Our reporter trained with bodybuilding legend Ercan Demir for almost half a year. The pictures show that the self-experiment was successful. Even if it didn’t quite work out with the crowd.
Experiment finished!
It’s over. The “Muscle Building Mission” on welt.de is coming to an end. The day of settlement has come. For the last time, I went to my trainer excitedly as part of the project. How will he evaluate our result? Was it worth the effort? I feel like I used to go to school on Certificate Day. Please no 6!
Here is the conclusion of the reporter’s self-experiment.
What have we done?
I trained with Ercan Demir for five months and reported every three weeks in a kind of training diary on welt.de/fitness about our progress and the challenges. Once a week I drove to the bodybuilding legend’s studio in Munich and lifted weights under his guidance and supervision. I trained alone in another studio four times a week. So five units per week, each for almost 90 minutes.
At the beginning of the project, at Ercan’s advice, we decided on a “three-way split”. So three different units, in which we trained two muscle groups each. We focused on volume training, so quite a lot of exercises and sets per unit. Four to five exercises per muscle group, each with four sets, which had to be performed in eight to twelve repetitions. So at least 32 sets per training.
A typical week looked like this:
Monday = chest and back
Tuesday = shoulders and biceps
Wednesday = legs and triceps
Thursday = break
Friday = chest and back
Saturday = shoulders and biceps
Sunday = break
After each training session, I had to train either my stomach or my calves in two exercises of four sets each for around ten minutes. In the last weeks of the experiment – the definition phase – there were also 30 minutes of cardio on four training days, i.e. treadmill, cycling or cross-trainer. Reason: We wanted to burn more calories in order to be able to continue eating more and still lose fat (4 x 30 minutes of cardio at medium level = 4 x 300 calories burned = 1200 additional calories burned per week).
What have we accomplished?
“You have built up around two kilograms of muscle,” says Ercan, when he looks at me in his studio and analyzes my shape. A so-called “form check”. At a height of 1.87 meters, I now weigh 80 kilograms. During our project it was sometimes 86 kilograms, which was just about two months ago. It’s amazing how much fat and water the body stores – and how much that weighs.
Ercan adds: “In addition, the quality of your muscles has improved significantly. You had strengths before, but there were also gaps in your body. They are now filled. Especially your triceps and your back shoulders have developed very well. And I’m even jealous of your biceps. ”He surprised me with this statement. Of course, it goes down like oil, after all, Ercan is a European champion and vice world champion in bodybuilding.
At the end of the experiment, according to a high-tech scale, my body fat percentage in a Munich fitness studio was twelve percent. However, the accuracy of these scales is controversial. In any case, I have lost a lot of fat and stored water in the past few weeks – quasi the definition phase, the “defi”. “Get rid of confounding factors,” as Ercan says.
He explains: “You may not be an athlete yet. But what you have achieved as a hobby athlete is very remarkable. If you wanted to and continued to work hard, you could even take part in a Mens Physique competition in a year or two. In theory, even earlier. ”Wow, this assessment surprises me.
Is what you have achieved a success?
Ercan says: “You did it brilliantly. When analyzing your body, I realized that you have followed everything that we have considered. If you continue to eat well, you will be able to maintain and improve the quality of your muscles for years to come. ”
Why did we choose quality instead of mass?
“Do you just want to weigh 90 kilograms? Or do you want to build clean muscles and look good in the end? ”Ercan asked me at the beginning of our mission. Looking pretty good in the end, I replied. To get rid of the fat in question, Ercan has reduced my calories more and more over the past few weeks. To 3500, to 3000, to 2500, to 2100, in the end even to almost 1800. In the end, the fat content of my diet was less than 20 grams per day, the carbohydrate content was only around 100 grams.
Why did we do it all?
To see what a reporter can achieve with an absolute expert at his side during this time. To check prejudices about weight training. To see what is possible.
What do we say now about prejudice?
Prejudice 1: strength training is primitive
I can not confirm. In the five months, I met people from all walks of life and ages in the studios. Above all, it unites discipline and will. I was welcomed by everyone, whether from old school bodybuilders like Horst Wetterau, whom I got to know briefly at Ercan, or the new generation like Sophia Thiel. And I was pleasantly surprised by the open and mostly not at all blind-style of the bodybuilders. I was also impressed by how many young women pursue this sport very seriously and with great passion and success. I didn’t know that before. In Ercan’s studio, I met a dentist who keeps fit almost every day during his lunch break, just like athletes who take part in championships.
Prejudice 2: strength training breaks the joints
Ercan always made sure that I did the exercises properly. The weight was rarely decisive. Before the experiment, I had occasionally felt a slight pull in the shoulder. That is gone now. Probably because we made fewer barbell bench presses and more barbell bench presses instead. This angle, this sequence of movements is obviously better for me, I put more strain on the chest and less on the shoulder. Very important: Before every upper body workout, I warmed up my rotators and got my circulation going with a short warm-up. I feel fit and healthy like never before.
How did we eat?
Knit according to the plan Ercan developed with me. I ate “clean”, clean, that essentially means No greasy sauces, no fast food, no sweets, no alcohol, no meat that is too fatty, no white flour products. Fruit sugar from fruit only in moderation. I started at around 3200 calories a day. With a calorie requirement of around 2500 calories per day, I was in excess. Over the course of the experiment weeks, we increased: to 3700, then even 4000 calories per day. These included 500 grams of meat, 500 cooked rice and 500 grams of low-fat curd cheese a day. In addition to muscles, I also built up some fat during this time, especially on my stomach. Above all, we paid attention to the exact distribution of our macronutrients. So the proteins, the fats, and the carbohydrates.
The main components of our diet: white meat, fish, green vegetables, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, apples, bananas, low-fat curd cheese. Plus plenty of still water, at least four liters a day.
What’s next now?
I will continue to train with Ercan outside of the project. For me, this sport is an asset. We will draw up an annual plan to make further progress. On the last day of our project, Ercan said to me when we said goodbye: “The most important thing about the project was that we both enjoyed it. And that’s crucial in bodybuilding. Like in any other sport. “
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