My Story and 2 Year Training Progress

Performance Photos or Bigger Stronger Leaner would work

[quote]Smashingweights wrote:
Performance Photos or Bigger Stronger Leaner would work[/quote]

Thanks , definitely need this moved. If people got excited about me updating it a year and 6 months later the same weekend would blow their mind.


Completely unrelated, you look just like one of the guys in Lone Survivor (also played speed racer).

100% you.

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Completely unrelated, you look just like one of the guys in Lone Survivor (also played speed racer).
[/quote]

Haha I actually just saw that movie yesterday. That’s a good compliment.

I used to train with military members so I’ve got a few pictures of me decked out in similar gear. This one is the only one on my phone though because it’s on a military website.

I’d have to reenact it with a beard. And this was not for a woodland op (urban) so I had ACUs and a OD rig.

We played in squads of 4 and it was a single elimination tournament, my squad actually won that’s why this picture was taken professionally.

^Lol, nice.

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote] SmashingwWeights wrote:
Haven’t you posted this exact same thing at least 4 other times?[/quote]

I posted it around a year and a half ago once. [/quote]

(posted March 2012)
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/pictures_pics_photo_body_rate_image_performance/10_months_of_training_appreciate_criticism

(posted September 2012)
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/real_talk_self_image_and_how_it_effects_me_

(posted October 2012)
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/my_bodybuilding_progress_so_far_

(not sure of the date on this, but pretty much the same write-up)

^So I can certainly see why this thread has people scratching their heads.

As to the “19 inch arm”,… well, it’s probably not in good form to call out someone who writes for the site, but then again, it’s also probably not a great idea to make a claim (whether true or untrue) that easily exceeds the vast majority of advanced trainers, and actual competitors in this forum, and not expect a bit of static.

S[/quote]

There’s a couple of writers (former and current) who lie about their stats pretty often. We’re all aware of Poliquin, and one guy claims a 40+ inch vert while benching mid 400’s and being borderline contest condition despite having ZERO vids of his claims but tons of vids of shit that doesn’t matter. No one’s more full of shit than someone with an agenda. Just the way things are.

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote] SmashingwWeights wrote:
Haven’t you posted this exact same thing at least 4 other times?[/quote]

I posted it around a year and a half ago once. [/quote]

(posted March 2012)

(posted September 2012)

(posted October 2012)

(not sure of the date on this, but pretty much the same write-up)

^So I can certainly see why this thread has people scratching their heads.

As to the “19 inch arm”,… well, it’s probably not in good form to call out someone who writes for the site, but then again, it’s also probably not a great idea to make a claim (whether true or untrue) that easily exceeds the vast majority of advanced trainers, and actual competitors in this forum, and not expect a bit of static.

S[/quote]

There’s a couple of writers (former and current) who lie about their stats pretty often. We’re all aware of Poliquin, and one guy claims a 40+ inch vert while benching mid 400’s and being borderline contest condition despite having ZERO vids of his claims but tons of vids of shit that doesn’t matter. No one’s more full of shit than someone with an agenda. Just the way things are.
[/quote]

I understand completely , I do not do videos so do not make strength or performance claims and only talk about what we can see. I am always completely honest but the height thing did get confused because again I do not measure height.

The only reason I post my progress is to inspire others in similar situations. I have no agenda because I have nothing to sell, only inspiration .

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote] SmashingwWeights wrote:
Haven’t you posted this exact same thing at least 4 other times?[/quote]

I posted it around a year and a half ago once. [/quote]

(posted March 2012)

(posted September 2012)

(posted October 2012)

(not sure of the date on this, but pretty much the same write-up)

^So I can certainly see why this thread has people scratching their heads.

As to the “19 inch arm”,… well, it’s probably not in good form to call out someone who writes for the site, but then again, it’s also probably not a great idea to make a claim (whether true or untrue) that easily exceeds the vast majority of advanced trainers, and actual competitors in this forum, and not expect a bit of static.

