Help! I'm a Hardgainer

While there are a lot of people in the health and fitness realm that are looking to lose weight, there are some of us that are fighting the opposite battle, the battle of the “hardgainer”. For a long time, I believed I was genetically defective, unable to gain weight and grow muscle. I blamed my father (at 6’4” and under 220 lbs) for my being lanky (5’11” and under 200 lbs). I was frustrated that the scale never moved no matter how hard I trained and how much I ate. I wasn’t getting much stronger and I couldn’t figure out why. I tried supplements and lots of them, with no real results. For those of us that are hardgainers we struggle to find a way to make progress, try every “trick” and push ourselves harder and harder until we break or until we just give up. The idea that we’ll never be bigger or stronger is maddening, but it doesn’t have to be. Along my journey I’ve figured out a few things that can make a big difference if you’re a hardgainer too.

There are the obvious keys to making gains: eat more food, get your sleep, and use your recovery days wisely. There are also some glaring “mistakes” that don’t seem as obvious.

Explaining the Keys
If you’ve done any research, you know the importance of nutrition. Whether you are trying to gain weight, get stronger, lose fat, or just perform better, nutrition is the leading factor. If you want to gain muscle, you have to feed the muscle. Chances are if you are the typical skinny ectomorph, you aren’t eating nearly enough, and unless you take the time to measure your food and calculate your estimated calorie needs, you can’t be sure if you are eating enough to grow. Once you have an estimate, you have to track your weight and your food. If you don’t make any gains at the end of the week, you need to eat more food each day. I know, I know, you’re afraid to get “fat.” Let me clue you in; you’re a hardgainer so getting “fat” is extremely hard and you may have to gain some fat in order to gain some muscle too.

The second key is challenging the muscle with resistance. New trainees have the distinct advantage of their nervous system learning how to recruit muscle fibers and they can make monumental leaps in strength simply through the neural adaptation. As the nervous system learns how to recruit more muscle fibers, the weights get easier, so we increase the load and continue to get stronger. At some point, the “newbie effect” comes to an end, and a change becomes necessary to make progress. In the words of EliteFTS’s Matt Rhodes “It ain’t rocket math” when making the necessary training changes to get stronger or grow muscle.

Finally, growth requires rest and recovery. We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal. There are a plethora of great articles and research showing the importance of sleep, and here is one by Greg Nuckols that explains the importance of sleep and recovery on gains.
http://gregnuckols.com/2014/04/28/poor-recovery-and-increased-muscle-breakdown-insufficient-sleep-part-2/

Now, let’s explore some of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that keep us from making optimal progress and have us still saying we’re a hardgainer.

Making Overly Healthy Choices
I made the mistake of trying “intermittent fasting” and trying to make lean gains. I found it nearly impossible to get enough calories in to gain any weight. I can hear you asking, “How is eating healthy a mistake?” If our focus is on eating a “healthy diet” we will struggle to reach our daily caloric goal. As an ectomorph, we tend to have a fast metabolism, which burns more calories than most. It can be a curse because it makes getting enough calories hard when we eat super-clean but it’s a godsend when we need to cut weight. I’m not endorsing JM Blakely’s “Big Boy’s Menu Plan”, but eating super-clean isn’t going to get it done either.

The simple solution for most hardgainers is eating simple carbs such as white rice and bread. I’ve been known to eat bagels and pop tarts as a snack because they are high calorie foods that can help us reach the caloric surplus necessary to make weight and muscle gains. I recommend simple carbohydrates make up 30-40% of the total carbohydrates you eat on a daily basis and that carbohydrates make up 40% of your total diet. Having more calories available when your body needs them is always better than not having enough. Also, fat is not the enemy in our food. Healthy fats are a fast way to increase our calories, and can be added to most of our meals by simply using heavy cream, olive oil, coconut oil and the like.

Too Much Training
Training every day won’t get it done. In fact, training that much is too much! I get it, we have been taught that if we want to get better at something we need to practice it as much as possible. And when we aren’t getting results, we push harder, we find new programs, we switch to two-a-days, etc. It makes sense, right? Unfortunately, we don’t grow by being overly active and training every day; we grow by stressing the muscle and then giving it adequate time to heal.
Remember above where I said “We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal.” So instead of training longer and harder, limit your training sessions to less than an hour and a half and train three to four days per week. This give your body more time to repair and rebuild new muscle, and you will be better rested for the next training session, allowing you to maximize each workout.

