Excited to Share

[Deadly_Ripped]

Hey all,

Haven't posted in a while. Just wanted to share some excitement.

In the past:
6' tall, always shredded, with abs sexier than a washboard and 15.5" arms
Was always getting the "how much do you bench" questions etc...

Fast foward:
5 years after a bad car accident and a chronic injury, I'm just now recovering body mass. I'm severely limited in terms of the exercises and intensity that I can do, so it's been a VERY slow process, made worse by the fact that it's VERY difficult for me to gain weight.

In 3 years I've gone from a low of 130 lbs to 149 today, with a gain of 5 lbs in the past month alone.

Today I was able to squat, and that's something I haven't done since high school, meaning that this is just the beginning of potential gains from leg workouts!!!!

I'm so excited to be regaining my physical health that I figured I'd hop on and say hi again and thanks to people who've contributed to this board back when I was jacked, and to whom I'll still pop in to see what they have to say as I progress back to that point.

Best,
DR

 

[j0n24]

That is strange you say you were jacked and had washboard abs yet you dont know about muscle memory? weird.

 

[rioku]

Hi Deadly_Ripped,
This is really good news indeed and thank you so much for sharing!

First of all, I am glad to hear that you are recovered and well. God-willing, you came out of the accident with injuries only.

Still, I know how discouraging and frustrating it can be to the spirit when you have something that you've worked so hard to achieve taken away in an instant. I have been there. I got hit by a car on my bicycle this May broke a collarbone in two pieces. So it was nothing serious like what you had to go through, but still it took me a few months before I healed and got back the strength again. I'm still on it.

For me, the lesson I got was to be fully responsible for my own safety no matter what. I mean, I missed being in top shape, able to sprint fast, jump high, punch hard, and all those good things, during that time of convalescence.

So I value my health a lot more. I don't take it for granted as much as I used to. My spatial awareness has improved. I walk around with eyes around me. I carry some form of self-defense when I'm out. These are just the personal safety things I have trained myself for, because the truth is this: We want all these different things, but if we don't have our health to begin with and the ability to protect it, then what is the point in wanting anything else, for we won't have the strength and discipline required to achieve and keep it.

If you are OK with it, of course, I would be interested to know your experiences during the last 5 years to get back up to where you were before the accident, and beyond to now.

Once again, thanks for sharing. My heart goes out to you.
God Bless

 

[rioku]

Hey Deadly_Ripped,
One more thing from reading your post:

You stated that your time of convalescence and general inactivity following the accident, forced you to lose body mass. A lot of people would gain. I'm with you; it's hard for me to put on weight; went down to 125 lbs (at 5'9"). Up to 137 lbs now and hoping to reach my previous of 140 real soon. Then I'll take it from there, but this time I'll be smarter about it.

It was REAL slow for you huh? It must've sucked even more, being one o' the skinny ones. I feel you there. But you trudge on. God bless, soldier. Never stop.

Btw, check out this security analyst, Robert Sicilliano. He deals with security in all sectors, seriously in every area of life you can think of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Siciliano

Take Care,
Rioku

 

[Alle_Gory]

That is strange you say you were jacked and had washboard abs yet you dont know about muscle memory? weird.

Maybe his body didn't get the memo.

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

I'm not sure what people are getting at with muscle memory. Did I state anywhere that I don't know what muscle memory is, or how it works? Did I even express surprise in any way that I am seeing gains or ask anyone why I am able to gain weight?

I am limited in my level of exertion by a chronic injury in both elbows that I will most likely carry for the rest of my life. I physically cannot push myself to the max (at least with upper body) on any pushing or pulling exercises, and I'm severely limited in terms of what weight I can hold in my hands for any amount of time. I can't do any curling or tricep extensions or pushing exercises whatsoever. That leaves chest flies, squats, leg machine exercises of all kinds, shoulder flies, and light dumb bell or cable lat and back work, and ab stuff.

It's been slow because of my chronic injury. After recovering from the car accident I went right back into a lot of high-repetition hand and elbow movements (masturbation jokes are coming I'm sure), including piano, lab research, writing on the computer for hours at a time, note-taking for a few hours every day, driving often, and exercising at an intensity that I enjoy. These things combined, coming from absolutely no exercise or repetitive motion for 3 months, led to inflammation in my wrists and elbows. I had to work through it for school, and at that point I let it get so bad that nothing made it go away permanently.

For the next few years I did physical therapy to increase blood flow to the area, and that helped symptoms related to my shoulder injury, but did little for my arm pain. Since then I've tried numerous times to ignore it, and that always results in the same thing: pain so bad that it keeps me from sleeping for most of the night and wakes me up when I manage to fall asleep. I allowed this limitation to prevent me from staying positive, and so I very pitifully worked out for a couple of years just enough to keep up with long-term physical therapy. Once I really acknowledged my injury and physical limitations, I was able to really tailor my workouts and exercises to completely minimize damage to my elbows. It has resulted in the elimination of many different exercises from my routines, but I am able to keep lifting and seeing gains now, whereas before I'd last about a month and have to stop due to pain.

