Are You a Non-Responder to Weight Training?
There’s no doubt that genetics play a role in building muscle. In fact, especially when looking at outliers, genetics can have an enormous impact. If two people do the same workout routine and eat the same bulking diet, one of those people might gain twice as much muscle.
What’s more contentious is the claim that some people can’t build muscle at all. And there’s some truth to that idea. When most people start lifting weights, they build muscle. But not everyone. And these people who don’t gain muscle have been referred to as “non-responders” or “low-responders” in the research.
So what’s going on here? Weight training is supposed to cause us to adapt by gaining muscle size and strength. Why do some people fail to adapt?
What’s a Non-Responder?
A non-responder (or low-responder) is someone who doesn’t gain much muscle after following a workout routine for a given amount of time. Maybe after lifting weights for ten weeks, the average person gains five pounds of lean mass, but one guy loses a pound. He’s a non-responder.
Are Non-Responders Real?
Non-responders and low-responders are real scientific terms. Researchers really do classify participants that way. But it’s not a comment on someone’s muscle-building genetics, it’s just a way of sorting the results of a particular study.
For example, in a 2021 study by Islam et al, the researchers put fourteen men through a four-week workout routine. At the end of those four weeks, the researchers measured the participants’ muscle growth and sorted them into low-responders, medium-responders, and high-responders.
After that, the researchers waited three months, then restarted the experiment. They ran the participants through the exact same workout program, measuring their muscle growth a second time. Again, they sorted the participants into low-responders, medium-responders, and high-responders. But this time the groups were different. Many of the low-responders became high-responders (and vice versa).
A low-responder isn’t something that you are. It’s not a genetic trait. It just describes your results from a particular workout routine at a certain point in your life.
For another example, in a 2024 study by Lixandrão and colleagues, non-responders to a low-volume training routine were put on a higher-volume hypertrophy training routine. The extra training volume stimulated muscle growth. The non-responders grew.
The year I got married, I was working out and trying to bulk up, but I lost 15 pounds of muscle. So did my wife. We were in the middle of planning a wedding, my father-in-law passed away suddenly, and then my wife got pregnant. It was a crazy year, filled with joy and sorrow and change. The results was that we couldn’t keep up with our calories, we lost weight, and we lost a tremendous amount of muscle mass.
But after successfully getting married and with the pregnancy going well, the stress evaporated, and we gained back those 15 pounds of muscle within a few months. Our workout routine was the same, but our diets, mindsets, and stress levels were totally different.
Now imagine what would’ve happened if we’d been participants in a muscle-building study. If that muscle-building study had been conducted during the stressful year, my wife and I would have been classified as hopeless non-responders because of our tragic loss of muscle. But if the study had taken place the following year, we would’ve (re)gained tremendous amounts of muscle. We would’ve been classified as genetically elite high-responders.
Are You A Non-Responder?
If you try to build muscle and fail, you were a non-responder. But that doesn’t mean you’ll respond the same way next time. Being a non-responder has less to do with genetics, more to do with lifestyle, circumstance, diet, stress, and sleep.
Genetics do influence how easily, quickly, and leanly we build muscle. Two guys doing everything the same might still build different amounts of muscle. This is especially true if you take someone with elite genetics and compare them against someone with atrocious genetics. In fact, even if a guy with elite genetics eats a poor diet, inconsistently follows a bad workout routine, and parties every night, he might still get better results than a guy who does everything perfectly (provided they both eat enough food to build muscle).
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that elite and atrocious genetics are rare. You probably don’t know anybody with elite genetics. You probably don’t know anyone with terrible genetics either. You probably know people with good, mediocre, and bad genetics. And within that normal range, the differences aren’t nearly as extreme. We’re talking about some guys gaining 10–20% more muscle than average (easy-gainers), other guys gaining 10–20% less muscle than average.
In most cases, genetic differences are enough to notice, but they’re rarely enough to stop someone from becoming respectably lean and strong. Most guys can (eventually, with hard work) squat at least 315 pounds, bench at least 250, and deadlift at least 405, even if their genetics are fairly bad. And if your genetics are mediocre, you can bump that up to squatting 405, benching 315, and deadlifting 495 (give or take 50 pounds).
