The question of whether genetics plays a role in bodybuilding success has been debated for years. In order to answer this question you need to define exactly what you mean by bodybuilding success? If by bodybuilding success you refer to increasing muscle mass to the point where you are bigger and have a much better physique then what you had before, then I can tell you that anybody can accomplish that.
If you have poor bodybuilding genetics it means it will take longer to see the results. A hardgainer will never get the same physique as someone with perfect bodybuilding genetics, at least not naturally. This isn’t to say hardgainers can not gain muscle mass. They just need to work harder in order to see results.
Your genetic make-up affects things like personality (introverted/extroverted), appearance, intelligence, and you guessed it, your ability to gain weight and muscle. Bodybuilding is an ego driven sport so people are not going to want to admit that they can’t look like Arnold if they weight 140 lbs. They will convince themselves if they just try a little bit harder on their diet or routine they will eventually be the biggest in their gym. It’s simply all fantasy unless you use steroids, and even then it’s probably still a dream.
If a person with hardgainer genetics lifts weights they will get more muscular, but will never look as good as someone with great genetics if they do the exact same diet and workout. People with these inferior genes won’t look as ripped or as muscular if they do exactly the same thing as someone with better genetics.
Even steroids are not a magical drug. They give you a boost and get you through plateaus, but watch what happens when you get off them after a year or two, you drastically shrink again. And you don’t want to be relying on them indefinitely for heart, liver, and sexual health reasons.
So what genetic factors affect your ability to gain muscle?
Muscle fiber type and density are influenced by genetics. The more gifted larger bodybuilders often have more muscle fibers and more of them fast twitch (anaerobic) on average. Myostatin is another factor which plays a role in muscle growth. When Myostatin was manipulated in mice they grew muscle at unbelievable rates. Testosterone levels play a huge role also. People with large testosterone levels should have a easier time building muscle and keeping lean.
So if you have been following a strict diet for a few months and a solid heavy weight lifting routine with compound exercises and you still don’t look that great, just accept that the gains will be slower. You may have to accept you’ll never reach your ideal goal in your mind. However, you will look a heck of a lot better than if you did nothing! And that is all that matters in the end.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
What you say is all true. Hence, the label, “hardgainer!” BUT, anyone can gain more muscle, lose fat, get ripped, and look better than they do now.
Take guys like Frank Zane. He was genetically inferior to Arnold, but Zane beat Arnold. In fact, it is my opinion that Zane had the ultimate physique. And, in his mid-sixties, he looks FAR SUPERIOR to Arnold now.
For the hardgainer, the muscle gains come slower, generally come later in life, but they last. And that’s an important thing to remember.
Skinny guys should focus on eating at least 5-7x a day with balanced meals from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. If your goal is to build muscle than you should be eating at least 15-18 x your current body weight. Your carbohydrates should equate about 45% of your intake, your proteins should equate about 35% of your intake and your fat should be the remaining 20% of your intake. You should focus on over half of those meals being solid whole food meals and the remainder can be liquid meal replacement shakes.
eating 15 to 18 times ur current body weight is impossible.
Great article. I completely agree that some people just have to work harder to get muscle growth due to genetic factors. For hard gainers it even more important to consume more than the recommended amounts of cards and protein, and not make the mistake of overtraing which many do. Your body needs time to rest and recover, especially if your don’t have a lot of muscle mass to begin with.
I’m 6’1″ used to weight 155 lbs now after weight lifting weigh 185 lbs, gaining muscle (using diet or sprints/interval running to burn fat as necessary). I’m targeting 200+ lbs.
I found it really hard to put on weight, I used to be a skinny nerd :-). But I’ve found the more weight training one does the easier it is to keep the muscle on. The body’s muscle fibers or metabolism or something change their ‘set point’. For example, when I started lifting I had to overeat at every meal just to gain a few pounds and prevent my body from naturally becoming a ‘string bean’ (an old nickname of mine). I didn’t work out last summer due to a hectic internship, except pushups/situps and kept most of my muscle. Like Frank said, the hardest thing is just to make sure to eat enough.
One benefit I’ve found being a hardgainer, at least for me, is my body type is overly lean, so it is pretty easy to prevent fat from building up. Like I realized I had gained 8 lbs during vacation and it wasn’t muscle but then I promptly lost it in 1 week just by cutting back caloric intake and working out. Knowing that your body naturally wants to become a skeleton makes it much easier to figure out training plans to burn off the fat, since losing fat is easy and the hard part is gaining muscle.
The thing about this article is that it “sounds” true, there are true points in it. But, it also includes things like “inferior genes” or “great genetics”. The truth is, hard-gainers do NOT have “inferior genes” and easy-gainers do not have “great genetics”.
“If a person with hardgainer genetics lifts weights they will get more muscular, but will never look as good as someone with great genetics if they do the exact same diet and workout.”
It sounds factual, because it’s pretty darn close. The problem is the hidden “ego” the writer simply can not help but include. Either the writer is a hard-gainer with a low self-esteem, or it’s an easy gainer that is too stupid to understand what is insulting and what isn’t.
“” .. a person with hardgainer genetics … someone with ((great)) genetics ..”"
You see what he did there? He didn’t say someone with easy-gain genetics, he said “great” genetics. You don’t have to be very good in Algebra to figure out the math I’m pointing out here. David (the author) is saying if you’re a hard-gainer, you don’t have “great genetics”.
I disagree from a scientific standpoint. Short term, having a stereotypically “great” body makes you stereotypically more attractive. This is true as we almost always fall prey to stereotypes through popular marketing tactics. Long term, however, the remove of physical prowess from the human gene-pool has, over the course of thousands and thousands of years, benefited our human society. For example: women are most times attracted “genetically” to men that are physically strong. But, the fact is that physical strength is much less important and, frankly, inferior to that of mental strength by today’s standards.
This strong female mentality (and male combine) is the reason we sacrifice the super intelligent genes for our pool in favor of outdated needs included in super physical genes. The idea of being very strong has been held for marketing purposes. Men that are genetically more adaptable to physical training are also at a higher risk to physical and mental defects in the human body.
So, if you’re a “hard-gainer”.. fear not. The mesomorphs of the world can unit under one marketing banner if they wish, but that same marketing banner promotes skinny females that do not pass on mesomorph genes well. Humans are getting smaller, because we do not “need” to be big. Remember this, brains are superior to brawn. Always!
First off yes there are true points to this article but i don’t agree with every single point. Hardgainers CAN get big but the “true genetic factors” aren’t just simply about gaining size FAST and responding well to training like most misinformed people think but what kind of genetic structure you have(broad shoulders, small waist, long muscle attachments, muscle shape).
Of course responding to training quickly is having good genes but just because some hard gainer is gaining less muscle doesn’t mean his genetics are inferior, in fact if he does had a naturally broad structure with very well rounded muscles that means he has good genetics.
Look at greg kovas, the guy is simply the “largest’ and “heaviest” bodybuilder to ever walk the stage but his body looks like absolute crap because of awful shape and then look at guys like Frank Zane, Steve Reeves or Flex Wheeler, they aren’t giant mesomorphs but ecto’s with incredible genetic structures.