Gary Gibson – Part 1

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The following is a post by Gary Gibson, a friend and contributor on the Starting Strength forums.

At 5’10″ and a little over 160 lbs, I used to cling to the absurd notion that I was somehow past quick “newbie” gains. You see, about 15 years ago I graduated from college at my full adult height and weighing only around 130 lbs. This looked as frighteningly malnourished as you imagine. I wondered why women didn’t take me seriously as a potential mate even though I had a dazzling smile and a razor sharp eight-pack.

I spent the next decade squatting deeply, but with poor form. My overall programming was even worse and I fell under the sway of nonsense like HIT and partial-rep training. About five years ago, I convinced myself that I “just wasn’t built to squat and bench press” and dedicated myself to the deadlift, various overhead presses and chin ups. I also got into learning the full versions of the Olympic lifts even though I was only about 150 lbs with a shaky 245-lb squat to legal depth.

About three years ago, I recognized my scrawny nonsense for what it was when I had a confrontation with a much larger guy in my construction job and had to back down because I realized that I was grossly outsized and outmatched, despite being able to full squat snatch my own bodyweight.

Gary 20 years ago. Even Calvin Klein would have rejected him.

Gary 20 years ago. Even Calvin Klein would have rejected him.


Over the next few months, I started taking the squat seriously again and got it up to 315 lbs while I hit a bodyweight of 160 lbs. About a year after that I entered my first powerlifting competition and squatted 347 lbs with just a belt and knee sleeves in the 75 kg class. I thought I’d done pretty well considering how light and weak I had always been. I convinced myself that I couldn’t possibly gain much more weight and that at best I’d get a bit stronger in my current weight class and then that would be it.

By this time I’d read Starting Strength and started frequenting Rip’s online forum. I kept hearing about this GOMAD stuff, but just didn’t think it applied to me. After all, I’d been training properly for at least a couple of years and had gotten over three wheels on the squat! But Rip told me something that really stuck with me: “At your height you have to weigh 198 at least to be a competent powerlifter.”

198? Just didn’t seem possible. But I’d been bitten by the powerlifting bug and really wanted to get as big and strong as I could. So I started buying several gallons of milk at a time and dedicating myself to drinking a gallon each day.

I’d gotten as high as the mid-170s with a 405-lb squat, but then I cut weight for what was supposed to be my third meet in December 2009. This decision came after a lot of deliberation. At my level, getting bigger and stronger should supersede making weight classes. Ironically the meet got canceled because of a snowstorm that crippled the entire region. I got down to 164, but I lost a lot of strength. This proved to be a perfect chance to prove the power of GOMAD and squats.

A week after the meet cancellation I embarked on a program of volume squats and bench presses, fueled by GOMAD. Almost exactly one month later I am 20 lbs heavier than that low of 164 and my 5RM squat has become the weight I use for sets of five across. Let me make that clear: I was 164 lbs last month with a max squat of around 370; one month later I’m 184 lbs and am on track to a max squat of around 440. Will I actually squat 440 or more? Well, I could barely squat 335 for five last month and last night I used that weight for six sets of five…and the cycle isn’t even half over. You can keep track of my progress by reading my log on the Starting Strength site.

To be big and strong I need to weigh at least 200 lbs at this height with a final goal around 220. I wonder how many other skinny minnies are malingering in gyms across the world, crying about skinny wrists and hard gaining. Funny thing is, I still don’t look “big”–and I’m far from 70’s Big–despite a 20% increase in overall mass. I have to shake my head in disbelief when I imagine myself at 5’10″ and 150 lbs and thinking that that was Just Fine. 150 lbs is just fine…if you’re 5’4″. If you’re a male of the average 5’8″ to 5’10″, you need to weigh around 200 lbs if you want to be strong. You need to squat, eat big, and drink your GOMAD.

If you’re starting out at 150 and under, then the eating big and the GOMAD can be scary and uncomfortable. It’s going to seem like your gut’s getting way to big for your skinny little limbs. But stick with it. Once your gut is full and round, your body will take this as a sign that it has the reserves to support growth. You will not grow if your body “thinks” it is in permanent semi-starvation mode. So eat big, drink your GOMAD and keep upping your squat.

40 thoughts on “Gary Gibson – Part 1”

  1. Similar story here. I was full grown at 6 feet and only weighed a stupid 140 lbs. I now weight 220 lbs, and I”m still not 70s Big.

    Eat more, skinny people. And GOMAD is probably the best thing a skinny guy can do for his nutrition.

  7. That was very well written Gary. God damn though, that picture made me feel hungry.

    And Justin, regarding my question the last post about trainees with hypertension – I””m 19 years old, so I””m quite young as well. I got diagnosed with hypertension after plenty of testing, so ,atleast in my case, it””s not too small of a cuff or something like that.
    I lost some weight before Starting Strength to balance it out, which it did, but now I””m wondering if I should be paying very close attention to it with the gains in body mass.

