Say hello to Marcus (New Reward)

(Grow it And Above) Hi, it’s Marcus here!! Beyond honored to share my fitness journey here. Im excited to meet you all and be an official member of the Ononono club! At 18, I was a skinny little fuck. 5'9", 157 lbs soaking wet. No chest, no shoulders, arms like a rail. I’d look in the mirror and just feel… average. Puberty had been decent but nothing crazy — I grew a bit, voice dropped, got some facial hair, but I still looked like every other dude in the gym who was just “trying.” I started lifting seriously that year because I was tired of being the small guy in every room. In the first few months, I was adding weight to the bar like crazy, eating everything in sight, and the compliments started rolling in.

By 19, I’d shot up to 5'11" and 178 lbs. That late growth spurt hit hard — my shoulders started widening, my chest finally popped a little, and my arms jumped from 13.5" to almost 16". I remember the first time I flexed in a tank top and actually saw a vein. I was hooked. I was still lean, still kinda boyish in the face, but you could tell something was changing. I was growing in every direction.

By 20 was when shit got real. I hit 6'0" and 205 lbs. My frame was stretching out, puberty was still doing its thing, and the muscle was packing on fast. My chest went from flat to a proper shelf, my arms hit 18", and my back started flaring. People at the gym started asking what I was on — I wasn’t on anything yet ,just eating big, sleeping like a beast, and lifting like my life depended on it. My face was sharpening up, beard filling in more, and I started loving the mirror a little too much.

Then 21 hit… and between 21 and 22? That’s when I fucking blew up.

Holy shit. I grew another full inch to 6'1", but the weight exploded — from ~225 lbs at the start of 21 to 242 lbs by my 22nd birthday, and most of that came in the second half of the year. My arms went from 20" to 22" in months. Chest ballooned — those pecs went from “decent shelf” to actual heavy, round globes that started stretching every shirt. Shoulders rounded out massively, back flared wide, legs finally caught fire with sweep. Puberty’s tail-end hormones were still raging, but combined with the insane training volume, calorie surplus, and whatever edge I was pushing… it was like my body said “fuck it, let’s go nuclear.”

I remember measuring my arms after a brutal pump session right around my 22nd birthday — 22 inches cold. I laughed out loud in the mirror because it didn’t feel real. Veins everywhere, striations starting to show even when relaxed. People at the gym stopped asking “what are you on?” and started just staring. Shirts ripped at the seams during flexes. Doors felt narrower. I went from “big for my age” to “holy fuck, that guy’s a monster.”

22: 6'2", 242 lbs. Arms settled at 24" cold, chest pushing 58–59" pumped, pecs obscene. The blow-up between 21–22 set the foundation — everything since has just been layering more freak on top. I grew those last inches in height, packed on another 18 lbs of dense muscle, my beard thickened, and my face matured into full alpha mode.

And now? 23 years old, 6'2", 260 lbs.

I look at the old photos, and I can’t believe it’s the same person. From that skinny 5'9" 157 lb kid to this. My arms are 25", chest is pushing 50–51" pumped, and these pecs… fuck, they’re ridiculous. I grew 5 inches taller and packed on over 100 pounds of muscle in five years. Puberty gave me the frame, the gym gave me the size, and my obsession did the rest.

I still catch myself flexing in the mirror some mornings, grinning like an idiot, thinking “how the fuck did I build all this?” But then I remember — I didn’t just build it. I earned every single pound, every extra inch of height, every striation.

And I’m nowhere near done.

This is only the beginning. — Marcus

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P.S I had to update this sooner rather than later!

I turned 23 back in October 2025, already sitting at 6'2" and 260 lbs — arms 24" cold, chest pushing 52–53" pumped, pecs starting to look like they belonged on someone twice my age. I figured that was peak freak for me at that point. I was wrong.

The four months since my birthday? Pure insanity. I gained another two inches in height and gained 40 lbs! Yeah, you read that right! In four fucking months. It started right after I hit 23. My body just… refused to slow down. Puberty’s last violent gasp, maybe, or the training and food finally hitting a tipping point. I was eating 8,000+ calories a day — clean but stupid amounts: rice, oats, chicken, beef, eggs, peanut butter by the jar, shakes every two hours. Lifting heavier than ever, pushing volume through the roof. Sleep 9–10 hours. And my body responded like it was possessed.

My frame stretched, shoulders widened even more, torso lengthened. Clothes that fit perfectly in October were comically small by the start of February. Doors started feeling tighter, cars felt smaller, and people looked up at me differently.

Weight: 260 → 300 lbs. The scale didn’t lie. Most of it was dense, thick muscle — my arms jumped to 27" flexed (cold 25.5" easy), chest ballooned to 59–60" pumped, those pecs went from “heavy shelf” to full-on globe melons that sit high, round, and obscene. They project so far forward now that they block half my view when I look down. Shoulders capped like boulders, lats flaring so wide my back looks like wings, quads sweeping out to 36–38" with veins crawling everywhere. Even my traps rose higher, swallowing more of my neck. I remember the moment it hit me. Mid-January, fresh out of the shower, water still dripping off me. I stepped on the scale: 297 lbs. Looked in the mirror and flexed — arms peaking higher than ever, pecs bouncing heavy under their own weight. I laughed — not a normal laugh, more like “What the actual fuck is happening to me?" plus "How the fuck am I this big already?” — because I was genuinely shocked at my own size. I’d gone from “big dude” at 23 to straight-up behemoth in four months!

People react differently now. Gym bros stare, girls whisper, dudes avoid eye contact. Shirts don’t survive anymore — sleeves rip during casual flexes, buttons pop on button-ups I used to wear fitted. I’ve had to buy new everything twice already. But the best part? I still feel that same rush every time I train. Every PR, every pump, every time I catch my reflection and think “holy shit, that’s me.”

Between 21 and 22 was the first explosion. These last four months were the second — the one that turned me into something most people will never see in real life. 260 lbs at 6'2" felt massive. 300lbs and 6'4" feels… unstoppable. I’m 23. Still growing, still eating, still lifting, and like I say, I’m nowhere near done. Let's Grow, and man oh man, am I excited for you to witness it — Marcus @Marcus_the_muscle_monster