Weight Gains

No I can't post your stats. They won't let things be done that way. To much like just hearsay.

 

I understand about not wanting to show off. I feel the same, more so because I'm not really that impressive anyway. I think though we sort of should, from an activism point of view, you know? Actually I need to pose and stuff like Robert does but I feel silly showing off. I guess I should take my own advice better.

 

It's cool and I understand your point. I seriously though, do not want to go there, and make my first post just on my stats. You can relay info on my lifts, and lead them here and perhaps get more ties between VF and the people on this board (as I have been seeing lately).

 

As for yours not being impressive, don't say that mate. Theres always going to be someone thats behind you in terms of lifts, be happy of what you do lift right now bro. It's a journey that we all are on, and going forward, we can only develop (at least I hope that for most people).

theres nothing wrong with going straight in with your stats. im pretty sure that that was amongst my first posts. in terms of getting to know people, its good to know what other peoples training priorities are, and if you lift for strength (which im sure you do with the bench) then knowing what you lift is important.

because of your bench press max, a number of people already know of you so it would be great if you could post in person.

i think i remember that you dont squat much or deadlift, but give it a try for a max on both and im sure that your total will be well over 1100lbs.

jonathan

No I can't post your stats. They won't let things be done that way. To much like just hearsay.

 

I understand about not wanting to show off. I feel the same, more so because I'm not really that impressive anyway. I think though we sort of should, from an activism point of view, you know? Actually I need to pose and stuff like Robert does but I feel silly showing off. I guess I should take my own advice better.

 

It's cool and I understand your point. I seriously though, do not want to go there, and make my first post just on my stats. You can relay info on my lifts, and lead them here and perhaps get more ties between VF and the people on this board (as I have been seeing lately).

 

As for yours not being impressive, don't say that mate. Theres always going to be someone thats behind you in terms of lifts, be happy of what you do lift right now bro. It's a journey that we all are on, and going forward, we can only develop (at least I hope that for most people).

 

theres nothing wrong with going straight in with your stats. im pretty sure that that was amongst my first posts. in terms of getting to know people, its good to know what other peoples training priorities are, and if you lift for strength (which im sure you do with the bench) then knowing what you lift is important.

because of your bench press max, a number of people already know of you so it would be great if you could post in person.

 

i think i remember that you dont squat much or deadlift, but give it a try for a max on both and im sure that your total will be well over 1100lbs.

 

jonathan

I don't squat because it makes a lot of cuts on my trapezius. As for deadlift, I just never done it (althought I know it's good for the glutes and all.

I personally do not care about others finding out my lifts, its more for myself really. I just post it here because its like another home and robs a cool guy as well as everyone else. I've been over to that site and it's like a whole new world, so Im sticking here hehe.

If people like my lifts, hey thats cool. But I really do not see anything that big over them, maybe it's just me.

But thanks.

God, my weight has been everywhere this past decade -

273 lbs. and horribly fat and lazy in 1995.

Got down to 230 during the summer of contant skateboarding in 1996 (out for about 4 hours every night after work)

Started lifting and dieting heavily in 1996, got down to 192, the lowest my weight has been since I was 13 years old.

Weight went up a bit and fluctuated between 200 and 220 for a while, settling down eventually in the low 200s for a few years. Stopped skating for the most part, kept lifting (albeit not very intelligently.)

Went vegan 5 years ago at 210 lbs. and started training with more knowledge a year or two afterward (courtesy of becoming an ISSA certified fitness trainer at the time). Weight climbed up since then to my current new max at 258 lbs. as of this time, probably will land at about 262-265 by year's end, aiming to reach about 270 in late 2006. Put on about 15 lbs. of fat over the years as well (who says vegans can't get chubby?) but packed on about 30 lbs. of muscle at the same time, making things stay fairly balanced. Got a bit of flab around the belly and love handles, but when you're training for strength, it's not a big worry!

To Kollision - did your back used to end up looking like this after squatting?

http://www.veganessentials.com/images/SquatBack.jpg

That's me back at the last days of 2004, just as soon as I started doing low bar squats. If you do them enough you'll get past it - don't give up on the world's greatest exercise just because of a little physical damage Once that skin toughens up, you won't get a mark on you after a while. I only wish I'd taken a pic of my forearms after the last strongman comp when I tore them up on the stones. Now I've gotta work to make them a little more durable for future work!

