[quote]Tyro wrote:
Hello everybody,
Here is a part of my story.
At 19, I was 105 pds. Yes. One-O-Five. I was the skinniest guy on earth, height 5’9. I used to walk 4 * 20 min a day in order to go to college. I was fucking lean and had a huge cardio. I was a biking fan too, biking on road, sometimes 60 miles on weekends.
My physical condition was huge. Playing basketball or football I would be up and running after 2 hours of ful intensity game when other where unable to even move.
However I felt the need to see girls. And skinny guys are not the hype, aren’t they ?
So I did what I felt right : took a yearly pass to a gym. I realize I did it totally randomly, and it was a “real” gym. Not those “tan bed hammam sauna” bullshit. Guys here were either huge or very powerful, and I was the little skinny.
My coach, bodybuilder in my country, was a good man. He learnt me every exercise, citing Rippetoe, Cressey, etc… He was good to me.
I trained for 6 months, sweating until total failure, and ate like never before, but a lot of carbs. After 6 month, I was 125 pds. Then I got a girlfriend for 2 years and stopped any sport that was not sex (which was sometimes very sporty…)
After that, I went back to the gym and kicked it hard again. This time I took creatine, whey, etc… but I was more sloppy (3 times a week).
After 1 year, I was 145 pds, with a lot of lean mass, I lost fat because I played basketball for 2 hours every weekend, and tennis for 1 hour every wednesday.
I had 6 month elbow injury and moved to another city, so I went to my new gym, which is a crappy sauna suntan cardio bullshit without squat rack I would like to blow with C4 due to the huge amount of ppl doing wrong here.
BUut here I am.
I am 156 pounds today.
Believe me, it s nothing compared to you guys, nothing. I admire you but I am quite proud. I got muscle. I gained a shirt size. I have strong chest and back. I have good physical condition. No pain, no injuries.
But a problem.
This problem is strength. Reading all that Cressey / Berardi / Rippetoe, etc stuff, I figured those things :
- My bench, aftr 3 years, is still crappy
- My deadlift sucks but I proceed slowly to learn perfect form
- My squat is very good (i don’t know why) according to my coach
- I cannot do any large grip pullup
- I cannot do any dip with acceptable amplitude
Everytime I “hang” on something and rely on scapula belt pure strength, shoulder strength in order to start a movement or to kick back, I suck.
I seriously can’t do a large grip pullup, not even half one. For the dips, same. It feels like my arm would blow up my shoulders. And pullups are like tearing me in 2 parts.
I tried to check form, I tried assisted pull up. Even with 70 pds assistance I cannot do any one. But I can lat pulldown something like 150 pounds.
Maybe it is on my body ?
I got long arms, short legs, long torso. My forearms, wrists, etc are thin. Biceps are not very good.
Now I hesitate :
- should I continue BB program (basically a 4x8 split)
- should I start some strength program (like rippetoe program ?)
My goal is to have strong muscle. I want mass but I want strength too… I wanna be strong, I wanna feel that test I feel when I deadlift high, that feeling in my teeth wanting to rip that fucking bench apart.
I know I won’t be able to have a bodybuilder extreme body as I don’t have time and energy to eat so much, and to dedicate. Don’t get me wrong, I respect BB as much as I can respect somebody.
But a Wolverine body would be great, with some power and strength.
I wish you all a merry xmas.
And thank you for your help.
Sorry for maybe poor english or mistakes, I am not from here, but I would like if you correct me. I am here to learn.
Have a good day[/quote]
You just need a good strength routine. I suggest 5/3/1, that worked real well for me. There’s also 5x5.
