The when did you start and how much have you gained thread!

alexakasloth · 21 Jan 2007 at 16:58

After reading many comments about how long it takes to gain several inches of muscle, and hearing some uneducated opinions of plebs saying 'I want to get big like arnie, I only want to tone up'. I thought I would start this thread to see how long it has taken people to get where they are, and with what sort of diet/ regime etc.

I've only been at it properly for around 4 months now and i've gained near a stone in weight (albiet, i've put on a few points of fat). My diet only seems to get better, and as time goes on, easier.

What about you?

Pigeon_Killer · 21 Jan 2007 at 17:14

Don't know how many inches of muscle I've added but I weighed just over 13 stone when I started lifting nearly two years ago and I now weigh just under 16 1/2 stone. About 1/2 a stone of that weight was gained over Christmas and is all fat

When I started I didn't follow a set diet or routine and most of my gains were beginner gains. In the last year or so I've dramatically improved my diet and now keep an eye on the amount of food I eat as well as it's quality.

The only routine I've followed is Bill Starrs 5x5 and I'm very happy with the gains I've made. I started it last summer and I've done it twice and plan to start it again in three/four weeks. The first few weeks are easy but weeks three and four are killers as is week five if you're stupid enough to put your body through another week of loading. I'll probably continue with this routine until I stop making any progress.

Since I started lifting I've made the following gains to the big three:

Bench 1rm: 55K - 130K
Squat 1rm: 90K - 170K
Deadlift 1rm: 105K - 200K

Chong Warrior · 21 Jan 2007 at 20:18

Well I've been lifting since I was 14 and I'm 32. I did have a big lay-off though for a good few years due to injury. Being on a low-fat diet for many years finally caught up with me, people who advocate low-fat diets as healthy should be shot.... idiots :mad:

Now I know better and instead control my calories through manipulating my carb intake and all is so much better

I got back into training about June 2005 I think and I was 13st 6lbs @ 6' 0" tall, So I'd say this is probably my natural weight. By May 2006 I was 15st 11lbs so gained almost 30lbs in under 12 months! Some of that was obviously bodyfat and water from the Creatine mono, so changed to CEE went on a cut and shed 10lbs to get down to 15st by July.

At the end of my first 12 months I'd gained over 20lbs of lean muscle mass and lowered bf to about 14%-13%, so well chuffed

Right now I'm hovering around 16st so a little heavier than last year, Aiming to get down to 15st again in summer and be fairly ripped with under 12%bf. If I manage to stay injury free and hit this goal I'm thinking of competing in some form of amatuer natural bodybuilding comp next year

alexakasloth · 21 Jan 2007 at 20:35

Chong Warrior said:
Well I've been lifting since I was 14 and I'm 32. I did have a big lay-off though for a good few years due to injury. Being on a low-fat diet for many years finally caught up with me, people who advocate low-fat diets as healthy should be shot.... idiots Now I know better and instead control my calories through manipulating my carb intake and all is so much better

I got back into training about June 2005 I think and I was 13st 6lbs @ 6' 0" tall, So I'd say this is probably my natural weight. By May 2006 I was 15st 11lbs so gained almost 30lbs in under 12 months! Some of that was obviously bodyfat and water from the Creatine mono, so changed to CEE went on a cut and shed 10lbs to get down to 15st by July.

At the end of my first 12 months I'd gained over 20lbs of lean muscle mass and lowered bf to about 14%-13%, so well chuffed

Right now I'm hovering around 16st so a little heavier than last year, Aiming to get down to 15st again in summer and be fairly ripped with under 12%bf. If I manage to stay injury free and hit this goal I'm thinking of competing in some form of amatuer natural bodybuilding comp next year

What's the matter with low fat diets?

Why did you change to CEE (Creatine Ethyl Ester?) from monohydrate?

All the luck with the competition!

Chong Warrior · 21 Jan 2007 at 20:51

Low fat diets are unhealthy, by low-fat I mean low. I more or less cut out saturated fat from my diet for years

add that to a serious lack of Omega 3's and we're talking a strict, self inflicted bad diet! :rolleyes:

I remember always feeling tired and drained. That was thanks to the constant rollercoaster ride that is the high-carb, low-fat diet.

Creatine Monohydrate allows me to really pile on the weight and my strength goes up quite a bit too. I really do respond well to it. So when I want to lose weight I just come off it and CEE allows me to keep most of the strength gains

Cheers, though competing is just a pipe dream atm.

MTA99 · 22 Jan 2007 at 11:32

Towards the end of 2002 I started in the gym without a clue what i was doing and with no idea about diet. At 6'0" and 67kgs I was skinny and a classic "hard-gainer".

Trained with a mate for about 18months and put on about 13-15kgs.

Then moved to London, maintained my weight at around 80kgs for a few months before going on the worst cut ever and losing a stone of muscle for not much fat loss

After that went mental on the carbs and ballooned to ~90kgs in about 8months. Felt strong but had no definition so started a longer slower carb reduction to lose the fat. Just before xmas I was 82kgs, under 10% BF and stronger than when i was a fatty!!

So 67kgs->84kgs in 4 years (with a peak of 90-91kgs)

Hoping to add another 5kgs of lean muscle this year

alexakasloth · 22 Jan 2007 at 11:47

MTA99 said:
Towards the end of 2002 I started in the gym without a clue what i was doing and with no idea about diet. At 6'0" and 67kgs I was skinny and a classic "hard-gainer".

Trained with a mate for about 18months and put on about 13-15kgs.

