The best magazine
Not doing this can lead to injury, confusion, frustration, and quite often, failure.
Today we will look at the hardgainer, which is a category many people mistakenly think they fall under.
The prevailing definition out there is that a hardgainer is a man or woman who consistently weight trains under a hardgainer training program, but has a difficult time adding muscle to their frame.
In many instances, a good two or three months of weight training may progress with no significant changes noted in muscle size.
However, using this popular definition of "hardgainer" makes us all hardgainers.
Why? Because for the most part, adding legitimate muscle mass is not an easy endeavor.
All those people that told you to weight train in your teen years were right: the easiest period to gain muscle mass is during puberty when your body's anabolic hormone production is at an all-time high.
Unfortunately, after that, gaining muscle becomes progressively harder as we age due to the fact that hormonal production begins to decline between the ages of 20 and 30.
The accurate definition of a hardgainer, then, is the naturally skinny man or woman, who, no matter what he or she eats, always seem to remain at the same body weight.
This body-type is exactly what Dr.
William Sheldon referred to as an "ectomorph somatotype" when he devised his theory in the 1940's.
Sheldon's theory states that human bodies are divided into three main somatotypes: the ectomorph, the endomorph, and the mesomorph.
To summarize, the ectomorph is the naturally skinny person who has trouble gaining any weight, whether it be in the form of muscle or fat.
The endomorph on the other hand has the exact opposite problem.
For this body type, it is easy for the person to put on weight.
While endomorphs are easy muscle gainers -- provided they diet correctly -- they are doomed with a slow metabolism, making it imperative that they remain consistently strict with their diet if they wish to remain "in-shape" with some definition.
The last classification in body type is the mesomorph.
These are the naturally muscular people, who have higher metabolisms than the endomorphs.
Mesomorphs also make excellent bodybuilders as gains in muscle come easily, provided they maintain a training and nutrition program.
Now, having said this, is a hardgainer cursed to stay at the same weight forever, no matter the hardgainer training program they employ? No.
In a nut shell, all the hardgainer has to do is modify their weight training and nutrition program to suit his or her unique metabolism.
This is where finding the right, legitimate hardgainer training program comes in.
But where do you find such programs? In order to avoid the outrageous costs of hardcover books these days and the annoyances of library rentals, most of us head right to the internet.
It is there where we'll undoubtedly find information on a hardgainer training program.
But is it reliable? Proven? Most people find that any cheap (or even free) hardgainer training program is largely a scam.
After all, you're gonna get what you pay for.
But where can one find great programs (that work!) that can properly explain the myriad of challenges any hardgainer will face?
Source: ...