I’m not a new member, but this is my first post. I’ve been browsing over articles on this site for a really long time and it has pretty much been one of the most useful resources I’ve ever stumbled upon.
I started to get serious about weight lifting in Sept '05 (18 when I started and only a meager 155 lbs) and I currently try to hit the gym every day.
I’m 5’9" and about 170 lbs. My bodyfat is a little high (I’d estimate 15%) and you could consider me a “fat skinny kid” in terms of my pecs and abdomen region. I have a bit less than an inch of fat on my front side but I’m really lean throughout the rest of my body.
To cut to the chase, my main goal with lifting is to bulk considerably. Only recently did I start to concentrate on my back and REALLY start to eat. I want to build my back up because I have slouched shoulders but at the same time I have to get rid of this flab on the front side because summer’s coming up.
So my question is if it is possible to bulk one area of the body and cut another? Or can I at least do something to reduce my bodyfat on the front side while still having size gains on the back side?
I just ordered a ton of stuff from Biotest, including BCAAs, Carbolin 19, Metabolic Drive, and Surge. I searched the site for this topic but haven’t found anything. I wanted to post pictures, but I don’t have a camera at the current time.
I’d say that about covers it. Only one other thought: You may also be holding a fair amount of water, so if you were to find a way to hold less water then you’d maybe look more cut. But I really, really doubt that’ll do what you’re looking for. Bottom line–you need more muscle to look better at low bodyfat.
BS. You won’t be able to get really lean while building muscle, but if you are prepared to work hard enough you should be able to bulk up your back at the same time as getting your bf% to around 12%.
For most people this is a good level to be at healthwise. Your abs won’t be particularly prominent, but if you look sufficiently muscular that doesn’t matter.
BS. You won’t be able to get really lean while building muscle, but if you are prepared to work hard enough you should be able to bulk up your back at the same time as getting your bf% to around 12%.
[/quote]
I wish people would quit giving beginners advice like this. Most people will not see optimal progress by trying to pull their body in two directions at once. This guy isn’t even asking about getting into shape but specifically whether he can gain muscle on one body part while specifically losing fat on another.
The answer is no, you can’t spot reduce and spot gain like that to any significant degree at the exact same time unless you are someone who is only working out their biceps and happens to lose some body fat. Did you see the word “significant”?
Yes, it is POSSIBLE for someone to gain muscle while losing some fat, but to think your training should be geared in that direction would leave most people with very little progress as they run in circles for years. This would be avoided if people were informed that working on one goal at a time will provide optimal progress.
Some beginner who has never lifted a weight will no doubt get into “better” shape simply because their body is not used to regular resistance training. This becomes a much harder task past that initial stage.
That means people need to quit acting like just because it is a possibility for someone to gain “some” muscle while losing “some” fat, that this needs to be goal in the weight room and when eating.
If you are going to gain muscle, work on gaining muscle. If you are going to lose body fat, work on losing body fat. While you may increase or decrease the other while on your road to achieve either goal (based on your diet and innate genetic ability to adapt to training), the guy who focuses on one goal at a time will always beat the guy trying to force his body to go from shit to spectacular in one broad stroke.
The gym is literally FILLED with people who have been training for years and have made nearly zero progress as a whole because they approached training as if they will somehow instantly gain a ton of muscle while losing all extra body fat they have.
Hi there Prof, just to respond that I did not at any stage suggest that the OP could lose body fat, although I can see how you might have taken it that way. What I said is that it is possible to reduce body fat PERCENTAGE at the same time as gaining muscle.
Simply put, if you start at 170 lb and 15% bf, then gain 30 lb of muscle, you will still have the same AMOUNT of fat, but you will be only around 12.5% bf. You may suggest that it is hard to gain 30 lb of muscle without gaining any fat, and normally I would agree. But if you have a bit of fat to spare and relatively little muscle, as the OP does, it is not so difficult.
[quote]JGrex1 wrote:
I want to build my back up because I have slouched shoulders but at the same time I have to get rid of this flab on the front side because summer’s coming up.[/quote]
Build your back up by all means, but your bad posture will require you to focus on keeping good posture all the time (in and out of the gym).
Keeping your lower back straight when sitting and your shoulders back, for example. Also, see if your humeral head is forward (nearer the front of your shoulder) when you’re lying flat on your back. If it is then your pec minor could be tight and need to be massaged out.
Without pics it’s hard to tell how much belly fat you have, but improving posture is going to make you look better all over, especially in the stomach. That would be my main focus.
[quote]Melvin Smiley wrote:
Without pics it’s hard to tell how much belly fat you have, but improving posture is going to make you look better all over, especially in the stomach. That would be my main focus.[/quote]
And by improving posture, he means plenty of squats, deadlifts, rows, benches, overhead presses, chins, barbell curls, shrugs, etc.
[quote]JGrex1 wrote:
So Prof, in your opinion, the definition of intermediate or even advanced is based on gains alone rather than time experience?[/quote]
I think everyone’s is, no?
