This thread makes me sad.
[quote]jayski wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
rrjc5488 wrote:
jayski wrote:
as for me, im 5’6, 165lbs, my build isn’t near huge, nor will it ever be, but thats ok, i don’t let my lack of genetics keep me from trying to constantly improve.
Theres another excuse that gets tossed around, too much.
Amen to that brother. I have shit genetics too. But you know what? It didn’t stop me from putting on 80 lbs of muscle since I started training, and about 450 lbs on my squat and dl. And I have a long way to go yet.
It’s funny–the harder I work the better my genetics get. 
It’s ALLL about hard work and hard eating 24/7/365, FOR YEARS ON END (that and educating yourself). Same with the whole “overtraining” thing. I will say this though: I posted some dumb things when I was younger too. Mostly I lurked, but every once in a while…
So is going from a bodyweight of 120lbs to 165lbs in the last several years making up excuses?
I work my ass off, i push myself to my limits, and my lifts go up but my bodyweight is slow to catch up and i’ve come to the realization that the muscles of my body will never be huge. but do i care?
i did once, but now i don’t let it bother me cause i approve how my body looks. why? cause i was practically a skeleton at 120lbs and couldn’t even do 10 pushups and thought an empty olympic bar was heavy… I’ve improved a lot and my progress does continue and pretty damn proud of myself cause of my personal accomplishments.
Also i think some of you need to read entire sentences rather than focus on a part of one. Did i not say “i don’t let my lack of genetics keep me from trying to constantly improve.” you all who quoted me focused on the part before keep, but failed to read or understand the rest of it.
i suggest learning to read till you understand it, and perhaps learn a little bit of comprehension before jumping to conclusions and giving me lectures on shit im already doing.
[/quote]
Understandably upset. I suppose I should have clarified, but I thought it was unnecessary seeing as I was quoting rrjc. I was responding to his bit about that particular excuse, NOT your particular situation.
I hear that DAMN EXCUSE EVERY WEEK from someone who never made any progress at all, or sometimes never even started working out in the first place. My quarrel is with those who never seem to be actively journeying to their goal.
Those who do strain to make it are fine. Hell, everyone had to start somewhere, and that’s precisely my point. We were all weak once (except for Bauer, so he can’t talk ). We just didn’t stay there. So no, I’m not talking about you in particular, and sorry I gave you that impression.
Gaining 40 lbs of muscle is significant. You have in fact made good progress. However, what you have to realize is that the longer you go, the slower gains come. That’s natural and has nothing to do with genetics.
Gaining muscle is hard work. Your bodyweight ALWAYS lags behind your strength gains. You should never “accept that you won’t be huge” unless you don’t want to be. If it’s not your goal to be big, then that’s a different story. But if it is a goal, then why accept defeat before the game is over?
A friend of mine is your height. He started skinny around 130 or so early on in life, got up to 155 or so when I met him, and is now around 200 lbs. He looks thick for his height. Those last 15 lbs though. They took 2 years. he’s not done. In fact, he’s getting bigger. The point is it’s slow going.
The thing that X tries to beat into everyone’s head is that people mentally block themselves from succeeding before they ever really reach their potential. You really can’t do that. Bauer was a STICK, which a Michael Phelps style metabolism when he started lifting.
X was small (ER) at one point to. I’m not big currently, but I’ve been up there (240) and am getting back.
Good luck on your continued journey.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
I think it’s sad as hell that some fo you think you’re super awesome and hardcore because your consistent with lifting.
So fucking what. Unless you’re busting your ass to the point where you’re seeing dots flying over the walls, and trying to hold back the puke, you’re still a bitch.
Yeah, most of you will consider me “weak” with a 315 squat and a 425 deadlift at !190 pounds. But fuck you guys. I’ve put on 70pounds in like 2 years, I’m gonna be a big man some day.
You set yourself apart from the rest of them when you prove you are ready to get under some heavy ass weight. A weight you’ve never tried before. You don’t allow yourself to be defeated by a metal rod and some plates.[/quote]
Totally agree with this post. That’s what I’m talking about. The point is the drive to succeed (and not shooting your mouth off too badly before you get there).