    E-mail me if you want to talk about the blood pressure stuff.

    –Justin

  8. Thanks for the article Gary. I was built the same coming out of high school except I was 125 at 5”11. After college I decided much like Gary that I needed to be bigger, I then spent the next 10 years doing bad body building routines, but did get bigger and stronger – at least my upper body. I have been doing SS for the past 2 months and have never been stronger. My gains would be quicker if I could get the milk down, my wife and kids do not appreciate the stink/strength balance that milk provides. Good to know that there are more guys with skinny wrists out there getting big. My progress will probably be slower, but it will be progress nonetheless.

  9. Great story, very relatable topic.

    I still have troubles subjecting myself to the powers of GOMAD… Up to grade 11, I was the fat kid. Over the summer break I went from like 5’8 to 6’3. Yes it was the most painful 2 months of my life. But now I was no longer the fat kid. I was the skinny fat kid.

    Along came the anorexia, and I hit my lowest BW of 160lb. After a break up with a GF I hit the gym to occupy all my free time, where I met a powerlifter. This guy was a monster compared to everyone. I started training with him and the rest is history.

    How ever i still bear the emotional tug of war that goes on in my head. I want to be huge, I want to walk into a room and have no doubts I am the biggest and strongest. So I work my ass off in the gym eat assloads of food. Start seeing progress in my weight lifted. Then the emotional battle starts, I end up scrapping the mass food diet,and back comes the low calorie diet. I lose all my weight and my lifts stall and go down.

    I struggle with this constantly. I am still trying to commit myself to the 70sbig weigh of life. It has just been a lot harder then I expected.

    Sorry for the long post!

    —–
    Good comment, EaseUP. This goes beyond the normal body image issues associated with anorexia (otherwise you wouldn’t go through bulk phases). Bulking actually triggers these old feelings and fears for you. It””s a pattern that is going to undermine your success if it keeps up.

    “Get over it and eat” is not the solution here. Pull out the old yearbooks, take yourself back to that time, and explore some of the other problems going on then. It’s possible that your body image issues weren’t the only problem, that they have become a scapegoat for everything that was going on. If you need to talk to someone, do it.

    -Gant

  11. First workout doing SS today. I had previously done CF Football for the past 8 months.

    Body Weight – 210lbs
    Squat 315x3x5
    Bench – 205x3x5
    Deadlift – 390x1x5

  12. So, all my friends in college are particularly active – intramural sports leagues, etc.

    I”m trying to put on serious weight while doing Starting Strength and eating ~6000 calories a day.

    I”m afraid that I”m cutting my weight gains short by being a little too active. Do you guys just lift, eat, and then do nothing else physical(well maybe *nothing* else) in order to recover?

    I stopped doing Crossfit because I thought it made gaining weight difficult, and I don”t want to have the same problem with playing basketball for a few hours a week…

  13. Great post, Gary. My junior year of high school (three years ago) I was 150 at 5”7″. Haven”t gotten any taller, but I”m about 185 now and still don”t look “hyooj”.

    I have to share a hilarious true story. The other day I was approached by one of my classmates, a 90s Small guy if there ever was one, who asked me for some advice on “exercise”. So naturally, we (my friend Bill and I) exchanged are trying to get him on SS.

    This guy is unequivocally the Novice from Hell. As far as the lifts go, his technique is good and he”s actually quite coachable, but everything outside the gym is a nightmare; he likes to jog, likes soymilk, diet is mostly carbs (though at least it”s fruits and veggies)…you get the picture. It just makes me more motivated to train him, though, because I feel like if I can make this guy strong, I can do just about anything.

    Anyway, the funny part is his name. He”s Israeli, and his first name is “Bar”. Not making this up, but it gets better. His last name is “Lehman”, pronounced like “layman”. So his full name, in English, is a roundabout way of saying “novice weightlifter”. It”s like if someone named their kid Plate Rookie, or Kettlebell Noob, or Bench Neophyte (okay, I”m done milking that joke).

  15. Great post Gary. Quite insipiring.

    I too thought that i was “done” with my linear progression gains at the scrawny weight of 155 lbs with a 135 lb squat. Yes, 1 wheel. Since then, ive slowly upped my calories and still, was not drinking the milk. I eventually got to 165 lbs and a 155 lb squat with a form that people would expect me to go to the emergency room any time during a rep. Now, im 175 lbs and increasing with the help of 1/2 GOMAD and a ton of food. Now, the recovery is speeding up and im working my way up to a full GOMAD. Ofcourse, i feel as if im about to explode and then start running like a madman to kill the feeling of “fat”. And other times, i feel as if ive made good progress and i need more if i want to compete in December.

  16. Daniel,

    I know, I was actually raised Jewish and went to a private school with a lot of Israeli kids, so I”ve met a couple Bars in my time. I figure having ties to Israel, it becomes okay to make jokes about somebody”s name.

  23. Great post. This blog is hands-down the most inspiring one to skinny guys. This is probably the only site to make clear what a skinny guy has to do to gain serious weight.

    Reporting in at 6”1″ 180-185, formerly 130 in high school and 145 before lifting.

  24. God Damn I love this site. While I have never been really skinny (5″11 @ 190)I have never known what I have to do to gain weight. Through the help of 70s big i”ve put on an easy 20#s and still gaining steady.

    Thanks guys

  26. JUSTIN or GARY,

    Any way we could get some video footage of the squats. I have never heard of a 160 pound human squatting 315 for five and I would really like to see it on video. It will give me inspiration to know that I might be able to squat 315 one day at a bodyweight of 175.

    Thank you Gary for sharing your story.

  29. I am writing from a guy who was once very skinny, 138# when I first started lifting in 9th grade. I ate and lifted in high school and graduated at 240#, people thought that I did steroids but was totally clean. In college I played football as an offensive lineman and got up to 285#. After college I took about a decade off of lifting and hovered around 220. Then found crossfit two years ago and got down to 90”s small, 202. Just recently I realized I need to be big and strong. I am about to start the linear progression so my weights will be light for a while but they will progress.

    As for all the skinny guys out there that think the women want a 6 or 8 pack that is hogwash. I have been married for almost 12 years and my wife to this day still talks about how much she used to love to hold on to my arms when I was 285. My arms were bigger than her hands put together. She loved to walk around just holding them. When I was 90”s small, there was just no muscle for her to hang on. So skinny guys do not buy into the abercrombie and calvin way of life and get 70”s big.

    sorry for the long post just had to get it off of my hairy chest.

  32. @bfaber:
    My younger brother competes in O-Lifting at 69kg (152lb) and he can do a bit more than that. For the record, his natural weight is about 160, he leans out for comps. He””s good but is definitely not a superstar.

  33. Gary, that”s pretty inspirational. I could literally have been diagnosed with anorexia at one point being so skinny – but I bit the goddamn bullet and ate the food and lifted the weights, and here I am still on the rise at 212 lbs from 165. This was about 8 months ago.

  34. Gary has it right, strong work and good post. For all questions:

    1. Stop doing crossfit.
    2. No really… stop
    3. Eat more.
    4. Drink milk
    5. Squat.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5

  35. So when my women clients who are trying to lose weight find out how quickly I gained weight, they drag their skinny husbands in quick. Got another 120 pounder that”ll be starting the Novice Progression on Wednesday. Great success!

  38. Thanks for the comments, guys.

    The weights I used at 165 were unremarkable because I was 5”10″ and way too tall to be 165 lbs. Really good 165-lb lifters are under 5”6″:

    Caleb Williams is 5”2″ and squatted pretty damned big in the 148 class. Here he is squatting 500×6 in 2006:http://www.usaplnationals.com/2007mensNationals/caleb-Williams.shtml

    I wasn”t quite as strong at a similar bodyweight because I was and am 5”10″. I need another 20 lbs of muscle and fat and another 200 lbs on my squat.

  39. EaseUP,

    It is a long story, but I was and am in a similar boat as you.

    Short recap:

    As a kid, I was chubby.
    Tons of eating disorders and a negative body image led to me weighing 106lbs(48 kilos) at 5”8 around age 15. I also competed in medium-long distance athletics around that time. I did well, but that was more owed to will power than anything.

    A huge turnaround and a few years brought me to 75 kilos at age 18, same height. It took me years to get over the mentality that I was fat and even now I easily feel chubby when I am not(or just retaining some water – which I learned can be lost in a week)

    Now age 24, and many bulking/cutting patterns later(same thing as you and Gary experienced)I weigh around 76 kilos. I look bigger than at age 18(most people give me 80 kilos), but you know, 76kg ain”t BIG.
    Even now, I do fairly well competitively(now in powerlifting)but I want to get bigger to keep progressing. The prospect of “getting fat” always short circuited my gains when they started really coming. I currently use the paleo+milk diet. Although not recommended for us lighter guys, I am gaining well on this. Of course it requires a truckload more eating than a “see food” diet + milk, but I stick by it. So far I haven”t gained too much fat.

    It”s a sign of the times, I guess. But you have to get over it.
    I am not there yet either, but I have taken a decision with which I will stick.

  40. Gary, thanks. Un-skinny dudes cant relate to the mindset of skinny dudes trying to eat 70”s big. I”ve learned to eat around,through and after my gag reflex and I still cant get enough. I”m glad to see you mention that the rest of the body will catch up to the gut, becouse my gut is pretty big right now, not proportional to my shoulders or even my lifts. You helped me keep going!!!!

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