Oliver Copeland
Cover image credit: Nickroybal This image represents a 9-year transformation, not 1 month. So you have 30 days to go from skinny to muscular and you want to know, can it be done? Maybe you want to impress a certain someone or look good for a photo shoot or wedding. Perhaps you’re just impatient! That’s … Read more
Sometimes switching to a new program can regain traction and you’ll begin to see gains again. This is only if the program solves whatever issue was holding you back. An example of this would be too much or too little volume.
The ultimate breakfast for hardgainers is bacon, eggs, and toast. Just kidding! Obviously, the “best” breakfast is going to depend on that individual, their needs, and their goals. In this article, we won’t state a specific recipe that is guaranteed to triple your gains- because that doesn’t exist. Instead, we’ll teach you how to manually … Read more
It may be beneficial to discuss why exactly people choose to bulk. Bulking is pretty common in the fitness industry. It’s is simply eating in a surplus in order to gain weight, and even if you just want to gain some muscle, you have to eat in a surplus.
Some of us choose alternative diets, like veganism. Many different motives, from allergies to ethics, drive these decisions but no one should be deterred from building muscle because of them. There are people out there who hate on veganism and spread misinformation. Often, this misinformation includes the inability to build any muscle, which is not true at all.
This is similar to a practice called “maingaining”. Maingaining is when someone eats very very close to maintenance, but manages to slowly gain muscle over a long period of time. This is even slower than lean bulking and is more appropriate for someone who has already put on a considerable amount of muscle.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably determined that you’re a hardgainer, and you’re wondering, are hardgainers non-responders?
If you have a BMI of 18.5-24.9, then you are at a healthy weight, and gaining more is probably going to feel like crap. If you’re underweight, gaining weight is going to feel good.
You may have heard the term “ectomorph” before. It is one of three body types in a body classification system developed over 80 years ago. There are dozens of blog articles explaining the three categories and which one you fall into. Or sometimes, they debunk the system altogether. But did you know that there is a numerical scoring system that goes along with it?
When I started training all those years ago, my progress didn’t match that of my friends, who had appeared to explode in musculature. I was a hardgainer. Thankfully, I can look back at all the photos and measurements I took, and today, I realize that I got a pretty good dose of newbie gains, I just couldn’t see it because I was comparing myself to my swole colleagues.