The "Hard Learner"
Hard Learner or Hard Gainer?
by Steve Blades
Before I continue I would just like to point out, this article I aimed at the able bodied trainer free of ailments and medical defects. It is also by no means definitive and the traits outlined will not be universal amongst all gym trainers who fail to add weight and lean tissue. Many of the points outlined however will be applicable to those who fail to add mass and all the points mentioned are merely subjective as opposed to being gospel. The observations have come as a result of being a personal trainer, a keen weight trainer and member of many online bodybuilding communities.
If you are mildly offended at some of the statements made in the article, I apologise in advance but motivation is often needed to progress and I have made the assumption that you are interested in long term muscle gains as you are actually sitting down and reading the article. If not, the next few thousand words are going to be of little relevance to you.
Happy reading
A ‘hard gainer’ in the bodybuilding world is the guy who spends years in the gym gaining very little in terms of mass or lean tissue. It’s a very disheartening predicament for the avid trainer and leads to a high attrition rate amongst recreational bodybuilders. ‘Dropping out’ or ‘flunking’ as my American friends call it, can be obviated by simple measures and patience on the part of the trainer. If you have the motivation you will succeed, it may take longer than some of your training buddies or peers but the gains will come. For the true hard gainer patience must be employed along with an open mind and optimum ‘extra gym’ activities in order for them to gain weight and lean body mass (muscle).
Knowledge and application are paramount for the hard gainer to progress.
Whilst I have sympathy for the true hard gainer, the tag has become a convenient one used by those with limited knowledge, patience or application to a structured, progressive regime. “I am a hard gainer” has been suggested to me by just about every trainer in a vain attempt to justify years of time wasting in the gym and suboptimal nutritional plans. I have labelled this type of trainer, the ‘hard learner’ although he will label himself the hard gainer in the majority of cases. This is the guy who simply seems to either not understand what is required to gain muscle, not willing to put the work in or simply believes he deserves to be big because he purchased a protein shake, gym membership and a weights belt.
This article is dedicated to the hard learner and will help you, as the reader, decide whether your short comings are a result of nature or alternatively, being one of nurture. Whilst not all traits may be applicable, if you find yourself relating to at least some of them you can feel free to bracket yourself with the eternally mediocre hard learners that grace commercial gyms around the world.
Documented below is a protocol to really assess if you are a hard gainer or a simply hard learner. A hard learner in the context of this piece could be defined as the gent who pays little attention to his diet and who believes supplements are as good as food. The hard learner is often the guy who trains like he is at the gym for a social event and the one who believes bodybuilding is a part time jolly he can pick up when he fancies and as a result deserves to look like a Mr Olympia. He will avoid the compound movements, train for the ‘burn’ or ‘pump’ and gravitate towards the bicep curl machine at any given opportunity. If you are this gent, you will generally be the hard learner as opposed to the hard gainer. More will be revealed as you read on, so let’s get cracking.
You are not a hard gainer if you have been training for less than a year. If you have labelled yourself a hard gainer and you have been training 6 months, this article is not for you, be patient and don’t devalue the years of hard work some have put in. You put in the years, you too will grow. Continue training and enjoy the lifestyle bodybuilding brings.
From experience, although ‘newbie’ gains are impressive, anyone who labels themselves a hard gainer after a year is merely not looking to put a long stint in. In one year a ‘virgin trainer’ would expect to gain up to 20lbs of lean muscle. Gains slow down after this as any weight training stimulus will create hypertrophy in the new trainer. The new trainer can bounce from machine to machine without structure and add muscle and strength in the initial stages of training. To make the assessment that they are a hard gainer because they have not maintained the same pattern of weight gain from months 3-12 as they did in months 1 and 2 is simply misunderstanding the notion of protein synthesis rate. You cannot build 5lbs of muscle each month for ever. Moral of the story? Train for 2-3 years and if your weight is stagnant for considerable amounts of time maybe you have a claim, just maybe.
In short if you are sitting here after 6 months of training and not as big as you want to be, either eat more, get a better training split or be patient.
