Man, you look awesome. Super glad that I stumbled upon this thread.
Regarding your points on body part splits and exercise sequencing, here’s my experience: started training a few years ago with body part splits, and put on a lot of weight (~40lbs in my first year, 15 in my second) that way. Got tons of compliments on my physique even though I was still small and underdeveloped (Average of 165 at 5’7"). Started doing upper/lower splits, and while I got stronger and kept putting on size (peaked at a soft 195 then came back down), my physique didn’t look as good or garner as much attention. Just recently, after a looooong 16 months of unproductive training due to repeated injuries, I’ve returned to a bodybuilding style 3-way split. I take a lot from Shelby Starnes and John Meadows regarding exercise sequencing. In about 3 months, I’m looking better than I have in the previous 2-3 years and getting complimented on my physique fairly frequently. Even muscles that are getting the same amount of volume (measured in number of working sets) as they did on upper/lower splits are growing and look better. In fact, I’ve been getting a lot of comments on my chest growth, despite doing an average of 12 sets for chest now after doing upwards of 18-20 on some of my bench-heavy upper/ lower programs.
Not trying to hijack your thread, just wanted to share my experience which squares very closely with a lot of what you’ve said here. Keep on rockin’ – you look phenomenal.
I don’t see myself getting much above 200lbs ever again either. Shooting for 210 by the end of the year, and from there I’ll hopefully be able to get to between 180-190 with a 28" waist (sounds more impressive than it is. I have the bone structure of a pre-pubescant girl), then try and more or less maintain that from then on.
Unfortunately the computer only has a three second timer. I wanted to get a glimpse of how I am holding my mandatory poses with the timer as I practice posing (mostly with my eyes closed while hitting the pose, and then opening them up when I have the pose locked). So this doesn’t look as flared as I like, but it gives a glimpse of current condition.
I share the concern about milk, but I agree with the wheat and corn being bad as well. There are some articles here that talk about how wheat can act like estrogen, and to me they are both like grains, too many calories for the nutrition in them to be worthwhile.
Thanks! You’re adding to the thread, not hijacking it! This is a thread to talk bodybuilding! And as you can see, proper exercise selection and order works like a charm! “Adding weight to the bar” only goes so far and anyone who’s serious will try to add weight to the bar or dumbbell or machine regardless of exercise order anyway!
Corn and wheat are not like grains. They are grains.
Whole grains have a good amount of micronutrients. Even if processed, it’s not like people with a good diet are just eating highly processed grains all day, or just processed grains for a meal usually, though there’s nothing wrong with just eating a plain bagel here and there either. If I have grits for breakfast, that’s with an omelet with cheese, veggies and meat, and usually a fruit too (well all that good stuff together when not cutting, lol).
I don’t say this to be argumentative at all. I just can’t wrap my head around the way some people look at nutrition.
I also never bought into the minuscule or hardly discernible estrogenic effects of food. I’ve heard the about flax oil too. Almost no one is eating tons of it in a day. I know I’m just one guy, but if there was true concern about stuff like estrogenic wheat, edema-inducing dairy, and mercury-laden tuna, I should be clinically insane, with Mad Hatter’s disease, congestive heart failure and hypertension, and resembling a woman considering the amount of dairy, wheat, and tuna I’ve eaten in 37 years. @The_Mighty_Stu
I’m one of those “long-time listener, first-time commenter” people…but I’ve finally decided to come out of the shadows and join the community for real.
@BrickHead You’re looking sharp, man! Your serratus pop really well in your front lat spread and mandatory poses, which make your lats look great! I also think it’s pretty awesome how developed the clavicular portion of your chest looks now that you’ve cut so far, as compared to how it visually lagged at the start of the cut. Props, man! Keep on this grind, and I think you’re going to do really really well in a month.
And I’m on the same track as @Yogi1 - Finished cutting down to 175lbs at 5’10" this past June/July (not an extreme cut, but enough to be beach ready!), and now I’m on the track to hit 200(ish) sometime this winter before cutting back down.
Oh, and don’t let anyone get you down about the mustache - that thing was amazing!
I’ve gotten into bagels more recently, breakfast is the best time. Bagel with a little PB and natural jelly and egg whites, good stuff! Not sure if I’d keep them in on my next prep, probably not just so I can eat more (I’d rather eat oats than a bagel for satiety).
I shaved the mustache off two nights ago. I loved the way it looked but it was driving me nuts! I’d get up in the morning and get food and liquids on it because I didn’t put wax on til after breakfast. And the wax is so hard and doesn’t evaporate the way typical products do. So there was a near-constant tight or pulling sensation on my upper mouth. It’s like I always felt it. I drank, I felt if. I exhaled sometimes through my nose, I felt it. It got super annoying.
I picked up a few pumpkin bagels last week to go with my pumpkin spice flavored PB. This has been my steady breakfast with a met drive shake on my way in to work each morning lately -lol. Gotta make the most of pumpkin season
S
Lol, man, if eating tuna was a death wish, I’d be long gone,… or at least have developed super powers from all the mercury I’ve ingested. Seriously, I understand the constant need of the FDA and people needing to keep their fan base going through fear mongering, but at the end of the day some of the crap I see people obsessing over, especially when the really basics of a healthy diet are ignored, is just silly.
