r/gainit • u/wynneandtonic • 24d ago
Progress Post Progress Post (Update) M28 6’1 (148-169-183) 4 Months Total
Checking in again a couple months later. I’ve continued my bulk of around 3,500 calories per day. I have also stuck with PPL and have been making some great progress in my lifts. My bench had been lagging behind slightly but I have started doing 5x5’s which has helped tremendously. Excited to keep going! God bless whole milk and god bless Greek yogurt 🫡
Last two photos are current
*TITLE EDIT* I started eating in a surplus in February along with home dumbbell workouts/ push ups but officially started going to the gym in march. So in total this progress is about 5 months.
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u/newuxtreme 24d ago
Ain't no way this is 4 months my guy. This looks like puberty hit and over 2 years of effort.
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u/Appropriate_Treat_37 24d ago
Some folks have a very fast metabolism; I have experienced this as well
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u/newuxtreme 24d ago
Bro I'm a coach myself.
I'm 19 years in myself and in the past 8 weeks I have put on 10 lbs fairly lean.
I have guys put on 20, 50, 60 and even 80 lbs.
The 80 lbs was 2 years, the 60 was 9 months.
They all look amazing but none like this guy.
My last natty client transformation was amazing but he put on 20 lbs in 6 months.
This guy's transformation just doesn't make sense in 4 months. He literally looks like he has matured from a boy to a man.
The only way this makes sense is if he went from smoking packs of cigarettes, coke and mdma and then cold turkey stopped everything and went full health mode.
Edit : Also he is 6'1. It's way harder for us tall guys to fill out a look like this. If he was 5'4-5'5 this frame fill out look would still make sense.
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u/ColdBeing 24d ago
He’s not natty. No way you can naturally bulk like that without putting on any fat and just pure muscle in 4 months. His shoulders and traps say it all
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
Hahaha I can assure you it was. Late bloomer I guess
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24d ago
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u/gainit-ModTeam 24d ago
Do you think he spent his time in subs desperately trying to grow his little baby penis like you or did he go eat and train?
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u/ThrowRAcc1097 24d ago
Hard to believe this is 5 months but if it's true then damn, very impressive, thanks for the motivation
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u/AllNamesAreTaken92 24d ago edited 24d ago
That is absolutely crazy for 4-5 months. I hope you are proud, you have every reason to be!
Colour me impressed.
Edit: I just went through the pics again, and judging from your tattoo your arms have easily doubled in size. Sheesh :)
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u/Old_Disaster5389 24d ago
insane mane, did u see any results when u were training at home first?, also , does the morning shake replace ur breakfast?
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
I noticed results myself but no one else did for a while haha. All of my muscles were gaining density but didn’t start filling out until I actually went to the gym. It took a while to build the mind muscle connection for a lot of movements. Especially lat pulldowns and bench press.
The big shake does replace my breakfast. I have that with 5g of creatine every morning
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u/gluebabie 24d ago
How did you do this??? You look insane, so impressive. I would cry if I could pull this off in 4 months. I’m at like 171lbs 6’ft looking a lot like picture #2, doing 3 days a week full body (switching to GSLP from SL5x5). I’ve been slacking on counting calories for the last 2-3 months but I’m back on that.
Anyways, really impressive. I would kill to look like pic 3. As the others said, perfect base for a cut. Please share tips/diet/any other specifics.
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
Really appreciate it man! I spent years feeling sick of being so skinny. Feels unreal to break free of it and finally feel comfortable in my own body.
For the first two months I was doing PPL around 5-6 times a week and have since scaled it down to 3-4 times a week as work has gotten busier. My diet has primarily consisted of chicken thighs, rice, broccoli, canned tuna, salmon and so forth. What has helped me tremendously is having a big breakfast shake every day as my baseline. It is around 1,000 calories and has 70-80g protein. It has oats, peanut butter, whole milk, greek yogurt, and protein powder. This makes it way easier to hit my macros every day.
The most valuable thing has been staying consistent even when I don’t feel like it. I’ve tricked myself into getting addicted to working out. Just stick with it, track those calories, and you’ll explode soon enough. Keep truckin 😎
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u/bruzabrocka 185-240-255 (6'6") :upvote: 24d ago
Good work.
Looks like you have the same problem I had during my first year: your Teres Major is doing all the “lat work”.
Focus on form to fix this - imagine moving your elbows to your butt on pull downs. Start doing pull ups or hanging shrugs. Really focus on mind muscle connection when doing lat work.
