Since I used to be a naturally skinny guy myself, I come across a lot of the same mistakes that I used to make. So many skinny guys do not have the right approach to training, diet, supplements, and overall motivation. If you are genetically challenged as an ectomorph, you need to at least give yourself a fighting chance and make sure that you are taking every necessary step to build muscle mass and put on rock solid weight.
I talked to a naturally skinny guy who was having trouble building muscle mass just the other day, and I wanted to ask him a lot of questions to see if I could figure out his main problem. He said that he was eating lots of chicken, beef, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. He said that he tracks his diet pretty carefully and that he makes sure that he consumes the right kinds of food at the right time to unleash his anabolic hormones. So far so good, but I came across one fatal flaw.
I started getting into his workout routine and what kind of habits he formed at the gym. I was shocked that someone who was so structured with his diet approach was so scattered when it came to the gym. If you are a naturally skinny guy, it is vital that you learn the characteristics of a true hardgainer workout routine. This will help you gain weight fast and pack on heaps of muscle mass.
A hardgainer workout routine is just like a proper diet. There is a reason for everything that you are doing, and it is carefully planned for and tracked. The guy I was talking to in the gym said that he would walk in the gym with hardly any plan usually. It was almost as if he had workout ADD. He would pretty much just glide around from machine to machine without any functional plan. When I asked him if he was performing 6-8 heavy sets of bench presses, squats, dead lifts, barbell rows, and pull-ups every single week, he literally had no idea but assumed he wasn’t. In fact, he couldn’t even remember the last time that he dead lifted! No wonder he was lacking consistent results. This poor kid had absolutely no direction with his hardgainer workout routine. This article is going to break down three fundamental steps that go into the hardgainer workout routine, and I’m confident that all three of these steps will help you all with your workouts and muscle-building efforts.
Hardgainer Workout Routine Tip #1 – Workout Log
I recommend a workout log to pretty much anyone who has ever stepped foot in a gym. I am very proud of how organized my workout log is, and it has helped me pack on muscle and gain weight fast. The reason is quite simple. I will track my progress and results on all of the major compound exercises, and sometimes I get so detailed that I will actually track all of my shaper exercises, such as dumbbell curls, dumbbell lateral raises, and even calf raises!
Now, tracking your weight and repetitions in a workout log is one thing, but using the data for your benefit to gain weight fast is another.
What I do with my workout log is I will reference the amount of weight and repetitions I did on my last workout for a certain exercise. Say, for example, on Monday, I bench-pressed 250 pounds for 6 repetitions. The next time I bench press, I will read this and I will push myself to bench press 255 pounds for 6 repetitions or I will do an extra repetition with the same weight. Just knowing what I did last time on the bench press helps me a ton. This gives me the motivation to push myself outside my comfort zone and always strive for strength increases. If you guys want to know the most important aspect to a hardgainer workout routine, it is really quite simple; always focus on getting stronger. You won’t gain weight fast unless you are focusing on increasing strength. The stronger you become the more muscle mass you will put on. I don’t know too many skinny guys who pack on 20 pounds of muscle mass without getting way stronger on all of the compound exercises. This should be the foundation to any ectomorph workout.
Hardgainer Workout Routine Tip #2 – Focus on Form-Eccentric Portion
Another thing to consider when working out is your form. A lot of skinny guys performing an ectomorph-style workout will sacrifice form to push more weight. Most guys who are ectomorphs are self-conscious about the amount of weight they can lift, so they will put up the maximum amount of weight they can with really bad form.
If you want to gain weight fast and take your hardgainer workout routine seriously, you need to focus on following proper form and maximizing your time under tension with a slow eccentric movement on the way down.
Many ectomorphs don’t realize this, but you break down a lot more muscle fiber lowering the weight than you do lifting the weight. When you lower the weight, this is referred to as the eccentric portion of the movement. Take the bench press, for example. The next time you bench press, I want you to try this trick. Try lowering the bar as slow as you can back down to your chest. I guarantee that you will experience a different kind of pectoral burn than you have ever felt before. This is because you are breaking down more muscle fibers. The more muscle fibers you break down the more lean muscle mass you have the potential to build; it’s as simple as that! The proper weight lifting form on the hardgainer workout routine is to perform slow and controlled repetitions.
Hardgainer Workout Routine Tip #3 – Structure your Workouts 1 Week at a Time
This one is crucial for any hardgainer workout routine. You should have a plan not only before you step into the gym each day but some kind of rough estimate of how your week is going to look in terms of what compound movements you will be performing on what days.
The best ectomorph workout will consist of multiple compound movements. If you want to reap the benefits of a hardgainer workout routine, you need to make sure you are performing 5-10 sets per week of the following compound exercise movements: bench presses, squats, dead lifts, pull-ups, dips, and barbell rows. I repeat – make absolute 100 percent sure that you are performing all of these major compound exercise movements every single week. This is why keeping a workout log and preparing your week in advance is so important. How many people do you know who in the last 7 days performed at least 5 heavy sets of those exercises? Unless you know me, chances are you don’t know any! The foundation to any hardgainer workout routine starts with constant improvements on these compound muscle-building movements, and you can’t improve at something unless you do it more!
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