Johnny O’Connor on hardgainers

In his latest fitness column, Johnny talks about hardgainers, people who put in all the hard work in the gym but find it difficult to get results.

 

What is a hardgainer?

Are you the guy that works out constantly in the gym but fails to see the rewards? Do you find it difficult to gain weight and gain strength despite the fact that you’re busting your gut in the gym three or four times a week, year on year? If that’s the case, the chances are you are a hardgainer.

Whether we like it or not, most of us are hardgainers. Most people see a big guy in the gym or a big guy on their team and just expect that they can be the same as them, but in many cases it’s just not possible. Some people are blessed with good genes and are just built for sport. ‘Choose your parents wisely’ is a saying in athletics and although that is impossible, it emphasises the role that genetics can play.

A problem with a lot of guys is that they tend to overtrain and don’t allow for a sufficient recovery period between sessions.

Unfortunately, the majority of Irish people are hardgainers and the ones that aren’t are the ones that end up going towards sport. A lot of it is to do with genetics, your composition, how your body’s put together. A lot of guys will try and train the same way as top athletes when it’s just not possible. The hard truth of is that most people are hardgainers and if you are a hardgainer, you can’t expect to train like bodybuilders or top professional athletes.

Often the reason that they are so fast and so strong is that they are genetically built for it. Despite that, a lot of guys will try and do the same as a top athlete when it’s just not possible. In the case of bodybuilders, you might find that some will have no problem gaining weight and getting results in the gym, but the likelihood in a number of these cases is that they are on drugs. If you are a hardgainer, it’s not the end of the world, you can still achieve results but you just have to be smart about it.

Using weights the right way

If you want to get bigger, you have to lift heavy weights, but it has to be a gradual progression rather than trying to go balls out right from the start. When you start off, make sure you are hitting your reps all the time and you’re not going into failure straight away. I’m not saying that when you go to the gym that you shouldn’t work hard; it takes a lot of hard work, but it’s good to leave a tiny bit in the tank at times.

Make sure your weights are going up each week. If you go flat out and try and lift as heavy as you can in Week 1, how much are your goals going to go up as you go on? It’s a gradual progression; you need to add weight each week and it will mean that by Week 5 or Week 6, you’ll be lifting heavier weights at that stage than if you tried to go flat out in Week 1. If you go flat out in Week 1, you’ll be fatigued for Week 2 and by Week 3, you’ll find that you’ve started to drop, so gradual progression is definitely the way to go.

Trying to do too much too soon is the wrong way to go

Also, people often pick the wrong exercises and do a lot of exercises like tricep kickbacks, lateral raises, leg extensions and cable crossovers. These are all good as supplementary exercises, but they don’t get everything firing. To work various muscle groups, you want big compound exercises like squats, dead lifts and bench presses.

It’s important to get some sort of consistency as well. Say for instance, you are working your chest. If you’re working it once a week, that’s 52 times a year and if you’re working it three times a week, that’s 156 times a year. I’m not saying you should be bench pressing three times a week, but you have to try and work out some sort of frequency and some consistency with each muscle group and exercise, whether it’s bench presses, squats or dead lifts.

Selecting the right exercises is important, but you have to be careful not to abuse them either. If you have bad form or bad body shape and you’re slipping or jerking through squats and other exercises, you’re fooling yourself and causing yourself harm in the process.

Overtraining

A problem with a lot of guys is that they tend to overtrain and don’t allow for a sufficient recovery period between sessions. Growth takes place during your recovery period, if you go from session to session to session without recovery, you’re not going to grow or let your central nervous system recover.

Recovery is an essential part of any training programme because that’s when your muscles start to repair themselves. It’s important to give yourself some space and some time off between workouts and you should be looking at a maximum of three to four workouts per week. If you’re part of a team and you’re doing a lot of stuff on the pitch you might have to lessen the number of sessions you are doing in the gym if it is not your main priority. At the end of the day, less is more. If you go into a session and you’re feeling sore and feeling pain, you need to stop; you’re not ready to train and you shouldn’t be training, it’s counterproductive.

