The following was written by Gary Gibson. Do a search if you’re interested in reading his past entries.

First Day at the Beach in a Long, Long Time

Some of you reading this have probably seen my very first post in these pages, which included a picture of me in my early teens (I appreciate the donations you then sent to my food fund). That picture was taken at New Smyrna Beach roughly 20 years ago. In fact it’s been damn near 20 years since I’d set a foot on the beach till yesterday. Got a little bit of sunburn (apparently my menalin levels only confer resistance–not invulnerability–to UV damage), but more germane to the readership of this site is that I was about 60 lbs heavier than the last time I bared my nearly nude body for such wide public viewing. Yesterday’s return to the beach also coincided with my crossing the 190-lb barrier on the scale for the first time.

Let me qualify this. All the many years I spent being disturbingly skinny, I was actually proud of my disturbing skinniness. I’d whooped with joy when I discovered “Muscle & Fitness” at the age of 15 because I’d found a magazine that celebrated the 90’s smallness into which I hoped to grow. I loved the fact that I had razor sharp abs, even if they came at the cost of emaciation. So even though I now care more performance than appearance, it was a little weird to have so many people see me with that much fat around my midsection. I’ve had time to get used to it when alone and nekkid, but that was the first time my powerlifter’s mono-ab and burgeoning love handles were on public display.

Very happy to report that I didn’t feel the urge to start a conditioning blitz to get “beach pretty”, that on balance I much preferred having the extra muscle and fat, and that I care far, far more about hitting a 500-lb squat at the Raw Nationals this summer than getting a narrower midsection.

Like I said, I just crossed that 190-lb barrier on the scale. I’m pretty confident I’ll cross the 200-lb threshold to male adulthood before the month is out. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to cut a little bit to compete in the 90 kg class in July. The cut may result in a tighter midsection after I’ve put on another ten pounds of muscle and I may even go back to the beach. This time, I’ll wear sunblock.

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It is important to note that Gary is not a novice, yet he is growing like one. He places performance ahead of appearance right now, and this is what a real athlete will do. Now, just because Gary perceives himself as fat does not actually mean he is (I’d personally like to see a picture of this new bodyweight, no homo, because I don’t trust a guy’s opinion on how fat he is when he’s been skinny his whole life, even if it is Gary Gibson), nor does it mean he is stuck with it.

This is called growing into a weight class, and Gary will get to the point where he will fill out his frame near the top end of whatever his desired weight class is. He will continue getting more muscle as he continues to get stronger, and he eventually will have to cut to lift in this weight class. Age, genetics, and a bunch of other shit will decide how lean he will be at his “walking weight” (the weight he will walk around at before he cuts to meet weight requirements), but he will undoubtedly be more muscular with less fat than he is now. And perhaps it will let him prowl the beach with his chin a bit higher.

The questionable picture of Gary that he references

Two Steps Forward, One Back
by Gary Gibson

I got a lot of nerve showing up here again like this. I was called out as being decidedly not an adult male because at 5’10″ I am still under 200 lbs. And now I’m even under-er.

The 2010 USAPL Florida State Powerlifting Championship is coming up in ten days and I’m planning to compete in it. I’d wanted to compete at least once in the 82.5 kg, but in my zeal to get bigger and stronger I jumped over an entire weight class in one month and landed square in the middle of the 90.0 kg.

I’d competed at the tippy-top of the 75 kg class at exactly 165 lbs in September when I ground out a very hard 369 lb suitless/wrapless squat on my third attempt. (I also just missed a 474 lb deadlift by failing to lock out. Don’t ask about my bench. Ever.) Next I went up to 175 lbs and a 405 single squat in the gym and then got smaller and weaker in an attempt to make the 75 kg once more at the 2009 USAPL Maryland States in December. The meet got canceled the night before because of that incredible snowstorm.

Heavy training began again in late December. In just over a month I went from 165 lbs and squatting 325×3 to 185 lbs and 405x3x3. I even manage to hit a high bodyweight of 190 for a couple of hours.

As I type this I’ve been dieting lightly for almost a week and I’m down to 181 lbs, just under the 181.9 lb limit in the 82.5 kg class. I made it! I also just deadlifted a little over 500 lbs a few hours ago in my last heavy session before meet day.

Looks like I’m on track to squat 440 and pull a little over 500 in my weight class which you’ll notice is almost 20 lbs shy of my adult male size. And I’m…OK with that!

I’ll get back on track right after the meet. In fact, I’ll probably be 200 lbs before spring has fully sprung…though I fully intend to compete a little under that in the 90 kg/198 lb class in the USAPL Raw Nationals. I also plan to be an awful lot stronger by then too.

So forgive me for not being fully grown just yet. It will come. I hope you will enjoy my posts anyway as I get there.

I didn’t have time to write tonight, so this is Gary Gibson’s update on his situation. Also, it is PR Friday, so talk about any PR’s you had this week in the comments: weight gained, lifted, or consumed. Giddyup.

Justin and A.C. are on Iron Radio today today at 2 pm eastern time. Listen here

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Did Nature Mean to Make Us So Skinny And Useless?

This week I am officially a big step closer to manhood. I’ve been weighing in consistently between 183 and 188 lbs. That’s about a 25-lb increase in the past 30 days. Squat and Milk. Granted I hit a high of 176 a month prior to the start of this latest cycle, so half of that weight is reclaimed ground, not new territory. Still, the way my weight and my lifts are going, I’m going to get to 200 lbs (and a triple bodyweight squat i hope) a lot sooner than I would have believed just a few months ago.

An adult male of average height should weigh at least 200 lbs…at least he should if he wants to be strong. If all he wants to do is run away from danger or difficult situations at low speeds, then he’s much better off jogging a lot and “watching what he eats” so he stays at 150.

But those 200 lbs of useful man assume both a reasonable bodyfat percentage and strength level. Reasonably fat is under 20%, but not the “about 10%” that gets tossed about so casually. Reasonably strong is a 1.5x bodyweight squat. (Athletes in strength and power sports may want to shoot for over double bodyweight and those in the barbell sports should aim for triple.)

Those guidelines are all well and good. But I got to wondering just why it is that so many adult males of average height are about 150 lbs with the low strength levels to match. And an awful lot of the adult males who are over 200 don’t train properly and are “skinny-fat weak” and wish they were just plain skinny weak 150-pounders. What gives? How did this happen? We didn’t evolve with barbells, and there’s no way in hell I could get to 200 without using a barbell for heavy back squatting. No amount of physical activity I would have been likely to do in the ancestral environment would have gotten me close.

Ultimately I don’t care all that much what nature had in store for my body sans barbell training. I’m happier, healthier and a hell of a lot stronger and less painful to look at thanks to my journey to over 200 lbs. Moreover the speed at which this metamorphosis is taking place tells me that it was meant to be.