Then moved to London, maintained my weight at around 80kgs for a few months before going on the worst cut ever and losing a stone of muscle for not much fat loss After that went mental on the carbs and ballooned to ~90kgs in about 8months. Felt strong but had no definition so started a longer slower carb reduction to lose the fat. Just before xmas I was 82kgs, under 10% BF and stronger than when i was a fatty!!

So 67kgs->84kgs in 4 years (with a peak of 90-91kgs)

Hoping to add another 5kgs of lean muscle this year

I know how you feel about the skinny and hard gainer part, back in high school I was probably the skinniest out of all my friends (56kg).

38lb's of muscle gain though is excellent! I hope that I can get anywhere near that in the next few years.

Chong Warrior · 22 Jan 2007 at 21:50

MTA99 said:
So 67kgs->84kgs in 4 years (with a peak of 90-91kgs)

Impressive!! :cool:

Morba · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:01

Ive not measured myself in terms of body fat in near on 6 months now, would like to think that im down to 17/18% ish.

im moving up the weights, even tho i keep having to take a break due to crap illness or just the sheer amount of hours im putting in at work and not wanting to lose time with my boy when i do get home (when hes awake).

definitely gaining mass, how much is hard to tell until i get a decent bf% check done.

this time last year i was somewhere around 22 stone and 27%bf, now im 18.5stone (ish) and somewhere around 18%bf i think.

Chong Warrior · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:13

Morba said:
this time last year i was somewhere around 22 stone and 27%bf, now im 18.5stone (ish) and somewhere around 18%bf i think.

That's some serious progress there mate.... how good does it feel to be able to write your progress down when you've done well? Makes it all worth it

MTA99 · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:26

Chong Warrior said:
Impressive!!

Thanks big man!!

Squatted 180kgs for 2x6 tonight - a new personal best!

Unfortunately it was on the smith machine as there's no rack in my rubbish gym :rolleyes:

Morba · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:34

Chong Warrior said:
That's some serious progress there mate.... how good does it feel to be able to write your progress down when you've done well? Makes it all worth it

thanks

feels bloody great, still plenty of progress to be made and will be made

MTA99 · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:36

Morba said:
this time last year i was somewhere around 22 stone and 27%bf, now im 18.5stone (ish) and somewhere around 18%bf i think.

How tall are you?

Morba · 22 Jan 2007 at 22:38

MTA99 said:
How tall are you?

5'9 ish

almost as wide as i am tall lol.

i was put on this earth to get big, i cannot think of any other reason for having size 12 wide (sometimes 13) feet at my height, it can only be to stabilise a lot of weight!

NitrogenY3K · 23 Jan 2007 at 14:57

Not really sure on actualy measurments, i started getting into trainng more when i was 17.5-18, when i was nearly 18st of fat, probably around 25%BF weights were something like

Bench - 40k
Deadlifts - 60-70maybe
Squat - 20k (because i couldnt get the hanf of doing them lol)

Now (20 years old)

Bench - 150k
Deadlifts - 230k
Squat - 190k

When i started at nearly 18st i had a 45" waist, I have been back up to 17st 7lbs and my waist was 7" smaller, so have mad decent progress. Im still small and crap though at the moment, curntly weighing in at 15st 10 with waist sitting at roughly 35.5".

MTA99 · 23 Jan 2007 at 15:04

Morba said:
5'9 ish

almost as wide as i am tall lol.

i was put on this earth to get big, i cannot think of any other reason for having size 12 wide (sometimes 13) feet at my height, it can only be to stabilise a lot of weight!

You should have JCB tatoo'd on your back :eek:

Morba · 23 Jan 2007 at 23:40

MTA99 said:
You should have JCB tatoo'd on your back

rofl, i used to be tagged with 'dumptruck' when i played rugby (played most years to 18s)

im still too fat tho, want to do a 4 month big bulk, but dont really want to go and buy bigger trousers, its bad enough finding ones off the shelf that fit my arse and thighs :/

asim · 24 Jan 2007 at 00:05

I started at 17st 2lbs at a height of 5'8. All fat. Had never lifted weights. I dropped to 10st 5lbs in a very short space of time 2-3 months. That was almost 6 years ago. At that point when I entered the gym the only thing I can remember is being able to squat 85kg for 5-6 reps. My bodyfat percentage was still relatively high at that weight due to my lack of muscle. I was chubby, it was weird. Probably 15% bodyfat or a bit more.

6 years on. This morning I was 11st 3lbs. I've fluctuated between 11st and 13st for the past few years. Before christmas I was 11st 10lbs. Its a lot to do with how I feel when I look in the mirror, look skin and stretchmarks dont look good with bodyfat so I go up and down monthly. So at 11st 3lbs I'm holding 7-8% bodyfat. Seperation in the hamstrings, striations in the quads and appearing in the calves. I do want to be heavier but not at the moment. Deadlifting 160-170kg on a good day and 130-140kg in the squat. Very skinny wrists at 6 inches, waist is like 30" I guess but I hate my skin so I wear a comfy 34" pair of jeans, plus my ass is big lol.

Deadly Ferret · 24 Jan 2007 at 21:27

asim said:
Very skinny wrists at 6 inches

Small wrists are something that have bothered me for some time. I'm 5'11", and mine are about seven inches. I'm not a weightlifter though, so I suppose it's more of an immediate problem for you than me.

Do you ever get the worrying feeling that they'll snap when you lift big weights?

Heaven Can Wait · 24 Jan 2007 at 21:40

6 ft and 3/4 :rolleyes:

Deadlift 265 (no suit)
Bench 185 (wrist wraps)
Squat around 250ish

around 16 stone right now, goal is to cut for summer and keep up my JJ

Edited into kg's