Regret of not Pushing It when I could

[TheOtherOne55]

I mean, im living this now and I know I have about 5 more years of GROWTH and then maybe 5 of MAINTENANCE before i really downsize.

Im 34 and i'm large. I kinda spent my 20s fucking around getting big but not toooo big to pick up women in NYC. I would kinda tap out at 250 as that was when the chicks would drop off, at least for me lol AND THEN I GOT MARRIED. That kinda helped. So with that, i know that 35-40 is my last ditch effort to really transform myself into elite level size. Not quite there, but getting close. At that point it wont be growing, but more tweaking and fine tuning what i have in my early 40s. Then....its done.

Enough of my own shit. To the OP...MOST guys will never look like elite BBers...its that simple. BUT you can look like an extremely jacked guy. Those are very different, yet both impressive. I would just focus on being lean and mean looking.

 

[Swifto]

The other side of this coin is that you are healthier, and you don't have the kind of issues one might get from pushing it (depending on their genetics)

A healthy person wants 10,000 things, a sick person only wants one thing. You still look great for your age, and can continue to train hard for decades more. Nothing bad about that

I agree, I think you look great and being healthier is better IMO.

I'm 37 in Feb and wont push hard at all, use 17aa and I get bloods done often.

 

[thethinker48]

I mean, im living this now and I know I have about 5 more years of GROWTH and then maybe 5 of MAINTENANCE before i really downsize.

Im 34 and i'm large. I kinda spent my 20s fucking around getting big but not toooo big to pick up women in NYC. I would kinda tap out at 250 as that was when the chicks would drop off, at least for me lol AND THEN I GOT MARRIED. That kinda helped. So with that, i know that 35-40 is my last ditch effort to really transform myself into elite level size. Not quite there, but getting close. At that point it wont be growing, but more tweaking and fine tuning what i have in my early 40s. Then....its done.

Enough of my own shit. To the OP...MOST guys will never look like elite BBers...its that simple. BUT you can look like an extremely jacked guy. Those are very different, yet both impressive. I would just focus on being lean and mean looking.

The NPC would lose SO much money if guys understood this concept sooner than later lol

 

[Sully1234]

Goggles

Zero deployments - capitalizes on being a team guy but never made a name for himself in the teams.

I will follow that up with saying he’s 100% an ultra runner and his respect is due from that and that alone.

Writes some bullshit tell all book where he goes into him screening for the command and CAG and bitches about “racism” for the reason being he didn’t make it. Tier one units are essentially begging for African Americans to get to that side of the house for reduced signature work throughout Africa and the Middle East.

Any NSW operator can screen for CAG it isn’t some elusive invite like he claims, it’s legitimate a mass email that goes out to everyone at group one or two (both coasts). After two rotations through a platoon you can screen for the command (development group), his rotations were at TRADET west not deployments.

His value was one he derived personally, some ridiculous let’s train all day and that will make us hard. It’s absurd at best, run yourself into the ground, miss all your KPIs and fall from the pack. Running all day doesn’t translate to a deployable skill - after 17 deployments I’ve never ran more than 200M in a straight shot.

Faking injuries to avoid deployments, not being a quality asset but a liability, and lacking base level skill sets while having a chip on your shoulder = a recipe for disaster.

Any of the public “large” names out there are typically pieces of shit.

Always weird hearing about ex military guys about now famous ex military guys. I've heard basically similar things from a Paratrooper I worked with about Tim Kennedy.

That being said I could have swore I read in Goggin's book he was on a mission in a jungle and lit some guys up with his machine gun.

 

[Sully1234]

I have some gyno issues (gyno started when I was 16, and it got worse from being fat all those decades) and obviously a lot of loose skin which will never go away, but I'm not going to get surgery, it is just too expensive, and I can't take not lifting weights and not grappling (No BJJ, no Judo, no wrestling) for 3 months, I would go insane. Strenuous Exercise is my therapy.

You can recover from Gyno surgery way more quickly than getting that skin cut out.

I was back in the gym after 3 ish weeks with liberal amounts of TB 500 and BPC 157.