The main takeaway here is that genetic variation has little to do with why some people are classified as non-responders. It’s normal for people with great genetics to go through periods of being non-responders. Similarly, it’s common for people with poor genetics to go through phases of gaining solid amounts of muscle.
Why Do Some People Fail to Gain Muscle?
It’s common for people to start working out, fail to get results, and then assume they’re non-responders. More often than not, it has nothing to do with their genetics, it’s just that something in their bulking routine is missing or needs to be adjusted (study).
For instance, there’s a 2018 study by Vargas et al. looking at how the ketogenic diet affects muscle growth. They found that the group eating a ketogenic diet lost 0.7 pounds of muscle while the group eating a traditional diet gained 3 pounds. Both groups were following the exact same workout routine, but because of dietary differences, some participants gained far more muscle than others. Many muscle-building studies don’t control for diet, and so many of them miss out on dietary differences causing different amounts of muscle growth.
In this case, the reason the keto group lost muscle is that they weren’t able to get into a calorie surplus. They were losing weight. And if you lose weight, it’s very difficult to build muscle, especially if you’re already lean. This is a very, very common issue with us skinny guys. It’s hard for us to gain weight, and so it’s hard for us to build muscle. There’s even a special word for us: hardgainer.
How Can You Build Muscle More Reliably?
If you’re following a hypertrophy training or bodybuilding routine and you’re having trouble gaining muscle, the first thing you should do is make sure that your diet and lifestyle are on point:
- Make sure you’re eating enough food. If you aren’t eating enough calories to gain weight, it will be hard to gain muscle. And if you’re a skinny guy who’s already fairly lean, it may actually be impossible to gain muscle without gaining weight. After all, the only way for a skinny 130-pound guy to get up to a muscular 180 pounds is to gain weight. As a rule of thumb, try to gain 0.5–1 pound on the scale each week. If that’s hard, we have a full article about how to eat more calories.
- Make sure you’re eating enough protein. If you aren’t eating at least 0.7 grams of protein per pound bodyweight per day, your body might have trouble recovering from your workouts and building new muscle. Try bumping your protein intake up to a gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day. For more, we have a full article about how to eat a bulking diet.
- Try to eat mostly whole foods. If you’re having trouble building muscle, another place to look is the quality of your diet. You want to be eating a diet that’s rich in whole foods: fruits, berries, veggies, legumes, nuts, olive oil, cheese, yoghurt, whole grains, berries, fish, crickets, and meat. That will give you the fibre, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals you need to support a healthy physique. For more, we have an article about the best bulking foods.
- Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. If you aren’t getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night, you might have trouble building muscle leanly. Try getting 8 hours of good sleep each night. That should increase your rate of muscle growth while slowing your rate of fat storage. For more, we have a full article on how to sleep for muscle growth.
- Avoid excessive drinking, drugs, smoking, and stress. It’s okay to have a beer or two a few days per week (and I certainly do), but if you’re routinely hammering yourself into the ground, it can be hard to build much muscle. The same goes with stress. Some acute stress here and there is perfectly fine, but if you’re constantly on edge, it’s not ideal for building muscle.
Once you’ve got your lifestyle handled, the next thing to look at is your workout routine.
- Make sure that your workout routine is designed to stimulate muscle growth. Are you doing big compound exercises like the squat, bench press, deadlift, and chin-up? Are you lifting in moderate rep ranges, doing 6–20 reps on most sets? Are you lifting hard enough, bringing most sets within 0–3 reps of failure? Are you training each muscle 2–3 times per week? Are you doing at least 2–3 sets per exercise?
- Experiment with different styles of bodybuilding and hypertrophy training. Some people respond well to heavier weights, fewer sets, and lower frequencies. Maybe they do 3 sets of 8 reps on the bench press every Monday and Friday (6 sets per week). Other people respond better to lighter weights, more sets, and higher frequencies. Maybe they do 4 sets of 12 repetitions on the bench press every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (12 sets per week). If one style isn’t working for you, try the other.
