Fellow hardgainers, you and I both know that you’ve tried every food supplement, powder, pill, capsule, and liquid on the planet that claims to build muscle and pack on the pounds.

I know I have. You know what? Most of them don’t work. I mean, they work on mesomorphs, guys who can put on a pound of solid muscle just by doing a set of chins and eating a steak.

But for us, it’s different. We have very fast metabolisms, and in many cases, we’re built like marathon runners rather than Mixed Martial Artists.

We choke down hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars’s worth of weight-gain powders every year. Mostly to no avail.

I just got a hold of a book called Homemade Supplement Secrets. It shows you the supplements that work and that don’t work for putting muscle on hardgainers. Plus, it shows you how to make the supplements that DO work, right in your own home using readily-available ingredients!

All at a fraction of the store-bought price. How sweet is that?

Read my full review of Homemade Supplement Secrets here.

Welcome to the June 15, 2009 edition of the Hardgainer’s Blog Carnival.

Steve Faber presents Belly Fat Loser » Creatine Side Effects – Is Creatine Safe and Effective? posted at Belly Fat Loser.

Patricia Turner presents Sweet News for the Sweet Tooth – Chocolate is Good for Teeth posted at Medical Lab Technician Schools.

Jeff Rose presents Introducing My Delicious and Nutritious Health Shake posted at Jeff Rose.

Josh Hanagarne presents 10 Essential Strength Books: Part 1…Beyond Brawn posted at World’s Strongest Librarian, saying, “I am 6’8″ and weight 240, thanks to Stuart McRoberts. When I got my first driver’s license long ago, I was 6’7″ and weighed 150! Good times. Beyond Brawn is all you need if you’re willing to do the work and be smart.”

Adrian presents How to successfully start gaining muscle! | 36 Pounds.com posted at 36 Pounds.com, saying, “If you are a skinny guy and want to gain muscle, this article is the best for you, I wrote it from my own experience (I’ve gained 20lbs of muscle already) and it will definitely help you ;)”

J.D. Bell presents Build Muscle. How? posted at The RTP Transformation.

J.D. Bell presents The Best Workout Lifting Weights posted at The RTP Transformation.

wan presents what-is-atkins-diet posted at green weight loss.

Patricia Turner presents Top 50 Incredibly Inspiring Weight Loss Blogs posted at Pharmacy Technician Certification.

J.D. Bell presents Eight Steps To An Effective Build Muscle Diet posted at The RTP Transformation.

FitJerk presents Supplement Review: Musclespeed From Accelerative Nutraceuticals posted at FlawlessFitness, saying, “There is always a lot of hype surrounding Pre-Workout Supplements, but most of the time they are a complete waste of cash. But I have hope; enter Musclespeed from Accelerative Nutraceuticals…”

J.D. Bell presents Before You Pop That Vitamin In Your Mouth… posted at It Takes Work.

Nancy Miller presents 25 Amazing Health Discoveries from the Blue Zones posted at Comments on: Top 100 Diet and Fitness Blogs.

Margaret Garcia presents Stress and Illness – The Fatal Connection posted at Veterinary Technician Schools Online.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Hardgainer’s Blog Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: hardgainer blog carnival, blog carnival.

Next host of the Hardgainer’s Blog Carnival – HardgainerTips.com

It’s a fact…skinny ectomorphs have an overabundance of the “stress hormone”, cortisol.

Cortisol actually plays a useful role in our bodies but for hardgainers, its catabolic effects are a real hassle as it inhibits important protein synthesis.

That means less protein available for repair of muscle tissue…less size…and MORE frustration!

Add to this that the digestion of proteins actually burns more calories than any other nutrient and you can see why you CAN’T follow the same “protein plan” as others who can gain muscle more easily.

What’s the solution?

Try adding DIGESTIVE ENZYMES to your meals!

Now you may think that digestive enzymes (that include either pepsin, papain, or papaya) are just for little old ladies with “tummy problems”…but you’d be mistaken!

In fact, digestive enzymes help to break down nutrients from the food you eat into usable energy.

But another finding dug deeper and found that enzymes improved the absorption of amino acids and increased nitrogen retention.

In a recent clinical study, respondents who consumed digestive enzymes with their meals showed an increase in protein synthesis with free amino acid levels up by 100%…branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) by 250%…and nitrogen retention by 32%!

In short…MUCH better support for muscle repair and growth.

And enzymes can be especially useful for hardgainers in yet one more way…

Since protein uses up more calories in digestion, enzymes can speed up the process, reducing the “thermic effect” of ingested proteins and help you better maintain a caloric surplus for weight gain!

The latest edition of the Hardgainer’s Blog Carnival has been posted over at Muscle-Build.com. Check it out.

Also, if you purchase Hardgainer Project X from my affiliate link, I’ll give you a FREE copy of Hardgainer Manifesto (a $20 value). Just email me with your ClickBank receipt, and I’ll send it off to you within 24 hours. (Sorry, I’m actually not at a computer with access to email right now, else I’d send it right away.)

One way to overcome the hardgainer’s training challenge with targeting Type II muscle fibers is to gradually increase your body’s neuro-muscular communication throughout your workouts by using a “Rest Pause” format:

• Pick up at weight that is about 50% of your one-rep max
• Perform 5 repetitions and then rack the weight
• Wait 10 seconds
• Perform another 5 repetitions and rack the weight again
• Wait 10 seconds
• Perform another 5 reps
• And so on…

By gradually increasing overall workload in your sets with a “Rest-Pause” format, you slowly activate your Type II muscle fibers while regenerating available energy with short 10 second rest periods.

I go into in-depth detail about the value of this technique in the Hardgainer Project X program and actually show you how to GREATLY magnify its effects by incorporating a unique 3-Step Training Formula that blasts your Type II muscle fibers to maximum recruitment…increasing overall stimulation by up to 80-90%!

That’s about a 373% increase in recruitment and activation of reserve satellite muscle cells!