Dieting in my opinion is much easier than gaining mass… Once you have the mass and start to diet with a goal of a contest etc it becomes easier as the weeks go by… eventually if you do it long enough (i have seen guys who never get more than a couple percent out of shape for years) its like a sickness almost as much as going to the gym every day for a couple hours. Problem is the guys that hold that low low bodyfat all the time never seem to get any bigger either… Now im not saying you need to pack on 50lbs of fat to bet swole but you do need some extra calories to ensure you arent going catabolic and I would take surplus over a deficit any day. MASS is long term and tons of work for a long time. PB Andy although I appreciate your insight into this matter your size is lacking to understand what this long term commitment really means…get back to me in 10 years when you have gained another 15-20lbs of muscle. No offense because I will never know the commitment level that a pro goes through either. I have puked more times than I can count after leg day and had more injuries and setbacks over the years than many, but I can only gauge my struggles agianst what I think I know not what I know for sure. Words of wisdom… do not share what you are only assuming to be true … instead go find out for yourself every day to the best of your ability. I dont flame on these posts very often but sometimes when I see statements that I believe to be untrue. PB your just wrong and wouldn’t know yet. Take this as whatever you want. Use it for fuel to prove me wrong, spend the next ten years in the gym and get huge. Sometimes this is what it takes… I dont think I have met one guy who is serious about bodybuilding that hasn’t had some issues with his or her size or self esteem early in life. This is the ultimate driver for many. Its the skinny kid or the bad home syndrome that drives us to be better in every facet of life. I do it becuase I know I am better than the cards I was delt … and every grueling set and every rep that i think i cannot finish I do because I have an internal conflict… SO i say to all dont let anyone say to you that you cannot. EAT BIG LIFT BIG. It matters.
Gaining mass = easy
Gaining mostly lean mass = fucking hard
Learn the difference people
[quote]Swolle wrote:
…that drives us to be better in every facet of life. I do it becuase I know I am better than the cards I was delt … and every grueling set and every rep that i think i cannot finish I do because I have an internal conflict… SO i say to all dont let anyone say to you that you cannot. EAT BIG LIFT BIG. It matters. [/quote]
Great post overall Swolle, I left this part on because it bears emphasizing.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Swolle wrote:
I wont even respond to the issues in the origional posters physique… PB andy you are incorrect when you say getting big is easy… Even for addicts. I know guys that have spent years in the gym and stay the same size… they are there as often as I am and yet have not figured out what it really takes to develop size. They lift as heavy as they can and wonder why they never get any bigger… First of all eating is 100% and lifting is 100% … makes sense if you dont think about it. 
Point is it is more important in my opinion that you eat properly for growth. Almost as important is how you lift and what you are doing in the gym to grow. Anyone can come into the gym and lift… But what does it really mean. How many lifters truely engage the proper muscles during complex movements and force their muscles to repond by growing? Almost all new lifters will experience growth for awhile regardless of how they lift IE volume, intensity, % of maximum. After a few years this subsides. Growth must be forced by both consistantly changing portions of your workouts so the muscle has to adapt and grow as well as consistantly eating for this growth to occur. Easy NO and I dont care how long you have been at it. It never gets easier. As for the guys in the pictures asking about how they look… Come on guys this is a bodybuilding forum, not a physique website… try a different site and maybe you wont be told how you need more size. Size Matters. Almost everyone here is working their ass off to get BIGGER>[/quote]
I don’t disagree. But this is why I said in my original post, to not only lift hard, but ‘lift smart’ as well. It also says in my post, ‘eat big’. These are pre-requisites. Once you figure out how YOU respond to certain lifting techniques, and how to eat a lot of food, I find it easy. No doubt there are people in the gym who lift hard but have no idea wtf they are doing. For them it won’t be easy.
As a caveat… this is from the perspective of how I respond. It may not apply to others. I’m not genetically gifted by any means (the last time I was sub 10% BF was when I was in grade school), but I find it easy to gain muscle. [/quote]
If it’s so easy for you, why aren’t you bigger?
[/quote]
I could be bigger. However, I’ve only started doing upper body specific work for the past 5 months. The years before that I was competing in olympic weightlifting, so the only upper body stuff during that time was probably the push press. For that 5-month time frame of adding in bis/tris/back/chest work etc, I think where I’m at right now is pretty decent.
I took the pic a few days ago, and I’ve found the new-found mass pretty easy. Of course you can attribute some of that to neural efficiency due to my background, but my point of leanness still stands… as you can see, I’m still working on it. It’s tough.
edit: kind of fucked that picture up, click to enlarge. there’s also a couple pics in my Indigo log.[/quote]
sorry if I came off as kind of a dick with my comment.
If youve only done upper body work for 5 months, then im sure it would seem like gaining muscle is easy, you just started. You definitley have made some good progress. What I think swolle,Px, bluecollartr8n are saying is that making gains beyond new gains is very difficult. Going from 14-16 inch arms or from 170 to 200 lbs may seem easy at first, but going from 17 arms to 19+ arms and from 200 to 220+ is very difficult (ofcourse these are just random numbers that would vary from person to person, but you get the point). The more advanced you become the harder it is to make progress.
