My Progress

[fastortoise]

I started going to the gym around the end of May, and have been going since (7 months). The picture of me on the left is from 10 months ago, and the one on the right from 10 minutes ago. I don't like uploading pictures of myself to strangers so I cropped my mug out (I'm stupidly stubborn like that). Also, to the dismay of the ladies, I had to do the comparison shot with a shirt on (forum rules!).

UPDATE: 18 months checkpoint

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My favourite accomplishment is the near loss of my "gaming elbow". If you all compare your elbows with your friends', you'll notice yours is a lot pointier (notice my right elbow in the old picture). I still have one of course (notice the tiny bump on my recent picture, under my left arm), but I'm slowly covering it up with muscle. I'm still way too skinny (waaaay down on the BMI scale) and I still have much to work on, so this is just the beginning :smile: . I know many of us are alike on these forums, so the point of this thread is to get like-bodied off-topic'ers to start getting in shape :mrgreen:

 

My goal for 2011? Bench twice my weight. I'll upload another comparison picture once I reach my goal :thumbup:

Update: I can already bench 20 lbs above my own weight

Update2 (18 months): I can bench a lot more than 20lbs above my weight (guesstimate; atleast 50lbs above) but I'm not near my little goal I had set for 2011.

[RpgGamer]

ooooo fastortoise, you're so sexxxxxyyy

 

I never realized there was a such thing as a "gamers elbow" but i know exactly what your taling abuot now that you mention it! weird.

[Tim]

Doing better then me. 3 months haven't showed any improvement. then again College and no Job got in my way. Looking good though!

[Ouchy]

Hey that's racist. You can't say we have elbows like that when we ...

Oh.

 

Nah I'm just kidding. Anyway, good work my friend :thumbup: I approve. May I ask what your routine was?

[fastortoise]

May I ask what your routine was?

I'll skip my legs routine since its boring:

1- 20 minutes intense cardio

legs

2- 3 sets of horizontal bench

3- triceps on a machine

4- biceps on a machine

5- chest on a machine

6- shoulder press

7- pushups & chinups

 

It takes about an hour and a half to do all that, legs and cardio included. Thanks for the comments :mrgreen:

[aquariusman]

May I ask what your routine was?

I'll skip my legs routine since its boring:

1- 20 minutes intense cardio

legs

2- 3 sets of horizontal bench

3- triceps on a machine

4- biceps on a machine

5- chest on a machine

6- shoulder press

7- pushups & chinups

 

It takes about an hour and a half to do all that, legs and cardio included. Thanks for the comments :mrgreen:

So what is your legs routine, as well as # of reps and sets for each exercise?

[Jeffwilson99]

Good effort, great effort! Of course you can't really see much apart from your shoulders, arms and pectorials. How much weight have you put on?

[fastortoise]

So what is your legs routine, as well as # of reps and sets for each exercise?

Fine..

Legs:

1- 5 minutes intense biking

2- 4-5 sets of hack squats

3- 3 sets of calf lifts

4- 3 sets on the [wagon] machine

 

In all my sets I do atleast 8 reps at maximum weight, nornally it's 12-10-8.

[jemathonical]

Looking good. First thing you notice is the pecs. There's probs a little bit of abs under the shirt so overall the improvement is good. As you said you need to gain a bit more weight but yeh keep it up

[Bloodstain]

Not that I'm saying you haven't done good, but you should have a lot better results for 7 months. Get off the machines too, do free weights, and get a good routine. A SA forum poster (who has a Kinesiology degree, runs his own gym, is buff as hell, and I think is training for some sort of world strongman) just posted some great routines. Check them out:

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3250231

[Rebdragon]

Not that I'm saying you haven't done good, but you should have a lot better results for 7 months. Get off the machines too, do free weights, and get a good routine. A SA forum poster (who has a Kinesiology degree, runs his own gym, is buff as hell, and I think is training for some sort of world strongman) just posted some great routines. Check them out:

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3250231

Apart from a psycho P90X I don't see how his results could be all that much better. He did a good job inthose months, especially if he had other obligations like schoolwork and a job.

