7 years of natural bodybuilding, staying motvated

[DPHSeric]

I'm new here and I really get a lot of motivation from you guys. I've been following a lot of the posts on here for years and it helped keep me going, so thank you. Many of my pictures are in my profile gallery but here's one that hopefully can motivate anyone here who's pretty skinny and can't foresee themselves getting big yet.

I was pretty skinny for being 6'2". I was basically just skateboarding all day and barely eating, and when I did eat, it was pretty much garbage food. I broke my ankle skateboarding one day, and was stuck doing nothing for a few months at home and had to take a semester off as well, so when I got back to school I decided that maybe I should do a little weight training so that I'm not so fragile. I guess the biggest motivation for us all is when we start to see the first sign of any progress. You know, that first time you see abs, or the first time you get a good pump and you notice a couple veins coming through, stepping on the scale and seeing the numbers go in the direction you want them to... That's usually enough to keep us hooked and that's why we are all passionate about what we do here.
Most importantly, setting goals is the key. You can't just say "I want to be jacked" or "I want to be shredded" and that's it. You have to set little goals to keep you improving yourself. "I want to be 200 pounds by next year", "I want to add 50 pounds to my max deadlift by summer", those are all reasonable goal statements that can be achieved and upon doing so, setting the new standard for yourself and by then, your body already changed drastically for the better.

Thanks for reading, stay motivated guys

[Bonuman]

Props to you.

Inaction provides a warm blanket of comfort, but to have something which you've never had, you've got to do something you've never did.

[muddyv8]

but do you still skate

[haydz45]

Thats really inspiring man! fuuark, dem biceps!

[DPHSeric]

Props to you.


Inaction provides a warm blanket of comfort, but to have something which you've never had, you've got to do something you've never did.

You're right and thank you

but do you still skate

Unfortunately not. I made the difficult decision to train legs hard and never think about jumping down stairs again. I can still push on a board comfortably but I look like a gorilla on one.

Thats really inspiring man! fuuark, dem biceps!

Thanks dude! Glad you got inspiration from it. Yeah, my arms have been kind to me so far. They are at 19.2" (Well, left one is, right one is a tiny bit smaller)

[Kdawg1989]

dat der azian genetics


feelsbadbeingwhite.jpg

[stealthlife49]

Every time someone 6'2" posts a picture of themselves at a certain weight, it just makes my goal weight higher and higher. It started at 200, then 210, then 220, and now you're 230. The short-term goal is 200, but your build is impressive. Time, time, and more time.

[DPHSeric]

dat der azian genetics


feelsbadbeingwhite.jpg

Nah, I'm part German/Austrian and part Vietnamese. I would like to think the white part of me gives me the most hope..

Every time someone 6'2" posts a picture of themselves at a certain weight, it just makes my goal weight higher and higher. It started at 200, then 210, then 220, and now you're 230. The short-term goal is 200, but your build is impressive. Time, time, and more time.

It takes longer for the tall people to look big. Since our arms and legs and lats and everything are elongated, our strength goes up but it takes much longer for the muscle to develop with width. Someone who's 5'2" looks very stocky without being very strong fast. Stick it out and keep on goin. I remember being 190, finally seeing results then going, "damn I would look great at 200 pounds". I guess the trick is to never be satisfied right? You just inspired me, gonna kill tomorrow's workout!

[sb327]

fuarrk. i was 6'1", 130 and well under 10% bf when i started about 3 years ago. i was pretty much the same way; i would never eat and i ate **** food. sometimes id eat under 1000 cals in a day. ive been on and off and i couldve made better progress but for the last 5 months, ive been going at it hard nonstop and im making a lot of progress. currently im 6'3", 205 and ~12-14%bf. but i still struggle with that feeling of not wanting to eat. its definitely what has held me back from making better progress. any tips? hope to look like you someday though, op.

[Misctake7]

That is an awesome transformation! Repped. I really wish I had started out as the skinny guy adding weight but I was actually the over-weight guy that had to drop down and then bulk.

[DPHSeric]

fuarrk. i was 6'1", 130 and well under 10% bf when i started about 3 years ago. i was pretty much the same way; i would never eat and i ate **** food. sometimes id eat under 1000 cals in a day. ive been on and off and i couldve made better progress but for the last 5 months, ive been going at it hard nonstop and im making a lot of progress. currently im 6'3", 205 and ~12-14%bf. but i still struggle with that feeling of not wanting to eat. its definitely what has held me back from making better progress. any tips? hope to look like you someday though, op.

