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Hardgainer.com / Stuart McRobert

dah328

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Yeah, I read it in college and it completely changed the way I lifted. Why people will lift for years without achieving any significant results and remain convinced that the routine they copied from the latest muscle rag is worthwhile is completely beyond me. Then there are those guys (usually skinny) who think they can go into the gym and do 200 reps at 5% of their max and get "toned." I guess the bright side of that is that I almost never have to wait for someone else to finish his set on the mid-size SUV squat rack before I can use it.
 

GQgeek

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Hardgainer is a term that gets thrown around a lot by skinny guys that don't put on weight. I used to use it for myself but it's largely a matter of diet and discipline. You also have to work-out properly.

I guarantee that a lot of the info in those books is elsewhere on bodybuilding forums. Btw a lot of people in the gym are pretty clueless about what they're doing. Don't take advice from them :p
 

dah328

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Hardgainers aren't just the skinny guys who don't put on weight easily. They're the 95%+ of the population that don't recover well from frequent heavy workouts of the same muscle group. The guys that can safely recover from three heavy sets of deadlifts per week are in a different category than the rest of us and we're not going to make much progress trying to emulate them.
 

GQgeek

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Most of the advice I've seen on bodybuilding forums seems to cater to the 95% then. I don't think I've seen anyone recommend working out a muscle group with heavy weight more than once a week or with an absolute minimum of 4 days in between. God knows i need the full week to recover when I blast any particular muscle :p
 

Jolly Green

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Good book. I have "Beyond Brawn" and "Insiders Tell-All Handbook on Weightlifting Technique."

As a beginner and the hardgainer type, I felt it was a very useful set of books. Beyond Brawn is rather repetative on the "important" points. I have not read any other books on WL'ing, but IMO it is much better than Men's Health and other muscle rags.

Exercises will have you using Compound lifts that use more than one muscle group. Squats, Bench press, dips, deadlifts, to name a few.

Diet will encourage you to get your vitamins and protien from your balanced diet and not so much supplements.

Cheers,
David
 

skalogre

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BEEEEEEFCAKE!

beefcakelh5.gif
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by Jolly Green
Diet will encourage you to get your vitamins and protien from your balanced diet and not so much supplements.


Most people recommend that but it's expensive and a serious pain **********, especially if you can't tolerate canned tuna :p Besides, protein is protein. Supps work.

I eat chicken breast 2x a day along with some vegetables, brown rice or potatoes and I get the rest from protein shakes. It's too difficult otherwise.
 

Quirk

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Originally Posted by GQgeek
Most people recommend that but it's expensive and a serious pain **********...

Funny, that's what I tend to think about supplements vs. just getting it from my diet. Whatever works, I guess.
 

Charley

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Goblin

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I think McRobert's stuff is sensible, but he is reeeeeally preeeeeachy about the whole "if you make gains on a non-abbreviated program, you must have either FREAKISH GENETICS or be a STEROID USER!" thing. I mean, most people understand that guys like Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates have fantastic genes and 5-figure-a-month supplementation programs. No need to shriek about it on every other page.

McRobert pushes the "pity the poor HARDGAINER" line heavily, and discounts the hard work that non-"hardgainers" put in. "You're just not cursed with sub-average GENETICS!" *Most* people can make *significant* gains just by cleaning up their diets and working hard at any program. Most people won't look like Dorian, but most people don't want to. Eat clean, work out hard and consistently, and you'll make gains. They just won't be Olympia-level gains. There are very few people I've ever run into who are true "hardgainers," i.e., they can eat like a horse and train consistently and still look like beanpoles.

Like I said, I like his stuff, the shrill tone just gets old. But then again, I'm not cursed with sub-average GENETICS!
 

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