Hey everyone, I just wanted to post a progress update. Below is a link to the last thread that I posted
I’ve been working hard to bring up my upper body to match my legs, I still have a long way to go but here are some update pictures. Any advice/ criticism would be appreciated. I feel that these threads help to keep you honest.
Quick Stats
Height 5’11.5
Weight 215
Age 21
I is jelly.
nice shoulders and bis bro…
could be the lighting…but id say ur upper chest and tri are a bit lagging…
what are your lift #'s on the big 3?
Nice trap and delts!
Throw in a back shot
quad sweep is unreal. Good lad.
DEFINITELY improved since show!
Look great, man!
Thanks for the kind words Optheta!
[quote]Cron391 wrote:
nice shoulders and bis bro…
could be the lighting…but id say ur upper chest and tri are a bit lagging…
what are your lift #'s on the big 3? [/quote]
Damn’t I was hoping that it wasn’t that obvious! You are absolutely correct they are lagging. I feel that I have brought them up a good amount since I competed but I still have a long way to go. However, I really really appreciate the comment on my shoulders because I felt that they really sucked before as well.
As far as lifts on the big three here is a box squat video from a couple of weeks ago( not sure if it uploaded)
Dead lift I was up to 455, but have recently been having some si joint problems and these really start to bother that area so I haven’t deadlifted in a couple of months.
I don’t do any flat bench press right now and mainly use Db’s, smith machine, and HS machines for chest. For chest earlier this week I worked up to 90’s ( really squeezing hard and trying to keep tension on the chest) for 6.
[quote]Matias A. wrote:
Nice trap and delts!
Throw in a back shot [/quote]
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
quad sweep is unreal. Good lad.[/quote]
[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
DEFINITELY improved since show!
Look great, man![/quote]
Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it. I’ll post a few comparisons a year apart from when I started prepping last year.
2nd comparison
[quote]Naked Sweat Drip wrote:
Thanks for the kind words Optheta!
[quote]Cron391 wrote:
nice shoulders and bis bro…
could be the lighting…but id say ur upper chest and tri are a bit lagging…
what are your lift #'s on the big 3? [/quote]
Damn’t I was hoping that it wasn’t that obvious! You are absolutely correct they are lagging. I feel that I have brought them up a good amount since I competed but I still have a long way to go. However, I really really appreciate the comment on my shoulders because I felt that they really sucked before as well.
As far as lifts on the big three here is a box squat video from a couple of weeks ago( not sure if it uploaded)
Dead lift I was up to 455, but have recently been having some si joint problems and these really start to bother that area so I haven’t deadlifted in a couple of months.
I don’t do any flat bench press right now and mainly use Db’s, smith machine, and HS machines for chest. For chest earlier this week I worked up to 90’s ( really squeezing hard and trying to keep tension on the chest) for 6.[/quote]
Your cameraman doesn’t lift, does he? A lifter would KNOW to be sure to show your squat from head to toe, and not cut off the part we need to see most. 
It looks like the guy on the right ate the guy on the left in those pics! Very impressed with your progress on every body part.
What have you done to attain such monstrous quads? Anything special/different? I’m guessing they are a strong point naturally but worth an ask
Strong work. But you seem to be neglecting your forearms–in the pics, they’re the only bodypart that hasn’t gotten larger over the past year. Some guys don’t need to do direct forearm work. Unfortunately for you (and me, and a lot of other guys), you don’t appear to be one of them.
And if you continue to neglect them, they are only going to look proportionally smaller over time as your upper arms continue to improve, so don’t put off training them any longer! Good luck.
Great progress. What did you do/change for your shoulders and back? Whatever it was, it’s clearly working.
Great work, man. Back (lower traps) and legs (quads) seem to have improved the most.
I would shift your focus to upper chest for a while. Keep it up!
