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[Guest]

I thought it would be interesting if we shared our body building experience. Progression, lows, highs, when you started etc.

I'll go first.

I'm a 21 y/o male. I first started lifting weights when I was 17. I continued lifting pretty regularly until I turned 19 due to injury. Btw 17 and 19 I didn't gain much bulk, but I got cut. I've always been a hard gainer and back then I didn't know how to eat a lot. I stopped at 19 and didn't restart hardcore until about last year around this time. I built up my body all through spring and gained a lot of mass due to finally figuring out how to eat a lot and making ridiculously calorie rich protein shakes.

Then last summer I got somewhat lazy and a little fat. But I was still working out, but not hard enough. I was planning on getting back into good shape last fall but I suffered a serious knee injury that caused me to endure surgery. I was out on cruches for 12 weeks. My body had gone to sh*t. Recently, just last month, I started going back to the gym and have been working to get my gains back. I'm eating like a savage again and it looks like i'm having some serious muscle memory.

I'm currently 6'0 and weigh ~170lbs(haven't weighed in in a while)
I haven't tried to max out my bench press since I got back into the gym last month. I'm guessing I can hit at least my body weight. My goal is to be 180-185lbs ripped.

Now time for me to enjoy a large salmon filet and rice.

 

[Harie]

Good idea BAHD.

I'm a 30 y/o male and have been either exercising, or reading up on exercising since I was 18. Maybe 5 or 6 years ago I got way into the nutrition aspect of exercise, supplements, vitamins etc and haven't looked back since.

Like every single 18 year old, I wanted to be a body builder. I'd go through phases where I'd lift for a year and slack off for 6 months, then back at it for another 6 months etc. This lasted till I was probably 26. At age 26, I realized that like most wana-be body builders, I had been neglecting my lower body. I started watching power lifting videos and I was hooked.

I exercised pretty seriously from age 26 to 28, but it seemed that when I was 28 @ 1/2, a lot in my life changed. School and work were taking up most of my time, plus my wife was pregnant...Which meant I had absolutely no time for the gym. Thankfully I graduated in August this year and started lifting again in December 2006.

Just because I wasn't lifting for 1/4 of 2005 and most of 2006, doesn't mean that I still wasn't addicted to reading up on exercising/nutrition etc.

Currently am 6ft3 and weigh 220lbs.

I'm sure that a few people won't like the fact that I didn't list how much I can lift. But, as I've said before, how much you can or can't lift has no bearing on what you know...I'm sure that many people in here could out bench Pavel Tsatsouline (I'm really into his articles lately), but that doesn't mean that he's not an exercise science guru.

 

[CCS]

I'm 27. I started lifting at age 15. I was 5'7.5" then and now, but if I straighten my back I might hit 5'8".

I started max benching 55 pounds and max curling 35 pounds when I weighed 135. In my first 3 months my max's doubled, then I could bench 160 when I graduated from high school. I did not work out that often during high school, but just moderately with weights and did cross country.

After high school I lifted infrequently and did not make much gaines for the next 8 years. Some muscle groups did get stronger, but my muscles did get bigger. I went up to 150 pounds, and my waist went from 29 inches to 32 inches.

A year ago, I discovered that doing 5 reps made me strong faster. I had a two month period where I pounded my body hard in the gym every day and did not get stronger. Maybe I should have ate more. Yeah, I never increased calories. In the last two months, though, I've been doing a mix of heavy and light and only doing 3-4 compound sets per muscle group and My bench max went up to 185 from 165. All my other muscle groups are stronger too. I can cling 60% more than I could in high school.

I probably have 18% body fat, and my goal is to drop 10 pounds of fat to reach 10% body fat, and also gain 10 pounds of muscle. My legs are buff from cross country, so I'm mostly worried about upper body, though I do need to strengthen my legs a bit, especially around the knee stableizers.

The main thing holding me back now is procrastination in school leads to late nighters which means I can't workout on that day, and colds keep me out of the gym. I gained 15 pounds of bench press strength in the last month, and just want to keep that up if I can get caught up in school and kick this sore throat. I now know so much about body building that I did not know before.

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

At what age did you guys start really losing your hair? and do you think there is a link between the timing of that an your increase in bodybuilding?

 

[DammitLetMeIn]

I'm 27. I started lifting at age 15. I was 5'7.5" then and now, but if I straighten my back I might hit 5'8".
.

you know if u play volleyball consistenly you gain an inch?