The hard gainer will employ the following exercises and have used them with varying rep ranges and set structures. The bench press, the deadlift, the squats, the chin up, the weighted dip, the military press, the lunge, and all other compounds using a barbell and dumbbells. If you are sitting here asking ‘what is this guy on about?’ - Then I believe you fall into the bracket of a hard learner. The hard gainer has learnt all compounds and run them for extended periods of time with maximal effort and logical structure, maxed out, hit a plateau and then changed routine to ensure progression. The hard learner is likely to have never executed a compound and never realized what structured training is.
The hard learner has not worked out his calorie requirements and multiplied his daily maintenance levels by at least 2 for a new intake figure. That’s right, double. For the guy that needs 2500 calories a day to stay small, eat 5000 for 9 months whilst lifting compounds and you will add weight. If at this point you do not add some form of weight you can call yourself a hard gainer. For this gent the emphasis is now on 2.5 to 3 times your previous daily requirements. If you are saying to yourself “I couldn’t eat that” - either look at calorie dense foods and liquid calories or stay small and buy yourself a t shirt “hard learner”! Wear it with pride, sit on the seated chest press machine with protein shake in hand moaning for the next 3 years before you quit. The law of thermodynamics cannot be cheated for 99% of the population. Unless you have some crazy thyroid problem you are merely underestimating what is required to add mass to your frame. Eat big, get big, eat small, stay small. It isn’t rocket science, its simple science. Muscle is built in the kitchen, as much, if not more than the gym. The quicker you appreciate this, the quicker you grow.
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Related Article! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "RO-CHO" Article - Great Read ! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is RO-CHO? It’s basically me being lazy and not bothering to write ‘Rotational Carbohydrates’. |
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You are the hard learner you like your six pack so much that you don’t want it to fade during the necessary bulking phase. You believe once a layer of subcutaneous fat appears its there forever. You my friend are not a hard gainer. You are what I term ‘the eternal pretty boy’. There are ten a penny in gyms everywhere. Mr. ‘wanna get huge’ but dare not lose the six packs because the teenage girls won’t think they look like a boy band member anymore. If you are this gent either alter mindset or stay small. Adding substantial mass will lead to gains in body fat beyond the initial honeymoon period of training. These fat gains will be minimal if you keep your diet clean and plan your nutritional strategy as opposed to relying on luck or poor preparation to get you through.
This is where periodisation comes into play, read up on it, learn all about it and acquaint yourself with the notion of cycles. Add mass, cut, add mass, cut. The ‘ideal’ of staying ripped and growing is fine for genetic freaks, those looking to get from 10 to 10 ½ stone and steroid users. For those with the lofty ambitions of being 5 11” and 15 stone from their current 10 stone, your abs are going on holiday for a while, get used to it, do what you have to do to survive this micro trauma but move on. Mr. Eternal ‘love my abs’ is not a hard gainer merely a hard learner and is often stuck in a rut. Eat like you want to grow or eat like you want to stay skinny. Don’t think employing the latter is going to yield the former. 6 packs are evident again after the cutting phase, but at this point they are accompanied by 16” arms a 45” inch chest and similar such measurements as opposed to 12” guns and legs similar to that of a 9 year old boy.
The hard learner believes cutting and bulking are possible at the same time indefinitely, hence why they are often neither big nor cut but small and soft. This misconception has come as their first stone of weight gain from 10 to 11 stone came with no fat gains. Do not expect this to be the case when going from 11 to 15 stone unless you have a 10 year plan. Adding muscle mass needs a calorie surplus, cutting body fat needs a calorie deficit. I believe it was ‘diet guru’ Tom Venuto who likened this pursuit to ‘chasing two rabbits and catching neither’
Ask yourself, have you employed progressive overload? The hard gainer strategically adds a mere percentage onto all of his lifts week in week out and documents his progress religiously. He is not growing at a rapid rate but is patient and aware he is adding lean tissue, albeit at a slow rate. The hard learner on the other hand simply picks up the weight he fancies and applies no methodology and ‘likes the feel’. The choice of weight often comes down to whichever one is free or whichever looks the biggest. Note down what you do, push it to its limits, plateau, either break the plateau or change your routine. Staying stagnant in the gym is often mirrored in the aesthetic end result. Lift with form, employ compound movements and ensure progression. If you are benching what you were 6 months ago and not really thought about it, you are the hard learner, not the hard gainer.
