Ex-Fatso Lookin For Guidance

Bigger Stronger Leaner Rate My Physique Photos
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Hey all, I?ve been lurking around T-Nation for about two years now and I thought it was time to post some pics. I?ve come a long way, in my opinion from being obese motherfckr at 240 lbs at 5?8? during my sophomore year of HS (not muscle I assure you) and shrunk all the way down to 165 at the end of senior year.

I lifted but it was on and off, but now I?ve been lifting consistently 6 days a week for 1 year now and I?m up to 185 lbs. I love it- it?s addictive. I?m a freshman in college and my goal is to keep getting stronger while also cutting down the remaining fat I have as much as possible (extra adipose tissue sux) so I can see more definition.

I know ppl on the site complain about others being afraid of getting fat blah blah blah. Well I?m one of them?being overweight for like 12 years, so yeah I do have a chronic fear of being fat. But I lift and do my sh*t regardless so what does it matter.

Goals: I want more power and muscle volume- point blank. More specifically I want to increase my bench because I?ve plateued at the moment at no more than 1 rep with 225- been there for a while now. I tried changing up my workout routines to shock my body to grow more, but hasn?t worked out.

Critique of routine, supplements (I?ve only been taking ON Gold standard Whey, various fat burners, using HOT-ROX Extreme now?and just got no-xplode but not happy with it- and yes I did read the arganine scam article on the site but I needed to see for myself) is appreciated.

I workout on a four day split routine, for about hour and a half to 2 hours most of the time- but if something feels too tired that day I?ll work something else:

Current stats:
Height: 5?9?
Weight: 185 lbs
Bench: 225
Squat (deep and right): 345
Deadlift: 335- I don?t have wraps otherwise it would be more, I?ve been trying to work on my pussy grip
Supplements:

Day 1: Chest, Tris, ABS (I?ll put specifics on ?important? Stuff)
*Quick warmup on pec-deck machine to get blood flowing

  • Flat BB bench press for 3-4 sets
    • 10x135, 6x185, 3-4x205, 1x225
  • Flat DB press 3-4 sets
  • Decline BB bench 3 sets
  • Dips 3 sets
  • Skull crushers 3 sets
  • Incline DB fly 3-4 sets
  • Close-grip BB bench 3 sets
  • One arm cable pressdown until exhaustion (tris are lagging so I?m trying to make up)
  • ABS for 15 mins at end

Day 2: Legs, calves, abs

  • Squat 5 sets usually
    • 8x135, 8x225, 6x275, 3x315, 1x345
  • Leg extension 3 sets
  • 45 degree leg press 4 sets ending with 1x715
  • Sitting calf press 4 sets
  • Standing calf press 4 sets
  • Lunges with weighted BB on shoulders 3 sets
  • ABS

Day 3: Shoulders, biceps, forearms

  • straight BB curl 3-4 sets
  • seated BB behind the head shoulder press 3-4 sets
  • Hammer curls 3 sets
  • seated DB shoulder press 4 sets
  • preacher curls 3 sets
  • seated incline DB curls 3 sets
  • ?Tri-fecta?? DB front, side, and bent over raises till I feel like I?m going to puke
  • Forearms till exhaustion

Day 4: back, traps, abs

  • pull-ups 3 sets
  • Deadlift 4 sets
    • 8x135, 8x225, 3x275, 1x335
  • behind the head lat-pulldown 4 sets
  • close-grip lever bent over row 4-5 sets
  • seated shrugs
  • cable straight-arm pulldown 3-4 sets
  • ABS

gonna post more pics under

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lat spread

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back again

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front

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480×640 121 KB

side

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leg

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calves

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legs

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calves

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HAHA, you definately have been on the forums a while, nice Shoe. I can tell your bodyfat % is roughly 21.8349 %

Anyways, k so your 1RM of Bench is 225.

If you really want to make more gains : get a spotter or make lots of friends at the gym and/or just ask whomever is around to spot you.

“Hi, mind spotting me for a set?”

The ones you see there often will definately be of a lot more help in the long run as overtime you won’t even have to ask, you can give them the “look”. tehehe.

anyways…

Try this :

Flye variation warmup 2 sets 6-8 reps bb

  • Then
  • 10x135, 10x155, 10x 175, 8x 185, 10x 175

or

  • 8x 135, 5x175, 5x175, 5x175, 10x 155

  • the point is there are lots of variations sets/reps etc. Either way I think both examples will take a lot more energy out of you and you most likely will want a spotter. Then up the weight every week a few percent.

  • soon you’ll feel like 205 is easy when you can punch out 6-8 reps and feel like you haven’t unleashed the wild beast in you. Then one day not far from now you’ll look at your buddy, or look at someone to spot for you and be gnawing at the leash holding you back.

Point is to give yourself 2-4 weeks of time between maxing. Tho you know everything depends on you, nutrition + the quality of your rest + your mental energy levels ~

*on another note, your arms/shoulders - lacking, work on building them up, also for any of the core essential lifts, you can also make sure to work on the support muscles or the other pieces that compromise the compound lift.

For bench examples include : getting your anterior shoulder stronger, the wings baby! the wings (pullups, snatch grip deadlifts, wide grip pulldown behind back to top of chest, etc.)
oh and did i mention triceps? forearm strength helps somewhat, more for BB work tho. Also you can think about throwing in some BB pressing afterwards to further stimulate and rip some muscles apart.

