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Does weightlifting permanently change your body? - Page 2

post #16 of 24
12/23/08 at 8:38pm
I trained pretty hard for about 20 years. It was very old school--strictly natural, total body workouts, emphasis on heavy, basic exercises, no split routines or emphasis on "pump." It has held me in pretty good stead. I have trained intermittently since then. I resumed a modest upper body workout this past year. At any rate, I'll be 67 in less than three months. I've still got a 10-to-11-inch drop and pretty good muscle shape and tone, at least for an old buzzard. I think I could stack up well against the vast majority of guys 66 to 67 although I know that sounds kind of braggartly.

As far as strength goes, roughly 60 to 70-percent as strong as when I was at my peak 25 to 30 years ago, at least in the lifts I am performing.
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post #17 of 24
12/23/08 at 9:03pm
I think there are two ways to look at your question...

Firstly, regarding the way your muscles are maintained... I would say that muscles do shrink after long periods (one month ++) of not lifting. Strength also goes down significantly for me, around 30% after 6 weeks or so.

The second way I look at your question is the way lifting changes your body mechanics. I lifted regularly in uni and then took a couple of years off when I started work. It took my two months of doing dips and pull-ups in the park and now I'm stronger than ever in the gym.

So, I personally think lifting permanently changed my bod. Not in the way it will withstand long periods of not lifting and still looking good, but in the way you can pick it up quickly and get back and build on previous gains FAST.
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post #18 of 24
12/23/08 at 10:56pm
I heard the toning you get from doing bodyweight exercises don't go? Bullshit?
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post #19 of 24
12/24/08 at 11:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TyCooN View Post
I heard the toning you get from doing bodyweight exercises don't go? Bullshit?


Optimistic. If you don't submerge the muscles in fat, yeah, for quite a while after you stop working out your muscles will descrease in size but maintain their shape. I've laid off for over a year at various points but never gone back to the "sticks and stems" look I had before I started lifting.
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post #20 of 24
12/24/08 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thekunk07 View Post
^ua know what, though, it's not terrible for 60. roids permanently change you though. i used to be pretty and now i look cro-magnon.
But you're a pretty cro-magnon, doll.
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post #21 of 24
12/24/08 at 2:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aleeboy View Post

So, I personally think lifting permanently changed my bod. Not in the way it will withstand long periods of not lifting and still looking good, but in the way you can pick it up quickly and get back and build on previous gains FAST.

I second this. I usually incline about 140 lbs fairly easily just to maintain decent shape, but if I stop for more than 3 weeks or so I go back to square one and can only do about 100 lbs easily. If I stop for more than 5 months, I get extremely weak and am lucky to be able to incline a pair of 35's. But once I start back up again I can lift about 20 lbs more per week until I get back to my 140 lb plateau again.

Another issue is when I lift, I weigh around 172 lbs. If Im not lifting regularly, I shoot up to 185lbs of body weight within a couple months unless I lower my caloric intake to under 1,000 cals/day which is a serious pain in the ass. This sounds dumb but I stopped working out in 2003 for like 5 months and ate a normal diet and ballooned up to over 190 lbs in no time and I didnt even notice until someone pointed it out to me!

Right now Im sitting at 183 lbs and just getting back into working out again. You wouldnt even know I have muscles at all by looking at me..but in a month Ill be 175 lbs and acting cocky as shit.
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post #22 of 24
12/24/08 at 4:17pm
I think you do keep some of that strenght. I did lots of wieght training from 16-25. I then had several layoffs of up to 12 months. I am in my mid 30's now and I find even after taking time off from traiing it only takes me about 2 weeks to get back up to "strength".

Though I do think my the fact my body is used to the motion of the lft has something to do with it.
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post #23 of 24
12/25/08 at 4:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseJB View Post
I second this. I usually incline about 140 lbs fairly easily just to maintain decent shape, but if I stop for more than 3 weeks or so I go back to square one and can only do about 100 lbs easily. If I stop for more than 5 months, I get extremely weak and am lucky to be able to incline a pair of 35's. But once I start back up again I can lift about 20 lbs more per week until I get back to my 140 lb plateau again.

Another issue is when I lift, I weigh around 172 lbs. If Im not lifting regularly, I shoot up to 185lbs of body weight within a couple months unless I lower my caloric intake to under 1,000 cals/day which is a serious pain in the ass. This sounds dumb but I stopped working out in 2003 for like 5 months and ate a normal diet and ballooned up to over 190 lbs in no time and I didnt even notice until someone pointed it out to me!

Right now Im sitting at 183 lbs and just getting back into working out again. You wouldnt even know I have muscles at all by looking at me..but in a month Ill be 175 lbs and acting cocky as shit.

It is possible that you lost more strength then usual because 1000 calories is exceptionally low.
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post #24 of 24
12/25/08 at 11:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SystemShock View Post
It's probably not a good idea to extrapolate what happened to Arnold to what will happen to Joe Typical.

For one thing, Arnie took steroids (yes, he's admitted it), which prevent muscle from breaking down (stops the 'catabolic effect'). So, there was *no way* he was going to maintain the build he had from his roiding days, once he laid off the roids and stopped working out like a maniac.

Ppl who earned their muscles the natural way are more likely to not look as vastly different as the roiders when they get older... assuming they continue to work out.

...

Yes this pictures is an answer. I do fat, yes I do now, but I was thin in the past 3-4 years. I have work and sitting in front of laptop everyday then... here the result. You guys should working out.
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