Dude what.
Honestly, once I fucked my back up by cleaning my toes in the shower. I remember having to skip deadlifts that week too. I too have inexplicably shit biomechanics/neuromuscular system. Kinda just have to trial and error it and do what you can in the meantime.
##25/11/16
##Greyskull LP
continued from 23/11/16
Deadlift
60kgs x5
80kgs x5
100kgs x3
115kgs x5
had to pull the deadlift really really slowly as my hamstrings are still a little fucked up. think 2-3 second eccentric and 1-2 concentric.
Neutral Grip Chin Ups
x2x6
even neutral grip chins annoy my wrist a little so that sucks
so basically this is what my wrists currently look like, left is normal and right can rotate to a comfortable max of that much.
That does not look fun. What are you going to be doing to fix it? Do you know what the cause is?
It’s a grade 2 ligament tear. The ligament happens to connect the 2 bones of my forearm together so whenever I do anything supinated, the bones will go in opposing directions and stuff.
As far as I know, there’s nothing much I can do. I was told by the doctor that my ligament will never be 100% again, however, I can strengthen whatever that’s left of it. As for that, I do my rehab work on a daily and I work on those grip trainer things too.
I probably got it inflamed recently which is why it has been acting up, eh, it’ll go back to ‘normal’ again soon enough.
Well, this is what I currently look like. 18 turning 19 in a month. 1.74m and 74kgs give or take 1cm/kg. Considering I’m not training particularly hard nowadays, I think I look not down right horrible. Eh, I look like I lift recreationally, probably.
As of right now, I don’t even know what are my ‘weak points’. As far as I’m concerned, I am the weak point so there’s that. And my extremely apparent lack of chest being a super weak point, hah.
Gonna call in some of them more bodybuilding minded folks as back up to give me some advice on what to do/eat/work on/cut/bulk/whatever etc.
@Yogi1 @flipcollar @robstein @The_Mighty_Stu @BrickHead
and of course, thanks in advance if y’all decide to reply and give me advice
Will be joining going full force into this ( Who Wants To Have A Friendly Comp Next Year? ) starting 1st of Janurary 2017.
That being said, I don’t think I’ll go purely into the whole “bodybuilding type training” as I’ll still be mainly focusing on performance type goals, just cleaning up my diet and being more focused and probably a good deal more hypertrophy type work, considering I barely do any in the first place.
Oh and not that it matters, can someone give a rough guesstimate of my bodyfat percentage? I would guess that I’m somewhere around 19%?
You look like how I’d expect an Olympic lifter type person to look. Bigger quads and upper back, less arms and chest. It’s not a bad look at all and if you continue training hard and eating well it’ll only get better.
You are SO young; you’ve got absolutely ages to get bigger so honestly I think you should just keep on training the way you like and trying to eat as well as you can. Forget bulking, forget cutting, just hit your protein target every day and get the carbs and fats from good nutritious sources.
Of course, adding a few sets of direct arm and shoulder work at the end of your workouts couldn’t hurt…
Around 19%, maybe less. Not more.
No surgical option to repair the ligament?
A thousand times this. No need to bulk or cut as a strength athlete, just let your body weight trend up slowly and cut when/if you get fat. About a pound or two a month is perfect.
And yeah, a few sets of arm and shoulder work here and there will do you good. Working on upper body strength lifts also help. Presses, rows, dips, etc.
This is fine. Most of us do this anyway. Just don’t confuse “hypertrophy training” with solely pump stuff with light weights. 3-4 exercises per bodypart on a single day or spread out through the week in a moderate rep range should suffice.
For the chest, I would advise you to use dumbbells and learn to use your chest to move the weight before trying out certain methods like pre-exhaustion. Lower the weight under control, feel the stretch in the chest. Hold that stretch+tension at the bottom for a one count and explode the weight up with the chest. Squeeze the chest for a 1 count at the top and lower again without losing tension in the chest(“lower with the chest”). If you do this right, you will understand the real meaning of “constant tension” even if you lock out at the top. Do the same for 1-2 isolations for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. You can pyramid up in small increments, do straight sets, do something like 8,8,8,amrap with the same weight or whatever. Just get in the volume and bring the last set to failure.
You will also need to work on feeling your lats. You are probably feeling and hitting the parts above your lats. This is very common. Look up the bodybuilding 2,0 or something thread and see what @tuttle posted somewhere near the end. Then check out an anatomy chart and visualize the lats when you train them. In essence, you will need to mimic a straight arm pulldown motion. This can be applied even to rows. For the pulldown, you will have to start with the bar above your head, lean back slightly during the pull and let the bar end up in front of your face at full contraction. For something like seated rows, you will have to lean forward at the stretch position and lean back during the pull. One trick is to tuck and flare your elbows like how you create tension in the lats during the bench. You should not have to retract your scapulae to hit the lats. The lats are a muscle where you cannot target different areas because of the way the fibers run. Once you get the feel, something will click and you will be able to make any exercise variation work.
For the lats, I would suggest doing something like this:
Go for a moderate weight and do sets of 10 reps. Explode from the stretch position and hold the contraction for a 2 count while squeezing your lats so hard your friends start laughing at you because of the stupid look you will end up making with your face. Cut the set when your arms start to take over, your chest caves and your shoulders start to roll forward. For the last set, just do normal reps while cheating a bit for amrap.