 

[buck]

I had weights at home since i was in grade school and used the weights to the high school but mostly tried to keep my weight down as i was a fat kid when i was younger. In my lat 20's started bodybuilding naturally and put on 40+ pounds over the years mostly in the first 3-4years. From day 1 i ate my 6 meals a day had my splits set up and trained hard. And competed locally in the light heavy's. And was approached 2x by a GNC rep asking if i was interested in having a sponsor, but knew i would have to go over to the dark side to do really well and didn't want to. 10 years later in my 40's after getting on TRT then going from there i grew well. Transdermal ten and T for my first cycle and made very noticeable improvements. After 15 years of hard training and eating 4000-4500 calories a day naturally. I didn't feel really up to pushing it hard to see what i could do as i already had skeletal issues and the thought of eating even more food didn't seem appealing. I have to wonder some times what i could have gotten to in my 20's if i had started on AS but put little thought into it as i am not much on woulda shoulda coulda thinking.

 

[Performance Based]

Always weird hearing about ex military guys about now famous ex military guys. I've heard basically similar things from a Paratrooper I worked with about Tim Kennedy.

That being said I could have swore I read in Goggin's book he was on a mission in a jungle and lit some guys up with his machine gun.

Yeah… that definitely didn’t happen.

Kennedy is a great Muay Thai fighter and a TV personality.

For some reason everyone wants to act like they are the “biggest bad ass” to walk the planet. I was fortunate enough to work alongside utter studs. I wasn’t tough enough/durable enough to withstand a career of it and left utterly broken. There are only three organizations that are operationally heavy, all require additional screening to get into. Dam Neck, CAG and ground. If a guy wasn’t at one of these, unless they were there for the hay day of OIF/OEF the chances of them lightning anyone up is near zero. To put it into perspective over a 10 year career of a white side team guy they may have 3-5 legitimate direct action missions, not a react to contact. At the command or Bragg depending on the generation 400-700.

Sorry man I could rant all day about this shit.

Tim Kennedy turned the afghan withdrawal into his personal photo shoot and fucked up logistics for some stuff massively. There’s a reason like mentioned earlier why he never screened for CAG - he’s shit at his job.

 

[thethinker48]

Yeah… that definitely didn’t happen.

Kennedy is a great Muay Thai fighter and a TV personality.

For some reason everyone wants to act like they are the “biggest bad ass” to walk the planet. I was fortunate enough to work alongside utter studs. I wasn’t tough enough/durable enough to withstand a career of it and left utterly broken. There are only three organizations that are operationally heavy, all require additional screening to get into. Dam Neck, CAG and ground. If a guy wasn’t at one of these, unless they were there for the hay day of OIF/OEF the chances of them lightning anyone up is near zero. To put it into perspective over a 10 year career of a white side team guy they may have 3-5 legitimate direct action missions, not a react to contact. At the command or Bragg depending on the generation 400-700.

Sorry man I could rant all day about this shit.

Tim Kennedy turned the afghan withdrawal into his personal photo shoot and fucked up logistics for some stuff massively. There’s a reason like mentioned earlier why he never screened for CAG - he’s shit at his job.

Jocko is one of the guys in the public eye who is very legit

But he unlike many doesn't boast about the things he did, many of which are very legitimate.

There's also none of that "group superiority" (Seal vs Berets BS) thing you see from someone who is a civilian or has never been on a proper deployment. He gives due to all folks in the military and the help they've provided in all missions.

 

[Bleed]

Frank Dux claimed he was a ninja at 16. Said he won a secret underground mixed martial arts fighting tournament in 1975 (kumite) that he had to go AWOL to compete in. He was, on top of that, a top-secret CIA operative during the 1980s.

This was in an era where you could just say anything to anyone. He has a 15 degree black belt in jeet-won-su-tay, which he created. He's on the up and up. Why would he lie? Im certainly not calling bullshit on a guy who can kill a man 16 times before he hits the ground, and that's before he has had his morning coffee.

There was no internet, so, sure! Fuck it. Why not? Lets make a movie about this guy.

We will call it Bloodsport. This actually happened. You may have heard of it.

Bullshitting about military service is time honored tradition of frauds and conmen. Back in the before time, you could say whatever you wanted, and if you said it with conviction, people would believe you. I mean that still works, but it's easy to bullshit check outrageous claims people make now.

Lying has proven to be very lucrative. And not just about military service. Ask the liver king.