Do you have an idea of how much protein your taking in, a lot of times it’s the lack of consistent nutrition. If your eating right you’ll feel that protein strengthening your muscles overtime!

K end ramble, time to go run off and drink some sunlight.

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Oh and if your trying to strengthen your triceps, one arm cable pressdowns wouldn’t be the first recommendation, try…
DB/BB extensions, pullovers, french press, close grip barbell press with elbows tucked in. Weighted dips if you can do more then 15 dips in a row.

For bicep i notice the bottom part of your biceps are starting to show under development, range of motion issue, your either bouncing too much at the bottom or you’re moving your elbows a lot.

Example preacher curl - your elbows aren’t supposed to move.

Try incline seated dumbell curls also with full ROM (range-of-motion) and you’ll realize that part of your bicep is lagging.

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thanks a lot man, I oepened up a word document and am pasting all the suggestions into it. I’ve noticed that my arms have been lagging and so i’ve tried switching workouts up and such.

For the longest time i was on a bicep/tricep split. and in the last two months i just switched to chest/tricep and have noticed that it’s building it up more.

Keep the advice coming!

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Holy fuck, after READING day 1, i was exhausted and couldn’t continue. I’m no expert, but have done a few routines and I have never seen that kind of volume, or rather, number of exercises.

Can someone comment further? I’m doing the workout routines in Muscle Revolution(C.W.) and I do like 8 movements at most.

I would just assume that would
A) take awhile at the gym, not effecient?
B) you would reach exhaustion half way through your workout, thus making your second half not worth your time. Since, your muscles would be exhausted and not recieve as much benefit as the ones you started with.

Looking for someone with more knowledge to comment further on what I said.

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Hmm, I see what your saying. Well I?m usually at the gym about 1.5 to 2 hours. But I don’t think that I am exhausted halfway through- what I do is I work big chest exercises in the beginning on day one, and then do some tries until my chest has recovered a little, then hit it again hard. But if what ur saying, if I?m getting this right, is that I should limit the amount to concentrate more on just a couple exercises-- I?ll look into that.

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[quote]ShaneM686 wrote:
Holy fuck, after READING day 1, i was exhausted and couldn’t continue. I’m no expert, but have done a few routines and I have never seen that kind of volume, or rather, number of exercises.

Can someone comment further? I’m doing the workout routines in Muscle Revolution(C.W.) and I do like 8 movements at most.

I would just assume that would
A) take awhile at the gym, not effecient?
B) you would reach exhaustion half way through your workout, thus making your second half not worth your time. Since, your muscles would be exhausted and not recieve as much benefit as the ones you started with.

Looking for someone with more knowledge to comment further on what I said.[/quote]

Agreed, for a newbie that’s a lot of volume and means you aren’t hitting the meat and potatoes hard enough. By meat and potatoes I mean the big compound movements. You need to blast the intensity on flat barbell bench, incline barbell bench, and then maybe dips. If you hit these at your stage of development and still have the energy to do all the other things you mentioned you haven’t hit those three hard enough.

For back day focus on deadlifts, pullups, and rows. Again three to four movements only. Leg day squats and milk and some hamstring movements. You need to blast those muscles hard and then rest, eat, and grow.

If you are hitting bench and dips hard you don’t even need isolation tricep movements at this point. Same goes for bi’s if you are hitting chins and rows hard. Big movements pay big dividends. After you get a little bigger start adding in those isolation movements. Right now you don’t need to worry about them so much.

D

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[quote]Dedicated wrote:
Agreed, for a newbie that’s a lot of volume and means you aren’t hitting the meat and potatoes hard enough. By meat and potatoes I mean the big compound movements. You need to blast the intensity on flat barbell bench, incline barbell bench, and then maybe dips. If you hit these at your stage of development and still have the energy to do all the other things you mentioned you haven’t hit those three hard enough.

For back day focus on deadlifts, pullups, and rows. Again three to four movements only. Leg day squats and milk and some hamstring movements. You need to blast those muscles hard and then rest, eat, and grow.

If you are hitting bench and dips hard you don’t even need isolation tricep movements at this point. Same goes for bi’s if you are hitting chins and rows hard. Big movements pay big dividends. After you get a little bigger start adding in those isolation movements. Right now you don’t need to worry about them so much.

D [/quote]

gotcha. it does make sense. today is chest/tris so i’m going to go do that tonight and see how it goes. very helpful guys, thanks a bunch.

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I gave you more points for your fat loss efforts although a before pic would have helped.

Dude you are doing too much and too advanced an approach.

I recommend you buy and read Practical Programming which will basically recommend a whole body 3x a week routine for awhile.

I like the shoe

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Ditch your routine for something tried and tested. There’s many ways you could improve your current routine, but i would scrap it and take a routine from a pro trainer on T-Nation and take the thought out of it. Your not advanced enough to design your own program.

For example, why is your leg day so quad dominant?? Dont even answer that, just start learning(read) and get on a better program. Good luck

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me freshman year before working out, as you can see i am not happy

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grabbing some food-- of course i’m pretty happy in this picture