Hard gainers appreciate the role of sleep when it comes to promoting maximum anabolism. A hard learner on the other hand will often tell you of his amazing lifts at 02:30 hours in the local nightclub week in week out. The exaggerated story will be accompanied by a sweet smell of Alco pops or the sour smell of his 10th pint. The hard learner for at least the few hours in his life create a false environment where his achievements become magnified and often confirmed by non trainers who appreciate at 11 stone he is bigger than his 10 stone mates. This period for the hard learner is the only chance they get to become a bodybuilder of note. The gym environment unfortunately, doesn’t afford them this luxury as they merely blend into the deconditioned trainers and those there for the jolly.
They do not rank with the true ‘big guys’ who have got there due to serious application and knowledge and the hard learner will receive minimal respect from these trainers. I am not for one moment suggesting a hard gainer or any bodybuilder for that matter should adopt the lifestyle of a hermit, but an appreciation of rest is required. 8-10 hours sleep a night should be aimed for if you struggle to add weight. For those wishing to delve a bit beyond the scope of this article there is some interesting reading on the endocrine system, growth and sleep. This maybe your chance to lose your hard learner tags, just maybe? If not, see you same time, same place next week to hear how many one arm press ups you did in Ibiza last year.
You are the hard learner if when I say to you “what is the best food/drink to build muscle?” your response revolves around a heavily marketed protein shake. Protein shakes alone don’t make you big. Please don’t come to me and say you have been drinking protein shakes for 2 years and haven’t gained size. Hard learners fail to appreciate that supplements are merely that. They supplement a solid diet that leads to gains regardless of how slow this progression maybe. If your diet is littered with infrequent, ill thought out meals and merely punctuated with protein powders, you are a hard learner, not a hard gainer. Eat real food, un processed carbohydrates, proteins and fats in a calorie excess and you will grow. Believing that there is some magic fuel in a powdered drink is a fallacy. If I handed you a tub saying chicken powder you would not take it. A protein shake is simply a form of protein not a magic bean.
You are not a hard gainer if you claim ‘creatine’ didn’t work for you, nor did glutamine, NOS, pump this and growth that. What did you expect they would do? Did you believe you would be Arnie after your tub run out? The noticeable gains from supplements are minimal and whilst they have their worth, too much emphasis is placed on them by the hard learner.
You are a hard leaner if you blame your genetics for your shortcomings. ‘I can’t gain, I have poor genes, I have a fast metabolism, etc etc etc’ It is enough to send you to sleep and is synonymous with so many trainers who have been in the gym less than a year, those who fail to eat correctly or simply don’t train with passion or logic. At least 90% of people do not have bad genes, you simply have a bad attitude or a lack of knowledge. Either way your ‘blame game’ attitude must change or you will remain in the dirge of being mediocre. The genetic limitations of most people are well beyond their current physical state. If they have not trained for a substantial period of time and employed the adequate diet, training and rest protocols needed then they need to look beyond their genes for the excuse. The hard gainer is one to appreciate constructive criticism and looks to learn, the hard learner is quick to defend his short comings. The hard gainer sees his physique as work in progress as opposed to believing he has a right to be Mr. Olympia because he is in the gym tonight instead of at the bar with the lads.
Hard learners love to put the impressive gains of others down to the use or abuse of anabolic steroids. The hard learner quickly makes gestures mimicking syringes in response to impressive physiques. Again this seems to be a defense mechanism to justify in their own minds as to why they remain small despite years of training. Many motion towards the forearm as if they are injecting into a vein. Yet again this confirms they have little appreciation of the topic yet love to wax lyrical with flawed arguments and media misconceptions to back up their flimsy arguments. The reason the guy is in shape is because he has applied himself in terms of knowledge and work load and been patient. Whether he is natural or not should be of no concern to the hard learner. The issue to be addressed is your own physique rather than that of others. If your defense to the points raised here now revolve around ‘his genetics’ I suggest a new pursuit away from the iron game is your best bet. Nobody is born big and ripped, this is a pursuit where potential accounts for little when application is not evident.
