21, 174cm, 81kg - 1 Year of Progress

[iamfronk]

Hey guys, I am 21, 174cm and around 81kg. I am keen to get some feedback on my current progress and some advice moving forward

My Questions For you all:

1. Based on my pictures, what are my main weaknesses and strengths, and how can I alter my current training to help target my weaker areas?

2. As Winter has just begun for us Aussies, would I benefit from doing a small 2-3 month cut towards the end of this year to try and reach a lower BF% for the summer season? I understand that a cut would be a setback for my current goals of a bigger chest and lats, however I believe if I did a short cut, I would be able to continue to maintain decent conditioning as I begin to bulk up again (As I am currently doing). The only thing this would really achieve is my self confidence in the summer time as I feel like I have enough muscle mass to not look completely skinny. I believe I can still gain 2-3KG between now and September with a steady caloric surplus.

Training Background and Goals

I have been training on and off since I was 17, starting off with SL 5x5 where I simply did not eat enough food to make solid gains. I trained on an off between 2015/2016 but no real strength progress was made; kinda missed my ‘noob gains’ window. My journey really began in April 2017 when I first got an online coach who gave me a program and helped get my calories on track, I weighed about 91kg (Left Photo). I spent the rest of 2017 in a caloric deficit, bringing my weight down to my lowest (Right) which was around 76kg. At this point I was eating around 1850 calories a day and was struggling with the small amount of food. As you can see in the photo I was able to get lean however I was still holding onto some fat, primarily around the stomach and back. In regards to muscle mass I believe I am massively lacking in the chest and back, and I would really like to bring these up. I love the look of the classic physique and aspire to have larger lats and delts to give the V-taper look (think 77-79 Frank Zane). As I am currently bulking, my shorter term goals have been primarily strength based as I find them easier for me to set, and track progress through training logs.

Current Me

I am currently weighing in around 81kg, sitting at a slight caloric surplus of 2850 calories – 295C, 100F, 190P and am making some pretty decent strength gains. I haven’t tested my 1RMs in a while however these are my more recent lifts:

Squat: 125kg x 10
Bench: 85kg x 7
Deadlift: 167.5kg x 2
Overhead Press: 50kg x 7

Training Program

Day 4 | Monday

Squat: 4x4 @ 85%
Bench : 4x4 @ 85%

Deadlift: 4x2 @ 85%

Standing Calf Raise: 3x15

Leg Press Calf Raise Seated Calf Raise: 3x15

Cable Rear delt: 3x15

Cable side laterals: 3x15

Day 2 | Tuesday

Bench: 3x4 @ 85% (Last Set AMRAP)
Wide grip Pull Up: 5 x Failure
Incline BB Bench: 3x10

DB Incline Flyes: 3x12-15

BB Rows: 3x10

Single Arm Rows: 3x12

Pec Deck: 3x15

Straight arm lat pulldown: 3x20

Day 3 | Wednesday

Squat: 4x4 @ 85% (Last Set AMRAP)

Leg Press: 4x20

Leg Extensions (lateral head): 4x15

Leg Curl Seated: 4x10

BB Hip Thrusters: 4x15

BB SLD: 4x15

Standing Calf Raise

Leg Press Calf Raise: 3x15

Seated Calf Raise: 3x15

Day 4 | Thursday

BB OHP: 3x4 @85% (Last Set AMRAP)

DB Side Laterals: 4x15

Reverse Pec Deck : 4x15

Cable Side Laterals: 4x20

Cable Rear Delt raises: 5x15

DB Shrugs: 5x12-15

FacePulls: 4x15

Y Trap raises: 3x15
Arms:

moving cable overhead curl
moving cable tricep kickback

DB Hammer Curls

Close Grip Bench
Banded BB Curls

Tricep Dips

Day 5 | Friday

Bench: 3x4 @ 85% (Last Set AMRAP)
Wide grip Pull Up: 5 x Failure
Incline BB Bench: 3x10

DB Incline Flyes: 3x12-15

BB Rows: 3x10

Single Arm Rows: 3x12

Pec Deck: 3x15

Straight arm lat pulldown: 3x20

Day 6 Legs

Deadlift: 4x4 @85% (Last Set AMRAP)

Leg Press: 4x20

Frog Hack Squats: 4x15

Leg Curl Seated: 4x10

BB Hip Thrusters: 4x15

BB SLD: 4x15

[iamfronk]

My training blocks are usually 12 weeks, where I’ll increase the % of 1RM and decrease the rep ranges every 2 weeks. Then I base my next block off of new estimated 1RMs unless I actually test them in which case I’ll use the exact number

[planetcybertron]

Nice work dude. Keep hammering at it.

[magnumd]

Thanks for including the wheels. Your quads have responded well to your training. No skipping leg day for you!
Upper body mainly pec and delts are lagging a bit but overall not bad for one year of training. Keep rocking!

[jtpender]

You aren’t really developed enough to see what your strengths/weaknesses are, so you should probably just treat everything as your weakness for a while.
As far as your training, that looks like a lot of volume (in regards to sets) for most everything. Considering the amount of development you have, it might be too much.
What I did for myself is to start at a low amount of weekly sets for each muscle (varying from muscle to muscle) and add sets and weight each week, without changing the exercises, until I see the strength at a standstill. That is the amount that I cannot fully recover from.
Another thing that might be interesting is working off of rep maxes instead of percentages. I say this because I used to train by percentages so let and LOVED IT, but I noticed that while each movement should be just as hard as the other it just did not work that way. What I did afterwards, and now, is to use 3 rep maxes above what I am supposef to be doing. EG 4x10 with your 13RM. This made relative loading more consistent. Ontop of that, I progressed weights by moving down 1rm each workout. So it would be 4x10 w/ 13RM, then 12RM, then 11RM, etc.
That last one is not really advice though, just a different way of looking at training intensities/prograssion that you might prefer over percentages.

[dchris]

Holy quads, man. You’re supposed to train your upper body too.