Once a Gymnast, Now Martial Artist

Bigger Stronger Leaner Rate My Physique Photos
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Hello fellahs!

I’m new here so this is my first post on this forum. Although the aesthetic aspect of training isn’t my no. 1 priority, I have a few concerns about it I’d be thankful to hear your opinion on. Have in mind my physique is not built in a regular gym (as you might understand from the pictures), but primarily during my time as a gymnast. And I know, my posing sucks…

Basic data
age: 18
height: 5’ 9’’
weight: 157 lbs

If I’d self-evaluate the situation I’d say my shoulders were way too big in proportion. Also, my chest is somewhat tiny compared to the rest, right? More critics are welcome!

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I’ll attach a picture of those legs too…

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Thanks cheeta! Gymnastics sure develops the musculature, but if you’re interested in a versatile physique, you should couple it with some leg-dominant sport. I’ve been running some too so to prepare my legs for whatever direction life will take. Now I’m doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which I highly recommend �?? it both gives you the athleticism and aestheticism.

One other thing I’m wondering about is the asymmetry of my lats. Can it potentially cause biomechanical problems later on? Should I try to use the right side (on the picture) more when doing pull ups and such work?

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SO have you done any weights at all, or did you get this physique just through gymnastics?

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Out of curiosity, what gymnastic events did you do?

Abs are in line with the gymnastic physique, but the arms are WAY too skinny if you did anything like rings, horse, or parallel bars.

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[quote]Brisks wrote:
SO have you done any weights at all, or did you get this physique just through gymnastics?[/quote]

I have never done regular weight training, such as dumbell and barbell stuff. Still, the answer to your question is YES, I have been training with weights. The weights however, have been in the form of weighted vests and other weights you attach to the body when doing exercises like rope climbs, dips, pull ups etc. Most of my leg work have been different jumps, one-legged squats and lunges with a partner on your back - not very advanced or calibrated strength work, but it gets the job done.

So you can say my physique is just through gymnastics, since gymnastics involves all the strength work mentioned above. Be aware, however, that I have not been doing gymnastics at a very high level, hence many of the muscular imbalances. My chest for example, would probably be symmetrical had I trained more in the rings.

There are advantages and disadvantages with this way of building strength, as with every strength doctrine. For example, as I’ve been doing tons of push-ups and pull ups through which I’ve developed the slight muscular imbalance between my chest and uppe back. This is because the push-up offers far less resistance than the pull up. I could have prevented this by doing more ring dips perhaps, but it’s easy to neglect the muscular stimulation given by different body-weight exercises. I’m already working on the chest btw.

I’d say gymnastics is a great way to begin your life of athleticism when you’re young. It is, for example, often said that weight training is inappropriate for children - at this stage gymnastics builds a terrific base. When you near your late teens however, and start realizing one single sport won’t build the body you strive for (doesn’t have to be all aestheticism, I myself value athleticism and aestheticism at a ratio of perhaps 10/90), then regular weight training may become ever as inspiring.

Above, I’ve attached a picture taken in profile. Here, most of you probably would say my biceps are a little small compared to my triceps. I asked a physical therapist on this who said it was biomechanically nothing to worry about. But then again, it’d perhaps look better if I did some more bicep work, like practising the one-armed pull up.

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[quote]namanga2 wrote:
Out of curiosity, what gymnastic events did you do?

Abs are in line with the gymnastic physique, but the arms are WAY too skinny if you did anything like rings, horse, or parallel bars.

[/quote]

Thing is I’ve not been training at a too serious level, especially during my later teens. It’s common for young gymnasts to compete in pretty much every discipline, but many of us slack off (though still train) and doesn’t really have what it takes to compete at all when entering the years in which muscles begin to grow. Rings haven’t been my favourite discipline, which I suppose accounts for my chest undevelopment. Most competitive gymnasts have never heard of muscular imbalances.

