[quote]malonetd wrote:
eric_lacrosse wrote:
I have been working out for over 20 years, and I am not seeking the approval of a novice. I take a week off then I feel I my body needs some recovery time, or when work or travel gets in the way. Period.
The question was related to whether or not most folks, if they take time off, gain weight & strength, lose weight & strength or maintain after one week off.
If you have been working out for over 20 years, wouldn’t you know what happens by now?[/quote]
Occupation: Financial Analyst
Weight: 170
Height: 5’-9"
Body fat %: 13
Years Training: 20
There is this great post that Dante made in IM regarding this:
PAYING YOUR DUES
This post is for everyone in this forum–its very important to read over–VERY IMPORTANT.
Want to know the average trainee that comes to me?
He is 35-45 years old and after 10-15 years of lifting weighs 175 to 210lbs.
He looks at me as the guy that somehow can pull a bunny out of a hat and make him that 250lb ripped bodybuilder walking the streets… where he couldnt even get close to that level by himself.
He is scrambling around because he doesnt want to get to 50 years old never feeling what it was like to walk thru a crowd and people gawk, stare, and point because he is a damn good bodybuilder.
Well what the hell have you been doing all these years?!?!?!
You should of put in your f*^&ing dues like the rest of us.
These same guys think Im a miracle worker that can somehow add 80lbs of muscle mass on their frame while losing 30lbs of fat while keeping incredibly lean thruout the journey to get there.
Well guess what? YOU FUCKED UP.
Want to know the fastest way to walk around at 250 ripped–THE ABSOLUTELY G’DAMN FASTEST WAY TO GET THERE? TAKE 2 YEARS AND EAT HUGE AMOUNTS OF FOOD, AND TRAIN WITH BRUTALLY HEAVY WEIGHTS, AND BECOME A BIG FAT OFFENSIVE LINEMAN LOOKING GUY AT 330LBS…AND NO IT WONT BE PRETTY…AT ALL. MOST OF ALL DONT DO ANYTHING THAT COULD POSSIBLY EVEN IMPEDE THE SLIGHTEST IN MUSCLE MASS GAIN.
Just eat copious amounts of food (up to 500-600 grams of protein) and bring your bodyweight up the charts which will allow you leverage and strength gains to allow you use the incredible weights you have to use in the gym to accomplish this.
Then after being at that level for density reasons for awhile, you can slowly take it down and I mean slowly and most likely have the most muscle mass gain your genetics allowed in that time frame.
That is the probably the fastest way in the shortest time to get there. But definitely not the most desirable but truth is truth.
Am i recommending that approach–HELL NO, but if we are talking about getting this done as fast as humanly possible then I have to be blunt.
Noone wants to look like a fat slob even if it means the end result will be much closer to their ideal.
And these guys 35-45 years old want me to keep them pretty boy lean and wave the magic wand and make them into Milos Sarcev after they pretty much just wasted 10-15 years of training.
I dont like using myself for an example but I will here.
I started training at about 20 at 137lbs and predominantly spent the next 15 years eating tremendous amounts of food, training with very heavy weights but keeping active so I am at a leaness I personally am satisfied with.
I topped out at about 303lbs and but currently hang around 283-288 because thats what I like to be at.
I put my dues in here.
I might jump in a show if time allows but because of my schedule currently we will have to see how that works out.
Mainly Im looking forward to the day I can kind of relax and not push the limits like I have all these years.
The 6 meals a day every day, and the war with the logbook along with lugging around 285-300lbs sometimes becomes very tedious.
I go to bed at nite thinking exactly what Im going to do and what all this hard work will easily allow myself to do when I decide to crank the dial downward. Cardio will be done 6 times a week for health and bodyfat reasons and that will take priority.
Back to the subject on hand here.
So what will all this hard work for the past 15 years allow me to do? I’m in my mid 30’s now so for the rest of my 30’s and thru my 40’ and 50’s i can pretty much walk around at 250lbs hard as a rock at a very low bodyfat percentage.
