The Journey of the Skinnies

[Conquer92]

Finally got around to testing my 1RM on deadlift. Got to about 1.7X my BW before I ran out of weights (I lift solo in a smallish gym wit mostly fat men & women using the treadmill). Felt I could have easily done 1.8X my BW without my form going off

Squat 1RM = 1.2X BW
Deadlift 1 RM = 1.8X BW
Bench 1 RM = 0.75X BW

Numbers still weak but I am getting better. Though my bench is very very weak I can see that I've added a fair bit of mass on my upper chest due to the incline benching I recently added, another 10lbs of overall body mass and I won't have the damn collar bone visible anymore

More motivated than before to keep at this and make progress

Great stuff man. How long have you been lifting?

[orca23554]

About 9 months - would have lost 30 days in between due to vacation/illness etc

My ability to push myself really hard and to failure occasionally has been limited due to not having any safety mechanism/spot if I fail a rep on Squat/Bench, tend to play it safe and conservative more often than not

[usertrack]

Glad to see thread is still active! Keep up the good work guys.

Gained almost 10 pounds in a month so far. Currently 165 up from 155 (original weight last year was 140lbs so +25 since I started). I will share before/afters when I hit my goal of 180.

Current split:

Mon Chest/Back
Tue Shoulders/Arms
Wed Rest
Thursday Chest Back
Friday Shoulders/Arms
Saturday Legs

Its a modified version of Arnie's Basic Workout I. My legs overpower upper body so I take Wednesdays off completely for recovery and devote Saturdays to really pummelling them. High frequency during the week for upper body but if I need some extra rest, I tend to forgo one of the shoulder/arms workouts (Chest/Back day still works the arms a bit).

Diet wise, eating loads of chicken, rice, oats and peanut butter w/banana sandwiches, lots of milk, eggs, top it all off with quark before bed and protein shakes where postworkout and in the morning first thing.

So I'm going all out but making sure I maximise recovery at the same time. Keeping it balanced but effective.

[thatswhatshesed]

Glad to see thread is still active! Keep up the good work guys.

Gained almost 10 pounds in a month so far. Currently 165 up from 155 (original weight last year was 140lbs so +25 since I started). I will share before/afters when I hit my goal of 180.

Current split:

Mon Chest/Back
Tue Shoulders/Arms
Wed Rest
Thursday Chest Back
Friday Shoulders/Arms
Saturday Legs

Its a modified version of Arnie's Basic Workout I. My legs overpower upper body so I take Wednesdays off completely for recovery and devote Saturdays to really pummelling them. High frequency during the week for upper body but if I need some extra rest, I tend to forgo one of the shoulder/arms workouts (Chest/Back day still works the arms a bit).

Diet wise, eating loads of chicken, rice, oats and peanut butter w/banana sandwiches, lots of milk, eggs, top it all off with quark before bed and protein shakes where postworkout and in the morning first thing.

So I'm going all out but making sure I maximise recovery at the same time. Keeping it balanced but effective.

awesome man! sounds like you're making awesome progress.

I had to sit out the gym on friday and this weekend... got food poisoning or something, could barely eat and felt verrryyy sick.
i hate taking time off the gym, but i guess i needed to. hopefully ill be able to comeback strong on monday if im feeling it. Anyone got any good motivational videos or anything to keep me going?

[TeeJay07]

Just joined the group! This is my first Bodyspace group membership, so apologies if I start a little sluggish.

My background: I'm 27, working in IT as a Systems Administrator, and am an ecto. At 5' 10" and ~72kg, I'm not very well built. Early last year I was 65kg, and for a bit I got into SS, which coupled with a bit of a haphazard 'see food' diet, saw me put on a good solid 5kg in the space of a month. After having to replace most of my wardrobe I stopped for a bit, and this year I wanted to take things further. This year has been stupid crazy - bought a house, proposed to the GF, promoted at work from a desktop tech to sysadmin... not a lot of time has been dedicated to achieving my goal, which was to be 80kg by December.

On top of this, I'm actually studying to be PT qualified part time - I used to have a sporty background, and ever since I started working in IT 9 years ago, I pretty much stopped all of my sports. Which is part of my reason I want to change careers, I'm of the belief that life wasn't meant to be spent sitting at a desk typing on a keyboard all day.

Anyways, waffling a bit now. My goal is still to weigh 80kg, but I want to eliminate all traces of skinnyfat pudge, improve my posture, and with my new qualifications, help others do the same. Cheers.