On the flipside many hard learners decide they are a good candidate for anabolic steroids after minimal amounts of training and even less time spent devising a suitable nutritional strategy. There is also the more seasoned hard learner who claims they quote ‘need’ them to get over a ‘plateau’. Ask him what he eats and the response will be similar to that of a teen girl or ageing relative as he stands there at 11 stone, as he was a year ago, 2 years ago and even 3. If after 3 years of solid training, hard eating and living the life the hard gainer on the other hand decides to research AAS, very few people in the bodybuilding circles would argue with his choice (assuming they are pro steroid) and possibly offer their advice and support. If you honestly believe steroids are for you when you have been training for less than a year you are merely impatient and perhaps not in it for the long run. If you believe injecting, or orally administering, anabolic steroids will suddenly make you big whilst ingesting 1400 calories a day you will be wasting your money and jeopardizing your health for very little in the way on strength or LBM (lean body mass)
Hard learners often refer to anabolics as ‘steds’ and ‘roids’ rather than the less crude terms used by seasoned bodybuilders. PCT to a steroid using hard learner is yet another alien concept and the notion of them understanding the chemical compounds they are running is purely laughable. Get your hormones from beef and not from the lab.
The hard learner, when forced, is one who presents a diet devoid of fat, based purely on protein and of poor structure. They believe all calories are created equally, numbers are the key and food choice is secondary. Hard learners believe chicken in the diet revolves around McChicken Nuggets from McDonalds. Mention the word succulent breast and they often giggle like pre pubescent boys in a school playground. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to establish a diet you will gain on. A simple weekend spent reading up on bodybuilding nutrition will separate the hard learner from the hard gainer. A hard gainer has a mixed macronutrient diet, one full of essential aminos and fats, one high in micronutrients and adequate CHO (Carbohydrates) to support growth regardless of how hard he finds it to add weight.
This diet will be in a calorie surplus and will be well structured and adhered to for the majority of the time. Haphazard diets and minimal application results in poor gains and is evident in many hard learners’ plans, and subsequently their lacking physique. They will make reference to at least 2 supplements they use which promote ‘massive anabolism’ and hard learners often harp on about the exclusion of the ‘much maligned dietary fat from their food intake, yet seem content to sip on countless sugar laden Alco pops 3 nights a week. This whole notion is similar to a parachutist buying a snazzy helmet and goggles and not bothering with a parachute.
Hard learners often subscribe to a cardio schedule similar to that of an elite endurance athlete, believing as long as they are in the gym they will get big. Gaining weight and muscular size needs a calorie surplus as stated before. Whilst cardiovascular training aids health and well being and excessive amount not only hinder gains, it can be both catabolic and switch fibre types away from explosive muscle gaining ones. If you are trying to be Mr. ‘do it all in one’, you are a hard learner. If you drop your cardio to 3 gentle 30 minute efforts a week when fuelled , and you are not gaining then you can itch towards the hard gainer bracket. If you are doing long cardio sessions in a vain attempt to stay lean, you remain small. If you are the gent who hammers out 20 minute near sprints before his weights, you too are a hard learner.
Many a hard learner loves to hit the rower as soon as he enters the gym, building up to what looks like the last 200mtrs of an Olympic event only to have to stop after 1 minute and 42 seconds. Training is not about your ego, if you want to do cardio that is fine but realise what to do and why you are doing it. Treadmills don’t build muscle when on level 20, nor do they impress the opposite sex from experience. If you need to strip body fat employ a cutting diet and cardio schedule and cut for a sustained period until you are happy with body fat levels. If you need size, eat for size and do minimal hard cardio. The two, as stated before do not overlap for seasoned trainers.
The hard learner is the gent who purchased a Mr. Olympia’s work out DVD and has convinced himself the way to 20” arms is by concentration curls because that’s what Mr. Olympia does. If you honestly believe that Mr. Olympia didn’t employ the compound movements in the initial phase of training (those outlined above) you are merely kidding yourself. The hard leaner also thinks that Mr. Olympia’s abs always look like that even through adding incredible amounts of mass in the off season period. Little do they realise they look in competition shape for a fraction of the year and spend most of the off season carrying substantially more body fat. The hard learner is quick to purchases the shake Mr. Olympia is drinking in the DVD and seems not to appreciate these guys are genetic freaks often using large doses of gear and have trained for years Nor does the hard learner realize Mr. Olympia is merely marketing the product and will not base his diet around any such supplements. The hard leaner quickly becomes disillusioned with his shake when the results fail to appear in 2 weeks. “Time for a new shake?” no, time for a wake up call or a new hobby. Bodybuilding is not a hobby unless you want to be little more than average. P.S he didn’t get his abs from an ab cradle either. It may come as a surprise but those nasty exercises such as deadlifts and squats do that in the initial stages.
