Nice work - looks like your shoulders have improved as well. Sounds like you are doing all the right things, keep working the way you are and the gains will come. Make sure you are getting enough recovery between workouts. I find I can lose ground if I work too hard and don’t rest up.
PS. Weighted chins are a good way to work the bicep, weighted dips for the tris.
[quote]Stiltz wrote:
Nice work - looks like your shoulders have improved as well. Sounds like you are doing all the right things, keep working the way you are and the gains will come. Make sure you are getting enough recovery between workouts. I find I can lose ground if I work too hard and don’t rest up.
PS. Weighted chins are a good way to work the bicep, weighted dips for the tris.[/quote]
Thanks, I will try it… Shoulders has been hard to isolate the movement and avoid the traps involvement, I like to use cables for what I call closing, and make compound movements of all the arm. As you said, I will give a try to weighed.
Like everyone is saying - you look good, and have a solid base - now just concentrate on the big, compound movements and eat plenty of healthy, nutritious foods.
Other than that, you need to be patient. It may take a year or more of dedicated training and eating to achieve the 20 or so pounds of LBM you’re looking for. But it’s definitely doable.
Start reading the articles on mass building training and eating. You could spend the next year reading stuff and still not hit everything. There’s a wealth of information here. Use the search function and you’ll find all the answers you’re looking for.
Oh, and don’t be concerned with your “rating” - superficial nonsense. Concentrate on your training and diet…
Needs some more lat width.
[quote]Defekt wrote:
Needs some more lat width. [/quote]
The last pic is a before pic. I am getting there, any ideas on how to accelerate it? any other excercise besides pull ups.?
[quote]juanjromero wrote:
Stiltz wrote:
Looks like your back is lagging a bit. I would add some pull-ups and rows. I assume you’re doing some deadlifts…
I am doing deadlifts and pull ups really hard. I have 3 weeks on deadlift. I feel conditioned enough to make the big lifts. I do hack squats, deadlift, pull ups, chin ups. Cable pull down focusing on lats. Arms are lagging. Any hints? I don’t want to focus on frustration but will not let them stay that way too long. What I like most is the V shape of my back. it is just appeared. I added a pic from 1 month ago. it was a concave curve, now it is more straight.[/quote]
After you build up a nice strength base on your arms I would suggest EDT-style training to pack on additional arm mass.
Do you train your lats horizontally at all? I follow an upper lower split, usually one day is vertical pulling, one day is horizontal pulling. I try to lift as heavy as possible for 3-5 sets, then do a few more with higher volume at a lighter weight with a certain number of reps in mind for a goal. I usually shoot between 20-40 depending how I’m feeling and what else I did that day. Right now I’m in a caloric deficit and the number tends to be closer to 20, when I’m eating lots it goes towards 40.
Heres a section of my workout, was doing seated cable rows from a few weeks ago.
210x6
220x4
220x5
220x4
220x4
220x2
By that time I had hit my rep goal so I decided against doing a set or two of high volume work. What happens if I do add that in is immediately after the last set of whatever in this case 220x2, ill follow it up with a set around 170-180 or whatever I can handle for 8-10 reps, then repeat until I hit the desired number of reps.
I’ve found that Its better to think in how many overall reps you do, rather than sets.
Be sure to vary hand position, and which bars you use, try changing it up every 2-4 weeks.
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get. Concentrate on pulling your elbows back, instead of your hands back, and you’ll recruit less arm.
Hope this helped.
[quote]Defekt wrote:
Do you train your lats horizontally at all? I follow an upper lower split, usually one day is vertical pulling, one day is horizontal pulling. I try to lift as heavy as possible for 3-5 sets, then do a few more with higher volume at a lighter weight with a certain number of reps in mind for a goal. I usually shoot between 20-40 depending how I’m feeling and what else I did that day. Right now I’m in a caloric deficit and the number tends to be closer to 20, when I’m eating lots it goes towards 40.
Heres a section of my workout, was doing seated cable rows from a few weeks ago.
210x6
220x4
220x5
220x4
220x4
220x2
By that time I had hit my rep goal so I decided against doing a set or two of high volume work. What happens if I do add that in is immediately after the last set of whatever in this case 220x2, ill follow it up with a set around 170-180 or whatever I can handle for 8-10 reps, then repeat until I hit the desired number of reps.
I’ve found that Its better to think in how many overall reps you do, rather than sets.
Be sure to vary hand position, and which bars you use, try changing it up every 2-4 weeks.
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get. Concentrate on pulling your elbows back, instead of your hands back, and you’ll recruit less arm.
Hope this helped. [/quote]
Last two paragraph: A lot, weight on gold.
Good advice. But make sure you don’t end up with weak rhomboids and rear delts.
[quote]Defekt wrote:
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get. [/quote]
IMHO, that rating is fine. 10 should really be reserved for people in competition shape.
5.5 is not that bad. You’ve got a decent base to work from, and from your last thread, you have the work ethic to build an EPIC physique.
[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
Good advice. But make sure you don’t end up with weak rhomboids and rear delts.
Defekt wrote:
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get.
[/quote]
when i do that I felt that I am not contracting the lats, i feel arms working and tris get pumped, diverting the effort. I prefer to feel them kind of relaxed to make sure I feel my lats pulling and arms just helding the bar like ropes.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
IMHO, that rating is fine. 10 should really be reserved for people in competition shape.
5.5 is not that bad. You’ve got a decent base to work from, and from your last thread, you have the work ethic to build an EPIC physique.[/quote]
Thanks for all of your words, I found every advice here is worth A+ and rating is just a number: important as opinion, but not useful to improve. thanks to all of you, this site is really a BB site.
[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
Good advice. But make sure you don’t end up with weak rhomboids and rear delts.
Defekt wrote:
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get.
[/quote]
I pull the first couple of sets full rom, when I feel that its not my lats which are holding me back, I leave off the last bit. I also do “enough” fly movements to make up for it.
I agree with you, in fact i avoid going extreme ROM on cable rows.
I use the reverse pec deck and MOST IMPORTANTLY the upright row with a cable stack and rope attachment for the rear delts (try it, anyone who feels like it). Nothing beats the upright row for shoulders imo and the rope attach prevents wrist strain (thank you, Poliquin dude)
And rhis is where the pothead in me comes out; I feel that the standing military press with a barbell is the best thing for your upper back (in addition to the rows etc). YES< a press for your back!!! And I;m not even high.
When youre forced to recruit your upper back, rhomboids traps etc as stabilizers and even your lower back is firing to keep everything upright.
Give it a try, fellow meatheads…I learnt it from a crazy old dude named mike brown (he has his own website leviticus11.net or .com and believes in a bible-based approach to bodybuilding.) But he has some neat ideas.
[quote]Defekt wrote:
tribunaldude wrote:
Good advice. But make sure you don’t end up with weak rhomboids and rear delts.
Defekt wrote:
I’ve also found that at least for me, the last 2-3 inches in the ROM is useless, by that time its just my arms/delts doing the work as my lats are as contracted as they’ll get.
I pull the first couple of sets full rom, when I feel that its not my lats which are holding me back, I leave off the last bit. I also do “enough” fly movements to make up for it. [/quote]
I’d say you have a lot of good foundation to work with.
good luck!
this has been the most productive post I ever had…
thanks to all…