[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
I call Photoshop. He changed too much from March to April of the first year. In the last half of the pictures his head was obviously too small for the rest of his body. He looked like a pinhead, literally.[/quote]
Gimme a break. That’s perfectly respectable but NOT unusual progress. If you doubt it, the problem is you.
[quote]Mitchtj wrote:
Yep, definetly newbie, so very true 
[/quote]
You can “train” for 20 years and still be a newbie. Hell, we’ve seen that on this board several times.
The problem with this is not that his progress is unlikely over four years, it’s that all of the progress seems to have occurred within very small time frames. The rest of the time he’s basically fluctuating body fat levels while making either no progress or below average progress.
If you compare only the first and last pictures, what you see is mediocre progress for four years. If you look at the entire progression you see even less stellar progress punctuated by a couple AAS cycles. I may be wrong. I don’t care either way.
I’ve been at it a bit over 4 years and it’s interesting to compare. I also cut a lot (30 lbs) the first year and a half without gaining much muscle and then started gaining some in the 2nd/3rd year. I’m rarely THAT cut though. He’s still fairly cut, and I could see benefit from more bulking for the guy.
Definitely agree on the weak/small traps. Chest and Quads he developed quite well.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
The arms rolled forward thing is not good. That looks a lot like internaly rotated humerus.
He needs some external rotation work.
Other than that, he’s doing prety good.
[/quote]
You do know that he is meaning to do that?
Anyone one who is like this guy, who thinks that someone like themself or him can’t make that kind of gains - or better - without steriods, in 4 years, is simply waisting their time training.
For all you that claim he is on steriods and or photoshoped his pictures…I would like to know what a so called non-steroid non-photshoped progression look likes?
What picture would you expect him to get to after 4 years? Maybe the 12th 2004? Maybe the 6th 2005? I would love to know.
[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
I call Photoshop.[/quote]
What the hell?
He dropped a lot of fat for the first few months. Then he kind of dragged his feet, probably learning correct eating, correct lifting, etc. while not making any serious progress because he was not doing yet the right things because he did not know better and was persisting in the same mistakes.
Then he probably put two and two together and started making progress - pretty much all his “4 years of lifting” is gains in a much shorter timeframe.
[quote]wfifer wrote:
The problem with this is not that his progress is unlikely over four years, it’s that all of the progress seems to have occurred within very small time frames. The rest of the time he’s basically fluctuating body fat levels while making either no progress or below average progress. [/quote]
That is how you progress. This is why people who have built a decent foundation always laugh when people talking about gaining .5 lbs. of muscle a week. You might not gain for six months, and then in two weeks gain 5 pounds of muscle.
You are another one who has not made any progress. You have been on this site for a while, what is your excuse for not making any progress?
Wow - photoshop huh?
I’m often curious why some people frequent bodybuilding sites, yet don’t seem to actually bodybuild.
I’m in agreement - anyone who thinks that John Stone’s transformation is some sort of photo-shopped miracle - is, shall we say, somewhat misguided.
Lift and eat, properly - put it all together with a good, simple supplement protocol and - most importantly - do it consistently.
I can’t tell you how many times I see someone who hasn’t even applied the basics start whoring around every program that comes along. Truthfully, it’s not that difficult. The same basic things that worked then, work now.
Ever since Milo of Croton started lifting that calf - and continued lifting him as he grew into a bull - we can see that progressive resistance training works. Mythology or not, you get the point.
Keep it simple. Lift, eat and grow. It’s not impossible…
[quote]Magarhe wrote:
Anyone who thinks that is amazing, unachievable or otherwise unusual progress is utterly out of touch with reality. And that is frikkin’ sad, especially on this site.
The kind of progress made there is average for 1 year training, not 4. Although I should say, one year PROPER training, and eating.
I haven’t read his log/routines but my guess is this guy seriously needs to do more deadlifting and should have done all along. He seems to have spent too much time benching, or otherwise working on pushing movements. I think he might have started to realise that towards the end.
I think he has done a good job but it did take him a lot longer than it should have, I bet he also looks back and thinks parts of his training were a waste of time, I guess we all do that though.
He certainly has transformed himself from the original. And a good idea of him to keep a photo log of progress.
[/quote]
average for 1 year of training???, unless i’m doing something seriously wrong, i can’t see that happening at all. I think he has made good progress, in 4 years he’s put on a lot of muscle.
can you post how you would achieve that in one year?
I agree that he wasted a little “too much” time cutting in the earlier pictures, but we all learn.
Nevertheless, he did a good job on the gains in his most recent pictures.