I don’t look down on, and most “big” guys don’t look down on, people busting their ass to get bigger and stronger, no matter where they are in the spectrum of current strength.
I mean sure, you’ve always got that one ass that does, but most people are fine with that. It’s the effort and drive that tell. It’s the mentality. It’s the progress on your journey.
You might never make it, but you have to get out of the gate and not look back, ever, if you want even a chance at success. I’m super-weak compared to a number of our lifters here… but not for long. That’s the whole point.
Does it really surprise anyone that people have excuses for being weak? People have excuses for everything… Ignore them and make it so you don’t need excuses.
I wonder how you play “taps” over the internet.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
orion wrote:
Professor X wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
Professor X wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
rrjc5488 wrote:
jayski wrote:
as for me, im 5’6, 165lbs, my build isn’t near huge, nor will it ever be, but thats ok, i don’t let my lack of genetics keep me from trying to constantly improve.
Theres another excuse that gets tossed around, too much.
That’s what I was trying to say. I’m not sure what “lack of genetics” even means. Do you have fewer chromosomes?
They have problems with feeling full in order to grow and with the pain involved with lifting heavy. It’s uncomfortable and reaching goals is all about comfort.
So now work ethic is genetic? (as well as fat level)
You didn’t know? The ONLY reason someone would push really hard to reach a goal as well as sacrifice some things is because they are either insecure, mentally ill, or flaming gay.
And yet character could still be destiny, a concept that might not be totally unfamiliar to you?
I am familiar with the fact that character is built through life experience. Destiny involves purpose by design. [/quote]
How much will power, determination or sheer lust for achievement you can develop could have genetic limits.
You could look down on someone who might have maxed out his abilities even though he is a genetic mouse whereas you, who looks down on him, possibly could have been a second Alexander and yet barely scratched the surface.
Strength is relative. I started out very small. I’ll never call myself weak, because I’m strong for my size. I have a PL trophy from when I was a teen. Now that I’m in my 40s, having had 2 knee surgeries, bursitis, rotator cuff issues, and presently suffering tendinitis all over, strength is of little concern to me now. This is no excuse or cop-out. It’s fact that I have to live with. How many guys truly gain strength just for the bragging rights in the gym or on the forums?
I’ve always wanted to be huge, and strength was a way to achieve that. Injuries sidelined me every step of the way. I’m not large by any stretch. Nor am I strong enough to compete in PL meets anymore. But at 45 I’m healthy, in shape, and have an optimistic life view. And I couldn’t care less if anyone thinks I’m weak and small.
It’s incredible how everyone’s post is the exact same when you look at the last 2-3 pages.
“Z&K suck, they’re not pushing hard and they’re making excuses. ME on the other side, I’m pushing more than everyone in the world and I started out at X weight and now I’m at Y benching W, one day I’ll be J. Blah blah blah…”
It’s pretty sad that on a bodybuilding site, nobody compliments others on their achievements but instead bashes them and tries to show how better they are. It’s like if you can’t lift half a ton and increase your lean body mass by 100 pounds after a year of training, you’re a failure and you’re training like a douche.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
That sounds great on a greeting card. The truth is, even though it is about the journey, if you are still stuck in the first quarter mile of it for 10 years, you may want to sit your ass down on the road and die so the rest of us can have more room to walk.[/quote]
Take it they never let you into the greeting card business Professor.
[quote]duffyj2 wrote:
Take it they never let you into the greeting card business Professor.[/quote]
I don’t know, I think that’s pretty funny, I’d buy such a greeting card.
I think it would be in the “Reality Check” section at Hallmark.
[quote]Kataklysm wrote:
It’s incredible how everyone’s post is the exact same when you look at the last 2-3 pages.
“Z&K suck, they’re not pushing hard and they’re making excuses. ME on the other side, I’m pushing more than everyone in the world and I started out at X weight and now I’m at Y benching W, one day I’ll be J. Blah blah blah…”
It’s pretty sad that on a bodybuilding site, nobody compliments others on their achievements but instead bashes them and tries to show how better they are. It’s like if you can’t lift half a ton and increase your lean body mass by 100 pounds after a year of training, you’re a failure and you’re training like a douche.[/quote]
That’s your interpretation, though.
