This article appeared in the February 1995 issue of Ironman magazine. It is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to Stuart McRobert and was printed in the Forum section of Hardgainer Magazine.

A Success Story

A success story doesn't have to be one of huge lifts, huge measurements or exceptional competitive success. Many of you have paid your dues with a lot stacked against you, but you finally came out on top and realized an achievement worthy of great respect, one that's far superior to what the elite, who find gains miles easier to come by, achieve. Here's such a success story from Ben Clodfelter.

I have been a subscriber [to Hardgainer] for about three years and during that time I have become hooked on HG philosophies. My motivation for writing is to inspire others like myself, individuals who may be at a point in their training where they are questioning their efforts in the gym. Possibly this will enlighten a first time reader who can relate to the insights of a true Hardgainer. I have nothing but respect for the contributors to Hardgainer, but I feel that many are not true hardgainers and can not truly understand the passion for and dedication to training to add just 10 or 20 pounds to a lift in a years time. I know how real hardgainers feel, being one myself.

All my life I've been thin with long arms and legs, a short torso and broad shoulders. My lightest adult weight was 145 pounds at a height of 5' 11'', when I was in my mid twenties. I contribute this to poor nutrition and working 12+ hours a day. I was not physically active outside of my job as a network affiliate cameraman/editor/field producer except when I could get down to the beach for a little surfing and frisbee. The activities of my daily job were physically exhausting and stressful. We started early in the morning with no breakfast and drove from location to location hauling around our video equipment. I lost about 10 pounds in that job. My boss even nicknamed me Ben Bones.

It was not until I viewed vacation pictures from a Caribbean vacation in 1988 that I decided to pursue weight training. I was 152 pounds and very average looking in my bathing suit but very slim and soft. I joined a small gym that catered mostly to physical therapy patients, got some good advice that I ignored and trained almost every day.

There were enough results that I was hooked. I felt that I had outgrown that facility and needed something bigger. I needed more of a challenge, someplace that had enough equipment to make me look like Arnold in a couple of years - not that I was ever going to compete. I just wanted to look like that. Other people had done it. They were breaking into the bodybuilding scene everyday and without drugs, right?.

I joined a popular commercial gym and trained there for about 2 years. My muscularity and weight increased steadily, but soon couldn't get above 162 pounds no matter how hard I tried. Believe me I tried. I have to be the most dedicated, if not obsessed, lifter ever born.

Even with no gains coming I plodded along. Then you started writing your Hardgainer column in Ironman. It was your twice a week full body routine in the February 1990 Ironman that broke me out of my rut and changed my training forever. It called for squats, deadlifts, barbell presses, curls - basic stuff. There were no triceps cable pulldowns, no hack squats or lunges, no concentration curls, no lateral raises. I pondered that routine for some time before I actually decided to cut back and give it a try. I stopped performing all of the little exercises.

I had never done squats, deadlifts or barbell bench presses before, they were a little bit intimidating. I'd always used leg presses instead of squats and dumbbell bench presses instead of barbell bench presses. I wasn't even sure how to do a deadlift.

I was determined to give this routine a try though. Nothing else was working and there was no way I could spend any additional time in the gym. The break would be good and if it didn't work then I would try something else.

My records are sketchy for that initial time. The earliest cycle I have recorded showed my lifts in the big three were 185x15 in the squat, 140x5 in the bench press and 185x15 reps in the deadlift. Three years after starting sensible training, my P.R.s are 379x3 in the squat, 412x1 in the deadlift and 211x1 in the bench press. These lifts are not the 300, 400, 500 that may or may not be attainable for a typical Hardgainer, but I didn't start lifting until I was 30 years old.

I am very proud of these lifts and I'm working very hard to increase them. At this point the gains are slow, but I'm determined to make them keep coming. Consequently I weighed myself the other day, and the scale tipped at 185 pounds. It's still hard work keeping this weight constant or increasing If I don't eat enough, I lose weight in the form of muscle; but if I eat too much, more goes to fat than I want.

The point I'm trying to make is that your hardgainer routines work.

Note: Stuart McRobert is the author of Brawn, a bodybuilding book dedicated to the hardgainer. It's available through Amazon.com . McRobert also edits and publishes Hardgainer, a bimonthly bodybuilding magazine. For a free sample issue please write, airmail, to Hardgainer, Dept 6, P.O. Box 8186, Nicosia, Cyprus.