The stereotypical skinny hardgainer has a fast metabolism which makes it hard for him to gain weight or muscle size. A common strategy for skinny hardgainers is to prescribe brief high intensity workouts and a high calorie diet. The problem is that not all hardgainers are stereotypical as some have a slow metabolism and don’t respond very well to training until they develop the capacity to include a lot of training volume. This is the type of hardgainer that will be the focus of the rest of this article. The article is taken from an excerpt from chapter 7 of the book, Individualized Training Strategies For Hardgainers.
Chapter 7
The Volume Responsive Conditional Hardgainer
The second type of conditional hardgainer possesses a slow metabolism and is responsive to high volume training. High volume training simply refers to doing a lot of sets and reps which is what a volume responsive hardgainer needs in order to succeed.
Let’s look at the physical characteristics of this type of hardgainer.
Workload Capacity
Most hardgainers do not have a high workload capacity and tend to wilt when faced with a substantial amount of training volume. The volume responsive conditional hardgainer is an exception as his body comes to life and thrives when using high volume training. One reason for this is because his slow metabolism needs plenty of stimulation to wake up.
Tolerance for Intensity
The volume responsive conditional hardgainer may or may not be able to tolerate high intensity training. For the most part, it doesn’t matter because training volume is the main stimulus that is needed to trigger strength and muscle growth for these people. While the training intensity must be sufficient, it does not have to be high throughout the whole workout. Some high intensity training is necessary, but the majority of sets within a high volume workout can be completed while using only a moderate amount of training intensity.
Personal Recovery Rate
The volume responsive conditional hardgainer with a slow metabolism may not be able to recover very well with low volume training because of an inefficient metabolism that makes poor use of incoming nutrients. However, once they provide adequate training volume for their body, their metabolism becomes energized and they find it easier to recover. This is the exact opposite of what most hardgainers and most people experience when they lift weights. Most people recover better with a modest amount of training volume and find it harder and harder to recover as more training volume is added.
Growth Activation Period and Retention Period
The growth activation period and retention period of the volume responsive hardgainer is pretty much normal and lasts from 48 to 72 hours after a muscle group has been worked. For this reason, each muscle group should be worked two to three times per week. Anything less and their metabolism starts to slow down to the point of being detrimental to their ability to tolerate enough calories to gain weight. Without sufficient metabolic stimulation, they don’t process their food and nutrients well enough to build a significant amount of muscle.
Metabolism
The volume responsive conditional hardgainer with a slow metabolism has a metabolism that is nearly dead without exercise. For the most part, they are satisfied with less than 1,500 calories per day when not exercising. They will hate high calorie weight gain diets and will feel horribly uncomfortable, sluggish, and maybe even nauseated from high calorie diets unless they exercise a lot. High volume workouts are essential in order to stimulate their appetite and develop the metabolic capacity to tolerate enough calories to gain weight.
Are You A Volume Responsive Conditional Hardgainer with a slow metabolism?
When considering whether or not you may be volume responsive conditional hardgainer, start by answering the following questions:
Do you hate to over-eat because you feel uncomfortably full, sluggish, or even nauseated?
Are you most comfortable when you consume less than 1,500 calories per day when you don’t exercise?
Do you feel sluggish and lethargic when you don’t exercise and start to feel better and more energetic when you exercise on a regular basis?
Assuming you have been working out for at least four months and are in good condition, do you thrive more when you do ten or more sets per muscle group as opposed to doing less than ten?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions, consider doing the training routines listed in the next chapter. The most important question is the last question, so even if you answer no to any or all of the first three questions, the training in this section is still for you if you can answer yes to the last question and thrive when doing ten or more sets per muscle group.
Starting Out
The volume responsive conditional hardgainer may only make modest progress when he begins training with a typical beginner’s workout. The reason for this is because beginning weight training programs usually consist of a fairly low amount of training volume. Low training volume is generally the right thing to do in the beginning stages of training because it may take several months to develop the capacity to tolerate a lot of sets for each muscle group. However, when the volume responsive hardgainer eventually develops the conditioning necessary to tolerate high volume training, he will begin to experience improved muscle gains.
The type of training that the volume responsive hardgainer should do is based upon performing a variety of different basic exercises for each muscle group. The number of exercises in chapter 5 can be expanded by using dumbbells in place of barbells and adjusting the height of the incline bench when doing incline benches. The hand spacing for pushing and pulling motions can also be varied, and the foot spacing can be varied by using a wider or narrower stance when doing squats or deadlifts. In addition, front squats and variations of dumbbell squats can be done in place of regular back squats. This will provide plenty of exercise choices for high volume workouts.
In the next article, I will present workouts that should be done for the volume responsive hardgainer with a slow metabolism. Best of training to you.
Note:
Refer back to the previous four 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
Hardgainers Part 2: Physiological Characteristics
Hardgainers Part 3: Conditional Hardgainers
Hardgainers Part 4: Intensity Responsive
