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hi mike,
               as you probably no im cutting up.......... i will be happy if i can get to 235-240lb ripped my brother is there at that weight, drug free ( as he works on railway so often gets tested)
so there's no reason why i can't, Im starting to look more ripped even after two weeks, I am feeling better for it carrying 274lb around is no easy task & not too healthy too !! I certainly wouldnt race usain bolt in the 100m dash !! Ive no time limit so no issues there, rome wasnt built in a day,..... hope you keeping well regards THE ANIMAL !!   

I remember in my younger years having my eye on the 13 then 14 stone markers and eating and training like a beast to get there! I never set a dead line / time scale but wanted it asap! And targets i.e. my first 100kg bench were rushed and not planned out (eventually leading to injuries further down the road).

Theses days I'm fairly happy with my strength and size so targets are more 'when' it happens rather than setting a certain time to achieve it. This could change from week to week depending on what I'm fancying though lol

Good question Mike. Funnily enough I was 124-126lbs myself when I started at 5 ft 8/9. Now I'm 5 ft 9 and 180-182lbs and probably the same / very small bit lower in b/f %. For me personally, it's an incredible improvement, and completely transformed my life. Looking back, I'd have to say that yes, I'd be satisfied with where I am now, but now that I'm here it's all about taking it to the next level and not sitting on things. One thing I've been asking myself recently is: Do I truly have the energy / priority to take it to the next level, and the necessary emotional investment? Because everything in my life seems to be pointing towards the opposite: my nutrition's getting much less complex, my training frequency has went down, and there is a huge emphasis on being as efficient as possible without training eating away at valuable time I have. So I'd have to say even though I don't like to think about it, I'd say subconsciously I'm pretty content with the level I'm at and accept my genetic limitations and that there's never going to be an enormous improvement from herein without drugs. Not giving up, just trying to give balance to other priorities in my life at the moment I believe.

Very interesting thread though, and will be good to see more answers. I know we've talked about this a lot back in the day, and I'm sure when I come home it'll be a topic we revisit over that steak given the changes since we last discussed it!

Hi there, first post so be gentle!

Around a year ago I was very overweight, approaching 15st, which for someone who's 5' 9" isn't a good look! I started eating more healthily, coupled with swimming and cycling to lose weight (without thinking about putting on any muscle) and by Christmas I'd lost almost 2st and was starting to feel much happier about my shape. Because of how much better I felt (and because I was so impressed to have stuck to my plan) I dug out my old set of dumbells & curling bar and started lifting in the mornings before work, to see if I could myself in decent shape for my holiday...

Fast forward to now and I'm currently 12st 10lb, with probably another 5-10lbs to lose depending on how the training is going to affect my weight/size - I know I should use BF% as a guide but hey!

The best thing about it is that I still feel motivated to do it, though my initial goal (weightloss) has changed and my goal now is to look good. I've also got 3 young sons and they deserve a dad who isn't overweight and gasping around the park playing football with them...

Welcome to the forum ArrBee and top work!

If you need any help with workouts or nutrition etc ask away everyone's friendly and looking to help each other mate.

Welcome mate. Great progress.
When I was young I never thought about it. It was only when I turned 30, started injections and ballooned up to a lazy fat 20 stone that I realised I had to get back to the gym. ( my mate pestered me to do weights as he'd lost weight previously doing it.)
Since then I've been slowly loosing weight and gaining muscle. Albeit slowly given the state of my hormones.  I've concentrated a bit too much on weights and have realised I need to do more cardio. I subconsciously had an idea that I'd be ripped within a few months. That hasn't happened but I am a lot happier in myself than I was a year or two ago.
At the moment I'm changing to a more cardio based routine. But trying to find the right balance between the two is where I'm at, at  the moment.

