Teen's Road to Physique Competition

Training Training Logs
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So If I am reading this correctly, there is three “upper body” based days with two compounds + Assistance, and two “lower body days” with two compounds +assistance?

It REALLY seems to me that the back is GREATLY neglected in this program, unless I Am really missing something. I think this is a BIG reason you are lacking thickness through the upper torso! I mean you do deadlifts 2x a week, but where are the heavy rows? You should have equal or more back work compared to chest, and a balance of heavy vertical and horizontal rows!

From what it looks like, this program is REALLY in balanced and will NOT give you the results you are looking for! I hope I am just misunderstanding, and if I am then great! If I am correct, then I will help you design an entirely new workout program! This is very simple to do, and I would recommend hitting each bodypart once every 4-5 days, I will design a program like this for you in my next post!

So we will come back to your workout routine after, because I need more input from YOU in order to help you design a new one (if you are even into me doing that for you, its your call). I strongly recommend we switch it up though!

So, workouts aside, lets get to the rest of the routine! This is a “mock protocol” of how I would do things were I in your shoes! This protocol will include everything BUT the workout, for the reasons in the above paragraph! You can chose to follow my protocol to the “T”, or you can take bits and pieces from it as you like. Please let me know what you have decided after reading it (and after reading the mock workout I create) so I can continue to help you tweak variables after you start progressing!

A “Recomp” is really meant for somebody who fits into one of the following categories… 1. Just getting back into the sport …2. has EXCEPTIONAL control over body and is VERY In tune with body…(even then I Don’t like it)…3. Using a LOT of powerful AAS…

Since you do not fit into these categories (even if you did I Wouldn’t recommend it), we will go with a VERY lean bulk! I am VERY grateful that you have taken the time to figure out your maintenance calories! This is great! I Also love how you have taken a high carb low fat approach, as I really recommend this! So, lets get started on this “lean bulk protocol”

I’d start it out at 2850 calories! I would up the protein a small amount to 1.25g/lb ish. Lets put protein at about 180. Lets peg those fats at 70, just like you had them! That gets us to 1350 calories, so the remaining 1500 we will put into our carbs! That gets us 375 carbs!

So I Would start out your bulk at 175 protein, 375 carbs, and 70 fats! Those are nice, round, easy to hit numbers and I think will be a perfect start! As you progress each week, I will help you adjust these numbers up/down appropriately. THE IMPORTANT thing is to hit EXACTLY the calories we decide upon each day, so you and I can see EXACTLY what “X” amount of food does to your body, so we can make adjustments accordingly!

So, we’re at 2850 calories with 175P/375C/70F!
Now let’s talk food choices! I am not going to write out a 4-6 meal plan for you, but I WILL if you want me to! I’m not sure if you are willing to eat the same thing every day! If you are, which I recommend (Atleast to start out) for the best results, then let me know and we will design a meal plan!

My thinking behind this is simple: right now you talk about using iifym… You will never hit your full potential or get the best results using IIFYM. It’s important to hit your macros, but take advantage of nutrient timing, and good clean foods!

MY RECCOMENDATION is for you to pick 3-4 proteins, 2-3 carb sources, and 2-4 fat sources, and make a 5-6 meal daily plan. This plan can say, for example, “meal 3, pre workout: 40g protein source, 100g carb source, 0-5g fat source” and then you would pick from your list of carbs and protein! This way, you always hit your macros using the perfect foods, but have a little variety!
Here is a recommendation, feel free to respond with what you would rather do, and we can tweak it together until you are happy and I approve!
your carb source list should include low GI fiborous carbs only, except for ONE “fast carb” or high GI carb (think “white”), such as white bagels or white rice for post workout

Proteins: Protein powder, egg whites (raw or cooked), chicken, LEAN fish
Carbs(main carbs): Brown rice, Steel cut oats,
Carbs(post workout only): white bagels, white rice
Fats: Olive oil, organic natural butter, fish oils, avocado

Now the following meal plan is not set in stone, and we can tweak to your liking! Here are some rules that I choose to follow and I STRONGLY recommend that you follow and take into account! IF you don’t understand the logic behind one of these “rules”, then feel free to ask!

  1. Majority of carbs in 1-2 meals PRE Workout and 1-2 meals POST Workout.
  2. Carbs CUT OFF after meal 3 or 4.
  3. Majority of fats AFTER cut off, with about 50% in last meal.
  4. In meals with over 10g carbs, keep fats under 5g.

With those “Rules” in mind, here is the meal plan, using the carb/protein/fat sources I listed above!

Meal one: 30g protein source, 90g carb source, 5g fat source
Meal two: 30g protein source, 140g carb source, 5g fat source (PRE WO)
Meal three: 30g protein, 145g carb source (pwo carb source), 2.5g fat(P WO)
Meal four: 30g protein, 10g fat source
Meal five: 30g protein, 17.5g fat source
Meal six: 30g protein, 30g fat source

A meal plan like this takes advantage of nutrient timing and hits your macros while sticking to the best foods for your physique!

