Failing to build muscle can quite often be blamed on this one little thing – doing too much. Guys are hitting the gym 6 days a week doing long 2 hour sessions, and putting it all on the line because they want to be big. Bodybuilding magazines everywhere talk of the Pro’s who workout 6 days a week and manage to be huge, so all the skinny guys out there follow suit.  They go hard for extended periods of time and don’t get any results.

Why are they wrong?

The bodybuilders you read about in magazines have some or all of the following things going for them: superb genetics, steroids, and an already built frame packed with muscle mass. All of these things aren’t you, the hardgainer. You don’t have a superb genetics, otherwise you’d be getting bigger, so you’re obviously not already huge, and you should most definitely steer clear of Steroids. These guys are able to recover much faster due to genetics and the possible use of steroids. But also, as pros, they have the entire day and night to rest and grow outside of their workouts. You are just the average joe, you have to work a job like the rest of us, your genetics make it more challenging and finding time to work out let alone rest is making your recovery a lot more difficult to manage.

What should you do?

It’s simple, work hard and make sure you get enough recovery time. As a hardgainer, working out every day will eventually burn you out because you won’t recover fast enough to build the muscle you want. The trick is not to work out for long periods of time frequently, but to train with high intensity 3 times a week, hitting all the major muscle groups (throughout that week) in 40-50 minutes a session. Keep one day between each workout, and then plan your recovery.

Planning Recovery Vs Planning Your Workout

You do still have to plan your workout, one incorporating heavy compound movements like The Big Three.  Just redirect some of that focus onto planning your recovery.  As a hard gainer you’ve more than likely got a fast metabolism, so you need plenty of quality food like meat, fruit and veges.  Muscle growth guru Jason Ferruggia states that sometimes the hard gainer has to resort to a bit of junk food occassionally to get the calorie count up, but don’t base your whole diet around it.  Getting a heavy caloric intake can be hard if your eating chicken breast and vegetables.  Try a fat steak, or even a Milkshake to get some extra in with the odd meal.  Without the extra calories, you won’t gain any weight whatsoever.

Do Nothing

Find time to do as little as possible, physically.  Keeping mentally active won’t hurt your recovery, but going for a 10 mile run or playing tennis for 2 hours is adding to your body’s recovery time, making things a bit harder.  A little bit of low intensity cardio (like walking or riding on a stationary bike), however, can keep your body fat from going up.  The less you do physically the better for your growth, but cardiovascular health shouldn’t be completely ignored.  Find some time to sit and read about fitness and muscle growth, to get new ideas, watch some TV or whatever you need to relax and recover.  But very important also, is sleep.  You need 8-10 hours of sleep a night to recovery properly from a lifestyle of heavy lifting.  If you really have trouble getting that growth, aim for 10 hours.  Muscle growth occurs most when you sleep, not when you train.  Even an afternoon nap can have positive effects on your growth.

It’s as simple as working hard a few times a week and fueling your recovery.  As a person who has trouble gaining from training, the recovery is the important thing.  Use the information above to tweak your lifestyle in order to see results. If you want more information try our section on building muscle for more quality muscle growth articles or try Jason Ferruggia’s (mentioned above) book Muscle Gaining Secrets. Jason has managed to help every single one of his clients gain substantial muscle mass, this book is where he has poured his knowledge in order to help more people achieve their goals of earning a massive muscular body.

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