You look fantastic bro, very radical transformation my man!! I can still see deleted posts for the first 24 hours haha.
Nice write up too man
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Haha thanks man!
Think my next step will potentially be to start a bulk come autumn and see what I can achieve with that. With the right diet and program how long do you think it would take to put on 3-4kg in muscle? I put on weight real easy, so I’m just cautious about getting fat again even though that is kind of a part of bulking.
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How I always look at it is this;
When you’re lean, unless you’re doing competitive bodybuilding, a nice and slow growing phase really is the best. Aim to add no more than about 0.4-0.6kg a week at absolute most (anymore and you’re going to look bloated and hold a lot of fluid a lot quicker than necessary), keep cardio in (taper it down slowly) and don’t really go more than about 200-350 calories over your maintenance.
I genuinely think you could add around 2-3kg of muscle tissue in a solid year of slow bulking whilst maintaining a good body composition.
A year sounds like a long time btw but gaining 2-3kg of muscle is a LOT of tissue to add in a year. You’ll look noticeably different with a few extra kilos of muscle, even though it doesn’t sound like a lot of weight it’s an amazing amount of muscle to add to a frame.
You’ve got a really strong structure btw, which not everyone is blessed with so you’ll look ridiculous (in a good way haha) with a few extra KG lol
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This is something that does not get said enough, really something that personal coaches and “fitness” videos should be hammering home on YouTube. Well said bro
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Awesome man, thanks for the pearls of wisdom really appreciate it. Think I’ll sign back up for the gym in August when I’m back and look into sorting out my diet and gym program.
Did Parkrun this morning for the first time in ages. Good to see lots of people back doing it.
Haven’t really run for a while, so I thought it’d be a struggle, but it wasn’t too bad, managed to run the whole thing easily enough. A bit off my best times, but it’s a start. Can now cash in those burnt calories for Pick N Mix. That’s how it works, right?
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what’s the point of working out if you can’t eat what you want afterwards!
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Fantastic!
Lovely to hear you are back running!
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Way to get back out there!
We’re having morning highs in the 60s right now which is prime running weather. 
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@SRCJJ I’m reading online that John Meadows passed away, not sure if it’s true or not but pretty devastating if it is. Dude was still so young, I know he had problems with his heart due to his competitive lifestyle, would be such a shame, he was easily one of my favourite YouTube fitness personalities every since you mentioned him.
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Fuck just seen it. That’s devastating news I’ve loved every second of listening to John over the years.
Such a genuinely nice guy and one of the few good guys in the industry who didn’t spout nonsense on his page.
I know he’s had some health issues in the past and the truth is after his heart attack last year he needed to drop a lot more size than he did and come away from the heavy lifting and gear. Don’t want to speculate on how he’s passed but with his pays health problems you’d imagine it wouldn’t be too outlandish to think it had something to do with his heart.
RIP. A real lovely guy and will miss his contribution to the industry
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Yeh man, they’re saying he passed in his sleep which I suppose is better than most can hope for but at 49 years old it’s a goddamn shame. Really highlights the dark side of keeping that kind of mass on your frame. Very annoying news as the dude has young kids that he sometime had on his channel.
It’s a shame like you said he didn’t maybe take some size off because with his knowledge he could have been in amazing/smaller shape for a very long time. Though I think he knew all that as I’ve watched a few of his episodes where he actually talked through it with a doctor on youtube. He certainly wasn’t oblivious to what he needed to do in regard to his health it just looks like that opportunity was taken away from him before he got the choice. Dangerous game the roids and stuff like this is such a common theme, his physique was amazing but it wasn’t worth his life. He was so humble and down to earth too, devastated for his family.
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The outpouring of grief right now speaks volumes about his standing. Some of the most respected names in the history of bodybuilding loved and respected this guy.
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Yeh man, I don’t usual get hit by the celebrity death sorrow but this one has really caught me off guard. Dude was a gent and his word was gospel, I learnt a million times more watching his videos than I ever would have throwing money at a PT. Followed a bunch of his routines over lockdown and started lifting a little heavier again as his alterations really gave me confidence in regard to not aggregating injuries.
