Hello, decided to post some pictures here.My weight is 165lbs and height is 175cm. Want to hear your opinions on which are my bad
body parts/strong body parts. Also kinda interested if you guys think that I could possibly compete far in future with structure like this . If my frame fits more into physique/bodybuilding or if I just have bad luck and shitty genetics.
Just your opinions, criticism is welcome.
Some numbers 1RM: deadlift: 400lbs, squat: 305lbs, bench: 220lbs, ohp: 140 lbs.
Upper chest and calves are lagging.
You could definitely compete someday. Do you have the potential to be an IFBB Pro? Would you do better in BBing, or Physique? Way too early to tell.
Don’t filter photos intended to elicit feedback. The goal of such pics is to be as revealing as possible of your physique, not as flattering as possible.
3 Likes
Thanks for you reply. Ye definitely gotta work on those calves and upper chest. Actually on my chest workouts I always start with incline things and trying to bring it up so hope that it will be fixed some day.
I will add more pictures in future and it all will be unfiltered just as you said to see it exatly how it is.
1 Like
A list of weak areas: hamstrings, calves, abs, chest, rear delts.
You lack general mass, so it is difficult to set out weaknesses and strengths, but it looks as though those are disproportionatly behind everything else. On leg days, remember that straightleg deadlifts will help you enormously. Leg curls can help as well, but at a much lesser extent since the hamstrings are mostly fast twitch. Also remember that calves are hugely genetic due to the amount of androgenic receptors. A high volume (concerning sets not reps) tends to help many non responders.
On days when you work your chest (hopefully more than once, just as everything else) remember to flex your chest, feel a stretch, and to control everything. If your chest doesn’t have a pump after your frist working set, then you are doing it wrong.
Remember to train rear delts. Include flyes obviously, but face pulls will be easier to overloaf, so they can theoretically be a better to for hypertrophy.
Do more weighted ab movements. Ditch the high rep ab work (most of the time) in favor for somethinf that will add alittle mass.
Back is ahead ofbeverything else though.
What does your diet and training look like?
1 Like
Very nicely written, thanks for your opinion.
Here is something about my training. Right now I train 5 times a week and I basically do push/pull/leg but a bit modified. Lets say on monday its leg day - Starting with squats sometimes going heavy sometimes trying higher reps. Then I do leg press, lunges or some different type of squats, and continue with hamstring curls(dunno how its called), leg curls. Also do abs on this day at the end of workout… Tuesday I do push workout - starting it with bench press(incline or normal and trying to go heavy) then continue with other exercises for chest shoulders and triceps, but this day is mainly focused on my chest.
Wednesday: I go for pull workout where I start with heavy deadlifts then continue with squats(sometimes I do front squats here) and then I do some more basic back exercises like pull ups/barbell rows and then biceps work sometimes one tricep exercise too.
Friday: push workout again but starting with OHP and focusing more on shoulders but also do the chest and triceps exercises like 2-3 for each.
Saturday: next pull workout - starting with back but not doing deadlifts. Just rows/pull ups/ some machine work too and then finishing with like 3-4 exercises for biceps.
this is in very general but you can see how I do it from it. I like trying new things and different workouts etc. But mostly training 4-5 days a week. Right now I am like 2 months in this kinda program and it is going well. Strenght is increasing really well on the basic lifts.
Before this program I used to do upper/lower body split and trained 4 days a week.
My diet looks mostly like this: I eat eggs/bacon/bread/oats/fruits/veggies for breakfast Rice,pasta/potatoes and meat mostly during the day like 2-3 meals are rice/pasta/potatos with meat and veggies. then in the evening I eat cottage cheese for example. In the last 2 months I started to eat 1 cheat meal almost every day because kinda felt like I need to gain more and weight is not going up any fast. It is mostly pizza/hamburger or sushi etc. mostly eating it after my workouts.
From supplementation I just use protein only and sometimes preworkout but very rarerly.
1 Like
That was a well written response. Thank you for that.
Since hamstrings are your weakest link, I will start there. Hamstrings have 2 functions. Leg flexion (leg curls) and hip extention (like stiff leg deadlifts). While they both have positives, the stiff leg deadlift should be given way more love than it is. The deadlift is there and will help, but often helps build overall mass as opposed to hamstrings. With the stiff leg deadlifts (or RDLs since the name is interchangable) you often get more mean hamstring activation. This is great, because heavy RDLs can be progressivly overloaded more easily than a leg curl. Use both RDLs and leg curls, but on different days and with more put into RDLs.
Calves. I don’t believe you mentioned any work here, and it shows. Make sure to do them. Always stretch deeply at the bottom, and pause to relieve elastic energy from the achilles tendon.
Chest. Look at what I say about your overall training, as I believe that to be your issue here.
Rear delts. Just like a combination of my hammy advice and calves. Use an overloading compound (I reccomend face pulls on an incline bench, with a barbell) and an isolation, but focus on the compound and do them seperately. Also, training them. It shows that you don’t.