Ive set myself up so that will be very very easy.
I actually have to do much less than everything I do now (except cardio) to be there.
Ill use guys in this forum for examples, Inhuman and massive G are both around 5’9", 5’10" and are offseason 280 to 300.
They have spent the time and food consumption and paid their dues to get there. Massive G I believe is mid 30’s and Inhuman is early 40’s I believe.
Both these guys will be able to crank this down and enjoy walking around with full abs, hard as granite with veins everywhere at 240-260lbs.
They have set themselves up and paid their dues in their 20’s and 30’s to do that.
You guys that are 35-45 years old who want this but weigh 175-210lbs are playing catchup and are so behind the race its sad.
My point of this post is to get guys in their early 20’s to think, to get guys who just blew 10 years of training who are in their 30’s to think, and to get guys who just blew 10-15 years of training who are in their 40’s to think.
Am I advising bulking up? No that was a hypothetical example. Im advising you get your freaking head on straight if you want this so bad.
That means extreme food intake pronto, with the heaviest weights in good form that you can use progressively, extreme stretching and enough cardio (and bodyfat protocols) that it keeps you at a leaness your satisfied with as you get dramatically larger.
This sport isnt unlike a career.
You have to set yourself up early so you can be right where you want to be late.
Theres alot of you guys 35-45 years old in this forum, some that I even train, that think they want it but really dont have what it takes to go get it.
I see it in their workouts they send me (they take the easy comfortable road never pushing the limits) and for those that I dont train I sometimes see it in your posts—you just dont have what it takes.
I can only provide a guide to get there, I cant create an inner drive for you.
You have to start thinking in terms of point B from point A.
Do you really think that eating 3000 calories with 225 grams of protein and doing the Weider “confusion training principle” to keep your body offguard will somehow magically make your 175lbs into 250lbs of rock granite monstrosity?
Every year of training is so damn important.
If you just trained for a whole year and only gained 2lbs of muscle mass, you just pretty much wasted a productive year of training–its gone–its lost and you arent getting that year back.
Three weeks ago I was contacted by someone in his early 40’s who had been lifting for many years, weighed about 170lbs and showed me a picture of Geir Borgan Paulsen and said thats what he wanted to look like and can i get him there?!.
Laughable. Geir Borgan Paulsen is 50 years old and looks freaking phenomenal. He is a tiny bit (and i mean every so slightly tiny bit smaller) than he was when he competed in his 30’s.
Instead of wasting years and years of lifting getting absolutely nowhere, Geir spent his 20’s and 30’s eating huge amounts of food and training with heavy heavy weights so that he could walk around all thru his 30’s, 40’s and now 50 years old jacked to the hilt.
Not many people have a better front double biceps than Geir no matter what age they are…here he is http://www.nutritionoutlet.nu/galler...02/borgan.html
What Im hoping to relay to you slackers and dreamers that are in this forum is that you have to put your time in and pay your dues in this sport.
Your 2-3lbs gain a year arent going to get it done so unless you want to get to 55 years old and look back and think “wow besides the people I told and myself, noone even knew I was a bodybuilder and I never made it”…
you better get your ass in gear and your head on right and get this done now.
Gaining fat is easy but if you never lifted how long would it take for you to gain 80lbs of fat from 175 to 255lbs?
Probably a year and you would have to forcefeed yourself to get there. Just think how long it takes to put on 80lbs of muscle mass which is an extremely “hard to come by” commodity.
This sport is about extremes–using weights you havent used previously, taking in amounts of food to build greater muscle mass-in amounts you never have done previously, and GETTING THE CARDIO DONE to keep you at an acceptable offseason training bodyfat that keeps you happy.
Get your act together and think this all out or quit your complaining and dreaming and take up tennis.
Not sure if your goal is to even look like you lift, man, but you better have an elite-total if it took you 20 years to reach those stats and then bitch about a “novice” telling you what he thinks…
#Edit: A job that gets in the way here and there is no excuse.