Good topic. I started because i wasnt happy with how i looked. I had terribly skinny arms and shoulders etc but carried excess body fat on my stomach chest etc.  My starting goal was to just tone the fat down and fill out a little.  I've filled out now but i want to keep growing and i still have that fat to shift down the line.

jayvechi wrote:

Good topic. I started because i wasnt happy with how i looked. I had terribly skinny arms and shoulders etc but carried excess body fat on my stomach chest etc.  My starting goal was to just tone the fat down and fill out a little.  I've filled out now but i want to keep growing and i still have that fat to shift down the line.

you look pretty good in your avatar jay !! or is it MR HOGAN ??  lol

haha this is the hulkster. I forgot to say in my post my aim in to now look like that an i aim to get there in 2 years time haha doable imo

jayvechi wrote:

haha this is the hulkster. I forgot to say in my post my aim in to now look like that an i aim to get there in 2 years time haha doable imo

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i don't think so lad not naturally anyhow, you would need help with the juice !! hulk hogan was in his day around 300lb cut, big man real big !!

For a long time when I was younger I was depressed about my weight; always seemed to sit around the 9st 7lbs, and at 6'2 that was far too skinny!  Being extremely misguided I attempted to consume thousands of calories with no real weight training (Im not going to count using 5kg dumbells and a few sit-ups!)  for a number of years, with no progress.  It wasnt until I got to 25 that I joined a gym and started training more productively....initially I was aiming for 11st 7lbs (My idol as a teen had been Brandon Lee in the Crow and his physique seemed achievable).  Within a year I had got that that stage, but life took over and circumstances meant I struggled to keep dedicated and spent a few years of flondering between 11st 7lbs and 12st 7lbs. By the time I hit 28 I set myself a new goal.....Wolverine! (Hugh Jackman in X-Men).  Same height as me but 14st 7lbs.  Foolishly again I thought this would be possible in a year and eventually hit an all time high of 14st 4lbs, only to realise I had gone from a 30" waist to a 34", and 50% of my gains had been Fat!  Am now back down to 12st 12lbs, with the aim of getting to 13st 7lbs by Christmas, with 12% bodyfat. Its only through experience and learning that I now understand what I am doing.....the average human body is 180lbs, of which 60% is water, 15% fat, let alone bone mass.......only 30lbs of the average body is muscle.  If I can add 10lbs of muscle in a year that will make a massive difference - an extra 1/3 of muscle!  And if I dont reach my goal by christmas, I just reassess and start again.  Its all about a positive mental attitude!

when I was younger 12 - 13 years old, I started lifting weights and reading books and magz about big Arnie and other bodybuilders, then reading about Arnie's achievements at such a young age i wanted to do the same, so i set a time limmit that was unrelistic, 270lb at the age if 19 that was my target, obviously when you are young your very nieve toward drugs, supps, etc,  I swore blind that all the bodybuilders in the books were natural haha what an idiot. I still have these goals and dreams to this day and realised its not a sprint its a marathon so dont set goals because its a life style.

I have one die-hard goal: reach 135kg within my lifespan. My foci, strategies and ethics have all been subject for frequent revisions, but the very core of my various physical ambitions has remained the same: Get big, really big. Bodyfat? Not a major concern. Strength? A nice side-effect of getting big, but still not a major concern. Good health? Honestly? As long as my chosen means to get big isn't proven dangerous, I'm willing to compromise on the health issue. Ethics? As long as my means of getting big is "legal'ish" I'm very happy, but I can live with black market products aswell.

Does that make me a good role-model or even a good middle class citcen? Absolutely not. And I do not care as long as I get big.

Sorry mom!

My Goal is to bulk up and get lean / ripped. I started 3 months ago at 9st with back fat and fat across my abs, my aim is to get in shape for a holiday in July as last years pictures showed me in a way i didn't want to look. I'm now 9st 10lbs  and much happier but knowing I need to really dig deep in the cardio to lose my belly fat.

After my holiday i will continue to work at it as now its more of an obsession / hobby.