S[/quote]

There’s a couple of writers (former and current) who lie about their stats pretty often. We’re all aware of Poliquin, and one guy claims a 40+ inch vert while benching mid 400’s and being borderline contest condition despite having ZERO vids of his claims but tons of vids of shit that doesn’t matter. No one’s more full of shit than someone with an agenda. Just the way things are.
[/quote]

I understand bro, I do not do videos so do not make strength or performance claims and only talk about what we can see. I am always completely honest but the height thing did get confused because again I do not measure height. The arm proposition still stands, if anyone shows a 19 inch arm on someone 6 feet tall and similar conditioning that is drastically bigger than mine I will post a tape measure shot.

[/quote]

Wasn’t trying to call you out specifically. Honestly couldn’t care less what your arm measures. You’ve built yourself some pretty damn big arms and that’s what matters in this context.

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote] SmashingwWeights wrote:
Haven’t you posted this exact same thing at least 4 other times?[/quote]

I posted it around a year and a half ago once. [/quote]

(posted March 2012)

(posted September 2012)

(posted October 2012)

(not sure of the date on this, but pretty much the same write-up)

^So I can certainly see why this thread has people scratching their heads.

As to the “19 inch arm”,… well, it’s probably not in good form to call out someone who writes for the site, but then again, it’s also probably not a great idea to make a claim (whether true or untrue) that easily exceeds the vast majority of advanced trainers, and actual competitors in this forum, and not expect a bit of static.

S[/quote]

There’s a couple of writers (former and current) who lie about their stats pretty often. We’re all aware of Poliquin, and one guy claims a 40+ inch vert while benching mid 400’s and being borderline contest condition despite having ZERO vids of his claims but tons of vids of shit that doesn’t matter. No one’s more full of shit than someone with an agenda. Just the way things are.
[/quote]

I understand bro, I do not do videos so do not make strength or performance claims and only talk about what we can see. I am always completely honest but the height thing did get confused because again I do not measure height. The arm proposition still stands, if anyone shows a 19 inch arm on someone 6 feet tall and similar conditioning that is drastically bigger than mine I will post a tape measure shot.

[/quote]

Wasn’t trying to call you out specifically. Honestly couldn’t care less what your arm measures. You’ve built yourself some pretty damn big arms and that’s what matters in this context. [/quote]
19" is believable to me because you’re tall and as you admitted, it’s a different beast having those same measurements in anything close to contest condition. Nice transformation

[quote]browndisaster wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:

[quote] SmashingwWeights wrote:
Haven’t you posted this exact same thing at least 4 other times?[/quote]

I posted it around a year and a half ago once. [/quote]

(posted March 2012)

(posted September 2012)

(posted October 2012)

(not sure of the date on this, but pretty much the same write-up)

^So I can certainly see why this thread has people scratching their heads.

As to the “19 inch arm”,… well, it’s probably not in good form to call out someone who writes for the site, but then again, it’s also probably not a great idea to make a claim (whether true or untrue) that easily exceeds the vast majority of advanced trainers, and actual competitors in this forum, and not expect a bit of static.

S[/quote]

There’s a couple of writers (former and current) who lie about their stats pretty often. We’re all aware of Poliquin, and one guy claims a 40+ inch vert while benching mid 400’s and being borderline contest condition despite having ZERO vids of his claims but tons of vids of shit that doesn’t matter. No one’s more full of shit than someone with an agenda. Just the way things are.
[/quote]

I understand bro, I do not do videos so do not make strength or performance claims and only talk about what we can see. I am always completely honest but the height thing did get confused because again I do not measure height. The arm proposition still stands, if anyone shows a 19 inch arm on someone 6 feet tall and similar conditioning that is drastically bigger than mine I will post a tape measure shot.

