I was the prototypical hard gainer, ecto-morph. I one point I was getting up at midnite and having a PB sandwhich, if not a bedtime, and I'd be excited to see 1 pound per week. This was 19/20/21...hell most of my early adult life. I was eating 3 meals a day plus snacks, and NO cardio whatsoever. For most of my life you'd have little idea looking at me that I lifted weights. I said many a time I'm just not genetically "gifted" for it...not for size, not for definition, and not for heavy weights.
But this last year, roughly, I've taken off. Getting jacked up on a preworkout drink helps me, but everything about what I've been doing in the gym has changed.
I went through a lot the last year figuring things out, lots of reading, lots of studying, lots of self procured blood work, it finally just all came together. Am I flying high and tearing shit up? not quiet, but I'm nowhere near what I was...I get looked at in the gym, I get looked at differently, granted I don't do a high rate gym filled with hardcore lifters, but it's a dead serious gym nonetheless.