[quote]danielbasic wrote:
Lee Priest has got too be one of the biggest culprits with off season size. He is fairly light with a contest weight of about 190-200 pounds and in his off season sitting at around 270-290[/quote]
He does not usually grow that kind of gut… It was done for that particular ad campaign, if I remember right.
But yes, he does get pretty darn heavy in the off-season.
One other thing to remember is that (not directing this at danielbasic) a guy who weighs 250 lbs at 20 percent bf in the off-season will not just lose fat when dieting down… So he may have 200 lbs of lean mass in the off-season, but in contest shape he may well be down to 180lbs of lean mass or so… Especially for naturals who can’t rely on gear to keep their hormones at decent levels while dieting down to extreme leanness.
So you may be drug-free, 5’10 and weighing in at a decent looking 260 or so in the off-season. Definitely not fat, but not ripped either, just regular person, easily maintainable level of bf basically… And end up competing at 210-220. Doesn’t mean you were at around 20 percent bf before (probably more like 15 or so), just that it’s quite a feat to hold on to your muscle-mass when dieting down as a natty past a certain size thanks to hormone levels and how dieting affects them.
Now guys on gear may be less affected by that, but they (somewhat depending on the show and the person of course) tend to get into really crazy condition for contest day, holding much less water and whatnot.
So contest shape, even for a guy on gear, does not reflect their off-season amount of LBM and most certainly does not even come close their “maximal/limit” amount of LBM or anything like that…
And finally, a 5’10 guy who can compete as a pro at an unusually light weight has either gotten lucky (crappy level of competition on his way to his pro card) and will not even manage to make a light dent in the pro world, or he has crazy muscle-bellies and structure… Muscle-belly wise think flex wheeler, or even our very own ACTrain (who is very light and I think his arms are only 15+ inches, but thanks to his round and full bicep muscle-bellies, you’d probably guess him to be 200 lean with 17+ inch arms or whatever).
So yeah. Just keep that stuff in mind when looking at the successful lighter bodybuilders. Staying close to contest condition has become somewhat popular in natty bbing, but that doesn’t do your size/strength gain rate any favors… It works for guys with nice and round muscle-bellies who look good at lower bodyweights, but for guys who aren’t blessed in that area, it’s downright foolish.
