to be the best you have to do whatever it takes which means drugs. this is a natural board and a natural will never be the "best". you do have to find what works for you personally but let's take two examples.
-Trainee A needs 3000 calories to grow and trainee B needs 3600.
-Trainee A can train for long sessions without overtraining. Trainee B overtrains easily and needs to limit his physical activity outside the gym to make better gains.
-Trainee A has higher testosterone and slower metabolism. Trainee B has lower testosterone and a very fast metabolism.
Trainee B is a hardgainer. Hardgainer means that it's harder for you than it is for others.
If a Hardgainer and an easy gainer trained with extreme dedication, diet and supplementation the easygainer would win every time.
As I stated in my last post, you scenario merely shows that Trainee B CAN NOT do exactly what Trainee A does, if he wants to reach his goals.
Different does not automatically mean that A is more gifted than B (or vice versa). "A" can grow eating chicken breasts, egg whites, skim milk and tuna (packed in water). "B" probably can't grow as well eating like that; however, he CAN GROW as well (perhaps better) eating beef, whole eggs, whole milk, and tuna (packed in oil). How much more effort would "B" put into eating the foods he needs, as opposed to what "A" does? Virtually NONE!! A can of tuna in water is 250 calories; tuna in oil is about 400. Two cups of skim milk yields 160 calories and 16 grams of protein; the same amount of whole milk gives 300 calories and 16 grams of protein. "B" simply compensates for his faster metabolism by eating more calorie-dense food.
As for training, it doesn't matter how long/hard you train. If you don't recover, you don't grow, period. "B" could maximize his recovery ability by training no longer than an hour and not training to failure. If he recovers quickly from that style of training, he will grow.
It appears you equate "easygainer" primarily with someone who doesn't have to eat a lot and can train for long periods of time. But, if you look at a lot of bodybuilders who competed, that ain't always the case.
Would you consider former ASC Champion Mike Francois a "hardgainer"? Well, he once did. Francois was once a 185-lb lightheavyweight competitor, struggling to grow. He later hooked up with trainer Greg Greenzalis, a student of John Parillo. Greenzalis put Francois on a diet, bumping his caloric intake as high as 10,000 calories per day. In about two years, Francois became a 230-lb (competitive bodyweight) superheavyweight. He would later go one to win the NPC Nationals and four pro IFBB shows, including Night of Champions and, of course, the ASC title.
Francois has repeatedly stated that had he not increased his calories, he would not have achieved his physique goals.
As for your "easygainer" winning every time take, that really ain't the case. Frank Zane won the Mr. Olympia three-time, beating more "gifted" guys like Mike Mentzer and Robby Robinson and Tom Platz, in the process.
Furthermore, genetic potential isn't always on the surface. Case #1: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many think he was genetically gifted. But, the Oak states clearly that when he started training, he weighed 150 lbs, at 6'1". That don't exactly sound like a freak in the making to me.
Case #2: Lou Ferrigno. Did you see the pics of him as a teen, with his father in
Pumping Iron? He looked like a twig. Matty Ferrigno stated that his son was so small, he couldn't even make the football team. Who'd ever predicted that Lou would become a 6'5", 275-lb monster in the 70s......or go on to become an even BIGGER 315-lb. behemoth in the 90s?
Throw in the aforementioned Mike Francois and my point is clear. And as Greg Zulak states in many of his articles (including those interviewing Francois), once bodybuilders achieve a certain amount of size, they can maintain it (and, in many cases, build more size) with fewer calories. Francois, after turning pro, dropped his calories to 5000 per day. Yet, he still made progress. He stated that he didn't need as much food to grow as he once did, as his metabolism had become more efficient.
I've experienced that firsthand. I don't need to eat 6500 calories per day anymore to keep my bodyweight around 230 lbs (or to get it bigger). Ten years ago, that wasn't the case. Had I not jacked up the food intake to that level, it would have taken me FAR LONGER to reach my goal, if I reached it at all. It may have taken a year (or longer) to put on those 21 lbs. Instead, it took three months (without anabolics, I might add).
It is indeed "hard" to make gains, if you continue doing something that doesn't work for you, simply because you've seen it work for someone else. As Zulak also stated in one of his articles on Mike Francois, "
One type of training and one type of diet CANNOT and WILL NOT produce a championship body.