Hello, my name is Steve. I joined this forum a while back and wasn't very active. I took some time off from hacking around on the computer but gladly, I am back. I thought I would start a journal of my journey. I probably don't share many of the same goals as you. Hopefully that doesn't mean I shouldn't start a journal here.

I am in the process of trying to add muscle mass. I am currently at 195 lbs and want to get up to 210 lbs.

I am currently eating roughly 4000 calories per day.

My exercise regiment consists of 2 days of extremely light cardio and 4 days of very intense resistance training.

My resistance training program is an upper/lower split, where my upper body is hit twice per week and my lower body is hit twice per week. This is broken down further into vertical pushing and pulling, horizontal pushing and pulling, quad dominant, and posterior chain dominant exercises.

I have been at this a long while, and still love every step of the process. I fail more than I succeed, but ALWAYS take each failure as they come and learn from them.

If you ever want to stop in and say hi, I would love to hear from you.

Current pictures, hmmm, let me see......

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Well I have to say it's different to hear of someone actully wanting to gain weight! (muscal) But I hope you succeed at the goal you want. Even though I think you look real good the way you are!!

Be_gone_soon is right, you look fantastic! But I wish you all the luck in getting to your goals - even if they are opposite of most of us! LOL.

Good luck!

Thanks for stopping in and also, for the kind words. I don't think I will ever be done in my fitness/health/physique persuits. It is a never-ending journey for me. The further into it I go, the happier I become.

Hi Steve! Good to see you!

I'll have to agree here.... you look great!

I also agree that this is a never-ending journey for many people.
Although, I have a ways to go yet to reach my goals, I don't think that I'll stop "improving" my body once I reach them.

Again, you look awesome! Keep up the fantastic job!

Hi Steve,
You've done an amazing job! Body sculpting takes some serious work, time and dedication and it's paying off for you You look fantastic!

And you're right, this isn't a journey that ends just because we might hit a number - at least for many of us, this is a long term journey.

I hope to find well defined muscles under my layer of squish some day! Granted, I know I have to work to get them defined, and work to get the squish gone, but it is so inspiring to see what you've done.

So, I'm going to put my ignorance out there, what exactly is vertical and horizontal pushing/pulling? And, do you think it's possible to get that kind of muscle definition without working out in a gym?

Hi You seem to know what you want, and how to get it... thats pretty good motivation for the rest of us What do you do to get your 4000cals/day? I work at GNC, and I sell soooo many weight gainers, bleh. That sounds way too gross to me, but to each their own, I guess, lol.
Have a great day!

wow you look amazing.......4000cals a day???? you must be working your ass off to burn that off!!!!!
It is really cool to see a person dedicated like that, good luck with the gain.......later on dude......star

Hey, maybe you can help with this, then. No matter how I position myself on an inclined bench, if I press it hurts my shoulder blades. I'm just trying to do it for toning and endurance exercises at the moment, so I use really light weights like 20-50 pounds.
The machine I am on is a Hoist "multi-press", and it just hurts to use the thing in any of the three exercises it handles, no matter what position I set the seat, and no matter how I set my shoulder blades. It's not the muscles that hurt, to be clear, it feels like I am trying to rearrange the bones that make my shoulder blades work, and I can bench press just fine...
Any ideas?

Here's a pic of the machine:
http://www.spartacusfitness.com/images/hoist/hd1500.jpg

Thanks very much!

You are too kind.

Many people, when designing a resistance training program, break their workouts up into body parts. For instance, John Doe might train chest and tris today. I, as well as many other strength coaches in the industry, like the idea of breaking up our workouts into body parts. We rarely isolate muscle groups in the real world, and quite frankly, our body responds better when we don't isolate them in the gym.

In the real world, our bodies move in planes of motion. The basics for upper body are vertical pushing and pulling as well as horizontal pushing and pulling. Program design is an integral part of ANYONE'S success, and I could write a book on the different variables that should be considered when developing one. So there is a lot more to it than this.

Vertical pushing is something like standing barbell overhead press. (shoulders)

Vertical pulling is something pullups or pulldowns. (lats/back)

Horizontal pushing is something like flat barbell bench press. (chest/shoulders)

Horizontal pulling is something like cable or barbell rows. (back/lats)

I further divide my lower body into either quad dominant or posterior chain (hamstring/glute) dominant.

So one day may focus on exercises such as squat variations for quads, and another day my emphasize deadlift variations for posterior chaine.

Can you build that kind of definition without going into a gym? Depends on what you mean. Most I don't think could have my size without going to a gym. But ANYONE can be defined. Definition is not a matter of muscle size. Rather, it is a matter of body fat levels really. So, take you for instance. You could lose all your fat (which I think you will ) and become defined. However, you may deside that you don't like the way you look because your muscle are not big enough. You are still defined, just not big enough for your liking, or you may like to bring up certain areas of your body where they are lagging. Then, the gym is a must to transform your body. Make sense?

What do I do to get my 4000 calories in?

I eat food, haha. I don't take any supplements besides a protein shake here and there and a few vitamins and EFA.

Muscle growth does not happen unless there is an excess of calories. Probably over 90% of the people I see in the gym lift weights until they are blue in the face, year after year. Yet, they never realize any gains! I can't imagine wasting that amount of time. As their frustrations build up, they begin lifting completely wrong, trying to figure out how they can "shock" their body into growth.

The entire time, all they had to do was eat. You don't grow with out the proper energy. Muscle growth is a very energy intensive process, which means, lots of energy needs to be there for it to happen.

So yea, I eat a lot of food, haha.

No, not at all. I am new around here, but I chat/help on an extremely high amount of web forums. This forum, by far, has the lowest caloric intakes I have ever seen, and most deem them as normal. IMO, and I know I could get many more "experts" in here that would agree, there are way too many people in here who are undereating for their size. Starvation is not the answer to permenant and successful weight loss. But I am going off on a tangent here.

Just FYI, I do 1, sometimes 2 very low intensity, steady state cardio sessions per week. Most weeks it is only one, and it lasts 20-30 minutes.

I lift weights 4 times per week and I am usually out of the gym within 45 minutes each session.

That is all that I do. Oh yea, and I have a desk job. Would you call that very active?

Do I know you?

I have an idea. Stop using it. I hate machines for various reasons that we won't get into. Well actually I will tell you the primary reason. They lead to Pattern Overload Syndrome since they lock you into a fixed, unnatural plane of motion, which leads to chronic injuries. Probably why your should hurts the way it does.

That said, we are all biomechanically unique. What feels good and works well for one, probably won't have the same effect for another. There a boat load of exercises to choose from, so avoid the ones that hurt you.

If your shoulder starts acting up on more than just one exercise, then there might be reason to be concerned. Let me know.