[usertrack]

awesome man! sounds like you're making awesome progress.

I had to sit out the gym on friday and this weekend... got food poisoning or something, could barely eat and felt verrryyy sick.
i hate taking time off the gym, but i guess i needed to. hopefully ill be able to comeback strong on monday if im feeling it. Anyone got any good motivational videos or anything to keep me going?

Cheers dude.

Ah that sucks, but you will regain quickly.
I'll post this for motivation:



First image I've been allowed to post on here! Only took almost 2 years haha

Just joined the group! This is my first Bodyspace group membership, so apologies if I start a little sluggish.

My background: I'm 27, working in IT as a Systems Administrator, and am an ecto. At 5' 10" and ~72kg, I'm not very well built. Early last year I was 65kg, and for a bit I got into SS, which coupled with a bit of a haphazard 'see food' diet, saw me put on a good solid 5kg in the space of a month. After having to replace most of my wardrobe I stopped for a bit, and this year I wanted to take things further. This year has been stupid crazy - bought a house, proposed to the GF, promoted at work from a desktop tech to sysadmin... not a lot of time has been dedicated to achieving my goal, which was to be 80kg by December.

On top of this, I'm actually studying to be PT qualified part time - I used to have a sporty background, and ever since I started working in IT 9 years ago, I pretty much stopped all of my sports. Which is part of my reason I want to change careers, I'm of the belief that life wasn't meant to be spent sitting at a desk typing on a keyboard all day.

Anyways, waffling a bit now. My goal is still to weigh 80kg, but I want to eliminate all traces of skinnyfat pudge, improve my posture, and with my new qualifications, help others do the same. Cheers.

Good luck with your goals! I hope you find a job you're happier in as well. Never too late to make a change.

[y0lked]

just ate 1300 cals of pizza buffet! gotta hit 185 before i can run my m-stak!! motivating as sh*t! bout to hit back today! whats everyone been up to?

anyone been force-eating as much as i have? lol

[CrabSock]

Tired as fuark, but i've been doing well about eating more calories. So... going to use the fact I've got a ton of fuel in the tank as motivation to go to the gym. Get some! Bulking to 200lbs... fifteen lbs to go!

[y0lked]

Tired as fuark, but i've been doing well about eating more calories. So... going to use the fact I've got a ton of fuel in the tank as motivation to go to the gym. Get some! Bulking to 200lbs... fifteen lbs to go!

Thatta boy! Let's get some before and after photos up in this bitch!

I'll be posting my 25 pound, 6month, transformation in another month or two. Had a little set back from the ex but I'm hitting it harder than ever!

BBQ chicken n rice ftw!

[TijsVerwest]

nnoiiiiccee

[Burton7]

been a longtime lurker of the forum, always have the bad habbit to start lifting then lose motivation after a few weeks/months. really want to get some muscle and i need it for myself this time around. Starting again with Allpros tomorrow, really hope to stay motivated and work hard this time. im sick of being the skinny guy haha

edit: also does anyone in this thread have any experience/results from using Allpros starting skinny and how it helped with size? i currently weigh about 160.

[y0lked]

been a longtime lurker of the forum, always have the bad habbit to start lifting then lose motivation after a few weeks/months. really want to get some muscle and i need it for myself this time around. Starting again with Allpros tomorrow, really hope to stay motivated and work hard this time. im sick of being the skinny guy haha

edit: also does anyone in this thread have any experience/results from using Allpros starting skinny and how it helped with size? i currently weigh about 160.

anything you do in the gym will translate to muscle if you feed your body right if your skinny. just make sure your training the muscle and not the lift.

[Burton7]

anything you do in the gym will translate to muscle if you feed your body right if your skinny. just make sure your training the muscle and not the lift.

Can you elaborate or give any pointers on "training the muscle and not the lift"?

[phillyboyv]

Hopefully im not too late to join in on this motivation.

I'm 27, 5'10, 150 lbs, I dont have ALOT of fat but theres a little flab, and my arms are skinny as hell in which I hope to change that by end of next year.

nice to meet yall and hopefully I can get as much motivation as well as motivate!

[bustermac]

I'm stuck...cannot increase my weight!

