I hate to stereotype, but why.... ???

F

Fish Chris

0
do smaller framed guys, and black guys, tend to get big, and buffed quicker, and easier ? Of course their are always exceptions. My strongman idol, Mariuz Pudginowski, is Polish..... Brock Lesnar is both BIG, and as white as I am, and he has muscle, on top of muscle ! But generally speaking.

I work with a girl who was talking about her black boyfriend, and she was saying that a couple months ago, he lifted weights for about 1 month, and immediately gained so much size in his arms and chest, that he started developing stretch marks ! You have to be freaking kidding me ! I worked out for 3 freaking years (granted, I was still a developing kid... 15-18) and I never got stretch marks. And it's NOT because my skin is super elastic either.... as becoming obese DID give me a few (luckily) light colored stretch marks on my belly !

Just out of curiosity, do these smaller guys, or black guys (the ones that fit the stereotype of getting cut up / buffed easier) in fact, produce higher levels of testosterone ? Just curious.

Oh so anyway, yes ! I'm freaking jellous !

.......but I'm not going to let my less than perfect genetics stop me. I already know I'll just have to work 10 X's harder to get to the same point. I guess nobody said life was fair.

Your thoughts ?

Peace,
Fish
 
Lesner took a lot of steroids to get to where he is now(long enough before joining the ufc so he flushed it all out...) and thats usually the case with people who have gained a lot of muscle quickly... whether they'll admit it or not
 
I worked out for 3 freaking years
Click to expand...

It takes more than just lifting weights to gain muscle. You have to eat to gain. If you kept your normal eating habits (maintaining) then you're not going to put on any significant mass. You have to be in a calorie surplus to gain muscle, and you need the protein.
 
Okay, so steroids asside ?

After I posted this this morning, I was talking to an old buddy of mine, a black guy that used to be freaking buffed, (still a big, strong guy, but not like 20 years ago) and I brought up the "black guys get buffed easier" subject, and (in general) he agreed with me. But of course he stressed what I already know.... which is, "You can't change your genetics, but you can get bigger and stronger, either way, through hard work and dedication." He went on to say, that although he got pretty big, pretty fast, their was always going to be somebody out there that gets bigger, faster, but you just can't let that bother you. Lucky them.

Come to think about it, I have another buddy who happens to be black, and was a hard-core power lifter back in the day. Still built like a tree trunk (good thing he's a very nice guy ;)
I think I might try to hook up with him later, and see what his thoughts are on what this "now skinny" (he's going to trip on me) white boy can do to put on some serious muscle mass.

Fish
 
Try to change your diet a little bit. Like MAR1984 said, you have to eat to gain. To build muscle, you have to eat protein so start chowing down on the milk products and lean meats and maybe that will help. Also, I know that to tone, you're supposed to do lots of reps of low, manageable weights. So to actually build big muscles, the type I'm assuming you're talking about, try lifting a heigher amount of weigh for less reps?
 
But Mar and rosee, I was on a calorie surplus most of my life, especially between the age of 15 and 18, when I was going crazy with weightlifting and fitness in general, and still, there were kids (most of them... especially the black guys) that got big faster than me. Although I did get a TON stronger, and graduated, physically most improved, in my class.

But hey, that was back when their were still dinosaurs running around ;) LOL

I think this many years later, their will be a lot of things that have changed. Then, I was certainly working out before my prime, and now, I'm working out after it :confused:
But I'll certainly be working out smarter now.

Oh, I've said this in some other posts, but I'm getting about 200 gr. protein (half natural, half powder supplement) 240 gr carbs, and 2500 cals a day right now. Sounds pretty adequate to me. Don't you think ?
I'm eating it at all the right times too.

Hmmm,
Fish
 
I guess its all a matter of eating the right kinds of food...while eating less cals is vital, eating healthier calories is the most optimal.
 
Iain1974 said:
Lesnar was in WWE for years so was subject to their steroid 'policy'
Click to expand...

haha whats that policy? a minimum daily amount?

as MAR said, to build muscle you have to lift more weight. you can lift 10 lbs 100 times but it's not going to do as much as lifting as much as possible even 5 times
 
Okay, so I did end up hooking up with another old buddy, (he's 53) the black, ex power lifter, yesterday afternoon. He hasn't lifted for years..... but geeeez ! Talk about some muscle memory ! I wish my weak arse had arms and a chest like he does !

So we were talking about lifting weights as kids.... I mentioned that I used to seriously over train, and he laughed and said, "Yea', we all did.... but we recovered so fast... we just got bigger, and bigger" ! And I was like, "Maybe YOU got bigger and bigger. I just got a little (well over time) a lot stronger.

I still just have to believe that, generally speaking, black guys have better genetics for body building. And I'm envious.

And we haven't said much about smaller framed guys.... but my theory on that, is just that smaller guys still have to live on the same planet, with the same gravity, and move the same stuff around... So their machine has to work better. While big guys don't work as hard to do the same stuff. And it seems as though, the body will only become as fit as it needs to be, to handle daily life. Which is why we have to push it beyond the normal daily life chores, to bring it to that next level.

Genetics are still a very interesting subject to me though.

