Your body’s anabolic hormones are constantly shifting throughout the day, rising and falling.

At night, your testosterone levels soar and this is your body’s prime time to build muscle.

But when you wake up, testosterone levels take a sharp nosedive and the leftover “free testosterone” (the most usable form) goes unused by your muscles and your body’s catabolic (muscle-wasting) hormones take over.

But here’s how to overcome this challenge and shotgun more free testosterone to your muscles before it waves goodbye…

First thing in the morning…like as soon as your feet hit the floor…consume a “high glycemic” meal with more “sugary” carbs, high quality protein, and no fat! (A good example would be a banana, bowl of breakfast cereal, and whey protein isolate mixed with non-fat milk.)

This specific combination of nutrients will create a short-term spike of insulin that will act as a fast transport for your remaining “free testosterone” and shoot it directly into your muscle cells to stop catabolic muscle loss and trigger insane new growth!

One of my favorite “muscle gurus,” Jeff Anderson, just released his latest project called Hardgainer Project X. This program was designed from the ground up as a comprehensive training and nutrition course especially for the hardgainer. This is NOT a re-hashed “old school” system that was changed a bit just to make it new.

No. HPX is far superior to anything on the market in terms of effectively training and teaching the hardgainer about how to break through zero gains and into rocking, rippling, and ripped muscle.

I wrote a review over at Muscle-Build all about it.

Made for skinny guys. And girls.

Welcome to the May 6, 2009 edition of hardgainer blog carnival.

Steve Faber presents Belly Fat Loser » Free Workout Plans – Number 1 – The 20 Minute Fat Loss Muscle Workout posted at Belly Fat Loser.

FitBuff presents First week of Raw Veggie’s – Workout Recap (April 12-19, 2009) posted at FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog, saying, “Experimenting with a raw vegetarian diet as a hardgainer, crazy right? Hopefully, I won’t completely melt away over the next few weeks!”

Colin Timberlake presents My First Marathon: Remixes, iPods and Rookie Mistakes posted at colintimberlake.com, saying, “A hard gainer runs an impromptu marathon. Probably not the way you want to go about it…but it’s an experience!”

Dole Tanner presents Gynecomastia and Bodybuilders posted at GYNECOMASTIA-GYNO.COM, saying, “Some tips and information for male amateur and competitive bodybuilders (and all athletes even remotely considering performance enhancement) and some of the dangers that could be involved…including female breasts.”

Bret presents Gynecomastia: Are You Wearing Two Undershirts? posted at Modern Men’s Health, saying, “The growth of unwanted female breast tissue affects more men than you think. The culprit is often steroids… Think twice before you take shortcuts in the gym.”

Exercise

Colin Timberlake presents Improvising for Workouts:Bicep Exercises with Injured or Immobilized Legs posted at colintimberlake.com.

FitJerk presents Grunt You Wimp! – Increase Power In Your Workouts posted at FlawlessFitness, saying, “Today we are going to cover a controversial topic that can actually increase your power output by 20% when you understand how to use it!”

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

Next host: Muscle-Build.com

Technorati tags: hardgainer blog carnival, blog carnival.

Bodybuilding FAQ – Is It Best To Stay Lean Year Round or to Gain Weight Indiscriminately in Order to Make The Best Bodybuilding Progress?

As far as whether it is best to stay lean or to bulk up dramatically in order to make the best bodybuilding gains in terms of size, staying lean is the way to go.

This is the way Franco Columbu used to train, never gaining much weight between competitions. It makes the dieting cycle much less onerous.

But for us “hardgainers” it really doesn’t matter!

I know what it feels like to train, eat, and sleep with zero progress. You try everything, yet nothing works. But you know what?

It all boils down to something. Odds are, you are not immune from the laws of the universe, one of which is the following:

If you eat more calories than you burn, you MUST gain weight.

It’s just that simple. Now, I’m not saying whether the weight you gain will be fat or muscle, just that if you aren’t gaining weight, you aren’t eating enough. Period.

Or, alternatively, you’re doing too much exercise (you’re burning too many calories). One of the things hardgainers have – that they don’t want – is a fast metabolism. So, one thing you’ll want to explore is slowing down your metabolism. This is easier said than done.

It’s mostly mental, however. Just relax. Calm down. Don’t worry. Life is good. Meditate. If you find yourself tapping your toes, stop. If you find your leg twitching while watching the tube, STOP (I hate that)!

But the bottom line really is to eat more. Eat stuff that makes you hungry an hour later, like white rice (essentially, high glycemic foods, food that causes a rapid rise in blood sugar and an outpouring of insulin). Of course, don’t consume “empty calories” like soda and flavored water. Rather, stick with white rice, fruit juice, pastas, and bread.

Eat something like that with every meal. And make sure you’re taking in enough protein. What is enough? At least one and one-half grams per pound of bodyweight (remember to adjust your intake as your weight increases).

Don’t just eat 3 meals, either. You want your blood flush with the building blocks of protein, amino acids. Constantly keep your belly full by eating every 2-3 hours, all day long. You can facilitate all this food intake by mixing up a weight gain shake in the morning and carrying it around with you all day, taking sips every 15-20 minutes.

Rest assured, eating this much and this often is difficult. But it’s necessary.

And know that I share your pain. Overweight folks think it’s hard to cut calories. I think it’s even harder to eat when you’re not hungry! It’s really not natural.

Eat more. Train less. Relax.

In short, become a bear.

If you want to learn more about how to bulk up, gain weight, and get the best and biggest body of your life, check out Hardgainer’s Manifesto.