Now we have your diet DIALED IN PERFECTLY, so lets move on… Workouts will be discussed in the next post.
When it comes to cardio, I usually recommend 1-2 HIIT or 2-3 LISS sessions per week EVEN when bulking, preferably say 1 HIIT session every 5 days or so, perhaps on the rest day. HOWEVER, you say your job has you on your feet 8 hours a day. I Think this is sufficient cardio for you on a lean bulk, and therefore I do not suggest adding cardio. PLEASE elaborate more on your job so I Can be sure this is the correct move for you!

Please “weigh in” every morning, or every second morning at the worst. I’m taking the time to help you and keep helping you DAILY, so PLEASE take the time to weigh in daily! *** When you weigh in, it absolutely MUST be in the morning BEFORE eating or drinking anything, and if possible AFTER going to the bathroom*** This ENSURES that I am getting an accurate weigh in from you, so that we can adjust your calories and whatnot perfectly for your situation! If I know that “X” amount of calories is adding weight at a rate of “y”, then I Can update your diet plan accordingly!

There are some more “advanced” protocols I Am going to suggest you implementing for short times, but I would like to nail down the BASICS and see how dedicated you are to doing this before I get into those things.
SO basically, if you put the effort into this, and adopt this protocol and the workout protocol I Suggest or something similar, then we will take it to the next level and start implementing some advanced shit!

I know you feel when you over analyze you spin your wheels. This CAN be true if you cant make up your mind! BUT, right now, if you CHOOSE to accept it, you have someone with a non biased view willing to help make these decisions for you! This means you wont be stuck changing your mind and wont end up “spinning them wheels”! This way I can get technical and analytical about your workouts, I Can learn from the experience and improve my teaching skills, and YOU Can benefit greatly in regards to your physique and knowledge, WIN WIN!

SO yeah, if this goes well in a few days we will get into the more advanced protocols if I Think you will be able to handle them!

My next post will be my suggested workout protocol!

Please remember, I am not a PRO trainer! I am giving the best advice that I can, and am doing my best to help you reach your goals! This is what I would do if I were in your shoes, and I Am doing pretty well in regards to my physique! Bodybuilding and teaching are my two passions in life, and I Really enjoy helping others reach there goals, PLUS it helps me learn! It’s always easier to help some one else than it is yourself!

I ask for nothing in return for my help, except perhaps a short one paragraph testament IF you get the results you wanted using MY protocol! I know my advice is basic, but the trick is learning to IMPLEMENT the basics and RELATE them to YOUR training and dietary needs, and its always easier with outside help, which is why even pros have trainers/coaches!

So again, (Sorry for the long post brother!), Please read this post thoroughly, AND my next post regarding workout plan thoroughly, then make your own post letting me know if you A) plan to follow my protocol exactly as is B) if you would like to discuss a few things and tweak them to your liking or C) appreciate the advice, but would like to figure it out on your own.

As long as you let me know the EXACT protocol you choose to use, wether it be made by me or made by you based on a combo of my advice and your own knowledge, I am still willing to help you tweak it as you progress and give advice! However, I think taking the plunge and following my program “to a T” is definitely worth a 4-8 week trial to see where it takes you!

Goodluck brother I look forward to seeing you at a nice lean 180+

PS. Going for my morning cardio now, will return to do your purposed workout protocol in about an hour!

@pitbull97

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Congratulations on the improvements, man! I think it’s great that you stuck with it and saw results. I’ve given you advice before, so I won’t write you a book here. I’ll just say a couple things:

Enjoy lifting and enjoy eating. If you want to improve your physique, do what you were doing for those results, but chase numbers/weight with the one big movement of the day to satisfy your mind/heart. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

This is a game of years, not months or weeks or days. That being said, here’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned:

You have to believe in what you’re doing and you have to love what you’re doing. You will always get results from what you WANT to do as compared to doing something just because. If you want to do what you’re doing in the gym, you’ll push yourself and add intensity. If you dont, you won’t.

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Your back is actually pretty good and I don’t see anything lagging particularly in your physique; I just think you need to add more size overall, which will simply take time and consistency.

The posing needs work and it’s common for people to not know how to pose in the beginning. After watching the video, from what I can remember of it while it’s not playing is you need to flare your lats far more in front and rear double biceps.

You’re not turning to the front enough with your side poses, like not nearly enough. You should be twisting to the front as much as possible while staying as tight as possible and keeping the shoulders nearly squared off. I know there are all these people out there who hit these off-the-wall side poses with the featured side in a downward position and the opposite side hiked up, but all this does is give the appearance of narrowness. You’ll also see this with hips sticking out and the upper body hunched forward, leaving nothing pleasing about the pose. You’re supposed to sit down on the front leg and put tension on the quads and have the hamstring pressing against the rear leg.

Don’t stick your hips back in rear poses. This makes you appear smaller and doesn’t allow you to flex your glutes. You are able to spread your lats and flex your glutes without doing that. Actually, you can’t flex your hamstrings at all while hiking your hips back and sticking your glutes out.

