question for the bodybuilders here

[garruk]

how do you plan to maintain your gains once you get older? you ahve to eat huge amounts of food to stay big and i feel like its not efficent once you're like 35+ and you've got more important things to do.

what are your thoughts on this?

 

[Onlyliveonce]

Eating huge amounts of food after 35? Great way to die young. All you have to do is look at the ages of ex-NFL lineman when they pass away. They still consume the same amount of food after their playing days are over and die at 50. There is nothing wrong with a modest reduction of muscle mass, as long as the bodyfat is kept low as well. Keep the calories in check.
Most of the older guys I know that have comparable amounts of muscle mass to younger men use juice or growth hormone. They also workout like maniacs and don't have well-rounded lives. There is more to life than competing with how you looked 15+ years previous.

 

[Fuglydude]

I'm doing my first competition next year. Im' obviously not 35+ but I do know many national-level guys that are 40+. My trainer is a 45-year old IFBB pro. He's around 200 lbs at 5'8" on stage, and 230-240 off season. He actually looks pretty good compared to the other IFBB freaks that I've seen.

He says other than having some digestive tract issues his cardiovascular health is actually quite good. He gets everything monitored by a doc and maintains around 10% bf offseason and cycles his drugs pretty well.

I'm not sure where I'll be when I'm 35, but I think I'll always need something to train for. Otherwise I don't have the discipline and motivation to maintain a good diet and good training regimen.

But to answer your questions, yes you still do need to eat a shiiiteload of food to maintain that kinda mass. You also likely have to use anabolics and many guys use peptide hormones as well.

 

[garruk]

Eating huge amounts of food after 35? Great way to die young. All you have to do is look at the ages of ex-NFL lineman when they pass away. They still consume the same amount of food after their playing days are over and die at 50. There is nothing wrong with a modest reduction of muscle mass, as long as the bodyfat is kept low as well. Keep the calories in check.
Most of the older guys I know that have comparable amounts of muscle mass to younger men use juice or growth hormone. They also workout like maniacs and don't have well-rounded lives. There is more to life than competing with how you looked 15+ years previous.

this is what i mean. ive been hitting the gym hard lately and making some good gains but i have no intentions of spending hours in the gym in my later life. I dont plan to abandon the gym but probably somewhere around 3-5 hours a week would be enough for me.

I was wondering what others thought on the matter. I understand that there are old guys who are still jacked but do any of them do anything aside from bodybuilding? I want a career a law (applying to law school next year) and obviously I cant be in the gym using up so many hours a day in my later life.

 

[Fuglydude]

Contrary to lay people believe the gym is just a very small part of bodybuilding. My bulking routine for example only requires that I spend maybe 5-6 hours in the gym every week. The most important thing by far in bodybuilding, and fitness for that matter, is diet. If your diet isn't great you won't get very far. Diet is 75% of the game, if not more.

Any schmuck can work out 4-5 days in the gym, but it takes a lot of planning, discipline and dedication to get the 6-7 meals/day down despite working a busy schedule, having family stuff to take care of etc, etc.

I already have 2 university degrees (8 years of post secondary) and am a healthcare professional. My next goal is to be an anesthetist, and I will achieve that goal before I am 40. I also hope to continue competing in the future. I've been lifting for over 10 years now so why slow down just because I get older?

 

[J. Darko]

Contrary to lay people believe the gym is just a very small part of bodybuilding. My bulking routine for example only requires that I spend maybe 5-6 hours in the gym every week. The most important thing by far in bodybuilding, and fitness for that matter, is diet. If your diet isn't great you won't get very far. Diet is 75% of the game, if not more.

Any schmuck can work out 4-5 days in the gym, but it takes a lot of planning, discipline and dedication to get the 6-7 meals/day down despite working a busy schedule, having family stuff to take care of etc, etc.

I already have 2 university degrees (8 years of post secondary) and am a healthcare professional. My next goal is to be an anesthetist, and I will achieve that goal before I am 40. I also hope to continue competing in the future. I've been lifting for over 10 years now so why slow down just because I get older?

Well if you are a health care professional you're working 60 hours a week in irregular shifts. To train for an hour a hour a day on top of 12 hours of work is an incredible amount of stress on the body and the mind. It's a miracle that you can handle that, especially without drugs.

 

[Fuglydude]

Well if you are a health care professional you're working 60 hours a week in irregular shifts. To train for an hour a hour a day on top of 12 hours of work is an incredible amount of stress on the body and the mind. It's a miracle that you can handle that, especially without drugs.

I never said I was natural... I have anabolic support. And most weeks I'm only working 3-4 x 12 hour shifts, so I get the majority of my sessions in on off days. I also mostly work nights so most weeks, I'm not all over the place schedule wise. Its just the extra shifts, trades and professional development stuff that mess you up. Sometimes when I'm working 5 or more shifts a week (like this week for example), I'll do "half days" or work out one body part each day so its a 30-40 minute session after my shift. We have a pretty sweet gym at the hospital so its actually very convenient.

It was a lot worse when I was working full time and then stripping part time afterwards because it absolutely blows to have to work 12 hours and then go do a stagette for a bunch of screaming drunk girls. The money made it worth it though... You had to maintain a decent bodyfat percentage and adequate muscle mass even though sometimes it was tough to eat clean because you're missing your breaks, etc. I was making money off my build, so I had no issues justifying the use of anabolics at the time.

