The BodyBuilding Lifestyle? WTF?

Training Bodybuilding
1

Okay so back when I started lifting last december 2005, I read all up everything I could about bb’ing and how to get bigger etc etc, all of that stuff. Til this day I still read up on it all, and you always hear “If you are doing too much in your life, if you’re not getting enough rest, if you have too much stress, and if you don’t have proper nutrition and eat every 2-3 hours, you can kiss any gains you might have made goodbye”.

So since hearing this shit, I’ve allowed myself to go the past year basically sitting around doing absolutley nothing all day long, sitting here staring at a computer screen, eating non stop, waiting for my next meal to cook, no cardio or anything fun. Only problem with it all is, my friends who have jobs, who drink, who have harder majors than me, and get minimal sleep and don’t eat that well, are growing more than me!

I just don’t get how you all expect someone to lead a sedentary lifestyle to make gains that seem like they’re either gona come or not come based on genetics. I mean, I’ve given up so much in my life the past year just to hope to see good gains, and so far i’ve really hardly seen shit.

At least, nothing more than if i didn’t live this lifestyle. So what gives, why do they say you can kiss any gains you might have had goodbye if you have stress in your life and are doing too many things? Don’t they realize this is life, not just a vacation?

2

[quote]lifter85 wrote:
So since hearing this shit, I’ve allowed myself to go the past year basically sitting around doing absolutley nothing all day long, sitting here staring at a computer screen, eating non stop, waiting for my next meal to cook, no cardio or anything fun. Only problem with it all is, my friends who have jobs, who drink, who have harder majors than me, and get minimal sleep and don’t eat that well, are growing more than me!
[/quote]

Dude - You gotta train. Eating and playing on the computer will not put muscle on you.

3

something just doesn’t sound right here. Why are you giving up things in life just to be bigger?

4

Work out harder?

Or maybe you’re still not eating enough.

I party, drink occasionally, have a difficult major, but I still make pretty decent gains.

5

[quote]rainjack wrote:
lifter85 wrote:
So since hearing this shit, I’ve allowed myself to go the past year basically sitting around doing absolutley nothing all day long, sitting here staring at a computer screen, eating non stop, waiting for my next meal to cook, no cardio or anything fun. Only problem with it all is, my friends who have jobs, who drink, who have harder majors than me, and get minimal sleep and don’t eat that well, are growing more than me!

Dude - You gotta train. Eating and playing on the computer will not put muscle on you. [/quote]

I do train smarty. since summer i’ve used CT’s HSS-100, CW’s ABBH1, and am now starting on westside in hopes for some actual gains.

I eat plenty, if not more than enough, and healthy too.

I have given all this other stuff up because I was told from an article on here that if I do anything outside of having a sedentary lifestyle, I can kiss any gains i might ever gain goodbye. And since I want to do natural bodybuilding contests, I don’t see any way around it, if what the article said is true, unless they’re lying.

Also, why is it girl fitness comepetitors don’t have to be nearly as big as guy fitness competitors? My friend who is a girl, her arms flexed are 11.5 inches, and i’d say your typical fitness competitors arms are about 12.5.

She doesn’t exercise at all and is thin and has arms only 1 inch away from peak competing potential. However, After a year of training for me hardcore and everything, I’m at 14.2 inches, where as competitors for men at in the 17’s. Mind explaining why such the offset for girls to guys in competing?

6

so tell me, whilst giving up soo much and making soo many sacrifices, how many pounds did you actually add to your squat and deadlift?

7

You need to lighten your attitude, you are entirely too negative. I once saw an interview with olympic sprinter Bruny Surin, who said that in his early days he was dedicated to the sport much to the point where he would eat sleep train and do nothing outside of that because he felt it would sacrifice his results.

It was once he realized that he had to live life, relax, have that occasional glass of wine with dinner, that he had some of his best performances.

Also, it seems that this negativity is causing you a lot of the stress that you are trying to avoid, you are causing yourself quite a bit of stress from worrying this hard.

