Hard Gainers - What Worked for Me....

[transit]

After years of reading this forum I want to give back on my own personal experience. I'm 5'10, 34 y/o and have always been a guy that weighed around 150 +/- after years of working out. Everyone I spoke with said the same stuff....protein, creatine, NO2, eat more calories, lift heavier weight, but never found the right combo until now. The answer to my issue was complex carbs and dialing in my diet correctly....not so much how I worked out. On two cycles I proved the weight gains. Recently I've gained 20 pounds in 4 months and only increased body fat by 3%. Starting January I'll go on a cut cycle to see how things look. I did this using only the following supplements:

Isopure Protein (rapid absorbtion after work outs)
Syntha 6 (night time & morning)
Cyto Carb II
BCAA's
HMB
TwinLab Liquid Aminos (found it gave me rock hard muscles)
Glutamine

I used Calorie King for tracking all my calories. It had a pretty comprehensive database of foods and resturaunts. This was another key to my gains. I also tried to do most of my carbs earlier in the day and keeping sugar as low as possible.

Here is a sample diet I used:

Workout Days:
3000 Calories
Carbs 350 / Protein 170 / Fat 55 / Saturated Fat >20 / Fiber 20 / Sugars >35

8AM - 1 scoop Syntha 6, 4 scoops Cyto Gainer, Twin Lab Liquid Aminos, BCAA's, HMB, Glutamine = 450 cal

10AM - Perfect food Bar, 2 scoops Cyto Gainer = 410 cal

12PM - Lunch = 500 cal

2PM - Perfect food bar light, 2 scoops Cyto Gainer = 300 cal

3:00PM - BCAA's, Twin Lab Liquid Aminos, Glutamine

3:30PM - Workout 60 Minutes

4:30PM - 2 Scoops Isopure, 4 Scoops Cyto Carb, BCAA, Twin Lab Liquid Aminos, Glutamine, HMB - 500 Cal

5:30PM - Dinner - 500 Cal

8:00PM - Activelife Oatmeal or Perfect Food Bar Light - 200 Cal

10:30PM - Syntha 6, Glutamine, BCAA, HMB - 200 Cal


Non workout days

2500 Calories
Carbs 330 / Protein 160 / Fat 50 / Saturated Fat >20 / Fiber 20 / Sugars >35

8AM - 1 scoop Syntha 6, 4 scoops Cyto Gainer, Twin Lab Liquid Aminos, BCAA's, HMB, Glutamine = 450 cal

10AM - Perfect food Bar, 2 scoops Cyto Gainer = 410 cal

12PM - Lunch = 500 cal

2:30PM - Perfect food bar light, 2 scoops Cyto Gainer = 300 cal

5:30PM - Dinner - 500 Cal

8:00PM - Activelife Oatmeal or Perfect Food Bar Light - 200 Cal

10:30PM - Syntha 6, Glutamine, HMB, BCAA's - 200 Cal



I used the following workout schedule:

2 on 1 off

Day 1 Chest / Core
Day 2 Back Sholders
Day 3 Rest
Day 4 Arms / Abs
Day 5 Legs /Sholders
Day 6 Rest
Day 7 go back to Day 1

I would superset most of my exercises keeping a short rest period between sets. Here is a quick example of a chest workout:

Warm up: 5 minutes jogging @ 6 MPH
Set 1 - Flat dumbell press; warm up 25 reps @ 30pnds / Pushups 20
Set 2 - Flat dumbell press; warm up 20 reps @ 40pnds / Dumbell Flys; 15 reps @ 20 pnds / Plank 60 Seconds
Set 3 - Flat dumbell press; warm up 15 reps @ 55pnds / Dumbell Flys; 15 reps @ 25 pnds / Plank 60 Seconds
Set 4 - Flat dumbell press; warm up 10-12 reps @ 60pnds / Dumbell Flys; 15 reps @ 25 pnds / Plank 60 Seconds
Set 5 - Flat dumbell press; warm up 8 reps @ 65pnds

No rest
Set 1 - Incline slow bench press legs straight up (4 sec down, 4 sec up); 8-10 reps with dimes, Pushups until failure, Hanging leg raises
Set 2 - Incline slow bench press legs straight up (4 sec down, 4 sec up); 8-10 reps with dimes, Pushups until failure, Hanging leg raises
Set 3 - Incline slow bench press legs straight up (4 sec down, 4 sec up); 6-8 reps with dimes, Pushups until failure, Hanging leg raises
Set 4 - Incline slow bench press legs straight up (4 sec down, 4 sec up); 6-8 reps with dimes, Pushups until failure, Hanging leg raises

Set 1 - Seated cable flys; 12-15 reps / Crunches with weight 20 reps
Set 2 - Seated cable flys; 12-15 reps / Crunches with weight 20 reps
Set 3 - Seated cable flys; 12-15 reps / Crunches with weight 20 reps

This is only an example of one of my workouts but you get the point. I did not do cardio during this cyle other than my warm ups and due to the pace of the workout found it to be enough cardio.

A little more on things I've tried.

Creatine - Decent strength and size gains but limited. Once off gains were gone.
NO2 (Arginine) - Combined with Creatine had solid pumped muscles but gone once I stopped taking the product.
Kre Alkalyn Creatine - Didn't really notice a difference between Creatines. Acted about the same.
Hemadrol Pro Hormone - Amazing strength gains! Lifted like I never lifted before. Strength stayed with me even after. Down side was it made me aggressive, road rage, short fuse. Once off felt so relaxed but emotional even with Tryptophan.
Glutamine - A must have for recovery!
Liquid Aminos - I found these to be key to having rock hard muscles that would be lost off cycle.
BCAA - Seem to be working for muscle growth
HMB - Not sure if it works but using it because it's supposed help utilize more protein.
Gackic - Same as N02 and Creatine


Anyway, I'm just an average guy that found after years of trial and error what worked for me. I hope this helps someone that's been in my situation....

~transit