If you’re training 5 plus times a week and you haven’t really moved the scale up in the entire time you’ve been training, you are not a hard gainer per se, but most likely you are missing out on a number of key factors that are needed to maximise muscle growth.
Have you ever said;
“I eat loads and train hard, but nothing works”
If so, here is what you need to know
1. Getting bigger requires a very deliberate, focused and consistent effort. No one accidentally gets huge just from picking up a weight, you have to push yourself to a point of discomfort (not pain, these are two separate things).
2. There is no such thing as body type training. Grifters will try to sell you a programme that is based on your body type, endomorph, ectomorph or mesomorph. But the reality is, muscle responds to the same stimulus, regardless of how you are built. The idea that training a certain way doesn’t work because you’re different, implies that there are 7 billion different, individual ways to train. When the reality is, there are a handful of tried and tested, proven methods, with 7 billion different responses to them. Everything will work if you apply the effort required to see results.
3. More doesn’t always equal better, getting in high quality work with fewer exercises will trump poor quality, everything but the kitchen sink, sessions. If you are breezing through your session, completing every set and rep with ease, and never struggling, then you are absolutely not training hard.
4. Stop jumping from plan to plan, progress takes time, and doing the same things over and over, with a focus on rep quality, and progressive overload will get you so much further than constantly mixing things up. There is no such thing as keeping the muscle guessing
5. Keep your training as simple as possible, complexity doesn’t equal effective. Pick 1 main lift, one supplemental and 1 or 2 accessories per body part, You don’t need to do 6 variations of a curl to effectively target the biceps.
6. Don’t max out every single session, you’re training for hypertrophy, not ego. Work with rep ranges from 6-8 on main lifts, 8-10 on supplemental and 10 -12 for accessories, the last 2 or 3 reps should be hard to complete, and if you make the last set of one or two exercise a set to failure, with some partial reps, then you’ll see your gains improve. However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if one or two sets to failure is good, then all of them to failure is better.
7. Use weights that allow you to work through a full range of motion. Going too heavy, with a reduced range of motion will not make you bigger (ignore the 90 degree joint angle rubbish.) Taking a muscle through a full range of motion, from its longest to shortest length, with the right load, to a proximity of muscle failure is far more effective than overloading a muscle at a shortened length ever will be
8. “Training optimally” is an excuse to lift very light weights slowly. Yes, tempo matters, but mechanical tension and range of motion matter more, If you want to lift with a much slower tempo, you have to compensate by reducing the weight lifted (mechanical tension) to allow you to complete the reps. Slowing the tempo is only more effective for growth if the load stays the same.
Ask yourself this, what is more likely to grow a muscle, taking 60 seconds to lift 10kg for 10 reps for a total of 100kg lifted, or taking 30 seconds to lift 20kg for 10 reps and a total weight lifted of 200kg?
9. If you have a plan that is set up for 5 sessions per week, but you are only making it in for 3 of them, you can’t be upset that you aren’t getting results from the work you haven’t done. A better plan would be to set yourself up for the number of sessions that you can make it in for, and once you build that consistency you can think about adding in another session.
10. Eat like it’s your job, this isn’t permission to eat like an idiot, but you can’t grow new tissue without the right amount of calories and protein. There is a huge difference between eating a high volume of low calorie density food, vs a lower volume of high calorie density food. You don’t need to eat 6 times a day, when 4 times will do.
11. If you aren’t willing to accept that you will gain some body fat along with the muscle, then you aren’t ready to do what’s necessary to build a truly decent amount of muscle mass. It’s perfectly fine to want to stay leaner all year round, but you have to understand that it will take considerably longer to gain the kind of size you want.
12. Recovery is, in my opinion, the most important part of training, it’s where your body repairs, and muscle fibre growth happens, training too frequently, reduces recovery time and puts you in a constant state of breakdown. So if you are in the gym 6 or 7 days a week, then you aren’t giving your body time to recover, drop 2-3 days off of your plan and simplify your training (see point 5). Program in rest days, nail your sleep, and your food intake. Do this consistently over several months and you will cease to be a “hard gainer” and start to see real progress.
If this sounds familiar to you, and you would like to know more, especially about programming, please get in touch to set up a no obligation chat.
Dan