Honest Feedback is Welcome

How ya guys doin? I’ve been lurking around these forums for the past couple years and just finally decided to make an account and hopefully become a contributor to these boards. I’m hoping to expose myself by posting this RMP for feedback on others, and to get an idea of things i need to do to improve my physique.

Info:
Been training since freshman year of high school for football. Up until November of 2010, my lifting revolved around increasing my athletic performance. After that, i decided to discontinue football due to the fact that I have several concussions and my health comes first. I did Olympic weightlifting from Dec. 2010 - Aug. 2011 and just recently decided to go down the BB path starting in late August. I currently weigh about 165, it fluctuates, and am 5’7. I have just turned 17 on Dec. 27.
Apologies for the pictures being sideways, they were taken with a blackberry.

front


back lat spread

quads

Well you seem like your body is fairly proportionate which is good and even for your age you have a decent build. I would just continue what you’re doing to put on some size. Eat big but clean and keep lifting hard with lots of rest and I’m sure you’ll do great.

Very impressive. You are going to be a monster by 25. Keep it up…

Thanks for the feedback jerometjosvold & Matthersby.
I have not decided yet whether i would like to compete or not in the future but im just trying to build a solid foundation that can be improved on.
Coming from a strength oriented background it’s been fun making the transition to training that focuses on constant tension for hypertrophy.

you have got some damn impressive genetics. looking pretty proportional already. Just make sure to create a balanced split that works for you and give all muscle groups specific attention (i.e don’t neglect hamstrings, calves or forearms by only throwing in a few half assed sets at the end). Keep learning and working hard and you will see some crazy results

[quote]Vulpes Vulpes wrote:
you have got some damn impressive genetics. looking pretty proportional already. Just make sure to create a balanced split that works for you and give all muscle groups specific attention (i.e don’t neglect hamstrings, calves or forearms by only throwing in a few half assed sets at the end). Keep learning and working hard and you will see some crazy results[/quote]
My calves are definately lagging. I’ve been putting extra emphasis on them recently.
Any ideas on how to improve my split?
Currently i do something along the lines of
Day 1: Back/ Bi’s
Day 2: Chest/Tri’s
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Shoulders/ Traps
Day 5: off
Day 6: I do the big three lifts again on this day (bench, Deadlifts, squat), usually 5x5.
Day 7: off

[quote]LBroads wrote:

[quote]Vulpes Vulpes wrote:
you have got some damn impressive genetics. looking pretty proportional already. Just make sure to create a balanced split that works for you and give all muscle groups specific attention (i.e don’t neglect hamstrings, calves or forearms by only throwing in a few half assed sets at the end). Keep learning and working hard and you will see some crazy results[/quote]
My calves are definately lagging. I’ve been putting extra emphasis on them recently.
Any ideas on how to improve my split?
Currently i do something along the lines of
Day 1: Back/ Bi’s
Day 2: Chest/Tri’s
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Shoulders/ Traps
Day 5: off
Day 6: I do the big three lifts again on this day (bench, Deadlifts, squat), usually 5x5.
Day 7: off
[/quote]

If its purely the bodybuilding route you want to go down I personally wouldn’t bother with the day of big lifts. If you want to keep it in that’s cool but I would change the 4 day split into a 3 day (maybe push/pull/legs) as you may benefit more from the extra day of recovery but it also gives you a good bodybuilding/strength hybrid programme if that is what you want to do.

The iron game is all about trial and error and finding out what works best for you and your goals. Just make sure you eat and rest enough to support your training.

keep us posted with your progress as I bet it’l be crazy

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:

[quote]Vulpes Vulpes wrote:
you have got some damn impressive genetics. looking pretty proportional already. Just make sure to create a balanced split that works for you and give all muscle groups specific attention (i.e don’t neglect hamstrings, calves or forearms by only throwing in a few half assed sets at the end). Keep learning and working hard and you will see some crazy results[/quote]

Damn that avatar! Can’t. take. eyes. offffff!

BBB[/quote]

hypnotic isn’t it! It should be a sticky in the beginners thread to teach newbies how to squat

OP check this out, your physique reminds me a lot of his and check out what he has achieved

@ Vulpes Vulpes: I’ve actually followed that thread on and off ever since it was first started a while back.
What’s your opinion on high frequency training? After Oly lifting for almost a year and doing basically squats, and pulls every workout, i learned that my body is able to recover quickly without taxing me too much.

Lookin good…heres an idea to keep from missing any body parts. Take day 6 and 7 off. Remove traps from day 4. Make day 5- traps, calves, forearms, arms, abz, etc. I fully agree that the extra main lift day is not needed. Lift heavy and recover.

[quote]LBroads wrote:
@ Vulpes Vulpes: I’ve actually followed that thread on and off ever since it was first started a while back.
What’s your opinion on high frequency training? After Oly lifting for almost a year and doing basically squats, and pulls every workout, i learned that my body is able to recover quickly without taxing me too much. [/quote]

When I started out at the age of 17 I was doing high frequency work. 3 workouts a week, each covering the whole body with 1 exercise per muscle group. This worked well as a beginner but I quickly out grew it and needed more ‘complete’ muscle development. Nowadays I’m doing a 4 day split as it is what works best for me, my rate of recovery and time limitations.

You would be expected to recovery fairly quickly from your olly lifting as it doesn’t have the same degree of taxation on specific muscle groups. If you are recovering too quickly from your split workouts then you may not be working with enough volume, intensity or hard enough. I suggest looking up an anatomy chart and learning the individual muscles that make up the muscle groups and what there functions are. This really helped me choose what exercises to include, as well as focus on the mind-muscle connection allowing me to contract the muscles hard when performing the movements.

You clearly enjoy picking up heavy shit and putting it back down, which is fine. Bodybuilding won’t diminish all of your strength or remove the opportunity to lift heavy. A lot of pro bb’ers and people who post here compete in powerlifting in their off seasons.

So, my suggestion for you is to look up Mike o’hearns powerbuilding which is an old concept which he has recently repackaged. It involves performing a heavy assed compound movement at the start of your split working up to a final heavy set of a few reps. Then you perform the rest of your workout bb style with something like 3 sets of 8-15 reps per exercise.

Yours may look something like:

Chest/Triceps: Bench/db press
Back/Biceps: Deadlifts
Delts/Traps: Hang clean&press/ OHP
Legs: Squats

For a 17 yo that is sweet, ive got 3 years on you and dont look half as good