More real life growth?

[arpeejay]

As I was saying in another (recent) thread, real life growth stories are the best ones from my point of view, even when they're relatively modest. A few snippets of my own (and a couple of others):

* * *

I went home from Vanderbilt for the summer of 1979 and bought a weight set and a weight bench. Nothing fancy and not that much weight but I was religious about benching and military pressing as much as I could (not much!) every day.

When I got home that summer I weighed 160 lbs. When I went back to Vanderbilt three months later, I was up to 170 -- and it was all in my shoulders and chest. My roomies (and even some of my co-workers) were visiby impressed. "Damn, boy, have you been lifting or what? You look like you've put on 20 lbs."

It still gives me a chubby more than 25 years later.

* * *

A few years later (summer / fall 1982) I was working for a daily newspaper in Louisiana. The first few months (May-August) I was there on my own and I was too busy or bored (always one or the other) to do much eating. I dropped from a pretty solid 179 down to the low 160s.

THEN I got married (yeah, yeah, long story, most of you have heard it before) and suddenly I had a home cooked meal every evening. By the end of year I was up to 195 lbs., some of it around the middle but back then when I gained weight I gained it all over.

One of my fellow newspaper reporters was just a couple of years older than I was. He was a sportswriter and got to hang out with the big athletes. I always thought he had a bi bone or two because he was certainly admiring of them. He was 6'1 (a couple of inches taller than I was) and when I met him that spring about 220 lbs. He complimented me on my arms (sproing!) And he liked to pick me up (remember, he outweighed me by 40 lbs. at the beginning and more as the summer progressed...)

The best part, though, was that just about the time I started getting a home cooked meal every evening he went on a diet. By the end of year he was down to about 200 lbs. He picked me up one day to crack my back and set me down with a *whoosh* of effort. "Damn, boy, yer gettin' big. I can barely get my arms around you now..."

And you know what?

I still get a chubby thinkin' about it.

:-)

* * *

Not a growth story, per se, but an inspiration. While still living in Louisiana (early 80s) I had to go to the funeral of my cousin's maternal grandfather. There was a drop dead gorgeous red haired guy there, huge shoulders and arms, teeny tiny waist. "That's my cousin on my momma's side," Jeff told me. "225 lbs., 28 inch waist!"

I went back to work to tell my friend Mike about him. "You've got a 28 inch waist, right Mike?" He allowed that that was the case. It's also the case that he weighed all of about 130 lbs. "Well, picture this. 28 inch waist, 225 lbs." It took him a minute to think about it, then his eyes got very wide. "Dayum! His shoulders must be out to HERE...!"

* * *

In the "wish I'd seen it category":

One of my brother's h.s. classmates (2 yrs behind me) was into lifting from age 12-13. By the time he arrived at h.s. he had some good little muscles going on but he was only about 5'6 and maybe 140 lbs.

5-6 years later, after we'd all graduated and I was home for the holidays, I saw the kid jogging around the neighborhood. Whoa! He'd gotten his growth spurt (his brother , one of my classmates, was 6'4) and was up to about 6'2, easily 240 lbs. of muscle, massive shoulders, chest, arms, the whole works. He looked like a blond gorilla.

* * *

From gay.com. A hot guy in Texas, graduate student, about my height (5'10), started lifting a few years back (maybe 5-6 now.) When he started, he was 160. Last time I caught up with him (more than a year ago) he was up to 225 -- 65 lbs. in three years. Not ripped to shreds but it all went to the right places. I just love to think about what his friends must have felt like watching that happen!

* * *

That's my contribution for today.

Any others?

xoxo

Richard

[BigLittleTim]

Richard,

I'm with you on the "believable" muscle growth stories. Fantasy is all well and good but, like Oscar Wilde said of cigarettes: "They are exquisite, and leave you ultimately unfulfilled." (I think he said the same thing about boys, too.)

It's strange how you can remember a face or a body you saw twenty years ago, as vividly as if it were yesterday. There are hundreds of hot men in my gym, but they all sort'a blend together after a while; I probably wouldn't recognize half of them in street-clothes. But, not a week has gone by in the last fifteen years that I haven't thought about a certain muscular, black-irish, Tufts Veterinarian student who used to box in grey sweat-pants at my first gym. Don't even remember his name!

When searching for jerk-off material in my internal "theatre of the mind", more often than not Casting comes up with the boxer in grey sweats, or the lifeguard I used to see at the beach when I was building sand-castles, or the guy who used to wash his car in his boxer shorts when I was a paper-boy.

(I just came across some photos of people I used to work with during a Summer job when I was in High School. I took several pictures of this one "older" guy who I thought was just the TOP in beefy musculature... trying not to be too obvious... Oh my God! In hind-sight, he's just a skinny, fairly good-looking kid. Some nice arms, but no pecs or legs. I could crush him with one hand. Sometimes, maybe, we shouldn't let daylight in on our memories. )

-BigLittleTim

[RyBearATL]

Since I know RPJ I'll share a couple.

(ONE)
First, just after college, I was getting into lifting. I was heading out to LA to visit some friends & have fun, and I knew part of the plan was to go to a water park. It gave me some discipline for dieting & the gym for about 3 months. I don't know a thing about stats, etc, but when we got to the park & stripped down, the moment I took off my shirt the guys got quiet. I wondered what I'd done - **I** certainly hadn't seen any difference over that time & didn't expect anything. I thought things had actually gone the other way & I looked terrible!

