Hardgainer: Experimental Training

This article and the two follow-up pieces are among the most important I’ve written. Over the years I’ve presented various interpretations of abbreviated training. In this series I want to show you how to find what works best for you’or at least what works well. There are too many variables for a single interpretation of abbreviated training to work for everyone. You must experiment to find what helps you the most.

If your sleeping and eating habits are a mess, however, no amount of experimenting with exercise programs will make much difference. I take it as a given that your recovery components are in good order. If they aren’t, you must make some changes before you really throw yourself into training. Some trainees are adamant about working each exercise’or at least most exercises’every four to five days. Then there are those who are equally adamant about the need for more rest days. Each approach works for some people.

I’m adamant about the need for a range of interpretations within the overall framework of abbreviated training. Training intensity, genetics and individual recovery potential (even if nutrition and sleep are optimal), age, strength and exercise selection and the many possible combinations of them all make a difference in an individual’s response.

I receive steady feedback from trainees who are experiencing success in the gym. Sometimes I get a run of letters describing similar training approaches, and I start thinking it’s a trend. Then someone sends me a report of success based on a different interpretation. Even within the hardgainer camp there’s a vast variety of productive training programs. Of course, with a good program and good recovery, the term hardgainer becomes relative. Most people make slow or no progress simply because they don’t train, eat and sleep well enough. Though you can’t change your genetics, and no amount of consistency’even when you’re using a great program’will make a Mr. Olympia out of anyone other than a drug-assisted genetic phenomenon, a good training program, loads of motivation and ideal recovery factors will make hardgainers into good gainers and more than satisfy the huge majority of trainees.

No one can know your individual situation as well as you do, and no one can train you as well as you can’provided you know enough about training and all the related components. I can give you all the information you need to make yourself into your own expert personal trainer, but you need to tailor it to suit you, experiment to find what works best for you and adjust your lifestyle in order to enhance your recovery, further improving your response to training.

Response to substantial strength increases varies. Some people get bite-size mass increases when they achieve substantial increases in strength, while others get only modest increases in size from substantial increases in strength. Some people don’t want to get a lot bigger. They’re looking for maximum strength with modest size. Others are far more focused on size and appearance and see strength gains purely as a means for building bigger muscles.

For some people infrequent training’i.e., hitting each exercise a maximum of once a week’builds a lot of strength but not much size. I’ve even heard reports from some people who reduced their training frequency and volume to extreme levels, like a single work set per exercise every three weeks, and have still managed to increase their strength, but with no increase in size. For them just switching to a program on which they work each exercise only once a week may yield the desired size gains. If you aren’t making size gains, trying the following approach may yield the progress you’ve been looking for.

More frequent training, within reason, may build the same strength increases and produce more size, or it may yield greater strength and size gains. In some cases the greater training frequency may build less strength but more size, relatively speaking. That’s where you need to experiment sensibly to find the right balance for you. Naturally, if you increase training frequency too much, your progress will stagnate or you’ll even regress. There can be a fine line between enough and too much.

Your level of training experience and your level of strength development can affect the results you get with a given program. While more frequent training may better suit novice and some intermediate bodybuilders, it may be a negative step for advanced men.

If you’re steadily getting stronger and strength is your priority, then stay with what you’re doing. If you’re getting stronger but not seeing the size increases you’d like, I suggest you try the following interpretation of abbreviated training.

Three-Days-a-Week Spilt Program

The routine is a modified version of Framework 2 in Chapter 12 of Beyond Brawn. Framework 2 uses a full-body complement of exercises divided into two routines, and you train twice a week, doing each routine once. On this variation you use a similar split but train three times, alternating the two routines and ultimately working each exercise three times every two weeks.

You can construct the routines so there’s substantial overlap’doing squats on one day and deadlifts on the other’or so there’s no serious overlap, doing squats and deadlifts on the same day. Generally speaking, I’d recommend the minimum-overlap approach, but that’s an individual matter. Try both and see which helps you the most.

For the modified split divide the exercises into two routines with no serious overlap, then alternate the routines over three workouts per week, as indicated in the example below:

Monday
Squats or squat equivalents
Stiff-legged deadlifts
(performed from just below the knees)
Calf raises
Abs

Wednesday
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
L-flyes

Friday
Squats or squat equivalents
Stiff-legged deadlifts
(performed from just below the knees)
Calf raises
Abs

Monday
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
L-flyes

Continue to alternate the routines on subsequent workout days. I’ve included the so-called big five movements here, plus three important accessory exercises. Recovery permitting, you could add another accessory movement to each routine’perhaps hyperextensions or side bends and curls or neck work. Perform a brief but full-body flexibility program after each workout.

You may want to train the deadlift and perhaps squats and stiff-legged deadlifts only once a week, depending on your recovery ability.

In terms of sets and reps, I suggest you use what you’ve found works well for you. If the above is an increase in frequency for you, don’t increase the volume or you may undo the benefits of training more frequently. If you normally use warmup sets plus two or three hard work sets per exercise, stick with that. If you normally do warmup sets plus a single very hard work set, stick with that.