##26/11/16
##Greyskull LP
Barbell Row
supersetted with
Bench Press
2 count pause for bench, was originally gonna be a 2 second pause but I guess I count too fast.
20kgs x5
40kgs x5
60kgs x3
62.5kgs x2x5
62.5kgs x9 for bench
I’m starting to be spoiled by the nice Eleiko bar and way superior bench at the sports team only gym. The shaky ass bench/lousy bar at the commons gym annoyed the hell outta me.
Curls
well, I really wanted to curl but I couldn’t cause wrist pain. maybe… It was the curls from the 21st that annoyed my wrist.
Squats
60kgs x5
80kgs x3
105kgs x2
well, I was supposed to do 105kgs as my working set but… Something just didn’t feel right despite the weight moving fast, maybe it’s the deadlift from yesterday. Eh, being conservative can’t hurt, right?
Unfortunately, nope. Doctors aren’t offering me anything for now, I can see how I might get a wrist surgery done on me in the next 5-7 years though.
I’ll take that as a compliment haha!
Well, that’s the plan eh.
Will do, do you have any suggestions on the direct arm work though? For shoulder work, I was thinking some lateral raises and perhaps some controlled dumbbell presses. I can’t exactly curl nowadays if you look at my post above about my wrist being messed up. I was thinking maybe I’ll do some cable curls? Hammer curls are fine too. Basically, I can’t do most things supinated.
Will do, that sounds like some excellent advice!
I am leaving my home soon but I can chime in a bit here now. If you enjoy lifting with the Greyskull program and simply want to be fit and strong, that’s fine! Stick with it. I quickly browsed your routine. If I recall correctly, Greyskull leaves some room for two added exercises for balance and some size on top of the two main lifts per session. So stick with that template.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what you’re doing. Just realize, which I am sure you already know, that Greyskull will likely give you a strong and fit body with some size, though likely not a bodybuilder’s look.
I agree with Yogi. Just eat a balanced diet at maintenance or a bit over maintenance and focus on getting adequate nutrition. You’re not big enough to cut, appropriately and you’re not lean enough and don’t have enough muscle to go on some aggressive bulk that a bigger AND leaner guy needs.
I say continue to use Greyskull for all you can get out of it. Then make a decision on what you ultimately want to do. If you want to compete in something, make that decision. If you want to be a generally strong, fit, and muscular guy, OR have the most symmetrical bodybuilder look you can have, then make that decision in the future too.
My go-to exercises for triceps are pushdowns and PJRs. Nothin’ fancy, but they do the trick. For curls I guess just do whatever you can. Reverse curls and hammer curls are my favourite. Never really been a fan of regular barbell curls. I had a wrist injury once that reverse curls seemed to cure, so that might be something for you to consider.
For shoulders I do dumbbell laterals, cable laterals (my fave), rear delt flyes, cable rear delt flyes and face pulls. I pick a lateral variation and do that on my push day, and a rear delt flye variation and do that on pull day. Face pulls are being done on both days, currently, for the sake of my shoulders.
##28/11/16
##Greyskull LP
continuation from 26/11/16
Squat
20kgs x5
60kgs x5
105kgs x3x5
didn’t bother for the amrap, got the minimum amount of reps and left
well, every set of squat was supersetted with going to the toilet to grab tissue to blow my nose out. slight fever and major flu
2nd set of 105kgs
finally realized whats the difference between me squatting singles and me squatting for reps. I’ve got to mentally prepare myself for reps, being aggressive and all whereas squatting singles, I was always methodical and focused. First time lifting angry in ages so that’s new.
Wanna hear a joke guys? I got my delivery which included a skinfold caliper and I did the standard 3 point caliper bodyfat test, chest abdominal and thighs. I did it close to a dozen times and my results are just… Weird
APPARENTLY…
##I’m 12%-15% bodyfat.
…
It’s funny cause on my initial measuring, I got 11.7% and I was like whoa what? Did it a couple more times and got 12.5-13.5-ish. Decided to be a little generous and added in 2mm on my measurements and it topped off at 14.8%. Granted, I know this isn’t very accurate and bodyfat percentages for the most part don’t really matter that much but this was really really surprising for me.
To all of y’all who would like to respond, have y’all taken the skinfold caliper bodyfat test before and what are your experiences with it?
YEAHHHHH WOOOOFKNHOOOOO
Wait
Why don’t I have abs then?
Well,genetics?
Or
Well
That’s wrong isn’t it?
Like most question lifters have. I’ve the universal answer (for the most part). You lack muscle. Boom. There, I can probably write an ebook about it and sell it for $15. Assumkng they’re both the same height, a 165lbs guy at 15% bodyfat looks extremely different from a 200lb guy at 15% bodyfat.
Wait whaaat?Was that a response to ‘‘why I don’t have abs?’’?
Cause if so,you are right that 15 % bf is a world of a difference as muscle mass goes up,but I’m way fatter that that.So the main reason I don’t see abs is cause I’m fat
