Or you could be genetically gifted, come in and "make fun" of people who actually train and you train just as hard or even less (or not at all) - and just because it works for you as a genetically gifted individual, you think (genetically gifted people don't usually think, but let's have a positive approach here) that everybody must mess around when you are "training so hard" since they don't make progress and you do.
Well no shit Sherlock, you just got lucky by having the genetics that respond to more stress and also allow you a faster recovery. In fact, for hardgainers, LESS training should be the norm since their (our) recovery sucks to begin with. Train more and you'll run yourself into the ground and complain about not making any progress. If training more was all that was needed, we could all just train 10 hours per day and be the best in the world.
So genetically gifted people should just shut up about not training "hard enough" - they haven't been in a hardgainer's body, not to mention all the other parameters at work. What should be analysed is if the guy is giving his best shot, with the body/genetics that he's been dealt with, and if not, trying to find ways to improve on that (sometimes these ways are to train LESS hard, by the way).
Wow, I could write a book on this post... I love it because I hate it! I think there are a few points here that are useful but the rest is basically the heart at what is holding back the progress of many members of the board (Raptor included but all of us to an extent).
First what I agree with. Nobody should make fun of anyone else. I'm no advocate of fat-shaming, slut-shaming, smoking-shaming, or any other type of behavior that's intent is to hurt someone else. It's mean and it's counterproductive to actually helping people. Doesn't mean we can't engage in good natured teasing; people are different and might be positively motivated by this - but if the intent is to make fun of someone at their expense and hurt them we shouldn't engage in it no matter what. It's just as bad as what your doing when you suggest genetically gifted people don't usually think - how does lobbing passive aggressive insults at one part of the population help?
Now what I don't agree with.
1) Who appointed you the arbitrator of who is a hardgainer and who isn't? And in your fantasy world are their only two types of people? The reviled genetically gifted and the poor hardgainers? Do you know what everyone on the board is? It sounds like you conveniently draw the line of genetically gifted vs hardgainer as anyone who outperforms you is genetically gifted and therefore didn't work as hard (or as you suggest - maybe didn't work at all!). You sound like one of my old coaches who used to jokingly say that the fastest humans can run without steroids is 19.89 over 200m (which just happened to be his PR). Only you are not joking. The question I have for you is how confident are you that you are really doing everything perfect? It's hard for me to be overly critical of people's training over the internet - like you said I don't know your injury history, how recovered you were, etc. However, some things (diet) are easy. So when Mutumbo gets dejected about not making gains but also mentions throwing down 10 beers on Friday it's pretty clear his only obstacle isn't being a hardgainer. When you try and lean out but insist on eating chocolates daily it's pretty clear that you are not taking our diet as seriously as you should be. Given that most of us don't diet perfectly, what's the chance your actually training perfectly? I actually agree with out that the variation of gaining muscle and gaining inches on our vert is pretty large - there may be people who can train as hard as they can and can't jump over 30 inches. But that same variation doesn't exist for body composition... So if you are trying to maximize your jump but getting lean (single digit BF) and just can't seem to do it... then seriously just stop whining about being a hardgainer. You have a clearly attainable goal that you can't accomplish because of a lack of discipline and effort. Focus on that rather than making excuses.
2) Where do you get this idea that hardgainers must train less? You realize that recovery is an adaptable trait as well right? There really isn't convincing evidence that hardgainers won't adapt to stress and thus need to provide less stress to make more gains. What this sounds like is really convenient broscience made up by the lazy. I imagine a conversation with a self diagnosed hardgainer going something like this:
Person: Hey, man haven't seen you for awhile you still working on bench?
Hardgainer: Yeah man you know it, I've raised my bench press from 135 to 155 in just a little less than two years!
Person: Oh yeah, that's cool I have raised mine from 185 to 315 in two years using this routine where I do a lot of volume mixed in with heavy triples... you should give it a shot!
Hardgainer: No, man I can't. See I am a hardgainer and a routine like that would actually cause my bench to go down. Instead I just bench every two weeks and only 8 reps at 60% of my max. For me less is more and this routine allowed me to make the massive gains i did.
Person: Oh yeah, that's cool. (In his head - seems like an excuse not to work very hard).
You know what else this sounds like? Every obese person that believes things like "not eating actually makes you fatter" or I actually eat less than all the skinny people who just have fast metabolisms... Then we get those people in a clinical setting on a calorie deficit and they lose weight... There is no clinical setting for hardgainers who don't train hard but we do have training camp for sports and if you saw the body-composition changes you see after just a 2-3 training camp for all the athletes involved (including "hardgainers") you would be shocked...
3) Seriously, this is the only point that matters. You are not a hardgainer. Seriously. Stop saying it and more important... stop thinking it. If you or Luke told me you were going to quit your day job and challenge Bolt next year in the Olympics I would advise you not to. But that's it. I'm not going to say your never gonna run under 12 seconds or 11 seconds or set any barriers to you. Humans are amazing and the brain is amazing. That you think your a hardgainer is probably the worst thing you can do. You have set up a dichotomy in your head where you are on the hardgainer side.... Now you can't even draw motivation from an amazing performance because when you see that you don't think "wow, that inspires me to do more" you think "stupid genetically gifted person, god genetics are soooooo UNFAIR". Stop now. There is data that shows that mice perform better on tests if researchers are simply told that some mice are smart and some are dumb - just the way they handle the mice influences performance! Seriously. Listen to this:
http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/378577902/how-to-become-batman The worst thing you can do for your progress is believe that you are somehow at a disadvantage. We can balance realism with hope, we don't have to be delusional. You probably won't ever be the worlds fastest man.... But I don't know that you can't be damn fast and I hope you start getting motivated so we can see just how fast you can be. This type of defeatist attitude would never get us to the moon and won't get you the results you want. It's going to be hard but you are going to have to start looking at what you are doing wrong, how you can do more, and how you can work harder and get more gains now...
I'll just close with a reminder how rare you are. If I recall you are about 6' and you can dunk a basketball and do so in games. I train a lot of athletes who dream of doing exactly what you are doing... Very few 6' guys actually throw down dunks in games. How would you like to know that all these people see you and think "lucky genetic freak" rather than attribute what you have done to hard work... You are already in the top couple percent just by dunking at your height. Appreciate it, reach for the stars and start getting more.