I say kudos to the guys giving shit to someone who says they’re 5’6 and destined to be small. Why cater and humour such whiny bullshit?
A lot of these guys doing the bashing have been through the trenches and accomplished what 90% of the site says they cannot, under similar circumstances. Couple that with the fact that they’ve seen 10 years of the same shit, and you can understand how they’re a touch less than gentle when it comes to conveying their thoughts.
A lot of people just can’t accept the fact that they ARE training like a douchebag. I know I was.
Is it just me that finds all this “light yourself on fire and get pissed” stuff strange? I’ve been lifting and stuffing my face for 2.5 years straight now, not because I’m pissed off, but because I fucking LOOOVE lifting weights and getting big and strong. It keeps me happy actually.
[quote]duffyj2 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
That sounds great on a greeting card. The truth is, even though it is about the journey, if you are still stuck in the first quarter mile of it for 10 years, you may want to sit your ass down on the road and die so the rest of us can have more room to walk.
Take it they never let you into the greeting card business Professor.[/quote]
Don’t worry. I hear Darwin is coming out with his own line. They signed me to a 10 year contract.
[quote]bob_sander87 wrote:
Is it just me that finds all this “light yourself on fire and get pissed” stuff strange? I’ve been lifting and stuffing my face for 2.5 years straight now, not because I’m pissed off, but because I fucking LOOOVE lifting weights and getting big and strong. It keeps me happy actually. [/quote]
…and how much progress have you made?
Whatever your motivation comes from, I am willing to bet the person who finds that “internal rage” to push against in the gym will make more progress than the guy who finds such an emotion strange.
When football players get ready for the field, they psyche themselves out. The feel in the room is not, “don’t we just love this!?” It is, “let’s rip their fucking heads off and shove them down their throats”.
If you find this strange, don’t ever…EVER…play football.
In that game, somebody loses. The goal is for it not to be you.
[quote]Kataklysm wrote:
It’s incredible how everyone’s post is the exact same when you look at the last 2-3 pages.
“Z&K suck, they’re not pushing hard and they’re making excuses. ME on the other side, I’m pushing more than everyone in the world and I started out at X weight and now I’m at Y benching W, one day I’ll be J. Blah blah blah…”
It’s pretty sad that on a bodybuilding site, nobody compliments others on their achievements but instead bashes them and tries to show how better they are. It’s like if you can’t lift half a ton and increase your lean body mass by 100 pounds after a year of training, you’re a failure and you’re training like a douche.[/quote]
Wow.
People do get complimented on SIGNIFICANT achievement. They don’t always get pats on the back for “MINIMAL achievement”.
I am not of the school of thought that kids get gold stars just for showing up to class. You apparently think otherwise.
Care to enlighten us?
A big part of this whole ‘weak or strong’, ‘tiny or hyoooge’ thing to me comes down to pure and simple time. I will say congratulations and good work to anyone on this site and in this thread who has made a significant improvement in themselves.
Realistically, however, it does still come down to time folks. Even with good genetics and doing all the shit in the gym and the kitchen right, what it comes straight down to is being in it FOR THE LONG HAUL. I know from reading X’s shit in the past he was a skinny little twerp when he started lifting. He didn’t get to the size he is now in a year or two. A lot of you guys on here seem to forget that. He may have made great progress in 2 or 3 years time. But X now, should he have talked to himself through some time travel mechanism, would’ve told X of then, “Hey, you’re still a dweeb. Keep fucking lifting and eating. See you in 10 years” Only apparently he didn’t need to, as X of then knew that, hence the reason he is who he is now.
I used to be one of those guys that lifted 3 months, got in a little bit of good shape, then stopped for a few, started again, etc. It took me blowing my trap and my rotator cuff out so bad I had a mainly numb hand for 2 1/2 years and was barely able to lift my own dick to jerk off before it finally made me realize, “Hey, this sucks. Time is passing by on my opportunity to get big and strong. However, given my past endeavors, I’d have probably been wasting it right now anyway.”
In the past 2 1/2 that I’ve been able to lift again, I’ve gained 60 lbs (which is half of what I started at…I’m a midget), and am leaner than I was starting back out, but I’m not even close to my end goal yet. That’s going to take another 5 years, and guaranteed I’ll get there, because 5 years from now, barring death, I’ll be in that fucking gym.
