“By the beard of Zeus!”
I hope you enjoyed Gary’s post yesterday — it made me cry tears of joy. I have enjoyed reading Gary’s post on the Starting Strength Forums, but every time I would watch a video of him squatting, I would think, “Egad! Surely there is food where this guy lives…” In any case, I am excited to see Gary gaining body weight. He will be formidable indeed.
Let me ask you a question; after seeing Gary’s picture from 20 years ago, do you think he is genetically gifted? Did he have the qualities that make him a genetic freak? The answer is an obvious no.
I do know that Gary has busts his ass to get where he is now. Most of the people that are highlighted on this site have done the same. None of us are exceptionally gifted. AC was less than 185 pounds until last year, I squatted 325 for my work sets my first day at the WFAC, and Chris was just a low 400s deadlifter a year ago. We are not special.
The thing that we have in common is that we train correctly, and we train very fucking hard. Someone asked me how many training days I had missed last year. When I thought real hard about it, I realized I didn”t miss any. Sure, I had to take forced breaks because of (irritating and unnecessary bouts of) overtraining and getting sick, but I never missed scheduled training days. In other words: we are not dicking around.
Furthermore, nobody seems to have eating problems at the WFAC. Besides, if they do, the are berated until such problems are resolved. Here is a real conversation that occurred between a skinny high school kid and me:
“How was that set?”
“It was pretty good. You’re doing a better job of bouncing out of the bottom since your knees are shoved out, but it would look better if you gained 20 pounds.”
“Aww, I’m trying!”
“No. You aren’t.”
For example, I got sick and had a few set backs before a weightlifting meet a couple of weekends ago. One scale in the gym said I was about 225. I weighed in at 100.2 kilos at the meet (in my skivvies). This means that I weighed 220 in a weight class that is capped at 231. This was mega embarrassing since I run a mother truckin’ website dedicated to not being a wee man. I was pretty pissed off (especially with the results of the meet), so I started eating seriously that day while still in Austin. I got chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, scallop potatoes, and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Then a half gallon of milk on the ride home, among other goodies. Six days later on Friday I weighed in at 228 on the lighter scale at the gym, 230 on the other. In other words, I gained about eight pounds in six days. While starting at 220. And Skinny Guy is pumped about gaining five pounds in a few weeks. Bah…
When I started working with and training with Chris, he was about 245. He has accidentally gained weight while getting a great deal stronger. His deadlift started in the low 400s and we got it up to doing 540×5. He easily pulled 600 for a single, and has since been doing rack pulls and haltings (intermediate programming style). He has done 515×8 on haltings (an exercise that has no hip extension, just knee extension off the floor) and 575×5 on rack pulls (an exercise that has no knee extension, just hip extension with the bar starting right below the patella). I expect him to pull 700 in the next few months. Oh, and did I mention that he accidentally weighs 285? That’s right, his normal diet (that does not include many carbs) makes him gain muscle consistently. And no, he is not on steroids — none of us are. That bastard ate 21 pork chops in two days last week. That was not a typo. 21 pork chops. In two days.
I told Brent about this online:
me: chris ate 21 pork chops in two days
Brent: chris is a man
me: that he is, brent, that he is
Brent: i wish he were my dad
Chris loves pork chops
Look, the point is that getting bigger and stronger is a lot of hard work in and out of the gym. We train very hard. We don’t think we are done with the linear progression when things seem hard. Likewise, volume days in the Texas Method are grueling, sometimes painful endeavors. AC has helped a lot of guys get strong in Statesboro, and I have helped a lot of people get strong in Wichita Falls. Neither of these cities are a mecca for genetically gifted strength athletes. We just help people train hard, eat right, and they will inevitably get strong. Make sure that this is what you are doing.
all the pain and discomfort from eating tons is worth it when you get under the bar.
keep it up, boys commenting below me!
Anchorman!
Oh, and a whole bunch of pork chops does sound delicious!
Great post! The effort of eating and training hard each and every time in the gym is grueling but worth so worth it. Have my first Competition in 3 weeks and getting amped up! Who would of thought that 2010 would be the year after 36 years of stupidity leading up to it.
Justin, can you explain “Volume Days” at the WFAC?
Small PR: I started last Mondag at 72 kilos after illness(coming from 75) and weighed 77 kilos on Monday. Gonna get to 200lbs(90 kilos) 5”7 before Spring.
