Best Exercises for a Hardgainer

[jmills]

Maybe a food journal would be a great place to start bro.

[newscandinavian]

Originally Posted by jmills

Maybe a food journal would be a great place to start bro.

A food journal?

[Ease]

The age-old equation is true: Calories consumed - calories burnt = weight gain / loss. For you to gain weight, you will need to consume more than you burn. However, the quality and type of calorie you intake will largely determine what your body does with it. Simple principle, but often challenging to institute.

The idea behind a food journal is to track your daily average caloric intake. Take a little book to every meal and log the food and amount for one full week. Once you have a good idea of how many calories you average, you can increase your intake and watch for weight gain. I would recommend adding 200-300 calories, keeping with the same protein / carb / fat ratio scheme you have in place.

Assuming you are under your genetic mass potential and not on any AS, a realistic amount of gain is one pound per week. So, after you have followed your caloric intake for a full week, up your calories and see what happens. If you do not see a gain, increase intake by another 200 calories the following week.

Here are some things that I do to make this practical:

1. Do not count calories every meal. Just note the food and amount as you go through the day and tally everything up at night.
2. Follow some kind of diet. This will take some of the guess work out of what to eat. I like The Zone diet by Dr. Barry Sears or if you have a lot of money to dedicate to food read Dr. Perricone's '7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity.' Neither of these programs are fad diets, rather lifestyle eating. With either program, you are going to need to bump the protein while on a cycle. (and Perricone is a dermatologist- thus the title. The diet is spot-on and he even talks about supplementation.)
3. Get an account at www.fitday.com. I use this mostly because it has a huge index of foods. So you just type in for lunch 'tuna' and it will show all the data for one serving of tuna. You adjust the amount and it does the math. There are a ton of other tools on this site as well, but the dieting tools are excellent. Oh and it is FREE.
4. HAVE A CHEAT DAY / MEAL. People get burnt out on eating so strictly. Take friday night with the family and eat whatever the hell you want to.

Hope this helps.

Ease

[newscandinavian]

Originally Posted by Ease

The age-old equation is true: Calories consumed - calories burnt = weight gain / loss. For you to gain weight, you will need to consume more than you burn. However, the quality and type of calorie you intake will largely determine what your body does with it. Simple principle, but often challenging to institute.

The idea behind a food journal is to track your daily average caloric intake. Take a little book to every meal and log the food and amount for one full week. Once you have a good idea of how many calories you average, you can increase your intake and watch for weight gain. I would recommend adding 200-300 calories, keeping with the same protein / carb / fat ratio scheme you have in place.

Assuming you are under your genetic mass potential and not on any AS, a realistic amount of gain is one pound per week. So, after you have followed your caloric intake for a full week, up your calories and see what happens. If you do not see a gain, increase intake by another 200 calories the following week.

Here are some things that I do to make this practical:

1. Do not count calories every meal. Just note the food and amount as you go through the day and tally everything up at night.
2. Follow some kind of diet. This will take some of the guess work out of what to eat. I like The Zone diet by Dr. Barry Sears or if you have a lot of money to dedicate to food read Dr. Perricone's '7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity.' Neither of these programs are fad diets, rather lifestyle eating. With either program, you are going to need to bump the protein while on a cycle. (and Perricone is a dermatologist- thus the title. The diet is spot-on and he even talks about supplementation.)
3. Get an account at www.fitday.com. I use this mostly because it has a huge index of foods. So you just type in for lunch 'tuna' and it will show all the data for one serving of tuna. You adjust the amount and it does the math. There are a ton of other tools on this site as well, but the dieting tools are excellent. Oh and it is FREE.
4. HAVE A CHEAT DAY / MEAL. People get burnt out on eating so strictly. Take friday night with the family and eat whatever the hell you want to.

Hope this helps.

Ease

Thanks for that very informative post. Keeping track of my meals is a great idea, especially right now since it's summer and the heat has my appetite suppressed. I always try to keep a mental record of my food intake but it's too easy to lose track of things, especially if you're busy.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by litterbox

Barbell Bench
Barbell Military Press
Squats
Deadlifts
Barbell Bent Over Rows

That's the most solid formula for overall mass imo.

I agree with this. Only thing I would change is instead of barbell military press, I would do dumbill military press, and I would add barbell curls.

IMO deadlifts are one of the most important. I would get someone to check your technique - if you dont have any diagnoses back problems of course. Some guys I know confuse the good burn you get in your lower back with "back pain". You would be surprised how much punishment you can give you lower back with the right technique.

[Hemogoblin]

I used to have the same problems doing deadlifts until I realized that the problem was with my flexibility, or more to the point, the LACK of it. Try doing some stretches before hand, and incorporate a daily stretching routine. Also, keep an eye on your form. Best done in front of a mirror too as you can watch yourself. And as was said, keep the weight low at first until you master the form, then go up from there.

Cheers

[brettyung]

Hi,
Do bench press and deadlift on day 1 then take 2 days off and do squats and dips then take 2 days off and repeat cycle