Critique Please

Hi all,

Been lurking here for quite some time now and decided it was time to get posting.

I have been training for 3 years, I was VERY skinny and went to gym because I was sick of being small. I am 5’10, currently weigh 189lb @ 13% BFR.

I know my chest needs work and feel my shoulders are a little behind. My legs (quads, hams and calves) are far ahead of my upper body - hence no pics.

If you would be so kind as to give me some opinions on what you think needs some extra attention I would really appreciate it.

Don’t look bad man, just keep it up. Keep eating. It’s kind of a tough angle to judge but it looks like some areas of your shoulders and traps could use some work…why no leg pics?

I guess I’ll say what everyone else is thinking:

Everything.

Oh but more specifically? Your serratus anterior could probably be buffer.

Well, it looks like you’ve got some mass on you. I’d work incline presses more often, your upper pecs seem to be lagging. Other than that, gain some more mass until you’re happy, and most things should work out. If a bodypart starts lagging, you can still add in some extra work.

[quote]hardkor wrote:

If you would be so kind as to give me some opinions on what you think needs some extra attention [/quote]

This.

Think you already answered your critique.

Fill out your chest.

  • thickness
  • incline work, lots
  • width

Shoulders

  • course lateral
  • but rear deltoid needs some attention to get that armored muscle look
  • traps

Ab work? just focus on good contractions, course that is more of a body fat issue tho.

3years? I think you better post a before pic so we can see what has actually changed.

Arms looking good, I would really blast that chest like crazy. I think I’ve made great progress by working incline bench first and then dips and then fly’s. When you do the dips you have to really focus on your chest doing the majority of the work instead of your tri-ceps.

A couple days after you do chest, do just 3 sets of 30 reps on the incline bench while really focusing on your form. This will fill the chest with blood for faster recovery, then do whatever muscle you planned on for that day.

On shoulder day start with military presses to the front which will also hit the very top of your chest.

  • Adam

3.1? LOL I’d probably get a 3-5.0!

Anyway, to me you look like a runner who works out. If you want more size go compond lifts and go heavy.

If you are eating a 189 grams of protein or more, id suspect you’d be a lot bigger than you are now if you lift the big lifts.

My Rating system

1-Totally aids anorexic
10-full muscle, good size and composition(and non freakoid)

I think people are a bit harsh to call you a 3. You are probably a little better than average for the population at large and your pics are incomplete w/o legs.

6.5

If you have been lifting for 3 years and you were very thin, I would say that you most likely are not eating enough given you must have a fast metabolism. To add muscle you need to eat and stick to the basics. your arms will trail just fine (they are not your lagging area) focusing heavy on the major lifts.

Try thinking of increasing your deads, squats, chin reps, presses, rows and variants of those lifts. Really focusing on getting stronger at your stage and eating is what will put loads on you. Chad W’s ABBH, TBT, Jason Ferrugia’s writings, and John B’s Scrawny-Brawny might be good starts for you. Hope that helps.

your arms and forearms are good. you don’t have a high body fat percentage which is great. However you really need to buff up your shoulders, chest and back. Whats your training routine like?

You really weight 189? At 5’10", i would guess more like 160 based off that picture.

I give you a five. You don’t look bad so don’t take that wrong. You just look like you have the potential to get a lot better. Keep hitting the weights hard.

D

I gave you a 5 because you are halfway there.

You need to eat more.

Fill out your chest, triceps delts.

I am assuming your back looks like your chest: shape but no thickness.

In short, in the next year you could add about 15-20 lbs and look much better.

Keep going and good luck.

[quote]hardkor wrote:
Hi all,

Been lurking here for quite some time now and decided it was time to get posting.

I have been training for 3 years, I was VERY skinny and went to gym because I was sick of being small. I am 5’10, currently weigh 189lb @ 13% BFR.

I know my chest needs work and feel my shoulders are a little behind. My legs (quads, hams and calves) are far ahead of my upper body - hence no pics.

If you would be so kind as to give me some opinions on what you think needs some extra attention I would really appreciate it. [/quote]

I think that your arms are ahead of your torso. I’m not sure if this has to do with your technique, or simply the lifts that you pick to do.

Post your routine. If you’re doing lots of big lifts, rifle through the archives and find article about arm-dominant lifters.