The funny thing is, I like the way my body looks. I am gaining some fat along the way but it is compensated for by bigger shoulders, back, legs and ass.
“They”ve done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.”
Justin, I think this is one of the best posts you”ve written. This is some great encouragement and motivation.
Thanks.
“Ohh, it”s the deep burn. Oh, it”s so deep. Oh, I can barely lift my right arm ”cause I did so many. I don”t know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand.”
Pork is awesome, everyone especially pirates love hams too.
I just cooked a 1.2kg Gammon 600g slapped on my plate, the rest will be eaten later (-200g for my wife”s lunch).
Great post particularly following Gary”s it just shows theres no excuses… train hard and eat hard… everyone can get big and strong.
well last night i disgraced my newly received 70sbig shirt. i could only manage 2 sets of 3 with 405. i””m not so much embarrassed at not being able to move the weight (which i feel is semi-respectable), as much as i am that 4 plates defeated me mentally before i ever got to the gym. i thought about it all day and i was scared after my first rep, and never recovered. i think that workout made me understand the importance of a strong mentality. i really need to work on my focus.
on a side note, my hips feel wrecked after just about every set and if i move certain ways throughout the day. is this a technique thing, or do i need some accessory work for my hips? i know the technique question would be better answered if you had video of me squatting (i””ll work on that).
It is likely that you have a potential problem in your technique, but you may also need to stretch the external rotators of your hip and the hip flexors. Usually if these are more than just sore, there is a form issue.
–Justin
Foreground: 5”10″ 235# 28yo. still linearly progressing (BS 345, B 260, OHP 172, DL 390, PC 192)
Question: how much fat is too much for guys like me? I hover around 18-20% and am starting to watch the carbs (shoot for ~150g daily).
I understand that fat will be gained with muscle, but at what point does the fat gained outweigh the muscle gained?
If this is a thread jack tell me.
I think one of the biggest things to get over as a girl is the idea of eating more. I started lifting with the idea of losing weight, and while that””s still a long term goal I realize that I have to max my noob gains first or else I will feel like I””ve hamstrung myself right out of the gate. It””s really, really hard to wrap my head around GAINING weight.
Depends on how much you weigh now, how tall you are, and your bodyfat percentage. E-mail me if you wanna.
If you are just skinny, then, yes, your whole world is now flip-flopped.
–Justin
WannaBBurly
Look up DeFranco”s Agile 8, its worked wonders for my hips and its a very good active warmup. Its something you could do every day to improve hip mobility and that will relieve some of the pain.
Fun post, upping my calories to what I hope would be 70s big levels was what finally got my progress to kickstart over again after a few months of stagnation and injuries. Injuries which don”t happen now that I”m eating enough to recover.
That pic up there looked my house last night! I came home from the gym and grilled 10 porkchops! I ate 2.5 last night and already had 1.5 along with 5 scrambled eggs w/cheese this morning for breakfast. For us fuckin fat guys meat and eggs are god! You have to eat a lot on the program,but with the right foods (meat,eggs,milk) you can really make great gains in fat loss and muscle development.
I was just convinced to go whip up a hearty breakfast.
I tweaked something in my leg this weekend: hip flexor discomfort.
After reading this, I”d have no problem chopping off my leg, eating it, then pulling for a deadlift PR with a prosthetic.
Speaking of pork chops, the wife made a delicious conconction last night:
Pour a can of apple pie filling into a casserole dish, top with as many pork chops as you can fit in there, then cover it all with Stove Top stuffing mix and bake for 45 mins to an hour. Delightful.
FIRST DAY: 325 work sets!
Pressed enter too early.
I”m 5”9″ 220lb and my current workset (set of 5) after 3 months is 305lb. Damn I”m weak!
Ate 1200 calories worth of ice cream after dinner last night pretty stoked.
Programming question: I cant do any pressing movements still (dislocated my shoulder) and right now im doing squat, power cleans and deadlift mon wed and fri. Is this ok? Im still gaining weight (5lbs last week) and all my lifts are progressing, but i dont know if i can deadlift heavy like this 3 times a week for much longer. sorry if this is a dumb question.
Lift epic weight!
Where does the term noob come from. I”m in the US Navy and as a submariner we refer to new guys as nubs – non-useful bodies. what about noob???