Crazy to think he was posting videos like 3 days ago, life really fucking sneaks up on people.
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Was it confirmed he was on the diesel? I know some of the fitness folks deny being on steroids but at absolutely on it. Athlean X comes to mind.
Ah bro, human beings aren’t meant to look the way these dudes do, you don’t need a blood test to tell when someone is roiding. The natural peak physique compared to enhanced are night and day.
Still doesn’t change the fact that when they’re all on it it’s about who’s the best and he was one of the best physiques in the game. Even nearly at 50 I was in awe of his size and definition.
Most younger fitness folk on youtube do still take roids these days, though for the gains they get they’d honestly be better just staying natural. Most are on it at like age 16 to get that Gymshark sponsorship with a bit of popcorn muscle and a lot of photoshop. Fucking up their hormonal balance for life only to deflate the minute they get inured or come off cycle.
It was a different gig back in the day, and honestly the old school guys are some of the best to listen to. No pretense, no bullshit, no fake natty bullcrap. They know the risks and rewards of what that stuff does to your body, it’s just fucking ironic that someone like Meadow’s who was so transparent and honest about all aspects of it, healthy and unhealthy was one of the ones struck down by it, not in his prime but not that fuckin far off it in regard to the shape he was in.
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John Meadows was a professional bodybuilder so he was on gear and he wasn’t the type of guy who denied it. He even answered drug related questions in his Q&A.
@Castiel the biggest issue with a lot of the old school guys was the stubbornness and idea of invincibility that some of them had. John never looked “healthy” in the face. He looked old, he’d often have a red face which you’d imagine was blood pressure related.
I remember reading years ago he had a colon issue that he ignored until his colon actually burst and he ended up on the brink of death. After his heart attack in 2020, he kept speaking about the need to downsize but he only really dropped a bit of weight. He probably needed to come off anything that wasn’t a TRT dosage of test and just maintain a healthy shape.
Genetics play a huge role in how somebody responds to drugs. Meadows parents died young, his grandparents died unexpectedly and now he’s dead at 49. He’s had previous heart issues, colon problems and whatnot and the truth is when the warning signs are there… Meadows was an incredibly knowledgeable and good guy but like a lot of the older guys he probably felt that he was invincible. I know he did drop size, but with his history and family history he needed to do more.
There’s a really safe way to go about taking steroids and thankfully in this country at least, a lot of the top coaches are now starting to learn from my old mentor. He’s a huge exponent of safe usage. Getting much more out of less, not using drugs that are deleterious to your cognitive health, your cardio health.
RIP to a great though. I genuinely can’t believe that he’s gone. He was literally commenting on people’s Instagram posts about 24 hours ago and then bam, gone.
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Yeh man I watched some of the old school documentaries and how they talk then compared to now is eye opening. Though any drug is a roulette and over exposure to anything harmful will take it’s toll over a life time. I do agree with you, especially with the introduction of Hollywood cycles there seems to be much more concern towards doing it responsibly. Consulting doctors, blood work etc, it’s really how it should be done.
Though if people are careless and greedy all the genetics in the world won’t save their internals. I also think genetics is something that’s far too overplayed with a lot of the younger generation and is something that casual and beginner lifters worry far too much about. Genetics is a kid pumping himself full of chemicals while he’s still going through puberty to the point he goes bald and has to get hair implant at like 21 lol. Everything’s smoke and mirrors and good, true fitness advice seems lost to rhetoric. As Josh mentioned AthleanX is your archetype of all this bullshit.
I really hate how health and fitness are too entirely separate category’s in today’s world. In fairness to Meadows at least accepted that, I remember him talking to his doctor about getting one of those heart implants that Eriksen might need, he seemed pretty dismissive of it but I wonder if that might have saved his life.
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They’re so good. I used to eat them all the time when I lived in America.
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