- Focus on getting stronger. Every workout, fight to add a bit more weight to the bar or to eke out an extra repetition. For instance, let’s say this week you do a set of 12 push-ups, a second set of 10 push-ups, and a third set of 9 push-ups. Next week, try to get an extra rep. Maybe that’s 12 reps, 11, reps, and then 9 reps. That’s progress. You won’t be able to make progress on every lift every week, but always fight for it.
If you fail to build muscle, don’t consider it a failure, consider it a lesson. The variables you were using weren’t working. What variables can you change to give yourself a better chance at succeeding?
Summary
A non-responder is someone who doesn’t gain muscle after following a workout routine for a given period of time. However, it doesn’t account for diet, lifestyle, or circumstance. When those other factors are accounted for, genetic differences do persist, but everyone can successfully build muscle.
If you want more muscle-building information, we have a free bulking newsletter for skinny guys. If you want a full foundational bulking program, including a 5-month full-body workout routine, diet guide, recipe book, and online coaching, check out our Bony to Beastly Bulking Program. Or, if you want a customizable intermediate bulking program, check out our Outlift Program.
Shane Duquette is the founder of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, each with millions of readers. He's a Certified Conditioning Coach (CCC), has gained seventy pounds, and has over a decade of experience helping more than ten thousand naturally thin people build muscle. He also has a degree in fine arts, but those are inversely correlated with muscle growth.
Marco Walker-Ng is the founder and strength coach of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell. He's a certified trainer (PTS) and nutrition coach (PN) with a Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences (BHSc) from the University of Ottawa. He has over 15 years of experience helping people gain muscle and strength, with clients including college, professional, and Olympic athletes.
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Crickets, Shane? Just thought you’d slip that in there, huh. Not happening, buddy. I have chickens to eat my crickets. Then I eat my chickens’ children.
I think something strange has happened to me. I kind of like the look of the bearded skinny dude. 🙂 After successfully bulking up on your program, I started thinking I felt too big and dreamed of slimming down to a “svelte” 180. And sure enough I’m liking it. I do miss the 15″ arms sometimes, though. But at least I know how to get them back, should the winds of change start blowing my way again.
If even chickens are eating crickets, I suppose I can’t call you too chicken to eat them. Not chicken enough, I suppose.
Totally! Ain’t nothing wrong with not wanting to be maximally bulked. You know, I’m fond of the idea of building a bit of extra muscle, trimming down, and living maybe 10 pounds lighter than what your muscles remember. If my suspicions are correct, that’d be the easiest way to maintain a fit physique while being able to be fairly casual about it.
And you’re right, too, that looking slim, strong, and fit can look just as sweet as looking big, strong, and fit. So no disagreement from me there.
You know, that might make for a good article or newsletter. It might sound like we’re encouraging people to bulk up and stay at their genetic muscular potential. But that’s not what we’re about. We’re just about helping people build the body that they want. And for most people, it might be more enjoyable to stop shy of their limits.
I do like the idea of eating whole foods and it’s what I’ve been doing for some time now. Makes sense.
I did see crickets for sale at our local State Park. First time I ever saw them. I didn’t realize you could eat them! (Except in the Bible.)
I only started eating them after moving to Cancun. My brother-in-law offered me some mezcal with a side of crickets. Surprisingly good!
They also make for a nice crunch in some guacamole.
I wonder how much the age one starts proper training at affects their muscular and strength potential?
I tend to think I’m a fairly poor responder to training, but not terrible. My hypertrophy has actually been pretty decent – I’m leaner at 170lb than I was at 155lb when I started lifting 2.5 years ago at the age of 34, but my strength gains have been pretty underwhelming.
My 5-rep PRs are:
Squat – 165lb
Bench – 138lb
Deadlift – 215lb
OHP – 88lb
I’m definitely capable of progressing my deadlift at a decent rate (maybe 5lb every 5 weeks), but progress on the other lifts has slowed to a crawl – maybe 5lb every 10 weeks and slower than that for the OHP. I’m doubtful that I’ll ever reach the strength standards mentioned in this article.
Hey Jeremy, congrats on the gains, man!
That’s a good question. I’ve wondered if the age we start lifting affects our genetic potential, too.