Keep your quads flexed in ALL front poses. You didn’t do that with the abdominal pose and if you’re going to to have one leg forward on this pose, that has to be flexed too.

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Hey buddy this post will contain my purposed workout routine for YOU. First though, some other things to consider.
This will be a VERY long post and probably take me an hour to write. Youre welcome buddy.

-I didn’t include veggies in the sample diet protocol because I don’t count veggies, don’t think I don’t eat them! I Suggest you get em in whenever you can with any meal you’d like!

-The advice and protocols I am putting forth are BODYBUILDING focused, not powerlifting. I’m a bodybuilder through and through and couldn’t care less about my numbers! That being said, it’s not hard to edit things and put a bit of a focus on numbers!
Also, you can try out my “hypertrophy/bodybuilding” sample workout, then we can look together online and find a great powerlifting program to alternate with every few months!

Here is my sample workout protocol. Again, same as the diet, you can take it as is, edit it, or ignore it! But if you want my help, you gotta let me know EXACTLY what you are doing so I Can help you tweak things based on results!

This assumes that you can hit the gym any day you want, and assumes you will be happy with one rest day every fifth day.

First, I will outline the muscle groups. Then we will get more in depth with suggested exercises, rep ranges, set amounts, and special techniques!
Muscles are listed in order of there importance/focus on that day! If the muscles are between the same “/” marks, they are of EQUAL importance/focus that day. For example in day one, front and side Delts are of equal importance and focus.

Day one: Chest/ Front and Side Delts
Day two: Back/Rear Delts/ Traps
Day three: Biceps and Triceps/ Forearms
Day four: Legs, Shoulders, traps
Day five: REST BABY

You can do abs training how YOU choose. You may add in light abs training daily, train it heavily on rest day, or train it every other day moderately. I choose to do it EOD moderately with two exercises of 4-5 sets each and a few planks.
Calves are the same story. You can choose to do em every day, EOD, or just on leg day. Use appropriate volume and intensity depending how often you choose to do them. I recommend doing them in conjunction with abs EOD, but that’s YOUR call.

DAY ONE in depth…
So this day is a CHEST focus, with some pretty light front and side delt work. There are no press’s for the shoulders in this day, just some raises/iso work.

This day starts with TWO main compound chest exercises. I usually switch it up from these choices: Flat or Incline dumbbell or barbell press’s, Machine chest press (flat or incline). These exercises are performed for 4-5 sets. Start with a weigh that you can do for 14 or so reps, and each set add weight and decrease the rep amount. Your sets may look like this. 14, 12, 10, 8, 7. I try to not go under 6 reps, and not to drop more than 2 reps per set.

Next, we move on to dips. Once you can do 4 sets of 12 dips, start adding weight to a weight belt while performing these! Exercises where YOUR BODY is what is moving, instead of the WEIGHT moving, are very good to perform regularly and more effective than other exercises! Think squats vs leg press, or pullups vs lat pulldowns.

So we’ve done our 2 starting compounds, and our dips. Now we move on to our cable flies. We do 4 sets of incline cable flies, and 4 sets of decline cable flies. Start out with a weight you can do for about 20+ reps, and decrease reps and increase weight each time, I try to stay always above 12 reps. An example may be 22, 18, 16, 14.
You MAY finish with seated machine pec flies, OR slight incline DUMBBELL flies on a bench. DO these for 3 sets, same rep schemes as the prior flies.

Now we are going to do our light shoulder work. Let’s start with Lateral raises, we will do 6 sets of these! I like to pyramid up the first 5 sets like normal, then the last set do light weight for like 30+ reps for that wicked pump! Try and stay high rep for these, I Start out around 22 reps and end around 14, then the last set for like 30.
Next we will do front raises, just 2 sets is my recommendation, but you can do 3, or even skip them all together if you feel your front delts are over worked. Pyramid up as usual.
The last shoulder exercise is upright rows. Do 3-4 sets of these, increasing weight decreasing reps as usual. I Would start about 16-18 reps, decreasing to about 10-12. Shoulders have more slow twitch fibers remember, so we REALLY want the high reps!
That’s all for today!

Day Two in depth…

Today is a main focus on the BACK, with some light Rear Delt work and trap work.

I recommend to start out with bent over T-bar rows and bent over barbell rows, these will really add the thickness to your back that YOU are really lacking (no offense, everyone has weak points!). Do these for 5 sets each, same rep scheme as the first two chest movements in day one.

Next, lets do DEADLIFTS! You may want to start with deadlifts if big numbers is your thing, but I like to put them in at this point. This is up to you.
We will do 3-5 deadlifts, again your call. I’m not going to tell you how to do deadlifts, as you mentioned you are a number chaser, and I am not. I don’t want to deprive you of your joy of those big numbers, so do your deadlifts how you want to, and when in the workout you want to!

Next we will do TWO vertical pulls. These can be two types of chin-ups/pull-ups, or lat pulldowns of various types. This is up to you. Each one should be 4-5 sets, starting at around 14-16 per set ending 8-10 per set.
The last back exercise we will do is the straight arm push down, similar to the tricep exercise except the arms are STRAIGHT, so it isolates the lats. I like to do these with barely any rest between sets for 3 sets and go for a huge pump. I do my reps between 30 and 15 per set, OR I go for a 100 rep total resting as needed.