I am lucky that the inflammation has not caused terrible, permanent nerve damage, but we'll see what happens in the next few years. It can always get worse, and I just have to stay positive. I cannot play racquet sports, club/bat swinging sports, or ball throwing sports of any kind except bowling. Essentially, anything that may cause my arms to bend more than 90 degrees is out of the picture. I can go bowling, play soccer, and work out in the gym very lightly... even shuffleboard, ping pong, and foos-ball are out of the picture except in very rare occasions.

I'm so lucky that I still have both of my arms at all, but sometimes it gets to feeling like I'd rather not. My body does not reflect who I am and my inability to engage in many forms of active recreation have hurt the two major relationships that I've been in since I started having this problem 5 years ago. I hate being weak and small because it's not how I see myself, and it's not how I envisioned spending my 20's.

Here's to all the haters on this board though, who would rather try to doubt what I say than leave my post alone or say something positive. Cheers!

Oh and F*CK OFF. You think that because you know something about muscle memory that you're an expert? There's a reason I was jacked several years ago, and it's because I played 4 varsity sports and learned more about health and fitness during that time than I thought possible. No juice, no complaining, just lifting weights and eating like crazy. It was a great time in my life and I hope now to work without my limitations to regain what functional strength and aesthetic that are possible given my situation. Excuse me for celebrating a personal victory in your domain.

 

[Fuglydude]

You were dealt a shiiity card and you're making the most of it... this is a fantastic quality and ability to have as a man. I'm sorry about your accident and your inability to lift heavy... however, keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to be strong and lift a lot of weight to be big. Many bodybuilders are HUGE but not nearly as strong as they look.

I've lifted heavy for the past several years of my life. Personal bests include 2.67x bodyweight deadlift, around a 2x bodyweight squat, pull ups/dips w/ 100+ lbs around my waist, etc... Although I loved, and still love lifting heavy, I found that I was much more prone to injury while training this way. I've recently switched over to bodybuilding (competing next year), and my joints and tendons are a lot happier. I still lift heavy one day a week but not as much as I did before.

It is possible to get big while still lifting light weights. Your diet has to be awesome (obviously!) and you need to really focus on pumping a lot of blood into the muscles and getting a good pump. Being able to have an intense work out with light weights and get a great pump is almost an art form. You have to develop a good mind-muscle connection.

You said you can still do squats. Squats and squat variations can form the basis of a great work out. There are tons of squat variations: (high bar/low bar, front, etc) and these will help to develop your lower body and core. Combine heavy, brutal squats (try 20 rep squats if you're a real sick phuck) with higher rep, lower weight upper body work can give you great results. Just focus on lifting w/ great form and really working the muscle and getting a great pump. These kinds of workouts coupled with a great diet and supplementation regimen will give you great results.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Basically muscle memory is your body is able to remember what weight it should be. If you've been a muscular guy since childhood then if you get ill and drop all the muscle, you should be able to gain it all back very quickly. This is the norm for your body because it's been used to that for a long time.

Being out of it for 5 years has probably taken a toll. You might be able to gain it back if you recover well from the injury and don't force it until your body is ready.

When you say difficult to gain weight, you mean appetite?

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

By difficult to gain weight, I mean:

I just hit 150 on the scale after 7 months of steadily ramping up my workouts from a 1-month break in which I went from 153 to 140 (moved to a new city).

If I'm not eating excessively and exercising, I lose muscle mass until I hit about 130. My apetite is almost non-existent when I force feed myself the way I do now, but it really helps for me to eat all of the foods that other people eat in moderation.

One technique I've used is positive affirmations about food. I'll say things like "when I have these 4 hot dogs for breakfast, they're going to taste better than they did for lunch yesterday. I'm going to bite into them and my taste buds are going to give me a standing ovation for the treat of allowing them to experience these hot dogs" and you know what? It works. It keeps me from getting sick of any of these foods, and I've been eating them like CRAZY for 6 weeks now without any major disgust or nausea developing.

My average day right now consists of this:
4 hot dogs with 2 pieces of bread or buns ~700 calories
a CLIF bar ~200 calories
hommus and chips ~ 1/4 cup hummos at a time. ~300 calories
1 or 2 PB&J sandwiches with at least 4 tbsp peanut butter on them ~500 calories each
a full sleeve of oreos (~700 calories)
a piece of fruit - apple or banana usually
a handful or two of raisins
a scoop of peanut butter if I'm feeling like it
watered-down gatorade with water = about 40-60 oz of water every day.
pre-prepared frozen chicken - breaded or sauced= ~600 calories per sitting.

