Hardgainer Grocery List

Hey guys,

I have found over time that the majority of the problems hardgainers have when trying to gain weight and or/build muscle is not in finding a solid hardgainer workout, but in getting the right information in terms of the what, when, why and how of eating.

The simple advice of "eat a lot" or "consume more calories then you burn" doesn't really solve the problem most hardgainers have when trying to gain weight. I found a great article on askmen.com that covers the basics of a hardgainer and, more importantly, a great overall meal plan for them.

Check it out below:

Hardgainer Grocery List - AskMen.com:

"Are you one of the many guys who struggle to gain weight? If so, take comfort in knowing that you aren’t alone. Building muscle for anyone is not an easy process and for some, it can be remarkably hard. These individuals, who are often referred to as ”hardgainers,” are really going to have to push their dietary efforts to the limits to start seeing measurable progress.

Here is the lowdown on a hardgainers diet and what a hardgainer grocery list needs to look like:"

Read the rest here

How to Gain Weight When You Have a Fast Metabolism

Hey guys,

One of my articles that I posted last year still to this day gets a ton of views and comments back and forth, so I thought I'd bring it back and post it on my blog.

In the article I include a hardgainer workout as well as tips on diet and supplementing.

Enjoy below...


It seems like today everybody wants to lose weight. True, our country is having a major problem with obesity, but there are still those of us who would do just about anything to gain weight.

If you're anything like I was, you could just about eat a grocery store out of business and not gain an ounce of weight. So if you have tried anything and everything to gain weight to no avail, then keep reading my friend.

There is such a barrage of misleading information out there today that it's no longer a question of getting information, but instead discerning the right information.

So let's go over some of the key aspects you must follow on how to gain weight when you have a fast metabolism.

The first key is weight training, and before I go any further I want you to forget everything you have ever read on the subject of weight training, bodybuilding, and anything else of the sort.

Chances are you have been fed more misleading information then anything good, and since it isn't really that complex, let's start from scratch.

OK, there are only a few key exercises that you need to do, no more then two to three days a week. More is better in a lot of things in life, but not in weight training to gain weight, it's quite the opposite.

If you spend too much time in the gym on too many exercises all you are going to do is over-train and you may even lose weight, especially if you have a fast metabolism. The key is to really train HARD on just a few major exercises, and to really concentrate on getting stronger each and every week, even if it's only by a couple of pounds.

Here is an example of a few exercises you should do two or three days a week:

-Squats: 2 x 15

-Bench Press: 3 x 12

-Bent-Over Barbell Rows: 3 x 15

-Overhead or Military Press: 2 x 12

-Romanian Deadlifts: 1 x 15

These are the mother of all weight gaining exercises, and squats are the granddaddy of them all. Don't think that squats and Romanian deadlifts will only make your legs big. In fact, if you do them in the way I'm about to reveal to you, they will be responsible for 80% of the weight you will gain on your WHOLE body.

Now, here is one key point you can't forget: don't make the mistake of believing that because the reps are relatively high, means you are only going to be using light weights. Think just the opposite, you are going to be training with HEAVY weights (relative to your strengths or course) for HIGH reps.

Sounds like a paradox I know, but heavy weight for high reps will work for these exercises, and more importantly, they will work wonders for your weight gains.

The second aspect is your diet. The number one rule to gaining weight is this: you will only gain weight when you have consumed more calories then you have burned. So here's what you should do next: starting tomorrow, eat what you normally eat everyday, but count how many calories you are eating.

Whatever your number is, your goal is to eat around 500 to 1,000 more calories then that each day. Here is a little trick to help you do that: every morning make yourself a huge protein shake, enough to fit in a gallon container, and consume it evenly throughout the day, both with and without your meals.

Throw in a bunch of healthy, calorie and protein packed foods until altogether until it equals the 500 to 1,000 extra calories you need. Examples of what you can add are milk, a banana, peanut butter, molasses, powdered milk, and ice cream.

The last aspect you can't forget is to limit your other activities and rest as much as possible. Any time you're moving you're burning extra calories, and you'll want to burn as little as possible outside of your weight training. That means no cardiovascular exercises or any sports for that matter.

Remember, you are trying to learn how to gain weight when you have a fast metabolism and any activity outside your weight training is counter-productive.

Talk to ya soon,

Derek Manuel
Hardgainer Workout

Hardgainer Workouts - Busting through Plateaus!

Hey guys,

As hardgainers, more often then not we can hit "sticking points" in our hardgainer workout. This is where you get stuck at a certain weight on a particular exercise and can't get past it, or even worse, see a digression in results.

