I know DJ had cancer at one point, but from what I read he beat it when he was in his teens...so why is he still so gaunt and rail thin? Did chemo/treatments do something to permanently keep him looking like an emaciated skeleton? Maybe he has kidney issues? Not bashing him in any way, just curious. Seems to me he is still far below his natural body weight.
"Dammit, Sulik died again! I'm taking back my Mega Powerfist, worthless tribal!"
4 pounds of muscle gain in a month is actually not an unusually small gain for most guys - most guys would be lucky to put on that much even going to the gym.
We all do have different genetics though, that is a certainty, and so many are completely oblivious to the fact that genes make a big difference. Some guys barely lift anything and they see explosive growth and easily maintain visible abs. Others work their butt to the bone and eat the best foods and hit the gym 3 to 6 times a week and still barely gain a pound or two a month, and barely see any strength gain.
I'm a bit in the middle. In high school I was rail thin - 150 lbs at one point and I was 6'1" or more. I have quite wide shoulders and a very narrow waist so without any body weight on that is an odd look. I looked like one of those skeletons that fought Sinbad in the old Harryhausen film. I saw pictures of myself later and I didn't realize I was so freakishly thin at the time but looking back it was striking - in one I was raising my arms and I could see that my bicips had absolutely no visible muscle or tone and were maybe 10" or 11" around - about half a foot less around than they are now.
Part of that was simply that I was a kid and growing. Part of it was genetic. Now, I'm around 200 pounds, which for my height is a pretty good weight to be (6'2"). If I drop below 190 I start to look really skinny and start getting comments from people that I need to eat more - if I weighed 140 lbs with my current skeletal structure, I'd be dead - I'm simply not built to only weigh 140 or 130 lbs. Some guys have a much lighter skeletal/muscular structure and CAN safely weigh that much because their body is designed to be that small and light.
But I'm also never going to be bench-pressing 500+ lbs no matter how hard I try. Why? Genetics. I am simply not built to be a massively muscular guy - I can certainly do 230, maybe up to 300 or so, but 500 is just not within my genetic abilities. A man like Schwarzenegger, who DID have the genes for it, COULD gain the muscle necessary to lift such heavy weights. Mine have limitations - probably because my ancestors came from very harsh, very cold, very barren landscapes where walking long distances and running was favorable and carrying heavy weights was not. I can run like the wind - but my muscles simply aren't genetically designed for massive strength - just GOOD strength. More of a B+ than an A+ in that department. People in the strongman competitions are of the A+ category genetically.
How do I know my limitations? Because I did everything. I followed all of the rules, I put in hard, hard work in the gym, and got plenty of rest as well for my body to regenerate. I took in tons of protein, I used creatine, and I always, always pushed my limits. But I never seemed to be able to get much beyond a 240 lb bench press, and I could see that if I really strained to my maximum I might just hit 300 eventually - but adding an additional 200 on top of that? Impossible. Maybe with steroids. Lots and lots of steroids.
Meanwhile I knew a guy in a while back who was just massively, massively built - even if he never had worked out a day I got the sense he'd still look like a big, strong guy. This man bench pressed 700+ lbs regularly. And it was then that I realized that genetics impose serious limitations on our ability to gain weight, muscle, or strength. I'm not a weak man by any stretch - the average man can only bench 130 or 140 pounds for between 1 and 5 repetitions. But I will NEVER be able to put on that kind of muscle mass.