Now we will move on to rear delts and traps. NOTE* you may want to superset your traps with deadlifts, which is fine if you want to do it that way instead. I Will assume you DO NOT want to do this, as you chase numbers and I Will right out this option.
Start with 5 sets of face pulls! Starting around 24 reps per set, ending around 14.
Next we will do 5 sets of barbell shrugs, starting around 30 reps ending around 16 reps.
We will finish this off with either dumbbell rear delt flies or machine reverse pec dec rear delt flies. Your call. 5 sets, same rep range as the face pulls, maybe slightly less reps.
That’s it for today!

Day Three in depth…

Today the focus is ARMS, both Biceps and Triceps with a secondary focus on forearms. I have some unique arm training ideas that I learned from Ben Pakulski, such as isolation holds in a fully shortened position! IF you want to learn more about the science behind iso holds in a fully shortened position AND activation techniques, look up his vids on youtube! Activation techniques is some of the advanced stuff that I will get into detail with you about IF you decide you do want me to help you and after things go well for a week or so. So forget about activation techniques for now, but we will utilize is holds in fully shortened position. Its a lot to explain the science behind it, so either trust me or look up Ben’s vids!

We alternate Tricep then Bicep exercises on this day.

We start with Close grip bench press, our only compound for the day. Do 4-5 sets of this, and we are trying to get heavy weight in here. Start your sets around 12 reps, and end around 5-6 reps.
Next we are going to do bicep curls on a cable, in a unique way. Put the cable at the HIGHEST point it can be at. Then stand beside it and hold your arm out towards the where the cable is anchored while holding the handle. Raise your arm so it is not out straight but about halways between out straight and straight up. Walk away from the machine until there is tension, and curl with the ROM ending with your hand behind your head! We will do 5 sets of this, starting at about 18 reps per set, ending around 10. For the last three sets, we will do an ISO hold every 4 sets or so for about 5-8 seconds each hold, at the end of the range of motion when bicep is shortest (when hand is behind head). IF YOUD LIKE I Can link you a video of this exercise cause my explanation is shit I know.

For our second tricep exercise, we will do Tricep rope pushdowns, the normal kind, facing the cable standing straight up two handed pushdowns. 5 sets, starting around 20 reps ending around 10.

Second bicep exercise will be dumbbell curls. 5 sets, starting around 16 reps per set, ending around 6-8 reps per set.

Third triceps exercise will be overhead extentions facing away from where cable is anchored with a straight bar. Again, I can link a vid for this or ANY exercise you don’t understand. Perform this for 4 sets, starting with 14 reps ending with about 8 reps.

Third biceps exercise will be preacher curls, machine or free weight. 5 sets, weight increases as sets decrease. Same rep scheme as dumbbell curls, do the fifth set as a drop set. A drop set is where you do a set for say 8 reps, decrease weight by say 40%, do 8 more reps, decrease by 60%, do 8 more reps. You can customize your drop sets however you want, really push yourself with this as its the last direct bicep exercise.
Next we will do reverse curls for forearms, as long as you really focus on forearms then that is what this exercise will be working! Just use a light barbell with a reverse grip and curl, hence the name reverse curl. do 3-4 sets of this, high reps like 26-16.
Last exercise is for triceps. Take a cable from the highest anchor point with NO attatchment, just the clip. Grap the cable in hand with clip just under the hand to solidify grip. Do one handed triceps extentions by the side, very similar to rope triceps pushdowns. DO NOT TAKE ANY REST BETWEEN THESE SETS. Just alternate right side, left side, no rest. Each time you do right side AND left side is one set. no rest between sets OR switching sides. Start at like 12 reps per set, and this time we are DECREASING WEIGHT and INCREASING REPS each set. The idea here is a hyyyuuuggee pump! This entire exercise is one big burnout technique that I invented (I’m sure someone else has done it before though).
That’s it for today folks!

Day four in depth…

The focus today is on LEGS and also on a HEAVY shoulder press, with some light trap work.

We start the day with a heavy barbell or dumbbell shoulder press. Do five sets, start with a weight you can do for 12-16, and end with a weight you can do for 6-8.
Next we will do upright rows, 5 sets, same rep scheme as on day 1.

Now we will do some heavy squats! As you are a numbers guy somewhat (you mentioned this), I Will not tell you how to structure your squats, just do 3-5 sets (more if you desire) And do them well!

Now we will move on to leg press OR hack squats. Your call. 4-5 sets, start at about 18 reps per set end at about 8 reps per set maybe even 6.

Now we will do some heavy lunges, I like doing backward stepping lunges. REMEMBER, leaning forward or backward can put the emphasis on quads or glues. Go for 3-5 sets starting around 18 ending around 10.

Next is quad extensions, 5 sets, starting around 20 reps ending around 12.
same for hamstring curls.
I would also do seated AND standing calf raises in this workout, regardless of how often you choose to work calves. 5 sets each, typical rep scheme.

