How I added 80 pounds of muscle to my fully developed adult body
As a kid, I was always either the skiniest kid in school, or the 2nd or third most skinny kid for sure. My metabolism was so fast it didn't matter what I ate, I rarely gained any weight at all. In 7th grade, I wrestled, but I only weighed 75 pounds so I didn't do well. By 9th grade, I was only 5'2" and 92 pounds. Short and skinny. Then in 10th grade, I shot up to 5'10 1/2", but my weight only went up to 104.(see picture) Now I was tall and super skinny. I took cross country, which helped me get ripped, but I didn't gain much if any weight. Then by the time I graduated high school, I was 6'2" but only weighed 130 pounds.
My first 25 pounds of muscle gains
I joined the Army National Guard, and between 6 weeks of boot camp, and 2.5 months of AIT, I came out 155 pounds. I gained 25 pounds of pretty much all muscle from running, pushups, road marches carrying heavy gear, etc. But at 130 and sedentary, and 18 years old, I was primed for muscle growth. After I got out, I loved the new me, but I was still very skinny for 6'2". I wanted more muscle mass!
I tried about every program and popular supplement money could buy. Thousands of dollars spent, all for 10 pounds of muscle and 10 years of frustration and injuries.
I began with free weights, and trained off and on for about a year, and got up to 165 pounds using exercises from a Joe wieder book training the entire body 3 times a week. Its surprising I made any progress doing that. I decided to get out of my factory job, and left for auto body repair school. I was at school full time, and then had a full time job, and quickly quit lifting alltogether. After I got out of school, I got a full time job doing auto body, which is pretty physical, and I stayed lean doing that. At about 23, around 160, I was in a rock band with my brothers. I grew my hair out because we had the 80's long hair band look, but with long hair and as skinny as I was, one day at Mcdonalds drive through, some lady said here is your change ma-am, and that was it. Time to put some muscle on this rack of bones I thought. I had been told I look like a girl before, but that day at mcdonalds hit home. I bought every flex and muscle and fitness magazine each month, I bought every Arnold movie in existence for motivation, and I got hardcore. I bought some 80 dollar wieder mega pack/protein kit with a video tape, and took all the stuff, and lifted all the time. I did make some decent gains at first, I was gaining 1/4" a week on my arms. I had it all planned out how I would be Arnold Schwarzenegger's size in 52 weeks or something like that at my current rate of growth back then. After about a month or two my gains tapered off, and quickly came to a halt. I got up to maybe 165 or 170 that time. Then I got in a horrible car accident, and broke 6 bones. The doctor told me a few days earlier, another kid my age came in with better vital signs than I had, and he died. He said either God was looking out after me or bodybuilding had saved my life because I was in very good health. My right forearm was broke in half, and required surgery. 2 8" long metal plates screwed into my bones holding it in place were put in. I also broke my nose, jaw, collar bone, and left foot. Knowing bodybuilding saved my life, or God, or both, I decided to get back to weight training as soon as possible. My medical bills exceeded the insurance, so I skipped the physical therapy I was supposed to get, and just lifted weights with what still worked. It wasn't even 2 weeks after the accident, and I was doing one armed tricep extentions and curls with my good arm, and I wrist curled a 1.5 pound weight with my broken arm, and did one legged squats with my good leg. I quit taking pain killers after a week or so, as they were affecting my workouts and I hated being fuzzy mentally. The only thing I had was my brain, and I wanted to read and learn in my spare time. Anyhow, after about 2.5 months I was finally doing a full body workout with just the bar, as my collar bone and forearm were in a lot of pain for quite a while. At about 4 months I was finally back to full strength and size. I had lost a lot of weight because I couldn't eat solid food due to my cracked jaw. I've seen other people suffer far less severe accidents as I have, and they complained and let it ruin their lives for a long time. I just lifted my way out of the mess. When I went to the doctor for a checkup, he could not believe the range of motion I had, and how great I looked, considering the mess I was in a few months earlier. He told me he wish half his patients were as optimistic and self motivated as I was, as they went through phsyical therapy, complained, and came out way worse than me. I was just happy to be alive, and felt blessed to have another chance.