Training Small Muscles
Every hardgainer has looked at a bodybuilding magazine with envy and read about the latest, greatest split routine and how to grow a massive {insert body part here} fast. Isolation workouts work well for targeting specific muscle groups, but they aren’t good choices for hardgainers. Being an ectomorph necessitates a focus on maximal muscle recruitment through compound lifts like the squat and deadlift. These lifts recruit the most muscle and also stimulate the release of anabolic hormones, which are one of the most important components of muscle building. Remember, muscle grows AFTER it’s broken down and repaired, and these lifts will cause the most recruitment and best opportunity for growth.

Great Movements for Hardgainers

Squats Deadlifts Bent Over Rows Bench Press Push Press Weighted Carries

Military Press Pull Ups Tire Flips Dips Farmer’s Walks Heavy Sled Push

Using the Wrong Rep Scheme
While there is no such thing as the perfect rep scheme and it is possible to build muscle using just about any rep scheme, muscle growth is more likely to happen in the moderate to high rep ranges. Working with the appropriate amount of weight and performing the proper reps can greatly enhance muscle growth.

In my experience, the best results for hardgainers happens with loads between 70 and 80% of their 1RM for three to four sets of 8-12 reps per set.  My best growth came right in the middle of both lines at 75% for three sets of 10. Does that mean it will be best for you? No, but I’m willing to be it will work better than doing high intensity / low rep workouts or low intensity / high rep workouts.

The Takeaway
While our genetics are seemingly against us, we don’t have to live the life of the skinny weakling! As hardgaining ectomorphs, we make mistakes by simply not eating enough, training too much or the wrong way, and not getting enough recovery. Our body type dictates that we do certain things to beat our genetics and that we get over our fears. If you finally want to break the mold, the steps aren’t much different than losing weight; focus on your nutrition, train hard with the right sets, reps, and weights, and get proper rest and recovery for growth.

Cumulative Fatigue Factor and the need to De-load

Recently I’ve been hit with several questions regarding the use of de-loads and messages from people feeling burned out from training to reach their goal. The first thing I remind them of is that fitness is not a sprint. We all want fast results and fall victim to the thinking that more is better and will get us there faster. Sometimes, more is actually worse because we push too far and we can’t recover in time. As with any training endeavor proper rest and recovery will go a long way. This is where the concept of a “de-load” comes in and the idea of the cumulative fatigue factor.

What is a de-load? What does it do?

A de-load is a period of time in a workout program that allows for the body to recover. This doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding the gym, but it does mean lightening the workload by either lowering volume or intensity or both. Many de-loads are planned, and some are the result of life. There are several ways a de-load can be accomplished including low-intensity, moderate volume de-loads; do-nothing de-loads, bodyweight de-loads, and many other variations that have been used with great success. There are two ways de-loads are worked into a training program, planned or fixed interval, and floating or adaptive.

It is common to see planned de-loads in weight training programs. Jim Wendler’s many variations of 5/3/1, Brandon Lily’s Cube variations, and countless other training programs build them in every “X” weeks to allow for recovery. Other programs don’t specify a de-load, but will have you repeat or go backwards for a week if you fail to complete all of the training load. While there are arguments on both sides regarding the necessity of a de-load, I believe every well-written program incorporates a de-load in some way or another.

The de-load serves several purposes. It allows our muscles and connective tissue a chance to rest and recover. It allows our CNS to relax and if we can avoid stimulants (caffeine, pre-workouts, etc.) it gives our adrenals a chance to rest as well.

Our muscles are capable of recovering very quickly from training, which is the case with DOMS (even though DOMS can feel like it lasts forever). However, the connective tissue, the tendons and ligaments, have less blood-flow than muscle and don’t grow or recover as fast from strenuous training. The de-load allows the soft tissue and connective tissue a chance to heal and grow. In addition, training effects your nervous system and your hormones. Whether we’re training for a marathon, triathlon, competition, or just working through a challenging weight program, our body faces challenges in the nervous system and adrenal glands. While fatiguing the CNS and adrenals is less common, it is possible and can have a greater effect on training if it is reached.

