From time to time growing up, I would hear these words come out of someone’s mouth, but I never thought about what they meant. I guess I was too busy in the high school weight room blowing up my chest and pipes to really ever think about it. I didn’t know much about weight lifting, but I did know that I wanted to be jacked out of my mind. Being a freshman in high school at five feet one inch and 110 pounds soaking wet, I had a long way to go and obviously didn’t know where to start.

Lucky for me, our football team had a dam good strength coach. By my junior year, we were lifting three and four times a week in the morning before school. I started doing exercises like squats, deadlifts, and power cleans. That’s some crazy stuff, huh? All along I thought the power rack was for holding the Olympic barbell that I was curling like an animal when in reality it was actually used for squatting. But hey, we’ve all been there, right? By this time, I was about five feet eleven inches and 160 lbs. I was still a scrawny kid. I was without a doubt getting stronger, but where was the size? Like most high school athletes, I wanted to see some results on the scale.

The problem with being 160 lbs is that I was eating like I was 160 lbs. I began to change my eating habits and force food down my throat. I was eating like a horse! I remember times when I was sitting in the cafeteria bent over with my head in my hands, fighting back the urge to puke. Before school, I ate as much as I possibly could. I remember eating eggs, pork rolls, a banana, and a protein shake almost every day. I also had three tuna sandwiches and three peanut butter and jelly’s packed away to eat in between classes. My friends even broke my balls about the size of the lunchbox I lugged around, but I had to do what I had to do. I was also pounding protein shakes like it was my job. It wasn't uncommon for me to throw down four protein shakes throughout the day. Needless to say, I began packing on weight and getting stronger and stronger.

By the start of my senior football season, I weighed 190 pounds. By my freshman year of college, I weighed 211 lbs and put up 225 lbs for eleven reps on the bench and squatted 365 pounds during testing for football camp. Not bad for a kid who four years earlier couldn’t squat the bar and was convinced that banging out a killer combination of back/biceps and chest/triceps every other day kicked ass.

However, when I was younger, I was always looking for the “secret supplement” that would get me huge and shredded. That was my biggest mistake. I have to admit I wasted a lot of my parents’ money on the Cell-Techs, Nitro-Techs, and other crap marketed out there with outrageous claims. Take Cell-Tech—it claims 14 pounds of muscle in 14 days! C’mon! Is it going to make my ____ bigger, too? I could have saved a lot of money and time over the years if I had learned earlier that nutrition was all I needed,  especially being 17 years old with testosterone levels through the roof!

Throughout high school and college, I definitely did some wrong things, but there were some things I did right, too. Here is a simple but extremely helpful guide for the young and even the experienced athlete to follow.

  • Eat, eat, eat: Eat like the weight you want to be! There aren't any excuses for not being able to gain weight.
  • Big three: Bench press, deadlift, and squat. There are many variations of these lifts, but keep it simple so you can constantly improve and own the lift. By doing this, you will get stronger faster!
  • Don't overtrain: There isn't any need to be in the gym every day for two hours. You will burn yourself out and reduce your gains.
  • Cut out supplements:Don't waste your money on the garbage that is out there with the exception of creatine, protein, and a good multivitamin. You simply don’t need supplements if you're eating. On top of that, you have testosterone pumping through your body!

If you follow these four guidelines, you'll see drastic changes in your results. You will become bigger, faster, and stronger while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. No, you can’t say, “If I only knew…” because now you know!