What's your weightlifting progress look like?

Showcase_Brodown

For those of you lifting heavy things, I was hoping you could share some things with me about your progress. I am still fairly new to lifting, but I began keeping track of my lifts at the gym, with the hope that I could look back at it (or even make a spreadsheet or database out of it if I am feeling energetic) to see how I've progressed over time. It's too early for me to have a good handle on what exactly my progress has been, but my goal with weights right now is to add about 20 lbs. of lean mass, with a focus more on relative strength rather than size. I am a skinny 6'6" at slightly under 180 lbs. I'd like some kind of real world sample of what your gains in strength and/or weight have been over the time you've been lifting.

So, please give me some kind of time period, starting bodyweight and ending bodyweight (bf% if that changed). I'm interested in what your max was and is in a few different lifts... squats, deads, bench, chin/pull up, overhead press, etc. And if you can give me some kind of an idea of what your calorie maintenance was and how much you were going over (and macros if you know) to get the gains you were after.

Sorry if that sounds like a lot of work... I am really interested to hear how some of you have progressed and how you got there, if you are gracious enough to share. Especially if your genes are more toward the hard-gainer side. Thanks.

GetSoda

I've been lifting about a year, and have had virtually no positive change in body composition or weight.
I was doing Starting Strength, then Stronglifts, then Greyskull.

Why the lack of progress?

It's all about diet. But you're not trying to lose weight. So

PS - I'm 6'7 255 lbs, 24% bodyfat. (So I'd weigh around the same as you if I had 0% bodyfat.)

Deadlift went from 80 to 310,
Squat from 0 to 250
Bench from 45 to 155
Overhead press from 45 to 130
Pendlay from 45 to 180

I'm still unable to do a chin up.

General measurements, unflexed, which you might find useful since we're about the same height:
Stomach 43"
Waist 39"
Quads 23.75"
Biceps - 14.75"
Forearms - 12:5"

Keep in mind though, I've had to completely restart my lifting programs about 3 times due to a recurring back injury.


Calories?

Weight Loss = Up to 2200 Calories
Maintenance = 2200-2600 Calories
Weight Gain = 2600+ Calories

These are GROSS numbers. NOT net numbers. This is how much food I ate every day.

bumblebums

You guys are lucky I just saw this today:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/video/roundtable_tall_athletes

The guy who asks the question is 6'7".

The bad news is the answer--if you want to make serious gains in strength, you have to put on weight. In absolute terms, for someone your height, it means a lot of weight.

Showcase_Brodown

You guys are lucky I just saw this today:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/video/roundtable_tall_athletes

The guy who asks the question is 6'7".

The bad news is the answer--if you want to make serious gains in strength, you have to put on weight. In absolute terms, for someone your height, it means a lot of weight.

Thanks, although I think the context of the guy's question is more about competing athletes and power lifters and such. I'm not after any power lifting titles and I don't play sports. I realize with the strength increase, there will be gains in muscle and size/weight too, so I'm not trying to have my cake but not eat it, so to speak. The guys in the video are talking about how you'd have to be huge and have some kind of health trade-off to "compete," which is outside my goals.

whierd

I have been doing Stronglifts 5x5 for 3 months now.

Bench: 135-225
Squat: 185-315
Deadlift: 225-405

bumblebums

You guys are lucky I just saw this today:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/video/roundtable_tall_athletes

The guy who asks the question is 6'7".

The bad news is the answer--if you want to make serious gains in strength, you have to put on weight. In absolute terms, for someone your height, it means a lot of weight.

Thanks, although I think the context of the guy's question is more about competing athletes and power lifters and such. I'm not after any power lifting titles and I don't play sports. I realize with the strength increase, there will be gains in muscle and size/weight too, so I'm not trying to have my cake but not eat it, so to speak. The guys in the video are talking about how you'd have to be huge and have some kind of health trade-off to "compete," which is outside my goals.

True, he was asking about competitive performance. But, in the context of your question, I wanted to point out that if you want to make satisfactory progress in lifting you will have to put on probably a lot more than 20 lb.

If you want to do something like a chin-up, you are at a disadvantage--you are using proportionally less muscle mass and working with longer levers to move a lot more weight than a short guy who's all arms. I saw a guy at the gym today who was about 6'7" and couldn't do a single chin-up--this is really common for tall people. His trainer was about 5'7" and totally useless, but that's a different story.