[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Your cameraman doesn’t lift, does he? A lifter would KNOW to be sure to show your squat from head to toe, and not cut off the part we need to see most. ;)[/quote]
Haha he does, just a bad camera man. He went up a little heavier than me that day to 405 for 12 same box height, just above parallel.
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
It looks like the guy on the right ate the guy on the left in those pics! Very impressed with your progress on every body part.
What have you done to attain such monstrous quads? Anything special/different? I’m guessing they are a strong point naturally but worth an ask
[/quote]
Thanks I really appreciate it. Looking sick in your avi btw. I would say that since I " figured" out how to train legs they grow very easily. I have to preach John Meadows techniques for legs. I could post pictures of my legs from a couple of years ago when i was squatting only slightly lighter than what I am now and my legs look like chit. I really didn’t get the mass and shape until I started doing mountain dog style training, crazy hamstring work first and then doing hard hard nasty 3 second negatives with drop sets on the leg press. Call me crazy but I would credit most of my leg mass to those nasty leg press drop sets followed up with a close stance smith squat… I know sac-religous right. . I would not credit barbell squats with much of my leg development, I kind of do them for fun right now because I actually feel like I don’t get much quad activation from them and I’m just trying to maintain or slightly improve legs right now.
[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
Strong work. But you seem to be neglecting your forearms–in the pics, they’re the only bodypart that hasn’t gotten larger over the past year. Some guys don’t need to do direct forearm work. Unfortunately for you (and me, and a lot of other guys), you don’t appear to be one of them.
And if you continue to neglect them, they are only going to look proportionally smaller over time as your upper arms continue to improve, so don’t put off training them any longer! Good luck.[/quote]
I really appreciate you mentioning this, I honestly didn’t consider or realize this and you are 100% correct. Looks like I have some work to do!
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Great progress. What did you do/change for your shoulders and back? Whatever it was, it’s clearly working.[/quote]
Thanks LoRez I appreciate it,
For shoulders first thing, and I mean no offense to those that use this movement, it simply did not work for me, was to ditch all shoulder pressing and concentrate only on laterals and Rear-Delt moves. Another thing I noticed is that by keeping my shoulders squeezed and constant tension on laterals I was torching the shoulders much much more. Right now I have a few exercises from week to week that I alternate all taken from John Meadow’s article. I am not trying to come off like a fan boy here, I just want to give credit where credit is due because his articles really affected my training in a very positive way. Anyway, exercises Machine lateral with constant tension and a drop set with a partner adding resistance, lateral partials, High rep rear delt work, Heavy RD swings, face pulls, and occasionally upright db rows. I think a lot of people use too much trap involvement and don’t really know how to squeeze the felt, at least for me that was the case.
For Back again as silly is it sounds just really concentrating on the squeeze, training lats hard first with t-bars, db-deadstop rows, a form of pull down to stretch them out, and a machine row, all hard squeezes. I also have been training a bit scared because that si joint area like I mentioned can be a real bitch and I have days where I couldn’t perform any move that required low back stabilization. Currently I don’t do any BB rows I have a real hard time keeping form from si joint pain and I cannot get through more than 2 sets. Some things the pain isn’t too bad like t-bars, and db dead-stop rows I usually just work through the pain in that area.
[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
Great work, man. Back (lower traps) and legs (quads) seem to have improved the most.
I would shift your focus to upper chest for a while. Keep it up![/quote]
Thanks Serge! I certainly agree and am, chest has always been tough for me. My split I am currently running is
Week A1
Mon: Chest + Shoulders
Tues: Arms + Calves
Wed: off
Thurs: Back + Traps + Abs
Fri: Chest + Tri’s + Calves
Week B
Mon: Chest + Shoulders
Tues: Arms + Calves
Wed: off
Thurs: Legs
Fri: Back + Traps + Abs
Week A2
Mon: Chest + Shoulders
Tues: Back + Traps + Abs
Wed: off
Thurs:Arms + Calves
Fri: Back + Traps + Tri’s
Repeat B
Everything repeats
Fking quads… GOod work, man
