If you are reading this article then the chances are that you already know what a hardgainer is. If you are not sure then the term hardgainer refers to anybody whoc struggles greatly to increase their bodyweight! Often this is said to be caused by that person having a fast metabolism.
Metabolism also called metabolic rate is the rate at which your body uses up calories whilst performing the natural reactions required by the body to live. If your metabolism is particularly slow then it will be easier to put on fat tissue as you are not burning up as many calories at rest as someone with a faster metabolism.
For muscle building purposes we need to create a surplus of calories but for hardgainers this is a difficult thing to do with such a high metabolic rate as it is rapidly being burnt off. So, what can hardgainers do to counter this? Here is our how to build muscle quickly guide for hardgainers:
1) Keep the cardio workouts to a minimum. Cardio workouts will increase the speed at which your body consumes calories both at rest and also uses up calories during the exercise itself. This you do not want if you are trying to create an excess of calories.
2) Eat double! You need to consume lots of calories. To do this, simply try to double the amount of food that you would normally eat at every meal. Purchase over sized bowls, which will stop you from forgetting this.
3) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This is critical to build up muscle or even to burn belly fat. Your digestive system is only capable of absorbing a certain amount of nutrients at any given meal therefore it is wise to spread the meals out to maximise the bodies capacity and ensure the body is never short on energy. Eating 2-3 meals per day is claimed to slow down the bodies metabolism which is true but this doesn’t mean it is something that hardgainers sould do. Why? Because your body may slip into starvation mode and release muscle building inhibiting chemicals.
4) Make use of supplemements. Take full advantage of the numerous excellent supplements that are available such as protein shakes and meal replacement powders. These contain very high dosages of exactly the right things that you need. The best times to take them are immediately before and after a workout when your body has the highest demand for them.
Stop performing exercises like concentration curls and stick with classic compound mass building exercises. Your routine must include: dead lifts, pull ups, squats and bench presses. These will help build the muscle mass that you want in all the correct places on your body in the correct proportions.
6) Reduce the number of sets. Muscle mass growth can be ignited by performing just 10 sets per session with only 3 sets per body part. More is often worse for hardgainers! trigger muscle growth in the weight room then get out sharpish to conserve your calories for muscle growth.
7) Water, drink it and lots of it. It is required by the body for so many different muscle building chemical reactions that you really can not skimp on this one, not at all. Consume liquids regularly.
There we are, give those tips a try. Be persistent with these for a couple of months before your judge them. Just go for it? I hope you found our how to build muscle up tips useful.