— ...claimed to be inches, the successful hard gainer could despair. But if the
hard gainer is aware that the claimed -inch arms are “only” inches, then
the difference between one and the other, while still big, is not despairingly
vast. Take most claims for huge girths with a pinch of salt unless they are
verified as truthful.. Keep in mind the correlation between bodyweight and muscular girths. If
someone is only pounds, he is going to have a lot more trouble having a
genuine -inch arm than if he weighs a solid pounds.. e appearance differences between the physiques of the successful hard
gainer and the competitive easy gainer come about only partly as a product
of pure size. Hardness, definition and vascularity, together with skin color
and photographic and lighting assistance, are major contributing factors.
Being hard, tanned and ripped gives the appearance of bigger girths, but if
you were to tape girths on such a physique you might be surprised at how
relatively modest they measure.. Rather than stack yourself up against even accurate but still incredible mea-
surements of the elite, measure yourself against very challenging but believ-
able measurements. Over the decades, several formulae for assessing target
girths of male bodybuilders have been developed.. While it is impossible to get an accurate girth assessment for everyone, a
helpful guide is possible. People vary so much in genetically determined fac-
tors including height, limb lengths, body structure, muscle insertion points,
and relative lengths of tendons and muscle bellies. And even easy gainers
sometimes have a particular muscle group that does not respond as well as
do the others. (See Chapter of for a detailed look at genetic varia-
tion and how the genetic marvels are assembled.). e measurement targets that follow are not for a “ripped” body, but for one
that is lean enough for lines to be seen on the abdominals from a distance,
i.e., about bodyfat for a man. Do not try to get very defined (under
about bodyfat) while you build yourself up. But at the same time do not
get fat.. e point of this exercise is to show you the sort of measurements that are
within the grasp of typical drug-free people. Any formula calculated today
from a random sample of well-developed bodybuilders would be heavily