
Your third option is a triple split where you split your muscle groups into three separate workouts in order to cover your whole body once over the course of one week. This will only work for those who benefit from working each muscle group just once per week. An example of this program would be to train your chest, shoulders, and triceps in your first workout, then train your back, biceps, and abs in your second workout, and finish by training your upper legs and calves in your third workout.
Assuming that you are an intensity responsive hardgainer who only needs to work each muscle group once or twice per week, the next section will discuss how to warm up and then present workouts that give you three options for how to organize your workouts throughout a week.
Warm Up Sets
When preparing to do any of the exercises that are shown in the following workouts, I recommend doing the following warm up sets before doing heavier work sets for the same exercise:
1st Warm up Set: Do 10 reps using 50% of the weight that you will be using for your heaviest set.
2nd Warm up Set: Do 5 reps using 75% of the weight you will be using for your heaviest set.
3rd Warm up Set: Do 5 reps again using 75% of the weight you will be using for your heaviest set.
4th Warm up Set: Do 2 reps using 90% of the weight you will be using for your heaviest set.
Rest one minute between warm up sets.
After doing your warm up sets for a given exercise, follow the procedures that are listed for the workout you choose to do.
The Full Body Workout Twice Per Week
For the Intensity Responsive Hardgainer
Exercise Selection
Do a chest exercise, a back exercise, and a leg exercise. You can use the exercises shown below or substitute exercises of your choice for chest, back, and legs.
Number of Sets
Do 2 to 4 sets for each exercise selected.
Number of Reps
Do 5 to 8 reps per set for each exercise.
Rest Between Sets
Rest 3 minutes between sets for the same muscle group.
Intensity
Push each set to failure, or within one rep of failure.
Training Frequency
Do this full body workout twice (or less) per week; for example, Mondays and Thursdays.
Optional Exercises
If you choose to do optional exercises, you may include any of the following: curls for biceps, triceps extensions, lateral raises for shoulders, crunches for abs, and calf raises for calves. I recommend 1 to 2 sets of 8 reps for each optional exercise that you choose to do except for crunches. Work your way up to 1 to 2 sets of 30 reps for crunches.
The Split Routine for the Intensity Responsive Hardgainer
Exercise Selection
You can use the exercises shown below or substitute exercises of your choice for the given muscle group that you are training.
Number of Sets
Do 2 to 4 sets for each exercise.
Number of Reps
Do 5 to 8 reps per set for each exercise.
Rest Between Sets
Rest 3 minutes between sets for the same muscle group.
Intensity
Push each set to failure, or within one rep of failure.
Training Frequency
Train each muscle group twice per week over the course of four workouts per week.
The Triple Split for the Intensity Responsive Hardgainer
Exercise Selection
You can use the exercises shown below or substitute exercises of your choice for the given muscle group that you are training.
Number of Sets
Do 2 to 4 sets for each exercise.
Number of Reps
Do 5 to 8 reps per set for each exercise.
Rest Between Sets
Rest 3 minutes between sets for the same muscle group.
Intensity
Push each set to failure or within one rep of failure.
Training Frequency
Train each muscle group once per week over the course of three workouts per week.
In the next article, I will discuss a different type of hardgainer, which is the conditional hardgainer with a slow metabolism. Best of training to you.
Note:
Refer back to the previous three articles if you want to read the series of chapters from Individual Training Strategies For Hardgainers that are lead up articles to this article.
Hardgainers Part 1: Four Types