"What?" I said, kind-of worried.

They were quiet for a moment, then a friend said "Nice arms."

Nobody said anything else that day, but I felt great all day.

(TWO)
I was just getting out into the bear crowd after getting out of my first relationship. I decided that I was going to bundle up my courage and go to Lazy Bear (2000, I think). I was way, way, shy. On Saturday I went down in a bathing suit and sneakers to the Russian River Resort (triple-R, as it's called) for one of the pool parties. After about an hour its completely packed (see www.shutterbear.com for an idea of what this is like) and I'm just getting around the place, not knowing anyone, feeling like I don't fit in at all, and just wondering WTF am I doing here? Everyone here is furry, built, handsome - I'm going to have a really crappy weekend.

At one point I'm walking thru the pool cabana and I look across the room and see part of a guy who catches my eye. Nice chest, furry, kinda woofy - I don't see clearly, there are a lot of people between me and him, and it is crazy crowded and everyone's moving around so it's hard to maintain line-of-sight.

After a few seconds I realize I just caught sight of myself in a mirror which was at the right height to only show me from the waist to neck.

I stop cold. I decide I fit in just fine, I should just get over the self-image I (still, often even today) carry of being "the fat kid" for at least a few hours, and maybe I should just have a drink and lighten up.

I did, and I immediately met a fellow named David who has become one of my closest friends to this day. I ended up having a great weekend!

-R

[flexicon1]

This thread jogged a nice little memory from my head. I think it was stuck in some nook of my closeted brain (pre-1985!) because I don't think I've actually thought about it since then.

When I was in high school, there was a sweet kid who was a couple of years younger than me that I thought was very cute: thick dark hair and eyebrows, a sort of natural olive tan complexion, and a very distinct (and sexy!) jewish nose. The year I graduated he was probably all of 5'7" with a sort of geeky, friendly quality and an average build that was always pretty unidentifiable since he wore pretty average clothes that fit rather loosely. I left the country for my freshman year of college. A year later, when I returned, I noticed him running on a regular basis, always with his shirt off, and looking like a completely different person. His olive complexion had become this incredible deep tan. He looked like he'd grown 3"-4", and was my height now, his cute geeky features were now ruggedly handsome, and radiated confidence and power. And his body! If I hadn't known that he was still a jr. in high school I would not have believed it if someone told me. He was in "Brad Pitt in Fight Club" condition, which didn't exist yet, being only 1986, so he was just "oh my God! You're in HIGH SCHOOL?!" Thinking about it now, I wonder where he ended up? Wow, one of the studliest guys I can remember seeing back in the day!

[CanadianGordon]

In grade seven and eight I was buddy's with a guy who was tall and lanky, but darn cute. We parted ways for a year when we went to different high schools.
Then I went to the same school, and holy crap had he grown bigger. In fact in our years of high school he just kept growing.
I still have some hot dreams of us working out... together to this day.
G.

[arpeejay]

More memories...

In the 9th grade, Mike and Jay armwrestling in our late afternoon English class. (The teacher was one of those bird brains who never knew what was going on...) Mike was the long-haired, studly surfer dude, Jay had buzzed hair (a major no-no in the early 70s) and big black glasses, kinda geeky looking. When they started squeezing, their biceps both POPPED.

Another time I saw Mike in the hallway with his shirt off for a moment (I can't imagine why it was off); I nearly ran into a locker. Imagine Brad Pitt in Fight Club only with a deep surfer tan and long hair. I nearly ran into a locker.

Then there was Pat. He was always built like a brick shithouse. Always seemed like someone wanted to armwrestle him but he never would. (Were they all little fags in waiting, like I was?) I remember someone in our 10th grade Algebra II class asking him how much he weighed. "178," he said, without batting an eye. At 5'10, and all muscle. "Why do you want to know?"
By the time we graduated he wasn't any taller but he was 200 lbs., all of it in his chest, shoulders, arms, and legs. Very woofy.

It's like Tim said: When I close my eyes...

xoxo

Richard

[audobahn]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

More memories...
Then there was Pat. He was always built like a brick shithouse. Always seemed like someone wanted to armwrestle him but he never would. (Were they all little fags in waiting, like I was?) I remember someone in our 10th grade Algebra II class asking him how much he weighed. "178," he said, without batting an eye...

Richard

Was Pat a wrestler? That would explain why he knew his weight without stopping to think about it.

[arpeejay]

Originally Posted by audobahn

Was Pat a wrestler? That would explain why he knew his weight without stopping to think about it.

From what I recall, he did NO sports whatsoever, which I always thought was odd, since he was obviously very gifted physically, way more so than most of us. (And he was one of two people in my class who scored higher on the SAT than I did. Doncha just hate it?!)

rpj

[hulkoutlvr]

This is kind of an unusual idea for a new thread, but I was wondering if anyone has a really incredible pump story, such as getting finished at the gym and being so pumped you couldn't get back into your shirt, or perhaps a pump so huge that you split your shirt? Or if not, what is the best pump you've ever experienced. I'd love to hear any good pump stories? What did it feel like? And what happened when you felt it?