[quote]Carlitosway wrote:
So what were you doing for those 4 years primarily? Did you focus on size/bodybuilding for those 4 years and got up to 200 + and then this last year you focused on strength primarily and just blew up in size? Just curious.
Also curious as to what you currently look like. Since you dish out a huge amount of advice. It would only be fair for the newbies and us novices to see what your way of training has done for you this past year. Since you got “bigger and muscular” this past year as if those other 4 years didn’t do much for you.[/quote]
I know you are trolling, but i’ll amuse you. I probably went through 2 growth spurts during those 4 years, and my training changed a bit (its hard to remember back to what I was doing).
But my training started to come together when I first started using EDT. I got stronger, bigger and leaner, but only to a point. This was my first exposure to some real barbell routines, and I think I did SS a bit, and mainly EDT, and probably a bit of Westside for certain things.
Two of my “problems” were that I wasn’t eating enough (plain and simple i needed to gain weight and eat more to recover) and I was focusing on the “wrong” exercises. I didn’t do much barbell bench pressing, because it had bothered my shoulders in the past and I never had a spotter, and maybe I was lazy. Also I didn’t do squats, because I never took the time to learn them, and enjoyed deadlifting more, and I probably was lazy.
So I really focused on pullups, DB snatches, Deadlifts, and DB floor pressing. And as I got stronger on these lifts, I magically got bigger and leaner, but as I said I wasn’t eating enough, so I eventually stalled on both strength and size. **Also during this time, I was skimboarding a lot (which was a blast) and weight gain wasn’t gonna happen.
((I know though that the training I did during this time was pretty productive and definately enjoyable, so I DO plan on going back to it sometime in the future, but I’ll pay more attention to eating enough and recovery))
So that “phase” took me to around 190’ish and I was pretty lean ~12% or so.
I then fell into the trap of wanting “hot abz” so I started doing different forms of conditioning, like TABATA, and experimenting with cutting and low carb. Im not sure how long this lasted, but I got a bit leaner, but made very little progress during this time, and it was for the most part a waste of time. During this time I was also doing Karate and Kickboxing, which really prevented me from gaining much muscle, but of course my focus was on getting leaner. But ya, didn’t make much progress for this year or two, but had great fun.
Then was my final phase of “success”. I cant remember exactly when this began, but I wanna say about a year ago, or maybe last summer. I started to focus more on size and strength and finally realized that the reason I was too small, was that I wasn’t eating enough. I experimented with Westside for a while, and made some progress, but I was still too inexperienced to do that program without a coach or mentor. Progress was slow, but still better than before.
Then things started to come around when I read Dan John’s article “the 40 day program” It was inspiring, and I went for it, and I ate like a mad man. I was able to put about 15lbs on in about 1-2 months. Yes I know this is fast, and A LOT of it was fat, but I didn’t care. My goal was to move up in weight, not a “clean bulk” or minimizing fat. I just wanted to get used to eating more, and weigh more.
I went into Westside’ish WS4SB and some other strength focused programs for a while, and I cant remember if it happened in one or two phases, but I eventually broke the 200lbs mark, and topped out around 218. I wasn’t gaining a ton of strength during this time, for various reasons, so much of what I gained was fat, but it is now easier for me to maintain a weight of 210+ and I dont look terribly fat with clothes on.
Now where im at, I have some clear goals, and feel ready to pursue those goals. I want bigger arms and more muscle all around, but my goals are mainly performance based. I want to press/bench/squat/deadlift 200/300/400/500 which isn’t spectacular, but is great for me. And I want to weigh somewhere between 220-240. And Im pretty confident that my best bet to achieve these goals is going to be following strength focused programs and eating for progress in strength and body weight.
END OF LONG BORING STORY -
BUT, I will say ive made a lot of mistakes, and learned from both things that worked and things that didn’t work. Its something that you learn as you go, and some people just learn faster than others. And the biggest lesson I learned, was that I NEEDED TO EAT MORE.