A little discouraged

[Mags]

I have been Body building for about 18 years. I have worked real hard and when I was younger( Late teens, early twentys) I lived and breathed body building. I competed as a teen and did pretty well. I'm now 34 and really havnt been in the body building scene for some time but have always kept working out on a regular basis. This past year I have gotten tired of seeing myself gain fat weight and just not feeling energetic during the day. Something had to change. So, in the past 4 months I ahve gotten this drive and determination to change myself. I got the body building bug again and have been working out real hard. I've really been doing great, Lost all that ugly midsection fat and have started to tighten up. I've been trying to add some mass. Things are looking good and I'm glad to be back at it. I've been reading the muscle mags again and getting together my supplementation program.
I was in the gym today doing some heavy squats and really blasting it. I noticed a young guy, maybe 22-27 years old. He looked great, nice thickness and shape. I noticed he really wasn't working out hard. Man, I got so discouraged. He had some great genetics!. I came home took off my shirt, hit some poses and made some mental comparisons between me and him. ****, I suck! I'm looking decent but just dont have that thickness and complete shape, chisled delts, thick upper chest. Geeez! I've been doing this for so long. Working out and eating right. Nothing has come easy. I know that some people got it and some dont. I guess when I see how hard I've worked over the years I feel I should be better than I am. I dont want to lose my drive, but boy, Its gets discouraging!

[cocomo]

"I was discouraged because I had no shoes,
'til I met a man who had no feet."

[lukamar]

This past year I have gotten tired of seeing myself gain fat weight and just not feeling energetic during the day. Its gets discouraging!

This is the line that really jumped out in your post. If you have not already it would be a good idea to have a checkup and some blood work. Make sure they test for Thyroid and Test levels. As we all age there is just a natural hormone change, many of us here struggle with that every day. The other thing you have to learn is not to compare yourself with someone younger, or older for that matter, but to set your own goals and take pride in achieving them. Getting discouraged happens to everyone for all sorts of reasons but it's just another hurdle we all have to hop over.

[dbx]

"I was discouraged because I had no shoes,
'til I met a man who had no feet."

Very good!

Besides the good advice Lukamar offered, perhaps you should recheck your diet criteria (readjust calories, carbs protein & fat) as well. And hey, I have to deal with looking at my 15 & 17yr old sons when they work out with me. Though I am much stonger, they are closing fast in many exercises. Their bodies are responding to working out much better/faster than someone my age. I work 3 times harder (I like to think ) to stay ahead. That's just the way it is.

[justapixel]

Please don't compare yourself to other people. You will ALWAYS find somebody better looking or more fit, or somebody who has it easier than you do. That is true for every endeavor we try in life, and when it's physical, as we age, it gets truer and truer.

Please don't do mental comparisions between yourself at 34 and a talented young person at 22. It's just a way to set yourself up for failure.

All you can do is ask yourself - are you the best YOU that you can be? Have you worked hard, and have you improved yourself? If the answer to that is yes, than you have been successful. Be proud of the gains you've made in the past four months. You've done something few people can do, and you deserve to be happy about it.

[goatscrot]

"I was discouraged because I had no shoes,
'til I met a man who had no feet."

Good quote.

There's always going to be someone stronger, bigger, leaner, etc. Judge yourself against yourself and no one else. Hang in there.

[Nalu]

Mags, I can really sympathise with what your saying but have to agree with justapixel's take on this subject. Comparisons can always leave you feeling unfufilled. Especially when comparing yourself to youngsters. I think the thing I always liked about weight training is the challenge to yourself to be better. Better than yesterday, better than last week and so on.
On the other hand if you feel your hard work is not paying off in the way you want it to, it doesn't hurt to re-examine your goals and your game plan. How intense is your training? How good is your diet? Do you always push yourself? Questions only you know the answer to.
Lukamars advice is sound also. Getting a medical evaluation of your physical condition might really help. At least you'll know what you're dealing with.
I'm 52 so I feel the problem has been handled for me. I have to be happy with who I am right now and just strive to be better.
The old saying "Every day above ground is a good day" has a lot more meaning now.
Try to be happy with the gains you've made. They sound great to me.