One thing I noticed was the large number of people that were making ignorant comments about his physique in his later pictures. One girl said he looked like he’s juicing in his last picture. Is this how brain-washed our society has become? To think that the only way you can build a physique is to use steroids? She was probably jealous that he looked better than her and her fat boyfriend who lays on the sofa and plays PS3 all day.
There may be a time were almost every person in America will be fat, skinny fat, or just plain ugly, so when they see a fantastic physique and are dumbfounded, they will throw ugly remarks and thoughts at that person due to their jealousy.
[quote]legend wrote:
average for 1 year of training???, unless i’m doing something seriously wrong, i can’t see that happening at all. I think he has made good progress, in 4 years he’s put on a lot of muscle.
can you post how you would achieve that in one year?[/quote]
Yes, I look forward to never getting the chance to see that post.
[quote]Cthulhu wrote:
There may be a time were almost every person in America will be fat, skinny fat, or just plain ugly, so when they see a fantastic physique and are dumbfounded, they will throw ugly remarks and thoughts at that person due to their jealousy.[/quote]
May be a time?
Show your average person a picture of anyone with a good amount of muscle and single digit bf and more than 5 outof 10 will make a steriod comment
Although we live in a time where MANY people are fat, it will increasingly get worse.
We still have some ways to go before 90% of America is fat, or eve obese, but we are approaching that era at lightspeed.
[quote]KO421 wrote:
Cthulhu wrote:
There may be a time were almost every person in America will be fat, skinny fat, or just plain ugly, so when they see a fantastic physique and are dumbfounded, they will throw ugly remarks and thoughts at that person due to their jealousy.
May be a time?
Show your average person a picture of anyone with a good amount of muscle and single digit bf and more than 5 outof 10 will make a steriod comment[/quote]
[quote]Majin wrote:
Much more can be done in 4 years. This guy had the stupid idea of cutting every year(and the usual lack of effort in the gym and kitchen).[/quote]
This was a pretty ignorant post. It’s obvious the guy put some hard work in. Some people do accomplish more in 4 years. Some people have better genetics. 99.9% of the people on this site don’t make this type of progress in 4 years.
And since when is cutting every year a stupid idea? I know a lot of professionals that do just this. You are usually good for some ignorant posts every so often.
What kind of progress have you made in 4 years? Do you have pictures to back it up? If not, STFU.
[quote]randman wrote:
<<< And since when is cutting every year a stupid idea? I know a lot of professionals that do just this. You are usually good for some ignorant posts every so often. >>>[/quote]
Take a minute and reassess whether there be any ignorance in this statement.
[quote]tv wrote:
SkyzykS wrote:
The arms rolled forward thing is not good. That looks a lot like internaly rotated humerus.
He needs some external rotation work.
Other than that, he’s doing prety good.
You do know that he is meaning to do that?
[/quote]
Well, I do now.
Sorry, I just looked at the pics in the gallery at face value.
I didn’t figure anybody would stand like that on purpose.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
randman wrote:
<<< And since when is cutting every year a stupid idea? I know a lot of professionals that do just this. You are usually good for some ignorant posts every so often. >>>
Take a minute and reassess whether there be any ignorance in this statement.[/quote]
I have and there isn’t. Leaning out every year is not a bad idea. Everything in moderation. Cutting to the extreme and getting to 5% bodyfat when you haven’t built a bood base is a bad idea. So is bulking for 4 years straight if your over 30% bodyfat. Take a minute and try and understand this post.
Looks like he has used synthol in his arms, 12/1/06, go look and see what you think.
[quote]randman wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
randman wrote:
<<< And since when is cutting every year a stupid idea? I know a lot of professionals that do just this. You are usually good for some ignorant posts every so often. >>>
Take a minute and reassess whether there be any ignorance in this statement.
I have and there isn’t. Leaning out every year is not a bad idea. Everything in moderation. Cutting to the extreme and getting to 5% bodyfat when you haven’t built a bood base is a bad idea. So is bulking for 4 years straight if your over 30% bodyfat. Take a minute and try and understand this post.[/quote]
You are thinking in extremes and I have seen you post here enough to know you don’t even usually think this way. Who here has EVER made any comment like it was ok to bulk up to 30% body fat?
Along those same lines, I can completely stand behind the idea of NOT dieting down until a solid base was built. This guy could have reached his end product much earlier than he did. He had the genetics but spent much of his time dieting. the problem with that is, MOST people who approach their lifting like that from the beginning never actually gain much afterwards.
Just look around this site. How many people here can honestly respond that they have gained in excess of 50lbs of muscle after they stopped growing in height? I am betting that number is less than 10.