That’s everything!

I know this is an extremely long post, and really in depth. I tried to explain as best I Could how I Would do things! Try it out and see where it gets you if youd like, or just take parts of it, its really up to you!

Let me know exactly what you decide to do and I will try and help you update and tweak things as you progress!

This is a high volume routine. This is similar to my routine with a bit less volume, and a similar routine has worked wonders for me. IF you choose to follow this, we will keep a close eye on how you feel, and if youre not recovering 100% we will cut things back!

So yeah if you decide you do want my in depth help, respond with a post outlining what your diet plan will be and workout plan ,or you can just say you want to use my template, or you can tell me what parts of the template you would like to change! As long as I understand what you are doing, and as long as you weigh in/ check in daily, I can help you as you progress towards your goal.

Remember, i’m not an “Expert” and I’m not a pro, but I have some good ideas and I am really good at breaking things down analytically. I’m currently helping 4 guys and 1 girl in this fashion, 3 over the computer and one in real life. They are all doing pretty well! I really enjoy helping people like this, so its a win win for everyone!

Goodluck brother, let me know what you decide!

IF you choose to continue without my help, I TOTALLY understand its all good!

125

yesterday was an atypical day of eating given the fact it was my birthday and dinner wasn’t typical. Usually, dinner is where I will have about 2-3 servings of veggies. Is that enough? Probably not, but I regularly get them in.

126

Wow, first let me greatly thank you for even taking the time on a random like me to invest all your time and effort into your posts of knowledge you have given to me.

With that, let me go more into my program so you can better understand what I am doing so that we are on a clear page together because I feel that my back is not neglected if you were to see my assistance protocol.

Here we go:

To premise everything I want you to know the guiding principles of my assistance work so that it all makes crystal clear sense. My assistance work is programmed in accordance with the guidelines of Dr. Mike Israetel if you are unfamiliar with his work I would highly recommend checking out Renaissance periodization to see more of what he is about. Anyway, he takes a phasic approach when it comes to hypertrophy, dividing the phases into mesocycles. over the course of a 4-week mesocycle volume is increased via the addition of more sets or an increase in weight. Reps, for this first mesocycle, fall between 8 and 20. For the first 2 weeks of the mesocycle, you take the sets to 3 reps from failure with the following two going two from failure and one from failure respectively, following that up with a de-load on week 5. Over the course of the mesocycle you start with the minimum effective volume and based on your recovery you add sets/weight to increase up to your maximum recoverable volume the final week before the deload. I am currently in week 1 of the first mesocycle so the volume is at its lowest point and intensity as well, going three from failure on all my sets, but it ramps up during the mesocycle as I laid out above. With that said we can now look at my assistance work.

For day 1 I hit a volume bench and overhead press day according to the program as you can see. my assistance work:
incline DB flye- 3 sets
one arm DB row- 3 sets
DB side lateral raise- 3 sets
slant board sit ups- 3 sets

Day 2 High bar squat and sumo deadlift day
leg curls- 3 sets
seated calf raises- 6 sets

Day 3- Testing overhead press day and incline bench
overhand pull-up- 3 sets
wide grip pull down- 3 sets
cable row- 3 sets
cable face pull- 3 sets
hanging knee raises- 3 sets

Day 4- conventional deadlift and front squat day
45 degree back raise- 3 sets
leg press- 3 sets
calves on leg press- 6 sets

Day 5- bench and close grip bench
EZ curl- 3 sets
DB skull crushers- 3 sets
DB shrug- 3 sets
normal grip pulldown- 3 sets
machine crunch- 3 sets

Remember these are my starting volumes, the volume will ramp up based on my recovery over the course of the next 4 weeks before the deload in either the addition of sets or weight or both.

That is my current training and now after a full explanation of it, I would love to hear your opinion based on this because I truly am enjoying my training right now. Love to have a back and forth here.

@shreddedbaby

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Now, to keep things organized, I will address the diet in a separate post, just so my thoughts don’t get jumbled.

Given my current lifestyle and what not I feel I cannot adequately give full attention to prepping meals as I am currently living at home with my family for the summer and do not have access to the same foods every day like you suggest to use to create a rigid meal plan. Although possibly more optimal, I do not have the resources, ATM, to attempt this successfully. Now, when I go away to college in 3 short weeks I will have access to the same foods EVERYDAY, and something like the plan you suggested would be more plausible. That is why iifym works so well for me at home because it allows me to fit in what my dad cooks for dinner, which is the next day’s lunch. It allows me to fit it in. It gives me accountability. Like you said, it may not be optimal or the best right now, but given my current situation, it is the best I can do. I do not have access to the same foods every day as our meals constantly changed, my family does not live the same lifestyle I do, so to ask 4 people to change to convience me is, unfortunately, unrealistic so I have to make do with what I have. However, like I mentioned, when I go to college this can be done as the dining hall is easy to navigate and eating the same things every day wouldn’t be an issue. Everything you wrote out, the macros, the nutrient timing, it all makes perfect sense in practice but I cannot dedicate myself to that right now as I do not have the resources to make that happen. Once I go to college I can instill a more rigid approach like this. Would love to work with you still on something like this and hear what you think.