I found a great article that will help hardgainers get past these annoying a result robbing sticking points so that you can move forward and continue to successfully gain weight and build muscle in your hardgainer workout.

Enjoy!

Bodybuilding.com - Hardgainer.com - Barrier Buster: Tips For Busting Through Plateaus!:

"Sticking points are bad news, but everybody suffers from them from time to time. Sometimes the cause is staleness, brought on by overtraining, and the cure, simple though it is, is usually hard to take. You may know, deep down inside you, that what you really need is a complete layoff, but the very idea tastes like a dose of castor oil. At other times, when staleness and overtraining are not the cause, your progress can be kick-started by changing to a completely new routine."

Read more here

Talk to ya soon,

Derek Manuel
Hardgainer Workout

Gaining Weight: How Can You Gain Weight if You Are a Hardgainer?

Hey guys,

I found this great article on hardgainers who are struggling to gain weight. Many times hardgainers complain about trying every hardgainer workout they can get their hands on, when in reality it all too often comes down to their eating habits.

In the below article, bodybuilder Dave "Jumbo" Palumbo goes over the most basic fundamentals that EVERY hardgainer must know and include in their overall hardgainer workout.

Check it out below...

Gaining Weight: How Can You Gain Weight if You Are a Hardgainer?:

"Now ask yourself - and be honest - have you really tried EVERYTHING? How long have you been working at gaining weight? How persistent have you been? How many different training and diet strategies have you tried? How many calories are you eating? How many times have you increased your calories?

When I pose these questions to so-called 'hard-gainers,' 19 out of 20 of them admit that not only have they tried very few things, but they haven't even mastered the most basic fundamental of gaining weight:"

Read the rest here

Train hard fellow hardgainers,

Derek Manuel
Hardgainer Workout

How to Gain Weight Fast with the Best Supplements for Hardgainers

Hey guys,

I'm usually not one to talk much about supplements, all you have to do is flip through any muscle mag and you'll get bombarded with all that crap for 90% of the pages. However, as much as I hate how they market supplements as some magic formula that you can just take with a glass of water and wake up the next morning looking like the guy on the add, supplements still are an important aspect to any weight gain program, provided you take the right ones for the right reasons.

If you want to gain weight fast, adding the right combination of supplements to an already effective weight gain program can make progress much faster.

I recently found a good article on some of the best supplements for a hardgainer weight gain program as well as why each one is important. Check it out below.

The BEST Muscle Growth Supplements for Hardgainers

"Nutritional supplements are good because they prevent us from getting any nutritional deficiencies. The increased activity levels from your new exercise program will make your body have greater demands for vitamins and minerals, which will increase the probability of you suffering a deficiency without supplementation. Even a slight nutrient deficiency can sabotage muscle growth.

Can’t we get all the nutrients we need from food alone? We cannot rely solely on food nowadays to provide us with all the vitamins and minerals that our body needs because the processing of foods before they get to the supermarket, cooking, air, and even light have already robbed your foods of most of the vitamins that they have to offer. If you are deficient in one or more nutrients your body may not be able to build muscle and burn fat properly.

Not all supplements are created equal though. Some your body always needs, others are more dependent upon what your goals are and what your budget looks like. Below you will learn what the different categories of supplements are and which ones you need to use at all times. Read the rest here

Talk to ya soon,

Derek Manuel
How to Gain Weight Fast

The Hardgainer Way....

Hey guys,

As fellow hardgainers, we can view our "curse" in one of two ways. One, we can do what most people do and use it as an excuse of why we can't ever gain weight or build muscle. We can just blame our genetics and decide it's not even worth trying to gain weight and build muscle since we have to work 10 times harder then the average person.

The other way you can look at it is as if it is a gift. We can take something that started off as a major "weakness" and completely turn it on its head. We can have the mindset that YOU are in control of YOUR life, and refuse to make excuses or blame "circumstances" as to why you will never be successful in building the body you want.

Obviously, the second option is sounds like an easy choice to go with, but it is a lot harder said then done. We often times fool ourselves with actually believing what we tell ourselves most.

Any success in life requires first a winning attitude. An attitude that lives off the saying, "It's not what happens to you, it's how you respond to what happens to you that makes the difference in you life."

As hardgainers, it is very easy for us to just blame circumstance, but if you really need to gain weight and build muscle either just as much as the other guy or even more so, then you have to train your mind to respond with the winners attitude.