Lying to profit these days means you have to stay in a lane where people are gullible enough to believe you, but pepperidge farms remembers a time you could tell everyone you had the biggest dick on the continent and no one would ask to see it. They'd make a movie about it and pay you royalties.

 

[Performance Based]

Jocko is one of the guys in the public eye who is very legit

But he unlike many doesn't boast about the things he did, many of which are very legitimate.

There's also none of that "group superiority" (Seal vs Berets BS) thing you see from someone who is a civilian or has never been on a proper deployment. He gives due to all folks in the military and the help they've provided in all missions.

Jocko you see now is very different than active Jocko.

There’s no superiority when you look at the data and what actually goes on.

Based off 2019 numbers
BUDS classes have a 77% attrition rate
Ranger school has a 32% attrition rate
SFAS has a 38% attrition rate

Green Team has a 64% attrition rate
CAG has a 82% attrition rate

NSW specializes in maritime and movement. CAG specializes in overland movement and technological exploitation.

People look at these organizations as though they do the same things, Jocko has done a very great job in illustrating everyone’s strengths. He was running TRADET west when I came into team three in 06. He’s a very different person now. He’s found his peace and I couldn’t be happier for him.

 

[thethinker48]

Jocko you see now is very different than active Jocko.

There’s no superiority when you look at the data and what actually goes on.

Based off 2019 numbers
BUDS classes have a 77% attrition rate
Ranger school has a 32% attrition rate
SFAS has a 38% attrition rate

Green Team has a 64% attrition rate
CAG has a 82% attrition rate

NSW specializes in maritime and movement. CAG specializes in overland movement and technological exploitation.

People look at these organizations as though they do the same things, Jocko has done a very great job in illustrating everyone’s strengths. He was running TRADET west when I came into team three in 06. He’s a very different person now. He’s found his peace and I couldn’t be happier for him.

Yeah there are things you are aware of that the rest of people won't know about given your background

Appreciate your thoughts on this. Some very humbling stuff nonetheless

 

[champ0505]

Hey guys,

(Sorry for the bit of rambly Post, I hope this is ok to post here. Really would like to have input from the guys on this forum though, I respect you a lot)

the Discussion in the recent Jay Cutler Thread sparked me to think about my "career" in Bodybuilding, and I have reached a conclusion that I have basically wasted my time and failed to use the opportunity I had.

Quoting myself:



For context, I have not been physically active in my teenager years, and been fat and lazy in my years between 16-26. Like didn't do anything physical, was super overfat (150 kg at my heaviest... and all fat, no muscle). Turned my live around when I turned 27, lost the fat and picked up lifting and wrestling. Was pretty lean by the end of 29, and stayed that way since then - never wanting to get fat again. I hoped on gear in my mid 30s, just using the basic 500 Test/week cycle, tried some orals but didn't really like them, and then just went for Test+Deca when I was blasting, Test/Deca 500/600 - Mostly because that what I could fit into my 3 ml syringe and only have to inject twice per week .

For reference, this was me last year at the end of my blast:

View attachment 167941 View attachment 167942View attachment 167943 View attachment 167944

And here are some current Pictures, please excuse the body hair, I am not shaving when it is Fall/Winter (175 cm short, at a light 105 kg)

View attachment 167945View attachment 167946View attachment 167947View attachment 167948

I have some gyno issues (gyno started when I was 16, and it got worse from being fat all those decades) and obviously a lot of loose skin which will never go away, but I'm not going to get surgery, it is just too expensive, and I can't take not lifting weights and not grappling (No BJJ, no Judo, no wrestling) for 3 months, I would go insane. Strenuous Exercise is my therapy.

Does anyone else feel the same way? Does anyone else regret not having pushed the limits while he was young, and his body was able to withstand the beating?

I mean, I will continue to lift Iron and grapple every day until I'm 6 feet under, but I wouldn't mind having 20 kg more muscle mass . I just know I can't push it hard, it would not be productive. I have digestive issues, I wouldn't be able to eat 6000 kcals or more every day, even with foods that I can tolerate well. Also, I will never place well in any Bodybuilding Competition, my loose skin and gyno are just too bad (I know, that's my fault, still sucks). I mean it would maybe be a good experience to really get stage lean and go through a tough, hard prep - to build character and be okay with feeling shitty for weeks, voluntarily. But knowing that I'm not gonna place well despite how lean and shredded I'm coming in the show.

