New Hobby: Bodybuilding and the Cause for the Hiatus
Reason #1 for the Break in Posting
It’s been about six weeks since I posted, somewhat ironically, the Week #6: Willpower post. What happened?
The short version - two things came up that created a huge time suck, which eliminated my normal 4am writing time. The first was the rapid development of a new hobby: Bodybuilding.
A few years back, one of my good friends did a physique competition. I was intrigued at the time, but was also heavily involved in jiu jitsu and mma at the time. That training took precedence over weight lifting because the sheer volume of hard training always led to injuries. The nutrition part was also difficult. At the time, I competed in the 170 pound weight class in both bjj and mma, and typically walked around at about 183-185 pounds. Getting serious about body building would have required gaining weight by creating a caloric surplus, which would make the weight cuts for the combat arts wayyyy more difficult.
Fast forward to last winter.
Two of my colleagues compete in bodybuilding, and I talked to both about diet and exercise regularly. The more I learned from their experiences, the more intrigued I became. Shelly and I had closed our bjj/mma gym a few months earlier, and I had little desire to go back to regular training and I’m now probably too old to do a real fight (I’m currently forty-six.) But I needed some kind of physical hobby. I had considered getting back into ultrarunning (100 milers in particular), but running has gotten way too boring to do the necessary long runs to rebuild an endurance base. I needed something, and bodybuilding seemed like an interesting possibility.
I’m not a complete noob to that world. I’ve been going through three-to-four month weightlifting cycles followed by three-to-four month breaks since I was about fifteen. During that time, I’ve experimented with pretty much every type of lifting that exists - powerlifting routines, bodybuilding routines, Olympic lifting, functional fitness, HIIT, bodyweight exercises, high volume, low volume, and so on. Hell, Shelly and I have a squat rack and bench in our living room. The key - I’ve never lifted consistently for more than a few months, almost always because lifting has always been supplemental crosstraining for my primary physical hobbies.
I’m also not a complete noob when it comes to nutrition. My two major hobbies - ultrarunning and the combat sports - required a great deal of diet manipulation and self-experimentation. Fueling for performance, weight gaining, and weight cutting are familiar concepts, but I’ve never had to do them to the extent required for bodybuilding.
Around the beginning of March, Shelly was the one (as she often does) who broached the subject of trying bodybuilding. I had already been kicking the idea around in the back of my head, so I figured “What the Hell, let’s do it!”
What’s the Appeal?
The appeal of bodybuilding, for me, is all about the learning and self-experimentation with the goal of pushing myself to reach something close to my maximum potential. And I kinda dig opportunities to voluntarily suffer. In ultrarunning, I got to the point where running a hundred miles wasn’t terribly difficult. In bjj and mma, I got to the point where I could physically dominate a good percentage of the population in a fight. I loved the process o getting to those points of getting way more out of my body than I ever thought I would.
Bodybuilding offers that same process to learn and apply to reach something close to my physical limits. And, of course, there’s the added benefit of getting significantly stronger, healthier, and of course, more attractive.
Also, the older I get and the more I see my similarly-aged cohorts physically falling apart, the more I come to appreciate how my physical hobbies have preserved my quality of life. I’m creeping towards fifty and can still do anything and everything I could do at twenty-five with very little decline in performance or ability. It never occurs to me that I could be too old to do anything, which is relevant to the second thing that’s distracted me from regular writing (which will be discussed in my next post.)
So What Does the New Hobby Entail?
I like absurd hobbies. In ultrarunning, we ran farther than most people like to drive. In jiu jitsu, we wrestle around with other adults in sweaty pajamas while playing “uncle.” In mma, we punch and kick each other until someone gives up or gets knocked out.
And bodybuilding? It’s basically like a human dog show where the pageant contestants eat like a horse to build really big muscles, then starve themselves to achieve near-death levels of body fat. Oh, and we can’t forget the spray tans and Speedos!
