Compared with his less fortunate brothers who box and run, the lifter has no restrictions as to diet. The man who boxes requires good wind and staying power, and he, therefore, has to care- fully […]
Tag: weight gain
Alan Palmieri, Gaining Weight And Adding Muscle Mass (2003)
Although sometimes people take up bodybuilding to lose weight, the majority take to the sport in an attempt to add weight and gain muscle size to their frames. This is especially true for teenagers and young adults. As one matures with age it is usually much easier to gain weight, sometimes too much weight. Individuals who are extremely thin go through just as difficult a time as those that are excessively overweight. Being extremely skinny was the reason I took up bodybuilding in the first place.
Bradley Steiner, ‘ON GAIN WEIGHT SUPPLEMENTS’, The Hard Gainers Bible (1988)
I don’t believe in the heavy use of food supplements. Not for anyone. ESPECIALLY (and perhaps, surprisingly so to many) in the case of hard gainers, of all people! Why?
Hard gainers need COMPLETE, BALANCED NUTRITION. They need ir more definitely and more direcrlv than their easy-gaining brothers. THEY DON’T HAVE THE EXTRA-EFFICIENTMETABOLISMS NEEDED TO ASSIMILATE BOT-H THESUPPLEMENTS AND THE FULL, BALANCED MEAI,, INGREAT AMOUNTS. Far better for these people to use a small judicious amount of one or two really important supplements (like vitamin-mineral tablets and wheat germ oil) than to stuff their mouths with powders, pills and concoctions.
Guest Post: 10 Weirdest Diets in History
Diets have been around far longer than you can imagine. It’s safe to say that people from a long time ago were also pretty concerned about their weight, fitness, figure and health – concerned enough to try out different techniques on how to effectively carry out an diet. Eventually, these diets developed, became popular, and were named. Some of them are rational, some of them are just downright weird.
Guest Post: All-in-one History of Protein Shakes
If you thought bodybuilding and serious involvement in sport is mere exercising and pushing your body to its limits, think again. Of course, building up your muscle mass is crucial. However, you won’t get far with just that alone.
In the era of food full of additives, one might frown upon the mere mention of supplements. However, these – especially protein shakes – have had great impact on sports and bodybuilding development.
Official data shows that an average grown-up should consume approximately 50 grams of protein per day. However, additional proteins are taken by people who aim at building their body and muscle mass, thus making protein shakes one of the most important supplement products since the 1950s.
So, how did this all come to be?
Harry B. Paschall, ‘How Barbell Men Go Wrong’, Muscle Moulding (London, 1950)
You cannot spend a third of a century around physical culturists and barbell men without coming to a few conclusions. You see many enthusiasts who thrive on their training schedules and attain a perfectly satisfactory degree of physical development. You see others work and strain without noticeable improvement for months or years. Quite often these latter cases come up with the time-worn excuse that they are simply not the type to gain. Some experts even have given various names to these unsuccessful barbell men and inform them with regret that they cannot change their type and they are therefore doomed to failure.
Reg Park’s Bodybuilding Diet
Known for being an incredibly bodybuilder in his own right, Reg Park was the go to bodybuilder of the 1950s. Possessing an incredible look of power and strength, Park was the envy of many a gym goer. How did Park build his monstrous physique?
Well the answer, quite simply, was that he ate like a King. A King preparing for his last meal!
1974 Fred Howell Article: 10 Bulk Routines That Work
This article, first written by Fred Howell for Muscular Development in 1974, details some of the fastest and toughest ways to put on slabs of Muscle. While the routines aren’t for the faint of heart, they’re guaranteed to get results!
Somehow in the past few weeks the word leaked out that I had at least a ton of weights in my cellar. All of a sudden every kid in town that owned a barbell or was going to train someday showed up at my door asking to see this old man’s collection of iron.
Talking with the kids I learned that each and every one of them had, as their goal, a desire to gain weight. Some of them, I’m sorry to say, will be very lucky to gain a few pounds with the type of courses they follow. Their training routines are far from weight gaining routines. I was able to convince one super enthusiast not to train every day and expect to add on the pounds. Not when he’s just a beginner.
Nature plays a horrible trick on the human male. When a male needs the weight most to excel in some head-busting sport it’s hard to put it on. Then a few years later when we have no use at all for extra bodyweight, we can add it just by looking at food. I had to smile to myself as they talked about their routines and how they wanted to weigh a certain amount in a couple of months. And here I am fighting the battle of the double bulge.
Attention Women: Left out because you’re too skinny? Try Wate-On!
Societal pressure on women is often a talking point.
Indeed previously on this website we’ve looked at slimming crazes dating back to the early 1900s when women worldwide were encouraged to lose weight and ‘become happy’.
Well it seems that the pressure on women to conform to a certain body type works both ways as the following set of ads from the 1980s demonstrates.
Once upon a time wate-On, an artificial weight gain product, was marketed to American women concerned with being too skinny. Shown below are a series of ads detailing the Wate-On message to gain weight, be merry and most importantly, be popular.
Needless to say I’m sure the conflicting messages about being too skinny and being too large caused many a headache for the 1980s woman.
