So you’ve decided that you want to get strong and have taken some steps towards it. After several days/weeks of reading information about how to properly develop your body, you finally signed up for the gym and started pumping that iron hard. But, no matter how hard you push yourself each session, it always seems that your peers and everyone else at the gym is outperforming you. Even worse, you may not be seeing any progress at all. So, what’s wrong?

You’re just unlucky to be what seasoned bodybuilders refer to as a “hardgainer” – basically, your body predisposes you to very little progress from any training efforts, and whatever works for your peers ends up not working for you in most cases. Hardgainers are the type of people who’d stay skinny no matter how much they stuff themselves with food and how much sweat they’re pouring in the gym. The really bad thing about being a hardgainer though, is the psychological aspect – you’re constantly exposed to the idea that you’re limited and you’ll never manage to get your body as good as the rest have theirs.

That’s wrong though. The idea that hardgainers are limited in their potential is very wrong. The difference between a hardgainer and someone who makes good progress at the gym is only the time it takes to get there – your “ceiling” is not capped, though. In other words, you can still look good and strong and become very lean, but you’ll have to put more time and effort into it.

Also, another important thing to note about the hardgainer type is that they’re affected by their diet a lot – simply changing your nutrition percentages by a margin of 5-10% should produce some very noticeable results. To give a more specific example, you should increase the amount of carbs and fats in your meals, sacrificing some proteins in their place. It may sound counter-productive, but it works and it’s been tried and tested by many people – increasing these nutrients seems to be very beneficial for a hardgainer.

Another important thing to note about hardgainers is that sweating more at the gym is actually something you’d want to refrain from doing – yes, you read that right. You see, you’re in a tricky situation with this body type, in that you’re burning calories a lot easier than other people. Therefore, to minimize the negative effects of that, you’ll need to control your calorie balance, making sure it stays positive.

And the best way to ensure that is to limit your workouts very, very precisely – make sure you never stray too far from your pre-defined time, and be extra careful with cardio exercises – those can activate your metabolism very easily, so don’t go overboard with them – only practice enough to stay in good shape and health; remember, what works for other people won’t work for you, as other people are constantly trying to get rid of their extra weight, while you’ll be striving to retain it.