165- Bulk or Cut?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

^ got your attention didnt I? =D

Hello T-Nation!! Long time reader, first time poster. I’m well aware that my life story is less than interesting, but i’m hoping that given my background it will be easier to answer my question. plus, i’m narcisstic.

Im in high school, skinny, all that. Athletic background is lots of soccer, track, and Tae Kwon Do. My parents have always been very anti-weight training, so ive done loads of bodyweight work for the last 2 years (which is how i found T-Nation in the first place…the ‘Death by Bodyweight’ article, good stuff)

Last year at the end of track my coach said i should definately look into weight training as I was the only 135 pound sprinter at state, and his recommendation finally convinced my parents to let me join a gym. Angels sang, a beam of light shone from the heavens, and I printed out and followed religously the ‘Total Body Training’ program, by Chad Waterbury I believe.

By the end of summer I had gained 20 pounds but had to take a break from that during the fall soccer season. Over the winter I joined our school’s BFS (bigger faster stronger training program) and have since gained an additional 10 pounds which i’m assuming is mostly muscle since I can still see the outline of my abs (insert your own obligatory shoe joke).

…Now for the actual point of my post…

1)Ive read on this site that BFS is good for beginners but has some flaws,
I sure don’t consider myself anything but a beginner, but if anyone could tell me what flaws those are so I could customize the program to fix that I would definatley appreciate it.

  1. My main reason for training is speed (though looking a bit better isnt too painful either) - assuming that the force for running comes all from the midsection and legs, and assuming upper body muscle will be extra weight to carry, can anyone see a possible imbalance I’m setting myself up for by not training my upper body very much? (just benching and rowing)

  2. Most leg movements seem to be training the muscles that push when running, is there anything that will help with recoiling the leg/lifting it faster for the next step?

Also, thanks a ton to everybody who’s written anything on this site in the last two years, Ive learned so much from it…informative, funny, brilliant.

2

you mentioned some extra weight to carry? What’s up with that. I dont see sprinters with underdeveloped upper body, do you. Inplement stuff like chins and pull-ups.

3

thanks, I remember seeing a video here with Ben Johnson benching 400…no question about upper body developement in sprinters, actually the reason Ive been holding off on the pullups is that the major antagonist exercises for those are overhead presses ( I think), which are not allowed in our school gym. Perhaps handstand pushups would work though…

4

[quote]Ekalavya wrote:
overhead presses ( I think), which are not allowed in our school gym. [/quote]

??? What? LOL.
Is there any specific reason for this?

5

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
Ekalavya wrote:
overhead presses ( I think), which are not allowed in our school gym.

??? What? LOL.
Is there any specific reason for this?[/quote]

if you think thats funny I should post a list of our school gym rules…you’d die laughing. yea they expect us to forget we’re actually holding a heavy object above our head and oh I dont know…drop it. Given some high school kids youll see in a weightroom though it almost sounds reasonable.

6

[quote]Ekalavya wrote:
jehovasfitness wrote:
Ekalavya wrote:
overhead presses ( I think), which are not allowed in our school gym.

??? What? LOL.
Is there any specific reason for this?

if you think thats funny I should post a list of our school gym rules…you’d die laughing. yea they expect us to forget we’re actually holding a heavy object above our head and oh I dont know…drop it. Given some high school kids youll see in a weightroom though it almost sounds reasonable.[/quote]

So don’t do them at school. Find a tree or go to the park and use the swings or somethin’. Chins and pull-ups are basic bilders.

7

Damn. I was expecting that this thread might help me boost my forum self esteem. Guess not :frowning:

8

Regarding upper body and sprinting, the lats are actually very important to develop as this will help in your arm swing (which helps to propel you forward). I would definitely include pull up/chin up variations in your workouts.