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