I'm 5'6" and stuck on 117. Yes, I said 117. I've tried gainers, calorie counting to get extra, just eating more...doesn't help. I'm getting a lot stronger, increasing in size and am "cut like diamonds"....wife loves it...but can't increase my weight. I'm in my mid-30s too, so that mid-life metabolism slow-down...not happening yet. One thing that used to hinder me is that I have full-body arthritis since I was a kid...I've had so many surgeries and setbacks but I've finally got it under control with some great medication that I have to inject into my leg every two weeks. I've been lifting like a madman all year.

Yesterday, hit a personal-best 210 lbs on deadlift. So that's positive. Not bad considering that's almost double my weight.

I've pretty must accepted that I am not going to gain weight and am focusing on strength and just building muscle.

[thatswhatshesed]

I'm stuck...cannot increase my weight!

I'm 5'6" and stuck on 117. Yes, I said 117. I've tried gainers, calorie counting to get extra, just eating more...doesn't help. I'm getting a lot stronger, increasing in size and am "cut like diamonds"....wife loves it...but can't increase my weight. I'm in my mid-30s too, so that mid-life metabolism slow-down...not happening yet. One thing that used to hinder me is that I have full-body arthritis since I was a kid...I've had so many surgeries and setbacks but I've finally got it under control with some great medication that I have to inject into my leg every two weeks. I've been lifting like a madman all year.

Yesterday, hit a personal-best 210 lbs on deadlift. So that's positive. Not bad considering that's almost double my weight.

I've pretty must accepted that I am not going to gain weight and am focusing on strength and just building muscle.

2 words my friend: Eat More.
Unless you are a black hole, there IS a point at which you will eat at a level that will start to build muscle and put on lbs. This point is different for everyone- its all trial and error. Whats the highest calories you've tried consistently eating at?

[bustermac]

2 words my friend: Eat More.
Unless you are a black hole, there IS a point at which you will eat at a level that will start to build muscle and put on lbs. This point is different for everyone- its all trial and error. Whats the highest calories you've tried consistently eating at?

I did an experiment a month or so ago and took in between 4000 and 5000 a day for 2 weeks straight, no permanent gains.

I even tried Russian Bear 5000 a few months back. Gained 2 pounds...lost it within another week.


Lately I've been trying to eat 4 meals with extra milk and ON Whey shakes throughout the day. I eat a ton at dinner too, about 2 meal's worth of food.

I highly doubt I have a thyroid issue, but it's just crazy how hard it is for me to gain anything.

[y0lked]

Can you elaborate or give any pointers on "training the muscle and not the lift"?

yea, sometimes we get caught up in how much weight we are lifting rather than how hard the designated muscle is working. I did that on bench for 2 years and only got up to 200lbs from 125. I wasnt training the chest and as a result my chest looked like an 8th grader but my shoulders and tris were strong as hell. Also i was a dive bomber atg squatter, i had no quads but could squat 315.

Kai talks about it here

Hopefully im not too late to join in on this motivation.

I'm 27, 5'10, 150 lbs, I dont have ALOT of fat but theres a little flab, and my arms are skinny as hell in which I hope to change that by end of next year.

nice to meet yall and hopefully I can get as much motivation as well as motivate!

great to have ya! post anything about being a skinny here!

I'm stuck...cannot increase my weight!

I'm 5'6" and stuck on 117. Yes, I said 117. I've tried gainers, calorie counting to get extra, just eating more...doesn't help. I'm getting a lot stronger, increasing in size and am "cut like diamonds"....wife loves it...but can't increase my weight. I'm in my mid-30s too, so that mid-life metabolism slow-down...not happening yet. One thing that used to hinder me is that I have full-body arthritis since I was a kid...I've had so many surgeries and setbacks but I've finally got it under control with some great medication that I have to inject into my leg every two weeks. I've been lifting like a madman all year.

Yesterday, hit a personal-best 210 lbs on deadlift. So that's positive. Not bad considering that's almost double my weight.

I've pretty must accepted that I am not going to gain weight and am focusing on strength and just building muscle.

stop. i said that about a year ago when i could not reach 170. start from the basics and re-work your diet.
"insanity is expecting different results with the same approach".

I did an experiment a month or so ago and took in between 4000 and 5000 a day for 2 weeks straight, no permanent gains.

I even tried Russian Bear 5000 a few months back. Gained 2 pounds...lost it within another week.


Lately I've been trying to eat 4 meals with extra milk and ON Whey shakes throughout the day. I eat a ton at dinner too, about 2 meal's worth of food.