I frequently see people’s profiles say that they’ve been training for x years, but only y years properly, or y years ‘smart training’.
I count myself as having trained for only 2 years, even though I’ve gone to the gym on and off for over 6, but without any training/diet knowledge and the ‘gains’ to prove it!
If you’ve been working out for 10 years and still haven’t gotten anywhere with it, how could you claim to be intermediate/advanced? If anything you’ld be lower than a beginner because you’ve squandered potential.
[quote]t-ha wrote:
JGrex1 wrote:
So Prof, in your opinion, the definition of intermediate or even advanced is based on gains alone rather than time experience?
I think everyone’s is, no?
I frequently see people’s profiles say that they’ve been training for x years, but only y years properly, or y years ‘smart training’.
I count myself as having trained for only 2 years, even though I’ve gone to the gym on and off for over 6, but without any training/diet knowledge and the ‘gains’ to prove it!
If you’ve been working out for 10 years and still haven’t gotten anywhere with it, how could you claim to be intermediate/advanced? If anything you’ld be lower than a beginner because you’ve squandered potential.
[/quote]
Exactly. This is also why I don’t really want to listen to training advice from some guy with arms smaller than most sedentary teenagers. You don’t get bonus points just for showing up at the gym randomly for years. If you have made little to no progress in that time, you are NOT an intermediate or advanced lifter.
Exactly. This is also why I don’t really want to listen to training advice from some guy with arms smaller than most sedentary teenagers. You don’t get bonus points just for showing up at the gym randomly for years. If you have made little to no progress in that time, you are NOT an intermediate or advanced lifter.[/quote]
I completely agree with the point the 2 of you are making and have stated as much myself. On the other hand though a guy with great genetics and a healthy dose of motivation who gains 40 pounds in his first year doesn’t automatically graduate to intermediate/advanced in my book either.
Exactly. This is also why I don’t really want to listen to training advice from some guy with arms smaller than most sedentary teenagers. You don’t get bonus points just for showing up at the gym randomly for years. If you have made little to no progress in that time, you are NOT an intermediate or advanced lifter.
I completely agree with the point the 2 of you are making and have stated as much myself. On the other hand though a guy with great genetics and a healthy dose of motivation who gains 40 pounds in his first year doesn’t automatically graduate to intermediate/advanced in my book either.[/quote]
I give that healthy dose of motivation the most credit over anything else. That same motivation is what separates those who do make progress from those who claim to lift weights for two decades and not understand why they haven’t gained more than 5lbs…as they ignore the “off and on” attempt they made.
I have learned a lot from guys who couldn’t understand a study if you gave them Cliff Notes and free night classes at a community college. The reason they got big was because they worked their asses off for it and understood the most basic concept of “feeding the machine”. The most up to date research based scientifically sound program does NOT overcome someone’s lack of focus or some fear of fat so grandiose that they never eat enough to gain a pound because they think an inch increase in their waist size means “fat gain”.
Genetics don’t erase the work necessary to reach a certain level. My arms were over 18" in about three years of focused training. That doesn’t mean that for those three years I wasn’t more focused than most around me making an effort (while broke) to get all of those meals down. That may mean my “genetics” might allow more growth than some guy who can’t get his arms over 17" after twice as long, but it doesn’t mean I worked less hard for it or did things any differently.
Genetics may affect how FAR you can go. They may even affect how FAST you get there. However, they don’t just magically put the muscle on you without any hard work on your part. Posters like Gifted who is now getting his picture into magazines has great genetics. Is anyone going to claim he didn’t have to work for it though or not as hard?
Someone genetically gifted may become an intermediate or advanced lifter before anyone else. If they pick up on things that quickly, that is just the way it goes.
I also agree with this entire statement and certainly didn’t mean to imply that anything, including top shelf genetics even coupled with a well designed schedule of anabolics lessens the need for commitment and hard work as I’ve said this in the past as well.
My point, put another way is, I’ve known a couple guys who were pretty big and looked quite impressive even in street clothes who never touched a piece of training equipment in their life.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that motivation and hard work are THE foundation upon which any successful physique/strength campaign is built has taken a wrong turn right from the start. As well, the ability to quote every historical methodology and use 15 syllable white coated lab terms is entirely unimpressive on a guy who claims he’s been training for years and hasn’t gained 15 or 20% of his original bodyweight.
In a nutshell, yes, the guy with unwavering focus who learns to speak his own body’s language the quickest moves up the advancement ladder in the shortest amount of time.
In the case of our hypothetical subject above, what he does with the next year and the one after that determines whether he keeps advancing beyond respectable beginner is what I’m saying.
Of course there’s also no clearly defined lines whereby one day you’re a beginner and the next you’re an intermediate. It’s more like one finds themselves qualified to be considered in the next level, but can’t mark the calendar where it happened. In the right circles it may even be that his peers will see him there before he does.