Cortes' Test/Tren/Dbol Run

Pharma
242

sorry mate, i wrote a real long step by step breakdown - but i deleted it by accident!

So i will just say well done, you are brown.

-Focus on where the legs should be in all poses.
-Dont lean back in side chest/tri.
-raise elbows in front bicep, above parallel for the X frame.
-glance a leg out to the side in the front bi and lat, for the X, and to showcase some quads.
-bend elbows more in most muscular, clasp hands or clench them next to one another, pushing on each one with the other. Squeeze bis and roll the traps over too.
-Abs and thighs… you look like you are stepping over a shit. The leg isnt thrown out that far - it is placed NEXT to the bent one, quads and calves tensed. neater. Find some images of the style you like and copy it, making it your own.

I have a flair on my front bi, lat, side tri that is mine. Mixed from other BB’s but mine now!
A hip tilt from one, a leg from a female, elbows from someone else… you know. Whatever works with YOUR BODY.

STUDY MAGAZINES. download pics off the net. Meet an ex-competitor, whatever you need to do. I am pretty sure you have no visual aid in your posing and you need it.

not as detailed as i did write, but hope it helps. PM me if you need.

J

243

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
So how much heavy ab work do you do. When I say ‘heavy’, I mean 4-8 reps heavy.

For example, to bring out my rectus abdominus, I perform either weighted swiss ball crunches (trap the feet, use a 40kg/75lb DB) or do ‘serratus crunches’ on a mat, where I hold a 40kg BD above my head at arms length and crunch/push up to the ceiling.

Just like any other muscle, you need to stimulate the type I fibers for max growth, as I’m sure you know.

Bushy

PS - That Japanese system sounds whack, though I would have guessed it to be the case, given how nationalistic the Japanese can be.[/quote]

Since you mention it, I have to admit that I don’t do much heavy ab work. This cycle, my ab work has consisted of rollouts (usually 12 with a barbell or ab wheel) followed immediately by lying leg raises (10-12), or basic crunches on a decline bench, or hanging leg raises. I will try adding in some heavy stuff and see where it takes me, thanks.

And yeah, LOTS of things about Japan are very, very whack, and very, very nationalistic. I would not stay here if I did not have such a terrific wife and job (and I won’t be here my entire life, that’s for certain!). The legal AAS thing is nice, too.

244

[quote] JJ wrote:
sorry mate, i wrote a real long step by step breakdown - but i deleted it by accident!

So i will just say well done, you are brown.

-Focus on where the legs should be in all poses.
-Dont lean back in side chest/tri.
-raise elbows in front bicep, above parallel for the X frame.
-glance a leg out to the side in the front bi and lat, for the X, and to showcase some quads.
-bend elbows more in most muscular, clasp hands or clench them next to one another, pushing on each one with the other. Squeeze bis and roll the traps over too.
-Abs and thighs… you look like you are stepping over a shit. The leg isnt thrown out that far - it is placed NEXT to the bent one, quads and calves tensed. neater. Find some images of the style you like and copy it, making it your own.

I have a flair on my front bi, lat, side tri that is mine. Mixed from other BB’s but mine now!
A hip tilt from one, a leg from a female, elbows from someone else… you know. Whatever works with YOUR BODY.

STUDY MAGAZINES. download pics off the net. Meet an ex-competitor, whatever you need to do. I am pretty sure you have no visual aid in your posing and you need it.

not as detailed as i did write, but hope it helps. PM me if you need.

J[/quote]

Great post JJ, thanks a ton! Things are really starting to crystallize for me now. The ‘stepping over a shit’ comment was wonderful in focusing me on just exactly what the problem is on my ab/thigh pose (I’m crunching down too much, as well, I found upon further practice last night). And yeah, in general I need to figure out what to do with my legs.

I almost feel like taking another set of pictures, now that you guys have pointed me in the right direction. I don’t think my wife feels like messing with that again real soon, but probably the week before the show or so I will post up again.

Again, thanks!

245

[quote]Cortes wrote:
JJ wrote:
sorry mate, i wrote a real long step by step breakdown - but i deleted it by accident!

So i will just say well done, you are brown.

-Focus on where the legs should be in all poses.
-Dont lean back in side chest/tri.
-raise elbows in front bicep, above parallel for the X frame.
-glance a leg out to the side in the front bi and lat, for the X, and to showcase some quads.
-bend elbows more in most muscular, clasp hands or clench them next to one another, pushing on each one with the other. Squeeze bis and roll the traps over too.
-Abs and thighs… you look like you are stepping over a shit. The leg isnt thrown out that far - it is placed NEXT to the bent one, quads and calves tensed. neater. Find some images of the style you like and copy it, making it your own.