I highly doubt I have a thyroid issue, but it's just crazy how hard it is for me to gain anything.

i was in your situation. honestly i found out i wasnt eating the RIGHT foods to grow. i highly highly doubt that you ate 4000-5000 calories a day for 2 weeks straight and didnt gain weight.

please post your daily diet plan up here (not the experiment diet) just the diet you feel like if you ate, you should gain 1lb per week.

[orca23554]

Finally getting to a stage where I need to focus on the quality of weight I gain than the quantity here on

Hit 165lbs on BW recently, that's just 5lbs away from my first target of 170lbs when I started lifting 9-10 months ago. This will actually end up going much better than expected if I can end my first year of lifting with a gain of 40+lbs

Long term target is a BW of around 185lbs at a BF % in the 12-13% range, BF right now would be 18-19% which I can live with since I am bulking and still in the process of fine tuning my diet which has been very carb high all these years. All going fine I should be getting into my first cut 6 months from now

[y0lked]

[Whiteybird]

Bone in chicken?

I hope you ate 8 other legs.

[Whiteybird]

I did an experiment a month or so ago and took in between 4000 and 5000 a day for 2 weeks straight, no permanent gains.

I even tried Russian Bear 5000 a few months back. Gained 2 pounds...lost it within another week.


Lately I've been trying to eat 4 meals with extra milk and ON Whey shakes throughout the day. I eat a ton at dinner too, about 2 meal's worth of food.

I highly doubt I have a thyroid issue, but it's just crazy how hard it is for me to gain anything.

People claim to eat a lot, but when they actually list out their intake, they are WAY off.

Give us an example of your daily meals.

[NO_STEROIDS]

patience and consistency guys, it's not gonna happen overnight or in a few months. i went from 140 to 209 lbs in 6+ yrs, good diet, 5 days of training, and it paid off. i'm pleased with the end result


to

[Blacklac]

I'm not at a point where I need motivation, right now, but maybe my decent progress can help other. I've only been working out for 7.5 months (athough I was always athletic and active in school, with not serious lifting. LIke mainly biceps. lol). 6 months of bulking and currently cutting over the last 6 weeks. I'm most proud of my back, and I've really only nailed down what I think is a solid routine over the last couple months. When I started, i was only hitting chest, arms and shoulders. After a few months, I started legs and added pullups. I now have a pretty solid full body routine that works for me. Starting weight was 148-152lbs. I am at 156lbs right now. I was up to 166lbs before I started cutting.

http://imagecdn.bodybuilding.com/img...Wegd1J973.jpeg
http://imagecdn.bodybuilding.com/img...My30nu653.jpeg

My chest is the hard part to grow. I still hit it hard and I am seeing growth, but it doesn't match the quick growth I got everywhere else. My arms, shoulders, back and now my legs all blew up fairly quick, compared to where I was when I started.

[y0lked]

Bone in chicken?

I hope you ate 8 other legs.

nope check them out
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailypl...nutritiondata/
doing bone in for the extra fat content, 3 legs = 648 calories

patience and consistency guys, it's not gonna happen overnight or in a few months. i went from 140 to 209 lbs in 6+ yrs, good diet, 5 days of training, and it paid off. i'm pleased with the end result

[img]skinny[/img]
to
[img]man[/img]

GJDM lookin big, thought about a cut? do you have visible abs?

I'm not at a point where I need motivation, right now, but maybe my decent progress can help other. I've only been working out for 7.5 months (athough I was always athletic and active in school, with not serious lifting. LIke mainly biceps. lol). 6 months of bulking and currently cutting over the last 6 weeks. I'm most proud of my back, and I've really only nailed down what I think is a solid routine over the last couple months. When I started, i was only hitting chest, arms and shoulders. After a few months, I started legs and added pullups. I now have a pretty solid full body routine that works for me. Starting weight was 148-152lbs. I am at 156lbs right now. I was up to 166lbs before I started cutting.

http://imagecdn.bodybuilding.com/img...Wegd1J973.jpeg
http://imagecdn.bodybuilding.com/img...My30nu653.jpeg

My chest is the hard part to grow. I still hit it hard and I am seeing growth, but it doesn't match the quick growth I got everywhere else. My arms, shoulders, back and now my legs all blew up fairly quick, compared to where I was when I started.