I eventually quit lifting as I started my own body shop at 25, and was working all the time just to pay the bills and keep my business alive. After a year or so, at 26 or 27 I bought a program called Larry Scotts bio phase feedback program and finally abandoned my home gym and joined the local YMCA. I made some gains, but not fast enough, and lost interest again. I tried cybergenics. I tried more muscle and fitness programs and flex programs too. I bought mega mass 2000, but the only thing growing was my stomach from all the sugar in it. Nothing would deliver constant results, only quick results and a plateau, or I would overtrain and get sick, start over, make good gains for 6 weeks, then overtrain and get sick again. Over and over this happened. I peaked at 172 pounds one time after 4.5 months of serious training. At 28 I got a jet ski and spent the whole winter lifting weights while tricking out my jet ski, and then I learned all the freesytle tricks at the lake that spring and summer. I was 175 and pretty lean. Probably 10 pounds of fat since I got out out of the National Guard and weighed 155 and was ripped. Not bad for me, but I wasn't really lifting real hard. I was just doing some basics, a few sets here and there, and that combined with freestyle seemed to work ok. I wasn't over training, and was just lifting here and there to keep half way built so I looked good at the lake. It was a fun year. Then I got internet access in 95 and I've always been a video game nut. I found out you could make your own levels for doom, and I got obsessed making stuff for this game on the computer all winter long. I released a mod for doom and a lot of people downloaded it and said it was great, I should make games for a living. So I got a wild idea and talked the bank into funding the development of a game.
Lost all my muscle, gained a bunch of fat!
Obsessed with game development, I ate fast food all the time, and never moved from the computer for anything except for 4 to 5 hours of sleep. My bodyweight hit an all time high of 180 pounds, yet my arms had shrunk from 15" to under 12". I was skinny and fat at the same time. My stomach went from 28" to 36.5". We went to the E3 trade show, and had to walk to the show each day, which was about a mile, to show our game to the public. It about killed me and my legs were sore. By the third day, I was enjoying the sunshine, the fresh air, and the walk. It reminded me of my lake days of looking decent and feeling good. I felt horrible, I looked horrible, and it was time for some change. I just kept rationalizing in my head that the game would be done soon and I would make millions and it would all be worth it, but with the end still nowhere near I decided I would be dead if I kept this sedentary lifestyle and horrible diet. It was time for a real change. I had decided I was done being a quitter. The most I had ever trained was 4.5 months in the past. I was going to train for a whole year this time and not quit.
I worked hard, but not smart
I bought Arnold's Encylopedia of modern bodybuilding and this time subscribed to muscle and fitness and flex magazines. I tried Arnold routines, and made some progress, but it was just muscle memory. I had no idea there was such a thing, but in a few months I got some arms back, and I whittled my stomach down a lot and looked like this. I kept after it, blasting away 6 days a week, training my entire body twice but I would overtrain, get sick, stop for a few days or a week, then I'd hit it again full bore. I thought I was eating like a horse, but I really had no idea what I was eating, or how many calories, or grams of protein, etc. I just thought I'm eating huge and kept searching for a good training program, thinking my diet was fine. I would go through periods where I would start getting a little bigger, but then my stomach was getting a little bigger, so I would automatically start eating a bit less, then I would lose some fat on my stomach, but lose a bunch of size on my arms and chest as well. I made it a year, and here are the results. I decided to do it another year. It took Arnold 5 years to get to 250, surely I just need 4 more years. I was 180 with lost fat, so I figured I gained 15 pounds of muscle, so in 4 more years I would be close to Arnold in size. (I'm laughing now as I think back about this). My gains were not coming at all. I turned to more supplements. I was taking nor anrostendione, andro stat poppers, (pro hormones that are now banned) protein powders, glutamine, creatine, you name it, I was on it. Nothing helped. Anyhow, the year passed and I had tried to gain more mass, but I mostly just gained fat and looked like this with a 36" stomach. Some of these prohormones made my hair start falling out rapidly, no wonder they banned them! My hair was permanenty thinned from those prohormones.
After 13 years of disappointments, I finally found something that worked consistently!