Very few people will ever be able to ever look like Mr. Olympia, genetics will simply not allow for this. This though is not an excuse not to look your best and that best is far beyond where you are now, never lose sight of that.
The hard gainer, not hard learner is the man who no longer buys the latest glossy magazine in a vain attempt to actually work out how to add 3” to your biceps in 6 weeks. The hard gainer has gone to a true source of bodybuilding information and played by the rules, employed tried and trusted work out plans and cycled them in a methodical manner.
You, though are a hard learner if you have, over the period of the last year purchased 3 or more ‘fitness’ magazines based on claims made on the front cover believing them to be true. Referring to them more than once confirms your status as one who truly thinks bodybuilding is a life full of short cuts, magic pills and miracle work outs. If it were, everybody would look good. As they don’t, we can happily dismiss these claims as a fallacy. These magazines are simply trying to reinvent the wheel coming up with shapes such as squares, rectangles and hexagons and take your money! Whilst some more reputable magazines have quality writers and articles, it is your job to decipher what is ‘bullshit’ and what is quality information. Seasoned hard gainers are able to do this by distinguishing between noted trainers and gimmick merchants. If you are unsure, join an online bodybuilding community and ask your questions to impartial members who are looking to help rather than selling issues of magazines.
The hard learner is often heard saying “what do you fancy training tonight lads?” followed by a session that doesn’t end until Johnny big biceps has done 100 reps for the girls. This somewhat lackadaisical approach seems to contradict the over zealous nature of the reps the hard learner insists on banging out during the session. The work ethic seems to be apparent in this scenario, just the end result a little misguided.
More is definitely better. More reading, more rest, more food and more structure, not more reps. I return to the point of planning your sessions and executing them on the days you have allotted and with the exercises you have been prescribed.
The hard gainer can tell you all calories are not created equally, the hard gainer can tell you that not everything is about macronutrients. The hard gainer has his bottle of water at training sessions, has his PWO shake at hand and does look focused whilst in the gym. The hard gainer has done his homework. He knows what EFAs are and that again they are not created equally compared to the much maligned dietary saturated fats.
The hard gainer eats broccoli, spinach and olives washed down with water, the hard learner eases his conscience by washing down his multivitamin pill with diet coke, not ‘full fat coke’ because after all fat makes you fat and Mr. Hard Learner doesn’t want to get fat. God forbid his abs disappear in his journey to 15 stone ripped. It all happens in one go, doesn’t it?
Sit down and ask yourself, have you really applied yourself away from the gym? Have you honestly structured your diet to be wholesome, natural and suitable for you? Is it in an energy surplus? Eating more than your mates is not an indication of whether you are supplying adequate nutrients to grow. Drinking one extra protein shake doesn’t qualify you for this. Is your diet merely held together with supplements that are heavily marketed yet you don’t know what they do? Do you think protein and creatine are interchangeable and you will only buy one or the other depending on how much you have left after purchasing a weights belt for bicep curls and a ‘muscle vest’?
Ask yourself if you are in this for the long run or is this a jolly to you? I don’t look down on those who don’t take things seriously but those who expect to reap the rewards of the dedicated trainer without the dedicated effort, in my opinion merely devalue the hard work and sacrifices made. For the hard learner, I believe knowledge is easier to learn than mindset. There are a multitude of facilities with quality information and unbiased views on training, nutrition and all other aspects associated with bodybuilding. Simply applying yourself will allow you to make gains, regardless of how slow they may be, they will be evident IF you apply yourself. This is where hard learners and hard gainers differ. Learn the word application and refer back to it time and time again. Become a ‘doer’ and not a ‘talker’. Talkers talk a good race but doers end up winning the race.
Goal seems to be of minimal importance to the hard learner and his ‘goals’ will often revolve around the month of January, their biceps, six pack or the holiday they are going on this year, which just happens to be in 3 weeks. A hard gainer has short, medium and long term goals that are measurable, attainable, realistic and progressive. A hard learner believes goals are confined to the Sunday league football he plays, which by the way is the crux of his leg training.