Nice back progress! What blew my chest up was focusing on hitting chest more with bench rather than trying to do more weight, and also HEAVY DB bench SS db flys. (heavy DB worked my chest better than heavy BB) either way, possibly try and leave your ego at the door (hardest thing to do when it comes to chest i know!) and work on really fatiguing the chest.

just my 2c

[Howlitzer]

havnt posted in awhile, ive been on and off the last 2 months with my eating habits, ive still managed to go the gym at least 3 days a week though. Finally got up to 160, that was a huge benchmark for me as it took a lot longer than I though, but now I know it can be done and that its not to hard, its time to keep it going. Small goals at a time, aiming for 170 next! Glad to see everyone else still working and accomplishing their goals

[NO_STEROIDS]

GJDM lookin big, thought about a cut? do you have visible abs?

thanks. i've been on a bulk/cut few times already. i'm trying to get to 215-220 now, bulking till Feb '13, then cut.At the moment i'm about 12% bf, upper abs are visible. i'm planning on doing a show later next yr, thinking about WBFF or NPC

[KevMill]

I hope I'm not top late to join in on this, I'm going to begin my journey soon to bulk up...

I'm 21 years old, 5'10'' and weigh 133lbs..My whole family are big people, my 3 brothers are all 250+ and for some reason I ended up being underweight, I literally have the smallest arms I've ever seen and I'm ready to finally quit talking about making a change and start doing it...I'm researching now on how many calories I'll need a day and a good routine...

[y0lked]

havnt posted in awhile, ive been on and off the last 2 months with my eating habits, ive still managed to go the gym at least 3 days a week though. Finally got up to 160, that was a huge benchmark for me as it took a lot longer than I though, but now I know it can be done and that its not to hard, its time to keep it going. Small goals at a time, aiming for 170 next! Glad to see everyone else still working and accomplishing their goals

good luck on the 170! got any progress pics?

thanks. i've been on a bulk/cut few times already. i'm trying to get to 215-220 now, bulking till Feb '13, then cut.At the moment i'm about 12% bf, upper abs are visible. i'm planning on doing a show later next yr, thinking about WBFF or NPC

sick bro! keep us posted! post up your diet if you can

I hope I'm not top late to join in on this, I'm going to begin my journey soon to bulk up...

I'm 21 years old, 5'10'' and weigh 133lbs..My whole family are big people, my 3 brothers are all 250+ and for some reason I ended up being underweight, I literally have the smallest arms I've ever seen and I'm ready to finally quit talking about making a change and start doing it...I'm researching now on how many calories I'll need a day and a good routine...

never too late! feel free to PM me anything you need. if your 21 and still only 133 lbs, your definitely a skinny which means you can eat a TON of calories and not put on fat. Which means you SHOULD be eating as much as you can while training as hard as you can to see the best results.

my suggestion is to start aiming at >133 grams of protein per day, and the other calories of whole food to be as much as you possibly can eat and paired with this routine

Schedule: Mon(A), Wed (B), Fri (A). Mon (B), Wed (A), Fri (B)
A Day:
Bench Press: 3 x 8
Squat: 3 x 8
Pullups: 2 sets to fail
Leg press: 3 x 8
Barbell Curls: 3 x 8
Rope crunches: 3 x 10

B Day:
Incline Press: 3 x 8
Shoulder Press: 3 x 8
Skull crushers: 3 x 8
Dips: 3 x fail
T-Bar rows: 3 x 8
Deadlift: 3 x 8
Leg lifts 2 x fail

[Conquer92]

good luck on the 170! got any progress pics?

sick bro! keep us posted! post up your diet if you can

never too late! feel free to PM me anything you need. if your 21 and still only 133 lbs, your definitely a skinny which means you can eat a TON of calories and not put on fat. Which means you SHOULD be eating as much as you can while training as hard as you can to see the best results.

my suggestion is to start aiming at >133 grams of protein per day, and the other calories of whole food to be as much as you possibly can eat and paired with this routine

Schedule: Mon(A), Wed (B), Fri (A). Mon (B), Wed (A), Fri (B)
A Day:
Bench Press: 3 x 8
Squat: 3 x 8
Pullups: 2 sets to fail
Leg press: 3 x 8
Barbell Curls: 3 x 8
Rope crunches: 3 x 10

B Day:
Incline Press: 3 x 8
Shoulder Press: 3 x 8
Skull crushers: 3 x 8
Dips: 3 x fail
T-Bar rows: 3 x 8
Deadlift: 3 x 8
Leg lifts 2 x fail

Way too much volume if he wants to be gaining weight. Need to keep work to a minimum but still make progress.
100% i suggest sticking to Starting Strength and start eating more. Youll make unbelievable progress.