I gained over 30 kilos as an adult. This was mainly on the upside. I was so slim before. I got stronger. My former max strenght now became my starting strenght (max as in lifting 3 times a week and no hormone supplements). I became more attractive. Beautiful women came up me and talked to me which rarely happened before. People (women) started looking - a lot. I wasn't used to that. And unknown women sitting on the opposite seat in the underground train sometimes licked their mouths demonstratively while staring at me which never happened before. But there also were downsides: I got lots of physical symptoms out of which most of those hurt badly. This article is about that.

The idea of growing substantially, well after the teens - is not new to me. On my first gym there was a powerlifter that gained 20 lean kilo bodyweight in one year. Or rather, he gained all that in one year while not coming to the gym anymore. He went lifting alone with the super heavyweights for a year and made that remarkable progress. He used to weigh 80 kilo and when he came back he was an elite powerlifter weighing 100 kilo and bench pressing 165 - at a time when most powerlifters weren't equipped. That was at a time when steroids weren't completely illegal in Sweden. Then he came back to the old gym and looked totally different as well as performing very well in his new powerlifting weight class. I also had a classmate that was as strong as the rest of us. Then suddenly in only months he became much stronger. But I've also known people who got bulkier outside the gym, one guy I knew was very slim like me (and likewise tall) and I had not met him in some years. We met and talked on a party and he said "don't everyone gain weight with age"? Well I don't think so. Not this way. Both him and me were much bigger than the last time we saw each other. Much, as in not having an eating disorder like compulsive overeating, and still having become much heavier. And bigger, not from having been anorectic before. I've never had an eating disorder, and not him either I believe, from having known him for a long time.

So here's my story of the downsides from becoming a heavyweight well into adulthood. A story of a lot of pain and ultimately risking disgrace in the shape of ruined skin.

The initial weight gaining took place year 2000-2004 - long after I had quit growing height wise. The body wasn't built for the extra weight. It's in my case 50 pounds (23 kilos) more initially, when dieting. When not dieting it was almost 30 new kilos (65 pounds). Gradually I gained, but not evenly: instead in steps. It wasn't weightlifting or doping that caused the gaining, but the body recuperating from stuff that had happened earlier. Not illness, but trauma.

The worst problem from the musculo-skeletal system came half a year after gaining up to current weight. In the summer 2005 I rode long trips on my mountainbike and got seriously sore knee tendons. The saddle was a little too low for me which put even more stress to the knee tendons. It was so bad that even walking in the stairs made it hurt - and this remained for years. In the beginning I could not figure out how to relieve this pain but it took several years of trying different kinds of training before I realized it was very stubborn walking that cured it. Way more than the normal daily walking was needed. It also spread. The pain (inflammation) spread to the periost on the shins. An intentional period of daily walks for a couple of weeks cured all of this - but if refraining from long walks for a while it still came back some months later. For example - when in periods with only weightlifting I got it back. This went on for years.

The year after the knee tendons problem showed up, I realized, also in a painful way, that the feet weren't built for the new weight either. After an outdoors run the soles of my heels hurt.. while walking. This took a whole 4 years before it was completely healed.

BUT by then I had already had bad headaches since 2003. Those persisted for years. It got acute sometimes when drinking coffee or squatting (powerlifting that engages large muscles, hence building blood pressure). So, I figured the brain was trying to grow. And there was no room for that. What more is that later onwards the scalp started itching like all hell. And I realized somehow the head must have grown in the end. And the last thing to get affected by that, was the connective tissue around it, ie the scalp. At the time the scalp started to strongly itch, the upper trapezius also did. It was not a normal itchy feel. It was a painful itch. Not like any other itching I know. Every day I had to massage the scalp hard to make it go away.

Then there was the compartment syndrome. It began in the lower legs long ago, a lingering dull ache that made walks a bit painful. Or rather, the pain turned up between the walks. Worst pain from the compartment syndrome came much later though, in the triceps. They ached in a chilling way and the pain showed up every now and then for weeks after exercising which of course made me stop lifting. There was also this tight feeling around the chest.

Annnd the walking was a bit of a problem because in 2009 the pelvis started hurting. It was the ligaments around the sacrum (not the muscles), I figured the postural structure (the lowest point of the upper body, really) wasn't ready to keep up that weight. It hurt when walking for a few years but in 2011 it was better.

In 2011 the skin (connective tissue) started tearing slightly. It begun with a narrow silver-white stripe appearing across left bicep. I stopped lifting immediately. Later I also took a week off normal food to loose weight quickly and lived nearly only off apples during that week. I also realized that creating a lot of new connective tissue would require some sort of minerals. I thought about it a bit and tasted a few different mineral pills from jars I bought. I had already years ago learnt how to taste what substances I'm low on, during and after a kinesiology course. So it turned out it was magnesium I needed. I started taking the magnesium pills early 2011. I have consumed several magnesium pill packs by now and some days exceeding the recommended daily intake (even for athletes that is). Later on I also started taking vitamin E,and the same thing there, I've consumed several jars. A year later I had switched to mainly taking vitamin E for this instead of magnesium.