In my eyes anabolics are not warranted unless you're making money off your body or are a competitive athlete. My bodybuilding federation doesn't test for anything, and everyone is on. Even at "natural" shows they only test a small handful of competitors just to make a show of it, as testing costs are high. My buddy did a natural show a few years ago. He worked extremely hard and did reasonably well. He was saying how the guys were joking backstage about how they were "natural"... ei: they had been on just months before, but were on drugs that wouldn't be picked up if they did get tested due to a shorter half life.

 

[Colossus]

Just to give you a powerlifter's perspective----I've talked to several older powerlifters form the 70's and 80's who are still around, and they have told me that not too many of the 300+ lbers are still around after 50. The days of the fat, out of shape powerlifters who eat horrendous diets are becoming a thing of the past. A lot of guys are more conscious about their diets now and arent quite as obsessed with being super-heavyweights.

From a medical perspective, this guy has it right:

Eating huge amounts of food after 35? Great way to die young. All you have to do is look at the ages of ex-NFL lineman when they pass away. They still consume the same amount of food after their playing days are over and die at 50. There is nothing wrong with a modest reduction of muscle mass, as long as the bodyfat is kept low as well. Keep the calories in check.
Most of the older guys I know that have comparable amounts of muscle mass to younger men use juice or growth hormone. They also workout like maniacs and don't have well-rounded lives. There is more to life than competing with how you looked 15+ years previous.

I remember reading a large, longitudinal study done on cenetarians a while back. The ONLY thing all of them had in common was a lower caloric intake than their dead peers. It's one thing to eat your balls off while you're young and just enjoy being big; but if you want to live into old age there are three things that have been proven, re-proven, verified and re-verified by science: Eat less, exercise, and dont smoke!!!

 

[EFFORT]

how do you plan to maintain your gains once you get older? you ahve to eat huge amounts of food to stay big and i feel like its not efficent once you're like 35+ and you've got more important things to do.

what are your thoughts on this?

what is your specific goal

 

[garruk]

what is your specific goal

well im in the process of just getting bigger at the moment.

im around 5'9 160 and i hope to get to 175-180.

i have a quick metabolism so adding pounds has been hard. once i get to my goal, im probably going to have to eat a **** ton to maintain what im at... which im ok with.

but once i get older and start working, i think thats going to be too much for me.

 

[Fuglydude]

well im in the process of just getting bigger at the moment.

im around 5'9 160 and i hope to get to 175-180.

i have a quick metabolism so adding pounds has been hard. once i get to my goal, im probably going to have to eat a **** ton to maintain what im at... which im ok with.

but once i get older and start working, i think thats going to be too much for me.

Unless you're planning on being a surgeon, interventional radiologist or trauma/ICU doc, I really don't think you'll have issues finding time to work out and eat right. Its all about how badly you want it. I could never go back to having an average physique... So I train, eat and supplement to meet my goals even though I work in the life and death fast paced world of critical care. Guys who have 9-5 office jobs have it way easier, and guys with their own businesses have it easier still.

To give you an idea: I just finished a 12 hour shift. I was on the code team, which means that you MUST respond immediately to any cardiorespiratory arrests in a large 700-bed hospital. You can't leave the unit unless you have someone to cover your pager. If you're taking a dump and your pager goes off you pinch off the turd, wipe and run... We had a code at around 9 am today, which totally threw my meal schedule off. However I compensated for it by eating 2 meals approximately 2 hours apart... that's a pound of ground beef and 1.5 lbs of boiled yams and a couple of apples in that time. I also had a weight gain shake later on. I did a quick 35 minute back work out after my shift and then drank my post workout stuff consisting of waxy maize, and whey. It would be nice to be able to eat more whole food instead of so many supplements, but supplements definitely make it easier to consume the necessary nutrients/substrates. Now I'm home, so I'm gonna shower, eat my last meal of the night, get my food ready for tomorrow and get to bed as I have to be up at 5 am tomorrow morning. So far today I've eaten:

1. 1.5 cup oatmeal + 50 g whey
2. 1/2 lb ground beef + 3/4 lb yams and an apple
3. Same as above
4. 800 calorie weight gain shake.
5. 70 g waxy maize/40 g whey
...
6. 5 eggs and 1 oz almonds (last meal of the night)

I'm working 60 hours this week and overall 7 shifts in a row, so that's basically 84 hours in the next 7 days. I'll have to be in the gym everyday for quick "half" work outs as I don't have the time for a full 1-1.5 hour session. The situation is obviously less than ideal, but this is how I adapt to it. There's usually fairly easy and practical solutions for things like dieting and training... you just gotta want it bad enough. I think in cases like this it helps to be in a relationship as I'm not out chasing pu$$y all the time, and can spend more time on improving myself.

Life will always throw shiite at your way and make it tough to achieve your goals, but the fun part is trying to find solutions.

 

[EFFORT]

well im in the process of just getting bigger at the moment.

im around 5'9 160 and i hope to get to 175-180.

160 @ what bf%?

175-180 @ what bf % ?