8

[quote]lifter85 wrote:
rainjack wrote:
lifter85 wrote:

Also, why is it girl fitness comepetitors don’t have to be nearly as big as guy fitness competitors? My friend who is a girl, her arms flexed are 11.5 inches, and i’d say your typical fitness competitors arms are about 12.5.

She doesn’t exercise at all and is thin and has arms only 1 inch away from peak competing potential. However, After a year of training for me hardcore and everything, I’m at 14.2 inches, where as competitors for men at in the 17’s. Mind explaining why such the offset for girls to guys in competing?[/quote]

Wow, whining about why women don’t have to be as big as men is a new record. The fallout from this will be brutal.

9

[quote]evansmi wrote:
so tell me, whilst giving up soo much and making soo many sacrifices, how many pounds did you actually add to your squat and deadlift?[/quote]

on my squat, i’d say about 60 lbs… from 270 to 330, and it keeps going up…deadlift, well before i never did any single deadlifts, just reps, and i didn’t use straps…however bck then i might have done about 320-330.

Now am close to 405, so about 70-75 lbs, and it’s growing too. I’ve gone from 150 lbs super cut to 180 lbs now not very cut at all. but my bench press has gone up maybe 10 lbs max.

Nor do I look big with only 25 inch thighs, 14.5 inch calves, a 35-36 inch waist, a 42 inch chest, and 13.2 inch arms…all relaxed.

10

OK…

You are not stressed but are you happy? You will not grow if you feel depressed because your cortisol is up. This is the worst state you could be in.

My advice would be to train hard, eat right and HAVE A GOOD TIME. I am 100% sure this will be more efficient than sleeping 12 hours instead of 10.

To save more time for friends and having a good time, cook all or most of your meals on Sunday and eat more healthy snacks like nuts, sardines, cherry tomatoes, MRPs…

11

How tall are you?

150 lbs “Super Cut” to 180 with a 35-36 inch waist doesn’t sound very muscular at all.

Your problem seems to be that you aren’t seeing results fast enough and that you are complaining because you work hard. That’s understandable, do you have a workout partner to push you every day? Do you overtrain? Ask the basic questions and start having fun with your workouts, because if you don’t you will never grow.

12

You have either gravely misinterpreted some things, or have manipulated a given message to hear what you think it says.

What the fuck is a “bodybuilding lifestyle” anyways? Is that where you don’t do anything all day with the rationalization of being a body builder?

That is pathetic. Get a life, a job or two, a house, a car, and a couple of dependants.

Then get back to us about stress and what ever the fuck a “body building lifestyle” is.

13

I don’t know exactly what to tell you, but let me assure you that being dependent on the auto industry in Detroit is nuthin, but stress.

Every Friday I don’t know if my company’s going to tell me that because of Ford,s latest round of cuts my computer support services are no longer needed. I’m a 42 year year old high school dropout making barely enough to pay my bills and circumstances are such that I have no way to further my education. If it weren’t for side work I wouldn’t even be able to pay my mortgage.

We have one 19 year old vehicle and my wife has to drop me off at work half the time and clean houses for extra money. I barely sleep 4 hours a night on top of all this and haven’t for years. I’m growing just fine.

14

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
You have either gravely misinterpreted some things, or have manipulated a given message to hear what you think it says.

What the fuck is a “bodybuilding lifestyle” anyways? Is that where you don’t do anything all day with the rationalization of being a body builder?

That is pathetic. Get a life, a job or two, a house, a car, and a couple of dependants.

Then get back to us about stress and what ever the fuck a “body building lifestyle” is.

[/quote]

believe me, i want to. there’s so many other things in life i love doing besides just sitting around waiting to go lift, eat, or sleep. my life has been a complete and utter bore since last december, all for hopes of getting bigger to do bb’ing competitions in a couple years. but how else am i supposed to get ripped at 190 lbs at 5’10" in a coupl more years, if my serious passion before getting into bodybuilding a year ago was cross country and track, running up to 120 miles a week?

i certainly can’t run 30 miles a week while bulking and expect to put on the serious mass, i can’t expect to go out rollerblading for hours or go for super long bike rides and expect to get 190 lbs ripped.

