24 Yrs Old, 6', 167lbs.


Age:24
Height:6’0
Weight:167lbs

Hello!
I began my fitness journey in 2012, when I was 21, at crossfit. I trained there for about 1 1/2 years.
I then became a personal trainer at a commercial gym in 2014. This is when I began to lift with the goal of building a competition worthy physique.

The large majority of the information that I used to educate myself on lifting weights to shape my body has come from T Nation and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia to Modern Bodybuilding.

meal 1:
2 slices of Ezekiel bread
3 eggs
2oz cheese
peanut butter and jelly sandwich
meal 2:
6oz chicken breast
4oz rice
4ox sweet potato
2oz broccoli
meal 3:
6oz chicken breast
4oz rice
4ox sweet potato
2oz broccoli
meal 3:
6oz chicken breast
4oz rice
4ox sweet potato
2oz broccoli
meal 4:
6oz chicken breast
4oz rice
4ox sweet potato
2oz broccoli
meal 5:
2 slices of Ezekiel bread
3 eggs
2oz cheese
peanut butter and jelly sandwich

1RM Bench: 245lbs
1RM Deadlift: 365lbs
1RM Squat: 325lbs
1RM weighted Pull-Up: 95lbs + bodyweight

From a dietary standpoint, it looks like you’re getting the suggested 1.5g/lb of protein assuming your duplicate of meal 3 was just a typo and you’re actually getting 6 meals instead of 5. What are your goals from a competition standpoint? Physique competitor or Bodybuilder? Either way, a good 15-20 lbs of more mass would be ideal. Pics of the legs would be helpful too. Looks like the traps are the only thing lagging your other body parts. Your back taper is looking nice and arm development is good. Chest looks width-proportional to shoulders, but could benefit from some more fullness is the lower pec. A side shot to show upper chest mass would be good and a back shot would be helpful as well. Good progress so far!

Thanks for the feedback!
I am training to become a physique competitor. I tend to sacrifice upper trap work, usually because of time constraints due to flawed programming. I have recently began super setting single arm dumbbell shrugs with single arm lateral raises at the beginning of my shoulder days. This seems to stimulate my traps very well. My chest seems to grow rather slowly in comparison to my shoulders. I am considering replacing anterior deltoid isolation work with additional chest exercises on my shoulder specific days. Do you think this is a good choice?
I will take more recent pictures at different angles and post them.
I would greatly appreciate and additional information and/or resources that you can provide me!

here is a video of my back from 2 months ago

Good Core and lat development… Everything else seems to be lacking especially arms and traps. Just my 2 cents

Everything looks pretty sharp, you just need to focus on gaining over all size by gaining weight I would say.

I’ll be honest…I read the thread and thought that your pics would be underwhelming. And I’m happy to admit that I’m wrong. Nice job. That being said, I’m reluctant to give feedback without really knowing what your goal is. But, on the other hand, you asked us to “rate” you (which I suppose means that superimposing my own goals/bias is appropriate) so here it goes:

I agree that you should get bigger…or at least if I had your body that’s what I would try to do. You had more upper body muscle than I expected to see based on your stats, which usually means you likely have less lower body muscle than I’d expect. Your squat 1rm is very respectable based on your stats but your deadlift is suspiciously low…which means (I’m guessing) that your squat depth is poor. If I’m wrong, and you can break parallel with 325 then kudos, but a someone at your weight with a 365 deadlift who has a well developed back probably has chicken legs.

Solution: squat deeper and more frequently. Poor squat depth is either because of poor habit or poor mobility. If it’s a poor habit then the solution is simple: squat deeper. If it’s poor mobility, then the solution is a little trickier. What has helped me (with poor mobility) is box squats with progressively lower boxes over time, and heel raised squats.

Just my opinion, man.

Thank you very much for your input!
You are correct in assuming that my leg game is not where it should be. I injured my back and hips last year while lifting with my ego that significantly limited my range of motion at my hips and caused lower back issues. During my rehab process, I utilized that time to focus on my upper body.
Through trial and error, I have figured out that my hips and back are most tolerant to front squats as far as challenging depth and the amount of weight.
I can successfully back squat to parallel using submaximal weights, but any lower aggravates my back. The situation is similar with my deadlifts.
My current approach to my leg days is to always start with a barbell squat and deadlift or variations of each, with my reps ranging from 5-12 and a manipulation of the tempo. I then go on to unilateral and single joint exercises.
While this approach is giving me progress, I seem to have a psychological block when it comes to really pushing myself during multi-joint movements involving my hips, even when I am confident that the movement won’t reaggravate my injury.