That's 3000 calories of really s***ty food and I'm gaining a couple of pounds per month. My injury prevents me from hitting the weights really hard and maximizing my gains from eating like this.

I was thrilled to see the hint of padding around my stomach a couple of weeks ago, indicating to me that I'm not metabolically incapable of gaining weight and maybe even getting fat. I definitely don't have a malabsorption problem, but I am lactose intolerant, so I can't have ANY dairy or cheese or anything (I know that some cheeses have almost no lactose- I am EXTREMELY sensitive and can't even have those without intense discomfort).

 

[Fuglydude]

Dude your diet is atrocious. I love junk food but that amount of crap made me nauseous just to think about! You gotta eat cleaner if you're serious about getting into actual shape. 3000 calories believe it or not is actually not a lot of food... I eat closer to 4000 per day, and there's many bodybuilders out there that need to eat 5000+ to gain weight.

By eating all that processed crap you're simply not giving your body quality substrate to develop quality mass. You're not eating nearly enough meat, healthy carbs or protein sources. At 150 lbs you shouldn't have any issues gaining weight if you're eating around 3000-3500 cals/day w/ 200-250 g protein. Aim for 1-1.5 lb meat per day along w/ 1-2 lbs of carbs (ei: yams, oatmeal, brown rice, etc) and lotsa veges and fruit. You need good quality whole unprocessed foods to gain quality muscle mass.

Any douche can get fat, but it takes planning and discipline to gain lean muscle. Now that you've proved that you can get fat... why not try and re-engineer your diet to make all the efforts in the gym more effective?

 

[Alle_Gory]

What about yoghurt?

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

Alle-Gory I can't eat yogurt either. Yogurt has one of the highest percentages of lactose of the common dairy products. I've heard greek yogurt has almost no lactose in it, but I'm so sensitive and I don't know how it's made that I'm just assuming I can't have it.

Fuglydude: Yeah it is atrocious! I'm not getting fat though. As I gain weight, very, very little has been fat. I've gone from a 31" waist to a 32" waist. I wasn't doing ab workouts, but once I saw my waistline expand I started.

So far the only fat I've gained has been the loss of my natural 8-pack, because that's how skinny I am when I don't exercise or overeat.

I completely agree with you that my diet sucks terribly for someone concerned with fitness. Unfortunately, this food is convenient and tasty enough that I don't get sick of it. I can't handle eating raw nuts every day - after about a week I get so sick of the taste that I get nauseous thinking about them. I fully expect to change my diet once I gain another 10 lbs, or if I really start to get a gut.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Yogurt has one of the highest percentages of lactose of the common dairy products. I've heard greek yogurt has almost no lactose in it, but I'm so sensitive and I don't know how it's made that I'm just assuming I can't have it.

Weird, most yoghurt is easy on my system. I eat the balkands style yoghurt and kefir. Kefir is kind of tangy but it's delicious.

I completely agree with you that my diet sucks terribly for someone concerned with fitness. Unfortunately, this food is convenient and tasty enough that I don't get sick of it. I can't handle eating raw nuts every day - after about a week I get so sick of the taste that I get nauseous thinking about them. I fully expect to change my diet once I gain another 10 lbs, or if I really start to get a gut.

How are your skills in the kitchen? Cooking, baking, knife skills. I love to make chilli. It takes little time to prepare and forever to simmer at a low temperature but with the right spices it comes out delicious. Ingredients are cheap, especially the meat since I can buy the fatty and chewy meat. Just trim off all the fat with a paring knife and the meat will break down as the chilli simmers. I've got a link to a recipe from youtube I'm using if you're interested. I've modified it for my own taste, but the basic chilli recipe is still fvcking tasty.

 

[ArcBound]

I'm interested in the chili link

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

I don't cook more than once or twice per month right now. I'm a FT grad student in a research program so I spend 80+ hrs per week away from the apt.

I pretty much only go there to unwind before bed or to get ready to go out on the weekends.

It's a life that I've begun to seriously question since my first time getting dumped a month ago.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Chef Brian's Chilli:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8OqxOKtLhM

Personally, I add more meat. I also add liquid smoke because it gives it a wonderful smoky flavor. Also, I add the hot spices at the end of cooking because while it's hot it's hard to taste the spice.

 

[Fuglydude]

You need to figure out WHY you're training. Eating right, lifting and getting enough rest all while doing grad school is a tall order. Without the appropriate motivation it can be difficult to do well in your endeavors.

Eating large quantities of wholesome unprocessed foods is tough, but its what it takes to put on muscle mass. Yeah you're gaining weight, but given the change in your appearance you're probably gaining more fat than muscle. I'm sitting at 5'8" - 185 and I have the same size waist as you. Your body needs large amounts of good carbs, protein and good fats to be able to put on muscle. In addition, by eating like that you can potentially be sabotaging yourself future metabolic and cardiovascular health.