[quote]Swolle wrote:
Dieting in my opinion is much easier than gaining mass… Once you have the mass and start to diet with a goal of a contest etc it becomes easier as the weeks go by… eventually if you do it long enough (i have seen guys who never get more than a couple percent out of shape for years) its like a sickness almost as much as going to the gym every day for a couple hours. Problem is the guys that hold that low low bodyfat all the time never seem to get any bigger either… Now im not saying you need to pack on 50lbs of fat to bet swole but you do need some extra calories to ensure you arent going catabolic and I would take surplus over a deficit any day. MASS is long term and tons of work for a long time. PB Andy although I appreciate your insight into this matter your size is lacking to understand what this long term commitment really means…get back to me in 10 years when you have gained another 15-20lbs of muscle. No offense because I will never know the commitment level that a pro goes through either. I have puked more times than I can count after leg day and had more injuries and setbacks over the years than many, but I can only gauge my struggles agianst what I think I know not what I know for sure. Words of wisdom… do not share what you are only assuming to be true … instead go find out for yourself every day to the best of your ability. I dont flame on these posts very often but sometimes when I see statements that I believe to be untrue. PB your just wrong and wouldn’t know yet. Take this as whatever you want. Use it for fuel to prove me wrong, spend the next ten years in the gym and get huge. Sometimes this is what it takes… I dont think I have met one guy who is serious about bodybuilding that hasn’t had some issues with his or her size or self esteem early in life. This is the ultimate driver for many. Its the skinny kid or the bad home syndrome that drives us to be better in every facet of life. I do it becuase I know I am better than the cards I was delt … and every grueling set and every rep that i think i cannot finish I do because I have an internal conflict… SO i say to all dont let anyone say to you that you cannot. EAT BIG LIFT BIG. It matters. [/quote]
Paragraph breaks brother…paragraph breaks.
I like your posts but I get a migraine from BLOCK-O-TEXT.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
The more advanced you become the harder it is to make progress. [/quote]\
Yep.
S
[quote]cyruseven75 wrote:
To be fair…Zyzzzz looked good…
i like his body, but man…his face needed a punch in the fucking mouth.
[/quote]
LOL
truer words have never been spoken.
Swolle should post more often apparently. Less bullshit, more reality.
Ofcourse gaining mass is easy at 200lbs lol come on
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
sorry if I came off as kind of a dick with my comment.
If youve only done upper body work for 5 months, then im sure it would seem like gaining muscle is easy, you just started. You definitley have made some good progress. What I think swolle,Px, bluecollartr8n are saying is that making gains beyond new gains is very difficult. Going from 14-16 inch arms or from 170 to 200 lbs may seem easy at first, but going from 17 arms to 19+ arms and from 200 to 220+ is very difficult (ofcourse these are just random numbers that would vary from person to person, but you get the point). The more advanced you become the harder it is to make progress. [/quote]
Yep. Bottom line, if you never got that big, no one cares how easy you think it is. The average newb should be making gains at a rate that would shock people. It would be a mistake to think the gains keep coming like they did the first two years or so.
And so it goes on…
[quote]cyruseven75 wrote:
To be fair…Zyzzzz looked good, but (i know he got a bunch of chics but he looked like a big fag). no homo. i like his body, but man…his face needed a punch in the fucking mouth.
[/quote]
you’re just jealous of his model quality facial aesthetics. you sound like a 14 year old girl. pls go.
[quote]thefederalist wrote:
[quote]cyruseven75 wrote:
To be fair…Zyzzzz looked good, but (i know he got a bunch of chics but he looked like a big fag). no homo. i like his body, but man…his face needed a punch in the fucking mouth.
[/quote]
you’re just jealous of his model quality facial aesthetics. you sound like a 14 year old girl. pls go.[/quote]
i’m not getting into this. he looked like an emo fag, fuck him. all respect RIP. go troll a line somewhere else, i’m not jealous. As said, i like his build for what it is, not being a bb. I could care less about his facial aesthetics, bet it look hot to you…run this through your fruity mind - you worshiping him, blasting your gooey load on your dead idol’s pursed zoolander lips. troll on douche bag.