Really appreciate any kind of feedback and thoughts from you. Also would appreciate physique critique - I like my back, but I think my arms are lacking, especially the triceps, also my delts (and my legs are tiny, really need to bring those up)

Cheers

I believe you're correct about pushing it harder when you were younger, I would also say it would have been wise to hire a coach(saves years of not progressing). Bodybuilding is knowledge, hormones, diet, discipline, training, rest, and GENETICS. The bold being the biggest factor for stepping on stage and winning. With all respect and in my opinion you did just fine with your choice of not pushing it with gear while you were younger becuase genetically you do not have the genes or structure to do well or win in a big NPC show. Your organs are thanking you right now believe that! Many unknown big bodybuilders won't make it late into their 50's from decades of several grams per week of gear and double digit gh doses. The exception of course is again GENETICS. Look at Yates, Cutler, and Dexter. BTW I am one of the guys like Luki who advicates high doses for growth and bodybuilding becuase that's what it takes to be huge and in single digit bf levels. I also know the consequences and know I will never quit test,gh,slin, anabolics, and orals.

My advise for you... is keep doing what your doing with your bodybuilding and grappling. Just enjoy the journey and do the best you can and have fun. Keep looking forward and not back. Respect for you posting pics bro.

 

[hawkmoon]

I turned 53 last week and made significant gains in my late 40s as I returned to competition. The key is being smart and finding ways to succeed without excess.
With age wisdom comes and you know far more now than you did years ago. Apply yourself with determination like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer and you can continue to improve for many years to come.

 

[EnhancedFatGrappler]

Thank you all for some honest feedback. I think I really needed this, has never been easy to be objective with myself.

And you are right, feeling sorry for myself and using my loose skin as an excuse, or lamenting what have could been and living in the past is not helping me one iota - it is time to kick ass and take action. I'll try to be smart about it though, and not rush things. My rough plan for now is keeping on Cutting the rest of December, and than switch to a Recomp Phase January through April, keeping Calories around maintenance, and slowly work off the remaining fat while packing on a bit of muscle. Not the fasted way to reach the lean body, but I just function so much better if I am not starving and just can be more active, rather do more LISS Cardio, lift weights everyday, and have my Wrestling/Judo/BJJ Classes every night, and eat well.

Around Fall 2023 I will be in a good position for a dedicated Bulking phase, like September - December, and see where I end up.

 

[Mufasa123]

Yeah… that definitely didn’t happen.

Kennedy is a great Muay Thai fighter and a TV personality.

For some reason everyone wants to act like they are the “biggest bad ass” to walk the planet. I was fortunate enough to work alongside utter studs. I wasn’t tough enough/durable enough to withstand a career of it and left utterly broken. There are only three organizations that are operationally heavy, all require additional screening to get into. Dam Neck, CAG and ground. If a guy wasn’t at one of these, unless they were there for the hay day of OIF/OEF the chances of them lightning anyone up is near zero. To put it into perspective over a 10 year career of a white side team guy they may have 3-5 legitimate direct action missions, not a react to contact. At the command or Bragg depending on the generation 400-700.

Sorry man I could rant all day about this shit.

Tim Kennedy turned the afghan withdrawal into his personal photo shoot and fucked up logistics for some stuff massively. There’s a reason like mentioned earlier why he never screened for CAG - he’s shit at his job.

I'm older (fuck, but here I find myself), and no one, but most of the guys I've known were early Afghanistan through OIF/OEF. Some stretch back into Bosnia and some other minor areas 90s/pre 2001. Probably youngest was deployed before and through Surge/2007, wasn't anyone special but did enough. Lots of guys went private route for the money when that was viable. Sometimes I'll hit up Constellis job postings for shits/giggles as I remember when BW/TripleC separately had pages and pages to fill. Hell even our intelligence areas had open posting for that type back then.

To your point, even for guys in peak years the old Zen saying applies, "Those who talk don't know, and those who know don't talk." Just how it is and if I hear someone talking I'm skeptical.

It also impacts relationships/interaction with normal folk that can't relate so you learn. Buddy who works is financial services now says nothing ever at work (kind of sad - he has a saying that you get every interview but no offers). Logical exception is guys marketing themselves to have a career/cash flow outside as these skill sets don't transfer to Civ world that well. CAG, Dev/command, and SF group guys in that mix albeit limited as demand has dropped. Even then not too many legit guys bragging/inflating or really speaking in any depth publically.

