How to Tailor Training Toward my Goals?

Discounting the advice of the people on this forum (which you solicited) is an insult. You don’t go to the gym and do two chest workouts and suddenly blow out the seams of your dress shirts. It takes years of hard work to achieve the look you’re describing.

Don’t insult the people that you aspire to be by acting like their achievements are easy and attainable by any average person. That’s false. Even enhanced people train hard and eat decent.

As far as this thickness you describe–I think you might mean density. That may be achieved by a decent volume of heavy lifting. Multiple sets of 3-5 reps with lower rest periods (30-60 sec compared to 1-3 min). Search that topic for articles and threads on this site for more info.

I’d tell you to blow me but I’d be worried your clavicles’d pierce my femoral artery

2 Likes

that actually doesn’t make sense. I don’t think you really understand how muscle growth works.

You also do not need to worry about anything getting too big. It’s not gonna happen. I laughed at the idea of you needing xxl t shirts. I’m obviously MUCH bigger than you, and I only wear large and XL.

Here’s the thing though. You’ve already gotten good advice for your goals, and there are plenty of programs to read through on this site in the articles archive. I would start with that.

I think my size and proportions are probably more or less what you’re going for, so I’ll tell you how I’ve trained for the past several years. I’ve trained mostly using a powerlifting-style template. I focus on the major compound movements like bench press, overhead press, squat and deadlift. My main accessory movements are rows and pull ups. tertiary movements generally include any sort of curl, tricep extensions, and lateral raises. That’s how I would prioritize your training if I were you. Rep and set schemes can vary tremendously. I would spend some time in pretty much all rep ranges for the major 4 movements I listed. The secondary and tertiary movements should generally be worked in the 8-20 rep range, but the main movements can go as low as sets of 3, for as many as 8ish sets.

You will never get too big doing anything in the gym, because you can always continually adjust your programming. If you feel like, say, your arms are getting too big, stop doing curls and extensions. If your chest is getting too big, limit bench pressing. If your shoulders are as developed as you want, limit OHP and lateral raises. I’ll reiterate that all you can really do with your musculature is grow it or not grow it. Certain muscle groups, like lats and delts, can make you appear wider versus thicker, but honestly, your shoulder width is so small now I can’t imagine that you don’t want to add size there. Your delt development is lagging far behind your chest development.

Yes my delts are not very impressive so they should probably be a priority right now, thanks for pointing that out. When Im thinking about it my OHP have remained on the same weight while the bench have increased during the last year. I am pretty much stuck on OHP 55lbs each hand and my bench went from 170 lbs to 220 lbs during the same time. When I said width I guess I ment more lats than shoulders. I don’t wear XXL, I was just trying to illustrate my idea. I wear european large which I’ve heard is medium in the states.

Fellow beginner though I am, I feel moved to comment.
I don’t think getting too big by accident is going to happen. This is something that the lifting community is at pains to point out to women, but it applies equally to young guys. You’re probably a decade younger than me. You have years and years of strength building potential that I no longer hate- don’t waste it.

Have you considered overhead pressing with a barbell? I find this to be more effective. I’d also recommend standing, but that is of course optional. Standing is a nice option because, once you’ve ‘strict’ pressed all the reps you can do, you can continue the set with some leg drive, and get more reps. I rely most heavily on pressing for my shoulder development, but if this doesn’t work for you, definitely do lateral raises regularly as well.

You use exaggeration to illustrate your points too much. You did the same thing in the last thread when you posted an utterly useless picture of SOMEONE ELSE’S clavicles. It’s not necessary, and it will not help you at the end of the day. You’re talking to people with much more experience than you, and we have a really really good understanding of what it takes to achieve your goals, and where you are now. I’ve added 75 lean lbs to my frame since I was 18. Just say what you really mean, what your expectations are, and express legitimate concerns that we can address. When you use this sort of hyperbole, it detracts from the conversation.

And as others have said (and I said as well), you will NEVER EVER be bigger than you want to be. It does not happen by accident. You are FAR more likely to be smaller than you want to be for the rest of your life than for the opposite to be true. Base your training, diet, and thought processes on that premise, and you will statistically be far more likely to succeed.

I will try use barbell instead and do some more lateral raises. My first goal is to reduce my bonyness in the upper body as much as I can and the ultimate goal is to look something similar to this:

He is also 6’1 with similar frame and according to one of his previous measurements he has about 30lbs of muscle more than me. I don’t know what can be done about my pointy clavicles though :frowning:

Do you see how muscular his delts are? That’s what you can do about your bony clavicles. Also, as flip said, focus on standing barbell OHP. It’s a much better indicator of overall strength that bench. You see a lot of guys that bench their own body weight but suck at everything else. I have yet to see someone who can OHP bodyweight that isn’t just generally all around strong and muscular. Look at @littlesleeper for instance. He can OHP like a monster and is built like a brick shit house

:blush::heart:

1 Like

All homo bro. I was typing that and remembered a video of you OHPing like 250 or something and felt it appropriate to give props lol

1 Like

Thanks man…and it was 255 :wink: :male_couplekiss: ← Haha just saw this, it’s called “male couple kiss”. Good job supporting diversity T-Nation!

1 Like

Who says Americans and Canadians can’t get along? There’s a reason we’re only building a big ass wall along one side of our border lmao.

Of course, this all only applies if you’re British Canadian. If you’re a French Canadian then you are, by extension, a pansy Frenchman, and we can’t be friends.

2 Likes

Calise de tabernack maudit anglais.

1 Like

“Chalice of tabernacle, damn English”? I know the French are prone to surrender, but you’ve given up on making sense now, too?

1 Like

Hey, remember that time France beat Germany without America’s help? Yeah, me neither

This thread has been completely high jacked

1 Like

Like always :smiley:

Pitcher la vache!!!

I was at the mall today shopping clothes. Tried some large tshirts and they were all too big for the in the chest/shoulders. So had to get medium. Lol that shit is probably a small in the states :D. Need to work on my shoulders,traps, chest and upper back it seems. Anyway, I have been working out my shoulders for about 3.5 years now and they are still lacking so my programming for them is obviously not working very well. What should I do instead?

I have been using the following for shoulders. I had a separate day for shoulder once a week.

Seated shoulder press 3x8
Upright rows 3x10
Rear delts 3x10
Lateral raises occasionally

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries