How To Get Big for Skinny Hard Gainers

How to Get Big
(for skinny hard-gainers)

Ok, I was in the same situation. I've always been skinny, always been a hard gainer. For years I thought I couldn't put on weight no matter what I did.

I was 6 ft 135lbs for most of my life. Even after high school when I stopped running cross country, I still didn't put on much weight.
    
At 23 I did Body For Life. I started eating on the BFL plan and gained nothing. So I doubled it. Then I tripled the carbs and left the protein doubled. I stopped doing cardio completely. I started taking fish oil or flax oil a couple times a day. Last but not least, I started eating half a bag of chips ahoy cookies every night after dinner. I worked upper body once a week, and lower body once a week (pretty standard bodybuilding stuff - lots of sets and reps), and spent the rest of the time sleeping. I gained 2lbs a week. When I got to 165lbs I stopped.

At 26 I was back down around 155. I was training for a russian kettlebell sport meet. For those unfamiliar with kettlebell sport, you take a 53lb kettlebell and snatch it for reps, and that's one event, and the other event is taking two 53lb kettlebells, and jerking them for reps. It was pretty simple training - twice a week I would do one handed snatches with 53lbs and the two kettlebell jerk with 106lbs as much as I could in sets of five until I didn't have the strength to do it safely anymore. On top of that I started counting my calories. Turned out that I naturally eat about 1200-1400 calories a day. So I jacked that up to 3000 calories a day. It was WORK to eat that much. On top of all of the good healthy food I was eating, I had to make sure I was drinking fruit punch and eating cookies again just to get enough calories. By the time the Washington State Kettlebell Championships came around I weighed in at 170. With just snatches and jerks I put on hard muscle that was all legs and back and traps and shoulders, it was crazy. 

170 was a long way from the 135 I'd been most of my life.  Here I am jerking two 106lbs (two 53lb kettlebells) for reps at the Washington State KB Championships.

Also, both times I was also eating lots of protein powder and meal replacement shakes and a little bit of creatine. I'd throw it all in the blender with all the fruit or soy milk I could find.

What you can take away from this:
1.) For me to gain, I had to eat a shit load of food. It was work to eat that much food. I ate lots of good food, and then I piled bad food on top of the good food.
2.) I didn't lift often, but when I did I lifted heavy and I lifted as much volume (lots of sets and reps) as my body could safely do.
3.) I didn't do any "cardio".

By Josh Hillis
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer
National Academy of Sports Medicine Performance Enhancement Specialist
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Combat Applications Specialist
CrossFit Level II Trainer
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2005

Comments

[Derek Manuel]

In order to gain weight and build muscle mass as fast as possible you have to focus on getting stronger in the major compound exercises

[Derek Manuel]

Great stuff. Hardgainers should also learn how to do heavy, high rep breathing squats. Doing these correctly have added more pounds of muscle on true hardgainers then anything else, myself included. http://www.hardgainers-weight-tips.com

[Jason]

Wow! Great read. I am a former Hardgainer myself and have recently started my own Bodybuilding blog specifically for HardGainers. Check it out at www.hardgainersguide.com!