Frustrated with my lack of progress, and yo yo weight from 180-190, I had decided that if I could learn how to make video games from the internet, surely I could learn to build muscle using the internet. So I started looking around, and one of the first things I found that appealed to me was a program called MuscleNOW. The author looked incredible, and there were some good testimonies on his site, it had a money back guarantee, and he talked about how worthless supplements are and how real food and proper training was all you needed. Plus he started out a toothpick the same height and weight that I did, and promised my money back if I wasn't happy, so I went for it. In April of 2000 I got his book. I quickly begun reading the book, and it all made sense. I had already read over a hundred body building magazines, thousands of articles, all the Arnold books, etc, but this book REALLY HIT HOME. It talked about how the body will overtrain and you will get ill if you train using high volume for months on end. It talked about how to cycle your volume and avoid overtraining, something I had heard of but NEVER TRIED! NO wonder I always made great gains and then got sick. I was cycling up but never back DOWN! It also explained to me the missing link, the DIET. I had never counted carbs or protein grams, and that the body needs excess calories beyond maintenance to have fuel to GROW CONSISTENTLY. It talked about proper rep speed, how to change the number of reps you perform to shock the muslces and avoid injuries, these were all things that I had missed. I was doing everything else in his book already, like training to failure, etc. Just a few things that were missing, were causing me ALL THAT FRUSTRATION. Armed with knowledge, excitement and a new diet, I was like a new man. I decided I was too fat, and I needed to lose a few inches before trying his mass building diet. The first 6 week cycle I managed to go from 37" stomach to a 34.5" stomach. At that point, I was weighing around 184, from 190, but I had actually gained some muscle and strenth in the process. I was pretty excited, but ready to try the mass gaining part. I used his 2500 calorie diet to cut down, so I switch to a 3000 calorie diet to gain. I reached 190 in just a few weeks, but I seemed to taper off, so I raised to the 3500 calorie diet, and in under 6 weeks I was 195, and I was looking huge! Here is a picture of my 2.5 month transformation.
Hard times, struggles, and my awesome comeback!
No secrets here. The game industry is known for brutally long hours and sporadic business deals. Staying alive in this business is very difficult, and there can be many months in between development contracts. Shortly after the above shown success using my new favorite program, my business hit a rough spot, and with all the stress I had to cut back on my training time, so I basically lifted off and on, hovering around 190-195 for a few years. Then in fall of 2003 I got motivated again, and I bulked up from 190 to 208 in two 6 week cycles, but my fat levels were fairly high with a 38" stomach. I was cutting down and looking pretty good, at 200 with a 36" stomach, when I got really sick for 2.5 months, lost my business partners, went through bankruptcy, got divorced and moved several times. I had to take up auto body repair again to make ends meet, was depressed, etc. I lost a lot of weight. I got clear down to 180 from not lifting and working a physical job. I had tried lifting here and there, but I would quit because I was depressed. Around November I took some pics and half heartedly tried returning to the gym. A few months went by, and I did gain back 8 pounds, but I wasn't sticking to it. Disgusted with my body, depressed, hating my career, and generally unhappy, I finally stopped feeling guilty. I decided to stop moaping about my life, and feeling guilty for all that had happened and I was ready to change my life. I decided that even though I had a physical job, I would do it anyway. I didn't care. I was going to at least get my body back. But something clicked. I was mentally ready for more than just that. I then signed a deal to develop a design document for a video game, and was able to cut back to part time at the body shop, and so I siezed that opportunity to really hit the gym hard. I had two incomes, and stocked up on the food, and I re-read my musclenow book, and I made gains like I had never made before. Confidence was soaring through my blood again. I was a man on a mission. From February to mid April I went from 188 to 208. I'm now at an all time high body weight with a much smaller stomach than the last time I weighed around this much. I decided that I would tell people about my progress and I kept a detailed photo journal of the whole process, and posted a thread on bodybuilding.com about it here. Here is a picture of my transformation:
Final words
Long story short, I was stuck. After gaining 50 pounds, I was stuck at 180 pounds basically. Musclenow helped me blast my way up to 209 pounds and I'm growing each week. Every week, my biceps grow 1/8", and my chest grows at least 1/4". My chest is now almost 46" around the nipple, standing relaxed, and my arms are close to 17" around! My goal is to be 220 pounds and lean. I plan on taking this bulk cycle to 220 or 230, and then I will probably have to lose some body fat for a while. But if muscleNOW can help me, mister 130 pounds get close to 210 pounds and gaining every week, then I think it can do miracles for anyone willing to put the hard work in. This program is the real truth to bodybuilding. No magic powders, snake oils, nothing else to buy, just food and a logical well laid out program that delivers measurable results EVERY WEEK! On top of that Francesco Castano, the