So if you have been living your life telling yourself that you'll never gain weight or build muscle BECAUSE you are a hardgainer and that you shouldn't have to work harder then others to gain weight, it is time for you to change your thinking.

It is time to embrace being a hardgainer as a gift. A gift that gives each one of us the hunger and desire to really prove that we can succeed in our journey to better bodies. After all, success is that much sweeter when you have more to overcome then the "average" person and you still get better results.

So, fellow hardgainers, accept the fact that we are born hardgainers, and use it to your advantage to build a hunger, desire, and work ethic that will smash all limitations that we thought were holding us back this whole time.

I hope this helps,

Your Friend,

Derek Manuel
Hardgainer Workout

P.S. Need to gain weight and build muscle mass but don't have a hardgainer workout program on how to do it? Check out the second edition of my best-selling ebook, How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers.

Proven weight gain programs, diet and nutrition guidelines, goal setting, exercises and more ALL geared for HARDGAINERS ONLY!!

Check it our here for more info: How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers

Motivational Strategies to Get the Most from Your Workouts

Hey guys,

Staying motivated is a key factor to having success in the gym. As they say, most people are good starters but poor finishers. This is because it is easy to get fired up and excited about a future goal you want to attain, such as learning how to gain weight fast, especially when you flip through a bodybuilding magazine or see a role model with a body like the one you want.

For the first couple days, we are all excited and ready to hit the gym and train with more intensity then ever. After the workout, we feel good and can’t wait until the next training day. This goes on for a few more days, for some even a few weeks.

Then suddenly, our motivation level drops. All of the sudden doing something else like watching T.V. or going out with your buddies to the beach sounds much more appealing. On our next workout day, we’re just not that eager to hit the gym hard and punish our bodies. We tend to even think about working out less and less.

Let me just say that at this point, and if you ever experienced this before, your goals for that particular workout are pretty much toast – unless you do something about it fast. Think about it. What got you all pumped up to begin the workout in the first place? What was different about the beginning of the workout that changed later on that kept you from continuing your workouts in the future?

One word: Motivation.

What exactly is motivation? The actual definition of motivate is “to provide with a motive or motives.” So if motivation is what provides you with a motive, a reason to workout, how do you maintain motivation until you reach your goals? Figure out your reasons why and how to constantly remind yourself on a daily basis. In other words, figure out “what” motivates you and “why” it motivates you and implement them into your daily thoughts and you will always be motivated!

Obviously this is much harder then it sounds, but there is a logical way to go about doing this. My mentor always used to tell me, “when you know your reason why, you will overcome any how.” So the first step to keep you motivated throughout your whole weight gain program or hardgainer workout until you complete it is to figure out your reason why and make sure it is big enough to compel you to action and keep your desire for its attainment a burning obsession.

Write it out on a piece of paper in one or two sentences and place it somewhere where you will see it every morning and every night. Write it on a smaller note card and carry it around in your pocket everywhere you go to constantly remind yourself of it.

This step is so important that I can’t stress it enough. Ask anybody who has had great success in any endeavor and they will tell you that their goal or dream was never two sentences away from their thoughts. They thought about it every minute of every day. They were in the zone. They knew exactly what they wanted and never took their mind off of it until it was achieved. Adapt this kind of thinking and attitude and motivation will follow you like a shadow.

The second approach to maintaining motivation and to keep it habitually in your thoughts is to set yourself up to where you are constantly reminded and fired up about working out. This can and should be done in several ways. The most effective way is to set up a series of ways in which you can be reminded all the time through literary, audio, visual, as well as face-to-face learning and training.

When you are constantly reading new workout material, listening to audio recordings that motivate you, watching videos or movies about working out and bodybuilding, and are associating with other like-minded people with the same or similar goals, you will have a steady and constant flow of motivation.

One of my favorite quotes is, “you will be the same person today in five years except for the books you read and the people whom you most associate with.” The truism in this quote cannot be denied. If “birds of a feather flock together,” what can you tell about your motivation and results based on the people whom you most hang around? How often are you reading new material on hardgainer training and bodybuilding? These questions can often present the reason why you may be losing motivation every time you start a new hardgainer workout program.

Begin today before anything else by finding your reason why you workout and ingrain it in your brain until it becomes a burning obsession. Then make sure you are always around information and people that support your goals. By just making a habit of these two things will not only jump start your motivation but also gives it the long lasting vitality and lifeblood it needs to continue to compel you all the way to the finish line.

I hope this helps,

Talk to you soon,

Derek Manuel
Weight Gain Program