I also got the tip reading about Dermaroller to cause inflammation. So I tried causing local histamine release with a hairbrush with plastic pegs on it. Not exactly scratching the skin per se, but trying to get to the deeper layers, but in the process causing the skin itself to get red. Histamine causes blood flow to increase. After having tried this during a year this is the conclusion: the effect is fast. The next day the stretch lines are fewer or gone. In the beginning the effect was also gone as quickly - but the longer I kept doing this the longer the skin stayed smooth. Initially the skin stayed intact only for a day and then the white lines came back again, but after almost a year the skin stayed fine for five days. I also combined this brushing with deep tissue massage for a while.

After a year of rest (really because of the compartment syndrome) - pills - and brushing I decided to go for full attack in the gym instead. Thinking that maximum circulation now must be good.

The knee tendons were a problem. When not having walked a couple of miles daily for a while, the only solution was walking very far over a couple of weeks. And that also hurt. But in 2011 didn't hurt so bad anymore. Instead when summer 2011 came it was the big toes that had to be thoroughly trained, by long walks, to be able to run.

Also the voice altered significantly. I have been able to sing E2 since I started making tunes, but it wasn't my natural tone of voice. I used to prefer starting singing from A2 and up although I sometimes went to lower notes as well. This is because my natural speaking tone was around A. Now it's about 3 notes lower (5/12:ths of an octave). This is the main reason why I've remade my 90's songs into a lower key. However my lowest sung note (that sounds full) has not changed very much, only 2/12:ths of an octave (now being D2). But I CAN sing (with warm-up) even lower now being a true bass. Anyhow, for many years talking made the vocal chords tired, so much that I needed a break after chatting half an hour.

The heart too started hurting every now and then. I figured likewise, it just wasn't built for pumping that extra blood. But that never scared me. Instead when not keeping completely from lifting, in the end I felt very strong painful sensations from the aorta. I know anatomy from med school, even in detail from dissection sessions. The pain was also pulsating with the heartbeats. And that happened two times, a very strong pulsating sensation of danger, that made me lie down instantly. It felt like it could have ruptured.

During the winter 2011-2012 I gained another 6 kilo. This made some of my old hurts come back: big toes, pelvis and knee tendons started hurting again. Just like earlier walking was the remedy, except pelvis. I walked three kilometers times four per week during February 2012. It took the whole spring to adjust to thenew weight but in May I was better than in many years structurally. Only one knee tendon hurt slightly and only when lifting the heaviest or running near full speed. During spring 2012 I started doing powercleans for the very first time which is very demanding on the sacro-iliaca joints and -muscles and initially it hurt but then it got very fine. Also the stretch marks that were finally getting better after so much supplements and so much work - came back worse than ever. They were still white and not red like in many cases - but now they were broad stripes. Even harder working them manually and even more supplements did the job. During late spring they did not look awful any more.

2012 I measured my height for the first time in a long while. It was still 187 centimeters just like 1992 and 2003. So this tissue build-up has so far stopped me from getting shorter which is usually the case over the decades.

I've read so many stories of people who gained 20 kilo or more, mainly teens - and they often complain about stretch marks but they never complain about the other stuff I've had. And this has to be because they took extra hormones when weightlifting hence gaining muscles mainly. Well, when taking extra growth hormone the intestines grow. But most don't. Most bodybuilding teens telling their stories online about extraordinary weight/strenght gains take only steroids (muscle building hormone) and no growth hormone. And what you get when growing too rapidly are stretch marks because the skin can't handle rapid growth. I'm also thinking that most people complaining about stretch marks are youngsters, because it's the combination. If you take anabolic hormone while still growing you should expect the skin to get into trouble. Still most stories I've found don't cohere with my story. I didn't get stretch marks until many years after the weight gaining took place. Either I got it because the skin (the skin's basal layer = connective tissue really) couldn't handle being stretched out anymore. Or I finally got it because I gained another four pounds in 2010 which became the tipping point. I'm thinking that it's probably a combination of the two.

The obvious reason why the super gaining teens don't complain about all those problems with painful feet or compartment syndrome is that they write down their stories before getting them. They usually wrote about their recent gains from the past months. Or it could be that it's painless to gain 20-30 kilo in your teens because the connective tissue is still more lush. What's more surprising is that I've searched, and found, other adults that gained as much as me, and I've asked if they got any trouble but didn't get any answer. In fact I've seen numerous accounts of weight gaining stories similar to mine but they've never complained. Not at all in fact. It's not cool to complain. Admit that also when complaining I do it thoroughly.