“I remember being with my high school buddies at a park one time, and we saw a huge, about 250-pound, guy doing muscle ups,” says Santiago, who’s now 27. “I was 140 pounds soaking wet.

By 2005, between a keto diet and consistent trainer-led workouts, he had dropped 250 pounds. But he hadn’t considered what might remain once he lost the weight: skin. Lots of it.

“For experienced lifters, the rate of muscle gain slows down to 0.25 to 0.5 pounds of muscle per month. This is because the body becomes more adapted to the stimulus,” White adds.

Oweh packed on 20 pounds of muscle this offseason, pushing his weight from 245 to 265 pounds. The motivation? A playoff performance he felt didn’t measure up and a burning drive to be better.