Ryan

i was on the beach last weekend (and judging by the surf, ill definately be back this weekend!) and i was trying to clean and press this really big log. i think that it weighed at least 70kg, though 75 would be more likely. i cleaned it a couple of times (with a tremendous struggle) but never managed to press it. just the cleans alone ripped up my shoulders and lower neck. its funny how it doesnt hurt, and you dont really notice it until you are done. infact, every time i lift stones or anything when im out, i always mangle myself! kolllision - i reckon you would pass the painful period of squatting after just a few weeks. it you started off light, and then moved up, you would see some great gains.

ryan, seeing as we are on the topic of weight gain, how have you managed to slap on so much mass? i am really struggling. i train the big three, as you know, but how much assistance would you recommend? at the moment my assistance is basically only shoulder presses (which i do a fair bit), static holds(and lots of other grip work) and occasionally calf raises. i did innitially gain well from that, and whilst my strength is still increasing, i havent gained any weight and kept it for about 4months. i am desperate to get to the 270's lbs, as at the moment i think that it is my skinnyness that is holding me back.

jonathan

Jonathan,

I've got it faily easily in that genetically, I'm not designed to be small. I have 4 siblings, 3 of which are all very large as well, and it runs in my structure. On top of that, I gain weight VERY easily at times (not always, but usually this is the case) and I can gain on as little as 3000 calories/day. For a person my size this is very rare, but my metabolism is naturally slow so just by eating normally without stuffing myself I can keep weight the same, and all I have to do is toss in an extra meal to make sure I have enough in me to put on weight. However, most of the best gains have been through continuing to just work on compount movements with lower to moderate reps (1-8 at most, usually 3-5 reps per set), even though this often goes against what most "science" has to say about the best way to gain. If I can give any advice for most people, it is just to always remember the following points -

1. Eat more than you think you need to (unless you've got a freakishly slow metabolism like me)

2. Always do compound exercises for your main focus, leave the isolation stuff alone unless you're planning on bodybuilding. Also, if you can do a lift standing up, do it that way! (this applies particularly to overhead pressing)

3. Squat, deadlift, squat, deadlift...repeat as necessary. Once I started doing those two things I broke past being stuck at 240 and added the remainder of the weight quickly.

4. Never forget to get enough rest, and do all you can to keep stress low. That's my biggest problem now - stress is terrible for me, and it takes all I've got to feel calm on most days. If I'd been stress-free this past 2 years I'd probably have another 10 lbs. of weight on me by now!

5. If whatever you're doing for lifting has slowed down or stopped making gains for you, quit doing it and move on! People get afraid to experiment, which is the worst thing. Yes, I get stares from people wondering why I'm squatting over 700 lbs. but only moving the bar for a 6" range of motion, but that's purely because they think that if you're not benching or curling that you're not doing things right. Play around with odd lifts, start lifting anything that's not nailed down when you're out and about, and again, don't be afraid to do stuff that looks weird to everyone else because sometimes it's the odd stuff that will put you to a new level.

I know that you've been doing a lot of deadlifting and overhead lifting, and keeping with those two things will definitley be what pushes you on upward in weight. I can't remember if you do a lot of squatting or not, but if you aren't definitely get on it! I swear, if someone wants to add 10 lbs. in a hurry, just chain them to the squat rack for a few weeks, feed them plenty of food and it'll all get done in a short time. Squat heavy for singles and doubles, squat moderate weight for sets of 10 or more, do squats starting from the bottom way below parallel, do 1/4 squats with 200 lbs. more than you can full squat....all these things will work to push your body into weight gain better than anything else I can think of. It isn't called the "king of all exercises" for nothing! If you squat and do different varieties and leave all you have at the rack and come away wiped out from giving it 100%, you won't regret it one bit.

If you can't already tell, I love squatting I used to hate it and keep doing leg presses, but once you're humbled by squats you never turn back. It doesn't mean much if you can leg press 1300 lbs. for reps (like I once did) if you can't squat 250 lbs. for a set of 5.

You've definitely made a ton of progress, Jonathan, and I think that if you keep on doing what you've been doing you're going to go a lot further. Just change things up periodically and it'll all come in time. And, with that frame of yours, I recommend getting into strongman at some point, too - height is a distinct advantage in many events, and with your size you might just find your calling!

Ryan

Quick update - 2 weeks ago I was weighing in at 258, tonight I hop on the scale and am coming in at 264! My weight hadn't budged in some time, so I assumed I was still the same but now I see that wasn't correct to assume. Not sure where this extra 6 lbs. came from since I hadn't just eaten beforehand and I'm not bloated, so I'll have to assume it came from the squats!

Ryan

My weight is swaying up and down.

I started at around 65kg / 143lbs at my height of 186cm / 6f 1 inch.

Before starting my diet i was around 86kg / 190lbs.