To this comes the genetic factor. If you’re naturally thin it’ll become difficult to develop proper musculature (not to mention the poor dietary habits gymnasts generally have…). As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been running some too - something I’d never do if I’d been a competitive gymnast.

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Ah, there’s the rub. The timing was wrong, as was the events - I can safely assume a lot of the training, as it should be when gymnasts are young, was flexibility and tumbling. Doing a lot of rings/pbar conditioning at an early age can really mess up your joints because the bones aren’t set enough to take the pounding.

Its completely understandable - I happen to be a gymnast too. I started later than you did - as a sophomore in high school, so I had the opposite results, namely a lot of strength, but not so much flexibility. My event has always been rings, and at 5’3, 155 it shows. Trying to cut some weight though; I would love to be about 145. Thus is city life when you get out of college and you have a 9-5 and a social life at the bars.

Big shoulders are a good thing! To gain size on those arms, don’t give up on gymnastics training. If your gym has power straps, i.e. handles that you can hang from a bar (very much like rings), they are great for working chest, back, abs, and definitely shoulders and arms. Doing anything on rings is harder than anything on the floor or with a machine. But I’m sure you already know that. :slight_smile:

This guy has the arms you want. Rings specialist Jordan Jovtchev. Absolute beast.

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[quote]namanga2 wrote:
Ah, there’s the rub. The timing was wrong, as was the events - I can safely assume a lot of the training, as it should be when gymnasts are young, was flexibility and tumbling. Doing a lot of rings/pbar conditioning at an early age can really mess up your joints because the bones aren’t set enough to take the pounding.

Its completely understandable - I happen to be a gymnast too. I started later than you did - as a sophomore in high school, so I had the opposite results, namely a lot of strength, but not so much flexibility. My event has always been rings, and at 5’3, 155 it shows. Trying to cut some weight though; I would love to be about 145. Thus is city life when you get out of college and you have a 9-5 and a social life at the bars.

Big shoulders are a good thing! To gain size on those arms, don’t give up on gymnastics training. If your gym has power straps, i.e. handles that you can hang from a bar (very much like rings), they are great for working chest, back, abs, and definitely shoulders and arms. Doing anything on rings is harder than anything on the floor or with a machine. But I’m sure you already know that. :slight_smile:

This guy has the arms you want. Rings specialist Jordan Jovtchev. Absolute beast.[/quote]

Yeah, no doubt elite gymnasts possess big muscular arms (in contrast to mine). But as you surely can deduce from my pictures, my genetics are in fact more in line with endurance-type sporting. I have developed a sensible amount of muscle mass, but you can still see what kind of musculature I was given by the Lord, so to speak…

We did a lot of ring stuff when we were younger, but being under-weight as a youngster, plus not knowing what good nutrition was, plus your general inability to build muscles as a child, simply will not build any muscles. It’s a hell of a base to build from though.

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What are your fitness goals? Fat loss of course should not be a priority as you are quite cut, but do you want to gain overall muscularity?

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Why are you posting in “the bodybuilding think tank”? I am genuinely curious. You look like every other underfed athlete, just in case you’re only here for the comments.

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…good bod dude
but next time toss on some shorts

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[quote]Footballer90 wrote:
…good bod dude
but next time toss on some shorts[/quote]

No way. I like his undies. More of you guys should post pics of yourselves in your drawers. Give us ladies a cheap thrill ; )

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[quote]namanga2 wrote:
What are your fitness goals? Fat loss of course should not be a priority as you are quite cut, but do you want to gain overall muscularity?[/quote]

I want to build a physique with many different qualities. As I mentioned earlier, I practise Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which calls for a great deal of strength and stamina. I began to practise martial arts because I value the specific physique martial art training yields. I have begun to see an ideal in the art of subduing an opponent. Why am I doing that? I think it is a result of my asking myself such as ‘what is the purpose of training?’, ‘what was the original purpose of hard training?’.

