Q: In a recent issue, you showed three photos of yourself: one with a belly; a smooth most-muscular; and ripped with abs. How much did you weigh in those photos?
A: Corresponding to each pic, 200, 190 and 183.
Photo 1: November 2019. The first photo was taken right before the pandemic began. From the looks of my belly bloat, it was probably right after my third helping of Thanksgiving dinner.
I was training in a commercial gym three to four times a week for 1 1/2 hours each workout. I was unmotivated, which is why I took the photo. I was trying to look bad to snap out of my funk.
Notice that it’s a selfie. I didn’t want my wife to take it because I thought it could end up on some dad-bod Facebook page.
After the belly photo was taken, the pandemic hit and gyms closed. My motivation went from in the toilet to flushed.…
All I had was a 50-pound PowerBlock dumbbell set, an adjustable bench, and a doorway chinning bar at home. I thought I would just go through the motions in our spare bedroom, keep my muscles from shrinking any more, and hide out until gyms reopened…
Then I reconnected with Doug Brignole and got his book in October 2020. I restructured my workouts and began emphasizing his ideal exercises—or at least the best I could do in my pathetic home gym.
Photo 2: May 2021. The second photo was taken about seven months after I started my new “ideal-centric” workouts. I weighed 195 and was completely surprised that I looked as good as I did. In fact, I sent that pic to a number of friends because I thought I might be delusional—seeing what I wanted to see…
The response was overwhelming. They wanted to know what the heck I was doing. When I told them 35-minute workouts three days a week in a sparse home gym, they said, “You’ve gotta put it in a book.”
So I started Old Man, Young Muscle—but I knew I had to at least have a two-to-four pack in photos. Coming up on my 62nd birthday, I wasn’t sure a six-pack was possible. I started my own version of intermittent fasting in June 2021, and continued with my 35-minute workouts 3 days a week.
Photo 3: August 2021: 10 weeks after starting intermittent fasting in June, my wife took the third picture. I weighed 183.
Although I weighed less in the last photo, you can see that I put on muscle as I burned fat. My arms were bigger and many muscle groups were fuller. I still had a lot of fat in photo 2, and that’s what came off as I added some muscle…
Oh, and I did not use any drugs, hormone replacement therapy, or Photoshop. The photos show the real-deal results with my drug-free training…
By the way, I’m 5’10 1/2”, so I’m far from storming the Olympia stage at around 185 (although Frank Zane won it at that weight back in the day). But as an old guy, I even shocked myself with my muscle size and conditioning.
I credit Brignole for his biomechanics knowledge and the ideal exercises. Him twisting my arm played a big part in making my transformation happen with minimal equipment and incredibly efficient workouts. Now if I could just figure out how to turn my loose skin into shrink-wrap.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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