My highest weight ever was 89.5kg / 197lbs, but that was unvegan and not as defined. I plan to bulk over 200lbs after the shows.

thankyou for the lengthy reply ryan

its funny because i have always had a very fast metabolism. to give you an idea of what i looked like before i started lifting weights (and just before i went vegan) heres a picture of me on my 19th birthday:

http://www.veganfitness.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4640

and at this point i had added a fair bit of muscle from doing lots of taekwondo (pressups and the like).

this is me last week standing on a sea stack my friend and i had just climbed (notice the very swanky trainers (sneakers) im wearing ryan?):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/bob280784/standingonstack.jpg

i have been counting my calories recently and i average about 5000 a day but i have actually lost a couple of kg in the last month. this could be due to a more physically demanding job, but its still 5000cal!

at the moment i am doing shoulder presses seated but i shall change that. the problem with the squatting at the moment is that i cant go heavy as i have just ditched the belt and im concentrating on nailing the form. same for the deads actually. but im going to include more bent over rows, power cleans, thick bar curls and other such things. hopefully ill get the weight up to 240lb (109kg) by the end of the year.

nice work on the weight gain ryan - how tall are you by the way?

jonathan

Jonathan,

You've definitely made a lot of progress when comparing the 2 pictures (and I did notice the Montrails right away in the 2nd shot!). Congratulations on making the gains that you've managed!

Yes, if you can eat 5000 calories and lose weight, you're on the fast side of metabolism. I'm not sure how much fat and protein you're getting daily, but perhaps upping the quantities on both would not be a bad thing. Since fat will slow down digestion a bit, you may want to add in a bit more, perhaps with some flaxseed oil or something, taken a few times daily such as early day, mid day and at bedtime. That way you could get in another 400 or so calories and help keep your body from digesting quite as quickly at the same time (sometimes all it takes is a little trick like that to start making more progress)!

Right now I'm just a hair under 6 foot tall. I was originally expected to end up about 6 foot four, but I grew upward only until I was about 13 years old. Then I just grew outward instead!

For the lifts, if you can work to eventually power clean into your presses (at least for the first rep) it will be helpful, plus the standing press will hit your core more and do a bit extra for you. Also, don't be afraid to start incorporating push presses into your routine as well - once I started doing those, my strict press went up around 50 lbs. inside of a year's time just from being used to handling more weight overhead. It is good to hear that you do overhead pressing as most people neglect it, and therefore set themselves up for limitations for their size and strength.

For the squats, definitely keep form going first because you don't want to go the wrong way with them. If you're doing high-bar squats and finding it hard to keep form (getting pushed too far forward once you stary coming up) then you'll need to do more core work and learn to sit back more. If you're doing low bar squats (bar resting on the groove just below your upper traps) you'll find that you can more more weight and not get pushed forward as much. Experiment with bar positioning, foot width and such and eventually you'll find exactly what it is that works for you. I had been doing high bar squats and got stuck at 425 for some time - making a single at that weight was pure hell to manage. I'd been trying low bar squats but found them uncomfortable, but one day I just hit that groove and never looked back since.

You've got a lot of progress under your belt, and you're training the way that got me the most gains in the least time, so hopefully this will push you to new limits in 2006!

Ryan

Impressive before-and-after pics, Jonathan.

I'm up to 155 (70 kg) now, meaning I've gained 21 pounds (10 kg) since I set out to build some body mass at the beginning of the summer. Still growing!

About 13+ months ago I weighed in between 175 - 185 lb, last night I weighed in at 218 lb This was late in the evening though, so subtract a few pounds of food and water, more realistically I am around 215 now. I am 6' 6" though, so I am by no means big. I think I would be happy at 225 or so, I want to stay lean, I have interest in strength but not in getting 'huge'.

I had been stuck at 205 lb since January, until the last few weeks I started packing weight on fast. I injured my back a month ago, and so dropped my martial arts training to about half (way less cardio), and gym days from 3 workouts to 2 a week. I have been heavily focusing on overhead press & push presses, and aside from that have been doing some hack squats and arm & grip work. I have also increased my reps and lowered weight a bit on many exercises, as I have been lifting low reps & heavy for the whole year, and I felt I needed to give my body a break.

My eating has only increased, I have been eating ridiculous amounts, easily 4000+ calories. Much to my surprise I suddenly started gaining weight pretty fast, In the last week I have gone up about 5 lb. I have a bit of fat on me, but nothing I couldn't cut in a week or 10 days. My strength has gone up steadily as well, I have been getting rep or poundage PRs pretty much every workout.

Awesome work Tyler!

That is totally sweet progress. I'm looking to bulk up this winter as well. I was in the 190-200 range in 2003, then went back to work on a cruise ship in all of 2004. Spending a year at sea dropped me to 180 or lower. Then I cut down for some recent bodybuilding contests and got as low as 173 on contest day just last week. A few days after the contest I was up to around 183 but mostly liquid that day I weighed myself because today I'm 178.5 so light! I look forward to the 200-pound range again. It is fun being bigger and stronger, although shredded and ripped has it's advantages too.

Anyway, again, awesome work and keep us updated on how things progress for you.

-Robert