@shreddedbaby

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Honestly, I cannot thank you enough for the enlightening words you always seem to give whenever you post into my thread. I have taken so much from what you have said to me and definitely owe a lot of my “success” to your guidance in part.

I truly appreciate it, because reading back through this log I can be quite a headcase and it is nice to have someone who keeps ya grounded through the process you and @robstein have been godsends.

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129

Yes, I am definitely a noob when it comes to posing. Any resources you know of to at least help me get the basics of posing down?

Also, from a nutritional standpoint, do you think a lean bulk is in order or sticking to my current maintenance is a better option or am I just wasting my time doing that? Always respect your opinion so I would love to hear it.

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130

Just to give another example of today’s meals.

Breakfast
60g of oatmeal
1 scoop of vanilla whey protein
24g of jelly
1 apple

Lunch
221g of chicken breast
1 gatorade whey protein bar

dinner
6 oz of london broil
1 sweet potato
383g of broccoli (who said I didn’t eat my veggies lol)
42g of italian bread

Snack
1 pint of half baked low fat frozen yogurt Ben and Jerry’s

Macros for the day
162g of protein
337g of carbs
51g of fat

My weight this morning was 152.4

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The periodization aspect of that program seems cool. Perhaps more complicated than you actually need, but I doubt that’s going to hurt you.

Something to understand is that if trainers / experts said the best way to progress is through simply increasing the weight and number of sets over time using maximum effort, then how would they make any money?? So they create these complicated programs, embellishing and exaggerating points to make the program seem more effective, when in reality I’m sure you could get the same results through maximum effort and progression in form, reps, and weight while staying in appropriate rep ranges.

That being said, if you are getting good results from this program, then no reason to change it up!
When I Say that, I mean the periodization part, and the “theory” behind it. I still think you are neglecting your back with this program, even with your assistance exercises!

I see you are hitting your back with somewhat of a volume, but you are really neglecting the exercises that I Feel really contribute to thickness and back hypertrophy! Mainly, T-bar rows, Bent over barbell rows, etc.
IF you are really set on this program, I would add either T-bar row OR bent over barbell row into day 5, OR add both and remove cable rows.
I would also do whichever of those exercises you picked FIRST or both first if you choose both! Really make the FOCUS of this day your back, with chest and OHP as a secondary thing!
I know this doesn’t really fit into your “testing ohp and bench press” thing though!

A second idea is that I See you have two deadlift and two squat days! Perhaps you could switch the secondary exercises on one of these days, from legs to tbar rows and bent over bb rows?

Honestly I am not a big fan AT ALL of this program in general, but I am a thoroughbred bodybuilder and don’t care about numbers at all!

I think if you want to focus on mass, you should take the “Sample protocol” I have posted, and edit it to fit your goals more!

This program hits EVERYTHING ATLEAST twice every 8 days, squats twice every 8 days, deadlifts twice every 8 days, OHP once, and bench press twice.
I know the shoulder volume MAY seem daunting, but the “light” days are REALLY light, just focusing on volume.

You COULD remove these “light” shoulder days and replace them with whatever you are lagging in! Since you are lagging in back thickness, maybe you could switch up some of the extra shoulder volume with back, or maybe you want to work on arms, or whatever. I find shoulders really make or break a physique so I recommend the higher volume there to start but your call!

TO SUM THINGS UP, here are my real issues with this program!

  1. No real “Arm” focus, severely lacking volume for arms.

  2. No real “back focus”, while you are training your back only slightly less than chest, back should realistically be trained MORE than chest. You have TWO DAYS that have a MAIN FOCUS on chest, and NO days that have a main focus on back, for you right now back is purely secondary, and I think this is a HUGE mistake!

  3. Not enough focus on side and rear delts, ESPECIALLY compared to all the front delt focus you’re getting with all this pressing. IN ANY program, you really need to single out your side delts and somewhat single out your rear delts too, NOT with just 3-5 sets a week either…

  4. Basically it seems this program focus’s on numbers and big lifts, with a big focus on chest, legs, front delts, and strength. Your back, (Especially thickness), your arms, and your side delts (even rear delts a bit) are REALLY being neglected here! This program seems good for someone focusing on strength, in the big 4, but NOT SO for someone focusing on bodybuilding!

I honestly would find/create a new program if bodybuilding is your main goal! If powerlifting is your main goal, I’m not the best guy to talk to about your program!

I Will address diet next post.

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I understand (or can imagine) the difficulty of living at home and not having the resources or cash to diet properly.

That being said, my diet (even when consuming 4600 cals + ad ay) of all clean foods costs me between 7 and 10 dollars a day, or 210 to 300 a MONTH. This is not very expensive!!

You will get out what you put into bodybuilding, and for most of us, without VERY STRICT focus on diet and very strict rigid guidelines, we simply WILL NOT meet the goals we desire.

