Quick Note to Tom C about Weight Gain Article

[Ryan82]

I did the linear progression, got some injuries, one of which was a pretty mean back injury,

Hi Tom,

I am curious what kind of back injury you suffered and how did you best rehab it?

[Aaron Montgomery]

I feel your pain. I was 130 lbs when I started law school. I'm around 230 lbs now. And I can't eat really large meals (acid reflux/gas issues).

If I can do it, so can you!

Well that's encouraging. What's your height? Any advice on how quickly to gain weight or how to avoid exponential gut growth in the process?

[Tom Campitelli]

Hi Tom,

I am curious what kind of back injury you suffered and how did you best rehab it?

I have one or two herniated discs and when I was squatting back in 2009, I suspect I suffered a ligamental injury, or an some other injury to a facet joint. I herniated my first disc back in my twenties when I was leaning over and my girlfriend jumped on me. The injury in 2009 was a result of overextension while squatting and was probably my most painful and debilitating. I rehabbed it using the Starr Method. I was back in the gym about 5 days later squatting with the empty bar. I have not suffered a major back injury since then.

I have had lots of small tweaks here and there and a few years ago, I had something on the left side of my back a little above my ilium for which I could not give you a good description. It hurt like a bitch pulling anything over 385. Like I was being stabbed in the left erector. It also would irritate the hell out of me while I was lying down and would move my leg. Most of the rest of the time, it did not bother me at all. Very unusual. I just trained through it and it did not get much worse, although progressing on deads was very difficult. I got a platelet-rich plasma injection in the area and that magically cured it.

[marcf]

People were asking me if I was ill because I was so skinny.

I showed my girlfriend the before and after photos and she said it looked like a cancer miracle story!

[Polishdude20]

Tom, do you still track your calories and if so, how much do you usually eat per day?

[Tom Campitelli]

Tom, do you still track your calories and if so, how much do you usually eat per day?

I never really tracked them before, but have recently done some of that and I average about 3,500 calories a day.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Yeah, if I were to be a competitive power lifter, I would need to be there. I am not sure that I train enough or heavy enough to warrant getting to 275. Further, the amount I would have to eat to get and stay there is not insignificant. Lastly, I will be 40 pretty soon. Not sure that I want to get to 275 at this point. If I could maintain a reasonable body fat percentage at 275 and felt good there, I would consider it. I could also wear a button that said, "I gained 100 lbs. Ask me how."

I need that button! Tom, I didn't meet little Tom but I'm glad that you became big Tom.

[John Weaver]

Question for you Tom. Back in 2014 I attempted to run SS again (previous attempts were ended by surgery, injury, etc). I went from 165 to 185 in a few months (1/2 GOMAD), but my gut went from 33" to 37". Did your gut grow like crazy on your journey to 225-240? 2 inches of gut growth for every 10lbs gained seems excessive. I don't care about not seeing abs, but it's rather discouraging to have a gut that is bigger than your pregnant wife's, and get comments from your little kids and relatives that your belly is fat.

I just started SS again last week, and am seeking to put on a minimum of 1 lb a week (mostly following Jordan's macros for bulking).

I'm 42 and have always held on to bodyfat because I'm a special snowflake. Last year I made a real attempt at a SS linear progression after again getting bored trying to cut weight. Didn't track calories but ate pretty big and relatively clean. I was really more focused on making weight on bar progress than anything and in turn didn't weigh myself for 3-4 months. My pants weren't getting any tighter and I stayed in the same belt holes so I wasn't adding much waist bodyfat which is where I usually store it. My squat ran up into the low 300's for 5x3 when the LP pretty well petered out. But these workouts were fucking hard. Hard like I'm scared to get under the bar and attempt this set or try for the 5th rep after that slow ass 4th rep. I'd never pushed myself under the bar like that before. Turns out I like it. Anyway, I decided to weigh myself and I was 15 lbs heavier than when I started which surprised the shit out of me considering my waist hadn't significantly enlarged.

So in my anecdotal experience if the workouts are sufficiently challenging, and you're not gaining weight too fast, you can add quite a bit of muscle w/o much fat.

But then I 'decided' to see if I could still add bodyfat over the holidays and was quite successful. Paying for that now on Jordan's TBAB fat loss macros. I'm hungry.

[Ryan82]

I have one or two herniated discs and when I was squatting back in 2009, I suspect I suffered a ligamental injury, or an some other injury to a facet joint. I herniated my first disc back in my twenties when I was leaning over and my girlfriend jumped on me. The injury in 2009 was a result of overextension while squatting and was probably my most painful and debilitating. I rehabbed it using the Starr Method. I was back in the gym about 5 days later squatting with the empty bar. I have not suffered a major back injury since then.

I have had lots of small tweaks here and there and a few years ago, I had something on the left side of my back a little above my ilium for which I could not give you a good description. It hurt like a bitch pulling anything over 385. Like I was being stabbed in the left erector. It also would irritate the hell out of me while I was lying down and would move my leg. Most of the rest of the time, it did not bother me at all. Very unusual. I just trained through it and it did not get much worse, although progressing on deads was very difficult. I got a platelet-rich plasma injection in the area and that magically cured it.

Thanks for the reply, I find your rehab experience interesting as I have been dealing with a bad tweak in my right lower erector area for about a month.

I was up to 315x5 dl but couldn't hardly pull 225 last week. Funny thing is I injured it doing squats at 310x5 and I was able to easily do 295 last week. I tried the Starr rehab for about a week then went heavy again. Due to work(16 hour shifts), I have taken a week off. It's annoying.

I have an uneducated theory that novices suffer from strains and sprains more easily because their/my muscles are about as tender as filet mignon and the intermediate/advanced have made their muscles into the toughest brisket imaginable.

[Tom Campitelli]

Deadlifting was far more painful for me at first than was squatting. Depending upon the injury, one may be more difficult than the other. Mac Ward fucked up his back badly and I believe he could deadlift before he could squat. As far as rates of injury, I think that experience is probably a more likely variable in terms of hurting yourself instead of tissue quality. We are learning how to move under a load as we do this and we get better at it as we go. We also get stronger, so both of us may be right.