I might add 30+ lb of muscle in my first two years of working out. read on.
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I’ve started working out. No, seriously. After about a year of dieting, which saw me dip from 272+ lb to 230ish; I decided the next step was to gain some muscle and lose even more weight. I decided to join the gym.
But what I didn’t realize is that pushing yourself hard in the weightroom, as a larger guy, only means that your weight might go up, because you’re now adding a bunch of muscle into the mix.
I lift three times a week. I started off extremely weak, and incrimentally added weight after every workout to the compound excercises i’ve been doing. Because newbie gains are well documented, you gain a large amount of strength and muscle in your first year, and that’s a fact. You can press yourself hard and recover quickly. After a day’s rest you’re already ready to lift even heavier weights.
I’m expecting to add about 2 lb of muscle per month. I’m a bigger guy, maybe I’m genetically predisposed, so maybe I’ll luck out and get a little more than that. That’s at least 24 lb in a year before newbie gains fade. In my second year I can expect maybe, on average, 1 lb of muscle a month. That’s still another 12+ lb of muscle. In two years I could have added 36+ lb of muscle. If I’ve lost a bunch of fat, I could look alot fitter in two years.
I mean, that’s the best case scenario, if i’m dieting and sleeping right, too and don’t give up on the gym.
I’ll keep you posted; it’s already been almost a month and the weights seem ever-heavier; everytime I go in the weight room i think to myself: How is it possible that I’m adding weight to an already heavy bar? But I always come out having lifted the weights and done the reps. Go figure.
I’m doing stronglifts 5×5; I’ll do madcow 5×5 afterward most likely. But Phrak’s Greyskull Variant LP seems to be, at least on the reddit forums “better than Stronglifts 5×5 for beginners” because it has some arms to it, and it has some volume to it. If I could start all over again, maybe I’d take reddit’s advice and do that program instead. As it stands, I think any newbie program full of compound lifts is probably fine; I hope i’m not wrong. The first 2-3 months will be stronglifts 5×5; I’ll switch to madcow 5×5 after that and see how I like it.
Keep you guys updated in a few weeks.
I’ve also limited my gaming because I need to sleep 7-9 hours. I used to only sleep 5-6 hours a night, and always felt refreshed and never tired. But now I’m forcing myself to sleep for 7+ hours whenever possible; I’ve cut out my game time of League Of Legends and World Of Warcraft at night. So I won’t be streaming much – and I’ll be sleeping more.
Oh hey to my subscribers – the voices in my head?
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update: note: Newbie gains might only amount to ~2 lb of muscle / month for the first year, which seems more realistic. I might “only” gain 24 lb of muscle in the first year. I might be able to add another 1 lb of muscle / month in the second year. Mayhap 36+ lb of muscle over two years is more realistic. Still; I’m a big guy who packs on the weight easily; I feel like i’m genetically predisposed to making gains. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see in 2-3 months. I’ll keep you posted.
