Hard Gainer

Turbo_diesel

Lads I would class myself as I hard gainer, started the Starting Strength workout mid December sticking to the dead lift, squats & bench press. Have so far increased strength being able to add the bar for each excersize over the last two months & have also put on weight gone from 11.2 stone to just short of 12. Ambitions are to get up to 13 stone gradually while bulking & increase strength further. Should I stick to the starting strength if I am still adding to bar? Workout at home on a bench & have a squat rack but was thinking of purchasing a tricep bar & a doorway chin bar to add to the work out?

unregged.

You could of made that a whole lot easier if you gave your height The 3 big compound lifts suit you if you are a hardgainer.

J.S. Pill

Turbo_diesel wrote: »

Lads I would class myself as I hard gainer, started the Starting Strength workout mid December sticking to the dead lift, squats & bench press. Have so far increased strength being able to add the bar for each excersize over the last two months & have also put on weight gone from 11.2 stone to just short of 12. Ambitions are to get up to 13 stone gradually while bulking & increase strength further. Should I stick to the starting strength if I am still adding to bar? Workout at home on a bench & have a squat rack but was thinking of purchasing a tricep bar & a doorway chin bar to add to the work out?

You're gaining mass and increasing the weight you can lift. Where's the problem?

I would suggest getting rid of the 'hard gainer' mentality unless its justified. You've put on around a pound a week which is pretty impressive.

Roper

Agreed. Most people who walk into the gym are hardgainers.

Turbo_diesel

I'm 5'10 would class myself as a hard gainer due to my build being slim. Have thin legs & arms. Strength has improved but I suppose I would still bench quiet light in comparison to others. My question is anyway should I add to the SS workout with pull up's & maybe get a tricep bar?

BobbyOLeary

First off, you're not doing Starting Strength, you're doing a 3x5 program of Squats Bench and Deadlifts. SS has the shoulder press and power clean in it. I'd add those two in (at least the press anyway) before the pullups. That said, there's another novice program from Practical Programming which has pullups in it which leaves out the power clean. Definitely add in the shoulder press though.

And a tricep bar? Eh?

Turbo_diesel

Cheers for the info Bobby, when I said tricep bar I meant using it for bicep curls and overhead tricep extensions.

Degsy

Hard gainer is a good euphimism for Under Eater!

BobbyOLeary

Maybe its just me but I don't think I could do much more arm work after a good SS session, especially the days with the shoulder presses.

Personally, I found I didn't need any extra exercises for my arms, they came along just fine when I did the full SS program. If you desperately want to do arm work do some pull-ups or dips, not curls.

Here's the novice program from PP:

Monday
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench press / Press (Alternating)
Chin-ups: 3 sets to failure or add weight if completing more than 15 reps

Wednesday
3x5 Squat
3x5 Press / Bench Press (Alternating)
1x5 Deadlift

Friday
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press / Press (Alternating)
Pull-ups: 3 sets to failure or add weight if completing more than 15 reps

AARRRGH

J.S. Pill wrote: »

I would suggest getting rid of the 'hard gainer' mentality unless its justified.

Exactly.

Turbo_diesel wrote: »

I'm 5'10 would class myself as a hard gainer due to my build being slim. Have thin legs & arms. Strength has improved but I suppose I would still bench quiet light in comparison to others.

You've only been working out since December, right? That's only two months. Give it a bit more time...

I personally don't believe in the "hard gainer" concept. If you eat a lot of food, minimise the cardio, and lift weights regularly, you will gain mass.

Could you post your diet?

Turbo_diesel

Cheers for the info

Turbo_diesel

AARRRGH wrote: »

Exactly.




You've only been working out since December, right? That's only two months. Give it a bit more time...

I personally don't believe in the "hard gainer" concept. If you eat a lot of food, minimise the cardio, and lift weights regularly, you will gain mass.

Could you post your diet?

Ye diet is definately an area I can improve in, hard getting in more more meals during working hours.
At the moment daily meals would usually look like this

Breakfast 745 Bowel of Porridge with Blueberries & Bananna & whey protein.

1015-1030 Two Slices of wholegrain bread & an apple

1.00pm Chicken or Tuna Roll or anything leftover from previous nights dinner.

445 Tuna with Ryvita bread

600 Chicken Breast with veg potatoe veg etc.

830-930 work out followed by BSN tru mass

1030 natural yogurt with almonds & walnuts

colly10

Your gains are good but you could certainly gain more starting off. I wouldn't worry about changing what your lifting, concentrate on getting in more calories. Mass gainers are the easy way for those without a major appetite

rubadub

Get the chinup bar. I wouldnt bother with the tricep bar, I have one, all I use it for is to hang from my chinup bar to do parallel handed pull/chinups. I would sooner get or make gymnastic rings for the chinup bar, so you can do dips. But you might have somewhere to do dips already. I do dips on rings, and I made a mini dip station. I can also do them on railings around my local area.

Stick peanut butter on that wholemeal bread, and wash it down with whole milk. 2 easy ways to vastly increase your calorie intake.

AARRRGH

Turbo_diesel wrote: »

Breakfast 745 Bowel of Porridge with Blueberries & Bananna & whey protein.

1015-1030 Two Slices of wholegrain bread & an apple

1.00pm Chicken or Tuna Roll or anything leftover from previous nights dinner.

445 Tuna with Ryvita bread

600 Chicken Breast with veg potatoe veg etc.

830-930 work out followed by BSN tru mass

1030 natural yogurt with almonds & walnuts

You diet is very good. I'm assuming when you say "Tuna" you are eating a full can of tuna? Also could you increase your dinner so it is two chicken breasts? You could also add one or two eggs during your snacking periods.

I would stop all cardio as well. (I lose weight pretty easily, so I don't do any cardio.)

Do you consistently eat like that, or is that on one of your "good" days? As a sort of naturally slim person I find I have to be really consistent with my diet. Any off days (for example, if I'm hungover) knocks me back a week.

I've also found coffee makes me lose weight, so have a look at cutting out coffee (and caffeine in general) if you drink a lot of that stuff.

Turbo_diesel

AARRRGH wrote: »

You diet is very good. I'm assuming when you say "Tuna" you are eating a full can of tuna? Also could you increase your dinner so it is two chicken breasts? You could also add one or two eggs during your snacking periods.

I would stop all cardio as well. (I lose weight pretty easily, so I don't do any cardio.)

Do you consistently eat like that, or is that on one of your "good" days? As a sort of naturally slim person I find I have to be really consistent with my diet. Any off days (for example, if I'm hungover) knocks me back a week.

I've also found coffee makes me lose weight, so have a look at cutting out coffee (and caffeine in general) if you drink a lot of that stuff.

That would would be a good day alright but I try to be as consistant as possible. But do have off days as well! As for the tuna its the small cans which give about 15grams of protein per can. Find it easy to eat the stuff even out of the can. Must try & reduce caffenine alright have two cups a day. Love that coffee in the morning in work the other is after dinner.
Do you think cardio should definately be given up? I hate the idea of loosing fitness & not being able to run around the block