 

Not that you aren't right though, freeweight really are better for you. Not only in terms of results but also in terms of practicality- real life weightlifting isn't going to be so simple and easy as a machine. Real weight has to be controlled in three dimensions, not just one.

[Bloodstain]

Seven months of a good free weights routine with lots and lots of eating could have gotten him better results. I dunno, maybe it's just the pics and the shirt, but I think you could get a lot better results in the future.

 

Not me, but here's a guy

 

http://yfrog.com/5jchi1rj

 

http://yfrog.com/5achi2vj

 

He's got two more months on OP, but I think if OP does things a bit different he could put on more muscle in less time than he is (not that he hasn't done a good job)

[Rebdragon]

I was expecting a rags to riches muscle story as an example... most of that change isn't muscle dude, it's fat loss. Abs like those can be achieved without too much muscle training and a frikkin' lot of cardio and food control. Same thing with the arms (and pecs somewhat), in the first picture it looks like he has most of that muscle. The second just seems to have the fat stripped off. If you look at the guy in the first pic, he's not just flabby fat, he's got some sturdyness to him.

 

The OP, though, goes from skinny to more muscular. There is a clear change from no fat and very little muscle to a decent amount of muscle mass. If you can show me an example of extreme muscle gain, without steroids and with reasonable time management (not three hours a day lifting and working out), in seven months, I'll be impressed and convinced.

 

Sorry if we're roastin' you dude.

[fastortoise]

Thanks for the tips Bloodstain. I agree with you that I should trade some machine exercises for free weights, but sometimes it's just easier for certain muscles (triceps are much easier done on a machine, for me).

 

And I also should make a routine, but I train with 2 friends and I'd have to convince them to all make one too or else there'd be no point. As for the pictures of that guy... he didn't start off barely able to lift a bench bar like me :wall:

[stevepole]

I had to do the comparison shot with a shirt on (forum rules!).

 

Actually we had modified the rules of S&F so you can in fact show pictures of yourself shirtless as long as it is in an appropriate context.

[Bloodstain]

I was expecting a rags to riches muscle story as an example... most of that change isn't muscle dude, it's fat loss. Abs like those can be achieved without too much muscle training and a frikkin' lot of cardio and food control. Same thing with the arms (and pecs somewhat), in the first picture it looks like he has most of that muscle. The second just seems to have the fat stripped off. If you look at the guy in the first pic, he's not just flabby fat, he's got some sturdyness to him.

 

The OP, though, goes from skinny to more muscular. There is a clear change from no fat and very little muscle to a decent amount of muscle mass. If you can show me an example of extreme muscle gain, without steroids and with reasonable time management (not three hours a day lifting and working out), in seven months, I'll be impressed and convinced.

 

He didn't lift weights or exercise or anything before if that's what you mean. Weight loss: work out, cardio, eat less

weight gain: Lift, eat 3k calories+ per day and you stand to gain a lot of muscle in a short amount of time.

 

OP could have put on 1 - 2 pounds a week AND increase major lifts by about 5 pounds per week at the start if he ate lots (and pushed himself real hard, but he hasn't said anything about his lifts or anything so I'm not going to assume), but not to bash on him but it looks like he put on a couple pounds in 7 months (again though, the shirt really hides a lot).

 

If it's rags to riches you want, check out this beast

 

http://yfrog.com/0ralfalfa1j

 

to

 

http://yfrog.com/1salfalfa2j

 

Although this one has A LOT longer time period

 

 

Here's another one, goes from over weight to pretty damn good for two months.

 

http://yfrog.com/5c30b1dvaj

TO:

 

http://yfrog.com/8630b3j

http://yfrog.com/5c30b4j

 

OP, use My Daily Plate (http://www.livestrong.com/), register an account, then go under Daily Plate -> My Plate.

 

Each day, input what you eat each day. You should be aiming for atleast 3k calories a day, the more the better though

 

 

Sorry if we're roastin' you dude.