It seems you will be able to step up your diet when you get to college! with only 3 weeks to wait, this is definitely not a bad thing!

If you are serious though, try and eliminate things like cookies and ben and jerries. You speak of having ambitions to compete, well I have the same ambitions, and I put A LOT of energy and dedication into my diet!

When I Started having a perfect diet, I had to make it the NUMBER ONE priority in my life to make it work! This was difficult having a child, but we were not living in the same city at the time so I made it work. You really have to be willing to put your diet BEFORE EVERYTHING if you want to get the best results.
After time and experience properly dieting, then you will be able to fit it into the
lifestyle better, but to start, its difficult!

If you want to stick to IIFYM till college, that’s fine. But lets step it up a little bit from what you were doing!

Recomping is nearly impossible without steroids, (even with steroids very difficult), and that’s WITH an absolutely perfectly ideal diet! So lets put your focus into bulking, I STRONGLY feel you will be spinning your wheels trying to recomp.
Lets at least set a better caloric target, so you can start to gain some weight!

IF you think about it, the diet I suggested pretty much IS iifym, with limited food sources.

So right now, stick to iifym(till college), but lets hit a better macro target for a LEAN CLEAN bulk, and lets restrict food choices a LITTLE BIT, progress can be taken slowly, one step at a time!

So lets change your macros to exactly 2800 calories, 175P/385C/60F

This is a SMALL increase, so you can slowly add muscle with no or minimal fat gain! Whether you gain 10lb of muscle with only half of 1lb of fat, or that same 10lb but 7lb muscle and 3lb fat, will be ENTIRELY dependant on WHAT you eat to make those calories, and WHEN AND HOW MUCH We increase those calories.

I strongly suggest following this approach by moderately increasing calories, starting at 2800 and when you stall out we will increase maybe 200 at a time from there depending on muscle and fat gain.

So we have your calories and macros now, lets eliminate just a few foods!
Let’s start with eliminating desserts! No more ice cream, cookies etc! If you want a sweet treat, try protein powder with peanut butter and some artificial sweetener whipped up in a bowl or something similar, its delicious. Lets also ELIMINATE sugar or ATLEAST limit it to like 25g a day MAX. These small changes will help!

so, to sum things up…

  1. Stop trying to recomp, if your maintenance is 2500, start with 2800 and we will increase slowly based on progress. This is the most important change you can make in my opinion!

  2. Hit the new macros I made for you, shouldn’t be hard considered what you are already hitting!

  3. Limit sugar to 25g a day or less, and eliminate all traditional dessert foods! IT can be a little bit of effort, but you can search up many healthy and sugar free recipes for a sweet treat! The effort to make a sugar free snack is less than the effort to burn the fat off later!

  4. Try to eat a meal containing atleast a third of your daily fat if not more with 25-40g protein before bed, this will help keep you anabolic at night! Some people think this is a minimal benefit, but I Think it all adds up! The fat slows down digestion so you got something in there for a longer period of time!

5 Lets make just these few small changes, and we will step things up more when you get to college!

  1. Start including 5g fat from fish oils every day! Just this can make a difference!
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Lets break things down simply.

  1. Step one is adjust calories and macros as I suggested. Limiting sugar and eliminating dessert foods is optional but recommended.

  2. Once calorie adjustments have been agreed to, lets work on your workout program!
    I really think it is lagging (See the points in my post regarding it), and I think the best option is to make an entirely new program!

  3. You could take the protocol that I recommended and either adopt it as is, or make changes to personalize it. This is my number one recommendation!

IF you don’t want to use that program at all, why don’t YOU tell ME the outline of the program you want designed, and ill make it! For example, you could tell me you want to hit the gym 5 days a week, you want to focus on hypertrophy but not completely neglect hitting numbers, and you want to hit all bodyparts evenly.
I could then make a program based on this.

IF you want to find a different pre made program, here are MY guidelines that you should make sure to adhere to (in my opinion)

-Hits each bodypart once every 3-5 days, so 1.5-2x per week!

-Has a day that focus’s mainly on back, one for chest, one for legs, one for arms.

-I prefer to split up shoulders between chest and back days, because rear delts go with the back movements,(think rows), and front delts go with presses, so might aswell throw side delts in with chest too.

-Make sure there are ATLEAST as many back
exercises as chest, if not MORE, I would recommend 1-2 more for back than chest.

-make sure you have a good mix of vertical pulls (think pullups, lat pulldowns), and horizontal pulls (think bent over rows, cable rows).

-Make sure to isolate side and rear delts, I would recommend 12+ sets for side delts and 8+ for rear delts each week. Front delts get hit a LOT through pressing movements, and also carry the bulk in shoulder presses, so you DO NOT need to isolate these, or if you do, just once a week 2-3 reps tops.

-DO NOT neglect the arms. Sure for a powerlifter, your arms get hit plenty in big compound movements. I highly suggest an arm focused day, where the main focus is biceps and triceps, and you do 3-4 exercises for each for 4-5 sets each!On this “arms” day, you can add other minor groups like abs, calves, traps, forearms, anything that benefits from every day or every other day training, since arms day doesn’t have as much volume typically otherwise.

