MY Mass Made Simple results:
Weight - 28 pound gain, from 159 to 187. For me a 2 stone gain is absolutely incredible, been skinny all my life, this program puts weight on skinny people, if it worked for me it will work for you. I've put some fat on, but a hell of a lot of the weight is muscle. I can no longer wear boxers that dont stretch, I've outgrown all my work trousers (thighs and bum far too tight, waist a little tighter, but not too bad). Arms a lot bigger, pecs, shoulders and especially traps all noticably bigger. The only part of my upper body that hasn't got that much bigger are my lats, but my mid back (rhomboids, traps nd erecr spinals) look bigger and thicker. My whole torso just feels more solid now too, I feel that if I did the velocity diet for a month you'd actually see some abs, as opposed to looking like a malnurished refugee!
Strength:
Bench press - did a bench lifetime pb of 90kg last week, if I tested it today I'm positive I would get to 95. First workout I found 60x5 really challenging, last workout I did 5 triples on 80, if I tested it today I'm positive I would get at least 5 good reps in, so an increase of 20kg in 6 weeks.
Complexes - loved doing these,I slightly regret not pushing the weight up a little, but on reflection the weight selection was propably spot on for my strength levels. Next time I do mms (and I definitely will) I'll make sure I'm strong enough to handle bigger weights on these, they give you a ton of time under tension, great for mass building.
Batwings - I'll do these for the rest of my life. I've got a typical skinny guy kyphotic posture, I'm sure thst doing these is starting to make me look better.
One arm presses: I used a 20kg kettlebell for every workout except one, where i used a 24kg. 20 was ideal for me, but the 24 now feels a lot easier. If I was going to do the rite of passage, I think I would fly through the ladders using the 24 right now.
Bird dogs - not sure why I was doing then, but if Dan John and Stuart McGill says do them well I do them!
Squats - felt like I made some amazing progress. Missed the last workout but I dont think I would have been able to do 50 reps bodyweight nonstop. Will make sure I do it next round. The body adapts quickly to high rep squats, both in size, strength and endurance, enjoyed doing them, but also absolutely dreaded doing them. Clothes just look better on me now, and I look like I've actually got a butt for a change.
Recharge - didn't train every recharge dy, but when I did I always felt better for it. Some light goblet s and swings probsbly ideal.
Food - ate like a pig. gained lots of weight when eating pbj sandwiches, stopped gaining when when I didn' - they work, just get en down. The key was buying really nice fresh bread every day - dont make lots in advance as the bread will go stale, and they wont be as easy to eat. Just go for it, if you like it, eat it. I ate TONS of fat, 9 sausages once in a morning break, you need fat to puton weight, just eat it. Tried to go easy on refined sugar, but didn't worry too much about it.
Tweaks - morning and bed protein I will do forever. I'll probsbly think hsrder sbout pre and post workout nutrition in future, creatine I will probably quit - good gains but I think it makes me all puffy, I'll chsnge one thing at a time in future, to see what effect things have.
Tips - the workouts are hard but enjoyable. Train with a partner, if my buddy wasn't there, I know I would have skipped one or two things some days, but with his beady eye counting reps and sets, there was no way!
Conclusions - if you need to put weight on, you need to do Mass Made Simple