Getting into the hobby starts with building muscle. It’s worth mentioning I started in a place where actual competing was probably a long way off. I was both fat an weak. At the time (early March, 2022), I weighed about 206 pounds with around 30% body fat. If I peeled off the fat to the level likely needed to hit the stage, I’d be somewhere in the ballpark of 157 pounds. At six feet, that’s *really* skinny. So I needed to put on significant muscle.
When it comes to weightlifting, there’s a phenomenon known as “noobie gains.” When you start lifting, you rapidly get stronger and your muscles get bigger (which is called “hypertrophy”.) If you keep lifting, the gains eventually slow (plateau) and you have to employ ever-more complex methods to improve. Since I’ve historically cycled between lifting and not lifting in roughly four to six month cycles, I’ve tended to get this noobie gain effect every time I’ve restarted lifting, and never sustained lifting long enough to reach a plateau. So this presented a great opportunity to gain muscle.
The first thing I did was start easing into a really basic bodybuilding lifting routine. I started lifting three days per week while alternating between upper and lower body. The lifts themselves consisted of the six major compound lifts that work multiple muscle groups (bench press, shoulder press, back rows, pullups, back squat, and deadlift) supplemented with isolation exercises that work specific muscle groups (arm and leg curls, triceps extensions, leg extensions, lateral and front raises, front rows, shoulder shrugs, front and rear flies.) I generally stuck to a “3 sets of 10 reps” routine with moderate weights at moderate intensity. I had a lot of residual bjj and mma injuries that required strengthening, so this was kind of like a rehab experience.
After about a month, I was feeling pretty good, so I started a strength-building cycle. I changed to a routine of doing 4-5 sets of 3-5 reps of heavy weight for the compound lifts, and did slightly less weight for 3 sets of 6-10 reps for the isolation lifts. The lifts were divided into four workouts per week with three rest days (two lift days, rest, two lift days, two days of rest.) I did this mostly because I just felt weak and wanted a decent strength foundation for future cycles. By the end, my estimated 1 rep maximum lifts were around intermediate levels of strength. It’s not the strongest I’ve ever been, but it wasn’t too far off.
A few weeks ago, I started a hypertrophy phase to actually make my muscles larger. I’m still using the same lifts, but now do 4-5 sets of 14-20 reps of the compounds and 3 sets of 14-20 reps of the isolations. I’m running a four day cycle with an upper body push day, upper body pull day, a leg day, then a rest day. It doesn’t follow the Gregorian calendar, so I’m doing different things on different days of the week.
As far as diet, in the first “rehab” cycle, I ran a small caloric deficit (average of 300-500 calories per day) which allowed me to lose around ten pounds. In the second “strength” cycle, I tried to maintain a maintenance diet (eat as many calories as I burn) with occasional surpluses, which allowed me to make good strength gains while still losing fat. In the current hypertrophy cycle, I’m running a slight surplus. Because my body fat is still pretty high (about 22-24%) which theoretically provides energy, I don’t need a crazy caloric surplus to build muscle. Based on my past experience, once I get to around 15%, I’ll need to start running a bigger surplus to keep gaining muscle.
As far as what I eat, I’m more or less doing what’s called a “clean bulk.” I try to eat about 250-300 grams of protein per day, 200-250 grams of carbs per day, and about 40-50 grams of fat per day. The foods tend to be whole fresh foods (lots of meats, fruits, veggies, an grains) with limited processed foods. Eating “clean” isn’t necessary, but I feel better and it improves satiety (I feel more full), which helps prevent bad decisions like eating a dozen jelly donuts in one sitting.
It’s worth mentioning I’m also doing some cardio and closely monitoring my sleep quality and quantity. The cardio consists of a weekly slow 2 mile run, a 1.5 mile run up and down a hill, and a 2 mile Fartlek run. On days I don’t run, I walk enough to get about 10,000 steps per day. Sleep is monitored with a Fitbit, which allows me to experiment to figure out what variables lead to better sleep.