[CROWLER]

I have been Body building for about 18 years. I have worked real hard and when I was younger( Late teens, early twentys) I lived and breathed body building. I competed as a teen and did pretty well. I'm now 34 and really havnt been in the body building scene for some time but have always kept working out on a regular basis. This past year I have gotten tired of seeing myself gain fat weight and just not feeling energetic during the day. Something had to change. So, in the past 4 months I ahve gotten this drive and determination to change myself. I got the body building bug again and have been working out real hard. I've really been doing great, Lost all that ugly midsection fat and have started to tighten up. I've been trying to add some mass. Things are looking good and I'm glad to be back at it. I've been reading the muscle mags again and getting together my supplementation program.
I was in the gym today doing some heavy squats and really blasting it. I noticed a young guy, maybe 22-27 years old. He looked great, nice thickness and shape. I noticed he really wasn't working out hard. Man, I got so discouraged. He had some great genetics!. I came home took off my shirt, hit some poses and made some mental comparisons between me and him. ****, I suck! I'm looking decent but just dont have that thickness and complete shape, chisled delts, thick upper chest. Geeez! I've been doing this for so long. Working out and eating right. Nothing has come easy. I know that some people got it and some dont. I guess when I see how hard I've worked over the years I feel I should be better than I am. I dont want to lose my drive, but boy, Its gets discouraging!

I understand completely. I look in the mirror and think HEY I am getting there. Then I see a pic of myself and say OH NO I look like crap. It gets tough day after day and not getting to where you want to.

But then I think what is the alternative? Give up, stop working out and eat what I want. Some days that doesn't sound too bad.


CROWLER

[Tyrbolift]

Successful bodybuilding requires consistency over a period of time. You've been at it only 4 months and he's probably been at it 5-10 years. If he's consistent, he'll always look better than you.
I don't favorably compare with perfect younger guys either, but I sure do with most other 48 year old men. And that's good enough for me.

[Tyrbolift]

I didn't mean that 4 months as if your a noob. Just referring to the time period since starting back up.

[Ski]

Flip the script and use your discouraged feelings to spark new intensity into your workouts.

Also,I agree with the poster above.............check all things associated with your regimen,ie. diet,macros,water intake,sleep,training volume,cardio,etc. etc.,and adjust accordingly.

Get pissed and use the kid as incentive to train like a demon !!

Good luck bud!!

[GREENFEATHER]

Mags, you're not in your 20's anymore bro, that's the bad news. The good news is that you can still do what you seek with a different approach.

Fill us in on your other stats, height and weight would work to help some more.

[Drspeedo]

"I was discouraged because I had no shoes,
'til I met a man who had no feet."

This is such a profound and important quote. I should post this at my music school.

Mags, we have all felt what you feel.

I think there may be things you can do, however, that might make a big difference. A few years ago I saw a picture of myself on the beach and couldn't believe after all the years of working out that I could look so average. After this I began protein supplementation and I gained 20-30 lbs of lean mass and have kept it and I'm forty-one.

Perhaps a small adjustment in your diet will do the trick. And although I know it is hard not to compare yourself to others, you are still very young and will be able to do a lot with your body. Just set small monthly goals and they will add up.

Never give up!
Lane

[Baldsnake]

Mags...there is a way to confirm where you are today with your history in bodybuilding compared to where you would be now had to chosen to be a couch potato from the get go.

Its a perfect Sunday to go shopping at....hey, lets choose Walmart. Look around at your peers Mags....you are blessed. Follow your brothers advise above...get your Doc to do those tests ASAP. Give us more stats.

[clive]

I can see what you are getting at, but I think you are making a big mistake comparing yourself to a younger guy.
Compare yourself with your contemporaries that don’t workout and you’ll feel much more satisfied with the way you look.
I sometimes feel it’s counter productive to make comparisons too often. Yes admire the really serious and gifted bodybuilder but don’t let their success get in the way of your own personal progress.
Baldsnake-That’s amazing. I actually walked round our local Asdas (Walmart) today and thought the same thing.
The vast majority of people are in a dreadful shape! Overweight, and pushing trolleys full of hi-calorie rubbish!

[Mags]

Thanks guys!!! All of you are right. I shouldnt compare myself to the younger guys. And compared to most other 34 year olds I am better than average!!! Thanks for all the insight, I feel inspired again! I guess when I think of the word Body Builder I think of a person who is massive and really stands out in a crowd. The guy whose biceps bulge out of his shirt sleeves and has a lats like the wing span of an eagle. When I was 20 I thought I was going to be one of those guys at this stage in my life. Perhaps a top national competator. Of course I have come to the realization that all pros use drugs and my over expectations of myself led to sort of a phycological failure when i hit 24-25. I stoped training for about 1 year. I got married, had 2 great boys, started my own business. Yes! i have lots to be thankful for. Since then when I got back to the gym I was just doing the Jane Fonda, hit a few machines and go home. But like I said I'm hitting hard again and have settled into life and am focused to get a better stonger me. But my mind still comes back to the guy with his biceps tearing out of his short sleeves. Mine just bearly make some of those shirts snug. Its time to re-evaluate my diet and supplementation. Thanks Gentlemen.

