Hardgainer in Bodybuilding = Hardgainer in PE?

Hello Board,

this is my first post, so the first thing I would like to do is to thank all of you for sharing your knowledge about PE!
Let me say a few words about myself:
As you can see from my stupid username, I didn’t think that PE could work in the beginning (@thunder: is it possible to change the username? :-) ). This changed when I saw my first gains, which were humble but undeniable. So far, I have gone from

nbpel 14,5 cm or 5.7 “
eg 11,5 cm or 4.53 “

to
nbpel 15,5 cm or 6.1”
eg 12 cm or 4.73 “

thanks to stretching and hard jelqing (more like ULIs). I work out 5 days a week approximately 50 minutes a day. It took me roughly 4 months to get the results posted above, so I consider myself a “hardgainer”, compared to guys like DLD and all the others you know well.
With regard to fitness training and bodybuilding, I am an extreme hardgainer with a height of 188 cm (6’2”) and a weight which has been around 67 kg (150 lbs) for years, even with fitness training (volume style). Today I am finally at 83 kg (180 lbs) thanks to Stuart McRobert and his books, but there’s still a long way to go for me.
So, I’m finally getting to my point: Is being a hardgainer in bodybuilding somehow related to being a hardgainer in PE? Both have to do with the recovery ability of the body, and maybe it would be wiser for many guys to train less often to get maximum results, like it is recommended by the HIT style of bodybuilding that works for many hardgainers. I find the HIT philosophy simple and convincing since your body grows when you rest, not when you train, and it needs time to recover, in my case a lot. Is it the same with PE?
I couldn’t test my theory so far in just 4 months, but I hoped that many of you guys could help me with feedback :-) . Anyway, I switched to less frequent PEing and listening to my body (or at least one part of it :-) ) instead of following a workout schedule.
What I am interested in is if you are doing fitness training as well as PE, are you a hardgainer in one of these two things or in both or in none of them?
I’m trying to get a poll working together with this post, but since this is my first one (post as well as poll), please have some patience.

Hey tester,

Send me a PM with the username that you want and I will change it.

Welcome to the forums. I usually don’t like to leave polls in the Main section (a hint to the guys that haven’t voted on WLA’s poll stuck to the top of the forum here) but will let this one ride for awhile, then move it to the Polls Forum.

My experience so far (7 months of PE) has actually been the opposite. In the bodybuilding area, my ligaments are easily overstretched/hyper-extended, which makes me prone to injury if I lift heavy for a long period of time. Fortunately, I heal easily and I rarely stay injured for long. However, I think I could be a lot bigger if I wasn’t so injury prone.

My theory is that this worked to my advantage in PE, because I gained length relatively easily from this tendency of my ligs to stretch. I have not done any tunica stretching as yet, because I am still waiting for my wife to get used to my increased length (hopefully soon). I’m curious to see whether my tunica will respond in a similar manner as my ligs.

Congratulations on the gains, both in PE and lifting.

bump, this is interesting!

IMO there’s no correlation. Being a hardgainer in bodybuilding would foremost be due to bad diet, too much training etc. Secondary would be natural hormone levels. Neither would really affect PE gains. But I’m still interested to see where this thread goes.

Pretty much apples and oranges.

I haven’t done enough(consistent) PE to categorize myself.

I would say bodybuilding wise I get out of it exactly what I put into it as far as diet and consistent routine. I still don’t know how I would categorize myself even though I have been playing sports and ‘working out’ in some form or another for at least 15 years. I have certain muscle groups that I feel grow faster for me then others but I am confident that its due to genetics rather than any other factor.

No correlation whatsoever between the development of striated skeletal muscle and what we do here. None. I packed 120 lbs on my bench press the first 6 months, for example. I wish my PE gains could rival that.

Lucky me, I am a hard gainer in both cases.

Dedication and drive is what it all comes down to.

With the right techniques and eating habits, no one is a hard gainer(unless you have reached a natural plateau).

I am a mesomorph almost to an extreme, maybe thats why I am saying this, but diet and routine definitely does have an adverse effect on your gains in BB.

As for PE, I can only say that if you recover easily when lifting, you should recover easy in PE, it’s the bodies ability to replenish it’s resources(no matter what organs). Keep with the training, once again it is dedication and drive that will get you there.