books author will give you life time email support. He becomes your personal trainer! He's been very helpful, and still answers my questions 5 years later! He is a very nice gentleman, and he has been very helpful and motivational for me. He can help anyone get big, get ripped, or just lose some fat and tone up, whatever your body goals are, man or woman, I've seen his program work on my friends, and it has worked wonders for me. Its not easy, he will train you hard, but you will make real progress in a short amount of time, without supplements, without drugs, without anything but hard work and a well laid out diet. Thats all it takes. His program immediately busted me out of my plateau, and if I had just stuck with it a long time ago, I would have reached my goals years ago. Regardless, I'm reaching them now. At 38 years old, I'm gaining 1/8" a week on my arms, and have done so for 3 months now! These aren't beginners gains either. I'm a fairly advanced bodybuilder, and his program has helped me gain 30 pounds in just a few months! I have 20 to go yet, and a long road cutting down my fat after I build the muscle, but I know I'll make it. Check back for progress pictures, or for the latest, visit my journal at www.bodybuilding.com, I post there almost daily. That said, this is the best 100 dollars I ever spent. I don't waste my money on supplements anymore, on magazines, and books that are filled with lies or routines that only work if you take steroids. Speaking of steroids, people are accusing me of taking them! I just laugh, knowing that real training and diet principals are all I use. That said, if anyone is looking to improve their physique, musclenow is the real deal. And if you don't like it he has a three month money back guarantee. Save yourself a lifetime of headaches and failures, and get the book. If your serious about changing your body, this is the best way to do it that I have found, and I've tried damn near everything else out there. Nothing else really worked for me. And for those of you who have taken steroids, I can tell you if your arms aren't over 19 inches, then you probably didn't NEED THEM. You could have gotten their naturally with this program. My arms were 11", and now they are almost 17" and still growing fast. Surely your average 180 pound guy with natural 15" arms could put 4" on with this program in less than a year and have 19" guns. People who think they are hardgainers, are just HARDHEADED! I was the ultimate hardgainer. I got sick a lot. I was just underating and not training properly. Just a few things wrong and you get nil results. Did you hear me? JUST A FEW THINGS WRONG AND YOU WON'T GROW! This program will provide you with a way to fast solid muscular gains, or rapid fat loss, whatever you want it to do. The thing is, any program works for a short period of time. But this is the only program that for me has worked CONSISTENTLY! I grow every week I'm on the mass gaining phase, and I lose fat every week I'm on the fat loss phase. It works great. Where other programs leave out the most crutial thing to body building: THE DIET! I don't care who you ask, anyone who knows how to pack on muscle or lose fat will tell you that the diet is the key. You can have the best steroid stack money can buy, and without a good solid mass building diet, you can forget any gains. This book destroys all the myths about bodybuilding, and fills in all the blanks you might have. Its a complete diet and training program, that delivers results or your money back. I am not affiliated with Francesco at all. I'm saying this because I feel, that after I wasted 20 years of my life trying to get big, wasting thousands of dollars on magazines, supplements, even pro hormones that made my hair fall out and aggression levels rise through the roof, after countless injuries, illnesses and other problems related to my quest to get "normal sized and someday maybe big", that I could help some fellow bodybuilders or even normal people who want to shape up, whomever they might be that wants a better body, that THIS A WAY TO DO IT. This book will save you countless hours of frustration. Who wants to go work out and not see any results? NObody! Face it, we'd all like to just sit and watch tv or whatever, but we go to the gym to make progress. Yet I see the gym full of people that look the same as they did one, two or even 5 years ago. Some of them work out very hard, yet are still 50 pounds over weight, or skinny as a rail. My point is, the average person trying to work out or diet is grossly misinformed, or not informed at all. Or they take advice from some guy who was born huge, and these poor skinny kids don't grow at all. Take it from, me former super toothpick, if you want to gain solid muscle or lose fat, musclenow works wonders, and will help you reach your own genetic peak. In fact, I'm almost certain that anyone can have 18" or 19" arms naturally, if you follow this program. If I can get 17" arms, and I'm showing no signs of being anywhere near my genetic peak, then anyone can pack on a few inches for sure if you work as hard as I do and follow the program to a T. Even I was a bit skeptical when I first read the musclenow web site. Nothing fancy for a web page, but it does contain the most important thing: THE TRUTH. There are so many scams out there, or people want to just take a magic pill and get big or lose fat. When really all it takes is INTELLIGENT DIET PLANNING AND PROPER TRAINING. Its just that simple. Save yourself years of frustration, and buy this book, and have the body you want in the shortest time possible. Check back often, I'll try to post more pictures as I progress. Thanks for your time and interest! If you have any questions, email me: joel@4drulers.com.