Opinions Please. Physique/Lightheavyweight BB

Recently i’ve been back in the gym around 10 months total from when i started due to back surgery then almost losing my life in a horrid car accident. Before the accident i was around the 190 mark with a decent build but my arms and hamstrings still sucked. After surgery i came back at around 170 ish this year when i was cleared to train with the same intensity i could before this mess.

Currently im sitting at about 220 and have been thinking about doing a show in septmember. NPC mens physique but hardly know anything about physique. Good friend and training partner is doing the pittsburgh npc show on the 4th of may for teen bodybuilding and seems to think ill end up being too heavy for physique and get a bad score from the judges. J

ust joined this site but have been a reader for years. Opinions on if i should be fine with physique or if i should just keep training and pick a later show for bb are appreciated. Current stats are 5’11 220 and 20 years old. Measurements and progress pics are going to be posted after i figure everything out and get a posing session in with my training partner.

Thanks guys.

Joe.

we won’t be able to answer your question unless you post pics

I’ll have pics soon as i get back from the gym.

I don’t know about being too heavy for physique, as it’s really all about how you’re proportioned and the muscle is distributed. I’ve been at shows where the winning MPD competitors look almost like bodybuilders with no legs, and I’ve been at ones where the winners looks like underwear models.

Curious to see pics, I’ll certainly give my thoughts for what they’re worth.

S


hopefully these upload. But before you guys rip into me lol. This is my first time posing properly first. My friend who’s my training partner and is doing the npc teen bb show in pitt this year was helping me. Some i got down others i could only get some of the body parts to contract and flex like i was supposed to. Gotta work on my posing. Some it’s all legs and others it’s all upperbody and i couldn’t master everything. Lot harder than i thought lol. But these are some shitty iphone pics. When i get my posing down a little better i’ll upload some good quality images from my canon dslr.

Thanks guys

I have no personal experience as either a BBer or physique competitor, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. (And if an experienced competitor like Stu comes along and says "I disagree with EyeDentist,’ you should definitely listen to that person and not me.) Instead, I am writing from the perspective of someone who managed to lose enough bodyfat to achieve a sub-10% BF level (but I have never been in ‘contest’ shape).

One exasperating lesson I learned on my trip down the BF ladder is just how many rungs there are on the damn thing. My starting BW was in the low 270s, and I was ‘sure’ I would be ripped if I got down to 230#. When I got to 230, I realized I had underestimated how much BF I was carrying, but this time I was POSITIVE that 215-220 would be the magic number. Nope. 205? Wrong again. It wasn’t until I got all the way down to the low-mid 190s that I began to look well-defined–and even that was nowhere near stage-ready.

When I look at your pic above, I estimate your BF to be ~25%. That would put your LBM at .75 x 220 = ~165. This means 10% BF would be ~180# for you, and a contest-ready 5% would be in the low-to-mid 170s. Thus, I would say you are looking at ~45# cut to get in contest shape. As the contest you mention is in Sept, this would require weight loss averaging 6-7#/month, which is tough but do-able. At 5’11" 175#, I would guess your aesthetics would align better with the ideals of a physique contest more so than those of a BB competition. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
I have no personal experience as either a BBer or physique competitor, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. (And if an experienced competitor like Stu comes along and says "I disagree with EyeDentist,’ you should definitely listen to that person and not me.) Instead, I am writing from the perspective of someone who managed to lose enough bodyfat to achieve a sub-10% BF level (but I have never been in ‘contest’ shape).

One exasperating lesson I learned on my trip down the BF ladder is just how many rungs there are on the damn thing. My starting BW was in the low 270s, and I was ‘sure’ I would be ripped if I got down to 230#. When I got to 230, I realized I had underestimated how much BF I was carrying, but this time I was POSITIVE that 215-220 would be the magic number. Nope. 205? Wrong again. It wasn’t until I got all the way down to the low-mid 190s that I began to look well-defined–and even that was nowhere near stage-ready.