Progress
When I started, I weighed 206 pounds with about 30% body fat, which meant I had about 144 pounds of lean body mass. Currently, I weigh about 201 pounds with about 23% body fat, which means I have about 154 pounds of lean body mass. I’ve made good progress which is to be expected with the noobie gains. Based on past experiences, I know I should be able to maintain this rate of progress for another three months. By mid-August, I should be around the same weight with about 16% body fat and around 168 pounds of lean body mass. That’s an optimistic estimation, but I should at least be fairly close to those numbers. The noobie gains very well could slow down before six months.
Once I get to that six month mark, I’ll be in uncharted territory. I’ve never sustained a lifting routine longer than six months, and I’ve never had that much lean body mass. My ultimate goal is to be able to get to about 200 pounds with 10% body fat, but that will likely take a few years of sustained lifting and cycling between bulking phases (to gain muscle) and cutting phases (to keep body fat at a manageable level.)
What About Competition?
The eventual goal is to actually compete. I don’t have any delusions of being good at this sport, but I do want to experience at least one competition. That might be next year, or it might not happen until 2024. It all depends on my rate of progress. As long as I’m gaining muscle at a good clip, I’ll avoid competing. Competition requires a significant caloric deficit that stops (or even degrades) muscle growth, and I don’t want that to happen until I maximize any and all easy noobie gains I can get.
As far as the specific event I want to compete in, it’s a bit too early to consider that. When it comes to men’s bodybuilding, there are three main divisions in most organizations - men’s physique, classic physique, and bodybuilding. Each one has different standards. The basics:
Men’s Physique- Competitors wear board shorts and only do two or three poses. A well-conditioned (low body fat) upper body is required.
Classic Physique- Competitors wear posing trunks (basically a Speedo), there are more poses, and symmetry matters (how proportioned your body is top to bottom, front to back, and side to side.) Classic physique requires well-defined legs so there’s no skipping leg day.
Bodybuilding- This is the division people think of when they picture the sport. There’s more posing, and the competitors wear posing trunks. The goal is size, symmetry, and conditioning as the goals with great vascularity and muscle striation. These are the really big dudes.
Of the three classes, Classic Physique seems the most appealing right now, but I also don’t know what the Hell I’m talking about. But developing the body dimensions for that event is sort of my goal at this point.
What About the Whole “‘Roids” Issue?
No other sport is synonymous with performance-enhancing drugs than bodybuilding. Until fairly recently, bodybuilding had a culture where almost every serious competitor juiced, but nobody talked about it. Dudes were developing a degree of cartoonish muscularity that would otherwise be physiologically-impossible (think Ronnie Coleman-esque) and publicly attributing it to eating a lot of egg whites and really hitting the weights hard.
Then a weird thing happened - some people started getting honest about the issue. That led to a split in bodybuilding divisions, which are common today. There’s an “open” division where competitors aren’t tested, and a “natural” division where competitors are tested. As an example, here’s one of the better “natural” body builders in the world (as a kid, then today.) Compared to the dudes in the 2001 Mr. Olympia finals above, you can see the dramatic difference in sheer size.
Given my profession, using illegally-obtained steroids is not an option. But, given my age and testosterone levels, I could find a doctor who would prescribe totally legal supplemental testosterone (so-called “testosterone replacement therapy), which is a workaround. That would allow me to gain muscle far faster and allow me to reach my goal earlier and, in all likelihood, far surpass that goal.
BUT…
Like every other hobby I’ve done, I’m not doing this for the end result. I’m doing this to experience the process. The end result is just a byproduct of the process. I get joy and fulfillment through the intrinsic process of learning and experimenting, not reaching an end goal. I want to explore the capabilities of my body, not the capabilities of some drugs. So I’m going the “natty” route.
In Conclusion…
This pretty much sums up the one of the reasons I’ve stopped writing. I spend about 8-10 hours per week lifting, another two hours doing cardio, and another three or so hours meal-prepping. Almost all of this takes place in the hours I normally devote to writing. So the writing has been put on hold.
In the next post, I’ll explain reason number two - which REALLY killed any free time I had after the hours devoted to bodybuilding. Stay tuned!
~Jason
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