I havnt measured myself in years, I'll have to do that. I'm happy with my shape and symmetry. I just would like more mass/ thickness. What I have noticed sonce getting older is bulking is really out of the question. I feel its more important to try stay fairly lean. Like you guys have said, I'm 20 any more and my metabolism has definetly slowed.
I'm wondering because when I was 20 My metabolism was like lightening!! and found it hard to hold weight. Now I can hold weight, maybe with the right combination I can put on what I couldn't when I was younger!
I'm hopeful again. I wish I had something like these forums when I was 20 for support and knowledge!

[Minotaur]

Just compete with yourself and bring out the best in you.

I've felt sort of the same way you do. I'm 48 and have been weight training for about 12-13 years. But I never was nor ever will be a bodybuilder. I don't have the genetics or metabolism for it. And I never allowed myself to be a powerlifter because I never trained for it or thought like a powerlifter.

So I always whined (shut up jag ) about people being better than me in one regard or another. But no more. I finally allowed myself to recognize my strengths and weaknesses and stop comparing myself to others. Having found my niche and desire as a powerlifter, I'm gong to train and compete only against myself. And I'm a lot happier for it. The burden of trying to be like someone I'm not is gone.

[PeteB]

The vast majority of people are in a dreadful shape! Overweight, and pushing trolleys full of hi-calorie rubbish!

Second that... sometimes I think the biggest threat to western culture is right down teh junk food isle in the supermarket... <chuckle>

However, I prefer to compare myself to people who are better at something than I am, and not those sitting on a bar stool with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth. Over the years, most of my inspiration to do better has come from watching and listening to other people, not from magazines or the various media.

I also agree that 4 months is not very long after a layoff of a few years. It may be long enough to get in shape and lose some bodyfat, but not much more than that. I don't think you could get back to any other sport after a few years and be good at it in 4 months.

[CROWLER]

Thanks guys!!! All of you are right. I shouldnt compare myself to the younger guys. And compared to most other 34 year olds I am better than average!!! Thanks for all the insight, I feel inspired again! I guess when I think of the word Body Builder I think of a person who is massive and really stands out in a crowd. The guy whose biceps bulge out of his shirt sleeves and has a lats like the wing span of an eagle. When I was 20 I thought I was going to be one of those guys at this stage in my life. Perhaps a top national competator. Of course I have come to the realization that all pros use drugs and my over expectations of myself led to sort of a phycological failure when i hit 24-25. I stoped training for about 1 year. I got married, had 2 great boys, started my own business. Yes! i have lots to be thankful for. Since then when I got back to the gym I was just doing the Jane Fonda, hit a few machines and go home. But like I said I'm hitting hard again and have settled into life and am focused to get a better stonger me. But my mind still comes back to the guy with his biceps tearing out of his short sleeves. Mine just bearly make some of those shirts snug. Its time to re-evaluate my diet and supplementation. Thanks Gentlemen.

I havnt measured myself in years, I'll have to do that. I'm happy with my shape and symmetry. I just would like more mass/ thickness. What I have noticed sonce getting older is bulking is really out of the question. I feel its more important to try stay fairly lean. Like you guys have said, I'm 20 any more and my metabolism has definetly slowed.
I'm wondering because when I was 20 My metabolism was like lightening!! and found it hard to hold weight. Now I can hold weight, maybe with the right combination I can put on what I couldn't when I was younger!
I'm hopeful again. I wish I had something like these forums when I was 20 for support and knowledge!

Glad you are thinking more clearly now. Also you REALLY are still young. Probably about the youngest guy on here.

Many of us here would LOVE to have the hormones, skin, hair etc as we did when we were 34 years old. So please don't think you are too old to bulk if that is what you want to do. Heck I am a grampa and I still bulk.