Defining Cumulative Fatigue Factor

Many experienced lifters have heard of the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) Scale and it has been around for some time in different varieties.  In a similar manner, I look at the CFF of a trainee on a week to week basis. While the RPE only considers the exercise being done, the CFF takes into account daily activities and the training day to reach a scale measure between 1 and 5. Since these are “feel” measures, we will each have variance between a 1, 2,3, etc. but they should be roughly the same.  

Here are my levels:

1.        Feel great, tons of energy all day
2.        Feel good, can tell I didn’t sleep well, but not tired
3.        Feel OK, little slow to get going, but still have energy
4.        Tired, slow to get going, feel like the day is dragging
5.        Exhausted, can’t get going, just want to sit and relax

I rate each day with a 1-5 paying special attention to how I feel before I train and on rest days. When I am fresh, my days rate as 3 or less, but as I begin to tire and accumulate fatigue, I will see more 4’s and an occasional 5. As a rule of thumb, when the weekly average is greater than 4, a de-load week should follow shortly thereafter. Keep in mind that fatigue doesn’t just have to come from training, but can be compounded by stress at home or in the office, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition.

Even with well thought out and executed rest and recovery protocols, it is possible to accumulate enough fatigue to necessitate a de-load.  Many times we are hesitant to take a de-load. We try to convince ourselves we aren’t tired, and in fact, we wake up and don’t feel tired at all, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t fatigued.

If you are self-evaluating, there are several signs you may be fatiguing and in need of a de-load.

Signs of cumulative fatigue:

1.        Exhaustion that lasts beyond 1 or 2 rest days
2.        You never feel warm / your joints ache / the weights feel heavier than usual
3.        Loss of interest in the training (assuming you normally love training)
4.        Increase in resting heart rate / slowed recovery time between sets
5.        Cranky / Nervous for no reason
6.        Your Pre-workout (assuming you use one) didn’t do anything

One day of these symptoms isn’t a reason to sound the de-load alarm, which is why the CFF uses a weekly average to consider whether our body and our performance can be benefit from a de-load. Yes, it is possible to push through and continue making progress, and most of us do exactly that. We push through until we’re at 5’s all the way across the board, but at some point, something has to give. I’m no exception because I have tried to push through for weeks at a time and instead of just needing one down week, I needed three because I was exhausted and got sick. Thankfully I didn’t get injured as well.

Do you need a de-load?

You’ve worked hard for six weeks, you feel strong, you’re seeing progress each week and you charge forward to week seven.  You feel energized but your body won’t cooperate. Your joints are stiff, the weights feel heavy, and you can tell something just feels off.  Maybe you’ve been sucking down pre-workouts and grinding ahead, but now, nothing. It could be an off week but more than likely, it’s a sign your cumulative fatigue is getting high.

Keeping in mind that fatigue doesn’t just have to come from training, but can be compounded by stress at home or in the office, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition will allow us to more accurately evaluate our CFF. As stated before, when the weekly average is greater than 4, it would be good to consider a de-load week.

There is much debate into the term “overtraining” and I am not going to enter the battle of “overtrained” versus “under-recovered” here as it is essentially a battle of semantics.  In either case, a change is necessitated by the decline in health and performance in order to recover and get back on track.

I need a de-load, now what?

You figured out you need to de-load, now you need to choose how. I’m a big proponent of going to train, but dropping the volume and intensity.  I believe in doing bodyweight accessory work and only training on the days I squat, bench, or deadlift. By lightening the load, lowering the number of reps, and taking an extra day off, we allow our body to get blood and nutrients to the parts of our body that need time to heal.

When we are talking about training and adapting for a de-load, intensity is how heavy the weight is or how fast the run is; heavier weight / faster run, higher intensity. Volume is simply the total amount of weight moved. My recommended drop in intensity is to between 40% and 60% of max. We are still doing the same motion, but the lighter weight / slower pace allows us to focus on technique, get blood into the muscles and connective tissue, and not stress the tissue further. By lowering the number of sets and reps or distance, we will tax our energy systems less, stay short of our fatigue limits, and allow our body a chance to recover. I prefer to train 5 sets of 5 on a de-load week.

In extreme cases of fatigue, it may be more beneficial to only perform bodyweight activity or avoid the gym altogether. It is important when choosing your de-load activity to not replace your high-stress training with another high-stress activity, like hiking 50 miles or mountain climbing all day. You took the de-load to recover, not to stress yourself out in different ways.