 

If that is what it looks like, it was not my intention. I'm not trying to belittle his work or anything like that (he did good), but I think he could get bigger faster, just trying to give advice. If he's 100% satisfied with what he achieved and wants to keep doing what he's doing then I'll leave. OP if you want me to stop posting just tell me

[fastortoise]

Hey, I'm all about improvement. Reb was just making sure you knew we weren't attacking you, nobody is roasting anyone here.

 

I think my weak spot is not eating enough. I've never tracked my diet, so I have no idea what my calorie intake is. I'll try the myplate website to force myself to eat more, which is what I really need to gain some weight.

[Bloodstain]

Hey, I'm all about improvement. Reb was just making sure you knew we weren't attacking you, nobody is roasting anyone here.

 

I think my weak spot is not eating enough. I've never tracked my diet, so I have no idea what my calorie intake is. I'll try the myplate website to force myself to eat more, which is what I really need to gain some weight.

 

Oh, I didn't think anyone was attacking me. I guess I have one of those writing styles :razz:

 

Anyway, eating enough is really, really, REALLY hard if you aren't used to it. I'm in the same boat as you and it's hard as hell to eat tons, although I've heard cottage cheese is cheap and good for protein + calories. I'm looking into eating a container of that a day (5 cups I think, ~800 calories, lots of protein), and I've got mass gainer shakes to help. Good luck

 

Oh, and milk. Lots and lots of whole milk (or whatever milk, I prefer chocolate tbh :^_^: )

Edited January 17, 2010 by Bloodstain

[depresins]

It really isn't THAT hard to find the extra calories. Steak is your friend :thumbup:

[assassin_696]

It really isn't THAT hard to find the extra calories. Steak is your friend :thumbup:

 

Steak is also bloody expensive. Drink milk.

[depresins]

It really isn't THAT hard to find the extra calories. Steak is your friend :thumbup:

 

Steak is also bloody expensive. Drink milk.

 

I'd have assumed milk was already obvious. Steak is only a little bit more than chicken here :thumbup:

[fastortoise]

So I've started taking protein supplements & decided to chart my weight gains over the next couple of months. It's hard to get accurate readings since I go to the gym at different times of the day, but I'm hoping to get a nice trendline by the end of the month. I'll probably upload a picture when it's been 12 months since the first pic.

 

Also, major benefit: Girl at party says "ooo you have nice biceps" and squeezes my arm. I shake her off and tell her I'm not a hooker, she tells me that I should be. I think about it for a second and reply "I'll let you take a squeeze if you get me a beer" and it WORKED. I don't ever have to get up to get a beer again. That alone made my 8 months of hard work worth it :)

[Bloodstain]

If you can, get a scale for home and check your weight every morning BEFORE you eat and all that jazz

[fastortoise]

If you can, get a scale for home and check your weight every morning BEFORE you eat and all that jazz

I know you aren't around much anymore, but I thought I'd let you know that i've been doing this for the past 3 months and I have a nice little graph, with my weight linearly increasing slowly but surely :thumbsup:

 

Here's an update picture, I'm now at 10 months since I started working out. I've gained about 10 lbs, a lot of it was in height though I'm sure. About 5 lbs since the middle picture. I know it doesn't sound like much but it feels great to have some meat on me, I've been living as skin and bone for eighteen years. I'll also edit the main post with the new picture added to the old one.

 

Noteable changes:

-My triceps are slowly agglomerating into one big, good lookin' ball

-My biceps don't look much bigger than from last picture... hmmm.. . they feel bigger. Maybe I was flexing in the middle picture, because I was definitely extending them in this recent shot.

-My back (top & bottom) is much stronger now, as you can see how tight the shirt is around my abs now.

-I can do a dance with my pecs now :cool:

-I CAN DO PUSHUPS LIKE THEYRE NOTHING BRA

 

I take great satisfaction being recognized by people I don't care about so please, any type of post is welcome :mrgreen:

[Mirror]

I applaud your efforts, it looks like it is definitely paying off. :)