I have a flair on my front bi, lat, side tri that is mine. Mixed from other BB’s but mine now!

A hip tilt from one, a leg from a female, elbows from someone else… you know. Whatever works with YOUR BODY.

STUDY MAGAZINES. download pics off the net. Meet an ex-competitor, whatever you need to do. I am pretty sure you have no visual aid in your posing and you need it.

not as detailed as i did write, but hope it helps. PM me if you need.

J

Great post JJ, thanks a ton! Things are really starting to crystallize for me now. The ‘stepping over a shit’ comment was wonderful in focusing me on just exactly what the problem is on my ab/thigh pose (I’m crunching down too much, as well, I found upon further practice last night). And yeah, in general I need to figure out what to do with my legs.

I almost feel like taking another set of pictures, now that you guys have pointed me in the right direction. I don’t think my wife feels like messing with that again real soon, but probably the week before the show or so I will post up again.

Again, thanks![/quote]

take the pics and well brake em down for ya!

246

Hey Cortes-

I wish I had something constructive for you, but all I know about posing is the “Are you lookin’ at me?” routine I do in the mirror.

You look fantastic. Thanks for the updates.

247

I would say, on your side chest, don’t keep your leg farthest from the judges so straight. You kind of want to sit back on that leg, so that now both legs are slitely bent and stick your ass out.

Push your front leg (leg closest to the judges) against the back leg and contract your glute, but not your hamstring. If done correctly, your hamstring should hang down quite nicely.

248

[quote] JJ wrote:
sorry mate, i wrote a real long step by step breakdown - but i deleted it by accident!

So i will just say well done, you are brown.

-Focus on where the legs should be in all poses.
-Dont lean back in side chest/tri.
-raise elbows in front bicep, above parallel for the X frame.
-glance a leg out to the side in the front bi and lat, for the X, and to showcase some quads.
-bend elbows more in most muscular, clasp hands or clench them next to one another, pushing on each one with the other. Squeeze bis and roll the traps over too.
-Abs and thighs… you look like you are stepping over a shit. The leg isnt thrown out that far - it is placed NEXT to the bent one, quads and calves tensed. neater. Find some images of the style you like and copy it, making it your own.

I have a flair on my front bi, lat, side tri that is mine. Mixed from other BB’s but mine now!

A hip tilt from one, a leg from a female, elbows from someone else… you know. Whatever works with YOUR BODY.

STUDY MAGAZINES. download pics off the net. Meet an ex-competitor, whatever you need to do. I am pretty sure you have no visual aid in your posing and you need it.

not as detailed as i did write, but hope it helps. PM me if you need.

J[/quote]

I agree with all of these points.

Cortes, I do not think you are doing your front or rear double bi poses justice because it looks like you are limiting your back’s full possible spread of its lats. Your lat spread is much wider than your double bi’s.

Whenever I do lat spreads, I always tense my arms and lats where is looks like I had just curled two dumbbells and it’s at the top position. I then being my arms all the way together at the top and spread my lats as far as they will go at each increment that I go down with my arms.

You can even move your arms up and down a little bit and then lock in place to really make sure your lats are fully spread.

As for offseason, work on back width and thickness, hamstrings and calves the most. Try to get your abs more visible through hypertrophy if you can.

You’re getting there, but keep on getting bigger overall and you’ll dominate any competition you enter one day.

249

Cortes, a tip for the front lat - dont contract the lats…

You place your hands quite high on the waist, and keeping them in place, force the elbows forward - this SHOULD allow the lats to just hang there… if you try to contract then, you cant - but you should be able to contract the Teres maj, which should just curl around ever so slightly (till we get real big) and finish the top of the taper…

VERY difficult to explain, and that was never explained to me, it is just a matter of playing around with it.

Sorry i can be of more help…

J

250

Hey cortes,

lookin good man…i’ve been off the map for the past month or so and I come back to see you well on your way to your show.

when is the show again? sorry if you’ve answered that a thousand times. lol

DG

251

GERDS!! how the hell are ya lad?

Will you start a post filling us in about all your androgen deprived hi-jinks?

252

As I mentioned in another thread, welcome back gerdy, where ya been.

/hijack over.

253

Hey Gerdy, good to see you and have you here again, man! I actually haven’t been around much, either.

My show is July 27th. Don’t worry, this thread has become so long I certainly don’t expect anyone to go wading in for trivia.

I’m looking forward to having your input as I try and fine tune things here.

254

:smiley: it’s nice to feel the love. lol

i’ve been internet deprived except for work and am in the process of moving for the 3rd time in 2 monts lol but i’m still around.

