oh the irony…
in all the years i have been training my goal has always to be smaller. my focus has been on strength and power output. recovery ability and work tolerance. my size was simply the packaging, and the less i weighted the less i had to carry around. i loved to push my power to weight ratio. i loved to be underestimated…
when i worked at anytime fitness guys would ask me about mass gain all the time, and frankly i was kind of a dick to most of them. i would ask them why they wanted to get bigger? what were they training for and were they willing to do the work to actually get results? if i was in a particularly pugilistic mood i would ask them what weight they considered “heavy” for a deadlift or a squat… because of this it is a surprise to a lot of the people that i train now that i am embarking on a mass gain program… this post is to explain a bit of the why and how.
why: short answer – because it will be hard and it will make me uncomfortable. the long answer holds a bit more, but not much… one other part is i hate giving secondhand advice. i hate to tell someone i train that “this is what i have heard”. in some cases it is unavoidable. in this case, it is something that i have the opportunity to do, and it was about time i took it. another reason is the self imposed discipline. what most people dont realize about mass gain in the 6-8 hours a week spent in the gym is the easy part. the hours themselves are grueling, but if you cannot push hard for an hour a day then we are going to make that your goal until further notice – no. the truly hard part is the other 160 hours a week. 10 hours of sleep a night. 5000 calories a day. foam roll. deep tissue work. the support structure to make a meaningful change – especially in a short time – requires absolute commitment. or at least it does if you want to be successful.
i do also have a deep appreciation for the transformation. the experiment. to carve out 2 months and set one goal. to focus and to weigh every decision. to bring your entire will, your very being to bear on a singular outcome – and to see what happens…
how: it should be no surprise to anyone that i am using a plan written by the team over at GYM JONES based on the training they put Henry Cavill through to prep for his recent role as superman. specifically – well, it is not my place to give specifics – but it is about consistent signals. about convincing your body that it will be worth the cost to tack on size. it is about filling out a “sleep journal” every morning. keeping a food journal every day. it is about examining relationships. asking questions. fine tuning…. mostly it is about food and failure. it is about heavy and often. it is about recovering and repeating. and as Rob says, it is also about the fact that there has never been a superhero with narrow shoulders.
1imperfection