Gradual Progress Adds Up!
Hey Scooby,
I am really only entering on the slim chance I win and get to meet you, you seem like a cool guy. My actual name is Kevin but if you end up putting me on the site then can I be listed as Preston Meyers? It does not really matter all that much but, it would be appreciated.
Anyways…
Name: Kevin
Age: currently 23 started working out at 22
Mission Viejo CA, USA
Before: date- 2011-10-14 weight- called the doctor and they didn’t have a weight thought they would. For what it’s worth, I recall being around high 160’s and low 170’s the pics are very similar so you can judge it.
After: date – 2013-04-29 weight – 185 lbs
Well lets see here, I guess if I am honest I started working out a tiny bit using a bow-flex. (2-3 times a week). This would have been in early 2011 for a month or two, during this time I did not change anything else(diet). I ran across one of your videos and was entertained by them and watched five or ten, but never did anything with them. Probably about 6 months later my friend that already worked out was talking about scooby snacks to another one of my friends and I asked if he was talking about you. He said he was and that he recently started using your work out plan, and said I should do it. I don’t remember how soon after but a few months later I began using your plan.
I know when I started in October 2011 I was just doing the Intermediate workout and did that until June of 2012. I think I did the Intermediate plan for too long as I met the advanced workout criteria shortly after if not immediately after I started, but had no real previous weight experience. For Cardio in this time period (October through June 2012) I rode a stationary bike and ran every so often. Also I continued playing Ice hockey as I always have.
In June I switched to the advanced workout and began running quite a bit with my friend Richard that I previously mentioned. We probably ran around 30 miles on average a week. I would also use the stationary bike and play my hockey. Got to play hockey. haha. Probably the most impressive thing for me was when we ran just under 20 miles one morning. No way I could have gone any further, Ran with camel backs with a water gatorade mixture which made for an interesting experience because at the end I was not all that thirsty, rather just exhausted.
The last Highlight of the summer was when Richard and I did a mile time trial. I was impressed with mine which came in at 5 minutes and 34 seconds. Would have liked to have gotten a 5:20 for a 1 min 20 sec avg lap time, but was still happy since my best time in High School was low 6 around 6:05 or so. Also its worth noting I went from about 186 june to 173ish by the middle of September. I did not think I was fat at all before, but then Rich started calling me “Mr. 5%” since I became crazy lean.
I continued running into early October but began to encounter really bad shin splints and knee soreness. My aunt felt it was because I ramped up my mileage too quick which I am sure I did, but Rich was that guy always saying ” lets go run a short 10 miles today.” I guess I paid for it, but ironically I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I had to just ride the bike once or twice while still playing hockey through the rest of 2012. I was letting my knees rest. I ran into the really bad shin splint problem in early 2013 which I didn’t understand since I had not run in a few months. Over Spring break I ran 7 or 8 Mile run with Rich and had shin pain during that run, I did 800 repeats 4 days later with him, and had bad shin splint pain again. This was the worst I had felt, it lasted for a week, and had very minor pains for another week. Needless to say I essentially retired running. That is until last Friday when Richard says “want to go run a quick 14?” Well he talked me into it, I told him I am done once I have knee, or shin pain. Oddly enough I didn’t encounter any shin pain and only very minor knee pain on about the 10 or 11th mile. So that was a win for me. I am not sure when I am going to run again though. I am thinking once a week max, and buying a bike for most my cardio, while also using the stationary bike. PLus the hockey, but I dont even consider that caardio since I have always done that.
I guess I am hoping that the majority of the weight I have added back on from September Is in muscle, and I feel like it is, I will let you decide that haha. I am definately not as lean, but I think I am still pretty lean.
I will also mention I am just using bar bells, a strait bar and a pull-up bar. For legs I use the bowflex at my parents, my fingers can’t hold the weight for me to do my legs, my quads are already well developed from years of hockey.
As far as eating, I slowly moved to micro meals 5 to 6. initially I started with just 4 then etc. For a while first 4-6 months I still maintained my normal alcohol consumption. Then I significantly cut it back to almost none. As well I essentially stopped soda, and most sweets. Still have some every now and then. I would say my nutrition has gradually improved, I used to eat oatmeal squares then changed to shredded wheat wooiuld be one example. I definitely need to work on my veggy intake still, but I am working on it.
