Am I Intermediate or Advanced?

[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
The freakiest short-ish natural dude I have trained is a guy who trains in my former gym, Stephen Bongiorno - 5’7" 196 pounds @ 8% DEXA (look for him on facebook, anyone who has an account). However he began training at 13 (currently 27), and is focussing on weak points with carb cycling rather than adding mass. He bulked up to a weight of 230 at one point and now stays just shy of 200 ripped!!!

If a person isn;t already huge and bulky by age 30, I don;t see anyway he can add significant size from that point without harming himself. The 30’s and 40’s are for dieting down slowly, working on conditioning and bringing up weaker parts without bulking too much.

For the OP, I don;t really think its much of a challenge to have good proportions when you’re on the shorter side. Someone who is 5’7" - usually with shorter limbs and full muscle bellies - will fill out beautifully with tolerable proportions with just about any half decent program with enough food without even gaining a lot of strength. But carrying a lot of LBM NATURALLY is a different issue. For someone who is 6’6" gaining a lot of LBM is never a problem, but having good proportions/filling out is a different issue - naturally or not.

Professor X wrote:

[/quote]

I agree with this. You see guys who are in their mid 30’s who barely break 140lbs acting like there is a great chance they will be light-heavy fitness models soon.

If you have a huge solid base of muscle mass by 30, you very well may not hit your peak until damn near 40 or later and could compete and do possibly do well if you have the genetics. If, however, you are just starting at that age and expect to gain a lot of size with no extra body fat at all, you may want to wake up.

It is too bad most of the guys in their early 20’s are wasting all of that time because they are afraid of eating more.

Time is fleeting.

Ahhh, the “amateur american bodybuilder”'s cycle both my father and I hated with a vengeance…and still do! YES, this phenomenon is seen ONLY IN AMERICA, the only country where the insecure prey on the insecure to feel better about themselves.

The guys you speak about are the ones who eat like birds int heir twenties, redefine “being muscular” or “attractive” based on their own insecurities or what they hear from insecure women around them, they will look exactly the same year after year save for a little “edema” or “water retention” each time they start a new program or add creatine, with rock-bottom metabolisms from overdoing endurance work and not eating to gain size in their twenties -

you first hear from them when they keep turning their noses up at bodybuilders in general, and more so at those who strive to build size while getting a little (or more) soft, while all the time rattling off ad nauseam about how women everywhere find muscles disgusting —

and then you will hear from them again when they are in their mid thirties or early forties, facing a midlife crisis after a divorce, being laid off, whatever brotha!!!..when they turn up with non-existent physiques, hoping to prove themselves and look for motivation (whatever that is) and expect the others to help them become “muscular” and begging those whom they shunned earlier to help them out.

Thats why I hate some of the older fuckers who “begin” training for size when they hit their middle-age. Bongs to barrels these were the same guys who sneered at bodybuilders back when they could do something about themselves.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
It is too bad most of the guys in their early 20’s are wasting all of that time because they are afraid of eating more.

Time is fleeting. [/quote]

i really don see the point in this thread? will it be comforting in some way to know your intermediate or advanced? im just lost on this one.

have to agree with the “if you have to ask”

Thanks to everyone who replied with some useful input. It has motivated me to relly see what i got. Yeah i’m intermediate.

Im going to really concentrate on getting my weights up, eat loads for about one year, while doing small things to avoid lots of fat accumalation but not getting hung up on it. Early next year I’m moving to Edinburgh (Scotland) where there is many gyms(hardcore, commercial, university etc) and even a strongman facility with logs, car deadlifts, tyres etc etc. So really excited by that as well. I think the major change will give me the motivation i had as a younger man, and maybe reach near my genetic peak.

So any advice on a 3 day routine to follow to really emphasize strength with mass being the by product. Bill starr 5 x 5, maybe? any suggestions appreciated.

I have access to a gym, trap bar and log bar at home as well.