You should never be going into a session feeling sore from the day before, so if you’re reducing your sessions, you may have to lower the volume and increase the intensity so you’re not in the gym too long and you’re allowing yourself to do stuff the following day. When you train too often it leads to a state of overtraining which limits your strength and your power and makes it difficult to achieve any of your goals. You need to ensure that you have full physical and mental recovery before your next session. It’ s hard to be perfect, but you want to be there or thereabouts and if you’re overtraining that’s not possible.

Intensity

In that respect, variation of the intensity of your workout is also important. If you’re doing three sessions a week, doing two good, solid sessions and one when you’re going through the wall is a good way to go about it. If you are doing a high intensity session, you want to limit your session to a maximum of 45 minutes. What people don’t realise is that during a workout, testosterone is released and peaks in the first 27 minutes of a workout. After 45 minutes, you return to base levels and after that cortisol is released and that eats muscle and increases body fat. By the hour mark, cortisol levels will be higher than testosterone which is the worst possible scenario. Obviously, some sessions will take longer than others, but you judge it by the intensity of the workout. If you’re doing a high intensity session, you want it to be 45 minutes or under.

Planning

Roy Keane famously said in Saipan: 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail' and although it has become a cliché over the years, there’s a lot of truth in the statement. Planning your training regime is very important; have a look at your schedule and plan around it if necessary. If you’re starting a programme and realise that you’re going on holidays in three or four weeks, make that week your rest week so that you’ll be ready to go again when you return. If you’re finding it difficult to plan your training around your work or family life, don’t be afraid to seek some help in order to find a way to work around it.

'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.' Keano had a point

Sometimes, though, you have to realise that it’s just not possible to stick rigidly to the plan you’ve set out for yourself. If you have a family or you’re under pressure at work and you’re not in the right physical or mental condition for a training session, sometimes you’re better off just giving it a miss and getting a good night’s sleep for yourself. Things can happen during your daily routines that might affect your ability to train and there’s nothing you can do about it. Some might say it’s an excuse and it’s being soft, but you need to be smart about it as well. See where you are from day to day, if you find yourself lacking in energy or not sleeping right, you need to step back from it somewhat and reassess what suits your schedule and how you can optimise your training.

The hard truth of is that most people are hardgainers and if you are a hardgainer, you can’t expect to train like bodybuilders or top professional athletes.

Deloading is extremely important; you need to give your body a good rest to make the most of your training programme. Take a week off, chill out and avoid stress as much as possible. By the time you get to Week 4 or Week 5 of your training programme, you should be taking a week’s rest and then you’ll be refreshed and ready to get going again. Other simple things that help are going to bed early - get yourself to bed before 11 o’clock and get up early again in the morning. I suppose that’s easy for me to say as a professional athlete, but if you can manage it, it’s good advice to follow.

You need to have an idea of what it is you want to achieve as well. A lot of people going to the gym are trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but sometimes that’s not possible depending on what your goals are. If you want to get big and build muscle, you have to eat more calories than you burn; if you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you’re putting into your body. If you’re in a gym and you want to put on weight, you have to realise that you’re going to have to put on some sort of body fat, it goes with the territory. Target what it is exactly what you want to achieve, concentrate on that and reassess your goals when you’re happy that you’ve accomplished the original goal you set out for yourself.

Motivation

At the end of the day, you’re not going to make the most of your training regime unless you really want to do it. You can’t be waiting until tomorrow or next year, you have to be able to deal with the fact that there will probably be a lot of frustration along the way if you’re not seeing instant results, but you have to keep cracking at it and eventually, you’ll get to where you want to go.

Don’t forget you can hear Johnny talking rugby in The Weekly Maul, JOE’s rugby podcast. To hear this week’s edition, click here for part one and here for part two.

Johnny O’Connor plays professional rugby with Connacht. He has previously played for London Wasps and has made 12 appearances for Ireland. He is also a certified strength and conditioning coach.