 

[Mufasa123]

Wjoops

 

[cal]

Frank Dux claimed he was a ninja at 16. Said he won a secret underground mixed martial arts fighting tournament in 1975 (kumite) that he had to go AWOL to compete in. He was, on top of that, a top-secret CIA operative during the 1980s.

This was in an era where you could just say anything to anyone. He has a 15 degree black belt in jeet-won-su-tay, which he created. He's on the up and up. Why would he lie? Im certainly not calling bullshit on a guy who can kill a man 16 times before he hits the ground, and that's before he has had his morning coffee.

There was no internet, so, sure! Fuck it. Why not? Lets make a movie about this guy.

We will call it Bloodsport. This actually happened. You may have heard of it.

Bullshitting about military service is time honored tradition of frauds and conmen. Back in the before time, you could say whatever you wanted, and if you said it with conviction, people would believe you. I mean that still works, but it's easy to bullshit check outrageous claims people make now.

Lying has proven to be very lucrative. And not just about military service. Ask the liver king.

Lying to profit these days means you have to stay in a lane where people are gullible enough to believe you, but pepperidge farms remembers a time you could tell everyone you had the biggest dick on the continent and no one would ask to see it. They'd make a movie about it and pay you royalties.

ask any high level politician lying ....really pays off and rarely causes much trouble. plenty of politicians lie to get many and many have lied repeatedly about their service (Blumenthal) and hardly any consequences.

 

[td]

@EnhancedFatGrappler

You have lot of quality tissue.

Have you considered dieting? I mean really dieting. Not just kind of lean. Stage shape (or damn close), whether you choose to compete or not. If you've always been chasing mass, it will mess with your head. But it's the ideal way to put your body in a position where it can grow.

Do you want more muscle or do you want to be heavier? They're aren't necessarily the same thing. You could weigh exactly the same and have 10 lbs more lean tissue.

Check out what @troponin was able to do with Paul Barnett, at 45+.

That being said, I do understand your sentiment. What's an acceptable amount of risk, especially as we age? Everyone has to answer that for themselves.

 

[EnhancedFatGrappler]

@td I have never been stage lean. I think the leanest I ever have been was in the 10-12% bf range, but clearly not under 10%.

I must admit that getting really lean is very challenging for me. The prolonged period of deprivation is... just pure suck, there is no sugar coating it. But what is Life without some challenge, heh. I hope to get to stage lean condition by the end of Fall 2023. I will take my time, and slowly work my way down to to 6-8% bf at the end of September 2023. Like you said, starting from a really stage lean condition will be only beneficial for bulking up, and putting on solid mass.

I am not really chasing scale weight per se, and frankly I hope to remain athletic, and I guess there comes a point where this just isn't feasible anymore, being 130 kg at 8% bf at 175 cm will not be conductive to athleticism. But I can look massive at 110 kg at 8% bf. Maybe not Open Bodybuilding Massive, but respectable massive

 

[Sully1234]

Yeah… that definitely didn’t happen.

Kennedy is a great Muay Thai fighter and a TV personality.

For some reason everyone wants to act like they are the “biggest bad ass” to walk the planet. I was fortunate enough to work alongside utter studs. I wasn’t tough enough/durable enough to withstand a career of it and left utterly broken. There are only three organizations that are operationally heavy, all require additional screening to get into. Dam Neck, CAG and ground. If a guy wasn’t at one of these, unless they were there for the hay day of OIF/OEF the chances of them lightning anyone up is near zero. To put it into perspective over a 10 year career of a white side team guy they may have 3-5 legitimate direct action missions, not a react to contact. At the command or Bragg depending on the generation 400-700.

Sorry man I could rant all day about this shit.

Tim Kennedy turned the afghan withdrawal into his personal photo shoot and fucked up logistics for some stuff massively. There’s a reason like mentioned earlier why he never screened for CAG - he’s shit at his job.

Ok, maybe I confused the jungle machine gun story with some one else. I've listened to a lot of military books on tape. Might have been Nick Irving...

Anyway, Goggins was just on Joe Rogan again. Said he deployed to Guam and Iraq but never got into a firefight. Just sayin.