I’ve had a combined total of about 3 weeks ‘out of the gym’ since, and that’s with having a fucked up home life, injuries galore due to my job (I was in the gym on crutches an hour after they casted my broken ankle, hopping on one foot from one exercise to the next. I wasn’t missing my heavy day over that bullshit) and an incredibly painful bone tumor in my femur, which I still have.
Point being- Even if you’re not being a pussy in the gym, or the kitchen, this shit still takes time. The main reason you don’t see a lot more guys walking around huge is because, even if they are on the right track, they give up long before they ever get there.
It’s like a guy driving from NYC to LA and getting to Chicago, headed in the right direction, everything going good, and just saying, “Eh, fuck this. This takes way longer than I had hoped. I’ll just go to a movie instead and go home.” Theres a reason huge ass guys seem like they own the gyms they belong to. For all intents and purposes, they do. They’ve spent a lot more time in them than you or I. Those 500 lbs benches and XXL shirts are a badge of honor for not only the determination and will to get under those heavy ass weights, but to get under them for 5 to 10 years straight.
Kubo
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Kataklysm wrote:
It’s incredible how everyone’s post is the exact same when you look at the last 2-3 pages.
“Z&K suck, they’re not pushing hard and they’re making excuses. ME on the other side, I’m pushing more than everyone in the world and I started out at X weight and now I’m at Y benching W, one day I’ll be J. Blah blah blah…”
It’s pretty sad that on a bodybuilding site, nobody compliments others on their achievements but instead bashes them and tries to show how better they are. It’s like if you can’t lift half a ton and increase your lean body mass by 100 pounds after a year of training, you’re a failure and you’re training like a douche.
Wow.
People do get complimented on SIGNIFICANT achievement. They don’t always get pats on the back for “MINIMAL achievement”.
I am not of the school of thought that kids get gold stars just for showing up to class. You apparently think otherwise.
Care to enlighten us?[/quote]
Sure I’ll try.
The way I see it, if someone trained for a year, followed a very good diet religiously, stayed home to eat cottage cheese instead of going out with friends, hit the gym constantly, gave it everything they had and strived to make constant progress, they deserve props. Assuming of course that they plan to push it farther. Because they did what the crushing majority of human beeings will never understand and conceive.
Then it doesn’t matter if, for example, they lost 15 pounds of fat and picked up about 10 pounds of lean mass. It only means that with the same dedication they will keep progressing. To me it deserves appreciation to an extent. I can understand it doesn’t mean shit for you, because at your level you can look down on most people.
I just think that encouraging someone who’s on the right track is a great sign of respect to our sport and our fellow lifters.
I think you’re forgetting the fact that this site was designed to be elitist by nature.
There are more run of the mill environments out there for people to leverage if they don’t find what they seek here.
[quote]NeelyDan wrote:
I think you’re forgetting the fact that this site was designed to be elitist by nature.
There are more run of the mill environments out there for people to leverage if they don’t find what they seek here.[/quote]
Sorry but where was that mentionned? Bare with me bro but if there’s a fucking beginner’s section, then it’s not just a site for pro body builders.
As PX has mentionned several times, there are very few people here who are really hardcore (by his standards anyways :P) so if it really was such an elitist site, we wouldn’t be here Neelydan. You and me both.
[quote]Kataklysm wrote:
Sure I’ll try.
The way I see it, if someone trained for a year, followed a very good diet religiously, stayed home to eat cottage cheese instead of going out with friends, hit the gym constantly, gave it everything they had and strived to make constant progress, they deserve props. [/quote]
No, they don’t. Unless all of that avoidance of pleasure actually produced results to justify it, it was simply that person being anti-social. The ends justify the means.
Also, cottage cheese? Nasty.
[quote]
I just think that encouraging someone who’s on the right track is a great sign of respect to our sport and our fellow lifters. [/quote]
How many people are actually on the right track? The right track is the one producing significant results. The right track is not, “ooooh, I actually gained 1lbs in 6 months”.
This isn’t Slimfast-Nation.