July 27th? a lil sooner than the original september deadline? i saw that on the first page…

i’m actually planning on competing myself on the 19th just to show the judges what i have and then i’m really gunning for a show in december where I can show improvements.

But definitely looking good cortes and still about a month out you should be fine :wink:

I’ll help and add what little advice I got as needed lol

DG

255

ok man so here is my humble critique of things you could try and see if you like the pose better…

on #3 the side chest

…the upper body looks fine, but try touching your knees together and squatting…it’s hard to explain online, but here it goes

--if your back leg stays straight and you bend your front leg keeping your foot in the arch of your back foot, place the angle that your front leg makes around your back legs vastus medialus, and then squat.

this will show of your hams better, and if i remember you saying before that you are tall(er) for a bodybuilder, this will give the illusion of your legs being less lanky compared to a short guys (i know cause i’m 6ft :stuck_out_tongue: lol)…your legs look good tho, nice sweep and hitting the pose this way may help with it…

if that still didn’t make sense i’ll try explaining again. lol

#4 back double bi

…you can play with it but the pose might look better if you tried to flare your lats a bit more instead of squeeze your traps…idk if you are or not, it looks good but that’s something I always play with until I find which way I like better.

also try and pull your calf display leg forward more and squat on it…it feels weird but shows of the hamstring and calf better…that way you don’t have to stick it out as far.

#6 side triceps

…same thing as side chest with the legs, upper body looks great.

#8and the most muscular, try and bend more like dennis wolf. You seem to have thick traps and farely wide shoulders. This will make you look more intimidating in the pose and allow you to bring your arms forward (elbows out) which will show off the cleavage striations in your chest that I’m sure you will have come contest day :wink: this also gives you play to be dramatic with the squeeze, slow, explosive, etc. lol

all of these are suggestions that I think you can try and you might like the pose better. All of your poses are correct but I’ve found I like to play with the different ways of posing until I get the pose that works best for my body. Cause after all, they say it’s not all about showing off your strengths but also hiding your weaknesses. :wink:

hope this has helped somewhat with my vast knowledge of competing in 2 shows lol!

Gerdy

256

Damn Gerdy you are the man! That was terrific advice and yes, I understood all of it. Really meaty stuff there that I can and will use.

A few of you guys have pointed out that I am squeezing my traps together instead of focusing on expanding my lats in bdb and I think you are absolutely correct. I have mirrors at home but they are not wide enough to allow me to really see what I am doing back there, unfortunately, I need to get that figured out but I guess I can work on it from the front.

My lats were not as flared as they should have been in fdb either, and I think raising my arms a bit will help with this and make for a more pleasing display.

Leg stuff I am definitely going to have to play with because it still feels funny and awkward for me to have my legs pressed together.

I am really thinking about and experimenting with everything you guys have suggested and I want to give you all a big thank you once again for all of your help. This really is the best board around. Thanks once again, everybody.

257

good luck in the show cortes man…you’re gonna be hooked!!did my first amateur show in april this year and can’t wait to do the next one…looks and sounds like you’re on track bro

258

Hey I’m proud to be the recipient of your first post, welavin! You look like you came in absolutely terrific for your first show yourself. How did you place?

259

i did better than i hoped, was shooting for top 5 and placed 4th, was just happy to make the pose down to be honest with you haha…this year should make the top 3 i’m hoping, you learn a lot the first time around, especially the last week of de-carbing and carbing up, i carbed up a half a day too late, looked better for the night show than the morning show - which is where it counts and all the points are given out…i actually would have placed 3rd if i looked in the morning like i did for the evening show but no sense whining about it lol…just know for next time…

you’re lucky in that your legs are looking lean already and you haven’t even cut your water yet…that’s half the battle right there…i found my legs didn’t come in like my upper body did and unfortunately that’s just going to take time…but if your legs are looking like that already i would guess that if you dial in your diet the last week you should look shredded

260

quick question for you cortes…how are the weight categories there? like where does middle end and light heavy start?

i’m just taking a guess looking from your pics and how lean you are at that point i would say if you had the time to get down to the top end of middleweight that would be an advantage for you as you would be right at the top of your weight class…if you were to cut your carbs back just a little bit, like maybe from your 5th meal of the day, and do cardio twice a day 45 minute sessions, your first one on an empty stomach…then maybe 5 to 6 pounds of water…

you’d be close to around 190ish i would say and you would be diced…but i don’t know what your diet is like either so that might not be a possibility…if you were doing a show 3 weeks from now, that is where i would say you would come in at your best, around 190