Best of luck


CROWLER

[Jim_Gym]

Don't be discouraged. I was never really in great athletic shape when I was younger but at 35 I had an epiphany brought on by getting rejected by a much younger woman and I changed my lifestyle completely from fast food and junk food every day, no exercise and 40 pounds overweight to eating healthy, weightlifting and cardio, plus testosterone replacement therapy. Now at 37 I feel so good and healthy. I have low body fat, a good physique and energy. I have a small frame (5' 7", 147 lbs at approx. 11% b.f. now) so I will never be huge and look like a bodybuilder per se, but I don't really care about that. The lean, ripped look is what I am going for and every month I get closer to that goal. My stomach is almost flat, I have pretty good abs and veins on my arms from knuckles to my armpit with a decent musculature overall for a small guy. Some of the hardcore bodybuilding guys here scoff at the so called Brad Pitt in Fight Club look, but then again many of the hardcore guys in my gym who have beenn lifting for years who are twice as strong and massive as me can't do ten chinups with ten pounds of weight hanging from their waist either and have guts hanging over their gym shorts ruining their look in my opinion. Make yourself as good as you can be!

[tortise1961]

Hey Mags in NH,

First you need to congratulate yourself on making bodybuilding a part of your life for 18 years, there are few people who can say that!

Let me give you this from my perspective, I'm 44 and have been lifting for 23 years. In the last 7 years I have really made zero progress if progress is measured by lean body mass and bodyfat percentage, but that's not how I measure success. Here are the reasons I continue to lift despite my seeming lack of progress lately:

1) I sleep better when I am physically tired from weight and cardio workouts
2) I have more energy all day long when I workout
3) I love the feeling of arms so pumped that I cant scratch my nose.
4) The strength and flexibility from my workouts lets me be competitive in team sports even at age 44
5) I have kept my lower back pain in check without surgery


I have found that when I have focused on the above things, my motivation is always high and it really helps me to shrug off the fact that the 19 year old next to me is benching twice what I am.

For some pointers on breaking thru plateaus, check out the "Plateau Busting Methods" of my website: http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com

Scooby

[justapixel]

For some pointers on breaking thru plateaus, check out the "Plateau Busting Methods" of my website: http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com

Scooby

I've just started reading your website, and I just wanted to say, it seems like an excellent resource.

[Mags]

Hey Mags in NH,

First you need to congratulate yourself on making bodybuilding a part of your life for 18 years, there are few people who can say that!

Let me give you this from my perspective, I'm 44 and have been lifting for 23 years. In the last 7 years I have really made zero progress if progress is measured by lean body mass and bodyfat percentage, but that's not how I measure success. Here are the reasons I continue to lift despite my seeming lack of progress lately:

1) I sleep better when I am physically tired from weight and cardio workouts
2) I have more energy all day long when I workout
3) I love the feeling of arms so pumped that I cant scratch my nose.
4) The strength and flexibility from my workouts lets me be competitive in team sports even at age 44
5) I have kept my lower back pain in check without surgery


I have found that when I have focused on the above things, my motivation is always high and it really helps me to shrug off the fact that the 19 year old next to me is benching twice what I am.

For some pointers on breaking thru plateaus, check out the "Plateau Busting Methods" of my website: http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com

Scooby

Are the pics in your web site pics of you?

[tortise1961]

Yes, all the pictures on the website are of me.

[Mags]

Yes, all the pictures on the website are of me.

well, I must say that you look fantastic for 45! Your in great shape and looks like a body of a 25 year old.
Thats inspiring!

[Baldsnake]

Whoa Tort. Awsome!!
Mags just think you have 10+ years to become a washed up old pfart like the Tort.

(sure glad I hung up my posing shorts when I did)

[WindSurf3r]

Yes, all the pictures on the website are of me.

nice site bro, simple and to the point.

[CROWLER]

Just a pixel looks GREAT, because he started lifting at 21 and has been lifting for 23 years. He does 10 hours of cardio a week and eats properly.


GREAT dedication! Also notice he said he hit his genetic limit 7 years ago.


CROWLER

[justapixel]

Just a pixel looks GREAT, because he started lifting at 21 and has been lifting for 23 years. He does 10 hours of cardio a week and eats properly.

Justapixel is a girl. And, I am here to begin my first ever body transformation - from thin to built. But, thanks for the compliment anyway. LOL!

Now, if you were talking about tortise1961, then I agree with everything you said.

I read his entire site, and it is very well written and has great advice, and is accessable for us newbies. I bookmarked it.

[CROWLER]

Justapixel is a girl. And, I am here to begin my first ever body transformation - from thin to built. But, thanks for the compliment anyway. LOL!

Now, if you were talking about tortise1961, then I agree with everything you said.

I read his entire site, and it is very well written and has great advice, and is accessable for us newbies. I bookmarked it.

lol I am VERY sorry about that. Maybe I am not thinking straight because I got to eat carbs, and LOTS of them, today.

Now I will have to go look at your posts


CROWLER