I think our upbringing might play a role in our muscular potential. A child who’s raised to be quite active might develop more muscular potential. That’s just me speculating, though. I’m not sure if there’s any truth to that, and I’m not aware of any research looking into it.
If we’re talking about someone starting lifting at 18 or 40 years old, though, then the differences aren’t very extreme. Yes, starting younger might allow someone to become slightly more muscular. But the difference is small enough that the studies I’ve seen can’t even detect the difference. 18-year-olds and 40-year-old beginners seem to build similar amounts of muscle and strength. Within 10 years, both can reach a similar place.
As for reaching your own genetic potential, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, there’s a law of diminishing returns. It’s fairly easy to get 50% of the way to your potential, a bit more challenging to get 80% of the way there, and EXTREMELY difficult to get 100% of the way there. Most people choose to stop at least a bit shy of their potential, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Second, not everyone optimizes their lifts for strength, and that’s fine. Maybe you do deep high-bar squats. Those are amazing for gaining muscle and general strength, but you won’t be able to lift nearly as much weight as if you were doing shallower, wide-stance, low-bar squats. Or with the bench press, developing a big arch in your back might add 50 pounds to your bench without affecting your general strength or chest size.
Third, to reach your strength potential, you need to reach your muscle size potential. To do that, you might need to gain a bunch more weight. Maybe to squat 275 for 5, you’d need to bulk up to 190 pounds. That may or may not be something you’re interested in. If you’re happy at 170, that’s cool.
What I’d do is use those targets as very long-term goals. And maybe you never get there. But don’t let that genetic doubt creep in. Chances are, your genetics will allow you to get quite strong. And how close you get to that potential is up to your preferences and your priorities. (And just to reiterate, I’m not trying to imply that everyone ought to reach their genetic muscular potential.)
But I do think you can gain quite a bit more muscle size and strength. The trick is to keep slowly gaining weight over time, keep trying to set new PRs every week or three, and then adjust your training routine whenever you run into a plateau. For instance, if your bench press isn’t progressing with one bench session per week, maybe you need two. Or maybe you need an extra set every workout. Or maybe you need some extra accessory lifts (such as skullcrushers).
Another good trick is to measure and develop your strength in the hypertrophy rep range. 5-rep sets aren’t super efficient for building muscle. You might have more luck by training and testing your 10RM strength. Then, once you’re happy with your 10-rep max, you can try moving into lower rep ranges. For example, I brought my bench press 12RM up to 225 pounds before attempting to bring my 1RM to 315.
I hope that helps!
Thank you for that detailed reply, Shane.
I recognise that I’m definitely in my intermediate stage – strength and size gains aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be.
I don’t optimise my lifts for strength – I squat high bar (and front squats) and bench with a minimal arch. My training is focused on hypertrophy – I do lift in higher rep ranges, but have always used my 5rm as the gauge for strength. Good idea, I’ll start tracking my 10rm now as well.
I am trying to increase my body weight – last year I bulked to 180lb (at 2lb per month) but was about 20% body fat by the end. I cut back to 163lb and about 13% and have since bulked back up to 170lb and maybe 15% (I’m 6’1″ btw). Even at 2lb per month, I seem to gain a high proportion of belly fat when bulking. Getting more sleep would be nice, but with two young children and a puppy that is easier said than done!
Despite the slow gains, I am enjoying the journey and absolutely see the 225lb bench, 315lb squat and 405lb deadlift as long term goals.
I hear ya. I’ve only got one young child, and my dog is old and quiet. Even then, quality sleep is much harder to come by.
We’ve got an article on how to gain less fat while bulking. Maybe that will help you ward off some of the belly fat.
But overall, it sounds like you’re doing great 🙂
I’m a non responder – I trained for 10 years, focussed on diet and different training methods, but nothing worked. After about 5 years of research & studying and still not gaining any size or strength I ended up doing 3-4 steroid cycles. My strength increased slightly, but I didn’t notice any lean weight gain.
During those ten years I hired 2 different bodybuilding / strength coaches and a bodybuilding nutritionist.
I had blood work done on 3 but occasions and everything was normal.
I’ve started training again after a few years, and nothing’s changed. I’m in my 40s now so don’t expect anything tbh.
Can anyone offer any advice?
