Hard Gainer: Gaining muscle mass while remaining athletic

[Ford Prefect]

Sorry. I thought I had answered that in my previous. The book is a no-go. It feel through. Such is life.

I wouldn't expect myself to plateau really. Gains will slow for sure, and it is doubtful I'll continue to pack on as much muscle while losing fat, but I'll likely have gains throughout the life of the program. I'm not starting King's programs for another few weeks. I'm getting myself back into shape by doing some pyramids with compound lifts, and then doing things like skull crushers, curls, glute-ham raises, etc to get ready for the isolation stuff.

[rubthebuddha]

sometimes it hurts to hear ford say the word "isolation," but i guess even the brightest bulbs sometimes go dim.

ford -- how's progress on getting the lifts back to something you're not ashamed of?*








* note -- my squat has always shamed me, so i'm not being a complete asshat here.

[Ford Prefect]

It's coming along. Slowly but surely. I add 10-20 lbs to my squat each session during my 2 sessions/week. Bench is coming along as well. I saw some real progress with my lower body today, so I'm happy.


The isolation is actually kind of fun after going so long without doing any. I expect to stimulate some good arm and calf gains because of it. Then I can prance around in nancy boy underwear and get a full body wax.

[rubthebuddha]

(ford's street cred)² < sevenstar's street cred

[IronFist]

(ford's street cred)² < sevenstar's street cred

Oh snap.

[Ford Prefect]

Anyway b1tches. I'm heading out for a 4 day snowboard vacation in the middle of the week, so I'll be happy if I have 3-4 lbs of total gains over this current 2-week period. It'll be hard to have the diet in order when I'm away and this place probably doesn't have good exercise equipment.

I lifted weights at a commericial gym for the first time in a couple years though. Motivation is definately a lot higher there, so I had very decent showing on all my lifts compared to what I had been putting up. More people there than I imagined at 5:30am.

[Ford Prefect]

Doh! I've only gained 2 lbs thus far. This is right on target as I was hoping to only gain 2-3 week for 20 weeks making 40-60 lbs total before cutting. However with Turkey day approaching and me being unable to access my normal food, I see myself have a net gain of zero for this period.

On a positive note, the ski resort I'm headed to is getting 5-9" tonight followed by snow tomorrow, thursday, friday, and saturday. I'm going to tear it up. Let's hope I don't kill myself.

[rubthebuddha]

ford -- where you going this time? and how was rainier -- i don't remember hearing the verdict on that climb.

[SevenStar]

(ford's street cred)² < sevenstar's street cred

dayum... I dunno whether to be insulted because I have such low cred or happy cuz someone has less than me...

[Ford Prefect]

That's just wrong. I'll remember this!


Rub, No Rainier for me as of yet. I trained a lot on other high, but albiet non-glaciated peaks this year. I should be heading there next summer. The snowboarding trip is to Stowe, VT. I'm leaving work in all of 10 minutes, then I'm heading up north.

Happy Thanksgiving, fellas.

[IronFist]

dayum... I dunno whether to be insulted because I have such low cred or happy cuz someone has less than me...

Well, according to that formula, your Street Cred is at least a positive number. Since yours is higher than Ford's squared, and any number squared is positive*, yours is at least greater than zero





* except for zero, but no one should be squaring 0 anyway.

[Serpent]

Well, according to that formula, your Street Cred is at least a positive number. Since yours is higher than Ford's squared, and any number squared is positive*, yours is at least greater than zero





* except for zero, but no one should be squaring 0 anyway.

Nerd.

(10 characters)

[Ford Prefect]

All math aside...

I was foiled by the holiday as expected. I gained all of 1 lbs and according to the calipers it was fat. I expect to have better results in this next 2 week block though. I started King's routine, and I was once again reminded why I left commericial gyms. It basically pre-fatigues all assisting muscle groups and has you bench last. As well as being an ego killer because handling 135 lbs for 8 reps at a 613 tempo is hard at that point, but it is also around 6:40am by the time I get to that point... Despite having 8 bench stations, they were ALL taken. At least most were benching. There was one guy who has doing dumbell flyes there even though there were plenty of flat benches available in the dumbbell area. I decided to cut my losses and just to db bench press.

Snowboarding was great though. There were snow storms every day, and the mountain was empty on saturday. I had some words with a skier who decided to be a *****, but other than that everything was great. No injuries.

[IronFist]

I started King's routine, and I was once again reminded why I left commericial gyms.... handling 135 lbs for 8 reps... is hard at that point

I'm sure that's the reason you left commercial gyms. I'm sure it has nothing to do with this:

...but it is also around 6:40am... Despite having 8 bench stations, they were ALL taken.

You could have just gone and done curls in the squat rack.

[Serpent]

You could have just gone and done curls in the squat rack.

Or squats on the preacher seat. You know, just for sh!ts and giggles.