If you believe you’re a hard gainer refer back to your goals and see if you have made progression. A hard gainer will add lean tissue albeit at a slower pace. The goals laid down in previous training cycles will spur the hard gainer on and confirm progress is being made. Hard learners’ goals are generally unrealistic and revolve around very short periods of time with quite lofty ambitions. These combined with a limited amount of knowledge are pointless bordering on detrimental. When the ‘goals’ of a hard leaner are not realised they will revert back to the cyclical questions they ask seasoned trainers 12 months previously.
What is your best bench press for 8 reps or your deadlift for 5? How many chins can you do unassisted? A hard gainer will jump in with a response or say “I can do X kg for X reps on my bench” the hard learner simply doesn’t have an appreciation; he can though remember the last time he stacked the bicep curl machine when Johnny big guns couldn’t. The hard gainer often has surprising strength for his size. This seems less apparent in the hard learner due to incorrect training. Whilst strength and size are not directly linear they will though separate those who have trained and those haven’t.
The hard learners’ questions rarely evolve regardless of when they are asked. The same primary questions crop up time and time again in months 9, 10 11 and twelve and they are generally relate to the same topic. Whilst there maybe minimal change in the hard gainers appearance for physiological reasons, his questions constantly progress and have specific structure, they are rarely basic and often challenge the norm. The hard learner receives the same answer time and time again but for whatever reason never seems to put the plan into action or think he knows better. The hard gainer on the other hand makes an informed choice based on the advice given often seeking alternative sources and opinions.
The hard learner is quick to point out specific weaknesses in his physique and ask for a remedy for them. ‘How can I get my forearms bigger?’ is often a favorite. The hard gainer appreciates his whole physique needs work and employs suitable methods to combat this. This goes back to the original points made in the plan. We will call Mr. Hard Gainer the compound man and Mr. Hard Learner the isolation man. It is a reoccurring trend unfortunately. Hard learners often make reference to ‘toning’ their muscles, their inner and upper chest and lower abs. They look to increase ‘da peak in da bicept’ as a famous trainer once said. Where did the ‘t’ come from?
The hard gainer can spell the word consistent forwards, backwards and upside down. He realises it’s a day in, day out, week in week out pursuit for him to add mass. Consistency to the hard learner is whether he has accidentally put too much powder in his ‘muscle shake’ or whether he chooses full fat milk over water.
The hard learner blames his 15” quads on a football injury he picked up age 9, a hard gainer can have 15” quads but will have smashed them to pieces barbell squatting, deadlifting and lunging. As a result the hard learner will avoid the squat rack at all costs, never show his legs and make reference to his dreadful injury picked up during a primary school football match. If you really can’t squat then that’s fine but it’s amazing to find the percentage of those who can’t squat compare to those who can’t do the chest press or bicep curl machine. I’m sure a fantastic study could be conducted. Unfortunately I don’t have the time or the inclination. In bodybuilding there is a term “shut up and squat” the hard gainer does, the hard learner looks for every possible excuse not to. Some studies actually show squatting increase overall body mass through specific GH release, this could be a nice bit of research for those who ‘can’t train legs’
Hard gainers play by the rules, yet hard learners love making the rules even though they are uneducated consequently end results are ill thought out practices. Examples of this can be seen in the execution of the exercises, the rep range, the time spent in the gym, in fact just about every possible aspect of bodybuilding. The hard learner loves to re invent the wheel often producing something similar to a square or rectangle. He often forces this onto his equally ill informed training partners as high fives are exchanged on the completion of 100 tricep kick backs. Needless to say as a result he gets nowhere. Hard learners often wait until January before joining a gym or make bold statements on the first of January. A hard gainer sees the gym as a year round pursuit and doesn’t simply focus on holiday periods and new years resolutions as their form of motivation. Rain doesn’t stop the hard gainer making it to the gym, the hard gainers routine whilst in the gym doesn’t change in response to whether the weekly female aerobics class is on. A hard gainer trains for himself, not an audience.