Were you actually gaining weight during all of this? Hormones and coaches and programming aside, if you’re not gaining weight, odds are you’re not building muscle either. You can’t put on 20 pounds of muscle without putting on 20 pounds. And odds are, you’ll put on 30-40 pounds total to get that 20 pounds of muscle.
That’s my big question, too.
H guys. thanks for replying. I don’t have a hard time gaining weight (fat) . When I was training during those ten years, each time I gained weight it was roughly 30-40lbs and during that time I did a a few cuts. I’d gradually gain weight without get stronger, then I’d go with on a cut and then start again with a different routine, gradually increasing my calories again.
But It was the same result every time, or lack of.
At this point in my life I’m really only training for a healthy mind. At 44 years of age I don’t see any strength gains happening and definitely no muscle gains.
I’d love to be bigger & stronger, but I honestly don’t see it happening, but I’ll keep trying.
If anyone can suggest any kind of unconventional routine/program, I’d really appreciate it – I’m totally out of ideas.
Thanks again.
I think when something doesn’t work, the instinct is to go with something unconventional, where there’s even less evidence and the likelihood of it working. It’s not a totally irrational instinct, either. If the conventional approach isn’t working, maybe an unconventional approach will, right?
But before you look to weirder stuff, I’d try going MORE conventional but doing it more diligently, making sure to plug any potential holes.
So, for example, instead of just casually eating in a surplus and gradually gaining weight, maybe try tracking calories, being more precise about it. Maybe track your macros, too, getting a better idea of what you’re eating. See what proportion of your calories are coming from whole foods. Exactly how much protein you’re eating. We’ve got a calorie-tracking guide here.
With your workouts, don’t try the weird stuff yet, such as HIT (very low volume) or high-frequency training (working your muscles 5–6x per week). Instead, really try to optimize your exercise selection, training volume, rep ranges, proximity to failure, rest times, and everything else. Go conventional, but do it better, with perfect precision. This hypertrophy training guide is a good (free) primer.
In your lifestyle, a good thing to focus on is sleep. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep every night. Here’s a short guide on sleep.
Once you’ve got that solid base, and you’ve gotten into the routine of it, you can experiment with shifting the variables. Try doing more sets, more volume if you’re recovering well between workouts. Try pushing closer to failure if you aren’t losing much performance from set to set. Try different exercise variations that feel better and work your muscles harder. Try slightly higher reps one month. Try slightly lower reps the next. Try training more often, less often.
Fiddle with the variables gradually over time, seeing what works best for you. But I’d start from a very conventional base. That way you know the variables you AREN’T fiddling with are most likely to be correct.
Thanks Shane, I appreciate your time. You’re right when you said about when something doesn’t work it’s instinct to go with something unconventional.
It feels like I’ve exhausted all avenues when it comes to diet & training.
During the 10 years I was training, I was 100% into it, diet was as healthy as it could be, no fast food, no alcohol, I logged all my workouts and kept track of calories/macros. I couldn’t have been anymore consistent.
Protein came from meats, eggs, fish & a bit of whey.
Fats came from nuts, olive oil, flax seed, fish, eggs & a bit of cheese.
Carbs – fruit & veg, oats, occasionally bread, and then rice & pasta.
I drank plenty of water, and tried to I get at least 8 sleep every night.
With that said, this time round I’ve not been doing all of that. My diet is still pretty good – I’m eating healthy, but not as healthy as back then. I know I’m not eating as much veg as I used to (still have a couple of meals with veg every day) and I’m not tracking macros/calories, but I know roughly how much I’m eating.
I’m still logging my workouts, but it seems pointless when no progress is being made.
One thing I have noticed since I’ve started training training again – I find it difficult to fall asleep on the days I’ve been training. I usually finish training at 6pm and go to bed at 11pm. When I get to bed it can take me up to 2 hours to fall asleep.
Last night was a real nightmare – I was tossing and turning, didn’t get to sleep until 3am-4am (I was awake when it was going light outside) and when I did eventually fall asleep, I kept waking up to go to the bathroom.
I’m not training to failure, but I do go go close to it to, so I’m wondering if I’m stressing the CNS too much which is causing insomnia? I would train earlier to avoid this but the problem is work is in the way.
