Read my Story – 16 Years Of Lifting

Hello fellow tall lifters, fitness freaks and bodybuilders! My name is Filip and I am a 192.5cm tall lifter, fitness enthusiast and a constant student of strength training, hypertrophy training and nutrition.

It has been 14 years since I started working out and in the last 5 years I’ve been expanding my knowledge about the subject in great detail.

I was always in some kind of sports and outdoor activities since I was a kid. I trained karate, taekwondo, tennis and I dabbled in skating, break dancing, parkour and bmx.

When I was 10 years old I started training basketball, and I did that (with some breaks) until I was 20 years old when I decided I don’t want to do it anymore because I saw no future in it.

How and Why I Actually Started Lifting?

When I was around 16 I started having some knee problems. When I would run for longer periods of time my knees started hurting as though somebody stab me with a nail on the medial (inner) side of the knee.

I went to check it out with a pretty well known Croatian orthopedic doctor. He told me that I have trashed cartilage in my knees, which he concluded was probably because of my training regimen.

At the time I had played basketball for cadets, juniors, seniors and Istrian selection. So I had 5+ basketball practices per week and 2+ basketball games per week which of course was probably just too much.

This orthopedic doctor gave me some exercises for rehab and told me that I’m not allowed to jump, run or do any kind of training for legs whatsoever for an indefinite amount of time.

He specifically mentioned that I’m NOT allowed to do ANY KIND of squats or jumping!

I was 15 at the time so I took his advice and pretty much started rehabbing my knees with various exercises he gave me.

This exercises took me around one hour to complete and since they were incredibly boring (static holds in various positions plus some other stuff) I also started doing some pushups and sit ups in between.

For some reason I decided to buy one ez-bar and two 10kg plates in hopes of “building up my biceps”.

This small decision was the main trigger that launched me into this whole other world that I didn’t knew even existed… The fitness world..

I know it sounds cheesy but this precise moment was the start of what turned out to be a major change in my lifestyle. The most positive thing that ever happened to me in my life that spilled over in other areas of my life.

I wasn’t aware of it at the time, and I wasn’t aware of it until recently, but this is one of the main reasons why I’m making this blog.

To help others make positive changes in their lives too and to help them achieve their goals.

What I thought About “Fitness” In The Beginning

The first few years of my fitness journey were rough to say the least. We didn’t have much quality resources and I was really young to really understand what I needed to do or what to even search for.

All I knew was that I wanted to build as much muscle mass as possible. That’s it.

I didn’t care about abs or getting lean because I was already super lean at the time because of basketball practices (also being 15years). I was around 78kg/171lbs at 191cm/6 foot 3 at the time.

My thoughts about strength at the time were that you’re either born strong or you’re born weak.

Yea, what a profound thinking from a 15yo.

Of course we all now know that that’s incorrect.

One of my friends was going to the gym and he was the one who really introduced me to some books and articles about muscle building at the beginning of my journey.

The idea of going to the gym felt kinda strange at the time and that’s also the reason why I bought my own equipment. It was 2006…. Man… a looong time ago…

At the beginning pretty much what I knew was:

• doing sets to failure
• doing 3 sets of 8
• doing 3 exercises for large muscle groups
• doing 2 exercises for small muscle groups
• resting 2min between sets
• resting 5min between exercises
• training muscle group once per week

Looking back at it, it wasn’t THAT bad (but it was bad).. Surprisingly, some people did way worse stuff than that.

You can say that I was kinda lucky.

Luckily for me, I got pretty decent results with this kind of training (as almost every noob lifter) even though the training was, let’s just say less than optimal.

At the time I didn’t even bother to think about my height, genetic potential or any of that stuff.

I thought that I will look like Arnold, and that steroids are just some drugs those really big guys like Jay Cutler or Ronnie Coleman take. I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger was natural. What?

Oh Filip, honey… How cute was I? 16yo Filip… Boy did I learn..

Short Crossfit Phase…

I pretty much did the classic bro split (mon chest-biceps, wed back-triceps, fri legs-shoulders) until I was 21yo which was when I started doing crossfit.

I did crossfit for about 4-6 months and you know… It is what it is.

Crossfit was kinda interesting to me because it was kinda like basketball training. You’re really pushing yourself but most of the time only aerobically because of the nature of crossfit WOD’s.

I was actually pretty decent at crossfit because aerobic capacity from basketball came back pretty quickly.

