[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Just a cameraphone pic a friend of mine snapped the other night at the gym as I was hitting delts (and you can also see another buddy in the BG hitting his own shot to counter mine -lol)
S[/quote]
Been crazy busy with work lately and almost forgot about the BB section of the T-Nation, glad I finally check back here and glad to see your awesome progress.
Delts look great, overall definition in the arms look great as well. I’ll definitely be following the run up and wishing you the best of luck.
What are the pictures along the upper portion of the back wall? Bodybuilders or boxers or something?
OKay, so there’s a few pics from a couple of hours ago. I think conditioning-wise, I’m doing okay for 7 weeks out. Weightwise, as usual it seems, my body is putting up one hell of a fight -lol. I weighed in this morning at 185.5, which I think is the same weight I was this time last week. Based on past experiences though, as well as this current prep, I expect my body to pause, and go up in weight before each drop, so I’m trying to focus more on what the mirror tells me instead of the scale.
My strength is still where is usually is, although my left elbow was a little ‘tweaky’ last week, so I’m being extra careful with my pressing movements. Today was chest, and admitedly I held back a bit on the weights, limiting my ROM to about 2/3 motions, and really focusing on slow negatives and very very explosive concentrics. Last Friday I had some difficulty squating, and even doing deep hacks (which I love), so the majority of my quad work was the leg sled, with a very narrow stance, going as deep as I could, and really exploding up for a non-lockout approach. I was recently re-reading some of Dr. Hatfield’s writing on CAT training, which I know influenced Christian Thibaudeau, and I think I’m going to really have to rely on the basic premise moreso than on smashing heavy weights if I intend to keep my thickness as I diet down.
Hey mate, looking good! your conditioning is looking tight already, your back looks grainy in that rear relaxed pose, sick.
As usual I like your side poses and your twisting back poses best. They just seem to suite your structure and emphasise your strengths. Speaking of strengths, your calfs look even bigger this year lol. Tris are looing crazy as usual, you shuldn’t be worried at all about that slight atrophy you experienced.
Keep up the good work, I’m sure with your intelligent aproach you will sort through your niggles and bring a good package to the show.
Best of luck
[quote]WestCoast7 wrote:
Been crazy busy with work lately and almost forgot about the BB section of the T-Nation, glad I finally check back here and glad to see your awesome progress.
Delts look great, overall definition in the arms look great as well. I’ll definitely be following the run up and wishing you the best of luck.
What are the pictures along the upper portion of the back wall? Bodybuilders or boxers or something?[/quote]
Thanks bro, it’s one of those double edge deals. Great delts can make my weaker chest much more obvious, so it’s a compliment, but a problem at the same time.
The pics in the back of of various bodybuilders who know/knew the gym’s original owner. He sold the place to a group of businessmen who know nothing about operating a gym, and have pretty much run the place in to the ground somewhat, but they still keep the pics and a few of the original owner’s trophies around, most likely hoping it gives them some credibility -lol.
Actually, when you first walk in, there’s a nice pic of me winning my pro-card up on the wall. I’m actually the only guy on the wall who trained/trains there
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Weightwise, as usual it seems, my body is putting up one hell of a fight -lol. I weighed in this morning at 185.5, which I think is the same weight I was this time last week. Based on past experiences though, as well as this current prep, I expect my body to pause, and go up in weight before each drop, [/quote]
Ahhh! 184.4 this morning… whfew! always get a bit worried that my body’s just not going to cooperate anymore -lol.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Weightwise, as usual it seems, my body is putting up one hell of a fight -lol. I weighed in this morning at 185.5, which I think is the same weight I was this time last week. Based on past experiences though, as well as this current prep, I expect my body to pause, and go up in weight before each drop, [/quote]
Ahhh! 184.4 this morning… whfew! always get a bit worried that my body’s just not going to cooperate anymore -lol.
S[/quote]
And today, we weighed in at 183.6! -lmao. Damn, I can’t trust my own scale. Of course I fully expect my weight to bounce back up again before the week is out (before yet another drop of course). Still, I find myself wondering how I would do mentally if I just stopped weighing myself altogether. Obviously you need to use the scale at the onset of a diet just to make sure things are moving, but after a certain point (once I dropped under the low 190’s), the mirror really does tell you much much more about how things are progressing.
[quote]MEYMZ wrote:
Those are some beefy tris and rear delts. Keep up the good work man! I would like to know which main movements you’re focusing for each muscle group.[/quote]
I actually hit delts and tris together, but want to stress that I spent many years just pressing heavy weights (bench and military press) which obviously gave me a very solid base before adapting what I presently do.
What a typical session is for me at the moment:
DELTS:
-Seated laterals (either machine, or DBs)
-Rear Laterals facing down on an incline bench
-Reverse Grip Military Presses (I don’t do this if I’m going to use DBs for presses)
-Seated DB Presses OR Seated Smith Military Pressed (traditional grip)
TRIS:
-Rope Pressdowns
-DB Incline Skull Crushers
-Bench Dips
You’ll notice that I don’t hit the ‘biggest’/compound exercise first. Again, I spent a long while just building up my strength with compound work, but at this point in my training career, this current approach has allowed me to ‘sculpt’ a physique more in line with being an actual bodybuilder, and not just trying to be ‘that big guy’ to my friends and fellow gym rats.