Maybe I should reduce the amount of sets I’ve been doing (10-12 per session) or stop each set 3-4 reps short of failure as instead of 1-2 reps short?
The only other possible explanation is I tend to have more protein on training days, so could the excess protein be causing the insomnia?
I’m going to the read the links you’ve provided
Thank you again.
I think the best thing would be to track your macros/calories, as explained in that article. That way you know you’re eating in a small surplus every single day. Plus, you’ll know you’re getting enough protein, and you’ll have a better idea of the foods you’re eating. But the big thing will be knowing that you’re in a small surplus every single day, gradually gaining a little bit of weight every week.
And then pair that with a good hypertrophy training program. Focus on progressive overload. Fight to add a bit of weight or to eke out more reps every workout. You won’t be able to progress on everything, but try. Hopefully, we see progress on most lifts every week or two.
And it sounds like a big weak area for you is sleep. Training at 6pm should be fine… provided you aren’t taking a bunch of stimulants, such as caffeine. It’s common to have people taking pre-workout or having coffee before their evening workouts. That’s usually not a good idea. Better to stop your caffeine in the early afternoon. In my case, I have 2–3 cups of coffee in the morning, and then a cup of green tea in the afternoon, around 2PM, and then that’s it.
You could also use a gear-down routine in the hour or two leading up to your bedtime. For example, if you’re trying to go to bed at 11pm, you could start gearing down at 10pm. Different things work for different people, but in my case, I don’t look at computer or phone screens anymore. I put that stuff away. And I’ll usually dim the lights and read a good fantasy novel while having some greek yogurt with frozen berries. When I get tired, I head up to bed, and I keep reading with a dim reading light. When I have trouble keeping my eyes open, I put my book down, turn off the light, and I’m out.
I’m not saying that’ll be best for you. But you need something that gets rid of bright blue lights and stressors (like work, social media, intense video games, horror movies), and that helps you relax and calm down.
Another trick is to get some sunlight early in the day.
We’ve got a full article on sleep, though. I think you’ll find something in there that will help 🙂
Thanks Shane I don’t take any stimulants other than 1 cup of coffee in the mornings. The only supplements I take are protein powder, vitamin D, C, & zinc. I tried creatine but all that did was make me pee like a fountain.
It’s only on days I workout that I have trouble sleeping. Last night again I didn’t get to sleep until about 3:30am, and when I finally fell asleep I woke up 4-5 times and had to get up at 7:30am. I just don’t understand why I have such a hard time falling asleep & staying asleep on the days I’ve been lifting. I understand just how important sleep is, it’s so frustrating not being able to sleep after training. I’ve not trained today so I know I’ll sleep well tonight. I’ll try winding down in the evenings earlier and read a book, hopefully that helps.
Regarding progressive overload, I’ve even bought some plate mates ranging from 0.25kg to 0.5kg, but the same thing happens over and over – as I increase the weight gradually, the reps I can push out decrease gradually. I end up lowering the weight again, but can only manage the same number of reps that I managed the last time I used that weight, so I just don’t seem to gain any strength.
And what annoys the hell out of me is that my brother has had no problems gaining any size or strength, he’s massive now.
I think it’s a freak genetic condition that just sticks a middle finger up at me and just says “no, I won’t allow you to gain any size or strength” – well that’s pretty much how it feels.
I’ve been stuck at the same weights for the last 2 years on all lifts (I’ve tried different routines, and increased protein during this time)
I’ll track my calories/macros more rigidly once again – I’ve always kept a close eye on protein intake (even now) but I’ll go back to tracking everything once again. In the last 2 years I’ve gained about 27lbs of fat, which is roughly 1lb a month, so surely anyone would expect SOME strength gain? I’m obviously in a calorie surplus and my protein intake is 150-175 grams a day.
would be nice if I could add even 5kg to my lifts so I can actually say I’ve gained some strength.
Thanks again for the help, Shane. I appreciate it.
Do you have trouble sleeping after ALL your workouts? Or just after especially brutal workouts like deadlift days?
How close to failure are you taking your sets? What does failure look and feel like?