I enjoyed it, but I only did it because I was somehow convinced that crossfit was superior for muscle building if you’re natural. They even claim that on their website. At least they did in 2011.

Ironically I actually LOST muscle mass when I started doing crossfit even if I could do 10 muscle ups, 20 strict deadhang pullups, 50 burpees and +100 pushups.

Again, Filip? What was that?

The Big Plateau!

When I was around 22yo I was trying all sorts of things because basically what really happened eventually was… I hit a HUGE plateau in my training.

2012 Bro Splits:

• 

• 

• 

• 

MY training was stagnant whether it was strength, mass or conditioning.

I stopped progressing, I didn’t know what was wrong and I was trying all sorts of stuff to fix it.

This was the time when I seriously started researching hypertrophy training, strength training and nutrition.

The HIT (High Intensity Training) Phase

In 2013 I stumbled upon Mike Mentzers Heavy Duty Training. This training made sense to me because it basically said that you have to train hard and it was one of the few that had some valid logic behind it’s training philosophy.

2013 HIT phase:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I actually started progressing again with this type of training but I want to clarify what I exactly did at that time.

The HIT routine that I did at the time was 4 times per week training with more than one exercise per muscle group.

It wasn’t one of those super simplistic HIT (High Intensity Training) routines that Mike Mentzer started teaching in the later years of his life (and most of his followers to date).

The ones in which you literally do one exercise for one working set per muscle group every two weeks.

Not very smart…

I made some gains on that original routine and I started progressing again.

The main thing that HIT training really thought me was that I wasn’t training hard enough in the past and that it was better to focus on one thing and to do it really really really good, then to do half ass multiple things at once.

The need to do just one, or at rare occasions 2 sets per exercise, forces that mentality on you. When you do only one set of bench per week, you really try to make it count.

Because if you don’t guess what? You just messed up your training for a whole week (or more). Because you literally have only one shot per week to progress.

HIT training focuses really on progression and I really liked that. Progression is literally the foundation of HIT training and your frequency depends on it.

My First Encounter With 5×5 – Strength Training

After HIT phase around the end of 2013 I started dabbling in 5×5 and various versions of it. From old school Reg Park type of training all the way up to Elliot Hulses (insert your 5×5 program) version of it.

Didn’t really like it and never actually bought the idea that 5×5 guru’s are trying to sell you.

That the 5×5 is the best thing that happened for muscle and strength building since sliced bread.

You’re doing 25 total reps of heavy squats 3 times per week with +80% of 1RM… Good luck if you survive that stuff after beginner stage.

I’m getting nervous just thinking about it.

I tried some version of linear 5×5 program, I squatted 130kg for 5 reps, benched 122.5kg max, and deadlifted 150kg for 10 reps. This was early 2014. I lifted those numbers in about 4 months of doing it.

I didn’t like the overly simplistic philosophy of most 5×5 programs so I continued to search for some program that I liked and believed in.

The Turning Point

I stumbled upon Layne Norton’s power-hypertrophy program which looked promising to me.

I somehow concluded at the time that strength has some importance in muscle building so this looked like a perfect mix by somebody who is actually experienced in bodybuilding, powerlifting and has a world class results.

When I started doing this program I started progressing again. I gained more muscle mass and gained more strength training that way.

My First “Real” Injury

Power hypertrophy is a super high intensity and high volume program. I wouldn’t recommend this program to anybody because it is super brutal and has a real potential to hurt you. Like it hurt me.

This was the first time in my life that I had a real sprain or “injury” from lifting weights.

Pictures from early 2015 when I wasn’t training because of the shoulder injury:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Before that, I never actually got injured and never sprained anything specifically with weight training.

This injury occurred near the end of 2014 and I just decided to do what I thought was the smart thing to do.

What does everybody say you should do if you get injured?

To rest…

I rested for a month… it didn’t go away.

I rested for 3 months… it didn’t go away…

I started doing all kinds of stretching, rolling, corrective exercises…. it didn’t go away.

I took x rays, went to doctor, did an ultra sound… nothing.

Nobody could tell me what was wrong.

Nothing worked for a whole six months. I could barely do 3 pushups without pain.

So I just decided to slowly start training again and start strengthening my shoulder.

I mostly did tempo work and focused on shoulder movements.

Somehow, by some luck it went away.

The Weight Cut

Because I wasn’t training and I was mostly sedentary at the time I gained some weight and lost muscle. It didn’t look pretty.

That was the reason why I decided to clean my diet first.