Hard learners training sessions are often dictated by social events and the gym is an ‘either or’ toss up between the pub, the playstation or the drive through take away restaurant.
If I start talking about HIIT, HIT, volume training, strip sets, drops sets, pyramids, pre fatigue do you know what I am talking about? Do you know who Bill Starr, Mike Mentzer or Charles Poliquin are? Even if you are unfamiliar with all, some form of appreciation of tried and tested training must be evident in your response. If I say 4 x 4 do you think of a monster truck or do you think of a rep range? I talk about Rippetoe and you think injury? Do you think GVT is a medical defect?
The hard learner believes a 4 day split is a temporary break from his girlfriend as a result of the ‘roid rage’ he got from his creatine shake. A hard gainer on the other hand will fully appreciate the real definition as he will full body routines and probably employed most logical plans over the previous 2-3 years. Hard learners also seem to have an ability to determine the worth of a well established training plan after 2-3 weeks. “I gained nothing on that” before switching back to a pitiful mismatch of isolations and what looks like the bastard child of something they saw on Rocky and The Terminator.
The year has 52 weeks. 48 of these will be spent training. That allows for 4 quality, 12 week plans, that can be as diverse as the hard gainer wants. As long as he runs them and gives them his all I will be more than happy to listen to his critique of them. Deciding volume training doesn’t work after 2 weeks is a reoccurring trait in the hard learner for example. It could be strongly argued that the factor which separates the hard learner from the hard gainers is the notion of nature versus nurture .Hard learners love blaming their gym for their lack of gains instead of simply canceling their membership and moving to one with adequate facilities. The hard learner loves to use phrases like “the squat rack is always busy” or “our dumbbells only go up to 18kg” If you really want to develop, change gyms or train at home.
A hard learner will rarely reduce the weight stack after his training buddy has been on the piece of equipment before him. Note the word equipment as opposed to barbell or dumbbell. This is generally due to his ego or lack of knowledge on progression or the documenting of previous weights lifted. He will often increase the weight too regardless of the impact it has on his rep range and technique in a vain attempt to increase his ‘cred’ amongst fellow hard learners who between them share the lean tissue of a the guy who is training correctly next to them. Hard learners also enjoy slamming weight stacks down, this again comes from him seeming need to inform people around him he has worth.
Hard learners often punctuate the suboptimal training with bicep curls at home in their free time instead of reading or resting. This seems to the be the norm in many hard learners regardless of the good advice they are given. They may even wear their weight belts at home to do this, I'm really not sure on that one though. Similar exercises for the ‘6 pack’ are performed with equal rigor and lack of structure. The notion of postural imbalances are alien to them and the ‘more the better’ ethic is practiced again regardless of what they have been told. Hard learners often have a range of heavily marketed fitness equipment lying dormant at home until January and three weeks before their holiday.
These pieces will inevitability include static dumbbell weights and ab cradles. There are some hard learners with a fantastic work effort and the traits outlined above are not attributable to them, they have merely failed to grasp what is required rather than to having a poor attitude. Many hard learners also do not make a fuss and scene. I feel it imperative to stress this point that not all hard learners are bicep boys and gym clowns. The suggestions made above are simply some of the behavioral traits displayed by those who fail to gain opposed to being an all encompassing package of every person who doesn’t add lean muscle.
It would be a fair assessment for the reader to suggest the author of this piece was being an elitist and stating all trainers should know the ins and outs of anatomy, physiology, nutrition and supplementation. This is certainly not the case. There are plenty of people who don’t have a clue on these issues yet are making gains. For those folk that’s fine, they can ignore the finer points and be oblivious to the required standards whilst still progressing. These guys though are generally not the ones who complain about gains, nor do they suffer from the ‘eternally mediocre syndrome’
For the hard gainer, generally they must go the extra mile due to their ‘physiological disadvantage’. In short, if you are sitting here thinking it’s not fair that ‘I should know all this’ when the huge and ripped guy doesn’t, well I’m sorry but it’s not a level playing field. Its’ your duty to go beyond what is required for these guys or to graciously back down to the level you are happy with rather than trying to mock and upstage those true hard gainers.
Steve Blades aka Marmite can be found on MuscleTalks discussion boards.
“Online Personal Trainer” Feel free to contact the author for help on any of the subjects discussed. |
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