Hmmmm,
Fish
 
Oh, I've said this in some other posts, but I'm getting about 200 gr. protein (half natural, half powder supplement) 240 gr carbs, and 2500 cals a day right now. Sounds pretty adequate to me. Don't you think ?
I'm eating it at all the right times too.
Click to expand...

Fish, I don't know if you said how much you weigh, but 2500 calories does not sound like enough calories to gain muscle. Even if you weighed 150lbs, 150*16=2400 for a very rough estimate of maintenance for a very active 150lb person.

If you're eating 2500 calories and not gaining weight, you're not in a surplus. You're only in a surplus if you're gaining weight. I've read in some posts around here by knowledgeable members that it is an ambitious goal to put on 1/2 lb of muscle per week at best, over a long time anyways. To do that, you might need to gain 1lb per week of weight, in which the other half would be fat or other body tissues, as just a guess. So that means if you're maintaining weight at 2500 calories, you should up to 3000 calories if you want to put on muscle.

And then you have to lift for muscle growth, which is basically, progressive overload - basically means, continue you push your body beyond its comfort zone forcing it to react and grow tissue. I'm not at a point where I want to gain muscle mass, as I'm trying to lose fat right now, so I haven't really studied the best way to lift for muscle growth, and it would depend on whether you're a beginner (as in currently untrained/haven't been lifting for a while, not un-knowledgeable), or if you've been lifting for a while recently and need a more advanced routine.

Now, if you're doing all that and gaining weight and only putting on fat and not gaining a lot of muscle, then maybe it has something to do with testosterone levels or something else genetically thats out of your control that dictates how much muscle your body can put on. But if you're just "busting your ass" in the weight room, but not gaining weight, then you're not gaining muscle mass and getting huge and ripped because you're just not eating enough.

And if you're talking about when you were younger and before your prime, even if you were eating a surplus and gaining weight, that surplus was needed to grow your body to its adult size, so you would need to eat even more on top of that to grow extra muscle.

Muscle growth doesn't just happen accidently, even to someone who might be more genetically prone to putting on muscle quicker. I think barring some major genetic condition that might effect a small % of the population, everyone can put on muscle if they understand the science it takes to do it.

An analogous situation might be, lots of overweight people claim that a slow metabolism or thyroid problems cause their obesity, when in reality only a small percentage actually have that problem. Similarly, some people may claim genetics prevent gaining muscle, and that may be true for some, but not all.
 
And we haven't said much about smaller framed guys.... but my theory on that, is just that smaller guys still have to live on the same planet, with the same gravity, and move the same stuff around... So their machine has to work better. While big guys don't work as hard to do the same stuff. And it seems as though, the body will only become as fit as it needs to be, to handle daily life. Which is why we have to push it beyond the normal daily life chores, to bring it to that next level.
Click to expand...

I completely disagree with you here. While its true that a smaller framed guy might have to work harder to push a car or something like that than a big guy, in general bigger guys have to work harder at everything else in daily life. For example, which do you think takes more work/energy for something as simple as standing up from a chair - a 5'10" 175lb guy, or a 6'5" 300lb guy? You are right in that the body will become as fit as it needs to be, and the bigger guy needs to be a lot stronger to lift himself out of the chair than the smaller guy. My leg muscles are enormous. I see definition in my calf, despite being in the 40's in bodyfat % (estimate based on scale). My thighs are solid an enormous. My core is strong. My chest and arms? they leave a lot to be desired, because I don't work them like I work my lower body, day in and day out.

But ask a 150lb guy to strap 200lbs to his body and try to do things like stand from a seated postion, or walk around with good posture - I think you'd see them really struggling. Hell, I've lost a lot of weight. When I'm in the weight room, I pick up 2 45lb plates - one in each hand - and walk over to my squat rack, and it takes a surprisingly good amount of effort to do that - much more effort than I remember it took to walk around when I had that weight and more as part of my body.
 
Thank you so much Mar, for your detailed response.

I'm just right at the beginning of phase 2... the muscle building phase. Only now am I able to whip on my Bowflex, and not feel beat up the next day ;) (anxious for todays workout, my favorite... lat pull downs and curls ;))

Ya' know, up until now, I have not watched a scale very closely. I knew I was losing a lot of (fat) weight, and whenever I'd stop by the Dr's office, it was a nice surprise to step on the scale and say, "Wow ! I lost another X lbs....

But I'm fixing to go on and buy a decent scale of my own, so I can more closely monitor what's going on with my muscle gains.

I'm in kind of a lame spot right now though, as that last little bit of loose, sloppy fat on my sides bugs the $#!+ out of me.... but my weak, small arms bug me too !
I have read that, although not common, it is conceivable that a person right at the stage I'm at now, can still lose a little fat, and gain a little muscle at the same time. I'd sure like to be the one to make that happen ;) Of course this is not possible for somebody who is in the middle of major weight loss, or advanced body building.

So you think 2500 cals sounds low, huh ? I was afraid it might be a bit high ? I'm just so afraid of gaining even 1 ounce of fat back. But I could easily throw in another chicken breast, as an afternoon, before workout snack... and maybe some more wheat crackers. (BTW, I can't remember the last time my digestion was working so well :))
Yet I'm so anxious to add (many) pounds of lean muscle :)

Will buy that scale this week.

Thanks again for your input.

Peace,
Fish
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top