September 12th, 2009

As you have already gotten past the headline you probably know what a hardgainer is. If you are nor sure what it means then really it just refers to a person that has extreme difficulty increasing their weight be it fat or muscle! Often this is put down to the fact that that person has a really fast metabolism.

Metabolism or metabolic rate refers to how speedily your body can use up the calories it has taken on by processing the normal chemical actions required by the body. If your metabolic rate is very slow then it is easy to gain fat tissue as you are not using up as many calories at rest as someone who has a higher metabolic rate.

For supporting muscle gains we should be trying to creat a surplus amount of calories, this is difficult for hardgainers as they rapaidly use up their calories even at rest. So, how can hardgainers counter this? Here is our how to build muscle quickly guide for hardgainers:

1) Keep the cardio workouts to a minimum. Aerobic workouts will clearly consume calories during the exercise but will also increase your metabolic rate so that you continue to burn off calories at a faster speed even when resting. You do not want this as you are trying to create surplus calories.

2) Eat for two people! You need to get lots of calories on board. To do this, simply try to double the amount of food that you would normally eat at every meal. Buy some large sized bowls and plates so that you will not forget about this.

3) Take on board every day 5-7 meals. This is critical to build up muscle. Your body can only absorb a certain amount of nutrients at anyone sitting so spreading out the meals is also a good thing and ensures that your body is never waiting for its next meal. 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 can flip into a starvation state where it releases particular chemicals that actually inhibit the muscle building process.

4) Use supplemements. Make use of the fantastic meal replacement powders and protein drinks that are readily available nowadays. These contain very high dosages of exactly the right things that you need. Ideally you should consume them just before and just after your training session when your body will benefit from them the most.

Stop doing exercises that isolate muscles singularly like concentration curls, stick with compound multi-joint exercises. Your routine must include: dead lifts, pull ups, squats and bench presses. These are the easiest and fastest exercises that will build muscles mass fast in the correct places.

6) Stop doing so many sets. Muscle mass growth can be ignited by performing just 10 sets per session with only 3 sets per body part. More is generally worse for hardgainers! ignite growth then shoot out of the gym and keep your calories available for growing.

7) Drink loads of water. It is crucial for many important reactions in the body so don’t forget to do this. Take on board water often.

There we go, give those tips a bash. Be persistent with these for a couple of months before your judge them. Go for it, if not now when? I hope you found our how to build muscle up tips useful.

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