The Journey of Gaining Weight
"Impossible is Nothing"
On 31st Dec.2016 when everyone was getting ready for their new year celebration, I posted a picture of mine on Facebook about showing the change in shape of my body and everyone started asking me about the training, the diet and if I did use any of the supplements. Therefore, I decided to write a post on my complete journey of gaining weight from 48Kgs to 65Kgs.
I lived 25 years of life believing that my physical characters are the part of my genes and this is the reality which I need to obey. Life was hard when everyone was mocking about you and sometimes it was disheartening that even there are many ways in which you are better than them but still, in the end, you are measured by your physical looks. Interestingly, it was hard for me to believe this but you can never know what future holds in hands for you, since some of the people I know started to change by working out in the gym; it was beginning of my desire which was whispering inside me that I need to reform myself now and it must be out of understandings of normal people.
Chapter-1
The shame & the pain
I went to the gym for the first time, everyone was hitting the iron which was uncommon for my brain to understand, I approached the trainer of the gym and he talked about timings and fees, He gave me timings of 5 pm of the gym. Already those were hard days for me, when the time came I was bit scared and nervous at the same time but I went and submitted fees and came for exercise I felt ashamed by looking at the men and the girls in the gym and tried to hide everything inside the clothes, however, I still remember those were typical summer days everyone wearing least as they can for a workout. So I started my warmup, after some pushups which is a usual warmup routine for gym athletes I was done with training and I had no energy left in me and in my muscles for further training now he gave me exercises which I had never known before. I was trying to pull the least machine's weight for exercises. After 2 exercises I was so exhausted and rather weak that it was impossible for me to do more exercise even without any weight on the machine. I was in pain my arms started to feel numb but he kept me pushing to complete workout of all 6 exercises of that day. Luckily, I survived that day, further, it was Saturday and he already told be about Sundays are off days. I was so tired I came back ate as much I could and slept. Next day I was unable to move much of my body as it was sore, my arms were swelled and I was incapable of lifting even a book properly.
The next Monday after somehow finishing the work of the day I went to the gym again this time I was not even able to perform even a single pushup because of my pain due to sore muscles. I was so ashamed I tried to assume as I am the only one in the gym. It was getting worse for me but somehow I completed my workout that day.
Now there was the addition of some exercises in the routine and the trainer taught me about squats (which is part of legs exercise routine) I performed the exercises and painfully finished my workout. Next day was much more adventurous, now my legs were in pain I was not able to walk properly.
Sooner, everyone was laughing at me. Some people suggested me not to workout as I am so weak they further suggested me eat and gain something before joining gym, Some of them said gym is waste and interestingly, some of them suggested me take alcohol to gain weight but only thing I did great is I listen to nothing and continued with my workout with increased diet.
Chapter-2
Injuries
When you try to do something new, something different, injuries (failure) and mistakes are the part of it but that does not mean you should not try anything new in life which can improve yourself. Not trying rather can make you weak and you won't even realize it because you didn't even realize your mistake and you failures when you waste all the time with a false belief of being in a safe zone, you unknowingly becoming hollow from inside and when all the time is gone ultimately life gifts you a shocker that you are a failure because you never tried anything in life. A similar scenario is in weight training or any other sports. Injuries were part of the journey where I actually learned a lot about my body type and the exercise I should choose to improve the routine as well as my body.
The first and most common injury I had during the course workout was the problem of a weak wrist. As a genetic ectomorph, my wrists are so narrow and weak that if I try to do many compound movement without preparing it for exercises these can get hurt and may remain in pain for weeks so in the beginning, I had lot of problem with my wrists until I had to find workouts for wrist strengthening.
Lower back injuries were very common with me since childhood during sports and other dynamic events I had a lot of lower back injuries which can hurt so bad that you can't able to walk or not even able to rotate yourself from one side to other during the sleep. These can be because of wrong movement and posture of exercises.
Lastly some accidental injuries like dumbbell slips, but all these kept me in pain and most importantly kept me away from the workout and when I returned back to the gym I had to start over again from getting a bit weaker.
Despite all injuries, I kept myself motivated because of small improvement I began to observe.
Chpater-3
After all I am a Researcher
Yes!! I must mention that research is my owned topic, though I was working on my body I commenced grasping the importance of knowledge about exercises, human physiology as well as dynamics of movements. Since, It does not make any sense to lifting the weight without much understanding of principles of exercises, instead, it may become risky for the body to get injured. Therefore, there is a science behind everything and most of the local trainer do not have the adequate understanding at which they can help their client at a significant depth.They mostly suggest almost similar solutions to everyone. It is essential to understand that we all are different with different specialties and problems so it may not be the most accurate way to treat everyone in the same manner.
Thus I started to read different research articles on case studies of the effect of exercises on body weight, diet plans, amount of protein needed for weight training athletes, training types, and different routines. I also started to follow different channels on YouTube, different websites to learn faster about weight training. Further, I found that only body-weight workout can also be used for gaining muscles in the similar fashion and it has different training routine. I attained enormous delighting knowledge which I introduced in my workout and in my diet plan as well.
