What is a hardgainer?
In a nutshell, hardgainers are people who are having difficulty in adding muscle mass to their body. This is typically caused by his/her genetic makeup. To put it simply, these people have not been gifted with genes that allow them to build muscles with relative ease (compared to non-hardgainers). This is how the term “hardgainer” is typically defined in the bodybuilding circles.
Medically, it’s more complicated. But to keep things simple, humans basically come in three body types–ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph.
People who are of the ectomorph body type always seem to remain the same body weight and composition regardless of what he or she eats or does. On the other hand, people with the endomorph body type are easy to gain weight (both from muscle and fat build-up) and are cursed with a slow metabolism.
People who have the third body type are the ones that make for the best bodybuilders. People with this body type are naturally muscular and are also gifted with a higher metabolism than endomorphs. If a mesomorph would maintain a great training and nutrition program, muscle gains and fat reduction come relatively easily for these people.
Relating all these body types to our original topic, the hardgainers are actually people who have the ectomorph body type.
You Can Build Muscle
The things is, no matter what body type you have, no matter which country you are from, no matter what race you are, you can build muscle and you will build muscle provided that you work really hard for it. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a “non-gainer”. There is not a single fully functioning person in the world that is not capable of building muscle. But you need to understand that building muscle mass is not easy. Generally speaking, it’s not easy even for mesomorphs.
What can really help you in reaching your goal is to have a plan. Having a plan lets you know specifically what you need to do when you go to the gym–how many reps, how many sets, which days to workout, which exercises to do, when to change it all up, etc. Keep in mind that building muscle mass does not happen accidentally. It’s not like playing the lottery where you can get lucky and just wake up one day to a different life. You got to work towards it, you got to know where you are today, and you are going to have to focus on one day at a time and not be impatient.
Also, it is very important to build on the work you did the previous week. It is very common to see people in the gym who doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger over a year period. Some of these people may already be contented with what they got and are just there to maintain their physique. But there’s a good portion of those people who are doing the same things over and over again, people who are not giving their muscles any reason to grow any bigger.
If you want to increase your muscle mass, you need to give your muscles a reason to grow. And there are a couple of ways to do that–you can either overload your muscles by doing more sets or you can increase the weights in your workouts as you go along (about 5% increase week after week).
Stay focus and be patient. Rest assured, you will see the fruits of your labor soon enough.
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