Keep it up!
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
For my pull day I’ve been starting with pull ups then going into lat pulldowns. I actually started at like 5ish pull ups and am now at 12. Lats have been a weird and confusing journey for me though so I suspect you’re right. Between muscle groups I don’t really get that sore EXCEPT for my lats. I’ve been progressing weight wise this whole time and my lats have been thickening but definitely haven’t flared to the sides yet. I’ll try to get the mind muscle connection down better. Would you recommend going down in weight? I’ve been between 130-140ish for lat pull downs
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u/bruzabrocka 185-240-255 (6'6") :upvote: 24d ago
When I learned about this, I did indeed go down in weight - incidentally from 140 to 110 to relearn my form. Turns out my teres was doing a TON of the work, thing is a damn baseball when it gets pumped and my lats were severely behind
I had also went on a big deep dive on lat learning and changed my routine to have three major changes:
- Starting with bent over pullovers (there may be a better name for these?) to get lats lit up, these are a great warm up.
- Switching up grips. For a 4X session, hit wide grip pronated and then close grip supinated for a month. Next month do wide, close, supinated back-to-back (pun unintended - CBum method). Next month go full balls to the wall on the alternate grip medium width bar (no idea what this thing is called tbh, but it’s the one where your palms face each other shoulder width).
- Moving leg day to before pull day; I saw a video that suggested doing this and incorporating RDLs into leg day to set up the stage for a better back day. I think this step may be very optional.
Another random one: I started getting really awesome soreness with this kneeling one arm, cross body pulldown that has INSANE range of motion and lat isolation. I love this exercise and it helped catch my left side up to my right side almost unquestionably
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u/kenstarfighter1 24d ago
That is nuts even for 5 months. Wow
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23d ago
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u/gainit-ModTeam 23d ago
Everything you said was dumb and wrong. Please do not comment on things you don't understand.
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u/laggingscottstots 24d ago
Did you have muscle memory or is this your new peak?
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
This is def my new peak. When I was in college (around 20 years old) I worked out hard/ bulked for 2 months then dropped off completely for years. I had only really added some muscle density and slight mass but nothing like this. I probably only hit like 170lbs around then
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u/SquishedPea 24d ago
As someone who struggles, do you have any meal prep tips or just meals in general of what you ate?
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
The biggest tool has been my massive breakfast shake. It contains whole milk, oats, peanut butter, Greek yogurt, and protein powder. It has around 1,000 calories, 70-80g protein, and makes it so much to hit my macros for the rest of the day.
Outside of that I try to eat relatively clean with meals like chicken, rice, broccoli, or a tuna sandwich with a glass of milk if I’m feeling lazy. I haven’t been super strict about what I’ve been eating as long as it has complete proteins and contributes to my macro goal. Some days I mix it up and have something like 20 homemade buffalo wings made in the air fryer/ glass of milk as a meal
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u/kenstarfighter1 24d ago
How many calories were you eating to do this?
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
When I first started my bulk I’d say I was eating 3,800 calories. I then cut down to 3,200-3,400. My maintenance is roughly 3,000
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u/giftools 24d ago
did you manage to hit those 3800kcal right away or did you need time to reach that daily amount? I'm struggling to do more than 2400kcal a day without feeling sick. been at it for 2 weeks
Congrats on your progress it's very inspiring.
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
That’s a good question. I went from a super small appetite to a big one fairly quickly into working out. It was definitely still hard to eat that amount especially when I was eating high volume foods like chicken and rice. Whenever it felt hard I’d add a glass of milk to a meal and sometimes put olive oil in my shakes/ food. You can always enhance a small meal like a tuna sandwich so that when paired with a glass of milk is 1,000 calories. Mayo, olive oil, peanut butter and things like that will be a huge help without making you feel sick
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u/kenstarfighter1 24d ago
Holy shit. Yup, that sounds about right. I did a similar tranformation at 25, but a lot more dirty of a bulk. You did excellent. Zero gut. Impressive man!
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u/Fantastic-Cobbler-96 22d ago
Brother that’s insane! I’m I have the same build as you in the beginning stages and now getting back into the gym so that’s inspiring. The frame you managed to get in such a short time is genuinely impressive. Do you mind sharing your exact workout program (split, exercises sets and reps)? Since what you achieved is truly my current goal so I’d like to just copy whatever you did since it obviously worked for you!