[/quote]

Wasn’t trying to call you out specifically. Honestly couldn’t care less what your arm measures. You’ve built yourself some pretty damn big arms and that’s what matters in this context. [/quote]
19" is believable to me because you’re tall and as you admitted, it’s a different beast having those same measurements in anything close to contest condition. Nice transformation [/quote]

Thank you very much. Those points exactly and I mainly attribute my progress to seeking out people smarter than me and asking a lot of questions like I said. Without John Meadows, Robby Robinsons , Bill Pearls and a few others advice I wouldn’t be anything.
Pearls advice

Hey Bradley, I read your posts in the weak bicep contraction thread and they made a lot of sense. I’m likely going to switch out my pinwheel curls and try out superman curls and see how they feel. Just doing that behind the head flex thing in my chair that you talked about got my biceps to cramp up, so that’s interesting.

Do you have other similar suggestions for other bodyparts? Specifically the shoulders, triceps, and chest? I’d be interested in reading your thought process on exercise selection for all bodyparts honestly, but these three come to mind as ones I have the hardest time getting a good connection with. You come across as someone who puts a great deal of thought into this, so it’s always nice to read someone’s views when they do that.

[quote]staystrong wrote:
Hey Bradley, I read your posts in the weak bicep contraction thread and they made a lot of sense. I’m likely going to switch out my pinwheel curls and try out superman curls and see how they feel. Just doing that behind the head flex thing in my chair that you talked about got my biceps to cramp up, so that’s interesting.

Do you have other similar suggestions for other bodyparts? Specifically the shoulders, triceps, and chest? I’d be interested in reading your thought process on exercise selection for all bodyparts honestly, but these three come to mind as ones I have the hardest time getting a good connection with. You come across as someone who puts a great deal of thought into this, so it’s always nice to read someone’s views when they do that.[/quote]

Thank you very much for your kind words. And yep I will start with triceps as muscles that act upon hinge joints are the easiest to explain without pictures.

First off the tricep has 3 heads, the Lateral, Medial and Long head. Because the Long Head crosses the scapula it is also responsible for shoulder extension as well as elbow extension. This means two things:

First just as I showed you how to maximally shorten your bicep , to maximally shorten your tricep you must follow these steps .

  1. Extend your right arm straight down. This takes care of elbow extension
  2. Pronate your forearm so your palm is facing behind you.
  3. Enter shoulder extension by basically trying to reach behind you in the above positions

You should feel an immediate cramp in your tricep once it hits its fully shortened position. This is the movement you can do before you train your triceps to get in touch with the muscle and its action to develop the mind muscle connection.

The tricep also benefits from the Long Head crossing the scapula because this allows us to emphasize this head by using overhead movements. You see since the Long Head is a shoulder extensor by flexing the shoulder it stretches it and allows it to more efficiently exert force than the other two heads. This makes the next point even more worthwhile.

Considering all of this you want to divide tricep training into 3 sections.

-Choose one exercise that primarily stresses the maximally lengthened position such as overhead extensions.

-One exercise that primarily stresses the maximally shortened position such as cable pressdowns to your thigh or using a rope to go slightly behind you as our example showed. Tricep kickbacks accomplish this as well but using a cable with a rope is greatly superior.

-And one exercise that stresses the mid position such as close grip bench or lying extensions.

Again a muscle is strongest in the mid position doing things like close grip bench. This is part of the reason why when we do tricep pushdowns standing straight up with elbows back if we start to fatigue bending over and allowing the elbows to come forward can extend the set.

For people that did not read my bicep post , this sort of variety offers a few bonuses, especially for the Tricep as one head has a different origin. Brad Schoenfeld’s research also indicates that training a muscle in its shortened position is best for the pump and training it in the lengthened position is best for muscular damage.

For the chest,lats, and shoulders, I would have to private message you, they do not operate primarily on a hinge joint so are harder to explain without multiple picture illustrations.