In internet gaming lingo noob is actually the derogatory form of newb which is short for newbie or somebody who is inexperienced. Noob is basically calling somebody bad as if they are inexperienced even if they are not. The term noob has been misused here as newb should have been.
That’s right, his normal diet (that does not include many carbs) makes him gain muscle consistently
Justin, does this mean he is eating a lot of carbs or not?
Really? I don’t know any other way to repeat, again, that he is not eating many carbs.
–Justin
NolanPower – Thanks.
My word, those pork chops look amazing! More info, por favor.
Info on how to make the pork chops?
–Justin
Hutch,
I think Justin means that Chris is not eating a lot of carbs … he is most likely following the big guy guidelines posted earlier, having paleo + milk and little starch or sugar.
Yesterday, and today”s posts are impressive. I admit I have been a coward. At this moment the desire to play rugby is keeping me on a novice program that keeps some conditioning in the program (similar to CF Football). I hope I can claim the fortitude to gain size and strength, and eventually meet the 70s big crew as one of their own.
I don””””t believe that conversation was real at all, it seems WAY too exciting.
Whichever conversation you are referring to is real. I try and remember the exciting ones, but I forget to write them down.
–Justin
Edit: Unless you are being sarcastic, which you probably are. In which case you can kiss my ass.
One thing I have been doing is never turning down an invitation to go eat. Ever. Even if I just finished off a mammoth 70s big shake that left be in a bloated state of pain.
Example:
Friend: Hey you want to go get some mexican food?
Me: Ummm, I just finished eating a huge meal actually.
Friend: So you dont want to?
Me: That meant yes.
I””m at a body weight of 205 with a 355 1RM squat. If I continue to gain weight will this imbalance fix itself?
What imbalance? If you mean the squat to body weight thing, then some people just are not as strong as others.
–Justin
“It”s SO damn HOT!
Milk was a BAD choice…”
Blasphemer!
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story
I possibly had a major breakthrough today. Suddenly I realized that “knees out” means also “open up your groin”. Having that cue in mind, squatting felt really better.
still considered a skinny weak guy 5”11″ @ 194#. But thanks to the heroes at seventies big, I”ve gained about 5 pounds in about 6-7 days. Keep up the solid movement fellas. Say classy.
Great post, Justin. I was looking at some pics of myself as a child/teen and laughing, because I had the tiniest little stick legs you could imagine, even though I was never one of those kids with a abz. Now, being a 500lb squatter, filling up relaxed fit jeans is not a problem, to say the least. I still need to put some serious slabs of brisket on my top half before I”m to be considered 70sbig, but at least the squats have paid off and I have a base. I think it”s important for people to read this so they don”t try the pathetic “genetics” excuse when we all know what is possible with work and recovery.
Also, love Anchorman. Hopefully you guys caught the quote in my second chili clip.
@Joe Smash, you””re doing squat, PCs and DLs every Mon, Wed and Fri? That””s pretty aggressive, you can probably stick with the squats three days a week but I would back off on the DLs at a minimum. If you””re still linear (sounds like you probably are), try using Rip””s “A” and “B” day programming. Keep lifting on the same days, Mon, Wed, Fri, but alternate between “A” lift days and “B” lift days. The example given in Starting Strength is “A” – Squat-Press-Deadlift/alt. with Power Clean. “B” – Squat-Bench Press-Back Extensions-Chins.
So, a couple weeks would look like: Mon “A”, Wed “B”, Fri “A”, Mon “B”, Wed “A”, Fri “B” and etc.
Hopefully I””m saving Justin a response here, other wise I””m being a jackass who doesn””t really know what he””s talking about!
From now on I think I am just going to eliminate programming questions from the comments. The poster never gives enough information, it is never a solid answer, and the whole deal is individualized anyway.
–Justin
I really need to start reading this shit in the morning. I read it at night and then have the urge to eat a butcher out of business. Slowly getting the stomach accustomed to this shit. Total intake today…
-6 eggs
-5 strips of bacon
-4 mcdoubles
-2 70s big shakes
-pasta with chicken
-1 porkchop (1..not 21)
-homemade burger with 5 strips of bacon and 5 sausage links ontop
-half gallon of milk, workin” my way up to GOMAD status
not bad, feel like I need more, none-the-less gaining weight and hitting PR”s, lovin” it