Another of my goals relates to soldiering. Last year, I enlisted in the army. I’ll begin my service next year in a branch with great physical demands. Preparation for this will mainly be things like getting accustomed to long strolls with a rucksack and doing longer runs etc.

Obviously, with these kinds of goals you cannot waste all your time training for increased muscle mass. That is not what I would like to be doing either. When I am setting out to refine the aesthetic aspect of my body I am not interested in hundreds of pounds of useless muscle mass. My vision of an idealistic body is the body that is yielded by the activities that I value. Sure I want to build more muscles! In BJJ, you’ll perform better with a more developed muscularity, given that the muscles are of utmost quality. Strolling with a 90 pound rucksack is much tougher at a bodyweight of 150 lbs than 170, given that those extra pounds are well-conditioned.

So, why am I posting pictures here (some nut head, “Bullpup” something, couldn’t read between the lines)? In the very initial post I asked about asymmetry and muscular imbalances. This is very important to me. As I am spending a lot of time on strength training, I would very much like to know which parts of the body that needs extra attention, and which that needs less.

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Muscle imbalances I see are as follows:

Your body is built forward, as it is with most gymnasts - i.e. your shoulders rotate forward when you’re standing naturally, which suggests that your back needs some strengthening, specifically the upper back and traps. Deadlifts will help immensely with this, as will all types of rows. Traps can be built with upright rows and shrugs.

Your arms are also quite skinny in relation to your overall build. Work on biceps, triceps and rear delts, as your front delts are very developed. If you want big arms, keep in mind that the triceps are the key as they naturally make up about 2/3 of the overall muscle in your arm. Work those too.

Chest is kind of small, but not all THAT small. You don’t need to have a chest like a bodybuilder. Make sure you’re doing incline bench and decline bench as well as flat bench. Flyes will isolate the pecs, but are not as good of a compound movement as benching.

My last piece of advice to work out those imbalances for you is to eat more than you usually do - you need the calories to build mass.

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[quote]namanga2 wrote:
Muscle imbalances I see are as follows:

Your body is built forward, as it is with most gymnasts - i.e. your shoulders rotate forward when you’re standing naturally, which suggests that your back needs some strengthening, specifically the upper back and traps. Deadlifts will help immensely with this, as will all types of rows. Traps can be built with upright rows and shrugs.

Your arms are also quite skinny in relation to your overall build. Work on biceps, triceps and rear delts, as your front delts are very developed. If you want big arms, keep in mind that the triceps are the key as they naturally make up about 2/3 of the overall muscle in your arm. Work those too.

Chest is kind of small, but not all THAT small. You don’t need to have a chest like a bodybuilder. Make sure you’re doing incline bench and decline bench as well as flat bench. Flyes will isolate the pecs, but are not as good of a compound movement as benching.

My last piece of advice to work out those imbalances for you is to eat more than you usually do - you need the calories to build mass. [/quote]

Are you sure about the upper back and trapz? At my enlistment, they did a regular full body scrutiny. The physical therapist said that my upper back was typical “bull-like”, as is frequent among wrestlers. She said that it is no problem yet but that I should try to work my chest so that the front side would catch up. Perhaps I should post a picture with focus on my upper back.

I know that an overly developed chest in comparison to the upper back can cause the shoulders to lean “forward and inwards”, but is it not rather odd that this would be the root to the problem in my case, as my chest is under-developed?

The arms… I’ll definitely work on them. In BJJ, you need strong arms, and then I mean strong. You don’t wanna crack your elbow in a locked up position :slight_smile:

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You could be leaning forwards simply because your front delts are without a doubt the dominant muscle in your front upper body. With respect to the back, just calling it like I see it. You sort of have a longer neck from what I can see, so maybe thats why the traps don’t look as full as they should. Overall thickness should be added to the back, though.

As for lat asymmetry, try focusing on single arm lat pulldowns. If you use a connecting bar, the stronger muscle tends to over compensate for the other. With single arm, there’s no excuse.

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shadow trick?