5 years in the works...

[david_diesel]

It's been about 5 years since I've been into fitness seriously. I started out with it as a means to be able to eat junkfood. I did an evaluation at my gym and came up at 160 @ 17.9 %bf. I freaked out and got to work. I made alot of mistakes in the beginning. Doin cardio only, not eating enuff, basically commiting dietary suicide. I lost a lot of weight but I lost a lot of muscle too. I got down to 140 lbs at right around 8% bf. I looked cut but emaciated. There began the journey. These pics are my progress throughout the past 5 years.

[david_diesel]

This one was taken on my honeymoon in Ibiza. I thought it was funny to see an American icon like Bugs Bunny in Spain. A few hash joints later, I took a picture with him ;-)

Date: 7/2003
Weight:145 lbs

[david_diesel]

Date: 7/2004
Weight: 157 lbs

[david_diesel]

Date: 7/2005
Weight: 165

[david_diesel]

After staying lean for three years I decided to give an all out bulk a try. I ate 3200 calories/day for 16 weeks. I did 2 HST cycles and gained alot of weight, also alot of water and fat. I didn't feel good about myself. I felt really bulky and uncomfortable. I had to buy new pants...that sucked.

Date: 1/2006
Weight: 182

[Tafman]

bro, nice progress, but I see gyno, is that new?

[ManOfMuscle]

At which point in this process did you use steroids?

[david_diesel]

I dieted down for the summer. I didn't get as lean as I wanted but I still managed to shed all that blubber and gain some definition

Date: 7/2006
Weight:170

[david_diesel]

I decided that I didn't want to gain weight over the winter months. I wanted to refine the muscle I had already gained the previous year. I used Iron Addicts 3 day split that he has posted on his website. Great results. I was doing a combination of carb cycling in the winter and a modified SGX style diet in the summer. I felt like I really hit on something this time around. I was actually (for once) really pleased with how I looked. My goal is to put on maybe another 5-10. but for the most part....I'm pretty satisfied

Date: 7/2007
Weight 172

[david_diesel]

Taftman....Ya I've had that shit since my late teens. I got really heavy my last year of high school. I was 185 with a 36 inch waist. I quit wrestling that year and just got lazy. Ever since I dropped that weight I had the puffy nips. Hopefully one day I can get em taken care of.

Man of Muscle...I did an M1T cycle in 1/2004. I gained 7 lbs. Since that time I've done a little something every summer to hold on to muscle while dieting down. I never really felt like I needed it to grow. This past summer I did 6 weeks of trans test and 6 weeks of test suspension. I used proviron and a'dex along with it. I think it's very noticible in the last set of pictures. Most guys say for someone my size, why bother. But honestly, I'm curious. I always have been. I studied up, read everything I thought could help and feel that as a result made smart decisions. I did the suspension at 300mg/week.

[ManOfMuscle]

Well you've made a big change and put on a lot of quality size. How often did you shoot the suspension?

[david_diesel]

Thanks for the kind words Muscle...
Shot the suspension every day. Flowed thru a 29g insulin pin. Practically painless. A little post inject soreness but nothing too bad. More important , I felt, was the consistency of my training. I was doing am cardio 5-6 days a week. On days where I lifted I was doing split sessions. (AM and PM). I was tired but it was worth it

[Soul Rebel]

Good progress. Just curious, as to what was your heaviest, and when did you start shedding the pounds? I ask this because I was quite heavy too in my earlier years of high school and lost weight, but my nips look similar to yours; I really find it quite embarrassing.

[david_diesel]

Originally Posted by Soul Rebel

Good progress. Just curious, as to what was your heaviest, and when did you start shedding the pounds? I ask this because I was quite heavy too in my earlier years of high school and lost weight, but my nips look similar to yours; I really find it quite embarrassing.

Thanks Soul Rebel...
The heaviest I ever was was when I was 18, the summer after high school. I was up to 185 and FAT. I had a 36 inch waist. It was terrible. i didnt realize how fat I was until someone pointed it out to me. I started working a manual labor job at the end of the summer and dropped down to 147. I wasnt training tho....just eating less and working alot at my job.

The heaviest I was up to when I bulked in winter 2005 was 182. I force fed myself and put on 20 lbs in 16 weeks. I'll never do that again tho. I hated how I felt. It felt like i had a tire around my waist. None of my clotehs fit. It sucked. So from then on my strategy for gaining is slow and steady.

BTW...I'm 5' 7"

[luquillo78]

Nice progress david. Looking good.

What kind of workouts do you do? Hight/low reps? Hight/low volume? Cardio?

[david_diesel]

Thanks Luquillo
I was using Iron Addicts 3 day split which actually incorporates both low and high rep sets. An example would be on my chest/shoulder/tri day
I'd do db presses 6-8 reps for 3 sets and follow it up with inc flyes at 10-12 reps for 2 sets. It worked quite nicely and was very simple to stick with for long periods of time without reaching a plateau. In other words I was able to add weight or reps each time I went to the gym. I think I continued to get results well through 12-14 weeks of using the same program. During the winter months I'd do cardio three times a week right after lifting. I'd walk for 25 minutes or so...flucuating on the speed and incline of the treadmill.

Summer is a different story.....AM cardio on an empty stomach 5-6 days a week and weights in the pm 3 days a week. Doing split sessions was a bitch but it was what I needed to do to get to where I wanted.