So now that I wasted a bunch of your time I guess I will get to why I actually started working out. The main reason I started to workout was because of, yep! you guessed it, chicks, lots of girls and the beach. HAHAHA, NO! NO! I can not stress enough that that is not why I started to workout, it was for hockey. Ironically I decided to workout after I aged out of junior eligibility for Hockey. Now I guess you may ask why workout for hockey then. Well that’s because I thought I would maybe try and make a low level minor team once I graduate from college. So that was my motivation for probably the last year. Unfortunately I have kind of realized that I will be too old to make a minor team since there will be players equally good and younger. More of a deciding factor in this though is that I dont think my knees will hold up. I remember in one of my adult leagues my knee felt pretty wonky when me and another player were leaning into each other pretty well. I guess I haven’t totally ruled out at least going and getting cut at the tryout once I graduate, but I have kind of accepted that the ship sailed on that dream.
I guess that brings me to a few current obstacles. I am unsure if it is because I no longer use hockey as my motivation or that I am a little over a year into my training basically 1.5 years, but lately I have been having trouble wanting to really workout. I will still workout my 5 days a week, but I start after procrastinating about starting. So I guess I am currently in limbo of why exactly I am working out and trying to eat well, besides the fact that it is good for you.
Another recent issue I have had is with acne, in early November of 2012 I started breaking out more and was not sure why. I initially assumed it wasn’t anything with my diet since I had been on the same one since January. So I switched my acne prescription to another drug and switched again soon after. Even after the second time I was not seeing results. After general internet searches on the matter I saw that whey protein was a potential problem and dairy in general a threat. Well those were two things I always consumed a lot of. So for the last 6 weeks I have been off whey protein, and only eat a small amount of dairy in the form of cheese. It seems to have helped a decent amount, but I am still not back to what I would ironically enough now consider my flawless skin of the first 9 months of 2012. So this is challenging because I used to have a poo bar a day, and a shake of whey at night, so now I have been trying egg white protein which tastes really gross, and eating a lot of egg whites for most of my protein. Which is fine but the whey was so convenient and easy.
One other recent challenge has been a small amount of elbow pain I have encountered while doing the scooby press and skull crushers. I have now stopped skull crushers all together and now do a lower weight high rep on the scooby press which has remedied the problem for now.
Lastly I think I need to change up my exercises, as I feel like I have kind of plateaued. Its hard for me to say if this is a fact or not but am going to try different exercises in the future.
As far as feeling stronger, I am not sure I really feel stronger, laughs. I think it may be the gradual change if that makes sense. I mean if I could go directly from start to end maybe i would be more like “woah what a wimpy little girly man I was” One specific example I can give was during hockey. Unfortunately adult leagues are no contact, but there is still the occasional contact. So one time a kid I knew hit me open ice when I didnt see him until the last second. I guarantee I would have previously been knocked down but this time I just absorbed it and he fell down. So that was pretty cool. I would say my general strength feels better in minor scrums as well, not where I want it, but still better.
One benefit I was not expecting was that girls seem to like the muscles, haha.
Hopefully I didn’t leave anything out too important, think I hit most topics.
Below I have included a picture with both pictures combined and the dates/weights under the pics for your convenience. I also Included each original picture individually, So that’s why there are 3 files.
Now I just want to take a moment to give you a sincere thanks. I think its awesome how much you do for your site and youtube channel. Your videos are really amazing and the production value has gone through the roof. The information you have given me is way more than I ever would have gone out and got on my own. So I really do owe my change to you. Sure I would have changed some without your help, but not as much if it were not for the knowledge you shared. For instance the video about how long it takes to add muscle, so beneficial in keeping yourself motivated when not seeing instantaneous results. Even the advanced workout plan, or that you only workout each muscle once a week. All things I never knew and would not have looked up. There is plenty more, but you get it. So again thanks for everything, and maybe I will get to personally thank you in person, but if not, hopefully Ill run into you sometime. Enjoy the plane once it is done.
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Yours truly,
-Kevin
Hey Kevin, congratulations on your muscle gain and I wish you well with your hockey! You know, often the physique changes happen so gradually that the person working out doesnt even notice … but others do, especially when they havent seen you in a few years. If you compare your two pictures its clear your shoulders are much more broad from that muscle ) Congratulations.