Thread: Thoughts??

Damn, 6'6....what a giant. You make me feel small at 6'1"

You shouldn't be worrying about your bench, your only 17.
Just keep a consistant program and read all you can.. You have plenty of time to get there. Don't worry about the guys doing 285, nor your incline problems. There will always be someone bigger and stronger. And while your beginning it is all intimidating. I never focused on bench press myself and after watching some of the big guys I never thought I would be able to lift a decent incline. Now I surpassed all my goals and am improving greatly. I don't do steroids, but for a natural I have been improving well. Just work hard, and you will get there. It doesn't happen overnight. Report back every 6 months and let me know how much your improving... It takes a good 6 months to see real improvement. Then every 6 months from there you will start really showing improvement..

One thing that sticks out to me in your diet though... You seem to be getting too much protein in one sitting.. Remember, your body only can absorb about 45-50 grams of protein or so every couple hours... I'm sure the rest of the guys here can help you on your diet.

Like Randy said, keep at it and you WILL improve by leaps and bounds. Once you hit say a 275 bench, you'll notice how others are benching over 300. Don't worry about the strength of the other guys, focus on self improvement. Long arms are a disadvantage in bench pressing, but that doesn't mean its not possible to have a great bench. A friend of mine is 6'7" and can do 3 reps with 315.

Personally I think your diet sucks! Arnolds book, if it's the one I'm thinking of, has great info, but the advice on diet and total workout volume is outdated. Way too much fat , and IMO not enough protein! At 220 lbs you should be consuming 220 to 300 grams of quality protein. Right now your not even getting 200 grams. Add a snack between breakfast and lunch, and also between lunch and dinner, and before bed for a total of 6 meals a day. Try to consume 50 grams of protein at each sitting, with approximately a equal amount of carbs. Lose the bacon, sausage, cheese, and cut back on egg yolks. 7 or 8 egg whites with 1 yolk is a good choice (EggBeaters are convenient for the egg whites). These are just some rough suggestions, check out the diet sticky's for more info and in your case focus on the 'bulking' guidelines.

As you have been, concentrate on compound movements (bench, squat, power cleans, deadlifts), eat clean and mean, and you will soon see nice gains. Gook luck!

Yes, Jersey's diet recommendations make sense..
I weigh 220 myself and I find it hard satifying my daily protein requirments. But you have to define a daily time schedule and stick to it.. Like Jersey said, try to eat 6 meals a day. I start with like 9 egg whites and a piece of whole wheat toast.. That is one meal. Then the next may be a cup of oatmeal with honey and maybe a few almonds and a protein shake. Then a chicken breast on next meal followed by another protein shake. Check out the diet thread here on the site... There are lots of examples.
But most definately cut out the fricken bacon and sausage man. That has got to be the worst crap for you there is And when you eat meat, eat lean meat... It sounds like you need to lean up , not bulk up at your weight. What is your goal? If you want to bulk up then you have to adjust your diet accordingly, but eating that crap is not the way to do it Damn, you eat like I used to eat. I was a junk food junkie too. Now your dinner menu looks more like it ... Steak/chicken/fish , potatoes, veggies...now your talkin.... Anyway, work hard and let us know how you're doin.

I weigh in at a mere 224 and am into the 400s for protein I can be overheard often saying "damnit, I have to eat again?" I should be 230 by mid next week.

300+ works ok though, as long as I'm not trying to grow quickly

Ok I'm looking at all the information on this forum. Damn it's a lot to read but I'll get through it. Thank you for all the info and your thoughts on this subject. Also I've come up with a new diet, with what you guys have presented to me:

Breakfast:

7 egg whites + 1 whole egg
2 slices of toast w/ PB
1 glass of milk

Snack:
2 PB/Jam sandwiches
Protien Shake

Lunch:
3 Hamburgers (1/4lb patties)
Baked Potato
1 Fruit or Vegetable
1 Glass of milk

Snack:
2 PB/Jam sandwiches (I never get sick of those!)
1 Protien Shake

Dinner:
1/2 pound meat (steak/fish/etc)
Potatoes
Vegtable (carrot/corn/etc)
1 Glass of milk

So how does that sound? Also my goal weight is 240lbs. I find that still at 215-220 you can get pushed around pretty easily. Most college DE/TEs are at 240-250lbs. I know my biggest problem that I'll probably encounter is eating enough. A lot of people say just to keep eating, but I don't want to fill myself with a bunch of stuff that's just going to sit there and do nothing. Unless that's my only route I can take. As far as the strength, you're right, I just have to sit back and do things the way I can. I guess I'm just a little self-consious (grammar?) about myself compared with others. Well like I said, thanks for everything and I'll get back to you guys on my results.

Originally posted by Ottar97
Snack:
2 PB/Jam sandwiches (I never get sick of those!)

I was having those awhile back, damn they are good, but they also make me fat quickly and that is without milk.

what does your diet consist of Mudge?

Originally posted by Randy
what does your diet consist of Mudge?

Check the diet forum. I should probably add some string beans for PC.

Upping (my) calories

Ottar,

The diet looks better, but like Mudge says, those dam P/J's will kill ya. It is ok once in awhile.. One thing you do is just setup a cheat day and on that one day you can allow yourself to eat that kind of crap. But I wouldn't drop it into your regular schedule. Also 3 1/4 burgers for lunch... Wholly shit! Can you get by with just 1. That would probably be better. <Just my view> of the matter.

It may work for him, it just doesn't for me. I can put an inch on my waist after about 5 days of just one a day, no lie.

No milk, no bread, and very moderate carbs for me on a permanent basis, pizza once a week.

The 1/4 pound burgers I used to get were 22g protein each, I get 1/3 pounders at Costco now which are 30g each.

Yeah, age plays a huge factor Mudge... me 41 , Ottar 17
At 17 I could put away the world and not gain a fricken ounce if my life depended on it

OH YEAH! Forgot to mention...my metabolizm is OFF THE FRIGGIN' WALL. I could drop 3-4 pounds in a day if I don't eat enough , (just by sitting on my butt). That's why I need some of those fats in there.

ok Ottar....I forgot to factor in your age...now it all makes sense..
I could eat 3 large pizza's at your age too and actually lose weight

Enjoy it why you can bud!!!

I was never like that, I can put on weight easily, of course making it quality weight is not terribly easy though. I've had at least a little bit of a belly since I was 12 or so, looking through my pix of even 2 years ago is freaky.

Yeah I can imagine it would be freaky Mudge. If I looked back at my early pictures I was a fricken toothpick

I remember when I was 21 I had like a 29 inch waist... My metabalism sure changed after I hit 30....

2 years ago everything was smaller but my waist, I floated around 210-215 most of the time.

how old did you say you where now Mudge? I forget

27, alzheimers sucks doesn't it.

Yeah....it really does sonny boy

You all are just kids. I'll be 48 in a few weeks.

Since my early 20's my weight has been as low as 157 lbs (was into distance running), and as high as 242 lbs @ over 30% BF about two years ago. Right now I'm 212 lbs @ approximately 18-19% BF with a goal of 12%. It gets tougher and tougher as you get older!

Randy is close enough to your age.

Ah, but he just uses a cane... I'm tooling around with a walker.

I've heard that one of the requirements to even make training camp is to be able to bench 225 twenty times. Pretty big feat.

I believe that's NFL training camp...there's no way a college would do something like that. Coming out of your senior year in high school there's some college freshman that could probably do 225 maybe 5-10 times. So as for me I'm going to be a senior next year I have a year to get things going up for college. But I have a feeling I would be red-shirted, and then that'd give me another year to lift.