I’m a pretty easy gainer in bodybuilding, but I do practice a good BB diet and train right for my body type…Been training for 30 years w/the weights and am 5’11” tall and weigh 235#…Haven’t had my BF done in years, but have abs and decent vascularity at this weight…I usually drop around 10 lbs to really rip up in the summer…I’m more of a moderate gainer in pe, which isn’t bad at all…Just returning to pe after 2.5 year break…in the year and a half that i consistently jelqed and stretched, I added about 1.5” in length and .75” in girth…been back about 10 days and seem to be noticing a growth spurt, probably partly because of the long rest and in part because I’ve discovered some new exercises here, like DLD blasters and slow cranks…Ipeaked out at 7.5-7.75” bpel and 6” eg…I kept those gains while off, so I expect to bust through the 8” mark by April 2005…Not looking for too much more girth, but I seem to get girth pretty easily, so I will probably hit 6.25” eg by the time I hit 8” length…

This is an extreme oversimplication. For example, plastic deformation has nothing to do with “replenishing the body’s resources.” I recovered very quickly as a lifter, but that has not correlated into any tremendous PE gains (and I’ve been doing this shit for 28 months).

I apply “dedication and drive” to my PE, as I did to lifting. Genetics cancels everything out. I’ve known guys who lifted like shit, were built like Atlas. And I’ve known others who were walking encyclopedias of training & nutrition knowledge, and stuck to it for years, but never built much in the way of muscle.

I think it was the film “Pumping Iron” that conveyed how many zillions of aspiring young bodybuilders flocked out to Muscle Beach to emulate Arnold. They would pay a fortune to join Gold’s Gym in Venice - even for a very brief period - to train with Arnold, train like Arnold, eat like Arnold, sleep like Arnold, roid like Arnold, etc.

Guess what? Only one Arnold.

True, but even at my young age it has shown me to keep up dedication and routine. When a natural plateau is reached, unconventional methods have to be used. You think that the thousands of BB you see ALL have extreme genetics? Even if there is only one Arnold you still have cutler Coleman fielder etc etc. I have seen many friends succeed with this hobby and seen many friends fail, genetics are a part, but not an extreme part. Even being young I am 5’8 200 9-10%BF, hopefully gaining everyday(horrible genetics as well).

Also plastic deformation is not all PE is. :) Recovery is all relative, not every one recovers the same as well.

dugie,
I agree that dedication and effort are key - and too many guys lack that. Granted. But genetics necessarily plays a role - it has to. The training - be it conventional or conventional - can only bring out what Nature gave you. Period. Steroids help you push this a little further. But if you think that genetics has nothing to do with training, then you have no solid concept of what human genetics means.

And regarding the thousands of bodybuilders you mentioned - yes, they do have superior genetics (over the “average Joe”). How many guys do you think, in the U.S. alone, have tried weight training at some point in their lives? I would bet its in the tens of millions. Even you consider “thousands” of bodybuilders, that’s still such a small amount. And if you remind me that all of those “tens of millions” didn’t stick to it, I’d argue that they quit out of dissatisfaction with their gains (the gainers tend to stick to it).

Also, lets not kid ourselves - those “thousands” are NOT world class. How many guys compete in the Olympia? (and that’s worldwide). What about the Universe? (pro & am). How about just Mr. America contest? There’s probably less than 1000 bodybuilders - in the world - who can be considered in that upper echelon (out of more than 3 billion men on earth).

So, yes, genetics plays a huge role. When I first began lifting, I added 120 lbs to my bench in only 6 months. On what kind of routine? A shitty one. Then I jumped another 50 in less than a year, and 50 more in a little over a year. By then, my training knowledge had improved a little. So, in roughly 2.5 years (from age 15 to 17), I took my bench from 180 to 400 - completely drug-free. There were guys training with me when I started who were already doing 220-250 (40-70 lbs more than me), yet when I hit 400 none of them was above 300. Only genetics can explain that, since we all trained our asses off and ate like pigs.

And if you’re 5-8, 200 with 9-10% fat, you do NOT have “horrible” genetics (I realize that term is relative, but I’ve trained with guys who did have “horrible” genetics).

Wad is right when it comes to genetics,but I would add one thing.

If different people have different genetics, then they would gain differently from different amounts of work and types of workout. For example, if Wad and his workout buddies “trained their asses off and ate like pigs” but they didnt gain as much, that is in fact due to genetics. However, that does not mean those other guys could not gain as much( They just would not gain as much on the same routine). Genetics would limit to some extent , however, because of their genetics a different workout would be better for them. Some guys would actually need to lift less in order to get stronger. They would be considered “morons” of recovery ability. The same would apply to PE, though I dont think your bodybuilding potential would correlate.

Just as some people have to lift 4-5 days a week but some people could gain once a week, I would suppose that the same would apply to PE. Some people PE everyday and make gains, while others do the same for years and have little to show for it. Some would benefit from more rest. I consider myself a moron of PE recovery. Guys who PE everyday and make gains would be the Arnolds of PE.