People with less knowledge again started to deride me as I was crazy but In reality, It was almost impossible to make them understand that what am I up to.
Chapter-4
People's respect
Three months have passed and the change was evident in me now. People started to appreciate my effort and they wanted to keep me in their different group as the motivation. Some of them started to support me and most amazing some them use to watch me working out on leg days at the gym. Funniest thing was to remember that some of them given me name of Iron ass just because of leg days workouts.
It was a great motivation to watch them changing their opinion about me, sometimes it felt like Rocky vs Drago fight in which Russian crowd in the end, start to support rocky despite rocky being present at an away boxing match situation.
Chapter-5
Nothing is permanent
One of the most important thing to remember as a human being is "Nothing is permanent". If you are working on something and earned something that does not represent, it will remain with you forever effortlessly. There is no way to sit back and watch over your hard work and the long path that you covered and to assume for sustaining your abilities with you eternally. The mistake I did, as the pressure of work increased and my earning went down. The clouds of darkness started to trap my thoughts, moreover, I got sick, first with dengue and then viral knocked me down. I left workout; by and by my weight started to fall down, subsequently a few months later, I was at 58Kg from 63Kg.
chapter-6
The Comeback
If you are running in a race and you fall down it does not mean that you can not try again by getting up. Similarly, here I decided to go back to the gym after a brutal 2016. So, at 1st Nov. I was at the gym and started my workout again. This time gym caretaker and ex-trainer suggested me to take weight gainer supplement but as long as I had sufficient proficiency and learning of the subject now I abide on my natural diet. I knew how can I complete the demands of the body both through the workout as well as by a good diet plan. As I finished with the initialization of workout and activation of muscles, time had arrived to change the routine and I was ready to rumble again.
After two months of rigorous workout, an enormous diet which was full of nuts, eggs, and milk. Everyone started to see me with astound eyes. This time I was not surprised because I knew I could do even better.
What did I learn
- Never dishearten yourself in believing others statements about you.
- Never underestimate yourself
- If you believe that it's possible and you can imagine it logically, It will happen.
- Always keep learning and apply your knowledge as early as possible for the best results.
- Nothing can stay with you without any effort on it.
- It's okay if you fall down, everyone does what defines you how you respond after you fall. Get back up and represent yourself as an example to others.
- You can always show a proud comeback.
Supplementary
Finishing the article with the routine I followed both workout and diet plans.
Workout plan
- Initialization (3 weeks)
- Main intermediate workout
- Advanced workout
1. Before I start, it should be mentioned that the workout plan I chose to use was fully focused on building muscles, there is other kind of training methods also which have different motifs, e.g. for losing weight, strength training, speed training etc.
The initialization period was of three weeks in which first two weeks were focused only on upper body with a mixed work-out-cycle of two sets of each exercise, 6 days in a week. Each day consisted total no. of six different exercises divided accordingly with six different major muscle groups in the body. On the third week, an addition of leg workout was initiated with body-weight workout drills. However, leg extension was done on the smith machine. Further after three days, there was addition of weights in different compound leg exercises e.g. lunges, squats, deadlifts. After three weeks of initialization, my body was ready for actual workout routine which I majorly follow.
2. This workout routine consisted of 5 days workout in which I primarily emphasized on large muscle groups of body i.e. back, chest, thighs, and core. Nevertheless, I worked on others small muscles also e.g. biceps, triceps calf.
Following table explain the workout program.
Day
|
Routine
|
Exercises
|
| Monday |
Legs |
Leg press, Weighted Squats, Lunges, Dead Lifts, Leg extension/ Hamstrings curls, Calf raises |
| Tuesday |
Chest |
Straight bench press/ dumbbell press, Inclined bench press/ dumbbell press, Declined bench press/ Dumbbell press, cable flies/dumbbell flies, Butterfly machine |
| Wednesday |
Back |
Lat pull down/ wide pull ups (front&back), T-bar/ barbell rows, single hand dumbbell rows, sitting cable rows, closed hand lat pull down/ closed hand pull ups |
| Thursday |
|
REST DAY |
| Friday |
Shoulder |
Barbell shoulder press, Arnold press, machine presses (back and front), lateral raises, front raises, upper hold and weighted shoulder raises |
| Saturday |
Arms |
Barbell biceps curls, dumbbell curls, z-bar spider curls, hammer curls, pulley push down, skull crusher, double hand overhead triceps push, rope push down. |
| Sunday |
|
REST DAY |
3. This workout routine is workable if you have less time and your body take longer in recovery. It's a four-day workout cycle totally based on building lean muscle mass.
There is no in between rest for parallel exercises e.g. any of back exercise combined with biceps exercise. Three sets of all exercises and each set have a pair of parallel exercises with a rest time of 45 seconds for each set.
You can change you rest day accordingly.
Note:- this workout is exhausting enough to make you feel sore for days if your body does not support this level. The workout program is explained in the following table.