While alternating the two routines over three workouts per week rather than two may not seem like a big change, it’s actually a 50 percent increase that can make a noticeable difference in your muscular development. Instead of training each exercise every seventh day, you now train it every fourth or fifth day. It’s a sensible experiment, but for it to translate into a positive change, you must meet three essential requirements:

1) You must fully satisfy the components of recovery. That’s easily said but not so easily achieved. It means that you must eat a quality diet every day that provides a caloric and nutritional surplus, that you must spread the food over five or six meals each day and that you must get a full night of sleep every night’sleeping till you wake naturally each morning. While trying to force yourself to go to sleep early may not be helpful, you should go to bed as soon as you feel sleepy, which should be early enough that you get your full quota before an alarm clock would otherwise wake you. If you cut any corners on a three-days-per-week program, the negative impact will probably be greater than if you do it on a two-days-per-week program.

2) If you’re not gaining strength on a two-days-per-week program, a shift to three workouts a week is unlikely to make a positive difference. You must look for the reason for your lack of progress elsewhere.

3) The routines must be short. You should be finished with your workout in less than an hour’longer than that and you’re either doing too much work or you’re hanging around too long between sets.

While you may not be able to progress steadily over the long term on three workouts per week, you may be able to make gains for two to three months, reverting to two weight-training days per week for a while and then cycling back to a three-day schedule for another couple of months. On the other hand, if you consistently make better gains in size and strength on three workouts per week and you want the extra size, stick with three. Some people have greater recovery ability than others, be it from genetics or the extent to which they satisfy the components of recovery’or both. I don’t know you, your lifestyle, your motivation or the control you have over your lifestyle. If you want a better physique badly enough, you’ll arrange your life accordingly.

A Long-term Experiment

I’d be very interested in hearing from readers who have experimented with a sequence of abbreviated-training programs that vary the components of frequency in an organized way. For such a trial to be of merit, you need to be consistent in satisfying the components of recovery. If on one program your sleeping schedule is a mess because of, say, the addition of a baby to the household, that will kill progress. If on one program you’re more consistent about getting a calorie and nutrient surplus, I’d expect better progress on that program even if the actual training program is not as potentially valuable as another in the trial. So, while keeping the out-of-the-gym factors steady, implement each of these schedules for at least six weeks and see if you notice any changes in strength and size.

Fine-tune the exercise selection and training days. Perhaps you prefer the trap or shrug-bar deadlift to the squat, the bench press to the dip or the sumo deadlift to the partial stiff-legged deadlift; or perhaps you can’t do any form of deadlift and want to substitute the shrug and the reverse hyperextension or hyperextension. You may also prefer to put the schedules in a different order.

Program 1
Three-Days-a-Week
Two-Way Split
This is the program outlined above.

Program 2
Two-Days-a-Week
Two-Way Split

Monday
Squats or squat equivalents
Stiff-legged deadlifts
(performed from just below the knees)
Calf raises
Abs

Thursday
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
L-flyes

Program 3
Two-Days-a-Week
Full-Body Routine
Note that you use the same major exercises at each workout.

Monday
Squats or squat equivalents
Stiff-legged deadlifts
(performed from just below the knees)
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
L-flyes

Thursday
Squats or squat equivalents
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
Calf raises
Abs

The exceptions to the twice-a-week frequency rule are the stiff-legged deadlifts and accessory exercises, which you only work once a week to keep the routines short.

Program 4
Two-Days-a-Week
Full-Body Routine
Note that you use different exercises at each workout.

Monday
Squats or squat equivalents
Stiff-legged deadlifts
(performed from just below the knees)
Dips
Chins or pulldowns
Overhead presses
L-flyes

Thursday
Leg presses
Hyperextensions
Bench presses
One-arm dumbbell rows
Dumbbell presses
Calf raises
Abs

In Program 4 you perform a variation of the deadlift only once a week and do accessory work for each area only once a week.

If you’ve recently cut back considerably on your training, you’ve probably become deconditioned to some degree, even though your strength level may not have decreased. In that case you’ll need to adapt to the greater frequency and volume of work. Take it easy in the beginning so your body can adapt.

The variety of schedules may keep you making consistent gains as you go from program to program, either from the mental variety that keeps you fresh and motivated or from the change in the actual training stimulation that keeps your gains coming. On the other hand, you may find that one or two of the schedules are noticeably more productive than the others.

Later on, you may want to extend the experiment. Pick the schedule you found most helpful and tinker with the training volume. Add a set or two per exercise if previously you did a single work set each, or reduce your work sets by one or two’and up your effort level’if you were performing two or three work sets per movement.

In part 2 of this series I’ll explore the relationship between muscular size and strength.

Editor’s note: Stuart McRobert’s latest book, Further Brawn, is available from Home Gym Warehouse. Call 1-800-447-0008 or visit www .home-gym.com. His other books, Brawn and Beyond Brawn, are available as well. McRobert also publishes Hardgainer magazine. For information write to CS Publishing Ltd., P.O. Box 20390, CY-2151 Nicosia, Cyprus, or visit www.hardgainer.com. IM