The same problem comes up with squats--you have long legs (even if you don't have a proportionally short torso, they will be long in absolute terms), so you are moving the bar a longer distance.

Showcase_Brodown

You guys are lucky I just saw this today:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/video/roundtable_tall_athletes

The guy who asks the question is 6'7".

The bad news is the answer--if you want to make serious gains in strength, you have to put on weight. In absolute terms, for someone your height, it means a lot of weight.

Thanks, although I think the context of the guy's question is more about competing athletes and power lifters and such. I'm not after any power lifting titles and I don't play sports. I realize with the strength increase, there will be gains in muscle and size/weight too, so I'm not trying to have my cake but not eat it, so to speak. The guys in the video are talking about how you'd have to be huge and have some kind of health trade-off to "compete," which is outside my goals.

True, he was asking about competitive performance. But, in the context of your question, I wanted to point out that if you want to make satisfactory progress in lifting you will have to put on probably a lot more than 20 lb.

If you want to do something like a chin-up, you are at a disadvantage--you are using proportionally less muscle mass and working with longer levers to move a lot more weight than a short guy who's all arms. I saw a guy at the gym today who was about 6'7" and couldn't do a single chin-up--this is really common for tall people. His trainer was about 5'7" and totally useless, but that's a different story.

The same problem comes up with squats--you have long legs (even if you don't have a proportionally short torso, they will be long in absolute terms), so you are moving the bar a longer distance.

Yeah, 20 pounds is kind of an arbitrary starting goal. I may very well put on more than that eventually. I'm fighting against my ectomorphic genetic tendencies, so getting enough calories for that is going to be important.

Taking the chin-up as an example, last time I was able to do body weight x 8 and stalled on the 9th, but I'm fairly lean-stick-figurish and am pulling up a lot less weight than probably most people at my height.

You and the video bring up good points about "levers," which is something I hadn't thought much about. I may be looking into some of the science/physics behind that.

bumblebums

You guys are lucky I just saw this today:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/video/roundtable_tall_athletes

The guy who asks the question is 6'7".

The bad news is the answer--if you want to make serious gains in strength, you have to put on weight. In absolute terms, for someone your height, it means a lot of weight.

Thanks, although I think the context of the guy's question is more about competing athletes and power lifters and such. I'm not after any power lifting titles and I don't play sports. I realize with the strength increase, there will be gains in muscle and size/weight too, so I'm not trying to have my cake but not eat it, so to speak. The guys in the video are talking about how you'd have to be huge and have some kind of health trade-off to "compete," which is outside my goals.

True, he was asking about competitive performance. But, in the context of your question, I wanted to point out that if you want to make satisfactory progress in lifting you will have to put on probably a lot more than 20 lb.

If you want to do something like a chin-up, you are at a disadvantage--you are using proportionally less muscle mass and working with longer levers to move a lot more weight than a short guy who's all arms. I saw a guy at the gym today who was about 6'7" and couldn't do a single chin-up--this is really common for tall people. His trainer was about 5'7" and totally useless, but that's a different story.

The same problem comes up with squats--you have long legs (even if you don't have a proportionally short torso, they will be long in absolute terms), so you are moving the bar a longer distance.

Yeah, 20 pounds is kind of an arbitrary starting goal. I may very well put on more than that eventually. I'm fighting against my ectomorphic genetic tendencies, so getting enough calories for that is going to be important.

Taking the chin-up as an example, last time I was able to do body weight x 8 and stalled on the 9th, but I'm fairly lean-stick-figurish and am pulling up a lot less weight than probably most people at my height.

You and the video bring up good points about "levers," which is something I hadn't thought much about. I may be looking into some of the science/physics behind that.

Body weight x 8 is really good for someone your height, I would say. You can definitely build on that, either by working in more sets with fewer reps or by doing weighted pull-ups/chin-ups.

The lever mechanics of squats and deadlifts is thoroughly covered in Mark Rippetoe's book, Starting Strength. He addresses the proportions issue there, too--if you hold lean body mass percentage constant, then it begins to matter whether you have short or long arms, torso, femurs, etc.