Need to Gain Weight but You Also Play Sports?

Hey fellow hardgainers,

Today I am going to address one of the most common questions that I get from those who need to gain weight. I would say I get an average of at least 10 emails a week of generally the same type of question. Here is the latest question I received:

"Derek, I am ready to start your program and excited to gain 15 to 30 pounds of muscle in the next 8 weeks. I know you mention that in order to gain weight that fast, I have to eliminate any type of cardio for the time period, which brings me to the next question: I LOVE to play basketball. I play pick up games at least twice a week, and I have games every Sunday, so I do a lot of running. Is this going to affect my weight gains?"

Feel free to replace basketball with whatever sport or recreational activity that you may engage in that includes cardiovascular exercise.

And the simple answer to this question is this: YES.

I'm going to be straight with you. If you are serious about gaining weight and strength, playing any sport often and doing a lot of running will make this VERY difficult. It doesn't make sense to begin a weight gain program when you are routinely performing exercises that provoke weight loss! ESPECIALLY AS A HARDGAINER.

The bottom line is this: you will ONLY gain weight when you consume more calories then you burn on a daily basis. This means for hardgainers, you have to eat a lot of calories, follow a proper weight gain program, and rest AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Any additional cardio will cause you to not only burn the NEEDED calories to gain weight, but will also not let your muscles fully recover.

The best advice I can give in this situation is make a decision as to what is more important to you. Like anything else, to have success in something you have to sacrifice some things, and cardio is one of them if you really need to gain weight and build muscle mass.

Now, if you are are stubborn like me and absolutely cannot stop playing whatever sport for a short period of time, then it is an ABSOLUTELY MUST to do the following:

1) Try to limit how many times you play a week as much as you can (obvious, I know, but I have to say it)

2) Eat even MORE calories then the recommended amount to gain weight

3) Consume a high carb/protein shake a little before AND IMMEDIATELY right after each cardio session to limit any loss in needed calories to help you gain weight

4) Try to get as much sleep as your schedule can possibly permit, even if this means taking naps throughout the day if you can.

Like I said, you simply won't gain the MAXIMUM amount of weight in the minimum time period while doing a lot of cardio. You can almost say that no cardio is just as much part of the weight gain program as the diet and workout are.

However, you can still gain a lot of weight and really build up your strength if you follow a solid hardgainer program along with the steps I listed above, you simply just won't get the fasted results possible.

I hope this helps.

Your Friend,

Derek Manuel
Weight Gain Program