Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearcat
I feel like muscle size/mass/physique is a poor goal for most people. Of course, it's most men's goal earlier in life when we're dumb and also want immediate results. This video is a great example... says he's gained 30 pounds of muscle, but just sitting there you can't really tell.
It wasn't that long ago I started noticing filling out shirt sleeves and generally feeling like I've made really good progress from a physical standpoint... and that's 4.5 years in. Granted, there are obvious reasons it's taken a while... I've taken breaks and slowed down at times for mid-40s reasons, and besides protein intake I don't go out of my way to track intake, and I don't eat way above baseline. It hasn't been the perfect plan, but I don't think there's a timeline out there where I'm mass gaining either.
I think people online who say you can gain pounds of muscle for months on end as a n00b, and specifically someone like Jeff Nippard nonchalantly saying he gained 30 pounds of muscle in his first few years (not the same guy in the video above.. dude looked like Michelin Man from the waste up in his younger pics), are just setting people up for disappointment.
Building strength is a far better goal, IMO... you'll generally know workout to workout, or at worse for a while you'll know week to week whether you're progressing by adding a rep or adding a little weight, etc. As long as that's happening, you aren't failing.... and you aren't waiting months or years to see it in the mirror.
Nobody is going to spend 8 years with a goal of building strength before realizing they're doing something wrong or giving up all together... if you plateau for x number of workouts or weeks, you'll know to change things up. |
Interesting post, I agree and I don't.
I do agree with you that strength is a better goal for most than mass/physique, but then I actually really respect Jeff Nippard, he is a bodybuilder but he also values strength etc infinitely more than the average youtube fitness bodybuilder type, he has strength specific programs and has been a powerlifter.
I also don't find the 30lbs of muscle claim that crazy, and he probably did most of that with strength training rather than bodybuilding. It may also be worth noting that both of Jeff's parents were competitive bodybuilders so its actually more his access to knowledge that gave him a headstart over the average gym newbie.
I got into the gym initially via discovering Starting Strength and 5x5, and people add a ridiculous amount of muscle in the first year or so with those programs all the time. Those that don't, assuming they actually follow the workout plan, either they start overweight and have no idea the ratio of fat loss to muscle gain when they succeed, or those who start out skinny generally don't eat enough to max out their potential gains and hit the kind of gains Jeff did.