maybe rub one out to zzzyyzzz doing some topless cable cross-overs, if your still hot after that.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Swolle wrote:
I wont even respond to the issues in the origional posters physique… PB andy you are incorrect when you say getting big is easy… Even for addicts. I know guys that have spent years in the gym and stay the same size… they are there as often as I am and yet have not figured out what it really takes to develop size. They lift as heavy as they can and wonder why they never get any bigger… First of all eating is 100% and lifting is 100% … makes sense if you dont think about it. Point is it is more important in my opinion that you eat properly for growth. Almost as important is how you lift and what you are doing in the gym to grow. Anyone can come into the gym and lift… But what does it really mean. How many lifters truely engage the proper muscles during complex movements and force their muscles to repond by growing? Almost all new lifters will experience growth for awhile regardless of how they lift IE volume, intensity, % of maximum. After a few years this subsides. Growth must be forced by both consistantly changing portions of your workouts so the muscle has to adapt and grow as well as consistantly eating for this growth to occur. Easy NO and I dont care how long you have been at it. It never gets easier. As for the guys in the pictures asking about how they look… Come on guys this is a bodybuilding forum, not a physique website… try a different site and maybe you wont be told how you need more size. Size Matters. Almost everyone here is working their ass off to get BIGGER>[/quote]
I don’t disagree. But this is why I said in my original post, to not only lift hard, but ‘lift smart’ as well. It also says in my post, ‘eat big’. These are pre-requisites. Once you figure out how YOU respond to certain lifting techniques, and how to eat a lot of food, I find it easy. No doubt there are people in the gym who lift hard but have no idea wtf they are doing. For them it won’t be easy.
As a caveat… this is from the perspective of how I respond. It may not apply to others. I’m not genetically gifted by any means (the last time I was sub 10% BF was when I was in grade school), but I find it easy to gain muscle. [/quote]
If it’s so easy for you, why aren’t you bigger?
[/quote]
I could be bigger. However, I’ve only started doing upper body specific work for the past 5 months. The years before that I was competing in olympic weightlifting, so the only upper body stuff during that time was probably the push press. For that 5-month time frame of adding in bis/tris/back/chest work etc, I think where I’m at right now is pretty decent.
I took the pic a few days ago, and I’ve found the new-found mass pretty easy. Of course you can attribute some of that to neural efficiency due to my background, but my point of leanness still stands… as you can see, I’m still working on it. It’s tough.
edit: kind of fucked that picture up, click to enlarge. there’s also a couple pics in my Indigo log.[/quote]
sorry if I came off as kind of a dick with my comment.
If youve only done upper body work for 5 months, then im sure it would seem like gaining muscle is easy, you just started. You definitley have made some good progress. What I think swolle,Px, bluecollartr8n are saying is that making gains beyond new gains is very difficult. Going from 14-16 inch arms or from 170 to 200 lbs may seem easy at first, but going from 17 arms to 19+ arms and from 200 to 220+ is very difficult (ofcourse these are just random numbers that would vary from person to person, but you get the point). The more advanced you become the harder it is to make progress. [/quote]
That could be the case. I admit I’m not nearly advanced enough to saying gaining muscle is ‘easy’, because it comes harder the bigger you get, no doubt. All I’m saying is, if you have the mentality that lifting weights comes as naturally as waking up in the morning, and you lift smart, and eat big, and having the ‘dedication’ to do this for years is not a problem, I think you will find yourself pretty well off. It’s hard fucking work, but when it’s second nature, how hard is it really, when you love it so much? It’s like complaining about your job when you are a porn star. lol. bad analogy but whatever. You can go to my HUB and look at my quads in the photos section (first pic); I found that easy to come by via hard fucking work and lots of squats, but since it’s second nature to me, it’s no biggie. I think it’s largely semantics at this point of how we are defining/interpreting the word ‘easy’, so I’ll end it right there.
For me, personally, getting lean is a bitch. Maybe that’s why for me, I consider it harder. In grade school, I grew up on McDonalds and Baskin Robbins, thanks to some poor parenting (daddy-ing, really)… so again, I say this from my own perspective and bias, so you can take it as such.
Does this look better Cyrus?
[quote]DeltaOne wrote:
Gaining mass = easy
Gaining mostly lean mass = fucking hard
Learn the difference people[/quote]
you calling me fat? lol j/k 
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Does this look better Cyrus?[/quote]
mmmmm…looks good. truth is, good for him, bet he fucked many hot broads, had fun while he lived, turned himself into something.
i think the worship stuff is silly though, more gay than his fruity emo look.
sure i like reading/looking at pro bodybuilders but that’s because to me it’s like looking at crazy art, crazy comic book shit.
building something that big and riped is crazy, that’s why i dig it. spending time…nevermind, i’ve gotta run, can’t even finish my thought. off to the gym for Arms tonite! hope alone til’ 12noon, gf is overnight in ICU.
i like the art though…high end stuff, you forgot his white goo beard though.
A lot of people were trolled in this thread.
I refuse to use proper grammar, sentence structure, or punctuation when I post on a forum. Especially when I am typing this more often than not on my Iphone. I won't take the additional time. I just keep typing as the thought train rolls.
Fat is not Mass in my world. (FAT = EASY MASS=SHIT TON* of work and diet) That being said, fat is a necessary evil but not respectable in any way shape or form. I know lots of guys who when they ask what do you weigh will say "thats it". I laugh and say yeah I weigh 225 and im roughly 11 percent bodyfat at 5'10. These are the type of questions that come from the guys who are 6' tall and fat so they assume this equates to them being bigger. Laughable.
*actual form of measurement
Look I used paragraphs
Swolle throwing out some great posts. You must post more often and enlighten us with this no bullshit approach