I was having a discussion with my folks and this was brought up because we were talking about steroids in Basketball and we were arguing if it were possible for any athlete to gain this much muscle in such a short period of time. I said no because for the two years I’ve been lifting and reading articles about Steroids and Baseball, I’ve heard people saying that it was highly unlikely putting on such gains in that short a period of time without some kind of help.
My family argued that if the player is still in his early twenties then it would be highly possible for them to make such gains because their bodies are still growing and all they have to do is lift and eat properly non-stop. What are your responses?
as much as people like to think that everyone starts out the same and some people just try harder than others…some people are just able to do amazing things
my friend (girl) started at about 100 lbs, and within 6-8 months was up to an equally lean 135 or so (abs and everything on a girl), without even eating much because she was short on money -and shes done well over a 2Xbw deadlift within the same time frame, and all her other lifts are in the same sort of scary range…shes put on a rediculous amount of muscle on all things considered, but even more than that is how strong she is for her size
If you’re new to training? Then yes, it’s such a new stimuli, that you’ll never be able to make gains as easily as you can when you first start out.
If you’ve been a professional athlete for years, and are pretty much out of your ‘formative’ years? Hell no. It becomes more and more difficult the longer you stay at it.
When you’re younger, your natural hormone levels are pretty high, and things will just work better (muscle gains, fat loss etc), that’s the whole point behind artificially playing with your body’s levels.
[quote]brian.m wrote:
as much as people like to think that everyone starts out the same and some people just try harder than others…some people are just able to do amazing things
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Oh you must be talking about that G word that when it’s uttered people get real pissed, tread lightly here haha.
Possible, you better believe it. Likely, hell no. It takes a special person getting the right kind of stimulus to achieve that sort of advanced gains.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
If you’re new to training? Then yes, it’s such a new stimuli, that you’ll never be able to make gains as easily as you can when you first start out.
If you’ve been a professional athlete for years, and are pretty much out of your ‘formative’ years? Hell no. It becomes more and more difficult the longer you stay at it.
When you’re younger, your natural hormone levels are pretty high, and things will just work better (muscle gains, fat loss etc), that’s the whole point behind artificially playing with your body’s levels.
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Isn’t the reason for beginner gains mostly due to CNS adaptation, increased capillaries, increased glygocen capacity… basically everything you can do to get stronger without actually having to build any new muscle? With that in mind, wouldn’t it seem that gaining muscle as a beginner would take longer because the body has all those other mechanisms at its disposal to get stronger?
I gained 25 in the last three months, and I’ve been training hard for about 2 years. I think once you find the right kind of training and are feeding yourself enough you can do it. I guess beginner gains can come late.
You also have to remember that basketball players in particular use enormous amounts of calories just from practice alone, that ensures of mostly lean gains once they lower the practices in the off-season and concentrate on gaining muscle.
Isn’t the reason for beginner gains mostly due to CNS adaptation, increased capillaries, increased glygocen capacity… basically everything you can do to get stronger without actually having to build any new muscle? With that in mind, wouldn’t it seem that gaining muscle as a beginner would take longer because the body has all those other mechanisms at its disposal to get stronger?
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Well, it can be due to CNS adaptation…
My younger brother started training a about 18, (I’m 8 years older). Once I was able to make sure of his caloric expenditure, get a general feeling for his insanely high metabolism etc, we were able to play with his diet. Long story short, he put on 30 lbs his 1st year training. Of course his gains slowed after that, but that 1st year can be really utilized if you have somoene to give you the benefit of their experience.
Hmmm…there are alot of factors that would contribute to whether or not someone could do it, but I know from personal experience that it’s possible. When I was 18 I trained 5 days a week over summer holidays (2 months) and ate like a recently released concentration camp survivor, and put on about 20 lbs. I didn’t have a 6-pack or anything, but I was much bigger and stronger.
Moreover, I think many people just don’t do what it takes. Force feed yourself 5-6000 cals/day, everyday. Train hard (do you train as hard and as producive as possible?) and document everything. How do you know it can’t be done? Have you done everything possible?
Amazing genetics (which a lot of these professional athletes possess) make these kinds of gains possible, imo. Those of us with average or below-average genetics, probably not, at least without gaining some fat.
can some one send me the work out for that or the program that yall have tried i mean ive done good so far with out anything, i bench about 350, squat about 625, but i weigh 228 and my new years resolution is to weigh at least 260 to 280 by november so some one send me something
Jay junior 2lbs of steak a day. is the workout program to gain that much weight
It is very possible. You catch somebody after they just finished playing basketball or bball practice dehydrated 7lbs already and over trained for the last 4 or 5 months. Put them on a weight training program with less cardio, just the restocking of nutrients and liquids alone will gain 10 lbs as well as their body overcoming their overtraining state. 20lbs will be nothing. As far as pure muscle so thatyou notice. A 6’5 person, maybe, a 5’8 person playing sports and gaining that kind of mass is roiding.
i was offered a free gym membership by an old high school friend. I took full advantage and went 4-6 times a week. i ate perhaps 4 - 7 times a day and slept 10 hours almost every night… sometimes more.
i started off 135lbs… comin out of wrestling season. after two months i was 150. im not going to say for certain that it was all muscle, but the gains were obvious.
its really depends on how dedicated you are and the lengths you are willing to take.
frankly i did it in an unhealthy way. i used lots of fast food, TONS of white rice because im korean, and i even used marijuana to get the munchies. (i didnt use it JUST for that, the munchies were just a good side effect for me at the time) lol.
trying to do something similar now, but this time its healthy and legal pwhaha
If you’re talking about basketball players, many of them are over 6’5…20-30 lbs is nothing. If they have a high workload during the season that keeps their weight down, then just eating, resting, and lifting for a couple weeks could easily yield 20-30 pounds.
People who express amazement about athletes gaining weight in the offseason obviously have never tried in earnest to gain weight…it ain’t that hard; you just have to eat.
[quote]Ramo wrote:
If you’re talking about basketball players, many of them are over 6’5…20-30 lbs is nothing. If they have a high workload during the season that keeps their weight down, then just eating, resting, and lifting for a couple weeks could easily yield 20-30 pounds.
People who express amazement about athletes gaining weight in the offseason obviously have never tried in earnest to gain weight…it ain’t that hard; you just have to eat.[/quote]
I’m 6’5" and believe me, 20 pounds is something. 20 pounds is something on everyone. Very noticeable. I’ve been training for a year (which means I’ve had the benefit of newbie gains), 8 months of which my diet has been on point. Eat a high protein meal every 2-3 hours and everything. Plenty of calories. I’ve gained 30 pounds total.
Athletes have the advantage of having personal trainers and more time to devote to training so I’m sure they could progress faster, but considering they should have been training already and they won’t have the help of newbie gains, 20-30 pounds in 4 months is a lot of weight. If someone does that, and it’s mostly muscle, they’re either juicing or a genetic freak.