You’ve got a start and I can tell you lift, but I’m not sure your past three years were as spent as well as they could have been.

5

[quote]hardkor wrote:
Hi all,

Been lurking here for quite some time now and decided it was time to get posting.

I have been training for 3 years, I was VERY skinny and went to gym because I was sick of being small. I am 5’10, currently weigh 189lb @ 13% BFR.

I know my chest needs work and feel my shoulders are a little behind. My legs (quads, hams and calves) are far ahead of my upper body - hence no pics.

If you would be so kind as to give me some opinions on what you think needs some extra attention I would really appreciate it. [/quote]

You are skinny as hell dude. Damn.

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
hardkor wrote:

If you would be so kind as to give me some opinions on what you think needs some extra attention

This.[/quote]

I love that you broke out MS Paint to do this.

Thanks for all the constructive feedback… it pretty much affirms what I am thinking.

My first 2 years of training were are home with a set of dumbells, I was too embarrased to join a gym back then to be honest. 3 years ago I weighed roughly 130lb.

I have done some of the Waterbury training plans. At present I am on a full body routine 4x a week focused on compount movements. I don’t do much direct arm work at all.

I have posted a day out of my routine below, the days are pretty similar with slight variations in grip, stance & execution and where possible I vary the actual exercise. I vary the reps & sets daily (Monday 12x2, Tuesday 6x3, Thursday 10x3, Friday 4x3)

Squat
Deadlift
Stiff Leg Deadlift
Pullup
Dumbell Row
Incline Bench
Dips
Cable Crossovers
Military Press
Side Raise
Reverse Fly
Rev Grip Curl
Wrist Curl
Push Down
Shrug
Standing Heel Raise
Crunch - Various
Pec Deck (Light / High Rep)

I have posted a pic of my back, it has made some serious progress in the last 4 months since starting chins / pullups and ditching the lat pulldown machine. If you want to see a leg shot I will need to take one and post it tomorrow.

Thanks again for the positive (and not so positive) comments, I was expecting a serious flaming!!! :wink:

[quote]adamhum wrote:
I’ve made great progress by working incline bench first and then dips and then fly’s. When you do the dips you have to really focus on your chest doing the majority of the work instead of your tri-ceps.

A couple days after you do chest, do just 3 sets of 30 reps on the incline bench while really focusing on your form. This will fill the chest with blood for faster recovery, then do whatever muscle you planned on for that day.

On shoulder day start with military presses to the front which will also hit the very top of your chest.

  • Adam[/quote]

Thanks for the tips Adam, I will give that a bash, like the idea of the 3x30 a few days later. How does your split work?

If anyone has any experience with a lagging chest & delts what is the best way to split up your routine?

[quote]hardkor wrote:
Squat
Deadlift
Stiff Leg Deadlift
Pullup
Dumbell Row
Incline Bench
Dips
Cable Crossovers
Military Press
Side Raise
Reverse Fly
Rev Grip Curl
Wrist Curl
Push Down
Shrug
Standing Heel Raise
Crunch - Various
Pec Deck (Light / High Rep)

[/quote]

Wow, thats quite the routine there buddy, how long does that take you to finish ? I think at your stage of development you’d doing yourself a huge favor by finding a program TBT or ABBH, where you are doing 3-5 exercises, heavy as hell, and then getting out of the gym, getting some food, and resting.

That workout up there just seems like too much, i mean, it just looks like you wrote down all 18 different exercises that you know how to do, and decided to do them all in one visit to the gym.

try something like this

Routine A

1)Squat - 5x5
2)Chin - 5x5
3)Shoulder press - 5x5

Routine B

  1. Deadlift - 5x5
  2. Dips - 5x5
  3. Pull up - 3x5

Week 1
Mon - routine A
Wed - routine B
Fri - routine A

Week 2
Mon - routine B
Wed - routine A
Fri - routine B

and so on and so on and…

Im telling ya, you would benefit greatly from simplifying your routine. At your stage of development, things are quite at complicated as you seem to think they are. Just eat a ton of semi clean food, and bust your ass to get stronger in the big compound lifts, the things that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Once youce put on a significant amount of muscle, then you can start putting some more detail into things, but for now, just pick up some heavy shit, put it down, and then go home and eat.

best of luck

–JB