Thread: Lifting multiple times a day - retarded or genius?

I read a post on R*ddit from this 5’4” manlet in the marines who realized that he was a liability for his teammates because he was small and couldn’t carry some of them to safety if he needed to. So he started lifting 3+ times a day and eating like crazy to gain a chit ton of weight really fast. Ended up getting to like 165 which is pretty big for a turbo manlet. If someone has a lot of free time and nothing else to do would it be retarded for them to do this?

Here’s the story if anyone’s interested in reading it -

Spoiler!

I'm 5'4. After three years of the infantry getting my ass kicked by my platoon, working out at least three times a day, and eating as much protein as I could and taking the supplements I was allowed to take, I got to around 155-160.

At my height, 160 was the max I was allowed to weigh (more than a decade ago, hopefully the Corps has learned since now). The heaviest I was pre-deployment was around 165 (I had to "tape" out which basically means they just measured my neck and acknowledged my weight was muscle).

Once I came back from deployment, I was around 142-145 pounds, simply from walking from hours a day and eating MREs for months.

I had a similar experience to what you described my entire life pre-Marine Corps. I wrestled and did cross country going up and I was always frustrated that I was losing weight when I wanted to gain it. Once I joined the military, I was essentially forced to gain weight. The infantry is a pretty violent place and it was a mixture of forcing me to lift weights + eat six times a day and getting my ass kicked by 10-12 people (1-3 at a time) repeatedly until I understood that being smaller was a liability to me and the rest of my platoon.

Once I had the discipline (or probably obsession) with gaining weight, I had multiple alarms set. It looked like this (specific work outs changed throughout the week):

1. ⁠5:30 AM: Wake up, drink water, eat three spoonfuls of peanut butter.
2. ⁠5:45AM: Stretch for 15 minutes, then go to 6:15 AM morning formation.
3. ⁠6:30-6:45ish (depending on the day. Lots of empty time for junior enlisted in the infantry when you're not deployed; my chain of command pretty much told me to normalize the 7:00-11:45a list). Sprint to the gym (less than a 1/2 mile from my barracks. I looked at this as training for the "movement to contact" portion of the CFT).
4. ⁠Lift weights until 7:45 alarm. Shower, PTRT (PT recovery time).
5. ⁠8:30 alarm: Eat six eggs, three spoonfuls of peanut butter, and a glass of whole milk.
6. ⁠9:00 alarm: Walk outside and do max pull-ups at the bar 100 feet away.

From 9:15 to 11:45 would vary by day. Sometimes I'd have to be at the armory cleaning weapons, other times at the motor pool to clean/do lowest level grunt maintenance on our trucks. But if I didn't have to do these things, then I'd go back to the gym from 9:15-10:15 and continue to lift weights, this time a different portion of the body.

6) 10:30 alarm: A can of tuna fish mixed with peanut butter (trust me on this one) and more whole milk.

7) 12:30 alarm: Eat whatever is at the chow hall. If ice cream is available, I hit that section twice.

8) 2:30 alarm: another protein heavy meal

9) Between 4:30 and 5:45, depending on when the Company was released for the day, I'd eat another protein heavy meal and max out pull ups again.

10). 6:30 Alarm: Three spoonfuls of peanut butter and run to the pool (a mile away)

11) I'd swim until 7:30, leave the pool by 8:00 and eat a protein bar, some fruit, and drink water on the way back from the pool. Most days I'd also eat a sandwich during this time as well or eat more eggs. If the pool was packed/closed I'd go back to the gym and lift again.

12) 9:00. Protein shake with whole milk, eat some more peanut butter, go to sleep.

I had to get to a point where I ate more than I was burning off working out.

Unrelated fun fact: I've seen more grunts get kicked out for [DAT DERE] (then [PEPSI] as a second place) than any other drugs.

I do this if on limited time. But only if it’s upper in the morning and lower at night

Complete overkill to the point of being counter productive unless you’re not natty. Even then, diminishing returns apply.

If I go 100% intensity. I can train twice a week full body.

If I go 85% intensity. I can train 5-6 days a week and get 2x-3x the volume of the above. Multiple times a day is a great way to add tons of times between sets and maxx volume.

Covid WFH is a great time in theory to do it and I tried it but found it was too distracting from getting work work done.

It's fine and maybe a good a form of cardio as long as the second workout is only pumping up the muscles and not straining on CNS

E.g Laterail raises, Cable cross overs, Leg Extensions etc................