Abs. Train them weighted, and look at what I say about your overall training.
Nutrition. While it is minor, you might want to redo your diet plan some. Protien should stay within a .8-1.2 g/lbs due to it’s thermogenic effect, and studies showing that anymore often doesn’t do more. Fats should make up between 20-30% of your total calories si that you can optimize hormones with carbs. Carbs should take up the rest if your calories. Spread protein evenly through the day, and fats should be low when carbs are high (vice versa as well) due to how the hormone leptin works. It will make more fats go to fat storage instead of working as a fuel. Time your carbs more. Low GI (glycemic index) carbs all of the time, besides a few situations. A moderatly high GI pre workout (atleast 1 hour before your workout), a high GI intra workout (along with whey (I have half of this shake during and half after my workouts)), a mid GI post workout meal, and a mid-high GI before bed (preferrably with something like casien, cottage cheese, or greek yogurt). I say mid-high because it often doesn’t make too much of a difference here.
Your training!
Majority of your training is just fine, meaning that some areas do not fall into these downsides, but some do fall here and all of your weak areas do.
I will give this to you in a list style.
-
Training everything at least twice a week. This is so you can have an adequate volume (in terms of sets) but not too much at a time to impinge recovery.
-
Exercise variety. Try to stick to exercises that you do for 4-12 weeks before you change them up. This spirt is about adapting and overcoming. If you do not give yourself time to do this for each movement, then you are missing out on gains.
-
Load variety. Try to keep the loads similar from exercise to exercise for the specific muscle. I would do this for at least a month, but some people can have a high load and a low load workout both within the same week, but in different workouts. The reasoning here goes back to adapting and overcoming.
Some random things that might interest you.
Try following what I said, and country you totally sets per week. If after 2 weeks of this your lifts are going up, you can probably handle more volume. Add a little until you maintain or lose. You just found your special volume (yet again volume meaning sets.) Start with a low set approach, then build up to that since you won’t always be able to handle that stress for long. Refreshing your body will give you something similar to weak newbie gains.
Front delts get a ton of carryover from other pressing. Focus on your chest both days, and do your front delt work after. You might be surprised, but your front delt strength might actually imrpove dramicically with this and a lower volume. It did myself and cirtually all of my clients.
Have a short training cycle (maybe 3-5 weeks) of strength training at a volume that will not allow you to grow. This is so you can resensitize yourself to hypertrophy, and be stronger when you get back to growing. Do this seldomly though. Maybe 2-3 times a year. And I do not mean 1-3 reps each. I mean strength that will relate to what you do, not 1rm strength. So, maybe between 5-8 with large muscles, and 8-10 with small muscles. Triceps are an exception.
Ab work. Train abs maybe 3 times a week with a weight loaded movement that follows guidlines above. This is because abs have a high tolerance to fatigue and recover quickly. 3x weekly for abs will help make up for that. I would say use maybe 2 exercises though. 1 each time. The one you repeat just has a slightly altered load.
Hey guys, first of all thank you for all your responses in this topic but I kinda stopped answering because had a lot of other things to do in my job and school.
Anyways continued training hard and eating well. I can update this topic after 6 months, maybe it can get alive again 
Here are some after gym pics:
first one is right after chest+shoulder workout and second one like 30 mins after the gym ses.
Here is leg shot after leg+abs training and 10mins of stairs cardio
And here I got some front and back pose pics, no pump, just at home with some set lightning
Last six months I am eating clean but a lot of calories also was focus on my upper chest+calves more which are my lagging body parts. Got my deadlift upto 460lbs and squat 360lbs.
My current morning weight is 175-176lbs.
You can discuss, if you want to know something just ask. Any feedback is appreciated
1 Like
Some good lifts for someone in that weight range. Looks like the 10lbs you gains was all quality. Nice work!
thanks. Nice to hear something like that
Impressive progress, nicely done man. Keep it up
guys I got 3 photos after my workout where I still have decent pump would like to share
and here I got photo with just no pump at home.
I would guess I can be under 12% body fat but not sure. I tried to decrease carb intake for few days because felt like I am getting a bit fatter. Not sure if I should just hard bulk in current situation. do you think I should just go high with calories and try to add more kgs to my frame or cut a bit?
Another thing about my chest. I train chest and arms 2 days per week for like last 4 months and my back only once per week and still feel like my back growing crazy in comparison to my chest and arms. Chest basically looks good only if its pumped. I got stronger on my bench press and push exercises but still would love to get some tips how to get my arms and chest growing more to catch up with the back.
Hello,
I made some photos after today’s back+arms (15min cardio at the end) training. Prolly still had some pump in my arms.
Maybe someone would be interested. Tried to bring up my chest lately but it seems like it does not want to grow much sadly. On the other side I think my arms are better and back was always strong part for me.
Front pose:
Back pose:
Morning weight is 80kgs/176lbs. Height is 175cm/5 feet 8. Think my BF is still decent.
Would be glad for every single feedback 