Been training serious since about May. Started at 65 kg beginning of rugby season (used to be 75, but lost some fat coz I got tired of looking like shit). Now I’m 72 kg, at the same bodyfat % as when I started.
I have sort of wide hips (31" at navel) and smallish waist (29"). It causes a sort of indent. My first question is should I work obliques to fill the gap? And secondly, does pullover really work for helping the rib gage expand? I measure 33" under pecs.
Any advice, critique would be appreciated.
P.S I know to place emphasis on shoulders and lats. ( my shoulders are my biggest improvement, 45" )
Ignore the flash, It causes me to look fatter than I am. I’m around 11%
you don’t look like you workout yet. you’re not at a level where you should be concerned about ‘filling in gaps’ or ‘rib cage expansion’. those are details. you also have no reason to be concerned about body fat at the moment. The best thing you can do for your physique is focus on the big compound lifts, and eating plenty of protein. MUCH more than you are now.
Mate, you’re over 11% BF. We’d be able to see a 2-4 pack if you were around that region. But, way more importantly- it doesn’t really matter. See what Flipcollar posted. After training the compound lifts, and building a decent strength and size base, you can start to look into fine tuning, but not before. It’s like trying to build a house with plasma screen TVs and expensive sound systems- all great stuff, but useless if you don’t start with bricks, cement, and a roof.
Does depend on your goal though. What is it? How big/lean do you want to be?
I appreciate the responses guys. As far as compound lifts are concerned, I only do them in strength parameters, 1-3/4 reps and then do higher rep assistance work . I have improved my bench from 52kg to 75kg, sqaut 70kg to 110kg and deadlift 120kg to 150kg since joining the gym in july. And in response to Fyzjin2, my ultimate goal would be to be atleast 90 kg, I’m 5ft11 so I’ll probably end at 6ft1 (i’m 17).
I feel your pain on wide hips man! I went from 188lbs → 160 and went from 36.5" at navel to 31.5" at navel and I was still probably 10lbs away from abz.
Obviously, as these guys have already suggested, just focus on eating a lot of clean foods and challenging lifting 4x/week and you’ll start to put on some weight.
And how did you get rid of the indent between rib and the illiac crest? Also as far as I can see my measurement at the navel is fairly average, even though it look so big? If you look at Lazar Angelov he also has wide hips but doesn’t have that characteristic indent because his obliques are extremely well developed?
But thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely up my protein intake.
[quote]Luhahn wrote:
And how did you get rid of the indent between rib and the illiac crest? Also as far as I can see my measurement at the navel is fairly average, even though it look so big? If you look at Lazar Angelov he also has wide hips but doesn’t have that characteristic indent because his obliques are extremely well developed?
But thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely up my protein intake.[/quote]
More muscle mass, especially in your abs. Mine is kind of going away, although when I get very lean, it won’t make much of a difference.
Do a lot of standing accessory movesments that require you to stablize your body and really focus on bracing your abs. Do carries, static holds, etc. Get those abs to grow just like all your other muscules. That’s about all you can do.
For the indent, I think you should focus on overall mass for the next while, then cut to see your shape, and reassess. It may even solve itself after some serious overall growth.
Also, congrats on the progress so far!
If you want to gain 18kgs, then you have a lot of work ahead of you. How lean do you want to be at 90kgs?
Yeah I think I’m probably worrying to much about the indent and instead I should direct my focus to getting bigger overall.
I want to be at like 5-7 %, I think that’s doable and I would be able to maintain that bodyfat. 18 Kg’s is alot, how long would you guess it would take? 4 years? the first 7 kg’s were pretty easy tbh and it’s only been like half a year. I’ll probably aim for 6-7 kg’ a year now since my beginner gains are slowing down.
[quote]Luhahn wrote:
Do you ever do direct ab work? How good is the decline russian twist with weight? Also would you agree Lazar Angelov has wide(ish) hips?[/quote]
It varies. Sometimes pure ab work, but most of the time is some type of stablization exercise whether that be split stance rows, half kneeling presses, landmine rainbow, planks and side planks with and without leg lifts, roll outs, weighted carries.
As far as Lazar having wide hips, I don’t think so. I think it looks like that way when he is really lean but if you see the pic I attached, in 2004, he does not appear to have wide hips at all.
[quote]Luhahn wrote:
Yeah I think I’m probably worrying to much about the indent and instead I should direct my focus to getting bigger overall.
I want to be at like 5-7 %, I think that’s doable and I would be able to maintain that bodyfat. 18 Kg’s is alot, how long would you guess it would take? 4 years? the first 7 kg’s were pretty easy tbh and it’s only been like half a year. I’ll probably aim for 6-7 kg’ a year now since my beginner gains are slowing down.[/quote]
It’s difficult to walk around at 5-7% bf unless it’s your job. I would just aim to put on your 18kgs as lean as possible, typically b/w 10-15% bf, and see where you are. You could probably do it in 2 years without significant fat gains, which means b/w 20-30% of your weight gain being fat.
That’s realistic and if you do better, that’s a bonus!
In the pic on top it looks kinda X shape, but because his delts are so big as well as his lats it actually looks pretty good. He doesn’t have a V taper like Frank Zane with his small hips and waist. My ultimate goal would to be close to such a body like Lazar’s as I feel we almost have the same shape. Wide-ish hips, small waist and uncharacteristic of a X body shape, long clavicle’s.
Do you really think 9 kg’s a year would be doable for the next two years? I think I’m pretty blessed when it comes to building muscle and gaining/losing weight, but my diet isn’t on point. It’s pretty hard to eat clean when you still depend on your parents, the only thing I really have control over would be my protein intake through shakes.
Sure, 9kg’s a year i s very doable and it can be mostly muscle.
What do your parents buy that will make it difficult to eat clean? You can always make special requests. I have hard time believing your parents are going to say “You want us to buy you eggs, meat, rice, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, oats and nuts? You’re off your rocker!”
