Hi Christian,
In the Hard Gainer Prescription you referred to the Best Damn program and wrote, “The one thing I’d do differently for hardgainers is getting rid of the heavy method (rest/pause and clusters).”
What protocol, (sets/reps, etc), would you recommend a hard gainer use to replace the heavy method?
Thanks for such an informative article!
Hi Everybody, Hi Christian,
Yes, it would like to add some thoughts, and a question 
, to this topic as well.
Having been a tall, slim, underweight bloke of 70kg at 189cm roughly 2,5 years ago, I than started to passively join this forum- reading, training, reading, reading…!
Not only since I am a studied PE teacher having his origins in a national volleyball career, I crave to get the following commented on:
A.- All ectomorph routines state the importance of big barbell lifts/ routines of which I worked with Derek Charlebois and his hardgainer program, 20- minutes muscle gainer and currently best damn workout for natural 2.
B.- The science behind Christian‘s Best Damn… is solid!
C.- Just lately „Rippetoe Goes off“ is all about training big compounds, basically!
Main question:
Ectomorphs science behind Training can be put together how? Compounds, mTor, low volume?!
Basically a „20-Minute Muscle Gainer“ mixed with „best damn for naturals2“?!
I am now 92kg at 189cm, 49yrs, training 6 days „best damn natural2“, and enjoying it: BUT what’s next? Yes, making every workout COUNT, that I know!
But how to put Rippetoe‘s article in there?
Or switch it around within my macroplanning?
Many thanx!!!
Well that’s the thing: hardgainers will not respond very well to traditional heavy work. If they absolutely want to do "heavy"work I’d likely go with an “heavy” version of myo reps where you do 6 reps close to failure than as many micro sets of 2 reps with 5 deep breaths in between as possible.
Thanks for the response Christian! I have a light bone structure and my joints have never done well with heavy work. I’m hoping you’ll write a Best Damn Hardgainer edition sometime!
Any thoughts on the article “Rippetoe Goes off” and its meaning for ectomorphs/hardgainers- please!
Did Christian`s recommended “6 reps close to failure than as many micro sets of 2 reps with 5 deep breaths in between as possible” today- feels pretty neat!
@calamari88
He basically did in his reply.
Please allow me to be specific:
Rippetoe mainly refers to compound movements to be THE thing!
CT advised to refrain from heavy loads- BUT his “Best Damn…” includes quite a number of machines-therefore my question is:
“Are ectomprphs, as far as your experience goes, better off with “Best Damn…” opposed to Rippetoe`s plea for compounds mainly/ only?”
Many thanx!
It’s not so much a matter of ectomorphs. I’m not a huge fan of the Sheldon classification system. It’s about hardgainers, and hardgainers are those who have the ACTN3 XX gene and overproduce cortisol. They can still do barbell work but the heavy weigths is not the best solution for them.
Coach, does this mean that a hard gainer would do better on the 2B program with the high tut and pump work over maximum muscle mass program being more heavy work one set ?
Well, the 2B volume might be a bit too high. My recent article on Hardgainer training gives guidelines.
BTW about Rippetoe, whom I have the utmost respect for, he is right in a sense. Hardgainers can gain strength more easily than size. In fact even those who are “non responders” muscle-growth wise can get stronger (because of neurological adaptations). So on the surface he is correct in saying that heavy work on the big barbell lifts will “work” with hardgainers… it will work in that they will get stronger. But from experience with them this doesn’t translate into much muscle growth.
Rip recommend a VERY high caloric surplus with these guys, the result is that they do get stronger (neurological adaptations) and “bigger”… but mostly from gained fat. BUT since they are getting stronger (neurological adaptations) it’s easy to equate the size gains to muscle gains, which is not the case for the most part.
I feel like I gained strength more easily (up to 240% BW Deadlift) but I more often felt wrecked/more easily injured & hypertrophy was much harder to come by…
Your previous order of loaded carries sound good?
Coach, what if a hard gainer wanted to avoid heavy work but still wanted to keep the exercises in Best Damn that are currently designated for the heavy method? For Romanian Deadlift, Front Squat, Military Press etc, could it be advisable to simply perform the double rest/pause set at a lighter poundage, higher rep range and thereby accomplish an increased TUT? For example performing Front Squat for 10-12 reps followed by a double/rest pause which would look something like 12+6+3=21 reps, assuming 3 seconds per rep, (1 second concentric, 2 second eccentric) that would equal 66 seconds of TUT and accomplish the 40-70 seconds goal. Perhaps I just answered my own question but was hoping to get your take on if this would also be a good approach for the hard gainer. Thanks again.
Now we are talking!
CT, you are so right: All those advising to up the calorie intake just made me gain fat and strength!
I tweaked my supplements by means of glutamine, cucurmin, creatine, glycine, Citrulline malate, beta alanine and on stretches omega3, as well as the usual protein and carbs sources - that keeps me pretty balanced, it seems.
With that my real gains came from your “20-minute-muscle gainer” and a fair amount of beach volleyball during the last summer.
Lately I have managed to shed roughly 3% more body fat and upped my lean muscle mass a fair amount by using your “damn for natties2”.
Starting last Friday I switched around all your “rest/pause and cluster planning” by sticking your advised "6 followed by sets of 2 with 5 deep breaths"in there - this feels great!
But as far as the advised TUT of 40-70s the math doesn’t add up.
Coach, seems like we are in need of a little programming from your side, please, to make us grow properly!
The 2B program seems to fit in with all your guidelines besides the volume.
To help this scenario, Would you recommend dropping a complete exercise/pairing from each day or a complete set from each prescribed exercise ? Or another alternative?
TY Coach.
ME given the choiceI’d drop a set per pairning but the other option works too.
Many thanx coach!!!
I hope I don’t misinterpret/ misbehave in any way by saying: „after digging deeper I found more insight over at thibarmy“…
Sounds like hardgainers are doomed to fail at this!! What can they do…eat more get stronger but neve rmore muscular. Eat less…not put on anything. Train heavy get joint issue/CNS. Train too much volume and they can’t recover/hormonal imapct.
What % of people fall into this category? Maybe lots of lifters think they are not hard gainers but they actually are (hence why they always research and trying to learn better ways to train…)
Well,
It seems we will, at some point, have to pay someone for their researched knowledge put together in a neat program-package
OR
hope 
that CT helps us !!!
Pleeeeeaaaase!
Well fail is a big word. But it is true that they are at a disadvantage. Just like I would be at a disadvantage if I tried to be an NBA star.
But they can still do things to optimize their potential. My article on hardgainers gives quite a few guidelines.
4-13% depending on the country