Calves are a quickie because they are extremely basic. It has two muscles, the gastrocnemius and soleus which operates off a one joint two joint principle. Between the two the gastrocnemius is the one that crosses two joints. This one is a bit different though, because the gastrocnemius aids in knee flexion when you sit down it rendered inefficient because the knee is already flexed. Alternatively when you are standing it is lengthened and is more efficient. Therefore…

Seated exercises emphasize the Soleus
Standing Exercises emphasis the Gastrocnemius

BUT WAIT THERES MORE!( Billy Mays impression)

Advanced coaches and athletes such as our very own John Meadows know that there is a muscle on the front side of the lower leg as well. The Tibialis Anterior ( anterior means to the front side of the body). Its primary function is ankle dorsiflexion ( or tilting the foot upwards).This is why guys like John Meadows use bands to train it( old school bodybuilders used to use front weighted boots).

Here is a video of John Meadows training calves, notice he is doing seated raises so calls it a soleus and tibialis anterior superset. I hope that helped!

Thanks for the write up, nice to read a breakdown and reasoning behind why. That post reminds me that I should probably drop the weight a little on my rope pushdowns and stay more upright to get a good contraction. Right now I’m leaning over a lot to keep “increasing” the weight.

I’d love to read your thoughts on the other body parts, but pm’s haven’t worked on this site for quite awhile.

The tibialis anterior is something I’ve read some about from john, but it’s something I find hard to do in a gym setting. Seems odd to really set up

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:
For the chest,lats, and shoulders, I would have to private message you, they do not operate primarily on a hinge joint so are harder to explain without multiple picture illustrations.
[/quote]

You can put your pictures on Photobucket, and then put the direct link to each image in your post. That’s the only way I know of to post multiple images in the same post.

You know, if you actually want to share/explain things with multiple picture illustrations.

[quote]staystrong wrote:
Thanks for the write up, nice to read a breakdown and reasoning behind why. That post reminds me that I should probably drop the weight a little on my rope pushdowns and stay more upright to get a good contraction. Right now I’m leaning over a lot to keep “increasing” the weight.

I’d love to read your thoughts on the other body parts, but pm’s haven’t worked on this site for quite awhile.

The tibialis anterior is something I’ve read some about from john, but it’s something I find hard to do in a gym setting. Seems odd to really set up[/quote]

Awesome. Also try putting two ropes on the bar as Meadows displays below. It let’s you get the tricep maximally shortened as with the activation exercise.

Dual rope tricep extensions: Dual rope tricep extensions - YouTube

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:
For the chest,lats, and shoulders, I would have to private message you, they do not operate primarily on a hinge joint so are harder to explain without multiple picture illustrations.
[/quote]

You can put your pictures on Photobucket, and then put the direct link to each image in your post. That’s the only way I know of to post multiple images in the same post.

You know, if you actually want to share/explain things with multiple picture illustrations.[/quote]

Thanks, that is incredibly useful.

What’s your split look like Bradley?

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:
For the chest,lats, and shoulders, I would have to private message you, they do not operate primarily on a hinge joint so are harder to explain without multiple picture illustrations.
[/quote]

You can put your pictures on Photobucket, and then put the direct link to each image in your post. That’s the only way I know of to post multiple images in the same post.

You know, if you actually want to share/explain things with multiple picture illustrations.[/quote]

Or load them in your profile and copy the link.

Same goes for videos.

[quote]Angus1 wrote:
What’s your split look like Bradley?[/quote]

It varies because I try a lot of routines for articles before bringing in other testers but I hit everything a minimum of twice a week, sometimes three. So things like

Push/Pull/Legs
Upper/Lower
Full Body
Antagonistic focused

Currently I was doing full body that I have been doing a good while but I switched to Upper Lower a few days ago after noticeable success and finding 10 testers. My next article is on full body training.

It will have three options, one I used 6 month’s.

Most my success came from Serge Nubrets split ,Full body and push pull legs.