So what’s the deal? I want an active lifestyle but I want the body of a bb’er…and from what I’ve read on here, the two completely contradict each other.

15

[quote]bigkaggie2008 wrote:
How tall are you?

150 lbs “Super Cut” to 180 with a 35-36 inch waist doesn’t sound very muscular at all.

Your problem seems to be that you aren’t seeing results fast enough and that you are complaining because you work hard. That’s understandable, do you have a workout partner to push you every day? Do you overtrain? Ask the basic questions and start having fun with your workouts, because if you don’t you will never grow.[/quote]

here are two pictures to show the difference in my body from then to now…yes i have gotten fatter, and i dont’ know why my strength hasn’t gone up a ton. I haven’t abused the going over 1 lb a week deal like everyone talks about, yet i seem to be getting a good deal fatter…

1st- me 2.5 years ago
2nd- me about 30 weeks ago
3rd and 4th- me yesterday




i know, different poses and different lighting, but there’s the difference…

16

wtf, that posting pictures shit thing never works for me

17

Man, after looking at those pics, the solution is clear.

You were not super ripped. You were emaciated.

You are now normal. Now you can basicaly do what ever you want within reason, eat a good bit, lift realy hard, and get good results.

It isn’t as difficult as you may think.
This stuff isn’t about taking things out of your life. It’s about putting things in to your life. Implementing good nutritional practices, putting in some hard time under the bar, exercising some control and discipline. Developing some ballance.
Good things.

18

[quote]lifter85 wrote:

I do train smarty. since summer i’ve used CT’s HSS-100, CW’s ABBH1, and am now starting on westside in hopes for some actual gains.

I eat plenty, if not more than enough, and healthy too.

I have given all this other stuff up because I was told from an article on here that if I do anything outside of having a sedentary lifestyle, I can kiss any gains i might ever gain goodbye. And since I want to do natural bodybuilding contests, I don’t see any way around it, if what the article said is true, unless they’re lying. [/quote]

I’ve been holding back on this for a while now but…

This is the dumbest statement I’ve seen here on T-Nation ever.

Go back and read this statement. ESPECIALLY if you are a NEWBIE.

READ THIS AGAIN.

SYNOPSIS: (I’ll paraphrase for you)

"I’ve followed Christian Thibeadeau’s advice, I’ve followed Chad Waterbury’s advice, I’ve followed the Westside philosophy. I eat more than enough (cleanly), and yet while I sit around 23 hours a day on my ass doing nothing other than waiting for results to show up at my door and ring my doorbell, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why I’m not a world class bodybuilder.

Not only that, but I’ve been training since the end this past of Summer. YOU do the math. That’s 90 days. 90 F’in days of training, eating right, self deprivation, sitting around waiting for the UPS man Or the FEDEX man, or God forbid the USPS man to deliver my FUCKING results. And nothing, I repeat Nothing. I say again NOTHING.

WTF???"

You don’t have to be a genius to figure this one out…

19

[quote]lifter85 wrote:
I have given all this other stuff up because I was told from an article on here that if I do anything outside of having a sedentary lifestyle, I can kiss any gains i might ever gain goodbye. And since I want to do natural bodybuilding contests, I don’t see any way around it, if what the article said is true, unless they’re lying.
[/quote]

I defy you to find an article on here that truly says THAT.

A completely sedentary lifestyle where you never have any fun? Never lift a finger until you are lifting in the gym? I simply have to believe you read something urging you not to overdo things in some areas when seeking to get big… but decided to overdo it in the opposite direction.

20

dude life is all about balance,
i can relate to giving up alot of stuff to focus on myself and my goals.
I have lately realized this is just silly I will start racing my atv again and all the stuff I enjoy
Why dont you try running some hills or doing some seld draging I doubt either of these would do anything but improve your physique.

jogging for countless miles I agree is not a good idea.

If you want to go rollerblading go rollerblading. just bring a damn peanutbutter and jelly sandwich with you or something, its not hard to get calories in while away from the house and being active. Just takes some good planing