Can a Hardgainer Get Huge Naturally?
The short answer is yes, if they follow a proper training and nutritional program. How big? For many individuals it can be very big, for those with a light bone frame a little less, but everyone can achieve surprising results. Size is not all there is to define a nice physique, of course, but if this is the problem for you, natural bodybuilding hardgainers can grow pretty fast to a large size, though probably not get huge like drug assisted athletes, which is not a bad thing. A natural bodybuilder will have built a musculature that is not only pleasing to the eye but also functional. On the contrary a drug assisted bodybuilder, by growing his muscles beyond what mother-nature had intended, will actually see an athletic performance reduced, except for the weight lifted. Bodybuilding is not the only sport where steroids are used, but it is the one taking the biggest share of drug users in sport.
In my view this caused bodybuilding in general to have its image tarnished for most people, and for a good reason. The average man or woman in the street does not like to associate him/herself to a drug fuelled world populated with muscle freaks who look straight out of comic books. Not to mention the medical and ethical issues of taking drugs in the first place.
So many people prefer to say they are just working out or do weight training to distance themselves from this bodybuilding image, even though they very legitimately strive to shape up and yes, get big too, the natural way. Some people though are scared of getting too big. While this is not much of a problem for the majority, some trainees may not have a desire to reach the heavy weight division for performance or cosmetic reasons. Say these people also practice swimming or Thai Boxing, or other sports where stamina is a prerequisite as much as power.
Well, then everyone has an ideal weight range beyond which an increase in strength, weight, muscles and power would be more than offset by a decrease in stamina, making it not worth to pursuit. Think about gymnasts, they have awesome physiques and terrific body weight to power ratio. If they did weights they could possibly become even stronger, but also heavier and ultimately less performing. This means they carry the LEAST amount of muscle they can get away with in order to be as light as possible: the net result is outstanding power to body weight ratio. If you don’t have body weight or performance restrictions to deal with, then you can get as big and strong as nature allows you to.
Other people, mainly women, while have a desire to muscle up, are even more afraid of becoming “too big” even before they lifted a weight at all. They seem to think that after their workout they go to sleep and, bang, the next day they wake up like Dorian Yates. This of course is a totally unfunded fear, since it takes time, effort and dedication to muscle up, especially for a hardgainer, giving plenty of time to step back and reduce the effort to simple maintenance work, once you have achieved a desired size and shape. It is a bit like overweight people, they did not become overweight in the night time because they had a slice of cake at the party the day before. Most probably it took months and years of indulgence, sedentary lifestyle and/or lack of exercise before they realized they may have a health issue. Whatever you do to your body, for the good or for the bad, it takes time to show up and you have all the chances to take appropriate steps.
Having said all this, it does not mean that it should take years and years to achieve maximum strength and size if you follow a realistic program for drug free trainees, even if you are a hardgainer. A proper weight training program for regular guys and gals should consist of few compound sets per body part performed in a full body workout with great intensity. Rest, eat, sleep and repeat. This way it should take 2 years at most to reach your full potential, and even after just 6 months or 1 year you should be well ahead and have transformed your physique impressively.
The idea that it should take longer than that is a misconception born out of the thousands natural trainees and hopeless hardgainers who follow the high volume split routines taken from the muscle magazines. 10 to 24 sets per body part and split routines are murderous for regular guys and even more so for hardgainers and ectomorphs. They lead you nowhere but stagnation and frustration with a vague hope to hit the magic turning point that will never arrive. Hence the idea that it should take years and years to get big or just gain some muscle.
Think about it: if you did not make any substantial gains, apart from the very start, and you hit a deadlock, what makes you think that you will somehow turn it around? Only the muscle magazine/supplement mafia, I guess, because they need your failure to profit. In fact, they won’t tell you that those training split routines can only work for drug assisted trainees, not you or me, so they can go on selling you all sorts of supplements. The only supplements you need are few preservative free high quality protein powders, nothing else.