The Takeaway

Every day we accumulate fatigue in several ways. When we don’t get enough sleep, don’t drink enough fluids or get the right nutrition, have more stress than usual, etc., our body accumulates fatigue. When we fatigue, our body does the best it can to adapt, but the result is decreased performance and greater risk of getting ill or being injured. By using the CFF weekly, you will be able to better predict the need for de-loads and hopefully avoid costly setbacks to your training. 

Is Your Coach Worth the Money?

There are few things that bother me as much as broad generalizations in Health & Fitness. Before you dump a lot of money into programs that might not work and get frustrated, you need to consider that no two clients are exactly alike. While a program may work similarly for 1, 2, 5, 15, or even thousands of other people, it may not work for you.

I've seen coaches employ the cookie-cutter plan in diets, eating styles, and training programs. Some coaches assign their clients a basic cookie-cutter program like Stronglifts 5x5 or other free programs that can be found online. I've heard a self-proclaimed nutrition "guru" insist every client change to a VLC Diet with a specific set of macros without concern for the previous diet experience of their client. I've worked with another coach's failed clients because he insisted their clients all switch to Intermittent Fasting without considering their background because "it worked for so many others." And the worst, I've witnessed a trainer openly admit they didn't know why "their own" program worked!

Sadly, I see people get sucked into these programs with shining testimonials and expert promotion because the "promise" is too much to ignore and "all the others that are getting results can't be wrong." And then something goes wrong; the program isn't working and the "expert trainer" doesn't know how to adapt the program to make it work. The trainer blames the client, or just falls back to "it worked for others."

Before jumping into a training program, consider the trainer, their knowledge and experience, their previous clientele, the results compared to your goals, and the methods.

If a trainer is worth paying and trusting, they can not only explain what they're doing and why it works, but they can quickly adapt if it isn't working. If a trainer has a "successful" program, but can't explain why it works, then there is a good chance they won't know how to make it work for you if you aren't one of the lucky ones. So before hiring a trainer / coach, take the time to talk with them and have any of your questions and concerns addressed. If they aren't willing to or aren't able to give answers to your satisfaction, consider going elsewhere.

Lose and Gain...At the Same Time?

One question is brought up at least 10 times a day on different fitness boards I read, “Can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” Another version I see all the time which has the same answer is “Can I get stronger while cutting weight?” Some will say “absolutely” while others will scream bloody murder at the very idea. Unfortunately, it isn’t a simple yes or no answer. Like many fitness questions, the answer “it depends” is the answer. There are no simple solutions in fitness because everybody’s body reacts differently, but the more you know, the better your chances of finding success in obtaining your goals.

Let me first address the “gain muscle / lose fat” conundrum. A quick search of the internet returns no less than 42 million results. Unless you have experience weaving through the magic of fitness advertising, you’d wholly believe that everybody can gain muscle and lose fat at the exact same time or that nobody can do it. The internet makes the body seem capable of building muscle from the fat that is being burned. Some basic science tells us that our body needs a caloric deficit in order to lose weight and a caloric surplus in order to build muscle. In an ideal world, your body could use the stored fat as the energy source for building and maintaining muscle. Unfortunately, the fat we burn is not that source and our body doesn’t work that way. Human Physiology tells us that when we eat below maintenance levels, our body does not focus on making muscle [1]. The body will find energy, which can come from the fat we burn or the food we eat to maintain functions, but it does not make muscle from it. According to Dr. John Berardi, the body uses the energy from the days before for repair and growth and not the new nutrients with the exception of long duration exercise [2]. Seems like I just gave some solid reasons why it isn’t possible, but there are a few times when it is possible.

Given the resounding “no” that came from above, there are several cases where the answer is a resounding “yes.” In order to figure out how possible it is, and if is it worth the extreme effort, there are several questions that I consider.

• What is the training age of the client?
• What type of training has the client been doing to this point?
• What is the body composition of the client trying to make the change?
• How much weight is the client giving me to manipulate?
• What is the client's age?

As you can see, that simple “yes” or “no” just got more complicated. Each question and answer gives me an idea of the likelihood of success when trying to do accomplish two goals at the same time. The best chance of success comes from:

• A novice trainee
• Someone that was in a trained state and became detrained
• Someone with higher body fat or a lot of weight to lose
• Someone that is younger

There are many reasons these types of trainees are more likely to experience success, primarily it is the greater potential to build muscle. In contrast, more experienced trainees, trainees that are still in a trained state, people with lower body fat or weight, and older people have several factors against them. In my experience, if the elements are leading away from success, I would look for alternate routes.

