Learn how people who naturally have a thin skeleton and a poor ability to progress in gaining muscle mass should exercise. In theory, mass gain is very simple. For this you only need to use more energy than you expend. For example, spending two thousand calories during the day and consuming two and a half, the mass will increase. However, in practice, difficulties often arise, and today you will be able to familiarize yourself with the basics for hard gainers in bodybuilding.
How do hardgainers gain weight?
It is very rare for any amateur bodybuilder to calculate the energy value of their food and at the same time they are completely confident that they are eating well enough to gain mass. However, it is not enough to eat a lot of soup and potatoes with sausages. The diet must be strictly verified and provide the body with all nutrients.
If you do not want to count the calorie intake, then you can eat every day, the so-called hardgainer food set:
- A liter of milk (fat content not less than 3.5%).
- A liter of juice.
- 200 grams of whole grain bread.
- Porridge made from 150 grams of cereal.
- 150 grams of pasta.
- 400 grams of cottage cheese with a fat content of up to 9 percent.
- 4 eggs.
This product set contains 345 g. carbohydrates, 140 gr. protein compounds, and its energy value is 2700 kcal. It is also advisable to add a gainer and cheese to this diet. You can completely replace one meal with a gainer by diluting it in milk.
Oddly enough, this may sound, but hardgainers can even eat fast food, but it is advisable in this case to additionally take a vitamin-mineral complex. You don't have to eat six times a day, as your metabolism is already high. Four meals a day will be quite enough, but the portions in this case should be large. When choosing food, watch the reaction of the body to them. If after taking something you have problems with the digestive tract, then exclude the product from the diet. Also, in order to normalize the work of the digestive system, it is worth periodically using enzyme preparations, such as Festal. The longer you consume high-calorie foods, the higher your metabolic rate will become. This will lead to a decrease in the rate of mass gain.
To prevent such a situation, every second month, you should switch to an unloading diet for a week or 10 days. To do this, cut the calorie intake by half. After that, start eating as usual.
Since your mass will increase, it is necessary to increase the calorie intake. This can be done by increasing the amount of food consumed. Unfortunately, this is often forgotten and, having gained, say, 10 kilograms of mass, they continue to eat in the same regime.
How can hardgainers reduce energy consumption?
It should be mentioned here that the concept of "energy consumption" includes two components:
- Basic (basal) metabolic rate.
- Additional energy costs.
Basal metabolism is an individual indicator and is genetically predetermined. One person can expend a thousand calories at rest, and another three at once. In addition, various factors affect basal metabolism, and it can change over a period of time. It's almost impossible to change it yourself. Thus, there are only additional costs that you have to minimize.
How do hardgainers train properly?
Most of the training programs that can be found on the net. Are high volume. They are contraindicated for hard gainers. You should not work in 12 repetitions, burning more calories, but rather do 6 and get similar results.
It is very important to give the body enough time to recover. If you cannot strictly adhere to the daily routine, but you will have to reduce the volume of classes. Remember that the more exercises you use and do more reps and sets, you will burn a lot of energy. This significantly affects recovery, and the body may simply not be ready for the next exercise. It is important to remember that the more difficult it is for you to gain weight, the less you should exercise.
Denis Borisov talks about the training and nutrition of hardgainers:
