Yes i see that Hank did say that about weight gain and of course you are spot on when you say that advice is not for everyone.
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Perhaps it is the case that it DOES apply to everyone: just not at all times.
Which is one of the things I intend to write about when I have a moment to really dig into this topic: training and nutrition should be phasic. Marty Gallagher does an OUTSTANDING job addressing this in âPurposeful Primitiveâ, and Jim Wenderâs â5/3/1 Foreverâ lays this all out with leaders and anchors. And the Bros figured it all out with âmuscle confusionâ. And the bodybuilders had it all figured out with âoff season/in seasonâ. And the powerlifters called it periodization. And John McCallum called it âsoftening upâ. And Dan John calls it âpark bench/bus benchâ. Somehow, EVERYONE who actually succeeds KNOWS this, but you try to get someone on the internet to vary their training and diet and they look at you like youâre a nutter.
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Oh, I dare not give advice because I do not have the necessary knowledge. I donât make anyone change anything in their training and diet. I am not saying that my approach is the right one. I just believe and know that it will be most beneficial for my health in the first place to lose a lot of weight, mainly by losing fat, while continuing to lift weights. And when I have reached (if at all) at least about 40 pounds less weight, only then can I think about increasing muscle mass with minimal increase in fat. And since I believe that this will not happen soon, at the moment I do not even think about eating that will lead to weight gain.
Iâm starting to get serious, I donât drink alcohol and I donât eat junk. At least as a first step I can do that.
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Iâve teased enough through the topic: lemme get my 3 down.
- Nutrition supports training, NOT the other way around. People approach âbulking and cuttingâ backwards: they decide theyâre going to eat a certain way and then try to figure out how to train around that. âIâm going to eat to gainâ âIâm going to lose fatâ. NO! You are going to have a high volume training phase: this means you need to eat MORE to support itâŠand then you grow. OR youâre going to have a low volume/high intensity training phase. That means eating LESS. That means losing fat. And on that, people approach the training backwards: they try to do LESS when gaining so that they donât need to eat so much, and then they try to burn as many calories as possible through activity when losing fat so they can eat more. This is how we spin wheels and become mediocre.
G-flux explains SO much about how to really approach this.
And with thatâŠ
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Training (and nutrition) need to be phasic. People are in such a rush to just learn the bare minimum and never think again. So they want just ONE way to train, commit to it, and then never alter it. This is how you get guys running âStartingâ Strength for years at a time, making no progress and only growing a gut. I wrote about this above: âmuscle confusionâ, âperiodizationâ, âblast and cruiseâ, etc etc: it has a bunch of different names but it all expresses the same idea: we have some training phases where we accumulate volume and some where we intensify/realize potential. We can break that down further and have hypertrophy phases, conditioning phases, realization phases, etc, but either way we vary the training so that we can keep progressing. We NEED to address those weak points and other aspects of fitness/strength/whatever if we want to keep progressing. If we only play to our strengths, we plateau HARD.
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Reach goals. These are CRUCIAL. The best ones I know are competition, and strongman in particular really nails this because you donât get to choose the weights like you do in powerlifting: you are told what the standard is and you need to show up for it. I got my absolute biggest/strongest when I had to increase my keg clean and press 75lbs in 12 weeks. I became laser focused and all that mattered was getting that clean and press. Which, BTW, if you wanna get JACKED, get REAL good at taking an awkward object off the floor and pressing it over your head: it trains the EVERYTHING. But if I were just left to my own devices, I wouldnât have chased after that goal so psychotically. And hell, after it was done, my cardiovascular health markers were crap and I was told I had to get them under control in 6 months or get put on cholesterol medsâŠa new reach goal! I crushed that one too.
If you canât find a competition, find a way to get reach goals. I LOVE the programs 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake, 5/3/1 Building the Monolith and Jon Andersenâs Deep Water Beginner and Intermediate, because you plug your numbers in at the start, and when you see what is expected of you at the end, you realize you needed to start eating YESTERDAY and youâre in a race to catch up.
This is already WAY too long and rambly, but I love it. Great work @simo74 !
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We are all learning here mate and this is all great discission. Genuinely interested to know what top 3 tips would you give someone.
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Love your well thought out and considered response Pwn. Appreciate you taking them time to write that out. The phasic comment is an excellent one and sits really nicely with one I often think about which is âpick one goalâ. So many people trying to achieve 5 things at once and dont achieve anything,
A young fella (very early 20âs) asked me in the gym last week for some tips on improving his bench press. He has built some good muscle but is is probably 170lbs and not exactly ripped. He actually trains pretty hard and has a decent bench for his size. My immediate response was put on 20lbs of weight. He looked very confused by this and then said something about not wanting to get too big yet and trying to lose some fluffâŠbla bla by this point I switched off.
I know that its possible to achieve some goals in parallel but I think a lot of people would go further if they just focused on one at a time.
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Much appreciated @simo74 As is too easy to do: I blame social media. Kids feel a need to be âphotoshoot readyâ at all times, and similar to the thread regarding chunky t-men, the old timers knew that there was a time to soften up and focus on getting beefy and a time to lean up and be beach/photoshoot ready, and trying to do both was a foolâs errand. But now you got guys that refuse to let their abs became even slightly blurry and still wanna put on some size. Itâs not happening.
One of the best things I ever did for myself was read Dave Tateâs posts back in '08 on eating. I was TOTALLY not the target audience for it, missed so many of the points entirely, and still bought in 100%, let myself get chubby, stopped worrying about abs, got STRONG AS HELL (for the time) and bypassed a LOT of silliness.
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It depends on who I have to give advice to. If he is a novice, the advice will be the same, and if he is someone who is about to appear at Olympia, it will be completely different 
Iâm joking, of course.
I would tell a novice:
- To train mostly with basic heavy exercises.
- Constantly strive to increase the strength of these exercises, both for low and higher repetitions and over time to use programs that provide this opportunity.
- Do not use drugs.
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My tips are based on a so called âhard gainerâ
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Stop calling yourself a hard gainer, or saying you have a high metabolism. Take ownership, you are not a magical unicorn, eat enough and you will gain weight and muscle.
Some tacticsâŠ
1000 cal shakes after your normal breakfast.
100g nuts.
Switch to slower carbs, brown pasta, brown bread etc.
Eat more at each sitting rather than grazing. -
Quality over quantity in terms of training. High volume bro splits may not work for you right from the get go. You may benifit from them later in your training career.
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Dont take gym life too seriously.
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Realise its going to take you 10 years of consistancy to build a good physique. Fuck all amazing will be achieved over short periods. If you are not prepared for that then find another hobby and live a happier less frustrated life.
Sorry i did 4!
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This made me smile and is great advice
This one is so important for newbies to understand.
Itâs all good mate, happy to hear what you have to say.
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Canât believe I missed this!
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Donât change your goal to match your effort; change your effort to meet your goal.
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Youâre not special and nothing is new; if it works, it works.
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Just get started and the process itself tends to answer all your questions.
I know that was way esoteric and not extraordinarily practical, but I really do think we can all just pick a program/ training style and get after it. Getting the work in is all that really matters (this really goes for everything, not just picking up pieces of metal). The only time we âmissâ is when we delays ourselves with excuses or the exciting internet phenomenon of paralysis by analysis.
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I really love this one and I know it is something @T3hPwnisher has talked about too. Dont worry about whether the program is optimal just do the work and learn as you go. It really is that simple.
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