130? Dayamn you must have been a stringbean. It's great that you're 205 now, it's much better for a height like ours. I actually got stuck at that weight for a little bit not knowing how to break my plateaus. I would recommend always eating a surplus of calories (eat when you're not hungry or add another shake to your day) and lifting heavy in a Max-OT style routine. It's the only routine style I've needed recently. I tried PHaT which is pretty good but I feel like the true gains from from the rep ranges between 4-6, then you can always do drop sets to burn out the muscle.

That is an awesome transformation! Repped. I really wish I had started out as the skinny guy adding weight but I was actually the over-weight guy that had to drop down and then bulk.

Thanks. Also forgot to mention that throughout middleschool and freshman year of HS i was overweight, too fat to skate. I lost about 50 pounds of fat through diet and a stationary bike, just so I can finally skateboard. I think people like you have a great body to build on, because you know how to change your body when you dont like it.

[ectobruh]

repped for toy machine.

[Zagreos]

Rep good job bro

[NF0913]

what is your height/weight bro? props... very motivational

[DPHSeric]

what is your height/weight bro? props... very motivational

My height is 6'2" and my weight is 230. At the moment I'm bulking with a little bit of a higher bodyfat, so I'm closer to 235.

Rep good job bro

Thank you much

repped for toy machine.

Haha thanks man, Toy Machine will be my favorite team forever!

Here's two shots of me at 235 with some fat coming in

[dest0]

Amazing progress dude, definitely a transformation n motivation

[DPHSeric]

Amazing progress dude, definitely a transformation n motivation

Thanks you. I'm glad it's motivational because it's proof that you just gotta work for those pounds slowly...

[RRJ]

Awesome, really motivating. I'd love to have that kind of musculature. Do you have year by year progress photos?

[DPHSeric]

Awesome, really motivating. I'd love to have that kind of musculature. Do you have year by year progress photos?

Thanks man. You can get this musculature, that's what I'm trying to show people. I literally fight for each pound of muscle month after month... just training hard and heavy and always perfect form. I wish I had a year by year. I lost about 4 years of progress in pictures when my old harddrive imploded, I only have serious photos from this year and last year.

[Tumors]

Niiice, Checked your bodyspace and im mirin'. Figure in a couple years i could gain 20 and be where youre at. 6'3" about 210 atm. Mind me asking if you take creatine? Still deciding wether or not i will.

[ShagsJX]

you look like a machine props bro!

[hornedone]

Gjdm

[Ellis42]

I'm new here and I really get a lot of motivation from you guys. I've been following a lot of the posts on here for years and it helped keep me going, so thank you. Many of my pictures are in my profile gallery but here's one that hopefully can motivate anyone here who's pretty skinny and can't foresee themselves getting big yet.

I was pretty skinny for being 6'2". I was basically just skateboarding all day and barely eating, and when I did eat, it was pretty much garbage food. I broke my ankle skateboarding one day, and was stuck doing nothing for a few months at home and had to take a semester off as well, so when I got back to school I decided that maybe I should do a little weight training so that I'm not so fragile. I guess the biggest motivation for us all is when we start to see the first sign of any progress. You know, that first time you see abs, or the first time you get a good pump and you notice a couple veins coming through, stepping on the scale and seeing the numbers go in the direction you want them to... That's usually enough to keep us hooked and that's why we are all passionate about what we do here.
Most importantly, setting goals is the key. You can't just say "I want to be jacked" or "I want to be shredded" and that's it. You have to set little goals to keep you improving yourself. "I want to be 200 pounds by next year", "I want to add 50 pounds to my max deadlift by summer", those are all reasonable goal statements that can be achieved and upon doing so, setting the new standard for yourself and by then, your body already changed drastically for the better.

Thanks for reading, stay motivated guys

Nice transformation, keep it up looking great (no homo)

[shelbycummin]

great. nice to see success.

[Ronceiro]

How long did it take you to get most of your mass? I've heard from various natty bb'ers that the majority of their muscle mass is gained in the 1st 4 years of training and the rest of the years they have trained is working towards maintaining that muscle

[v8hemi]

Amazing progress OP. I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who has stuck to natural lifting. Any of my friends that are serious into lifting resorted to juice and it's very discouraging.