Striving for progressive overload, training consistently, and gradually gaining 27 pounds over the course of two years should yield strength gains and muscle growth. It’s definitely super strange that you haven’t made progress. I’m confused, too.
There’s definitely genetic variation in the response to hypertrophy training, but the term non-responder has been retired because it hasn’t ever really been found. Even people with a horrendously poor response to lifting tend to make SOME progress once they figure out how to do it properly. We’ve seen that in our community, too. Every so often we have a member who works very hard and does everything right on paper, and yet they get notably worse results than average. With the thousands of people we’ve worked with, there’s only one clear example I remember. And even then, he made pretty good progress in the end, it just took him years instead of months.
Welcome to my world buddy. Training since 1996. Nothing has worked. Finally got fed up with it all and decided I didn’t care about size, I just want to be lean. Went on a cut and got down to 126lbs and was still fat — and yes, I’m a guy. Unfortunately there’s little to nothing that can be done when you have genetics this bad.
Hi Sparks,
Given that there is no information about your weight provided, I’m assuming that you’re eating at least 1 g of protein per pound of lean body weight. It’s nuts to hear that you were eating like that and still gained mostly fat.
Right off the bat, I would say you need to cut out a lot of carb calories and replace those calories with a ridiculous amount of protein per day, just to experiment with for a little while. Assuming you have tended to eat about 400+ grams of carbs on a bulking diet, perhaps try replacing 100 or even 200 grams with protein. Keep in mind, I’m not saying this because there’s something magical about protein. There’s obviously diminishing returns with its muscle building properties. But it’s harder for your body to store excess protein as fat than carbohydrates.
With fats, I’m not sure if you heard of the 40 g rule, but it’s BS. You need at least double that amount, minimum, for optimal hormone production.
Lastly, more than the protein recommendation, I strongly recommend trying a workout regime called “nucleus overload.” Migan from the Youtube channel called Team 3D Alpha has a bunch of videos explaining his concept in further detail. He says to train a body part for no less than 5 sets of 15-30 reps to failure with no more than 1 minute rest, everyday, for a month. Then you take 1-2 weeks off with minimal to no activity for that muscle group.
With your back, for example, consider getting an EOS or Planet Fitness membership for a few months, spending one month at a time working large muscle groups. Then spend one at a time working a few small muscle groups. The only reason I recommend a gym membership is because using machines reduces risk of injury with such high rep ranges, plus I don’t know your current strength levels. Furthermore, you may feel certain muscle groups like your lats work harder using particular machines.
I’d be very curious to hear about your results after trying nucleus overload. And if you still don’t have results with normal workouts after one cycle of nucleus overload, try doing each muscle group a few more times. It will take multiple cycles to increase a noteworthy amount of satellite cells in your muscles. Satellite cells help with androgen sensitivity. And because the workouts are so short, I hope for your sake you could do them in the morning.
Your insomnia may just be from spiking stress hormones like adrenaline during a workout and a few hours isn’t enough to get your body calmed down. Of course, maybe you need cannabis with a lot of CBN or sleep peptides for the days you workout. I hope this reaches you. Best of luck to you on your fitness journey!
Thank you for the detailed answer, man.
It’s harder for your body to store excess protein as body fat than dietary fat, not carbohydrates. Both protein and carbs need to be converted into fat before being stored as fat. This makes it costly and unlikely to happen. It’s the dietary fat we eat that gets stored most easily as fat. It can be stored directly. No conversion required. Mind you, it doesn’t matter very much, since we need to eat fat anyway. As you’ve pointed out, eating enough fat is important. When our calorie surplus is too big, we’ll store some of that fat we eat.
The Nucleus Overload Training idea is a cool one. It might go beyond the mechanisms Migan suggests, too. There’s some research showing that training in higher rep ranges with shorter rest times can cause cardiovascular adaptations in those muscles, improving blood flow and nutrient delivery, thus potentiating future muscle growth. Plus, if lower-rep training isn’t working, there’s research showing that switching to higher-rep training can help.
I’m not sure machines have a lower risk of injury.
I wouldn’t recommend turning to drugs to get better sleep. Not unless it’s medically advised for some reason. Mind you, I have somewhat of a natty bias.