I'm going to talk about one of the biggest causes of failure in most hardgainers. It wastes so much unnecessary time and effort that you wouldn't believe. There's a guy that comes to my local gym.
I notice him all of the time because every time I go to the gym, no matter what time of the day, he'll be there. Nice guy, very talkative and friendly. "Man," I said to him one day in between one of his sets of curls, "I don't see a mattress or any blankets anywhere." He looked confused. I returned the look.
"You mean you don't live here?" He laughed so loud even the guy with the blasting headphones looked up. "No, but I guess I do spend a lot of time here." I was about to reply that he's probably got more hours on the clock then the manager, but I thought about his laugh. "How many hours a day do you train?" I asked.
"Oh I don't know, it ranges from two to three hours a day, depending on my energy. Sometimes I'll come back later in the night if I'm bored." He gave me a wry grin, looked around, and said, "gotta build up those muscles, the girls love em!" He then started another set of curls. I think he was on his tenth set. I waited until he was done before I asked him the next question. "Do you think that works? I mean, training so much? Don't you think you're over-training?" I asked.
"I'd rather over train then under train, man. I want to get big as fast as possible, that's why I train so much." He looked around again with that wicked grin, "summertime's almost here and I gotta look good for the chicks, man!" By looking at his physique, I couldn't understand the logic. Too many trainees make the fatal mistake of training too much. They think the longer they train, the bigger muscles they'll get.
Even if you want to build up muscle endurance, weight training for three hours isn't necessary. But for hardgainers who want workout programs to gain muscle mass and weight gain, it can detrimental. If you want to learn to speak Spanish, spend as much time as you want working at it.
If you want to read faster, read as much and as often as you can. But if you want to gain weight and muscle mass, LESS is more. Here is a rule of thumb: You should NEVER train longer then an hour and a half a day if you are trying to gain weight and muscle mass. Anything longer is actually counterproductive, you might even lose weight.
Though there are many guys and gals out there that can gain weight and build muscle mass training however and whenever, this approach simply does not work for hardgainers. That's why they are called HARDgainers. Instead of doing a bunch of different exercises for dozens of sets five or six days a week, you'll get much better results if you spend just an hour, that's all it takes and sometimes even less, three days a week working on just a handful of compound muscle mass building exercises. Work on them hard, obviously, and make your main focus on getting stronger.
Don't get all caught up in the bodybuilding industry these days. 99% of the information in magazines won't be of any use to a hardgainer, and may even hurt your training results. In fact, if you haven't noticed yet, 99% of the content in magazines isn't even information, but instead full of advertisements and endorsements. Back to the point. Like I said earlier, one of the major causes of failures in hardgainers these days is over-training.
They spend too much time in the gym when they don't have to, when they'd be better off if they didn't. Short, highly intense, heavy, abbreviated weight gaining workout programs are they key here. These will produce much better results in much less time. If you are the really dedicated type of trainer and you might have fell victim to this mistake, this will sound like music to your ears. You no longer have to train for hours and hours week after week.
You're done. No more three hour workouts. No more slaving away at a bunch of different exercises for dozens of reps. No more spending half your life in the gym! Now don't get me wrong. I love working out, and if you're reading this, you probably do to. But training for hours a day will only HURT your progress if you are a true hardgainer.
One hour a day for three days a week is all you need if you want a workout program for FAST results.
Derek Manuel is the author of the best-selling, How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers. If you want to learn how you too can gain 20 to 30 pounds of solid muscle in as short as 8 weeks, or if you just want more quality information on how to gain weight and build muscle, please visit http://www.hardgainers-weight-tips.com