I went down from around 102kg to 92kg. I looked okay, but It wasn’t what I hoped for.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Since I wasn’t happy with how much muscle I was “left with” after cutting I simply decided to bulk up and try to regain mass that was lost.

What happened was that I pretty much gained all the mass back with almost no additional fat gain.

That happened only because I already had more muscle mass in the past (muscle memory) so when I started training hard again and eating enough food to grow again, most of the bodyweight gained went to muscles.

I looked a lot better when I was back to almost 100kg then I looked like when I was 92kg.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My body probably thanked me when I started eating.

At the time I had all this conflicting theories about how you need to train in my head and you can argue against all of them pretty easily.

That was when I made some bold decision…

The Second “Newbie Gains”

Since I had this rapid growth when I started eating more (which was a trend through my life so far) I just decided to do a dirty bulk and just gain a lot of weight while at the same time try to train as hard as possible.

Let me be clear!

I wasn’t particularly excited about the inevitable fat gain, but my logic was that I was almost 26 years old and if I wanted to really squeeze this last few years before I’m 30 years old I need to sacrifice aesthetics for the time being in hopes of building as much mass as possible in this few years.

Previously I bought the idea that you build most of your muscle before 30 because testosterone starts declining. Now I know that testosterone levels and muscle mass are not always 1:1 correlated.

If I can remember correctly, -105kg IPF world champion Bryce Lewis went and measured his testosterone levels and they were bellow average.

If you know how Bryce looks and what numbers he lifted you would never guessed that. Anyway…

After those years (after 30 years of age which is btw in a few months) I decided that I’m going to clear some excess fat and continue building muscle but with a more moderate approach.

When I look back at it I maybe needed to do that in the first place but it is what it is. I have made a decision and stick to it.

I believe that this bulk helped me break some mental barriers about how much muscle can I build naturally.

Because of that decision, 2016 was the year that I basically had another “newbie gains” and made some noticeable progress in muscle mass as well in strength gains.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Especially in strength gains!

The most I had squatted before 2016 was around 150kg in 2014, benched 122.5kg and deadlifted around 160kg for 3 reps.

And also, I want to note that those numbers were achieved somewhere in 2014, not in 2015. Immediately before the big bulk I could squat somewhere around 140kg, bench around 115kg and deadlift probably around 170kg.

The lowest bodyweight before the 2016 dirty bulk was 92.5kg

At the end of the 2016 I squatted 200kg, benched 150kg and deadlifted 260kg!

At my biggest my arms were 48cm while pumped, and my legs were 78cm not pumped.

Sure yes, I gained a lot of fat in the process, but I gained a lot of strength and muscle mass also. You be the judge.

From that point on I went to squat 210kg, benched 155kg and deadlifted 270kg.

My best rep numbers currently are:

• squat 8x180kg
• bench 4x140kg
• bench 10x120kg
• deadlift 10x220kg
• and my best number ever 6x250kg on deadlift.

I currently weigh around 110kg, and the most I ever weighed was 118.5kg at the end of 2017.

So you can say I have some experience with strength training and with muscle building.

I didn’t even talked about how much I struggled with squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press technique because of my height!

How many trials and errors did I do while trying to figure out what technique is best for me for each of the lifts.

How many trials and errors did I do while trying to find out what training frequency, volume, intensity, relative intensity, exercise selection and technique worked best for me.

I learned a lot of stuff, and some of the things are really specific for tall lifters. No matter what some people are trying to tell you. If you’re not a tall lifter and you say that it’s the same for everybody it literally isn’t. Biomechanically and also in terms of recovery and muscle attachments.

I know that from first hand experience and I believe that every tall lifter knows from first hand experience how hard can it be for us. Especially lifters who are over 2m (6 foot 6) tall.

For starters, everything is harder just because of simple physics.

We literally have to move the weight through greater range of motion and often with worse leverages because taller individuals usually have longer limbs and usually have less favorable leverages in general.

It’s not just about bone length and ratios. You have hundreds of muscles pulling in every direction possible, so it’s not just three dimensional either.

There is a lot of stuff to talk about here and I’m super excited to start doing this in more detail and in written form.

I’ll continue doing videos on Tall Lifts youtube because I believe they are superior in some ways to articles, but because I’m not native english it’s sometimes easier for me to stop and think how I want to say something, rather than to do it on camera.

Thank you so much for sticking so long through this post and I’ll see you soon in the next one.

Filip