If you fall into one of the magical categories, the answer is yes, it is possible and worth trying. One study found that a group of overweight novices lost 16+ pounds of fat and gained nearly 10 pounds of muscle during a 14-week training program [3]. Another study took 30 newer lifters and divided them into three groups of 10. One group did cardio, one did weights, and one did both. Despite the fact that the third group started out with an average body fat of just 12%, the men gained 7 pounds of muscle while losing almost 6 pounds of fat [4].  Finally, a study of trained then detrained and retrained individuals also showed promise that it is possible to lose fat and build muscle due to muscle memory [5]. Does this mean it is possible for everybody? No, it doesn’t, and as I have said many times, what works for one person may not work for any other person.

If you aren’t in one of the special categories that typically means you have less body fat / weight to manipulate, have more years of experience training, or have reached a limiting factor based on age, training, or diet. Without the use of pharmaceutical assistance, it is tremendously hard to do both at the same time. At this point and in most cases it is the wiser choice to attack one goal and then the other. Along with many other trainers, my preferred pattern is to lose fat in the first phase and then gain muscle in the second phase. I’m not going to break down cutting and bulking here as they are topics unto themselves. By losing the fat first through maintaining a high protein, caloric deficit and utilizing proper training, you will be able to spare a lot of your current muscle. Following the fat loss, it will be possible to gradually increase caloric intake to maintenance levels and above to allow for the growth of muscle tissue while minimizing fat gain. While this process may seemingly take longer, it is more reliable and better than spinning your wheels making no progress. This two-phase method will allow for much more control and the ability to manipulate and adjust if things aren’t going as planned.

Still want to try and lose fat while gaining muscle? Here are a few essential elements that need to happen in my successful experiences:

• Train HARD.
• Not just heavy, or cardio, but a mix of both. Train low rep, high intensity two days per week.  Train high intensity one day per week and long steady state one day per week. Every day needs a form of metabolic conditioning circuits.
• Increase protein intake and decrease the carbs.
• You’re trying to save and build muscle which needs protein. Approximately 1-1.2 g per pound should be good.
• Cycle your intakes on training and non-training days.
• This doesn’t mean splurge or starve, but eat slightly more or less based on the training style that day. Carb cycling is popular as is intermittent fasting and the paleo diet. Previous research also showed very low carb / high protein diets to be successful in muscle sparing as well. Be sure to research and fully understand this new eating style before diving in headfirst.

The “it’s possible” to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time verdict relies upon the right combination of circumstances, nutrition, and training protocols. The truth is that while possible under certain circumstances, it is not ideal or possible for most to easily achieve losing fat while gaining muscle and your time may be best spent tackling one goal at a time. If you are one of the few predictable cases where it is more likely and worth the time investment, I support pursuing fat loss while gaining muscle, however, for the many others where it is less than ideal, I urge you to consider all of the variables and options before making a decision. It is a choice you must make regarding the amount of effort and the time it will take to find what works best for you before finding success. From here, you have a starting point to continue educating yourself about your options or you can choose to reach out to a coach to help you accomplish your goals.

Sources:

1. Pasiakos SM, Vislocky LM, Carbone JW, Altieri N, Konopelski K, Freake HC, Anderson JM, Ferrando AA, Wolfe RR, Rodriguez NR. (2010). Acute energy deprivation affects skeletal muscle protein synthesis and associated intracellular signaling proteins in physically active adults. Journal of Nutrition, 140, 745-751
2. Berardi J, Andrews R, (2014). The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, 2nd ED, 71
3. Wallace MB, Mills BD, Browning CL. (1997). Effects of cross training on markers of insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, 1170-1175
4. Dolezal, B.A., & Potteiger, J.A. (1998). Concurrent resistance and endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals. Journal of Applied Physiology, 85, 695-700
5. Staron RS, Leonardi MJ, Karapondo DL, Malicky ES, Falkel JE, Hagerman FC, Hikida RS. (1991). Strength and skeletal muscle adaptations in heavy-resistance-trained women after detraining and retraining. Journal of Applied Physiology, 70, 631-640