Spend a minute clicking through the Hybrid site and you will come away with the impression that I am a runner. With all of the triathlon talk, you might also be thinking that I ran cross-country and track in high school or college. And, if not, maybe I was a swimmer – nope.
While it is easy to see why you might think that, truth is, you couldn’t be more wrong. In middle school I was an awkward fat kid – and let’s be honest, who wasn’t? Then, in high school I started playing football and found the weight room. Needless to say, I spent A LOT of time there. If being too big in middle school was a problem, when it came to playing football and trying to earn a college scholarship, I could not be big enough. Although I was able to earn that scholarship and play at the college level, getting bigger and stronger was my full-time job.
So, as it turns out I was never a runner. I was so concerned with how much I could bench, squat, and deadlift, that I wasn’t doing any cardio beyond a 100 yard sprint. But, in attempt to get bigger and stronger, I was doing a bunch of stupid sh*t.
While the list is longer than I can remember or would care to admit, it goes a little something like this…
I ate a STUPID amount of food
If my natural weight is 180, to get to and maintain 230lbs I had to eat about 5,000 calories every day. Since I was trying to gain muscle and not become an awkward fat kid – again – I had to eat relatively clean. A day in the life included;
Eight hardboiled eggs and two cups of oatmeal for breakfast
A gallon of whole milk throughout the day
Two foot long, double meat, Subway subs for lunch
Pre and post workout “snacks”
A massive, anything goes dinner, then two peanut butter sandwiches before bed
Looking at it now I laugh and then gag a little. That is a stupid amount of food. Sure, I got bigger, but there was a lot of damage done to my bank account and digestive system.
I took STUPID supplements
and by that I mean I took EVERY supplement. Think I spent a lot on food? That’s nothing compared to the money I was throwing at supplements. Pre-workout, post-workout, intra-workout, before bed, first thing in the morning – if I wasn’t eating or training I was mixing shakes or popping pills. Weight-gainer shakes with 600 + calories, energy supplements that made me nauseous and a protein shake at 4 am. Yeah, I set an alarm for the middle of the night to chug the protein shake waiting next to my bed. What the hell was I thinking?
I did STUPID sh*t in the gym
Unfortunately, some of the stupid things I did outside of the gym spilled over into my workouts. Having a lifting belt, wrist straps and knee wraps on hand for max effort lifts is one thing. But, using them for every set all of the time falls into the stupid sh*t category. There were however a few workouts I did not need all those accessories for; arms, forearms and calves. Entire workouts devoted to wrist curls and calf raises amount to an epic failure on my part! I guess that’s what I get for following a training plan from FLEX magazine, which I carried around the weight room with me, along with my gallon jug of water – I was that guy.
Even though my list is full of some pretty dumb things, I can’t be alone. What is the dumbest thing you have ever done in an attempt to achieve a fitness goal?
I was doing stupid sh*t, too – and if you remember, I was in the weight room with you guys through the winter. I’d drink carbo rush (back when ephedrine wasn’t outlawed) when I had the flu to get through the school day so I could play in the game at night, where I’d drink another carbo rush. I took hydroxy cut (spelling?) one spring to lose weight while lifting, drank a ton of protein shakes, and focused on gaining muscle mass while I was already wayyyy too big for my small 5’2 frame. I knew nothing about how to gain power and everything about maxing out. From all of the supplements/pills/etc I took one preseason I blacked out one night and finally gave it all up. None of it was illegal or against high school rules – but no high school athlete should ever find themselves at GNC as much as I was there.
Ephedrine, fat burners and protein shakes for high school athlete?! We were both out of our minds for sure.
Oh man I’ve been there too. Unfortunately I’m still on the weight gain regime (it blows) but It’s a good personal challenge. My weight is a lot less than you too haha. Im 6 2 or 6 3 and my natural bodyweight is 140 — disgustingly and unnatractively skinny. Took me about 2 years to gain to 165/170 (living in asia = tons of cheap food and lots of white rice). Now, going from 170 to 190 is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, trying to do it clean. It’s so bloody hard to eat 2800 calories of FOOD a day (rather than junk). Real food fills you up :/
Alexander you’re right, it’s easy to eat a ton of junk food but way more difficult to get quality calories in. My weight gaining days were loaded with chicken, steak, sweet potatoes, brown rice, bananas, and double-decker peanut butter sanwiches.