When I look at your pic above, I estimate your BF to be ~25%. That would put your LBM at .75 x 220 = ~165. This means 10% BF would be ~180# for you, and a contest-ready 5% would be in the low-to-mid 170s. Thus, I would say you are looking at ~45# cut to get in contest shape. As the contest you mention is in Sept, this would require weight loss averaging 6-7#/month, which is tough but do-able. At 5’11" 175#, I would guess your aesthetics would align better with the ideals of a physique contest more so than those of a BB competition. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.[/quote]

haha excelent post man, I was going to tell him almost the exact same thing. Specifically that he would have to get down to around 170 to do the contest

definitely go with physique…your picture reveals your leg development is more akin to physique athlete…and yeah definitely looking at a contest weight of 170ish

i dont think u will be too heavy for anything

if anything, u will not have enough muscle, even for physique.

Check out the “think you are big, but are just fat thread”

220 at that bf at 5’11 is usually a sign of not having enough muscle even for physique. Of course, it depends on what your muscle bellies look like once you lose some fat. Point being, first drop around 40 pounds and see what you look like.

sorry all my pics didn’t upload. Ya kind of went on an all out eat as much as i can to try and gain after i got cleared to train again. Just so much info on the internet that when you try and research something to find the answer you’re more clueless than you were before. At this point i really don’t know how to approach it at all contest wise and physique. can i even get ready by september?

And thanks eye and the rest of you for your responses that’s why i came here to better myself and my physique. I guess i kind of have a little too high hopes being i haven’t even being training a solid year yet. and Mr.Walkaway i’ll read that thread next time i go to mcdonalds. Seems to hold more importance if i set the mood.

And for the record walkaway i don’t think i’m “Big” i think i look like shit and am not satisfied with where i am at all to be blunt with it that’s why i came here.

[quote]Dr.Swellington wrote:
next time i go to mcdonalds. [/quote]

i think you are better off crunching numbers than trying to be a bodybuilder/fitness competitor

Swellington,

Why not just scrap the contest this time around? You even said yourself that you’ve been back at it for less than a year and also had a shit diet whilst putting on weight. Just tear it down and build a better version this time around.

That’s what im going to do iron. Gonna try and lean out a little and start over. Walkaway that is a viable option bro but if i didn’t get into training that means my dreams of growing up to be a tough guy like you are shot !

[quote]Dr.Swellington wrote:
That’s what im going to do iron. Gonna try and lean out a little and start over. Walkaway that is a viable option bro but if i didn’t get into training that means my dreams of growing up to be a tough guy like you are shot ![/quote]

That’s good man. I faced a similar dilemma when I was your age. I started out lean and muscular, small but looked great. But I wanted to be BIG right lol. So I just packed it on. And pretty soon I was 190 lbs…and I thought “hell yea!”. But one day, I saw myself in the mirror with my shirt off and said, “when the FUCK did I get FAT???”. So I tore it all down and rebuilt slowly. I have found this happens quite often to guys who started off really skinny.

What were your macros and calories when you started to slowly put mass on ? Problem I always get into is being afraid of not eating enough and wasting a workout as well as thinking old school as in bulk as heavy as you can then cut. For some people it works some people they are more so ahead of the game if they only add a few pounds and take less time dieting. Just new to all this and trying to find the best way to go about it. Just sucks starting over lol

What would you guys do for macros. It’s pretty difficult to add any amount of lean mass in a cutting phase training naturally so should I just re calculate my macros at say 218 or what my weight is at now and just throw out things like dairy and wheat bread plus add some cardio?

[quote]Dr.Swellington wrote:
That’s what im going to do iron. Gonna try and lean out a little and start over. Walkaway that is a viable option bro but if i didn’t get into training that means my dreams of growing up to be a tough guy like you are shot ![/quote]

I think he was just taking a shot at you, and rightfully so. You basically said i’m not going to listen to your advice until I am at mc donalds. Just dont go to mc donalds. If you dont have self control this is not the hobby to get into unless you just want to be a weekend warrior.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, but just dont waste the time of those who are going to try to help you if you are already admitting you will through it away before hand.