Joel Stubbs (left) and Johnnie Jackson (right)
I have long been an admirer of Joel Stubbs for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is the fact he is a tall bodybuilder like myself. In the photograph above you can see the difference in height compared to Johnnie Jackson who is 5’8″. Joel is 6’3″. Joel has not done terrible in bodybuilding but I think in large part big guys, particularly tall guys have a prejudice against them in bodybuilding. The last tall guy to really win a lot was Arnold (6’2″) and then is seems people get more excited about small or medium-sized guys after that.
I have been thinking a lot about this as I have had a revelation of sorts as to what size I could get to if I keep going the way I am. Recently I started my cutting time for Spring and as part of that I decided to get stats at the start. My main motivation was to monitor weight loss and body fat percentage to make sure I am losing the right kind of weight during this cut.
I am 6’4″ and Joel is 6’3″. During the offseason Joel’s weight hits 325lbs. and after his cut it is 300lbs. flat. When I stepped on the scales a couple of weeks ago: 296lbs. which was up 20lbs. since August. I was not too worried as I have experienced this before where during a cut I could lose up to 30lbs. The big surprise came when I measured my body fat percentage. It was 12% which was only two points higher than in August at 10%. In August my body had 27.6 lbs of fat and now it has 35.5 lbs. My body gained 20lbs. total but only 7.9lbs. of it was fat. The other 12.1 lbs was muscle. Here is the kicker, the next week I GAINED another 2 lbs. but my body fat percentage DROPPED to 11.7%. Definitely off my plateau.
All of this has made me realize that if I continue to lift bodybuilding style I am going to be one big dude in about three years. It is quite possible that I could be back above 300lbs. again but this time it will be muscle and not fat. Makes all the difference in the world. I just never really thought about this until I realized in these last two weeks how close I am to breaking 300lbs again. Possibly next year as my cut is going to eventually take me lower. I am not having to re-think how I am going to look – BIG. Not a problem, but it is causing me to think of things differently as far as body image. I am going to have to accept I am never going to be a little muscular guy but a big monstrous muscle man. Fine by me.
My training has not actually differed much other than moving from 3×8-10 to 3×12-15 and the addition of cardio (up to 30 min a day now). Mostly, I just make sure on the last set I am pushing as much weight as possible for full reps. Nutritionally I have simply moved slowly from not giving a crap what I eat as long as it is high in protein, to cutting carbs out more and more each day by avoiding grains and sugars but eating more meat and veggies. Not always easy as I am nearing my birthday and people keep wanting to give me sweets but I manage.
Everything seems to be working so far and I am anxious to see where I will ultimately end up, but for now it is one day at a time.
Blessings.