I think I will start this with an anecdote about hardgainers: I’ve known Jake since I was nine years old. At that age, he was probably 65 pounds soaking wet with rocks in his pockets. In middle school and high school ,he liked to take all of his lunch money and buy as many ice cream sandwiches as he could. Hell, they were only 35 cents. He ate seven everyday. We can only guess what this did to him metabolically, and I’m now pretty sure that all that fidgeting wasn’t from pinworms. In spite of all of this, he never gained weight. Ever. His body fat was so low that he had a hard time getting vaccinated for college. They couldn’t find a nice soft place to inject it.



After working with various training methods, latching onto CrossFit and combining it with a Starting Strength approach to lifting, Jake finally decided it was time to gain some mass if wanted to continue to get results. Brandon decided to tag along. They both embarked on the Performance Menu Mass Gain program during the months of July and August.

Brandon was never a hardgainer. Don’t ask him about his childhood. Say the word pink belly and he cringes. He approached the mass gain cycle cautiously. Like Jake, Brandon wanted to gain functional mass to improve his lifting. Brandon’s intention was to use the strength gained from lifting to improve his CrossFit performance. Unlike Jake, Brandon hadn’t yet dedicated himself to a pure strength program and decided to use the Mass Gain program, especially the strength cycle, as his first exposure to committed lifting.

For the hypertrophy and strength cycles, they used the percentages prescribed on the Excel sheet on the Performance Menu forums to determine loads on the lifts. Both followed the 2% load increase as closely as possible, but due to limited equipment rounding became necessary (i.e. 112lbs front squats became 115lbs). Universally, they found that the loading for the weighted pull-ups on the Excel sheet was too heavy. Both had to drop the loading by half in order to complete the reps.

Jake chose the more traditional power lifter route to weight gain, though I’m not sure he even likes peanut butter sandwiches. He did emphasize protein and fats, but, unlike Brandon, he came up with a dedicated eating plan that he followed religiously during the training cycle. Eating became the toughest discipline and lifting became his relief. Everyday he would consume two cans of coconut milk mixed with whey protein and pineapple juice, a half-pound of peanuts, one pound of ground beef, and a dozen large eggs. In addition to this daily regimen he would also consume as much as he could from McDonalds, Chipotle, and those tasty little cakes and muffins you get from Starbucks. When did he train? When he wasn’t using the bathroom or lying in his bed from a stomach ache.

Jake did not care about gaining fat during this cycle. We highly doubted he would and he was only concerned with the numbers going up on the scale. He knew he could burn whatever metabolically inert tissue was necessary when he returned to regular CrossFitting. Jake plans on doing another mass gain cycle using the same methods of food consumption. He hopes that he can find something at the drug store that is the opposite of a laxative but taste better than Pepto Bismol. I don’t think they make those.

Nutritionally, Brandon took a more conservative approach. Emphasizing health and longevity, he ate mostly Paleo foods. He never calculated his macronutrient proportions, but he chose to consume a limited portion of carbohydrates, coming mainly from vegetables, and post-workout he ate only protein and fat. His protein and fat meals were invariably a monster mash of chicken breast and guacamole. At the end of three week I couldn’t even stand to look at it. I can’t imagine how he felt. Occasionally he would eat a calorie stacker like a large pizza, but this was rare.



Brandon chose this approach to minimize fat gain and hopefully maximize muscle gain and retention. He would, if he was to cycle through a mass gain again, still consume mainly Paleo foods, but at a greater frequency.

Their approach to recovery was also very different. Jake found most of the training, especially during hypertrophy, to be easy. He has just coming off of a high intensity/volume weightlifting program and the low number of initial training days provided more than enough recovery. He routinely slept 10 hours, supplemented intermittently with fish oil, and did not stretch or participate in active recovery. Mostly he ate, hated eating, complained about eating, and then ate again.

Brandon tried to follow the prescription in the PM article exactly. He filled his off days with sled dragging, the Burgener warm-up, slow long rows, and various gymnastic movements that he was interested in. Because he feared gaining “bad” weight, he pushed himself a little too much on these days. Brandon emphasizes that the Burgee warm-up was the best form of active recovery. Using a 35lb bar he would perform the movements two or three times. His form for the lifts during the strength cycle improved markedly from practicing the warm-up.



Daily he consumed about 9000mg of fish oil and cold rinsed after training. He slept 6.5-8.5 hours, but he found that his usual sleeping problems did not improve even after he stopped performing met-cons.

Both enjoyed the strength cycle the most. The low volume of lifts and training days during the hypertrophy bored Brandon. Brandon was coming off a pure CrossFit cycle and we had to convince him everyday during the first three weeks that yes, the three lifts were all he had to do. We didn’t care that he could still breathe or didn’t have tunnel vision. The day was over. Jake found the hypertrophy cycle to be a relief from the high intensity lifting he had just finished as well as the low volume giving him time to eat more than we all though humanly possible. The strength cycle exposed Brandon to a rigorous lifting schedule for the first time along with eliciting some serious gains. It was the first time both of them had performed assistance exercises or dealt in detail with the snatch. They enjoyed the opportunity to perform those movements in what we all felt was a smart and effective portion of the cycle.

To recap: Jake gained 5lbs in his Press, 25lbs in his Clean, 30lbs in his Snatch, and 20lbs in the weighted pull-up. On top of all this he also gained 9lbs in 5 weeks. Not bad. Brandon gained 6lbs of mass. He added 10lbs to his back squat and 5lbs to his Deadlift without training those movements. He added 10lbs to his Press, a huge 55lbs to his Clean, 20lbs to his Snatch, and 20lbs to his Weighted Pull-up. Most interesting to him is that he increased his Overhead Squat to 170lbs and his consecutive unweighted pull-ups went from 20 to 42. This was so impressive that some of us are now using both the rep scheme and load increasing from the strength cycle of the mass gain program to improve consecutive pull-ups.

If they could change anything about the program, Brandon would change the loading on the pull-ups, while Jake would work Deadlifts into the hypertrophy cycle in some manner.

Jake is taking some time off from gaining mass. He’s not eating seven ice cream sandwiches and he’s still maintaining weight. He does look much bigger. If he does this again, he’ll put all that hardgainer nonsense to rest. He’s pretty heavy soaking wet and he doesn’t even need the rocks in his pockets. Pretty soon we’ll have to start calling him Porky.

Jake

Start
Bodyweight: 172lbs
Back Squat: 305lbs
Deadlift: 400lbs
Press: 140lbs
Clean: 185lbs
C&J: untested
Snatch: 115lbs
Weighted Pull-up: 115lbs
Front Squat: untested

Finish
Bodyweight: 181 lbs
Back Squat: 305lbs
Deadlift: 405lbs
Press: 145lbs
Clean: 210lbs
C&J: 185lbs
Snatch: 145lbs
Weighted Pull-up: 135lbs
Front Squat: 255lbs

Brandon

Start
Bodyweight: 168lbs
Back Squat: 215lbs
Deadlift: 385lbs
Press: 130lbs
Clean: 140lbs
Jerk: 155lbs
Clean and Jerk: untested
Snatch: 105lbs
Weighted Pull-up: 100lbs
Front Squat: 200lbs

Finish
Bodyweight: 174 lbs
Back Squat: 225lbs
Deadlift: 390lbs
Press: 140lbs
Clean: 195lbs
C&J: 195lbs
Snatch: 135lbs
Weighted Pull-up: 120lbs
Front Squat: 230lbs