As a grad student you have to think/study etc... it is much easier to do this when you are healthy, and that translates to having a healthy diet. I feel so much better physically and mentally when I eat well vs. when I binge. Its easier to think, focus and react. We deal with life and death situations all the time at work so you gotta stay sharp.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I'm a critical care RN... in the last couple of weeks I've worked over 60 hours/week on average including a course. I did both day and night shifts so that I have to switch my schedules back and forth. Time is obviously an issue. This is why I stick to easy whole foods to make my diet work:

* Oatmeal (buy a couple of 5 kg boxes and keep one at home and one at work)
* Yams (cook 7-8 lbs at a time and keep them readily available...gotta love yams)
* Ground beef or other red meat (cook 5+ lbs at a time)
* Chicken (same as above, or just buy a rotisserie chicken... depending on the size its good for 3-4 meals)
* Frozen vege packs. (great for adding veges to any diet)
* Whole Eggs (easy to cook)
* Whey protein isolate (same as above one at work/one at home)
* Weight gainer (same as above)
* Brown rice (make a lot of it)

- There's nothing wrong with a little junk, but just make sure your body has lotsa good nutrients to work with most of the time. Overall though, the above foods are designed to give you a great time:nutrient ratio... that is, they don't take that much time to make BUT give you great amounts of nutrients. I hate cooking and I'm scared that most things complex things I cook would probably not be fit for human consumption so this is what works for me.


And don't worry you don't have to eat whole nuts for all your 6-7 meals haha... like I said you seriously need to do figure out why you wanna do this. If your motivation isn't adequate you will fail given how busy you are. Its all about how badly you want it.

 

[j0n24]

So you get mad because I say something about muscle memory and freak out that it took you 3 yrs to get back to your original weight after your ordeal.

I figured out why it took so long due to yours and Fuglys posts in this thread....you suffer from the old "Highschool athlete that eats crappy but due to sports was able to look good...then after you get out of the sport you balloon." Or in your case lose weight.

I agree with fulgy that is the ugliest dirty bulk I've ever seen but I know the reason why you do this..

Your an ectomorph since you cant gain weight and you have such a low metabolism that your never hungry which means you dont eat as much as you should.

I'm not trying to be a d1ck or a "Hater," Because I could care less about your body and only care about mine to be honest," But this is the honest truth.

You have to really be into getting back to your old body since it is not going to be as easy as you think....your older which means lower test as well as your injury holding you back.

I think all you really need is heavy weight squats/deads/bench with some assisted exercises for the calves and mid to light shoulder work.

None of that besides the shoulder work puts to much focused pressure on your elbow and should help you get back on track.

Although this comes from the guy that is a "Hater," So whatever.

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

I can't bench and i can't deadlift beacuse of the grip required for it. I can't hold more than 60 lbs in each hand for very long... if I do I get shocks that pulse from my elbows to the tips of my ring and pinky fingers due to nerves that become increasingly damaged as I trauamtize them more. I can't do any pressing exercises either unfortunately, eliminating all bench presses and shoulder presses. The only chest and shoulder exercises I can do are flys. This is NOT joint or tendon or ligament pain. This is nerve pain. It does not go away after 4 weeks of light activity and NSAIDS. Those help, but it just sticks around and comes back worse than any tendonitis I've ever experienced. Flexion of my triceps (what used to be one of my best features) causes me pain due to constriction of the ulnar groove. Flexion of my forearms causes the same problem for the ulnar tunnel.

I am now squatting and enjoying the soreness. As long as I hold the bar as far out as the weights I don't experience numbness or tingling or sharp pains in my elbows that radiate towards my fingers. The injury is the rate limiting factor and the weight loss is a complicating factor. The lack of appetite is also a complication that I am dealing with by submitting to my taste buds and stuffing garbage into my face all day.

After reading the things on this forum, I am going to reduce my hot dog consumption and start including eggs in my diet.

Thank you for the suggestions j0n24. I just wish that it was as simple as bench/dead/squat/eat. That's what I did before I got injured, and now it's a matter of tailoring my activities to avoiding exacerbation of the injury.

 

[j0n24]

I am now squatting and enjoying the soreness. As long as I hold the bar as far out as the weights I don't experience numbness or tingling or sharp pains in my elbows that radiate towards my fingers.

Just make sure to hold the bar correctly....IF your going super heavy or heavier then your use too and the bar is bent there might be a possibility that the bar will roll on your shoulders since its bent and put more pressure on your forearms trying to hold the bar in place.

Have you tried any machines for bench and maybe pullups or rows for your back or maybe lying rows....basically your on the floor and row yourself up instead of regular rows.