Is there such thing as a hardgainer?
- Jamey Merkel
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 6
In this article, we are going to tackle the “hardgainer” myth. What is a hardgainer? I’m so happy you asked.
A hardgainer is typically a male (although some women may have a similar experience) who has a hard time gaining muscle mass. Hence the term. Essentially it is used to refer to someone who spends hours and hours at the gym but never seems to be able to get their muscles to grow. They stay skinny or even worse, skinny-fat. The question today is does this type of person really exist? Let’s dive in shall we?
We start with Somatotypes:
As you may know, we can classify people into 3 basic body types: ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Each specific body type has some common traits:
Ectomorphs are thin individuals characterised by smaller bone structures and thinner sometimes longer limbs. They tend to have fast metabolisms and eat everything in sight with little effect on body shape. If they are sedentary, they tend towards skinny-fat. Think your average endurance runner.
Mesomorphs tend to have an athletic body and medium sized bone structure. If they are active, they tend to have a lot of lean muscle mass. They can gain muscle or lose fat quite easily, but need to watch food intake more closely. Think of your typical explosive athlete, such as wrestlers or gymnasts.
Endomorphs have a larger bone structure with larger amounts of total body mass, both lean muscle and fat. They tend to store excess calories as fat and are naturally inclined to be less active. Think powerlifters or American football linemen.
Now in reality, most people share characteristics of adjacent types, so it is possible to be both ectomorphic and mesomorphic at the same time. However, having a good idea of your type is the first clue to being a hardgainer. As you may have guessed, they tend to be mostly ectomorph in nature. But that alone doesn’t paint the whole picture.
What’s really going on?
In most cases, people who claim to be a hardgainer are either eating incorrectly, training incorrectly or both. Here are the most common mistakes:
either training too little or too much
using mostly isolation exercises or machines
not providing enough intensity in their workouts
eating too little and/or with improper macronutrient splits
doing too much cardio
Any and all of these can insure you never gain muscle, and remain skinny forever. So how do you gain muscle? It boils down to too things: eat enough food and lift heavy weights. Here are the 2 steps you need to do.
Step 1: Introducing the clean bulk
Bulking has a certain negative connotation where people envision gorging on everything in sight and gaining a huge amount of body fat while lifting weights, often referred to as a dirty bulk. And boy is it dirty. While it is true you need to be in a calorie surplus to effectively gain muscle, gaining a huge amount of body fat has many negative consequences, other than the obvious aesthetic ones, such as imparining muscle growth and accelerating fat storage.
First of all, excessive fat gain has been shown to lower insulin sensitivity (Dyck, D. J. et al), which impairs your body’s ability to use fat as a fuel source and increases the likelihood your body will store carbohydrates as fat (Zhang, Jin, et al.), and suppress intracellular signalling responsible for protein synthesis which may lead to muscle loss (Wang, Xiaonan, et al.). In case you are counting, that’s a triple whammy of bad.
So how to do it properly? Simple! Just aim for a 200-300 calorie surplus (or more) which will provide the correct anabolic environment and minimize fat storage.
Step 2: Lift heavy weights
The science on this in clear, the heavier you lift, the better your body responds. In a meta analysis of over 140 published scientific papers, researchers at Arizona State University found that lifting weights at 80% of your one-rep max produces maximal strength gains (Rhea, Matthew R., et al.).
The science here is simple. Your muscles grow in response to increased tension in the muscle (Goldberg, Alfred L., et al.), so to grow you need to keep increasing the tension (known as progressive overload) by adding weight to the bar (Kraemer, William J., et al), increasing sets, increasing reps or decreasing rest periods.
get your gains on you hardgainer!
The best way to do this is to use free weights, such as I highly recommend, as they are more effective than machines (Spennewyn, Keith C). Again there are nuances here. Machines can help too, if you have injury or mobility issues.
Now if all that sounds too complicated for you, just book a call with me, and we will design a custom program to help you achieve your goals.
References
Dyck, D. J., G. J. F. Heigenhauser, and C. R. Bruce. “The role of adipokines as regulators of skeletal muscle fatty acid metabolism and insulin sensitivity.” Acta Physiologica 186.1 (2006): 5-16.
Zhang, Jin, et al. “Insulin disrupts β-adrenergic signalling to protein kinase A in adipocytes.” Nature 437.7058 (2005): 569-573.
Wang, Xiaonan, et al. “Insulin resistance accelerates muscle protein degradation: Activation of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway by defects in muscle cell signaling." Endocrinology 147.9 (2006): 4160-4168.
Rhea, Matthew R., et al. “A meta-analysis to determine the dose response for strength development.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 35.3 (2003): 456-464.
Goldberg, Alfred L., et al. “Mechanism of work-induced hypertrophy.” Medicine & Science Sports 7.3 (1975): 185-198. Hostler, David, et al. “The effectiveness of 0.5-lb increments in progressive resistance exercise.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 15.1 (2001): 86-91.
Kraemer, William J., et al. “American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 34.2 (2002): 364.
Spennewyn, Keith C. “Strength outcomes in fixed versus free-form resistance equipment.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22.1 (2008): 75-81.
Comments