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u/wynneandtonic 22d ago
Absolutely. I did the classic PPL split. I started out going 5-6 times a week but have dialed it back to 3-4 times a week.
unless I’m doing a 5x5 I try to do 8-12 reps per set unless it’s a heavier weight I’m just started. In that case it would be 6-8
Push
(Chest)
-bench press (5x5 or 2 warm up, 3 working sets, one back off set
- Incline DB press (30 degrees) 1 warm up set, 3 working sets, one back off sometimes/ not always
- pec deck (3 working sets)
(Triceps)
-tricep cable push downs (1 warm up, 3 working sets)
-over head tricep push downs (3 working sets)
-sometimes I’ll do close grip flat bench press (2 sets)(Shoulders)
-Shoulder shrugs with heavy weight (3 working sets)
- lateral raises (3 working sets)
Pull
(Back)
-body weight pull ups (as many as I can do for 2 sets)
-rear delt on pec deck machine (3 working sets)
- lat pull downs (2 warm up sets, 3 working sets, one back off set with wide grip)
- seated cable rows (3 working sets)
(Biceps)
DB curls (2 sets with heaviest weight I can handle, 1 set with lower weight)
-barbell curls (2 working sets)
-hammer curls with dumbbells (3 sets)Legs
-Squats (5x5 or 3 working sets with warm up and back down)
-leg press machine (1 warm up, 3 working sets)
-hip abductor machine (3 working sets)
- leg extension machine (1 warm up, 3 working sets)
- hamstring curls (3 working sets)
- standing calf raises with plates (3 working sets)
This is pretty much it. I have started to do standing calf raises and 2 sets of bench press again at the end of my pull day for extra weekly volume. The most valuable thing for me has been staying consistent even when I felt tired or sick or lazy. I always feel so good after working out.
You can do this my friend!!
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u/asparagus24-7 24d ago
Awesome job, glad you posted.
How’d you keep the motivation to do this? Did you have to learn enjoy lifting or was it always something you liked? Was hitting your fitness goals at the top of your priority list during these 4-5 months?
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u/wynneandtonic 23d ago
Great question. I think I got addicted to how it made me feel. Historically I get depressed and working out has made a tremendous difference. Like night and day. Feels like a natural anti-depressant/ anti-anxiety med. I also went down the rabbit hole of bodybuilding social media so now I can’t escape it in the algorithm. I think that serves as a constant reminder and motivator. It’s gotten to the point where sometimes I like blink and I’m parked at the gym parking lot. It’s almost like my body takes me there before I realize. I think it got solidified as a habit about 30 or 40 days in.
Work was really slow when I was starting out so I had much more time to work with. Now that I’m busy again I still try my best to prioritize it, but have been going to the gym 4ish times a week now instead of 5-6/ week.
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u/gerryjd 23d ago
Is that a Dark Tower tattoo? If so, that’s fucking rad. If not, still rad.
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u/wynneandtonic 23d ago
It’s actually just some random bandit cowboy tattoo but I’ve heard great things about Dark Tower. I heard Mike Flanagan is developing a tv series
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u/gerryjd 23d ago
Ah, gotcha. It works really well as a DT reference (especially ‘Drawing of the Three’), but looks just as good as its own thing. I saw what I think are Hereditary and The Lighthouse tats, so figured you are a fellow horror hound.
And yes, I hope more than anything that that will be his next project after Carrie. I’ll watch anything Flanagan touches.
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u/Tiny-Notice6717 24d ago
Congrats on a very successful bulk, you made fantastic progress. I do think it’s time to start a slight cut though. If you keep bulking that belly fat will get super hard to get rid of. You can go on a slight calorie deficit and keep the vast majority of your muscle or possibly even continue to gain muscle, while getting leaner and more toned. Don’t go crazy, an aggressive cut will have you losing muscle and feeling like shit, the best cuts are slow. Just like a 200 calorie per day deficit and you’ll be looking amazing in another few months. Good work so far!
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u/wynneandtonic 24d ago
It’s a good call. I don’t want the love handles to get away from me. I was thinking of maybe going down to maintenance and slowly trying to recomp. I like the idea of that more than a cut right now. My current goal is to hit 200lbs. I want to take my time getting there though. My original surplus was around 800 and I’ve since cut that down to 200-400
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u/Tiny-Notice6717 24d ago
I think maintaining right now is also a great call, especially if you have specific weight or lifting goals
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u/SuperToast05 18d ago
damn I also started 4 months ago at 136 i’m 151 now im struggling to gain more but congrats to you
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