-I Would recommend NOT using a 7 day template. use a program that has 3-5 day split, and just repeat it adding in rest days when necessary. I like a 4 day split that repeats. I used to add a rest day every 5th day, but have since removed it because I Find I recover very very well.

I urge you to either severely edit your program or get a new one. I strongly suggest getting a new one over editing it, simply because a program can get really messy and unbalanced when editing too much!

You will do MUCH better in regards to bodybuilding and hypertrophy with a different program, in my opinion, this is the number one problem you have currently.

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation! I really enjoy helping other people, and also learning from those smarter than me! I will list a few names of guys on this forum whom I learn from, I Recommend that you go to there “Activity” log, and read all the posts that they have made, i learned a lot doing that! These guys are brickhead, the_mighty_stu, and robstien.

Check out my log if you want an idea of what I am doing for my cut, its called “SB’s road to 8%”

I don’t mind helping you any time man, especially because you seem really dedicated and into it! As long as you keep giving me daily responses, you will get my daily opinions on what you are doing, and my best ideas to help you progress!

Good luck brother, feel free to check out my threads also!

@pitbull97

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Here’s a great video series by Lee Labrada, one of the best posers ever! Very informative and easy to follow, perfect for covering the basics.

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Thank you. I’ll try to respond later.

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There are plenty of articles and You Tube channels out there with information about posing. But the best thing you can do is get someone to show in person, like real instruction.

You don’t need much above maintenance to grow actually, but if you want to be more aggressive with more some more fat gained, that’s an option as well. But once you are training a few years, aggressive bulks are not worth it, I believe.

If you ever need fine tuning, you can look for Stu and I. We are easy to find on the web.

Thank you.

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OK, I can understand your counterpoints completely to the program. I guess I am a bit weary of switching to a program with such a “pumpy” nature for lack of a better term. I am also a bit confused by the rep ranges. I get the sets are essentially pyramid sets except the few where the goal is a huge pump, but the rep ranges seem… well… odd. I see a lot of seemingly random numbers thrown around and it seems very loose in nature. Given my history of programs, I love direct structure and love seeing the progression, so something as loose in nature, as you have given, will leave me wondering if what I am doing is actually working. I agree completely with the principles that guide your program, the frequency, the volume, the need for more direct arm work, etc. It’s just not in my nature to go to the gym without a set plan of what I am going to hit for the day and have some sort of progression behind it. It appears that one just goes to the gym to get as much blood into the targeted muscle as possible with the program you outlined. And maybe that is the idea but knowing myself, it would not be something I could stick too and give my all too I do not think. Right now, to be completely honest with you, I love being able to hit my big lifts for numbers and then pump away volume on my secondaries. It gets me excited for the gym, it helps me enjoy it. It gives my workouts purpose, to me anyway. I train my main lifts for strength and hit my accessories as a bodybuilder would. Focusing on the stretch and squeeze and contraction. Utilizing the target muscles. I just find it really enjoyable right now. The program you laid out looks like it would be awesome to do and is probably more optimal for my goals but I know that after the first few weeks I would find myself back to my old habits of training how I do now. I guess I just like structure and maybe it was my misreading or misunderstanding but the outlined program feels a bit all over the place for me. I am a pain I know, just trying to be blatant with you so we are on the same page.

Hope all is well.

Thank you again for all your help!!

@shreddedbaby

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This all looks good to me, just have to put it into action. My biggest question would be how do you afford all that food for such a little price? Any chance I could get a glimpse at the grocery list of how you are buying all that food for so cheap? Would definitely help out!!

I will look to refine my diet and I have to admit it is lazy of me to include the junk food like I do, I guess that’s why I like IIFYM haha. But I will make it a point to get into the habit of reducing my sugar and cleaning up my diet in general.

When would you like me to start tracking with the macros you gave me and in turn report my bodyweight? Until then I will stick to my 2500 until we are definitely ago. so 175 protein, 385 carbs, and 60 fat. Got it! (once I get the ok to go ahead with those macros)

What would you suggest for that pre-bed meal that is 25-40g of protein and at least 20g of fat? Just looking for some ideas!

Can definitely add in 5 fish oils every day, will do!

@shreddedbaby

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I outlined a few of my concerns with the program in my post above so I will spare a repeat here, but my biggest concern is just the lack of structure in terms of a programmed progression. I just like to see the progression as well otherwise I feel I am just wasting my time. Is this the case with your program? Probably not, but it’s just my analytical nature to have everything pre-planned and given that this would be my first true hypertrophy program, I feel a bit uncomfortable going with such “wild” rep ranges. I like having a very organized plan and executing it. What can be tracked can measured and from there adjustments can be made. Let me know if I am diving waaaayyy to deep into this and overthinking it out the shoot, as I have a tendency to do that, but just voicing my concerns.

Thank you again, truly do appreciate all your help, I know I keep saying it, but each thank you is just as genuine as the last!

@shreddedbaby

Intervention, The T Nation Edition
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Awesome!! As always, thank you!