Any tips for breaking plateaus? I recently made a post where I was seeking advice because I was positive that I was overtaining. I was doing an upper/lower split and pretty much all of my upper body strength dropped tremendously. My bench press went down 65lbs, lost 10 pounds on shoulder press, used to be able to do 3x10 pull ups now i struggle doing even 10 on the first set. Everyone is telling me that I just stalled and didn't know how to break the plateau. So now I'm trying a different progression scheme, increase by reps versus weight. 3x6, then 3x7 following week, etc.

The full thread can be found here if you're interested:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=149124183

[DPHSeric]

Niiice, Checked your bodyspace and im mirin'. Figure in a couple years i could gain 20 and be where youre at. 6'3" about 210 atm. Mind me asking if you take creatine? Still deciding wether or not i will.

Thank you much and thanks for checkin my page. Yeah, if you're at 6'3, 220 is totally obtainable within a few years. If you lift correctly and eat well, you can be looking at between 5 to 10 pounds of muscle a year. And yes, I only take the amount of creatine in my post workout by muscletech. I also don't stay on it consistently. Another thing to note is that I haven't taken creatine before 2 years ago, and I made most of my gains quickly the years prior to it, so who knows?

you look like a machine props bro!

Thank you man, keep it up!

Gjdm

Thanks

Nice transformation, keep it up looking great (no homo)

I appreciate it and I hope it inspires you. Everyone on this site inspires me. No homo taken lol

great. nice to see success.

Thanks yo, it's something anyone can do

How long did it take you to get most of your mass? I've heard from various natty bb'ers that the majority of their muscle mass is gained in the 1st 4 years of training and the rest of the years they have trained is working towards maintaining that muscle

I'd say I did get a good amount of gains from years 1-4 but these last couple years have been very good. My PR's have been awesome and I seen more vascularity and overall muscle shapes and angles looking much more impressive. I don't think I'm near my maximum genetic potential yet.

Amazing progress OP. I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who has stuck to natural lifting. Any of my friends that are serious into lifting resorted to juice and it's very discouraging.

Any tips for breaking plateaus? I recently made a post where I was seeking advice because I was positive that I was overtaining. I was doing an upper/lower split and pretty much all of my upper body strength dropped tremendously. My bench press went down 65lbs, lost 10 pounds on shoulder press, used to be able to do 3x10 pull ups now i struggle doing even 10 on the first set. Everyone is telling me that I just stalled and didn't know how to break the plateau. So now I'm trying a different progression scheme, increase by reps versus weight. 3x6, then 3x7 following week, etc.

Thanks for sharing that thread with me. I'm going to put my 2 cents in. And about the steroid usage of your friends: I don't look down upon it at all, it's almost like a whole other thing that you have to admire still. But it is a let down when someone says they are natural or they would never want to use roids but end up doing so later on. I encourage you to build naturally, because it's ACTUALLY good for your health and the physiques that are possible through natty, in my opinion, are the most aesthetic.

[ClownToucher]

Impressive as fuk dude. Good work. If you posted this in the misc, it would be 12 pages of steroid accusations.

[TheBehemoth1]

Big kid. Lotsa good size on ya. Keep it up buddy.

[ironpump22]

I'm new here and I really get a lot of motivation from you guys. I've been following a lot of the posts on here for years and it helped keep me going, so thank you. Many of my pictures are in my profile gallery but here's one that hopefully can motivate anyone here who's pretty skinny and can't foresee themselves getting big yet.

I was pretty skinny for being 6'2". I was basically just skateboarding all day and barely eating, and when I did eat, it was pretty much garbage food. I broke my ankle skateboarding one day, and was stuck doing nothing for a few months at home and had to take a semester off as well, so when I got back to school I decided that maybe I should do a little weight training so that I'm not so fragile. I guess the biggest motivation for us all is when we start to see the first sign of any progress. You know, that first time you see abs, or the first time you get a good pump and you notice a couple veins coming through, stepping on the scale and seeing the numbers go in the direction you want them to... That's usually enough to keep us hooked and that's why we are all passionate about what we do here.
Most importantly, setting goals is the key. You can't just say "I want to be jacked" or "I want to be shredded" and that's it. You have to set little goals to keep you improving yourself. "I want to be 200 pounds by next year", "I want to add 50 pounds to my max deadlift by summer", those are all reasonable goal statements that can be achieved and upon doing so, setting the new standard for yourself and by then, your body already changed drastically for the better.

Thanks for reading, stay motivated guys

Great thanks for this man!! haha parallels my story a little bit but I'm still a couple years behind you (only 4 1/2 years of lifting)

I like my transformation so far, but yours has just inspired me to keep pushing it!

natural bodybuilding represent, keep it up