Some Talk About the "Hardgainer"...


Guys who weigh 150 and "can't" gain weight...guys who have to build their routines around alternative lifts because they aren't "made to do the regular ones"...guys who are "genetically handicapped," so that they therefore cannot be expected to set their standards as high as others but can only be expected to set their standards as high as their "potential" will allow them to go...

I don't know about you, but all of this makes me laugh. Nothing personal against you "hardgainers" out there, but to all of us out there who haven't gotten most of our training knowledge from books and "experts," we know to deny your claims of mediocrity any semblance of reasonability. Or put in simpler terms...stop with the whiny horseshit nonsense! But seriously, folks- just what is a "hardgainer?" Let's explore this...

Now, granted it is true that some people have an easier time making gains than others...to a point, that is- which is why I have such a problem with the term "hardgainer" and the attitude that often accompanies it. All- not just some- trainers who are in the iron game for a time will hit plateaus in their gains, both in strength and, if it is an objective, size. I think there is a very silly notion floating around that the "genetically gifted" trainers don't ever struggle to make gains and that if they do, there is no need for them to whine about it considering that there are those who are "genetically handicapped" who struggle even more. What hogwash! NO ONE should ever limit himself due to genetics or else he is doomed to fail.

Here is a question: at what point does a person cease to become a hardgainer? Does he spend his entire training career as a helpless victim of genetics? If he does, he is nothing more than a crybaby who doesn't WANT to put any effort into making gains. The fact is that when starting out, everyone is a hardgainer. Yeah, I hear stuff all the time about how some guy has a friend who has never worked out and can bench 250 pounds (if he has never worked out, how do you know what he can bench?) and about how he himself has worked out for a long time and still cannot do that. This is a very important point: true strength is judged by what a person can do once he reaches his plateau. THEN judge your gains. THEN judge your capabilities. AND even after that if you can't gain as much as others, SO WHAT?!? I'm 64 years old and have been training for nearly 50 years and I never have been able to lift as much as Doug Hepburn, Bill Kazmaier, Magnus Ver Magnusson, Gary Taylor, Jon Pall Sigmarrson, Gerrit Badenhorst, etc., etc. Am I a "hardgainer?" If you answered "yes," slap yourself in the head.

I think a big problem is that people just don't want to own up to not making a REAL effort to make gains. Like the guy that says he can't gain 25 pounds- has he really tried? Has he gone from a couple thousand calories a day and lifting under a SuperStupid...oops, "SuperSlow"...routine or other light poundage routine to eating over 4 or 5 thousand calories a day and training under a higher poundage routine? Probably not, but folks, like it or not, that is what it takes. Every person who has made gains like this has done it the exact same way: eating like a monster and training like a barbarian. Or how about the guy who can't seem to hurdle his 300 pound deadlift- what has he done to improve it? Has he tried to work on his weak areas more by improving his sldl, squats, and shrugs? Has he tried the small changes like switching up lifts on certain days or switching from 3 sessions a week to 2, or from (God forbid) 1 session every 7 to 12 days to 2 to 3 sessions a week? Probably not, but like it or not, that is what it takes.

Once on the plateau, the road is the same. Usually the difference is made by who wants to seek out a way to make things better and who wants to use the term "hardgainer" as a crutch.

Just some useless thoughts from a narrow-minded old man!