So, I CAN put on muscle!
I’ve been struggling for years at trying to put on muscle. I tried so many things, but finally found something that works.
My whole adult life (25 years), my arms have been 12 inches around. The biggest they ever measured was 12.5, and I think I was heavily carb loaded at the time.
Today, my arms measure 13.5 inches. That is a major triumph for me. My goal had always been 13 inches, but now I’ve upped that to 14 inches. That’s where I will stop. That’s a comfortable amount for me.
So, how did I do it? What was the big change versus all the times I tried and failed? Eating.
It seems that I am one of those guys that has to eat a lot to put on muscle.
My guess is that during the period I gained the most muscle, I ate about 200 grams of protein per day and about 3000 to 3500 calories. My protein supplement includes Creatine and L-Glutamine also.
At the same time as I started eating more, I changed my workout program somewhat, and eaten more (and a different brand of) protein supplements. I can’t say with 100% certainty that eating a lot that has made the difference, but that is the only major difference.
So, of course I have put on a fair amount of fat. But, in the past year or so I have doubled the amount of weight I can bench press, so a lot of it must be muscle. One can only improve so much without muscle gain. Most of that change has come in the past few months.
In December, 2007 I was bench pressing (on a particular Life Fitness machine) 90 pounds. Today I am bench pressing 180 pounds on the same machine. I realize this doesn’t equate to a real life bench press of 180 pounds, but the point is that it has doubled. So, I’m thrilled at that.
Most of my gains were while I was in Canada for a month. I am back at home in Bulgaria right now, so I can’t completely continue with the program I was using that was so successful. But, I suspect that I will manage to reach my goal of 14 inch arms in the next few weeks. Things look promising, with about a 1/4 inch increase in the last 10 days. At that rate, I’ll reach my goal by February 5th, which is the end date for my program.
Hopefully, I won’t gain too much more fat during the next few weeks. Once I reach my goal, I go into muscle maintenance, and weight-loss mode. I suspect that even in maintenance mode I will very slowly gain muscle for a while. I don’t plan to stop lifting weights, though I will not be increasing the weights I lift. I’m strong enough, or at least will soon be.
January 9, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Hey congrats on those guns man! I can very much understand where you are coming from, being a "hardgainer" myself. Your diet did play a very big role in your size and strength gains. I used to be 6ft 1 at about 160lbs, I am now 210lbs. I put on 50 lbs of muscle in about 3 years, and it was because I changed my training and my diet program. High protien, high carbs and keeping those calories up are key to a bulking diet. and yes you will maintain muscle and add a little more while you are maintaining in your next training program. Again congrats on your recent gains!
January 10, 2009 at 1:39 am
Hey, thanks!
I didn’t mention it in my post, but I I think the carbs have been a big factor. I made a real point of eating protein with lots of carbs for breakfast and after workouts.